Jeremiah 17:5-8

'Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the LORD.
For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.' (Jeremiah 17:5-6)

When we think ourselves the most important, when we trust ourselves, all that can come of it is ruin. If our strength lies in our own flesh, then what hope do we have? Additionally, these verses make clear that trusting in your own strength causes you to miss the times when good comes. In other words, you are too busy thinking that you're doing okay by yourself that you miss when God does something truly good for you. Such thinking is like inhabiting a parched, dry land where nobody lives. For if God is the fountain of living waters (2:13, 17:13), then to forsake Him in favour of yourself is to live in a dry and thirsty land. Do we feel this? I'm guessing that all of us have had times where we have trusted our own strength for a period of time, rather than resting in God's. And for a while you feel good, until you realize that all you do isn't achieving anything, everything is hollow and worthless, and when trouble comes, your own strength fails anyway.

'Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
And whose hope is the LORD.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.' (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Conversely, when we put our trust completely in God, everything we do achieves something, everything has meaning, and when trouble comes we pass through it stronger than what we went into it. We aren't anxious and wanting when not much is happening, but we have patience in the LORD.
Let us all learn to patiently trust the LORD in everything we do, and rely on His strength to get us through day by day, rather than our own skill or ingenuity or any other ability we have (by God's grace).

As a postscript, note that this passage states the negative first - 'Cursed is the man who...', then after this negative, brings in the positive, 'Blessed is the man who...'. Do not be fooled into thinking that we must always be positive and never say anything negative (for it will only scare people away!). God uses this method frequently, and effectively, and so should we. But remember, the positive is so much greater than the negative!

Isaiah 40:21-22,27,31

Good tidings! That is what Isaiah 40 is about. It starts out: ‘Comfort, yes, comfort My people!’. It is a chapter of encouragement to the captive Jews in Babylon. Most of the content is focused on telling how great God is. Verses 12-14 list many ways in which the LORD is great beyond comparison. Verses 15-17 shows how little we are in comparison. Even the greatest nations on Earth are not even enough to burn as a sacrifice to God! (Verse 16). The chapter goes on in no uncertain terms as to the greatness and majesty of God. It is a complete contrast to the Gods of those days, who were thought to rule over one aspect of life. For instance, Ra, the sun god, or Anubis, the god of the dead. All their supposed gods ruled over only one aspect of life. Plus, they were embodied in works of man’s hands – statues and images. They were confined to Earth. But read verses 21 and 22:

‘Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads then out like a tent to dwell in.’ (Isaiah 40:21,22)

God is not confined to the earth! Indeed, He is not even confined to the heavens! He stretches out the heavens. That means He is outside them! He is more awesome than the whole universe. But we come back to why this is important. Why does Isaiah say this? We know this already, don’t we? ‘Have you not known? Have you not heard?’. Yes, we know! But Isaiah tells Israel again, because he wants to comfort them.

‘Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel:
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
And my just claim is passed over by me God”?’ (Isaiah 40:27)

Isaiah comforts them, by showing them that God is in control. God, who is outside time and space, who sits above the circle of the Earth, who counts the nations worthless, does not tire or grow weary – and He hears and responds to our every need. And it is in this context that we read the famous and comforting words:

‘But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.’ (Isaiah 40:31)

If God has infinite energy and strength, then is it not logical then to rely on Him for strength for every situation? For then, always we shall renew our strength. We won’t get tired of doing the daily things that need doing. Because we will do them for God’s glory, and that will satisfy us.

Today, let us go about every task relying on God’s strength. Let us remind ourselves constantly how great our God is.

Isaiah 30:1-2

It is a very simple message today, and one that is reinforced many times throughout Isaiah so far (and more than likely in the rest of the book).

‘“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD,
“Who take counsel, but not of Me,
And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,
That they may add sin to sin;
Who walk to go down into Egypt,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!’ (Isaiah 30:1-2)

God is once again, through Isaiah, accusing Israel of relying on alliances with nations that did not follow Him. In particular, Egypt.

In the rest of the chapter it goes on to say that the Israelites are ‘Lying children’ (verse 9), rebellious, and that God will judge them for that. However, it also goes on to say that God will be gracious and that in a time to come they shall ‘weep no more’ (verse 19), and they shall live in Zion. Further on in the chapter also is a judgment against Assyria, where God is expressed as mighty and angry.

However, coming back to the first verses, we see God’s indignation at Israel’s refusal to look to God for advice or solutions. They look to Egypt for alliances, which shows that they trust human strength more than they trust the omnipotence of God! It sounds like a silly thing to do when stated like that, but it is often true of us.

Often Egypt is used as a symbol of the world in contemporary applications. When Israel escaped from Egypt in the Exodus to return to the promised land, it is like us, escaping from the world, and on our journey through this life to heaven. In this case, it is like us, looking to the world for solutions. Why look to God for answers, when science can tell you? Why trust in God for advice when you ask a psychologist? Why pray when you could be doing something about it yourself? Why ask God about which car to buy when He obviously isn’t interested in cars? You see how easy it is to forget God, and trust in the world’s devices and wisdom? We forget often how powerful and caring our God is.

Today, let us look to God in every single thing we do.

Isaiah 14:32

Isaiah 14 contains many different sections, mostly full of judgment and death for various nations (Assyria, Philistia and Babylon), while it spares Israel (verse 1-2), again enforcing the promise that God will never forsake Israel entirely. Not the least in the chapter is the account of the fall of Lucifer, who is apparently expressed as being the force behind the king of Babylon (according to John Macarthur, who also says the king of Babylon depicted is the Antichrist).

However, the very last verse is special. Talking at that point about Philistia, who was seeking to make an alliance with Israel against Assyria, and sending ‘messengers’ to Israel in that regard, the verse says:

‘What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
That the LORD has founded Zion,
And the poor of His people shall take refuge in it.’ (Isaiah 14:32)

This is stupidity in human wisdom. Judah was on the brink of destruction by a massive world power, and another country comes to ally with them. Everything tells you to ally so that you have more of a chance to be safe (even if that ally had in previous years enslaved and burdened you). But God says that the answer to the messengers should be that God was the maker of Judah, and that His people will rely only on Him. It means that Judah’s only hope was to take refuge in God. Remembering of course that the Assyrians were called by God Himself to capture Judah, and so no human alliance would stop that judgment. Their only hope was to turn back to God and seek Him as refuge.

For our own lives, we know we must also fully rely on God. When troubles come and complications arise in life, what do we turn to? Do we turn to human wisdom or natural solutions, or do we rely on God who is our refuge?

Do we use God as a refuge from the evils of the world? Sometimes I find that there is so much evil going on around me that it starts to suck me in and it is hard to break free from because it is everywhere. But we know that in God there is no evil, and so we should take refuge in Him. If we are studying His word and praying then evil can’t assail us at those times can it?

Let’s today take refuge in the fact that ‘God has founded us, and we although poor shall take refuge in Him’.