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Return To Him – Part 1
Isaiah 31-32 (31:1-6)
November 12, 2023
As you know we are studying the book of Isaiah and most recently
Isaiah has been addressing an issue that was real and urgent in their day.
• Assyria was invading.
• It was only about 20 years prior that Assyria destroyed the Northern Kingdoml.
• Now they had set their sights on Judah.
The immediate response of the people of Judah was to run to Egypt.
Isaiah 30:1-2 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “Who execute a plan, but not Mine, And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, In order to add sin to sin; Who proceed down to Egypt Without consulting Me, To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!”
God was not pleased with this decision
And He had sent Isaiah to confront them for it.
The problem was that
The people were not interested in what God had to say on the subject.
Isaiah 30:9-11 “For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD; Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions. “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
• They had made up their mind.
• They weren’t interested in God’s plan.
• They weren’t interested in God’s requirements.
• They wanted to go to Egypt for help and they wanted to be left alone to do it.
In response
God announced that it would only end up to their shame.
Isaiah 30:3-5 “Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation. “For their princes are at Zoan And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes. “Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them, Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”
• Egypt would not be able to save.
• The people of Judah would travel a long way and pay a lot of money
• Only to be disappointed if they continued down that path.
And it was at this point that Isaiah intervened again
To give a great invitation to the people of Judah.
Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.”
It is one of the greatest verses in the entire book of Isaiah.
• Despite their rebellion.
• Despite their idolatry.
• Despite their rejection of Him as their savior.
God still longed to be gracious.
God still desired to be compassionate.
(It is remarkable patience and grace on the part of God)
And then Isaiah began to lay out for them the benefits of returning to God.
We saw those benefits last Sunday morning and Sunday night.
GUARANTEED GRACE
• You’ll weep no longer
• He will answer you
• He will guide you
PROMISED PROVISION
• God will send rain and bless your crops
HOPE AND HEALING
• God will bind up your wounds and restore your hope.
DESTRUCTION TO YOUR ENEMY
• God will overrun him like a torrent
• God will terrify him with judgment
• God will throw him in Topheth (hell)
We saw God as that gracious father who willingly and eagerly
Accepted his prodigal son on the day he returned.
God has been calling his prodigal son home.
AND THAT INVITATION CONTINUES STILL.
Chapters 31 and 32 are STILL part of that great INVITATION.
• They are God STILL calling those “false sons” back to Him.
• It is STILL a message for prodigals.
In fact, you see it again in verse 6 of chapter 31
(31:6) “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.”
The fact that God even continues to offer a return as an option
Is remarkable grace.
• If we had been God…
• If we had been that father of the prodigal…
• If we had been so insulted and rejected…
We would have been tempted to say, “Fine, take your inheritance, but don’t come back here when things get tough.”
BUT NOT GOD.
He endures reproach and insult and rejection and rebellion
And yet still offers the sinner the option of coming home.
The OLDER BROTHER of that prodigal couldn’t believe it.
He couldn’t believe that the father would welcome home such a foul sinner.
But praise God He does.
He NOT ONLY WELCOMES sinners home,
But as we have been studying in Isaiah recently,
He PLEADS with them to come home.
What a gracious Father!
So what about chapters 31 and 32 is new information?
How do they differ from the message of chapter 30?
Here God begins to get MORE SPECIFIC
ABOUT THE SIN that Judah has committed.
We just read in verse 6 that Judah had “deeply defected”.
• They haven’t only “defected”, but they have done so “deeply”.
• They haven’t only abandoned the LORD, but have greatly abandoned Him.
• It’s not just apostasy, it is intense apostasy.
That makes God’s call for them to return even more remarkable.
How far does one have to go before God will no longer welcome them home?
• I guess farther than this.
But what we learn in Isaiah 31 & 32
Is what deeply defecting looks like.
All my years growing up, no one used the word “defection” it was more likely that the word “back sliding” would be used.
Here are going to see what it looks like.
I think this is an important study for us even as the church today.
For it may be more subtle than you think.
The New Testament warns continually about apostasy or falling away or defection from the Lord.
We even read of a sin of apostasy of such a variety
That man cannot be saved from it.
• It is akin to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
• It is when a person is given full revelation of the truth but willfully rejects it and falls away.
That sin of apostasy cannot be forgiven
Because it is bound up in a rejection of the savior.
Hebrews 3:12-14 “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,”
Hebrews 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”
Hebrews 10:36-39 “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”
But we are also confronted with a type of defection in the New Testament that is clearly redeemable.
• It is heinous.
• It is terrible.
• It brings disciplinary consequences.
But one can still repent and come home.
