LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, July 31, 2025

We’ve come to the thirtieth chapter of Isaiah, and it is one of contrasts. In it we see the rebellious nature of man and the gracious nature of God. Our pride seeks to protect us from looking at the reality of our nature. Our hearts long to know the depths of God’s grace. The truth is the magnificence of God’s grace towards us cannot be fully comprehended unless we also understand the depths of our depravity. It is where sin abounds that grace abounds more.

We are taught by our flesh and all those around us under the influence of their flesh to avoid any focus on our faults. We grade our spiritual condition on a huge curve of comparison. So many people are worse than us, and very few are better, so we believe we are in no real danger of flunking. But when compared to the holiness of God, all of us fail, and all of us need forgiveness, and none of us can save ourselves. This is the truth that makes the grace of God so grand.

The contrasts between our condition and God’s compassion in this passage have really spoken to my heart. But it will take two days to properly express them. You may want to open your Bible and follow along. Today in verses one through fourteen we will see how Isaiah describes man’s rebellious nature. Then tomorrow we will see God’s grace. I guarantee you that when we are done it will bless you with a deeper appreciation of who God is and what He has done for us.

The Lord God reveals man’s rebellious nature in Isaiah chapter thirty verse nine.“For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord…” Here’s what makes us rebellious.

• We tend to devise and pursue our own plans rather than God’s. Verse one says, ““Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;”
• We seek protection and provision from the world and not from God. Verse two says, ”who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! Then God declares in verses three through five that all such attempts for self-preservation will end in shame and disgrace.
• We build ourselves up in our own eyes by oppressing others and we make ourselves look good to others by lying about who we are. Verse twelve says, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,” But note the serious consequences of not being honest about who you are in verses thirteen and fourteen. ”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; 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.”
• We even reach a point where we don’t want to hear the truth anymore and reject all attempts by God to help us. Verses ten and eleven describe the depraved condition of a rebellious person. “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, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

What a sad and scary predicament we are in when we reject what the Lord God has to say. And we have all been there. That’s why we need God’s grace, which we will unfold tomorrow. I would encourage you to take some additional time today to really let God’s Word speak to you about our own tendency toward self-sufficiency, which is rebellion against God. It will prepare your heart to embrace the splendor of God’s grace.

Pastor John