Isaiah 30
v.7
to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.
Although not mentioned in any known text outside the Bible, Rahab is comparable to the chaos monster Leviathan, which also takes the form of a twisting serpent (Job 26:12-13; see the comment on Is 27:1). Rahab is also used synonymously for Egypt. For instance, in Psalm 87:4 the major nations are listed as subject to the power of Yahweh. Rahab, Egypt’s metaphorical name, is paired here with Babylon in terms of importance. The further sign of Rahab’s dual character may be found in 51:9-11, a passage that refers to Yahweh’s destruction of the monster (see Ps 89:10) as well as how God “dried up the sea,” a clear reference to the exodus tradition and the defeat of Egypt. In 30:7 the prophet taunts an impotent Egypt/Rahab’s ability to help Israel or stop Assyria.
v.15
In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
See how confidence in God stills and quiets the soul. What powers we might be in the world! Trust should make us strong. To have confidence in God should bring us power to which all other power is as nothing. He who can feel that his foot is on the rock, how firm he should stand!
v.18
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you, he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
The first thought is-why should He wait-why does He not act at once? Because something in us hinders. We cannot enter into spiritual blessings till we are made capable of them by faith. It would not be for our good to receive some temporal blessings till sorrow has done its work on us. The great thought here is that God has a right time for help. He is ‘a God of judgment,’ i.e.. discerns our moral condition and shapes His dealings thereby. He never gives the wrong medicine.