The prodigal son clearly falls in this category.
• He did a horrible thing in insulting and rejecting his father,
• But he did come to his sense and return.
• He was welcomed back by his father.
It would be like that we read of in the lives of the disciples.
Mark 14:27-30 “And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED.’ “But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.” And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.”
We think of John the Baptist doubting Jesus.
Matthew 11:6 “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”
There is a defection from which one cannot be saved
And there is a defection from which one can be saved.
How would you know which is which?
Whether or not the sinner comes back.
• If the sinner does not repent and return then clearly their defection was of the variety from which one cannot be saved.
• If the sinner comes to their senses and repents and returns then it was the defection from which they can be saved.
The only difference between the two
Is whether or not the sinner repents and returns.
And hence you see why God is pleading so diligently
With the sons of Judah to repent and return.
But there is a different issue we want to begin to address this morning, and that is: WHAT DOES DEFECTION LOOK LIKE?
• How would I know if I have defected?
• How would I know if I am in need of repentance and a returning to God?
• What are the characteristics of a son who has deeply defected?
That is what Isaiah is about to show us
Over the course of the next 2 chapters.
Now that is NOT ALL he’ll show us.
• We’ll also see again invitations to return
• And we’ll see again promises of blessing if you do.
• But before that he will give Judah a direct description of their defection.
So let’s look at them.
• What does defection from God look like?
• What does a prodigal type sin look like?
• What does it look like when a person begins to fall away from God?
#1 FAILURE TO TRUST
Isaiah 31:1-32:8
That’s a long segment, but we want to start by looking at
The direct confrontation of their sin and that is found in verses 1-5
(READ 31:1-5)
Isaiah starts again with that weighted word, “Woe”
It is no small word to Isaiah
Since he was once a man who called down this very “Woe” upon himself.
• He knows what it is to be a defector.
• He knows what it is to be one who has fallen away.
• He knows what it is to be one who is under the wrath of God.
• And he knows what it is to repent, return, and be forgiven.
The word “Woe” is serious to him.
Here that woe is used to describe the defecting sin of Judah.
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help And rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many And in horsemen because they are very strong…”
Now THE PUZZLE is starting to fill in even more pieces
And become even CLEARER to us.
Perhaps you remember
When Isaiah called the people to repent and return to God, but the people said, “No”.
If you’ll remember they said no because they had a plan.
Isaiah 30:15-17 “For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing, And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,” Therefore you shall flee! “And we will ride on swift horses,” Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift. One thousand will flee at the threat of one man; You will flee at the threat of five, Until you are left as a flag on a mountain top And as a signal on a hill.”
They wouldn’t repent, instead they would flee on horses.
Well now we are beginning to see why they wanted Egypt.
• Egypt would be their supplier of horses.
• Egypt would be their supplier of chariots.
• They were banking on Egypt the whole time.
This was sinful even on a surface level.
Deuteronomy 17:16 “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’”
Israel was never to look to Egypt as their salvation again,
Though they regularly did.
But that is only part of the problem.
The REAL PROBLEM is seen in the last line of verse 1.
“But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!”
It wasn’t just their propensity to seek Egypt that was the problem
It was that they never sought God.
They didn’t want the instruction of the LORD.
• They didn’t want the seers to see visions.
• They didn’t want the prophets to prophesy.
• They didn’t want to hear about the Holy One of Israel.
They weren’t interested in what God had to say.
• They saw Egypt as reliable.
• They saw God as unreliable.
• They saw Egypt as strong.
• They saw God as weak.
• They saw Egypt as helpful.
• They saw God as unhelpful.
Their decision to ignore God and seek Egypt proved that.
THAT IS WHAT WE CALL DEFECTION.
It is when you seek other things
For your deliverance or satisfaction other than God.
Isn’t that what the prodigal son did?
His father couldn’t satisfy, and he sought satisfaction in the world.
Here with Israel it isn’t so much satisfaction as it is deliverance and that is also defection.
• When danger arises…
• When finances dwindle…
• When sickness invades…
• When tragedy threatens…
WHERE DO YOU TURN?
WHAT WE SEE MOST OF THE TIME IN OUR WORLD IS THAT
Men give lip service to God but they very rarely seek Him
Until every other savior proves ineffective.
THAT IS DEFECTION.
BUT I UNDERSTAND IT.
• Judah was being threatened by a real world flesh and blood enemy.
• Sennacherib was a real king of a real nation with a real army with real weapons.
• He was really invading and he would really kill them.
And in such real-life scenarios there are some who find it much easier
To trust what you can see over what you can’t see.
Judah couldn’t see God, but they could see Egypt.
