Who Do You Rely On?

Is God the only one we fully and persistently depend upon?

Scripture – especially the Old Testament – is full of warnings about how God’s people must fully trust in and lean upon God and not others for their protection, security, safety and blessing. But too often the Israelites ignored this.

Isaiah 30 is just one clear example of this, where Yahweh warns Israel that relying on Egypt will not save them (from Assyrian aggression) but will only get them into more trouble. The first three verses say this:

“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;
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!
Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
    and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.”

Earlier on, as in Isaiah 10, we read about how God himself was bringing the Assyrians to judge Israel for its sin, idolatry and disobedience. But later in that chapter we are told that God will also judge Assyria. The issue as always is whether God’s people will fully trust and depend upon God, or whether they will turn to others for their help and salvation.

There are obvious lessons for Christians today. We can look to things like politics to save us instead of looking to Christ. Yes, believers should be involved in politics and society, but we dare not think that some political or legislative solution alone will be what we all need.

And on a personal level, we need to remember that in Christ alone we find our true salvation. Depending on works or rituals or the traditions of men will not cut it. Full and complete reliance on Christ and what he did for us at Calvary is what we must all rely on.

In his expository commentary on Isaiah, Raymond Ortland says this about the passage:

The mistake Judah had made was to protect herself from Assyria through an alliance with Egypt. But that wasn’t God’s plan. He had liberated them from Egypt in the first place. Think about it. Judah is going back to the old slave-master, to ensure her freedom. At one level it seemed the obvious thing to do. But at the level of the spiritual, it was foolish. Egypt can offer the people of Judah nothing they don’t have already in their Lord. The irony of this appears in the word translated “alliance” in verse 1. The Hebrew word there is a pun. It can mean “alliance,” obviously; but it can also mean “covering” (Isaiah 28:20) and “[idolatrous] image” (Isaiah 30:22). Here is Isaiah’s point. Judah’s alliance with Egypt covered them like a warm blanket. It made them feel comfortable against the storm of Assyria. But it was an idol.

 

God does not bless our plans. He blesses only that which is of himself. And if his salvation does not live in our hearts. we inevitably “add sin to sin” (Isaiah 30:1). The first sin is not seeking a heart filled with God, and the second sin we add to it is to fill our emptiness with our own false comforts. But they never work out: “Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation” (v. 3).

This was something the ancient Israelites had to keep learning over and over again. Putting your ultimate trust and dependence on anyone or anything else besides the living God is a recipe for disaster. It will only get you into more trouble and not less.

It should be mentioned here that God is not saying there is never a place for making alliances, either for Israel of old, or for nations today. The emphasis is on trusting in God and not man for things like protection and deliverance. See more on this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2022/04/13/scripture-politics-and-messy-thinking/

John Oswalt, in his NIVAC commentary says this about alliances:

Insofar as America today is not, as a nation, the chosen people of God, these passages on trusting the nations do not have the same political relevance to us as they did for Judah. However, the principles remain relevant for Christians. We must ask ourselves why we are entering into dependent relations with people or institutions and what such people or institutions can really offer us.

 

In the eighth century B.C.. Egypt was long past its prime. After about 1000 B.C. it was never again a dominant force in the ancient Near East. After its heyday, Egypt was ruled first by the Libyans from the west. After that, it was ruled by Nubians from the south; they were the ones ruling at this time. The native Egyptians seemed to lack either the energy or the initiative to rule on their own. Thus, Egypt appeared to be powerful but really was not. We do not know how obvious that was, although the Assyrians seemed to recognize it (cf. the field commander’s remarks in Isa. 36:6). In any case, those with spiritual discernment recognized the situation. Isaiah saw it in the 700 B.C. and Jeremiah in the 600s.

 

That is the kind of discernment we need. Are those on whom we are tempted to rely just as weak as we are, though giving a good appearance? Do they have our best interests at heart or only their own? Are we relying on them as a way to avoid the risk of trusting God? Have we sought the guidance of those with spiritual discernment concerning the relationship? Have we sincerely sought God’s guidance? In many cases destructive relationships are clear to others around us. Our problem, like the Judeans, is that we are afraid to let go of “the splintered reed” (36:6) and so do not allow ourselves to look at the situation with true discernment. If we would first let go of it mentally and spiritually, God would open our eyes to its dangers.

Other prophets had also warned about who it is we put our trust in. As we find in Jeremiah 17:5-9:

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

It is one thing to make a plan prayerfully and carefully, consulting God along the way. It is another thing to stubbornly make our own plans without seeking God first, as Isaiah had said. This is not just true of the big things in life (a marriage partner, a job situation, and so on) but in the little things as well. We need to seek him in all areas of life.

Who do we consult? Who do we turn to? Who do we depend upon? Who do we lean on? Who do we trust? Such questions are worth asking on a daily basis about all sorts of things.

As I was concluding this piece, I noticed a quote from Augustine that was just posted on the social media. It is worth sharing here as a summarising thought: “Sin is believing the lie that you are self-created, self-dependent and self-sustained.”

Afterword

I should have kept reading Isaiah further. In the very next chapter we see more of the same strong warnings. Isaiah 31:1 puts it this way:

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
    and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
    and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
    or consult the Lord!

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