Isaiah 17: 7-9

⁷ In that day man will have regard for his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Even the Asherim and incense stands.
⁹ In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.

In the day when God's people will be carried off into captivity, then they will turn back to Him. Whether a captive or a member of the escaped remnant, Isaiah says that eyes "will look to the Holy One of Israel" and "have regard for his Maker." (vs. 7)

 

Isaiah has already described the time of judgment to come (and he has more to say on that in the next couple of weeks). There is "desolation" (vs. 9) coming to the land. Few--two or three olives on the top bough of an olive tree, if you remember last week's metaphor--will escape from the hand of the Assyrians; most will be taken away. Whatever blinders covered the eyes of the people will be removed, and they shall see clearly that their need for God is great.

 

"These few that are preserved are such as, in the prospect of the judgment approaching, had repented of their sins and reformed their lives, and therefore were snatched thus as brands out of the burning, or such as having escaped, and becoming refugees in strange countries, were awakened, partly by a sense of the distinguishing mercy of their deliverance, and partly by the distresses they were still in, to return to God."

--Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible

 

In returning to God, one sees not only His greatness, but his or her own weakness and falling away. It shall also be with Israel. Part of the process of returning was repentance, which meant addressing the sin which caused the distancing from the Holy One in the first place. For Israel, idolatry led to a multitude of sins.

"Their land has also been filled with idols;
They worship the work of their hands,
That which their fingers have made."

--Isaiah 2:8

 

But, no longer. Isaiah uses this same phrasing in verse 8--with a big 'not', now--to show the change that will come in His time. It is, perhaps, a good place to remind ourselves that God was truly unhappy with the behavior of His people, but His discipline came out of love and to effect a change for the better. A change back to the original ways of the Covenant, when God first called His people 'My people'.

 

"Come, let us return to the Lord.
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us."

--Hosea 3:5, the response to God's rebuke (Hosea and Isaiah served a parallel time in ministry, the first to Israel and the second to Judah--the coinciding of their message themes is most definitely not an accident.)

 

 

Back to verse 8, Asherah was a Canaanite fertility goddess, symbolized by sacred groves and poles. (Reformation Study Bible) Even though the Canaanites were no longer in the Promised Land, their idols still maintained a presence. [The power and allure of sin in a nutshell!] But now Isaiah speaks of a time in which the Asherim poles, incense stands, or other items of idol worship would not draw the people's affections, focus, or time in craftsmanship. Indeed, when facing a similar idol-worship conflict, Judah experienced a fulfillment of this prophecy during the time of King Josiah:

"...he also tore down the altars and beat the Asherim and the carved images into powder, and chopped down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem."

--II Chronicles 34:7

 

Verse 9, also "in that day," "...man's strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Amorites and the Hivites which they abandoned." This is from the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The cities of Syria and Israel would face total destruction by Assyria. The pictures Isaiah has painted for us show a vacant landscape. Why did the Septuagint mention the Amorites and the Hivites? The NASB text says, "...which they abandoned before the sons of Israel." The Amorites and the Hivites were before the sons of Israel arrived.

 

I alluded to this part of Scripture just a bit ago when talking about God's naming of His people. In Exodus 34, we read of God's grace in His preparation of second tablets of the Ten Commandments, after the first broke in Moses' response to the golden calf incident. Not only does God make new tablets, but He renews His Covenant with His people--they get another chance, the first of "seventy times seven." (Matthew 18:22) Look what God says to them:

 

"'Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim—for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God...."

--Exodus 34: 11-14 (italics mine)

 

The Amorites and Hivites were among those who lived in the land of Canaan prior to its providential takeover by God's people, Israel. Take note, too, of the warnings of God about the influence of these nations. Don't worship other gods. "...Cut down their Asherim...." Make no covenants with other nations. Isaiah says to Syria and to Israel, you have not listened to the Lord and His Word. As those who had occupied the land before them had to flee from invasion, so shall they, at the hand of the "Jealous" One.

"They shall be as the cities (so it may be supplied) which the Canaanites left, the old inhabitants of the land, because of the children of Israel, when God brought them in with a high hand, to take possession of that good land, cities which they built not. As the Canaanites then fled before Israel, so Israel should now flee before the Assyrians. And herein the word of God was fulfilled, that, if they committed the same abominations, the land should spue them out, as it spued out the nations that were before them (Lev. 18:28)...."

