Below is the substance of the Conference Sermon delivered at the Proclamation Trust Evangelical Ministry Assembly at St Helen's, Bishopsgate, June 2000. The Assembly, entitled "The Increase of the Word", focused on church planting.
" Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" (Isaiah 30:18) "Prophecy," wrote G.E Ladd, "is light from the future shining on the present." God draws back the curtain, hiding the future and what it might involve, to focus our present experience and to motivate change in our attitudes and behaviour. Isaiah 30 is that sort of chapter and verse 18 is its pivot, moving God's people from confusion and defeat, to clarity and hope.
But what a surprising verse it is! The verb "longs" is the same root as that translated "wait" at the end of the verse. The God of covenant mercy is waiting to be gracious to his people, but what lies behind this unexpected delay?
1. WHY IS GOD WAITING? (V1-17)
There is no doubt about God's character of grace and compassion, or his willingness to vindicate his people and deliver them from their enemies. The delay centres on two problems in Hezekiah's kingdom of Judah, which Isaiah exposes with penetrating accuracy.
a) Misplaced Trust (v1-7).
They are looking to Egypt for help! Suffering under Assyrian domination, caused by the unbelief of an earlier king, Ahaz, little Judah longs to shake off the tyranny. Egypt is the only power in the area likely to have any chance against the Assyrian war machine and Hezekiah is severely tempted to rely on his diplomatic policies, rather than the divine promises (v1-2). But these plans do not originate with God. They violate the very covenant which made Judah God's children. They will bring only disgrace and shame (v3-5). Egypt is Rahab the Sit-Still, the Do-Nothing (v7)--deceptive and impotent. Such misplaced trust is the product of…
b) Rejected Revelation (v8-14).
Refusal to listen to their Father's instruction is indicated by their preference for the smooth trivia of their false, contemporary prophets (v9-10). They don't want to be brought face to face with the Holy One of Israel (v11). But to reject God's Word is to repudiate the covenant and to condemn oneself to Egypt's empty support and one's own delusions. God is waiting because His people are sinking into apostasy, which ultimately brings judgement because it blocks the flow of grace.
Look at the poignant point carefully made in v15. The LORD is offering just what they are looking for--salvation and strength, experienced in rest and quietness. But the only way it can be theirs (or ours, or anyone's) is by returning (repentance) and trust. That means relinquishing all one's independent efforts to change the situation by human energy and activity, and simply trusting God to be God, believing his promises and submitting to his Word. The alternative is isolation and devastating defeat (v16-17).
2. WHAT IS GOD WANTING? (v18-26)
These verses provide, in characteristic Old Testament terms, an exciting picture of the future possibilities in the hands of a gracious God, reversing their present plight. God's teaching will be heard and heeded (v20-21). All the God-substitutes of man-made idols will be jettisoned (v22). Harvests will be immense and the blessings of life and light will be multiplied (v23-26). This is what God is wanting to do. His nature is always to have mercy, moving in compassion, judging the right moment at which to act in conformity with the justice of his character. But he is waiting for his people to wait for him! And verse 19 tells us what that means in practice--"when you cry for help". Read again the story of the father's response to the prodigal in Luke 15.
3. WHERE IS GOD WORKING?
The answer is crystal clear. God is working where his people are expressing their total dependence on him, in repentance and active faith. The way is open for new covenant people to know God's grace and favour, through the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross, the focus of God's grace, compassion and justice. We long to see the advance of the gospel in our day. As John Oswalt puts it, we cry out "How long, O Lord?" and he replies, "Whenever you are ready". "But, Lord, we are ready." "Then why do you so readily run to Egypt for your help?" Is this not the Lord's message to us through this great chapter?
Why are we more concerned with the approval of the world than the approval of God? Why do we so readily adopt the world's pragmatism, rather than rely on God's promises? Why are agendas driven by money or management and the demands of the denominational bureaucracies, and not by the gospel and the realities of heaven and hell? Why do we prefer the smooth talk of the pundits to the searching counsel of the Holy One? Why are we so committed to fulfilling our dreams and building our empires rather than submitting to his Word and depending on his grace?
However, verse 18 is still a wonderful promise! It begins "Yet..." In spite of our addiction to our Egypts and our idols, God longs to bless us, to prosper his gospel, to plant his church in every place. But the only way to experience that is to be totally dependent on God, to acknowledge that he is the only one to be exalted and the only one who can meet our needs. This has to be the heart-beat of our individual lives if it is to become the dynamic of all our serving. It is not just salvation that is entirely dependent on God's grace rather than our works. The church has to be built that same way. Perhaps God is still waiting... for us to be humble, empty and dependent enough to be able to be blessed.
David Jackman