" Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that make leagues, but not of My Spirit, that they may heap sin upon sin." (Isa. 30:50:)
It is a solemn thing to read such words as these, and still more so to think how applicable they may be to ourselves. Even as children of God, the proneness of our hearts is to act according to our own judgments; for the flesh in the Christian is not a whit better than in any other man. Whenever there is a listening to ourselves, we may be sure the same character of evil is at work that the Spirit of Jehovah was rebuking in Israel.
What for Israel was going down into Egypt is to us the taking counsel, not of God, but of natural wisdom, in any difficulty. It was the same fleshly wisdom which Israel sought; and of this, Egypt is the symbol in the ancient world. No country in the early history of men, was so distinguished for the wisdom of nature as Egypt. In later days, Greece and Rome sprang up, but that was long after that time to which this vision applied as a historical fact. They were at first little more than a number of contentious hordes. No such wisdom was found anywhere to the same extent as in Egypt. The great Assyrian who invaded Israel was characterized not so much by wisdom as by vast resources and appliances in the way of strength. Egypt depended mainly on good counsel, as if there were no living God,- on the counsel of man, sharpened by long experience, for it was one of the oldest powers that attained eminence. Accordingly, as they had been versed in the state-craft of the ancient world, they had an immense reputation for their familiarity with means of dealing in national difficulties. . . . Israel when threatened by the Assyrian sought the help of Egypt:I am speaking now of the literal fact when this prophecy first applied. Though it did bear on the days of Isaiah, yet the character of the prophecy shows that it cannot be limited to that time:only a very small part was accomplished then. But between the two terms of Israel’s past and future unfaithfulness, in turning to the wisdom of the world in their troubles, there is a serious lesson for us in the pressure of any trial that concerns the testimony of God. The tendency is immense to meet a worldly trial in a worldly way. That you cannot meet the world’s efforts against you by spiritual means is what one is apt to think:so there is the danger of recourse to earthly means for the purpose of escape. What is this but the same thing that we find here? And yet who that feels for the children of God and for the truth but feels the danger of this? Be sure, if we do not feel the danger, it is because we are ourselves under the world’s influence. The feeling of the danger, the dread of our own spirits, the fear lest we should meet flesh by flesh, is what God uses to make us look to Himself. God will never put His seal on self-dependence; on the contrary, the great lesson the whole life of Christ teaches is the very reverse. He lived for* the Father:so "he that eateth Him, shall live for* Him."*"On account of," J. N. D’s translation:and in foot-note, " For the advantage of ". . . I do not believe to be the sense of the passage. Perhaps ‘by reason of.’ "*
It is in dependence upon Another, even Christ, as our object, that the joy and strength and wisdom of the Christian are found. This we gather before the difficulty comes. Then " I can do all things through Him who strengthened! me." Where we often fail is through acting from impulse. If we think to plan, instead of praying in real subjection to God, we need to fear for ourselves. What is rendered in 2 Tim. 2:i "intercession," and in i Tim. 4:5 "prayer," means such intercourse with God, as admits of confiding appeal to Him. We can thus freely and personally speak to Him about all things, now that through the one Mediator we know Him as a Saviour-God, who has first spoken to us in grace and given us the access we have into this grace wherein we stand. Is it not then an outrage on the God who has thus opened His ear to us if we look to fleshly means? and yet who does not know that this is the very thing to which, perhaps, more than any other, the wise and prudent are prone.
In this way it seems that the moral lesson of this chapter is to be seen-it is taking counsel, but not of Jehovah. Hence God caused the land of Egypt to become the means of deeply aggravating their evil. "Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, (or, as some prefer, that make leagues), 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 a shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt a confusion. For His princes are at Zoan, and His ambassadors are come to Hanes. They shall all be ashamed of a people that cannot profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame and also a reproach." "His princes " mean those of God’s people, as the next chapter proves decisively. The prophet’s irony thus expresses itself.
"The burden of the beasts of the south. Through the land of trouble and anguish from whence [come] the lioness and the lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent; they carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people [that] shall not profit. For Egypt helpeth in vain, and to no purpose:therefore have I called her Rahab (or arrogance) that sitteth still."
Not man’s pride, but God’s guidance avails for His people.
If we examine the New Testament for our guidance in these difficulties, we shall find just the same truth. If the apostle is speaking merely about the ordinary trials of each day, we have the same lesson in other words. Thus he tells us, we are to let our moderation be known unto all men, the Lord being at hand; that, instead of being careful or anxious about anything (not that we are to be careless, but not to be careful in the sense of anxiety), our requests should be made known unto God with thanksgiving.
Our strength, it is said, is in quiet confidence. Christians have a right to expect God to appear for us:He has entitled us to count on it. We may be perfectly sure, it matters not what the circumstances are:even supposing there has been something to judge in ourselves, if one tell it out to God, will not He listen? He cannot deny Himself. He must deny him that slights the name of Christ. Where He now puts to shame, it is in our self-will:so far from putting shame on such being a proof that He does not love them, it is precisely the proof that He does. But at the same time, let men venture to go beyond what God sees good for the discipline of His child, He soon takes up the rod:and there can be more terrible than when the adversary exceeds the chastening that is just, gratifying his hatred towards them. For God will rise up in His indignation deal with them according to His own majesty; even the grace of the gospel does not set aside that. For instance, see in the second epistle to Timothy 4:14. If Persons bearing the Lord’s name are carried away by their fleshly zeal, and fight against the truth of God, or those charged with the of that truth, God may use them for dealing with the faults in His people. God knows how to bring down His people where their looks are high because of anything in themselves, or that may conferred upon them. But when the limit of rebuke is exceeded, woe be to those that gainst them, covering their own vindictiveness envy under God’s name. It is evident the very grace of gospel makes it to be so much the more conspicuous; for it sounds so much the more that God should thus deal in the midst of all that speaks so loudly of His love. The gospels also bring out in the words of our Lord Himself the wickedness of fighting against what god is doing even by poor weak disciples. This is the great lesson for us:we are not to consult our own hearts, or have recourse to the strength of man. When we flee to the various resources of the flesh, we slip out of our proper Christian path. Whereas the strength of God has indeed shone in that foundation-pattern in which all the blessing of grace to sinners is contained; and it always takes this form for a Christian, and that is death and resurrection. There may very likely be a great pressure of trial; there may soon appear a sinking down under it; but as surely as there is the semblance of death, there will be the reality of resurrection by and by. Let no one be disheartened. The cross is the right mold for the blessing of the children of God. When we were brought to Him, was it not after the same sort? We knew what it was to have the horrors of the conviction of sin; but God was going to bring us for the first time into a place of special blessing.
It has always been so with His own. We find it in the case of Abraham, and in proportion to the greatness of blessing is the force of sorrow that precedes it. Isaac was given when Abraham was a hundred years old, and Sarah as good as dead. There was death, as it were, and he had to wait for a son. Even after the birth and growth of .the child of promise, he had to surrender him-to offer up his only son to God. Directly that the singleness and truth of His heart was proved, and that the sacrifice in principle was offered up, the angel of Jehovah arrests his hand. How much sweeter now, when Isaac was, as it were, the child of resurrection! And so it is with all our blessings; it matters not what they may be. There must be the breaking down of our feelings, the mortification of self in a practical way, if we are to know what God is in blessing:our blessings are cast in the mold of death and resurrection.- Exposition of Isaiah, Kelly, p. 292.)