The Con Job of Sin

My Bible reading currently has me in the middle of the Old Testament book of Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah had a tough task, to say the least. He was God’s spokesman to the nation of Judah during a time when both Israel (in the north) and Judah (in the south) were in rebellion against the Lord. The Lord told Isaiah that the people would not listen to God’s words through him (6:9-10). Imagine being instructed by God to warn people that their unchecked sin will have disastrous consequences, yet also being told ahead of time that it would do absolutely no good, at least not in terms of the hearers having a change of heart. Hallmark movie writers would have nothing to work with! And yet, the book of Isaiah is not only gloom and doom. If I can compare this book to the ocean, Isaiah reads like the tide coming in and out. Just when you think there is only bad news and punishment that God is foretelling, suddenly He speaks of a faithful remnant and an ultimate future where His anger will have passed, and pure joy will reign supreme. And then the focus suddenly shifts back to the immediacy of His people’s sin and rebellion and coming judgment. And on and on the cycle goes.

I was intrigued in particular when I came to Isaiah 30. As a vocational counselor, I’m routinely struck by the multifaceted richness of Scripture’s words in describing human problems and their remedies. Sin and suffering. Narratives and wisdom literature. Biographies instructional epistles. Descriptions and prescriptions. The Bible speaks to these issues through a depth and variety that is unparalleled.

Sin’s Bait

Isaiah 30 refers to Judah – in an effort to prepare for the coming onslaught of the Assyrian invasion – turning first to Egypt for help rather than to the Lord. “For without consulting me, you have gone down to Egypt for help. You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection. You have tried to hide in his shade.” (Isaiah 30:2, italics mine) Consulting outside potential help, per se, was not wrong. But in Judah’s case, their actions indicated a substitution. God was out. Egypt was in. Notice the last sentence again from verse 2. “You have tried to hide in his shade.” Tried is not the same as succeeding. Their attempt was going to come up empty. And by seeking protection from Pharaoh and Egypt, they were rejecting God’s protection. “He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings.” (Ps. 91:4) “The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” (Ps. 121:5-6) “For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.” (Isaiah 25:4)

Isaiah 30:4 explains why Egypt seemed like insurance against the coming Assyrian invasion. “For though [Pharaoh’s] power extends to Zoan and his officials have arrived in Hanes, all who trust in him will be ashamed.” The reach and power of Pharaoh’s arm looked impressive. Otherwise, Judah would not have turned there for ultimate security. Isn’t this a good description of sin? Sin can never invent something good on its own. It’s a parasite. It takes already-good things (like a desire for safety) and perverts them. Sin promises happiness; to the naked eye, the promise seems plausible, and we believe it. Sin’s deceptive mask comes off only after we’ve taken the bait.

Sin Takes the Loot and Leaves Us Bankrupt

Isaiah 30:6 describes sin with exquisite imagery. In exchange for protection, Judah must send tribute across the desert on pack animals to Egypt. “The caravan moves slowly across the terrible desert to Egypt—donkeys weighed down with riches and camels loaded with treasure—all to pay for Egypt’s protection. They travel through the wilderness, a place of lionesses and lions, a palace where vipers and poisonous snakes live. All this, and Egypt will give you nothing in return.” (italics mine)

I believe we are meant to see this passage not merely as an historical account, but as a picture of what sin and idolatry do to us. Earlier in the Old Testament (through the Exodus), Israel’s time in Egypt and coming out of Egypt is a metaphor for living in bondage to sin. If this is true, notice three things from verse 6 that we could say about sin:

1. Sin overpromises and makes demands – “...all to pay for Egypt’s protection.”

2. Sin takes no risks itself; we take all the risk – “They travel through the wilderness, a place of lionesses and lions, a place where vipers and poisonous snakes live.”

3. Sin underdelivers and gives nothing in the end – “All this, and Egypt will give you nothing in return.”

We Need Imagination to Fight Sin

Why would God describe sin’s effects in what might be called a circuitous manner? Why not come right out and say, “Sin is bad, so don’t do it”? To be sure, there are places in the Bible where this is the message, but it’s far from how Scripture speaks as a whole. I would argue that pure instruction, by itself, simply doesn’t arrest our attention very well, and God knows this.

I once heard the story of a man who, after years of driving without a seatbelt, suddenly started wearing his seatbelt every time he got in a car. When asked whether he had learned anything new about seatbelts, he said no new information had been revealed to him. He was aware of seatbelts, that people are encouraged to wear them, that he could be pulled over by a cop for failing to wear one, and that statistically it is safer to wear one in a vehicle. So what changed? A close friend’s teenage child had recently nearly died in a serious car wreck, and they had not been wearing their seat belt. Suddenly, the knowledge about seatbelts wasn’t just intellectual; it became real to him because of something that emotionally gripped his gut.

I believe God intends something similar to occur in us. If we belong to Jesus, we don’t just run from sin “because it is wrong.” We run from sin because sin has disastrous consequences. Playing with literal fire isn’t just conceptual; we will get burned. The same is true if we fall for sin’s trappings, whether it involves thinking money will make us happy, that cheating on our income taxes is no big deal, that flirting with someone who isn’t our spouse will never get caught, or that drinking alcohol or watching porn will comfort us when we are down. There’s no free lunch. Proverbs 20:17 says, “Stolen bread tastes sweet, but it turns to gravel in the mouth.” Proverbs 5:3-5 adds, “For the lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But in the end she is as bitter as poison, as dangerous as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.” Don’t limit these two proverbs to just theft or just adultery. Their descriptions paint in vivid colors what makes all sin so alluring and what is really at stake if we fall for it.

Let’s pray that God would wake up our hearts—our affections and imaginations as well as our thinking—to the life and death nature of our fight against sin. His warnings are only ever for our good. Dear Lord, help us not to toy with sin. Help us to be awake to what is really taking place when we are enticed to think that anything or anyone is better than You. Help us to see with our mind’s eye the deadliness and deceptiveness of sin, and the beauty and life and joy that are found in You. Amen.