What Happens When We Trust Systems Over God
Welcome to the next step in our Trust vs Belief Series. Today, we will take a journey into Isaiah and what it means to navigate failed national trust. Israel wasn’t merely making political decisions. It was looking for safety, stability, protection, certainty, and control. All outside of God’s direction and protection, negating their trust in Him.
Biblical trust is belief with boots on. Whatever we truly believe in is where we will ultimately place our trust. Scripture repeatedly reveals what happens when that trust is misplaced, and God is treated as a side relationship rather than the covenant foundation of our lives.
So far in this series, we’ve studied:
- Trust as Refuge When Pressure Rises
- Why Trust in God Begins With Knowing His Character
- Understanding the Consequences of Disobeying God
- How to Discern A Season of Refinement
- Belief as Currency During Seasons of Refinement
We’re developing a pattern that helps us walk through these seasons when life seems unstable, and God is always present. It’s theology for the tested.
When God’s People Know They Are Being Tested
A key test of faith for God’s people comes when God judges the surrounding nations. For some of us Christians, this can mean that God may judge the nation in which we live. He is able to protect His people from judgments that may fall on our neighbors.
Nahum, whose name means “Comforter,” primarily delivers God’s judgment against Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Yet even within declarations of judgment, Scripture consistently reveals God’s willingness to show mercy to those who turn toward Him in repentance.
The Assyrians were known for their cruelty toward captives, including Israel. Still, Nahum 1:7 reminds us that “The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; He protects those who take refuge in Him.”
Whenever we face difficult situations, we are called to look to God as our refuge and protection.
Despite Assyria’s pending doom for the consequences of its bad decisions and the God-driven judgment they placed on Israel, God would still offer words of comfort and would spare a remnant.
Even in the midst of judgment, God still shows mercy.
Some readers would question why God would show mercy to a civilization that He used to punish Israel for its rebellious behavior. He can, and He does, because He is a forgiving God.
His goal is always to restore His creation into right fellowship with Him, no matter the differences they have among themselves. God is a Restorer of the Breach.
As nations have conflicts among themselves, all are welcome to be reconciled to God.
Substituting Fear for Faith
Now let’s move forward into Isaiah chapters 30 and 31 to see what happens when we break covenant relationship with God. It’s a display of disobedience vs trust.
In these two chapters, we find the small states on the Mediterranean coast being threatened by Assyria under Sennacherib, who later attacks Judah. Judah, in turn, seeks help from Egypt, which proves to be a weak and unreliable ally.
God reveals His displeasure at being consulted only after human solutions have failed.
As we enter Isaiah 30:1-7, we see God explaining to Judah why He is delaying their deliverance from Assyria. Isaiah is disappointed with Hezekiah’s delegation to Egypt, who seek support for Hezekiah’s revolt against Assyria. It is here that God’s people break the Davidic covenant with Him, which holds that the LORD alone will protect Jerusalem and the house of David.
Judah trusted in Egypt’s horses and chariots instead of relying on God. What Judah soon found out was that trusting in alliances rather than in God’s divine providence would have dire consequences. After the Davidic covenant, Judah’s decision to seek alliances apart from God guaranteed instability.
Currently, this passage of Scripture proves timely. Just as then, leaders were required to seek God for His plan of action; the same is true today. When leaders don’t seek God’s guidance and lack vision, the people perish.
Life becomes hard, finances are strained, emotional health becomes difficult to maintain, and we are doomed to watch those who are not in Christ suffer.
Scripture reminds us that leadership matters because leadership shapes the moral and spiritual direction of people. When leaders reject wisdom, truth, and righteous counsel, instability often follows. See Psalms 72:11-16 for the characteristics of a good leader.
Trust & Obey vs Rebellion
The next section of this chapter, verse 8-17, describes God’s view of Judah. The rebellious attitudes of the people of Judah would be punished, as they demonstrated a lack of faith in the God who had promised to protect them.
Knowing God’s instructions would be without excuse, as God told Isaiah to write them down as a witness forever. It’s important to note that God did not sugar-coat His dissatisfaction with Judah. He did not monitor His language, nor were the people’s feelings taken into consideration.
