Isaiah 30:8-17--A Rebellious People

Isaiah 30:8-17
English Standard Version

A Rebellious People
8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet
    and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
    as a witness forever.
9 For they are a rebellious people,
    lying children,
children unwilling to hear
    the instruction of the LORD;
10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
    prophesy illusions,
11 leave the way, turn aside from the path,
    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
    and trust in oppression and perverseness
    and rely on them,
13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you
    like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
    whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
14 and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel
    that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard is found
    with which to take fire from the hearth,
    or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
    in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,
“No! We will flee upon horses”;
    therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
    therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
    at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
    like a signal on a hill.

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The LORD tells Isaiah to write down the words of this prophecy so that future generations would understand what happened to this generation (and take it as a warning of what might happen to them if they act in the same way).  The LORD will cause all their defenses to fail in a way that is sudden and absolute--so much so that the original intent of those things could no longer be recognized or perform their original function because they have been shattered to pieces either physically or metaphorically.  The LORD will bring this swift justice on "His people" because they have chosen not to listen to His Word, the seers, or the prophets that warned them.  They paid the seers and prophets to tell them what they wanted to hear instead of what God told them to say.  The people had an appetite for oppression and perverseness, and these would be the things that led to their destruction.

The LORD instructed them that the only way of salvation was for them to return to Him and rest in what He would do to save them.  Their strength would be found in quietness and trust.  They needed to stop trying to work to save themselves or looking to others to save them (Egypt, Syria, and the others mentioned in these prophecies).  The people refused the help that the LORD would have provided and instead trusted in the strength and speed of horses they could acquire from Egypt and other places.  However, the LORD would allow their pursuers to overtake them.  The Israelites will flee because the LORD will put fear in their hearts, but those who are not destroyed because of their own rebellion will be captured and taken into Exile and taken out of the Land so that they will learn that God takes sin seriously.