Compiled by WD Kemner January 2024
CHAPTERS 30 and 31
Focus Jerusalem
Note: Originally written without chapter and verse divisions. Those were added later.
CHAPTER 30
Rebellious Children
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 1-7 |
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Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
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Looking everywhere for counsel except to God! Especially looking for counsel of Egypt, a nation with plenty of gods to choose from. In previous chapters the people were looking for the assistance of Egypt in their current day war with the nation of Assyria. God rebuked them for that. Egypt would not help them. God now condemns them for that faith in Egypt.
They had been slaves of Egypt. God is reminding them of the fact that all the leaders had been present when Moses and Pharoah had fought over letting them leave Egypt in the first place. Now they want Egypt’s aid? See word study on Zoan.
“Hanes” is only in this verse. Smith Bible Dictionary states that it had once been identified as “Tahpanhes”, a fortified town on the eastern frontier of Egypt.
The Jews biggest strength is to SIT STILL and WAIT ON THE LORD! They would see that in their current war with Assyria in chapters 36-37.
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 8 |
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Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
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What is Isaiah told to do? To go write this all down for a RECORD for “all time to come”
To document what?
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 9-11 |
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That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
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That God’s People Are a Rebellious People!
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 12-17 |
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Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
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God has stern words to say in response to them. How SHOULD a father react to rebellious children?
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 18 |
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And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
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He will be GRACIOUS and He is going to WAIT for the people!
Wait for His people to live life focused on Him.
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 19-21 |
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For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
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When they FINALLY cry out, God will hear them. They will begin to listen to the teachers that teach them the correct way of God.
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 22 |
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Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.
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They will destroy all their idols!
LIFE IN THE MILLENIAL KINGDOM
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 23-26 |
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Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
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The results of them following the teaching of God.
The crop of the land and the animals will be plentiful in a land of plenty.
This is descriptive of what life will be like after all the turmoil is over. The towers of defense are gone and the great slaughter (deaths of millions in cleansing the earth) is over. Thousand years of peace and beauty in the new kingdom of Christ during the Millennium Kingdom.
BUT BEFORE THAT HAPPENS…
THE SECOND COMING
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 27-30 |
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Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
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What a description of the event. When He comes back leading His armies in the end.
See all the references for the Second Coming of Christ. This well describes the picture given in Revelation and elsewhere.
Solemnity = A ceremony or ritual done with reverence.
FINAL DESTRUCTION of the ANTICHRIST
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Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 31-33 |
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For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
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“Tabret” = timbrel
“the Assyrian” = the Anti-christ as referenced in Isaiah 10:24.
Tophet was a garbage dump outside Jerusalem. Several of its kings used it as a location for child sacrifice in their worship of a false God. King Josiah was the first to attempt to destroy it. See the Word Study on Tophet.
CHAPTER 31
Continues where chapter 30 left off…
Isaiah the Prophet is going to reiterate everything just stated in chapter 30.
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Isaiah Chapter 31 verse 1-3 |
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Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.
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Addressing the same subject from throughout the Book of Isaiah. The Jews had the belief they could seek help from Egypt in their current conflict with the nation of Assyria. His reminder once again that the Egyptians are just ordinary men.
THE SECOND COMING will PRESERVE JERUSALEM
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Isaiah Chapter 31 verse 4-7 |
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For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me,
Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.
As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.
Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin.
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When Christ returns, He will preserve Jerusalem.
The Jews will destroy their own idol worship.
THE DESTRUCTION of the ANTICHRIST
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Isaiah Chapter 31 verse 8-9 |
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Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
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The destruction of Antichrist (the Assyrian) and his armies with their leaders (princes).
“…fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.”
See Tophet Word Study notes. Tophet will be a furnace.