--Matthew Henry 

 

  

 

 When one plants "delightful plants...." ...'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: www.ancientdigger.com

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Next week:  Isaiah 17: 10 and 11
 
Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 5: 24 and 25

  

²⁴ Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵ On this account the anger of the Lord has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.
And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.
For all this His anger is not spent,
But His hand is still stretched out.

With his use of dramatic imagery continuing, Isaiah speaks of the judgment awaiting Judah at the hand of God.

I thought about taking a picture of our backyard when I read about stubble and dry grass in verse 24. Appropriate in this scorcher of a Central Virginia summer! But the image above fits Isaiah's words better, as he describes what could be seen as tongues of fire "licking up straw" (New International Version) and dry grass practically melting in the flames. It's a fire that spreads like a hot post on Twitter!

"Sinners make themselves as stubble and chaff, combustible matter, proper fuel to the fire of God’s wrath, which then of course devours and consumes them, as the fire devours the stubble, and nobody can hinder it, or cares to hinder it. Chaff is consumed, unhelped and unpitied."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

The result is that the once-abundant vineyard that was Judah is facing rot at its core. And without roots, you have no shoots, much less blossoms, much less fruit.

 

"Moreover, the pride of Israel testifies against him,
And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;
Judah also has stumbled with them.
They will go with their flocks and herds
To seek the Lord, but they will not find Him;
He has withdrawn from them....

Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
Because he was determined to follow man’s command.
Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim
And like rottenness to the house of Judah."

--Hosea 5: 5, 6, 11 and 12

We read, again, in verse 24, that it is Judah's rejection of the law and despising of the word that brings about this incredible wrath from God. What has happened to the book of the law? Remember, Isaiah is writing of a time of extreme apostasy by the leadership and the people. Not that all who sat on the throne were spiritually lost, but more of them were unrighteous than righteous.

"'Go, inquire of the Lord for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.'"

--II Kings 22: 13

King Josiah came to power after Isaiah's prophecy and death. He was one of the righteous who served prior to the fall of Jerusalem. God's wrath had been burning against the people, but Josiah hadn't quite figured out what the cause was. (He was 8 when he first took the throne!) In 622 B.C., some 18 years into his leadership, Josiah summoned his scribe to go to the high priest to work through a financial transaction--he wanted the workman repairing the house of the Lord to be paid. In that visit, the high priest uncovered the book of the law to share with the scribe, who shared it with the king. As his scribe read the word, Josiah tore his clothes--a sign that he understood the sacredness of the law and the resulting response from God against His people.

[Our merciful God showed Josiah grace from His wrath in that He told the king he would pass from this life (609 B.C.) before the initiation of captivity at the hands of Babylon (587 B.C., in or about).]

Picking up with verse 25, because of the blatant disregard for God's Word, upon which rests the foundation for the ongoing relationship His people have with the Lord, God is angry and is stretching out His hand against His people. One of the cross-references for this verse is in Exodus, with Aaron, holding up the staff that God gave Moses, and calling for Egypt's waterways to be turned to blood. This same hand that protected and provided for these people under so many circumstances is now to be held up against them. I just find the imagery so compelling.

"Mountains quake because of Him
And the hills dissolve;
Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence,
The world and all the inhabitants in it."

--Nahum 1:5

I hadn't taken in the full meaning of this idea until reading this passage in Nahum. "Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence." Who was bringing that state of calamity upon Judah? God is fully responsible. His presence causes upheaval in our lives. And we can see this in a positive light [His people needed a wake-up call!] or a negative one [Captivity is painful, Lord!], but we need to understand that THINGS HAPPEN in the presence of God! Here, He says, "I'm angry! You will notice my presence!" Judah's road to hard times was being announced through Isaiah. Babylon was merely a tool in the Lord's battle arsenal. Captivity and the loss of their home will cause the nation to "be still and know that I am God."

Again, I note the frustration in the work of the prophet who would not see the times change with his warnings. That progressing work would come in exile, with the prophet Daniel bringing together all of these thoughts in his prayer to God on behalf of His people:

"Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him. Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice."

--Daniel 9:11-14

A "distant nation" is coming.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: thewe.cc

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Next week: Isaiah 5: 26-30

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).