We considered yesterday how the Israelites were bound and determined to go “down to Egypt” (it’s always “down to Egypt” in the Bible) even when God told them not to. Why? What’s so bad about Egypt?

Chapter 31 gives us a clue. It’s not Egypt so much as the people’s trust in Egypt (which they can see) versus trusting and consulting the LORD (whom they can’t see except by faith):

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! (Isaiah 31.1, ESV)

The psalmist captured it:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. (Psalm 20.7, ESV)

In the U.S., our money proclaims, “In God we trust.” Do we?