Isaiah 30

Wesley: the rebellious—the Jews. Take counsel—that consult together. Cover—that seek protection. But not—not such as by my spirit, speaking in my word, I have required them to do. That they may add—that unto all their sins, they may add distrust of my power and mercy, and put confidence in an arm of flesh. The stubborn children are Judah in that hour, carrying out a plan that is not the Lord’s.

Judah’s leaders make plans and alliances without consulting the LORD, adding distrust to their other sins. Wesley stresses that God’s counsel was available through his word; they chose Pharaoh’s shadow instead.

Calvin: the Prophet exclaims against the Jews, because, when they were hard pressed by the Assyrians, they fled to Egypt for help. God had strictly forbidden them to enter into any alliance with the Egyptians. That they may cover a covering: the words relate to counsels held secretly and by stealth, by which they cunningly endeavored to deceive the prophets. They add sin to sin: after having brought the Assyrians into Judea, they wished to drive them out by the help of the Egyptians.

Whatever is undertaken without the word of God must be improper and wicked. The covering is Judah’s own secret counsel in Isaiah’s century.”

Wesley: asked—either by the priests or prophets.

The fault is not ignorance but a choice to go without asking. Prophets and priests were at hand; Judah preferred Pharaoh’s shadow to waiting on the Lord.

Calvin: they walk that they may go down into Egypt without asking at the mouth of God, and even in the face of his prohibition. Strengthening themselves with the strength of Pharaoh: they placed confidence in the forces of the Egyptians. They showed that they cared little about the power of God, and did not greatly trust in him.

Isaiah contrasts Pharaoh with God; the creatures enter into contest with him when men place their hearts in them. The shadow is Egypt’s in Hezekiah’s century.

Wesley heads vv. 1–7: the prophet threatens the people for their confidence in Egypt. The protection they sought in v. 2 turns here to shame; the shadow they chose becomes humiliation. The shame is Judah’s in that hour.

They might have left Pharaoh’s shelter while the word still stood. Confidence in an arm of flesh is not forced.

Calvin: but to you shall the strength of Pharaoh be shame. You think that you gain much protection from Pharaoh, but it will yield you reproach and disgrace. The shadow of Egypt, by which you hoped to be covered, will make you blush for shame. Nothing acquired by wicked and unlawful methods can be of advantage to any person.

The end of the wicked who despise the word is ruin, even when for a time everything succeeds to their wish. The church hears Judah’s shame under Assyria.

Wesley: his princes—the princes of Judah. Hanes—an eminent city of Egypt. Officials and envoys are Judah’s own, sent south in that century.

Zoan and Hanes were Egyptian cities, and Judah’s envoys had already arrived there. The embassy was well underway before anyone asked the LORD.

Calvin: the Jews obtained Egyptian aid with great labor and expense. They had to perform long and painful journeys, to endure much toil, and to expend vast sums of money, in order to arrive, loaded with presents, at the most distant cities of Egypt. On this embassy were sent not persons of mean rank but princes and nobles. They did not need to go far to seek God; those wretched persons despised God, and chose rather to run to the very ends of the world than to receive the assistance which was offered to them.

The contrast is already in the promise, This is my rest. Judah’s nobles in Zoan are enough. The verse stays with that embassy.

Wesley: they—both the messengers, and they who sent them.

Egypt will bring only shame to both envoys and senders. Help that is not from the LORD is no help at all.

Calvin: they shall all be ashamed of a people that will not profit them. He threatens not only that the Egyptians will prove false, but that even though they endeavor to the utmost to fulfill the promises which they have made, still they will be of no use. Events are in the hand of God; they will profit nothing without his blessing.

A nation so powerful could yield no assistance when the Lord did not make it sure. The church reads Judah’s empty profit in Isaiah’s hearing, not a later code for “shame.”

Wesley: the burden—the treasures, which were carried upon asses or camels, into Egypt, which lay southward from Judea. The land of trouble—Egypt, so called prophetically. From whence—this may be understood properly, but withal, seems to design the craft and cruelty of that people. They—the Jews. Their riches—to procure their assistance. Bunches—upon the backs.

Treasure on donkeys is a payment for an alliance. They might have kept the riches at home.

Calvin: he ridicules the enormous cost and the prodigious inconveniences which they endured; at so high a price did they purchase their destruction. He mentions the south because they journeyed through a southern region, Egypt being situated to the south of Judea. He addresses the beasts of burden to pour contempt on men, because it was in vain to speak to them. Though the people imagined that there was uninterrupted prosperity in Egypt, it would be a land of anguish and affliction even to the brute animals.

