Promise? Well, maybe...

When we first got married (over 30 years ago now), we had a nice poster with Isaiah 30:15 on it. It had a nice forest scene, designed to get you to relax. You probably know the verse: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength."

Of course, the context tells a different story:

These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD's instruction. They say to the seers, "See no more visions!" and to the prophets, "Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!" Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern." This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, 'No, we will flee on horses.' Therefore you will flee! You said, 'We will ride off on swift horses.' Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill."—Isaiah 30:9-17 (emphasis mine)

<idle musing>
Isn't it interesting how we pick and choose? The context is anything but promising! But, the verse (actually the snippet of a verse) is found on many plaques and posters. Now, if you read further, there is a promise of restoration—there almost always is—but it is based on repentance.

Things haven't changed much, have they? We still are looking for prophets of prosperity and wealth—just don't confront us with our sins, it isn't nice! God, on the other hand, is always trying to get us to face ourselves, but not to condemn us. His goal is to deliver us! He wants to set us free from our small-mindedness, our pre-occupation with ourselves, our worship of non-deities. May he succeed!
</idle musing>