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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Isaiah 30: God Be Blazin'
What if trusting the wrong allies could lead to your downfall? In this episode of the Bible Breakdown podcast, Pastor Brandon takes us on a compelling journey through Isaiah chapter 30, where the people of Judah face humiliation and disgrace for choosing Egypt over God. We explore the fiery theme of "God Be Blazing," as Judah's misguided trust in their former oppressor results in brokenness and despair. Pastor Brandon challenges us to reflect on our own lives: are we turning to temporary solutions to medicate our pain instead of embracing God's enduring love and compassion? This thought-provoking discussion urges us to reconsider where we seek protection and salvation.
In the latter part of our conversation, we shift focus to the transformative power of faith in overcoming life's struggles. Pastor Brandon emphasizes the importance of turning to God, particularly during times of temptation and struggle, highlighting the healing power of prayer and confession. By fostering connections with God's people, as James 5:16 suggests, we find support and accountability essential for true healing. Join us in a heartfelt prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to guide us toward peace and strength, and discover how true freedom and victory can be achieved by placing unwavering trust in God, supported by the powerful words of Isaiah 12:2.
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The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Isaiah, chapter 30. Today's title is God Be Blazing. God Be Blazing. I love the last verse of this chapter that talks about God blazing. That's where I got the title from, but it's going to be a very interesting chapter that I think is wonderful for us to talk about. We're going to get into all that in just a second, but, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast, make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast and, as always, make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook.
Speaker 1:Man, the more we dig, the more we find, and it is wonderful to read their devotions every day. It every day. It's just an amazing team doing an amazing job. Well, if you have your Bibles. I want to open up with me to Isaiah, chapter 30.
Speaker 1:Remember, the overall goal of Isaiah is God is our salvation. Exactly, and as we are learning about this together, god is pointing out these different areas, saying this is destroying your freedom and that's destroying your freedom, and all these different things, because the nation of Israel is living in a time of just man, just turmoil, social turmoil, religious turmoil, political turmoil. And God is saying these are the areas that are stealing your freedom. I want you to have freedom, and he's doing it through this post-apocalyptic not post, but apocalyptic literature. So he uses a lot of analogies, uses a lot of poetry. It's just the way it's written. But the idea is is he's trying to convey these spiritual principles, and today is one that, oh man, it's just like when you look at it now, you go how in the world? Because what God is going to do is is, in spite of the Holy Spirit, isaiah is rebuking Judah for relying on Egypt to help them instead of trusting God. They're relying on Egypt, the nation who, at this point, it's been hundreds of years since Egypt enslaved Israel. Okay, so like, okay, fine, it would be like, if you live in the United States, us now being friends with Britain, you know, and you would be like well, I mean, we're, we're friends. Now I'm like yeah, but they used to be in charge of us. And so it's like ugh, you know, but, but Egypt used to enslave Israel and now they're trusting them instead of trusting God. And so Isaiah is like stop it, because God be blazing on that. He is not a fan of that, and so we're going to read this. And then the challenge is is what bondage, what broken place, what sin are we using to medicate our pain rather than trusting in God? It's powerful, it's challenging.
Speaker 1:Let's read God's word together today. You ready Isaiah, chapter 30, verse one says this what sorrow awaits my rebellious children, says the Lord. You make plans that are contrary to mine and you make alliances not directed by my spirit, thus piling up your sins, for, without consulting me, you have gone down to Egypt for help. You have put your trust in Pharaoh's protection. You have tried to hide in his shade. By trusting Pharaoh, you will be humiliated, and by depending on him, you will be disgraced. For, though his power extends to Zohan, his officials have arrived in Hinas. All who trust in him will be ashamed. He will not help you. Instead, he will disgrace you.
Speaker 1:This message came to me concerning the animals in the Negev. The caravan moved slowly across the terrible desert to Egypt Donkeys weighed down with riches and camels loaded with treasure, all to pay for Egypt's protection. They travel through the wilderness, a place of lionesses and lions, a place where vipers and poisonous snakes live. All this and Egypt will give you nothing in return. Egypt's promises are worthless. Therefore, I call her Rahab, the harmless dragon.
Speaker 1:Now go and write down these words, write them in a book and they will stand until the end of time as a witness that these people are stubborn rebels who refuse to pay attention to the Lord's instruction. They tell the seers stop seeing visions. They tell the prophets don't tell us what is right. Teach us nice things. Tell us lies. Forget all this gloom. Get off your narrow path. Stop telling us about your. Tell us lies. Forget all this gloom. Get off your narrow path. Stop telling us about your Holy One of Israel.
Speaker 1:This is the reply of the Holy One of Israel, because you despise what I tell you and trust instead in oppression and lies. Calamity will come upon you suddenly, like bulging walls that will burst and fall In an instant. It will collapse and come crashing down. You will be smashed like a piece of pottery, shattered so completely that there won't be a piece big enough to carry the coals from the fireplace or a little water from the well. This is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says.
Speaker 1:Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved In quietness and confidence is your strength, but you will have none of it. You said no, we will get our help from Egypt. They will give us swift horses for riding into battle, but the only swiftness that you are going to see is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you. One of them will chase a thousand of you. Five of them will make all of you flee. You will be left like a lonely flagpole on a hill or a tattered banner in a distant mountaintop. So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion.
Speaker 1:For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help. O people of Zion who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. He will see your teacher. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you, a voice will say this is the way you should go, whether to the right or to the left. Then you will destroy all your silver idols, your precious gold images. You will throw them all out like filthy rags and saying to them good riddance.