In their crisis they opted to walk by sight instead of faith.
THAT IS A DEFECTION FROM FAITH.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
If you want to put a label on what they specifically did wrong, we would say:
THEY DIDN’T DISCERN GOD’S PRESENCE.
• God has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
• God has promised that His is with us always.
• God had told Israel that He was God in their midst.
While God could not be physically seen,
They still should have recognized His presence.
When Jesus spoke of God at work, He compared it to WIND.
John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
That is how God often works.
A great example of this would be the book of Esther.
• God’s name is not mentioned one single time in the entire book of Esther.
• There is no written proof of God’s presence in that entire story.
• And yet, His fingerprints are everywhere.
Only the hardest of skeptics could read the story of Esther
And not see God’s presence actively at work.
And we are called to trust the God we can’t see.
But this is the problem with Israel. – they wouldn’t trust a God they couldn’t see.
When their problems arose “they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!”
Instead they “go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many and in horseman because they are very strong,”
THEY DEFECTED FROM GOD AND RAN TO EGYPT.
THEY DIDN’T DISCERN GOD’S PRESENCE
To that Isaiah responds with an OBVIOUS CORRECTION.
(2a) “Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster and does not retract His words”
It is obvious that these are the very benefits that Judah was seeking to receive from Egypt.
• Judah thought the Egyptians were wise
• That they could bring disaster to Assyria
• That they would do what they said.
Judah had attributed that to Egypt,
But had not attributed such attributes to God.
Isaiah says, “Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster and does not retract His words”
Isaiah reminds us of some very important truths about the nature of God.
THE WISDOM OF GOD
“Yet He also is wise”
Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 1:25 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
After contemplating the mysteries of God’s sovereignty in salvation, Paul wrote:
Romans 11:33-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
David spoke of God’s omniscience and said that it was mind-blowing!
Psalms 139:1-6 “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”
• Who else knows the number of hairs on your head?
• Who else can ordain all your days before you?
• Who else can providentially sustain the entire earth?
And really this is a never-ending subject.
The simple question I suppose is:
• Is there anything that God does not know?
• Is there any problem that He cannot solve?
• Does anything confuse Him?
Then why in the world would you fail to seek God and run to Egypt?
Why would you look to a worldly savior instead of a heavenly one?
Isaiah also reminds them of:
THE POWER OF GOD
“and will bring disaster”
Which is another way of saying that God will defend you
And He will thoroughly and competently deal with your enemy.
• Which enemy has ever thwarted God?
• Which nation rose up to afflict Israel that God couldn’t deal with?
When God told Abraham that Sarah would have a son she laughed in the tent and God asked her, “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?”
(And the answer is of course, no.)
And the reality of Israel’s day is this:
• Perhaps Egypt would be able to defeat Assyria…
• But God definitely can.
SO WHY WOULD YOU IGNORE GOD AND RUN TO EGYPT?
Isaiah also reminds them of:
THE INTEGRITY OF GOD
“And does not retract His words”
• Where do you find God not keeping His word?
• Where do you find God breaking His covenant?
• Where do you find God unable or unwilling to follow through with a promise?
The overwhelming testimony of Scripture is
God being faithful though all men are liars.
Can that always be said of Egypt?
• Will Egypt be found faithful with every promise?
So why would you ignore God in order to run to Egypt?
When Assyria approached you had the option of two saviors,
One was God and the other was Egypt and you chose Egypt.
To put it plainly again:
THEY DIDN’T DISCERN GOD’S PREEMINENCE
They treated God like a sub on the bench
And treated Egypt like the all-star.
How foolish!
• Do you not know who your God is?
• Do you not know His power or wisdom or might or integrity?
“Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster and does not retract His words”
God can do everything Egypt can do, in fact:
God (2b) “will arise against the house of evildoers and against the help of the workers of iniquity.”
Because you snubbed the wise, powerful, God of integrity
He is about to show you exactly what you are missing.
• He is about to rise up against you, “the house of evildoers”
• And He is about to rise up against Egypt, “the help of the workers of
iniquity.”
God is not willing to be slighted.
You don’t get to ignore His power and glory and might
And then attribute it to some lesser savior.
You may defect from Him for a lesser savior, but far be it from Him
To let that savior succeed and steal His glory.
It is just foolish to neglect God.
It is foolish to fail to discern His preeminence.
GOD WILL NOT LET YOUR FALSE SAVIOR SUCCEED
(3) “Now the Egyptians are men and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the LORD will stretch our His hand, And he who helps will stumble And he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together.”
That about sums it up doesn’t it.
• When your tragedy struck…
• When your trial started…
You had the option of seeking the all-knowing, all-powerful, fully trustworthy God.
