An Analysis of Isaiah 31:6-7: Return to God

Turning Back to God in a Time of Crisis

This call to return to God comes at a moment when Judah was facing invasion and choosing to trust Egypt instead of the Lord, as warned against in Isaiah 30:1-5 and 31:1-3.

Back then, the people of Judah were scared of Assyria’s growing power, so they sent messengers to Egypt, looking for military help and making promises to foreign gods. But Isaiah called this out as rebellion - they had turned their backs on God, who had rescued them before, and were now trusting in human plans and idols instead. God had made a covenant with Israel to protect and guide them, but they broke it by relying on other nations and worshiping silver and gold statues their own hands had made.

Now, in Isaiah 31:6-7, God calls them to stop running and return to Him, promising that one day they will finally throw away those idols and turn back to the true God with new hearts.

Idols of Silver and Gold: The Sin of Making God in Our Own Image

The call to turn back to God hits hard when we see what the people were actually turning from - idols they had made themselves, as Isaiah puts it, 'which your hands have sinfully made for you.'

This is a direct echo of God’s warning in Exodus 20:4-5: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image... for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.' The people worshiped other gods and crafted lifeless statues of silver and gold, trying to control the divine with their own hands. Deuteronomy 4:25-28 even warned that if Israel forgot the covenant, they would make idols and be driven from the land - exactly what was happening in Isaiah’s day.

The phrase 'in that day' points to a future time of reckoning and renewal, like in Isaiah 2:17-21, when human pride and man-made gods will be brought low. This prophecy is both a warning and a promise: it preaches repentance to the people of Isaiah’s time, while also predicting a future day when God will finally win their hearts. The sure hope is that God will give them new hearts - but the call to turn shows it begins with their choice to stop trusting what their hands have made and start trusting the One who made them.

A Call to Turn Back - Then and Now

The command 'Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted' is a clear call to stop running from God and start running back to Him.

This same message echoes later in Jeremiah 4:23, where the prophet describes the land laid waste because the people had not turned back to God. We are reminded that true change begins with a heart turned toward the one true God, not with better plans or power, because He makes a way where none seems to exist.

From Prophetic Promise to Final Fulfillment

The call to turn from idols and return to God is not only a moment in Isaiah’s time. It is a thread that runs through the whole Bible, pointing to a future day when God’s people will finally come home.

Later prophets echo this hope: Hosea cries, 'Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,' and Jeremiah laments that idols are worthless while calling the people back (Jeremiah 3:23 and Hosea 14:1‑3). In the New Testament, John warns, 'Keep yourselves from idols' (1 John 5:21), and Paul reminds the Athenians that God made us, so we can’t make Him (Acts 17:29) - showing that the heart issue remains.

While many turned to God through Jesus, the full promise of a people wholly His, with every idol cast down, waits for the final day when God will wipe away all rebellion and make all things new.

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