Speaker 1:Then the Lord will bless you with rain at planting time. There will be wonderful harvests of plenty of pasture land for your livestock. The oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat good grain, like chaff blown away by the wind. In that day, when your enemies are slaughtered and the towers fall, there will be streams of water flowing down every mountain and hill. The moon will be as bright as the sun and the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days in one. So it will be like the Lord begins to heal the people and cure the wounds he gave them.
Speaker 1:Look, the Lord is coming from far away, burning with anger, surrounded by thick, rising smoke. His lips are filled with fury and his words consume like fire. His hot breath pours out like a flood to the neck of his enemies. He will sift out the proud nations for destruction and will bridle them and lead them away to ruin. But the people of God will sing a song of joy, like the songs at the holy festivals. You will be filled with joy when the flutist leads the group of pilgrims to Jerusalem, the mountain of the Lord, the rock of Israel. And the Lord will make his majestic voice heard. He will display the strength of his mighty arm and it will descend like devouring flames, with cloudbursts, thunderstorms and huge hell stones. At the Lord's command, the Assyrians will be shattered. He will strike them down with his royal scepter and as the Lord strikes his rod of punishment, his people will celebrate with tambourines and harps. Lifting his mighty arm, he will fight the Assyrians. Topeth, the place of burning, has long been ready for the Assyrian king, and pyre is piled high with wood. The breath of the Lord is like a blazing or like the fire of a volcano, and will set it ablaze.
Speaker 1:Wow, you see how it starts, with God saying why are you following the thing that only brings you more bondage? Why are you following after an enemy when I've got such a great plan for you? My plan for you is freedom. My plan for you is for all this bad stuff to work out for your good and for your good things. I love how he says that the Lord will wait for you to come to him so he can show you love and compassion. I love that. Blessed are those who wait for you to come to him so he can show you love and compassion. I love that. Blessed are those who wait for his help. That's amazing. And so God is blazing against all this bad stuff, but he longs to bring goodness to us.
Speaker 1:And so what can we take away from this chapter? Well, we can take away from this chapter that many times when we're experiencing pain, we're experiencing difficulty, like the nation of Israel at this moment, they're worried, they're confused, they're experiencing turmoil because of the political pressure, and there's all these nations, and they're hearing about Assyria who's rising up, and Babylon's not far behind them, and all these things are going. And so what they're doing is, instead of turning to God, they're turning to their old habits, their old bondages, their old things, because they're looking for the quick fix rather than the God fix. And how many times do we do that? When we get stressed, when we get worried, we get concerned. When fear takes hold, instead of turning to God, we turn to the quickest place, even though we know that it brings bondage, that it brings pain, that it brings brokenness, but in the moment it releases that fear for just a moment.
Speaker 1:For some of us, maybe it's alcohol. For some of us. Maybe it's pornography For some of us, maybe it's gossip, or it's slander. It's a bad attitude that really brings other people down. I don't know what it might be for you. If it's not God, if it's not his goodness, then it's standing in the place of God and it will never satisfy. That's the reason why we have to put our hope in God, because only God can fill the broken places in our life.
Speaker 1:And what God is saying is he's trying to wake Israel up and he's saying why are you going back to those broken places? Why are you going back to those places of bondage? Come back to me and I'll stand here and I'll wait for you. I'm never going to leave you, but you got to come to me. I'm not going to walk away from you, but you need to come and repent of your sin. You need to come and bring me your broken places, because maybe it's not sin, maybe it's just fear. And he's saying bring it to me verse 18 I will wait for you and so I can show you my love and compassion, for the lord is faithful, and blessed are those who wait for him.
Speaker 1:What would it look like in your life? And and it's so hard to do. It's so hard to do because we're used to those broken paths. Many times, following God is following down an uncertain path. We've not been that way before and it creates a different kind of hesitancy. But we know where that broken path goes and it's nowhere good.
Speaker 1:But what would it look like if, whatever it is you might be going through right now? Or if you're not going through anything, maybe one day when you are, instead of turning to those broken places, those addictions, those horrible things, what if, instead, you turn to the Lord? What does that look like? When you feel that temptation to go down that bad path, bring it to the Lord, god. I'm hurting right now, god. I'm afraid I'm whatever I am and I want to relieve the pain.
Speaker 1:But instead of turning to this sin, I'm turning to you. I ask you, god, to help me, free me, forgive me, provide me with that way of escape that you promised, that when I'm tempted I can find it. You turn over to the people of God. God's word says that we go to God's people James 5, 16,. Confess your faults to one another that you may be healed. Many times you are one friend away from finding healing, because it's in that that God will move and bring healing into your life.
Speaker 1:But instead of going back to those broken places, what would it look like if you turned it over to the Lord and saw this big idea that he has for you?
Speaker 1:Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much that you love us and you never give up on us, and, lord, you are always there to rescue us. Lord, I don't know who may be listening or watching this, and maybe they're going through the greatest season of their life, or maybe they're being tempted right now to go back to those broken pathways. I pray, holy Spirit, that you will open their eyes to see what the enemy is trying to do and you will lead them closer to you, because it's there that we find freedom, it's there that we find peace and it's there we find joy. Lead us toward you. Today, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen. And then what God's word says in Isaiah, chapter 12, verse 2, god has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has given me the victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Isaiah, chapter 31.
