Israel was in perilous danger. The Assyrians were knocking on the door and if you have ever studied their military ways, they were butchers in every sense of the word. Israel was rightly terrified. So what did they do? They ran fast down to big, bad Egypt to make an alliance.
Israel was the covenant people of Israel, and yet they ran to Egypt, not the Lord. It’s not that military might is bad. Even Israel had a military. But it’s that they put their trust in a military, Egypt’s, and not into the Lord.
“They trust in the abundance of chariots and in the large number of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel and they do not seek the LORD’s help” (v. 1).
But God is different. He isn’t like the nations of the world that serve themselves and go back on their Word.
“But He also is wise and brings disaster. He does not go back on what He says” (v. 2).
Pity that Israel didn’t learn this. Egypt would use them like a hooker and then cast them aside when they were done with them.
And yet…
And yet in God’s great love for Israel he would come roaring to help them like a lion (v. 4) and be as fierce and tender as a mother bird whose babies are threatened (v. 5). He would come in and put Assyria to judgment without even a sword. The Lord himself would do it and he did. A plague broke out among them and destroyed their army in a single night (2 Kings 19).
It’s an important message today. Many a person puts their trust in their retirement savings (401k in the US), their government provision, their savings account, their military might, their own sense of righteousness and more. But I’m telling you, those are all faulty foundations. They will crumble and fall.
Our only hope is in the Lord. When a critical mass repents and turns to the Lord, there is hope for a nation. A hope that God will relent and show mercy. But without that, we are in trouble. We have put our hope in many false things and those things are crumbling under the weight of our sin.
