Isaiah 31:1-9 Reasons for Repentance and its Fruit

 

With the transition to chapter 31, Isaiah is approaching his climactic appeal. But in building to that climax, like a good preacher that he is, he reiterates his two main points: Egypt’s help is worthless and in any case unnecessary, for the Lord Himself will fight for Zion and overthrow the Assyrians. This latter point is then repeated in verses 8-9, after the appeal of verse 6, as if to underline the fact that while grace is promised before repentance, that the same grace can be fully experienced only when repentance has taken place.

The first reason for repentance is the threat of impending judgment. The Woe of verse 1 is the last pronounced on Judah in this part of the book, and may well have been sounded later than the others when Sennacherib was on his final approach to Jerusalem. By then the futility of looking to Egypt for help had become fully apparent and it was clear to all that disaster was imminent. It was no time for mincing words or pulling punches, and Isaiah certainly doesn’t do so by the hard-hitting verses 1-3. It’s clear in verse 3 that it is an unequal contest; human beings cannot fight against God and win. As verses 4-5 immediately makes clear, another possibility still exists; unless there is a radical change on Judah’s part, the Lord will fully implement His threat and nothing that people can do will stop Him. We have to know that God cannot be manipulated before we are ready to throw ourselves upon God’s mercy.

The second reason for repentance is the promise of salvation or more precisely, of a Savior – a true, effective one instead of the false, worthless one that Egypt had proved to be. That Savior is of course the Lord, pictured as a lion in verse 4 and as birds hovering in verse 5 and the two are complementary. As Savior the Lord is both strong and determined (like the lion) and solicitous and protective (like the birds). The logic of verses 1-5 as a whole seems to be as follows: Woe to those who go down to Egypt (vv. 1-3), for the Lord, and He alone, is Jerusalem’s true Savior. What the pictures of verses 4-5 amount to, is a promise that the Lord Himself will fight for and protect Jerusalem. That promise still stood when Sennacherib’s envoys were finally at the gates, and Hezekiah then had, at last, the wisdom and humility to claim it.

Repentance is radical. It is not just giving up this or that sin, but a complete turnabout in our stance towards God, and it goes right to the root of our sinfulness. As for the prodigal son, it is a recognition that we are rebels, and a return to the One we have so deeply offended (v. 6). Its consequences too, are radical: all other gods have to go (v.7) in order to clear the way for the full enjoyment of God’s blessing (vv. 8-9). For Isaiah, idolatry was the ultimate outward sign of rebellion against God. Idolatry had taken hold before the alliance with Egypt was conceived. It was, we may say, the cancer which lay at the root of all the nation’s ills, for it showed that the Lord no longer had His people’s undivided loyalty. Its natural, therefore, that in calling for radical repentance, Isaiah should again point to the casting away of idols as the evidence that will confirm it.

The final two verses (vv. 8-9) put the seal on this call to repentance by reiterating God’s promise to deal decisively with the Assyrians. But now a new element is added: the Assyrians shall be destroyed by a sword…not of man or of mortals (v. 8). That is, the people of Jerusalem will not even have to fight. The Lord will intervene miraculously, and they will receive His promised salvation as a gift. Such is His grace to those who repent.

In view of all this, the expression ‘in that day’ in verse 7 must be allowed to point beyond the events of 701BC (wonderful as they were) to something more distant and more perfect, as it so often does elsewhere in the book. There was no perfect repentance or perfect salvation in 701BC. But God’s gracious goodness to His people when they cried out to Him then was a foretaste of something far greater and more glorious which He has in store for all who turn to Him for salvation.

Isaiah 31:1-9 Reflection Questions:

What lessons do we learn from the timing of verses 1-5?

What is your “Egypt” in your life?

What “other gods” do you need to clear away?

What is in the way of giving God your undivided loyalty?

Hebrews 2:1-4 A Warning Against Drifting Away

 

One of the ancient symbols for the Church is a ship. The idea originated in the Gospel accounts, which tell how Jesus compelled His disciples to board a ship and sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 14:22-33; John 6:16-21). That night, when they were some distance from shore, a perilous storm arose so that they tossed like a cork on the waves – until Jesus came walking across the water in the night. This is a most fitting picture of the Church sailing the contrary seas of this world. And it’s a particularly appropriate symbol of the church to which the book of Hebrews was written, for all agree it was under stormy siege. This tiny house-church was probably somewhere in Italy, possibly in or around Rome – then we can imagine the huge waves that were poised above their little boat in the imminent Neronian persecution. Some in the church were also in danger of being blown away from their moorings and drifting away from the truth of Christ and back into “the Dead Sea of Judaism.”

So now, with the superiority of Christ ringing in their ears, the writer explicitly sounds his warning to the harried church in 2:1-4. The vivid warning here uses nautical, sailing language, suggesting the image of a ship whose anchor has broken loose from the ocean floor and is dangerously drifting away. I have experienced this firsthand while fishing off the Southern California coast near Dana Point. My boat was having engine troubles and while trying to repair we ran the battery dead. We decided to fish where we were for a while before calling for help. However before we knew it the tide, wind and waves brought us very close to the rocky coast. Such dangerous drifting is not intentional but comes rather from inattention and carelessness – which was precisely the problem with the pressured little church. They had become carless about their moorings in Christ. At first, in calm waters, it wasn’t noticeable. But as the storms of opposition rose, some of them were drifting farther and farther away from Christ toward the shoals of shipwreck in their old world of Judaism.

Drifting is the besetting sin of our day today, and as the metaphor suggests, it’s not so much intentional as from unconcern. Christians neglect their anchor – Christ – and begin to quietly drift away. What brings drifting? For one thing, there is the tide of years. You have to live for some length to observe this, but the longer you live, the more you will see it. Many who were at one time professing, fine Christians drifted away from their earlier, better selves. They kept up appearances, but the years have carried them far away from their devotion.

There is also the tide of familiarity with the truth. It is natural for us to come to regard the familiar as commonplace. The initial venture into the mysteries of Christ will leave us exhilarated, but with the repeated journeys, some become bored tourists. Granted, some find joy in their familiarity with the mysteries of Christ. But familiarity has both danger and reward. It depends on us.

There is the danger of busyness too. In today’s world, the multiplicity of our cares and duties can overwhelm us. A snowflake is a tiny thing, but when the air is full of them, they can bury us. Just so, the thousand cares of each day can insulate us from the stupendous Excellencies of Christ, causing us to begin a deadly drift.

The drifting that comes through the combination of years, familiarity, and busyness often bares its existence when the storm of opposition comes. The anchor has long been loosed, and when the winds come, an eternal soul is suddenly on the rocks and shipwrecked. No wonder, then, that the warning is a powerfully phrased command that should be read with an exclamation point!

What to do? The answer brings us full circle in the warning to where it begins; we must pay the “greatest attention” to what we have heard. Two things are in view here. First, all our attention must be focused on the supremacy of Christ: prophetic, cosmic, Levitical, and angelic. We need to work at this – meditating on Him, asking questions, memorizing Scripture, and worshiping. Second, paying closest attention to what we have heard means living in revelation of God’s Word – and it always has. We all should be familiar with (and memorized) the great verses from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, they are crucial words and truths from which we must not drift!

Hebrews 2:1-4 Reflection Questions:

Have you ever found yourself drifting farther and farther away from Christ? Are you there now?

How is your prayer life, Bible studies, Church attendance and involvement going?

Are you putting God first in your life?