D. Scott Meadows
For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel;
In returning and rest shall ye be saved;
In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:
And ye would not (Isa 30.15).
Sometimes we need to stop and consider what might have been. Specifically, it is sometimes useful to think about how much better things would have been if we had taken a better course. This is true for several reasons. Preaching what might have been to the incorrigible further justifies their punishment by God. A meditation on what might have been for the reprobate, if only, is useful for others that will yet repent, and for still others to persevere in the holy life they have already begun.
If we understand aright the biblical revelation of God and His ways, then we embrace the reality of God’s works of providence as “His most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures, and all their actions” (WSC #11) according to His eternal, unchangeable plan. Still, we may reasonably speak about “what might have been”—not that the outcome was ever undetermined or uncertain to God, but that God Himself ordinarily connects means and ends. When the prophets and apostles preached to sinners, “Repent and you will be saved,” they pressed human responsibility upon them and prophesied God’s faithfulness to His conditional promises. “If you repent, then you will be saved” is true contingently whether the hearers repent or not. “Thus things known by him are said to be possible, by reason of his power; while the future existence of them depends on his will” (Thomas Ridgeley, A Body of Divinity, Vol. 1, “The Omniscience of God”).
Isaiah 30.15 is a momentary, poignant reflection in a chapter that is full of discouraging reality, titled by one scholar, “Woe to Willful Children,” in a section (Isa 28-33) he dubs, “The Book of Woes” (James E. Smith, The Major Prophets). Rebellious Israelites are described in Isaiah 30.1-18 as sinfully seeking Egypt’s shelter instead of the Lord’s against the Assyrian threat (vv. 1-5), even though Egypt’s help would prove to be worthless (vv. 6-7, 12-14). Isaiah’s generation was generally arrogant and stubborn, irreverent and contemptuous (vv. 8-11), daring to prescribe to the Lord’s prophets what they should preach and not preach. Alec Motyer describes the situation:
Isaiah 30 belongs right in the thick of the huge political decision and national emergencies of 705-701 BC. It starts with the folly of the politicians of the day who sought security in worldly alliance (Egypt) rather than in Yahweh; it ends with the dreaded onrush of the Assyrians (Isaiah by the Day, p. 152).
IF ONLY YOU HAD TRUSTED THE LORD
The proclamation comes from the “Lord GOD,” a title combining Adonai and Yahweh in the Hebrew language, evoking His absolutely sovereign authority with His redemptive purpose toward His chosen people. “The Holy One of Israel” is meant to evoke reverence and fear of the God who is not comparable to any other gods or creatures.
The two lines that follow have also been translated by Motyer,
By coming back and resting you will be saved;
In keeping quiet, and in trust will be your warrior strength.
This characterizes aspects of their responsibility to trust the Lord in their circumstances, a responsibility they failed to fulfill. Four expressions elaborate: 1) A basic Hebrew word that means “to turn back.” Spiritually it can mean to turn away from the Lord (backslide) or turn back to Him (repent). The latter seems to be meant here. They were looking to Egypt instead of the Lord for deliverance from their enemies. 2) “Resting” is intended figuratively, of course. Instead of frenetic activity to save themselves without dependence upon God’s promise, they should have relied upon Him to keep His Word to them—namely, to guard His loyal worshipers from their foes, and to bless them in their service to Him. 3) “Keeping quiet” in this context may very well be a contrast with their backtalk, their protest of true preaching (cf. vv. 10-11, 16). 4) “Confidence” or “trust” is morally neutral as a concept. The moral issue is the object of one’s trust—the Lord or someone/something else. The context here intimates that trust in the Lord is in view. When God speaks, all hearers have a moral obligation to believe Him and to rely upon and shelter in His gracious promises. Anything short of this impugns God’s faithful character and dishonors His glorious Person.
These are the things that “might have been,” but were not, for Isaiah’s Israelite contemporaries. As a consequence, terrible punishments from the Lord for them were imminent: death and exile from the Holy Land.
THEN HE WOULD HAVE SAVED AND STRENGTHENED YOU
Salvation and strength would have been the blessed benefits to them of returning to the Lord in rest, quietness, and trust. Historically, they would not have been killed and exiled by pagan enemies, and they would have lived in a “supernatural fortress,” watched over constantly by Providence for their good. Consider how the Lord defended Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, with “the angel of the LORD” killing 185,000 besieging Assyrians (Isa 37.35-36)! But the Jews then were vulnerable because, “ye would not” (or, “you were not willing,” Motyer). They persisted in their idolatry and self-reliance.
These words transcend the Jewish history. The gospel of Jesus Christ proclaims a salvation that we, as lost sinners, literally find to be unbelievable, just like the Jews thought trusting in the Lord for protection against Assyria was foolish policy. Even as Christians we are prone to “do it yourself” living and religion, with precious little conscious dependence upon God’s promises in Scripture, and too little prayerful, peaceful, waiting upon the Lord to act on our behalf. Let His word be our guide: “In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” Then we will not have to mourn and suffer regret for what might have been. Ω