Lions and fiery serpents are the Lord’s extra stroke on a road they would not quit. The oracle stays with that southern journey.

Wesley: to her—to Jerusalem or Judah. Sit still—it is safer and better for them to sit quietly at home, seeking to me for help.

Egypt is “Rahab who sits still”—all bluster, no help. The offer to Judah was to stay home and trust, and it was a serious offer (v. 15), refused.

Calvin: surely the Egyptians are vanity; the strength of Egypt will do them no good, even though he be earnest and employ all his forces. Therefore have I cried to her: I consider this to refer to God himself, who complains that his distinct warnings produced no effect, and that his exhortation to them to sit still was intended to meet the troubles he foresaw. To sit still means to remain and to stay at home. They did not think that God’s protection was sufficient if they had not also the Egyptians on their side.

They who do not give sufficient honor to God have their hearts agitated by unbelief, so that they tremble and never find peace. The cry is to Jerusalem in that century.

Wesley: write—this warning. Before—in their presence. Note it—so this was to be written twice over, once in a table, to be hanged up in some public place, that all present might read it; and again, in a book, that it might be kept for the use of posterity. The time to come—as a witness for me and against them.

The written warning serves two audiences: Isaiah’s hearers, who could read it on the public tablet, and later readers who would see that God had spoken plainly before the fall.

Calvin: after having convicted the Jews of manifest unbelief, he means that it should be attested and sealed by permanent records, that posterity may know how obstinate and rebellious that nation was, and how justly the Lord punished them. When any prediction was remarkable, the Lord commanded that it should be written in larger characters. Prophecies were not written merely for the men of a single age; their children ought to know that they ought not to imitate their fathers.

The tablet irritates that generation in their sight. The church reads a witness against Judah’s Egypt counsel, not a later code for “book.”

Wesley heads vv. 8–11: contempt of God’s word. The rebellious of v. 1 are named again as lying children who will not hear the instruction refused is the Lord’s in that generation.

Judah is called “lying children” who refuse to hear the LORD’s instruction. The charge is not that they lacked the word but that they would not listen to it.

Calvin: the perverseness of this nation is desperate, because they cannot submit to be restrained by any doctrine. They boasted that they were the holy and elect seed of Abraham, as if God’s adoption had been a veil to cover the grossest crimes. Who refuse to hear the law of Jehovah: the source of all evils is contempt of the word, which discovers their wickedness and their contempt of God himself.

It is idle to pretend that they worship God when they are disobedient to his word. The church hears Isaiah’s lying children.

Wesley’s heading: contempt of God’s word. The seers are told not to see; the prophets, not to speak what is right. Smooth things are the request of that court that would not hear instruction.

They might have borne the harsh message. Asking for illusions is a will, not a fate.

Calvin: who tell the seers, See not. He does not relate the words of wicked men as if they openly made use of these words, but describes the state of the fact and their actual dispositions. They were singularly cunning hypocrites, who boasted of worshipping God. They desire smooth things; they were ready to receive flatterers with unbounded applause, and would willingly have allowed their ears to be tickled in the name of God.

Not one of them was so impudent as to say that he wished to be deceived; they denied that what Isaiah told them was the word of God. The church reads Judah’s demand for smoothness.

Wesley: cause, &c.—do not trouble us with harsh messages from God.

The people tell the prophets to get out of the way and stop speaking about the Holy One. Wesley paraphrases: do not trouble us with harsh messages from God.

Calvin: when the prophets are set aside, the Lord is also rejected and set aside. Cause the Holy One of Israel to depart: God does not spare or flatter their vices, but acts the part of a good and skillful physician. Men desire to be flattered, and cannot patiently endure that God should threaten them. The Prophet joins dislike of heavenly doctrine and hatred of uprightness.

They who set the word aside act as if they denied that he is God. The path left is Isaiah’s, in that house.

Wesley: and trust—in the wealth which you have gotten by oppression, and in your perverse course of sending to Egypt for help. The Holy One they would hear no more now names the despising. The word despised is still the rest offered to that Judah.

They might have left the wealth and the embassy. Perverseness is a course they chose.

