Looking for Help in all the Wrong Places

An oracle concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkeys' backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to that unprofitable nation, to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing. -Isaiah 30:6, 7


The Bible says that the Lord gave the prophet Isaiah a vision of the animals of the Negev, a desert region in the southern part of Israel.  The vision involved lions, snakes, and there were also donkeys carrying treasures to Egypt.  The land of Egypt was a country of idols where the people of Israel had once been enslaved. Despite God’s warnings to the contrary, the kings of Israel had appealed to that nation for help in times of trouble.  Rather than look to the Lord, the people at that time were hoping that maybe, just maybe, the folks down in Egypt will come up, lend them a hand, and deliver them from their enemies.  Every time I read that I am amazed; I am dumbfounded that the people of God could be so short-sighted that they actually believed that Egypt had forgotten what had happened all those years earlier.  

Who had God always told His people to come to in times of trouble and when they needed help?  That’s right; they were told to look to the Lord.   

• God told Abraham, “I am thy shield and very great reward” (Genesis 15:1).  
• The Lord told Moses, “I will help you and will teach you what to do” (Ex. 4:12).
• God told His people the Israelites, “I am your shield, your helper, and your glorious sword” (Deut. 33:29).  

When the going got tough, the people were supposed to look to God, not to those who used to enslave them.  In all seriousness, that’s not only unspiritual and ungodly, but it’s just plain dumb.  Anytime we begin to thinking in those terms we must realize that God isn’t in that kind of foolishness.

Apparently, Israel thought that Egypt had forgotten the events of the past.  Do you suppose those folks down there in Egypt had forgotten the plagues, the blood, the flies, the gnats, the frogs, and the angel of death that had visited them so long ago?  Or do you think they forget how that their entire army had been drowned in the Red Sea when they had foolishly tried to take on the Lord God Almighty?  The answer is, not for a minute!  They may not have talked much about it, but oh yes; they remembered.  No Egyptians would have still been alive who would have been through those events, but it had been passed down from generation to generation. 

Here is how I apply this to my own life: No matter how bad things might get, no matter how difficult life becomes, and regardless of how desperate any situation I face may become, I WILL NOT EVER ASK THE DEVIL FOR ANYTHING!  With God as our witness we must take the attitude of Job when he said; “Though he slay me, I will yet praise Him” (Job 13:15).  Let us hold to the Lord all the days of our life no matter what.  Our hope is in Jesus Christ.  He is our help, our hope, and our healer.  We are always better off coming to Him when we need a hand.

The Lord will help, the Lord will deliver, and the Lord will redeem us.  We are always better off when we look to Him during the time of need.