No this is the Way! Walk Here!

Word of God Online June 1st 2010

Isaiah 30 from the Living Bible

Woe to my rebellious children, says the Lord; you ask advice from everyone but me, and decide to do what I don’t want you to do. You yoke yourselves with unbelievers, thus piling up your sins. For without consulting me you have gone down to Egypt to find aid and have put your trust in Pharaoh for his protection.. But in trusting pharaoh, you will be disappointed, humiliated and disgraced, for he can’t deliver on his promises to save you. For through his power extends to Zoan and Hanes, yet it will all turn out to your shame—he won’t help one little bit!

See them moving slowly across the terrible desert to Egypt—donkeys and camels laden down with treasure to pay for Egypt’s aid. On through the wild country they go, where lions and swift venomous snakes live—and Egypt will give you nothing in return!

For Egypt’s promises are worthless! “The reluctant Dragon,” I call her!

Now go and write down this word of mine concerning Egypt, so that It will stand until the end of time, forever and forever, as an indictment of Israel’s unbelief. For if you don’t write it, they will claim I never warned them. “Oh No,” they’ll say, “You never told us that!”

For they are stubborn rebels. They tell my prophets, “Shut up—we don’t want any more of your reports!” Or they say, “Don’t tell us the truth; tell us nice things; tell us lies. Forget all this gloom; we’ve heard more than enough about your “Holy One of Israel” and all he says.”

This is the one reply of the Holy One of Israel:

Because you despise what I tell you and trust instead in frauds and lies and won’t repent, therefore calamity will come upon you suddenly, as upon a bulging wall that bursts and falls; in one moment it comes crashing down. God will smash you like a broken dish; he will not act sparingly. Not a piece will be left large enough to use for carrying coals from the hearth, or a little water from the well. For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel says: Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength; but you ‘ll have none of this.

“N o,” you say, “We will get our help from Egypt; they will give us swift horses for riding to battle.” But the only swiftness you are going to see is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you! One of them will chase a thousand of you! Five of them will scatter you until not two of you are left together. You will be like lonely trees on the distant mountain tops. Yet the Lord still waits for you to come to him, so he can show you his love; he will conquer you to bless you, just as he said. For the Lord is faithful to his promises. Blessed are all those who wait for him to help them.

O my people in Jerusalem, you shall weep no more, for he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. He will answer you. Though he gives you the bread of adversity and water of affliction, yet he will be with you to teach you—with your own eyes you will see your Teacher. And if you leave God’s path and go astray, you will hear a Voice behind you say, “No, this is the way; walk here.” And you will destroy all your silver idols and golden images and cast them out like filthy things you hate to touch. “Ugh!” you’ll say to them. “Go Away!”

Then God will bless you with rain at planting time and with wonderful harvests and with ample pastures for your cows. The Oxen and young donkeys that will the ground will eat grain, its chaff blown away by the wind. In that day when God steps in to destroy your enemies, he will give you streams of water flowing down each mountain and every hill. The moon will be as bright as the sun and the sunlight brighter than seven days! So it will be when the Lord begins to heal his people to cure the wounds he gave them.

See, the Lord comes from afar, aflame with wrath, surrounded by thick rising smoke. His lips are filled with fury; his words consume like fire. His wrath pours out like floods upon them all, to sweep them all away. He will sift out the proud nations and bridle them and lead them off to their doom.

But the people of God will sing a song of Solemn joy, like songs in the night when holy feasts are held; his people will have gladness of heart, as when a flautist leads a pilgrim band to Jerusalem to the Mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel. And the Lord shall cause his majestic voice to be heard and shall crush down his mighty arm upon his enemies with angry indignation and with devouring flames and tornadoes and terrible storms and huge hailstones. The voice of the Lord shall punish the Assyrians, who had been his rod of punishment. And when the Lord smites them, his people will rejoice with music and song. The Funeral pyre has long been ready, prepared for Molech, the Assyrian god; it is piled high with wood. The Breath of the Lord, like fire from a volcano, will set it all on fire.

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In Isaiah 31, the line that caught my eye was “No, this is the way: Walk here.

The Lord in Isaiah 31, is referencing the people of Egypt and sees they are putting their trust in the ways of the Egyptian world. They are rebelling against God and he is giving them a stern warning about what they can expect if they do not return and more importantly repent from their ways.

How does this apply to today? Many people get lost in the old testament and do not see how the scriptures pertain to us today!

Well, as the Egyptians and children of Israel where caught up in the ways of their world, so are we today caught up in the ways of our world.

Where is your trust placed? Is it placed in the Governments? Is it placed in Your Money? IN your Stuff?

In verses 10-11 we see…”For they are stubborn rebels. They tell my prophets, “Shut up—we don’t want any more of your reports!” Or they say…”Don’t tell us the truth; tell us nice things; tell us lies…

Wow…this sound like today for sure. Even in some churches they have watered down the truth to make things nice…

Don’t tell us the truth…who talks about all the sin in the world? No one wants to hear the truth and follow ways that are righteous and have the integrity of the ways that Jesus came and taught us!

Why?

Because it is hard! It is not easy to follow the ways of Jesus in our broken world. And unfortunately many won’t turn back to the ways that Jesus instructed us. They will, as God stated in this scripture in verse 14..God will smash you like a broken dish; he will not act sparingly.

But you can make the shift from the ways of this world to the ways of God. In verse 15 very clearly we see how. Returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength; …

Then in verse 22…And you will destroy all your silver idols and golden images and cast them out like filthy things you hate to tough…”Ugh!” you will say them..”GO AWAY”

There is a constant battle in our days to love the things of this world and to see the things of God as foolishness and weakness…this is the enemy pulling you away from God. To come back to the Lord, you must throw away, cast away the things that you worship here on Earth. Cars, money, homes, and many other things that we worship or idolize, are going to destroy us in the long run.

Put your faith in Christ…Put your faith in the Ways of The Lord!…No This is the Way…Walk here!

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