The Signs of Vain Religion

Isaiah 30:1–2 (ESV) “Ah, 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; 2 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 takes time here to describe the spiritual state of Israel which seems an awful lot like much of Christianity in modern America. Notice what they do and have. They have a plan of their own, not God's. They have an alliance with something other than the Spirit and they make room for sin. They look to political answers without God's direction and they think powerful people can save them. 

Later in the chapter Isaiah provides more description of the spiritual whims of the people.

Isaiah 30:9–11 (ESV) For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD; 10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, 11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

This is a people who demand to hear what they want and are quick to follow "illusions" through the mouths of the smooth-speaking "prophets". 

What an indictment on today's church. You have either the left-wing mainline churches who seek to align with progressive sexually immoral values. Or you have the right-wing pro-prosperity, "the Lord told me" evangelicals. Makes you realize how easy it can be to fall for a form of religion that has no basis in the heart of God. 

What does God say about these agendas?

Isaiah 30:3 (ESV) Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.

Isaiah 30:7 (ESV) Egypt’s help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”

There is no protection or prosperity in our own devises apart from the Lord. And special judgment is reserved for those who twist and manipulate the faith for their own selfish profit. 

To that end, God tells Isaiah to write. 

Isaiah 30:8 (ESV) And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.

It is one of the repeated realities of Israel. Their true leaders wrote! They wanted God's truth and rebuke recorded for future generations to learn. And Isaiah wasn't about to hide in some closet with the truth. He was going to say what was unpopular. 

Isaiah 30:12–14 (ESV) Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, 13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant; 14 and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

This is a troubling rebuke. And you might be tempted to think it's all over for Israel at this point. But no. God still longs to be gracious in spite of their unwillingness to turn. 

Isaiah 30:15–16 (ESV) For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, 16 and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.

Think of this - God literally wanted them to come back to Him and they only desired to run away. 

Isaiah 30:18 (ESV) Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

People often turn to the Old Testament to accuse God of being an angry vengeful diety. But they obviously haven't read it. What we see in Isaiah is a God who continues to love the very people who reject Him. His mercy is on every page yet He's often blamed for the poor choices of those He wants to save. And He longs to save people from vain religion.