Isaiah 31:1 - Meaning and Application

This is the last of four chapters that begin with “woe.” Each one speaks against sinners found among God’s own professing people, the drunkards of Ephraim (Isaiah 28:1), Ariel, meaning Jerusalem (Isaiah 29:1), the rebellious children (Isaiah 30:1), and here those who go down to Egypt for help. A place in the visible church does not protect people from God’s judgment if they live against his commands.

Notice, first, what sin is rebuked here, in Isaiah 31:1. They idolized the Egyptians and made court to them, as if the people were blessed who had Egypt as their friend and ally. In every crisis, they went down to Egypt for help, as if false worshipers had better access to heaven and more success on earth than the servants of the living God. What drew them to Egypt was Egypt’s many chariots, horses, and horsemen, which seemed strong enough to help them face the king of Assyria and his large army. Their kings had been forbidden to multiply horses and chariots, and warned how foolish it is to trust in them (Psalm 20:7), but they thought themselves wiser than Scripture.

They also showed contempt for the God of Israel. They did not look to the Holy One of Israel, as if he were not worth their attention in their trouble. They did not ask his counsel, seek his favor, or try to make peace with him.

The sin was deeply foolish. They ignored the One they should have feared if they would not trust him. They did not seek the Lord, yet he is wise also, as Isaiah 31:2 says. They were eager to secure Egypt because Egypt had a reputation for skill and policy. But is not God wise too? Would not infinite wisdom, on their side, help them more than all Egypt’s planning?

They took the trouble to go down to Egypt, which was a long journey, when they could have had better counsel and better help by looking up to heaven. But if they refuse to ask for God’s wisdom to work for them, they will find it working against them. He is wise, and too wise for them to deceive. He will bring evil on those who insult him. He does not take back his words the way men do, because men are changeable and foolish. Instead, he will rise against the house of evildoers, this group that goes down to Egypt. God will expose them, just as he has spoken, and he will oppose the help they expect from those who do wrong. Some think the Egyptians made worship of their gods a condition of alliance, and the Israelites agreed. If so, both groups are rightly called evildoers and workers of iniquity.

They also trusted people who could not help them and would soon prove it, as Isaiah 31:3 says. The Egyptians, on whom they depended so much, are human beings and not God. It is good for people to remember that they are only human (Psalm 9:20), and it is also good to remember that those we love and trust are only human too. Humans can do nothing without God, nothing against him, and nothing equal to him. They are changeable and mortal, here today and gone tomorrow. So we must not make them into gods by treating them as our hope and confidence, expecting from them what belongs to God alone.

The Egyptians had horses that were very strong, but they were still flesh and not spirit. However strong they were, they could grow tired on a long march, be wounded in battle, or die and leave their riders helpless. Everyone knows the Egyptians are not God and their horses are not spirit, but those who seek help from them do not think about it. If they did, they would not put such trust in them. Sinners can be shown to be foolish by the plainest truths, truths they cannot deny but refuse to believe.

They would also be ruined together with the Egyptians they trusted, as Isaiah 31:3 says. When the Lord only stretches out his hand, he can easily and fully shame their confidence in Egypt and shame the Egyptians for encouraging that trust. The helper and the one helped will fall together, and their alliance will become their shared ruin. Egypt itself was soon to be judged, as shown in the burden of Egypt (Isaiah 19), and then those who fled there for shelter would fall with it. No one can escape God’s judgments. Evil follows sinners, and it is just for God to make the thing we idolize become the rod that strikes us.

They were also trying to do God’s work for him. They claimed to be careful to protect Jerusalem by arranging an alliance with Egypt. When others would not agree with their plan, they pleaded self-preservation and went to Egypt themselves. But the prophet says that Jerusalem will be preserved without Egypt’s help, and that those who stay there will be safe while those who flee to Egypt will be destroyed. Jerusalem was already under God’s protection, so there was no need to place it under Egypt’s protection. A practical distrust of God’s all-sufficiency lies behind all our sinful turning from him to created things.

The prophet says he had this directly from God: “Thus the Lord has spoken to me.” They could rely on this, first, that God would rise against Jerusalem’s enemies with the bold force of a lion over its prey, as Isaiah 31:4 says. When a lion comes out to seize its prey, a crowd of shepherds may gather against it. That is what neighbors do when people or property are in danger. Yet the shepherds do not dare come close. All they can do is shout, hoping to scare the lion away. But the lion does not care. It is not frightened by their voices, nor does it lower itself to stop or hurry because of them.

So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion with unshaken resolve. Nothing will move him. He will destroy the Assyrian army as easily and surely as a lion tears a lamb apart. Anyone who stands against God is like a crowd of poor, helpless shepherds shouting at a lion. He scorns their noise and does not even alter his pace for them. Surely those who have such a protector do not need to go to Egypt for help.

Second, God will appear for Jerusalem’s friends with the tenderness of a bird over her young, as Isaiah 31:5 says.

God was ready to gather Jerusalem, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings (Matthew 23:37). But those who trusted in the Egyptians would not be gathered. The Lord of hosts would defend Jerusalem with the same care birds show when they fly back to their nests, flutter over their young, and drive away anything that threatens them.

As an eagle stirs up her young when they are in danger, then lifts them and carries them on her wings, so the Lord led Israel out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 32:11-12). He still had that same tender concern for his people, so they did not need to flee back to Egypt for safety. He would defend them and deliver them, and his protection would last. He would not guard them for a short time and then leave them exposed. “I will defend this city and save it” (Isaiah 37:35).

When the text says he will pass over it, it points back to the Passover story (Exodus 12:12, 12:23, 12:27). There, the destroying angel passed over the houses of the Israelites when he struck the firstborn of the Egyptians. In the same way, the Assyrian army would be defeated by a destroying angel who would pass over Jerusalem. Though Jerusalem deserved judgment, the angel would strike only the besieging army. The attackers would die by pestilence, but none of the people inside the city would catch it. So the Lord would again pass over his people’s houses and keep them safe.