The World is a Futile Confidence

Isaiah 30:1-7 

1 "Woe to the rebellious children," says the LORD,

"Who take counsel, but not of Me,
And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,
That they may add sin to sin;

2 Who walk to go down to Egypt,
And have not asked My advice,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh
Shall be your shame,
And trust in the shadow of Egypt
Shall be your humiliation.
4 For his princes were at Zoan,
And his ambassadors came to Hanes.

5 They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them,
Or be help or benefit,
But a shame and also a reproach."

6 The burden against the beasts of the South.
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
From which came the lioness and lion,
The viper and fiery flying serpent,
They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys,
And their treasures on the humps of camels,
To a people who shall not profit;

7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.
Therefore I have called her
Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.

God’s people trusted in another’s power instead of His.  Their rebellion of sin looked to their own reasoning and counsel among themselves when the source of guidance and reliance was to be found in Him and His word as written and as the prophets like Isaiah were dictating at the time, just as the apostles spoke and wrote the New Testament letters later.  The people then went to Egypt to enlist an army instead of relying on the Lord of Hosts to do battle for them as He had for them out of that land of bondage and into the promised land of freedom.  They wanted to go back to relying on their old masters who bound them as symbolic of sin’s grip on them, a poignant lesson and reminder for us still.  That trust only led to shame of defeat just as our trust in the world and its systems will only entangle us in bondage as well (Galatians 5:1, 2 Timothy 2:4, 2 Peter 2:20).  Why suffer as Israel by repeating the mistake of such a futile confidence of nationalism or political reliance for a savior when we have the Savior of the world in us to defend and guide us?  Like these, we would only find great loss and no eternal profit with such a false confidence and empty hope.  We have the hope of the world and through faith in Him and His working we have true confidence and eternal hope.