The people sinned, and God called it what it was.
Sennacherib had devastated most of the Judean towns, and the people were probably very much afraid. That fear caused them to think that God had abandoned them, which was far from the truth. Even as they faced God’s wrath, God’s faithfulness was ever present.
Isaiah’s assignment centered on pointing to the need to trust in God rather than in military solutions.
There were a few areas that Isaiah’s hearers did not welcome. They were the spirituality and unbending strictness of the Divine law, the deep depravity of human nature, the exceeding sinfulness of man’s conduct, the universal necessity of regeneration, the inefficacy of works for justification, and the indispensable obligation to a separation from the world (Exell, 585).
Just as it is today, it was up to the individual to trust in God and obey. Scripture plainly reveals God’s displeasure toward sin and the cost of disobedience.
Judah was displeased with a doctrine that disturbed their self-complacency and with Isaiah’s words, which revealed cracks in their self-esteem.
Judah’s response to a season of instability revealed who they believed in and in whom they trusted.
God’s Promise of Restoration
The last two sections of Isaiah chapter 30, verses 18–33, teach of God’s promise of restoration and Assyria’s judgment.
Verse 18 transitions from God’s displeasure with Judah to His promise of compassion and restoration. Even in judgment, God shows mercy. He pours out His grace on those who turn to Him. He knows exactly what we need for salvation and works it out in us when we call on Him.
The key point here is that when we repent of the idols in our lives and turn our hearts toward God, our opinions of idols align with His. We no longer want anything that draws our attention away from God to have precedence over Him. We no longer look to systems or alliances to stand in God’s place in our lives.
It’s here where we begin to guard our minds against worldviews and seek heavenly counsel in all things. It’s here where the blessings of God begin to flow. It’s here where we no longer feel abandoned, but covered by the presence of the One who loves us unconditionally.
The greatest blessing that comes out of this type of season of instability is God’s promises to heal whatever wounds we suffer in the hands of His judgment.
Our belief and trust in God opens the door for us to walk in alignment with Him.
Assyria’s Judgment
Verses 27- 33 reveal the depth of God’s displeasure with Assyria for its treatment of God’s people. Yes, God was serving up judgment on a rebellious people, but Assyria was without guilt, for they too were a rebellious people.
These verses are among the most sobering depictions of God’s wrath in the Old Testament. Isaiah reveals that divine judgment is not merely private or individual, but extends across nations that reject God’s authority. The passage offers a foretaste of the final judgment later described in Revelation 14 and 20.
Judah’s Alliance with Egypt is Futile
Isaiah 31 shows Egypt as being ineffective. By the time Judah seeks Egypt’s help, it has greatly declined from its ancient stature. This short chapter reveals the importance of trusting God rather than in man-made solutions. (See Jeremiah 17:5-6)
Egypt’s horses and chariots will be no match for the wrath of God. Isaiah is not making light of the methods of warfare, but the foolishness of not checking with God first. He has already seen in a vision in 29:1 where the Assyrians are burned by the flame of God. God’s holiness will deal with tyrants past, present, and future.
Application
God continues to desire to show grace to all who call on his name in faith (Isa 30:18). Today, just as in the past, God brings about salvation in the same way: he prompts us to seek him, transforms our hearts to obey his Word, fills us with the Holy Spirit to guide us daily, and will one day renew the universe in glory. This is the gospel we are called to proclaim to every nation, declaring that there is only one way to escape the coming wrath of God: faith in Christ and belief and trust in God.
If this message met you where you are, continue the journey with us through The Sanctified Script and the podcast. Each teaching is designed to help you understand not only what God is saying, but how to live it with clarity and conviction.
When you are ready to move from reflection to structured direction in your work, your writing, or your calling, you can begin here: https://flair-for-writing.com
External References
Andrew M. Davis, Exalting Jesus in Isaiah (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 172.
Joseph S. Exell, Isaiah, vol. 1, The Biblical Illustrator (New York; Chicago; Toronto; London; Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company, n.d.), 585.