Calvin: because you have disdained this word. He expresses their contempt more strongly by the word disdain. For my own part, I do not view oppression as referring to riches gained by unlawful methods, but rather to that rebelliousness in which that nation insolently indulged. By these two words he intended to express the presumption of wicked men, by which they fiercely and wantonly rose up against God.

They thought they would speedily overcome his power by their fierceness. The disdain is Judah’s in Isaiah’s hearing.”

Wesley: this iniquity—of trusting to Egypt, shall be like a wall which is high, but swelling forth in some parts, which, upon the least accident, falls down suddenly.

They might have come off the wall before the instant. High and swelling is Judah’s confidence in Pharaoh. Believers should not rename “breach” every generation.

Calvin: he compares wicked men to a wall that is rent, or that bulges out. As the swelling out of a wall threatens the ruin of it, so the haughtiness and insolence of wicked men are a sign and very sure proof of their approaching ruin; the more they are puffed up without any solid value, the more readily do they throw themselves down headlong.

For a time the Lord permits wicked men to swell and utter their big words, that at length by their swelling they may bring upon themselves ruin. The wall is Judah’s in that century.

Wesley: he—God. The smashing is the Lord’s, as sudden as the bulge of v. 13. No shard left for fire or water: the vessel is Judah’s Egypt-trust, broken in that generation.

The collapse is sudden and total, like a jar smashed so thoroughly that no shard is left to carry a coal. Wesley reads it as the end of Judah’s trust in Egypt.

Calvin: when a wall has fallen, some traces of the ruin are still to be seen, and the stones of it may be applied to use; but here they who are puffed up with obstinacy against God shall perish in such a manner that they cannot be restored, and all that is left of them shall be utterly useless. He employs the metaphor of a potter’s vessel, the broken fragments of which cannot be repaired or put together.

Nothing is more difficult than to root out the false confidence from their hearts. The church hears a smash of that obstinacy, not a later cipher for shard.

Wesley: in returning—to God. Quietness—in sitting still, and quieting your minds. Confidence—placed upon me, and my promises. They were unwilling.

“In returning and rest you will be saved.” The offer was authentic: strength through quiet trust in God’s promises. Wesley’s comment is brief: they were unwilling.

Calvin: some render shubah repentance; others render it rest, and I am more disposed to adopt that rendering. In rest and quietness shall you be safe. He enjoins the people to be of a quiet disposition, and next promises that their salvation shall be certain. The people do not believe this promise, and consequently they do not obey the command. Unbelief alone produces that uneasiness. In like manner had Moses long before addressed them, You shall be silent, and the Lord will fight for you.

Faith cannot exist without the promises, and as soon as the promises have been embraced, souls that were restless are made calm. The rest refused is Judah’s in that hour.

Wesley heads vv. 12–17: wherefore they shall be destroyed. The No is the unwillingness of v. 15 made vocal: horses instead of rest, swift steeds instead of quiet trust. The flight is Judah’s own word turning back on them.

They might have said Yes to returning. Horses are Egypt’s gift and Judah’s boast in that century.

Calvin: we will flee on horses; therefore shall you flee. He shews how they refused to wait calmly for the salvation of the Lord; for they chose rather to flee to the Egyptians. In the first of these clauses, to flee means to escape, and in the second it means to take flight. You shall certainly flee, not to find a place of refuge, but to turn your back and to be pursued by horses swifter than yours.

By the distinct reply, No, he shews how obstinately they refused the prophets’ advice. Isaiah does not affirm that they will receive no assistance from Egypt, but that the Lord will thwart it. The church reads that No in Isaiah’s Judah.

Wesley: till—till you be destroyed, and but a few of you left. A thousand fleeing at the threat of one is the rest they would not have, now turned to panic. The flagstaff is still Judah after the Egypt alliance.

They might have been saved in returning. Few left is the harvest of No. Wesley and Calvin both keep this flight in Isaiah’s century.

Calvin: a thousand, as one, shall flee at the rebuke of one. Because the Jews, on account of their vast numbers, relied on their forces, the Lord will break and take away their courage. We shall have just as much courage as the Lord shall give us. It is the result of the righteous vengeance of God that we are terrified by men, when he could not prevail upon us to fear him. God needs not extensive preparations to chastise us; if he lift up but a finger, we are undone. Till they have been reduced to the last extremity: as a mast of a ship on the top of a mountain, as a banner on a hill—so few that all that remains shall be an indication of very great ruin.

This great multitude dazzles the eyes; there will be such decrease that they shall no longer have the face of a people.