Scripture Daily

Context No. 1143 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 31:1-9: in context

1Woe 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, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek the LORD! 2Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity. 3Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together. 4For the LORD says to me, “As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for their noise, so the LORD of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights. 5As birds hovering, so the LORD of Armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it.” 6Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel. 7For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin which your own hands have made for you. 8“The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor. 9His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner,” says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

Isaiah pronounces a woe on those in Judah who run to Egypt for help against Assyria, trusting in Egypt's many chariots and strong horsemen, but not looking to the Holy One of Israel or seeking the LORD. He drives the point home with a devastating contrast: the Egyptians are men and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, both the helper and the helped will stumble and fall together. And then a tender image of what real help looks like: the LORD will protect Jerusalem like a lion undaunted by shepherds, like birds hovering over their nest, defending, delivering, passing over and preserving it.

The line that cuts to the heart of it is: the Egyptians are men and not God, their horses flesh and not spirit. Judah's temptation was to trust the visible, countable strength, the chariots and cavalry of a great power, over the invisible God. And Isaiah exposes the fatal flaw in that math: everything they were trusting was merely flesh, mortal, limited, unable to stand when God moves against it. The horses looked strong, but they were flesh, not spirit; Egypt looked strong, but it was men, not God. To lean on any created strength, however impressive, is to lean on flesh, and flesh fails. And then the counter-image is gentle: God protecting Jerusalem like a mother bird hovering over the nest, not a distant, indifferent power but a fierce, close, covering care. The choice Isaiah sets before them, and us, is between trusting flesh, the visible, countable resources that are always merely flesh, and trusting the living God whose protection hovers like wings. The chariots are flesh; the God who covers you is spirit.

What visible, countable strength am I trusting that is finally only flesh, and am I looking instead to the living God whose protection hovers over his people like a bird over the nest?

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