Isaiah, chapter 31
interpretation - meaning - commentary - explanation
(1) Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
Israel as the chosen people was to rely on the Lord, not on other nations or its own strength. The Jews turned away from God, preferring to form an alliance with Egypt to fight Assyria together. God warned them not to accumulate too many horses (Deuteronomy 17.16 "But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.") Horses were mainly used in large armies, to pull chariots, war wagons and all the goods necessary for warfare. The country was moving toward militarism, choosing its own power and alliances thereby abandoning God.
(2) Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity. (3) Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.
God has repeatedly warned Israel to come to its senses, indicating that the path they are following leads to perdition. "The evildoers" and "holpen" is Israel, the "against the help" and "he that helpeth" is Egypt, which formed an alliance with Judah to defend itself against Assyria.
Let's use an example: a slave was about to be killed by his tormentor, but he was saved from death by a powerful king, assuring him that when he was in trouble he could come to him for help. After some time, a looter enters the slave's life. The man, feeling threatened, goes to seek help from his former tormentor instead of the king. Is his behavior normal? No. However, mankind today acts similarly, seeking help from thieves, swindlers, entering into shady deals, instead of going to the Creator, before whom nothing is impossible.
(4) For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. (5) As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.
God assures that He will save Israel from defeat, which happened at least during the reign of King Hezekiah, and yet Israel later fell. Do we have a contradiction here? No. God saved Jerusalem, but at the same time He notoriously admonished that He would withdraw aid when it failed to repent. After Hezekiah's death, the nation began to drift away from the Lord again.
A call to conversion
(6) Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. (7) For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. (8) Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. (9) And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
King Hezekiah strengthened the temples in the hills, and during his reign the people turned to God again. What is puzzling, however, is why Hezekiah sent a ransom to Sennacherib to secede from Judea. The ransom was accepted, but the enemy army invaded the country anyway. In 2 Kings 19.35-37 we read: "And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead." Extrabiblical sources, i.e., the Chronicles of Sennacherib, record that he captured 62 fortified cities and besieged Jerusalem. However, there is no mention there of his conquest, which if it had taken place would certainly have been recorded.