Instead you defected from Him In order that you might put your trust in a man.
• That which is “men and not God”
• That which is “flesh and not spirit”
Does that not strike you as foolish?
Because of this, the LORD will rise up
• And cause “he who helps” (Egypt) to “stumble”.
• And cause “who is helped” (Israel) to “fall”.
“And all of them will come to an end together.”
They should have discerned God’s presence.
They should have discerned God’s preeminence.
And they should have
DISCERNED GOD’S PLAN
Had they chosen to seek God, Isaiah reveals
What God had planned on their behalf.
(4-5) “For thus says the LORD to me, “As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, Against which a band of shepherds is called out, And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise, So will the LORD of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.” Like flying birds so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it; He will pass over and rescue it.”
Isaiah says, “This is what God told me He was prepared to do.”
He was going to be like a lion.
• Like when a lion kills a sheep and sits down to eat and a band of shepherds run out and start hollering, that lion isn’t fazed one bit.
He was going to be like flying birds.
• Quickly coming out of nowhere to swoop in and bring deliverance.
• God was going to “wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”
• His plan is to “protect and deliver it”
• His plan is to “pass over and rescue it”
Now tell me, what was Egypt’s plan?
WHY THEN WOULD YOU IGNORE GOD?
Jeremiah 17:5-8 “Thus says the LORD, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD. “For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.”
That is exactly what Israel was doing here,
And that is what defection looks like.
SEE, SOMETIMES WE THINK OF DEFECTING FROM GOD
As some definitive line in the sand where we wake up one morning and say, “That’s it, I no longer believe in God.”
That certainly is to defect, but what you must learn from Isaiah here
Is that defection starts long before something that drastic.
Defecting from God is any time we fail to trust Him
And instead place our trust in some other savior.
(Either for deliverance or satisfaction)
IT CAN BE A DOCTOR.
Remember King Asa?
2 Chronicles 16:12 “In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians.”
IT CAN BE A POLITICIAN.
Remember the children of Israel under Samuel?
1 Samuel 8:4-7 “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. The LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.”
And it could be any number of other would-be saviors:
• A judge.
• A family member.
• A friend.
• An ally.
• A military.
If you do that but “do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD” then you have defected from God.
DO YOU SEE WHAT DEFECTION IS?
It can be much more subtle than perhaps we have realized.
BUT IT IS ALWAYS REGRETTABLE.
• For no one loves you like God loves you.
• No one cares for His people like God cares for His people.
• Certainly Egypt did not.
And there again comes from Isaiah THE SOLUTION
(6) “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.”
It is God’s call once again to those prodigals to come home.
And don’t you love the fact that God has now abandoned the label of “false sons”?
God is now back to calling them “sons of Israel.”
• They certainly don’t look like it.
• They have certainly rebelled.
• But once a son, always a son.
• And God is calling them home.
It is true, they have “deeply defected”
• They haven’t trusted God in a really long time.
• They haven’t listened to God in a really long time.
• They haven’t sought God in a really long time.
There life is a documentary
On how to insult, ignore, and rebel against God.
And yet, despite their deep defection the invitation remains:
“Return to Him”
Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.”
Isaiah 44:21-22 “Remember these things, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me. “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
1 Peter 5:6-7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
Acts 3:19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”
The invitation remains, and it is a good one for us this morning too.
ARE YOU TRUSTING GOD?
Certainly you must trust Christ for your salvation.
• Certainly you must put your hope in Christ’s righteousness.
• Certainly you must put your hope in Christ’s sacrifice.
If you are looking to some man to save you, you’re sunk.
“he who helps will stumble and he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together.”
If you are looking to our own works or abilities to save you, you are sunk.
You are “men and not God”, you are “flesh and not spirit”
You must trust Christ fully for your salvation.
BUT BEYOND THAT.
WHAT ABOUT FOR YOUR PROVISION?
WHAT ABOUT FOR YOUR HEALTH?
WHAT ABOUT FOR YOUR SECURITY?
WHAT ABOUT FOR YOUR FAMILY?
WHAT ABOUT YOUR SATISFACTION?
DO YOU SEE THE POINT?
Israel had deeply defected from God and that defection was seen
In a failure to trust God or find satisfaction in Him.
And in any area in which we have done that,
We must repent and return to Him.
THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT He has already promised that He will be gracious to us and He “does not retract His words”.
THIS MORNING DETERMINE TO TRUST HIM.
Just because you can’t see God does not mean He is not present.
• Do not fail to discern His presence.
• Do not fail to discern His preeminence.
• Do not fail to discern His plan.
Look to Him.
