Isaiah 31:1

HELP FROM A WRONG QUARTER

‘Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses … but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel.’

Isaiah 31:1

I. Here we see how foolish we are not to pray more for help in temporal need!—We go to our strong friends, and make enormous efforts, instead of looking to the Holy One of Israel.

In a book entitled Twenty Years in Khama’s Country, the sixth chapter teems with interest, because it shows how, again and again, rain was given in answer to prayer. When the veldt was as hard as flint, no water in the river-bed, not a cloud in the sky, the hearts of the people dead within them, and neighbouring chiefs taunting Khama—the missionary, Mr. Hepburn, encouraged him to pray. ‘What shall I do, Monare?’ ‘Do what a Christian only can do, Khama—lay it all before God.’ He pointed Him to the example of Hezekiah and Nehemiah in times of distress. So they held a week of prayer. The rain-makers said that the gods were angry and would give no more rain, because Khama had forsaken them. But presently a strong, steady wind set in from the north, the clouds began to cover the sky, and there came a heavy, ground-soaking rain.

II. The world teems with incidents of the way in which urgent needs have been met in answer to prayer.—Some can tell that after searching for a situation everywhere, they obtained just what they wanted in answer to prayer; others, that when all other sources of supply were closed, the money for rent, or rates, or the necessaries of life, was forthcoming in answer to prayer. Probably some of us who are busily engaged in concerting plans, or obtaining influential names, to overturn some of the iniquities of modern times, would be wiser to spend less time and energy in going down to Egypt and more in going to the Holy One of Israel.