Dave’s Monday Blast – May 25, 2020
I read an article the other day entitled “Beware the protection of Pharaoh”. The setting is Isaiah 30 and opens with the nation of Israel divided into the ten tribes of Israel in the north and the two tribes of Judah in the south. God’s chosen people were surrounded by the two most powerful nations on earth; the Assyrian Empire to the north and the Egyptian Empire to the south. The Assyrians would soon destroy Israel and threaten to do the same to Judah.
You might think that the “Chosen of God” would turn fervently to their Lord for help in this time of crisis, but the opposite was the case for Israel. Rather than asking their Lord for protection, they turned to Egypt for help. Rather than relying on their omnipotent King, they relied on a fallen king of a finite kingdom.
God warned that such dependence on people rather than their Lord was folly: “Ahh, stubborn children, declares the Lord, who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!” (Isaiah 30:1-2). As a result, God warned: “Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation” (v. 3).
Fortunately, this story has a miraculous ending for Judah. Assyria eventually invades Judah several years after Israel had fallen, but rather than trusting in Egypt as Israel had done, Judah’s king, Hezekiah, turned to God: “O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord” (Isaiah 37:20). Of course God heard his prayer (v. 21) and sent his angel, who struck down 185,000 Assyrians (v. 36). Their king retreated back to Nineveh (v. 37), where he was later assassinated by his own sons (v.38). No human solution could have saved Judah from Assyria.
In our times of trouble we must remember this story. We must not trust in people more than we trust in our Lord. Brothers, do not not lose sight of this truth. The challenges we face today are very real, but the solutions for today can only be found in Christ. The larger challenge humankind faces is…where will we spend eternity. The resurrection of Jesus Christ validated His claims of deity and affirmed His credentials. Big picture…only God can provide the vaccine to rid humankind of the virus of sin. King Hezekiah knew that Judah could only be saved by trusting in God. We must INTENTIONALLY pray for Christians to depend upon the Prince of Peace more than the Pharaohs in our mirrors.
