Isaiah 30:8-14 – Rejecting God’s Word
These who had already been called rebellious children in verse 1 are here labelled as such again. They took the name of God, they claimed to be His, and went through the outward motions, just as people today claim the name of Christ, claim to be His, and go through some sort of outward motions. Since they have rejected God, He wants it recorded so that all ages may see how He deals with such. He destroyed such people before — Assyria, Babylon, and especially Rome in A.D. 70. We have already noted that there are those who are only Israel after the flesh, circumcised in body but not in heart, and the true Israel of God, by His grace circumcised in heart (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Colossians 2:11-12). King Jesus even now notes who is His. He tells of how He will deal with His people, and lying children, in His parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.
One distinguishing feature of the “lying children” in this passage is their rejection of the Word of God. These in Isaiah’s time despised and condemned God’s Word. It was not what they wanted to hear, and thus they told him to shut up and get out. This continues today! How often we have groups of people that call themselves Christians, but they refuse to submit to God’s Word. They will take from it or add to it in all sorts of ways, and speak of the Holy Spirit leading through the spirit of the times. They will look to psychology, to sociology, to Marxist economics, to the fads and intellectual hobbies of the day, but pompously they reject the Word of God. Rather, they continue to trust in oppression and perversity, like we say in Isaiah 28:14. As they swell out with their pride and apparent power, they are like an unstable stone wall holding back a hillside, perhaps. The more the wall swells out, the closer it is to bursting and destruction, the very end of these lying “children”. The other picture of their destruction is like that of a clay pot or pitcher, absolutely shattered into tiny shards; none big enough to even rest a coal or two in, none big enough to have a drink of water in it. (Psalm 2)
Questions
- Why were the people called “lying children”?
- What had they rejected?
Prayer Points
- Give thanks for God’s Word.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.