The people of Israel were threatened by the invading Assyrian hordes. Some advisors told the King to send all of his money to Egypt to bribe Pharaoh to protect them. Isaiah’s job was to tell the people what God thought of this arrangement. Woe to the obstinate children, declares the Lord, to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin (v 1). No one consulted the Lord. No one prayed about this and waited to hear what God thought. But he tells them anyway—their plan will not work.

The real problem was not that the people ran to Egypt for help, but that they rejected the Lord. These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction. They say to the seers, "see no more vision!" and to the prophets, "Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy one of Israel." (vv 9-11).

God’s people are his children. They are supposed to go to him as their Father and listen to his instruction. They have grown tired of it all. They tell the prophets to stop telling them what God wants them to hear. "Don’t tell us about our sin. Don’t challenge us to live lives pleasing to God. Tell us how wonderful we are. Tell us how wonderful everything will be. Tell us that our ways are right and we really are in control of our destiny." But the result of rejecting God is destruction and misery.

What is the solution? This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it (v 15). They had stopped relying on the Lord. They had stopped trusting in the Lord. They were figuring their own way to do things. It had gotten them in trouble. It did not save them when they were in trouble. So they should repent. They should return. They should rest in the Lord. This is the comforting image of Psalm 23 as well. But did God’s people repent and rest? No—But you would have none of it.

How often does that describe us? A situation arises and we are going to fix it. We bring our skills to bear, our money, our manipulative power, the political maneuverings that we picked up in the schoolyard or the market place. We will solve our problem and defeat our enemies. We will trust in the gods we serve day and night rather than return and rest in the Lord. The result is failure.

What is the Lord’s response to our running away from him? Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion… As soon as he hears, he will answer you. When we forsake the Lord, he is not waiting ready to say, "I told you so." God’s response to our willfulness is the reminder that he still is there to protect and provide for us. He wants us to humble ourselves in prayer. He wants us to sit quietly before his Word and learn from him how we should live, how we should respond to all the difficulties we face. He calls us. When will you be still and listen to the voice of God’s gentle Spirit calling to your heart? Only then will you hear. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way. Walk in it." (v 21). From behind comes the voice of the shepherd calling after the sheep, "This is the way; walk in it." The sheep hear and everything changes. No longer do they trust in the idols of their power or money or influence or ability, but they trust in the Lord who will rescue them.

When the voice of the Lord sounds in our hearts, we throw out our idols. We no longer worship and serve them. We return to the Lord. We dethrone the idols of our hearts with a vengeance. Before we would say to the prophet, "Away with this talk about the Lord." Now we say, "Away with those idols that captured our hearts. We will rest in the Lord alone."

The problem with the human heart is that it is a factory of idols. We continually make them, trust them and serve them, rather than the Lord. We need to encourage each other in prayer and with reports of answered prayer, so we will be quick to wait on the Lord and slower to trust in clever tricks and temporary fixes of our own making.

What about you? What idols need cast down in your heart? Or do you maintain that there are none? Perhaps we need to quiet our hearts enough to hear the gentle voice from behind us, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."