Making Plans the Wrong Ways

• Hiding Plans from God (29:15)
  
• Rejecting God's Plans (30:1-12)
  
• Implementing Our Plans (31:1-3)
  
• Exposing Foolish Planners (32:5-7)

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Making Plans the Right Ways

• Finding God's Plans (29:16)
  
  
• Accepting God's Plans (30:18-22)
  
• Seeing God's Plans (31:4-9)
  
• Affirming Noble Plans (32:8)
  

More Discussion

Hiding Plans from God (Isaiah29:15)

Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, And whose deeds are done in a dark place, And they say, "Who sees us?" or "Who knows us?" (Isaiah 29:15).

Our society is known as a busy generation. We can't take time to be quiet. One of the reasons for this is our desire to hide our plans from God. Distractions such as busyness or entertainment hide them.

They deliberately find themselves super busy making and carrying out plans. They actually forget that God has an opinion. They are confident they can carry out the plans.

"Who sees us?"

They think no one observes their subtle plans.

"Who knows us?"

They are confident that no one really understands their motivations.

Finding God's Plans (Isaiah 29:16)

You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made should say to its maker, "He did not make me"; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, "He has no understanding"? (Isaiah 29:16).

Do we really want to know and do His will? We discover that if man really wants to know and do God's will, then he must believe that God's plans are higher and better. These plans need to be revealed to him.

If we do affirm to seek His will, then we need Him to direct our paths. We can ask ourselves, "How much do we struggle trying to discern it? What kind of prayer have we really made regarding this issue? Are we open to not doing it?


In the end, we must be convinced that He has a plan and that His timing, design, provision and ultimately His plan is better than anything we could come up with.

Rejecting God's Plans (Isaiah30:1-12)

"Woe to the rebellious children," declares the LORD, "Who execute a plan, but not Mine, And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, In order to add sin to sin; Who proceed down to Egypt, Without consulting Me, To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh, And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! (Isaiah 30:1,2).

God spoke, but His Word was rejected. There were many false prophets and government leaders suggesting an alliance with Egypt. But there were the few true prophets like Isaiah (Is 8) and Jeremiah who spoke out on how God told them not to make an alliance.

Our planning often is different than the Lord's will because it looks attractive in some aspects. In this case, they gained security and self-confidence from a world power siding with them.

God in His extraordinary mercy could have made Egypt reject Israel's proposal for an alliance and therefore caused the Israelites to only have God left as an alternative. But He let them go their own way. By relying on others than God had planned, they showed they were not at all interested in God's ways.

Accepting God's Plans (Isaiah 30:18-22)

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him. O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. (Isaiah 30.18-19). And your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left. (Isaiah 30:21).

God wants so much to bless His people, and yet, as long as they have unrepentant hearts, He will not bless them. God's plan is always better. If God's people do not live by faith in His love, then they will not understand how God's graciousness is just waiting to be expressed toward them. Those people that long for God (wait for Him) are the same that have confidence in His goodness.

Notice how once His people cry out to the Lord, He will surely bring help. Once they cry out, they find three significant means to wait upon God and find His help.

He will be our Teacher and Leader (20).
He will reveal His will, "This is the way, walk in it" (21)
They will destroy and put away their idols (22).

Implementing Our Plans (Isaiah 31:1-3)

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, And rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many, And in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD! Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, And does not retract His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of the workers of iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the LORD will stretch out His hand, And he who helps will stumble And he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together. (Isaiah 31:1-3).

When a person rejects God's way, he must out of necessity rely on things to support their plans. Notice they rely on horses, chariots and the nation of Egypt. God in His Law purposely told them not to have horses and chariots.

Man's resources, then, in many cases become snares keeping them from trusting God and doing what is not best for us.

Seeing God's Plans (Isaiah 31:4-9)

Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel. For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your hands have made as a sin. And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man, And a sword not of man will devour him. So he will not escape the sword, And his young men will become forced laborers. "And his rock will pass away because of panic, And his princes will be terrified at the standard," Declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 31.6-9).

God completely defies any of the false alliances His people have made to get them out of trouble. God personally makes it clear only He, but certainly He, will deliver His people from Assyria their invader.

God makes it very clear that our plans and our attempts to combatting impending problems are utter foolishness in light of His greater purpose.

Exposing Foolish Planners (Isaiah 32:5-7)

No longer will the fool be called noble, Or the rogue be spoken of as generous. For a fool speaks nonsense, And his heart inclines toward wickedness, To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD, To keep the hungry person unsatisfied And to withhold drink from the thirsty. (Isaiah 32.5-6).

Fools only breed poor plans. These poor plans will inevitable be exposed for what they are, but sometimes this takes longer than we think. These fools become desperate in their pride to save his plans by hiding their folly. We have seen many examples of this in America from the Savings and Loan fallout, Enron's corruptness, political bribes and scandals, etc..

Let's list what it says about the fool.

• The fool will no longer be called wise
• The fool will no longer be seen as generous
• The fool speaks nonsense
• The fool's heart inclines toward wickedness
• The fool practices ungodliness
• The fool speaks error against the Lord
• The fool keeps the hungry and thirsty unsatisfied

Affirming Noble Plans (Isaiah 32:8)

But the noble man devises noble plans; And by noble plans he stands. (Isaiah 32.8).

Noble men make noble plans.

Noble plans transcends time and will testify to God's faithfulness in heaven.

The greatest things will be those things done according to God's will. We see many mediocre things being done even by the church. This is because of their reliance on self and others but not God.

God made the church to be vulnerable so that she would regularly call out to God for help. We can get by for a long time without thinking clearly what God wants. Why is it that a denomination will just close churches rather than examining her innards? Their folly condemns them.

The noble man trusts alone in God. There are men who had more money go through their fingers than George Mueller, but the affect of their money pales in contrast to the man who trusts in God. God is every seeking those men who wait upon Him for doing great things.