Isaiah 31:1 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.
Relying on people as our source of help and strength leads to calamity and defeat. We will always be limited by their limits. But God is limitless, and He is well-able to be our hope and help.
This does not mean that God never uses people to come to our aid or that it is wrong or bad to ask for help. It is, rather, an invitation from the Almighty One, to seek Him first. I spent all of 2023 living off a GoFundMe campaign because I was too sick to work, but SSDI never came through. The thing was, I had to learn that even though the money was coming from other people – it was all prompted and led by God and so I shared updates and needs on the GoFundMe but I continually sought the Lord as my Provider day in and day out.
It took effort.
It would have been very easy to look at people I thought could help me financially and lean on them and hope for their kindness and generosity but, do you know what was interesting, very little of the help I received came from the people I personally considered most able to help. Almost all of it came in small, generous amounts from people who gave sacrificially, not from their surplus but from their own need.
It was humbling, but it is also how God works.
In Isaiah 31 God is not saying that we won’t ever receive help from others, or that it’s wrong to ask for help. He was giving specific instructions for a specific time, about a specific nation that He did not want Israel running to.
He was saying, “Look to Me and I will help you.”
How will He help?
That’s up to Him and He often does it differently every single time, which makes it even more important to seek Him and His plan first.
This requires relationship, trust, and ongoing practice/training to override, what may be a lifetime of leaning on our own understanding, perception, and wisdom; and turn instead to the wisdom and perception of the indwelling, Unseen One.
Faith and experience prove His faithfulness, love, might, strength, gentleness, willingness, and His absolute delight in helping those who are willing to call upon Him.
