Today’s study is titled, what has your attention? When you wake up in the morning what do you think of first? For me, it is often what needs to be done at work. Emails that need to be replied, meetings to attend and fires to put out. Maybe it’s your finances, your hobbies or your relationships. In the crisis that COVID-19 and other geopolitical conflicts have brought, we have more and more things and people vying for our attention. Whatever has our attention frames our days and our lives. What had Israel’s attention in a time of crisis? We will see that this was not God. The passage today will invite us to examine what we are focused on and how God might view that.
(A) God opposes worldly alliances rooted in human wisdom
Isaiah 17:1-6 mentions Damascus, Aroer and the Valley of Rephaim. Damascus is in Syria, Aroer in Israel (6h from Damascus) and the Valley of Rephaim is in Jerusalem (5 h from Damascus). Isaiah 17:1 tells us that Damascus will “cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins”. The cities of Aroer will be deserted to the extent that animals will use it to lie down and none will disturb them (Isa 17:2).
We also read of how the fortress will disappear from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel (Isa 17:3). Here we have the mention of Ephraim which represents the northern tribes of Israel, and this sets this oracle apart from the previous ones, as we have a mention of God’s people wrapped up in the judgment of Damascus.
The glory of Jacob will be brought low and this is illustrated in “the fat of his flesh will grow lean” (Isa 17:4). In the past, fat was viewed as a sign of prosperity and wealth and this shows that the wealth and prosperity of Jacob will waste away. Jacob will be poor, low, weak. Isaiah 17:5 introduces a figure, the reaper who gathers standing grain. Standing grain is ripe crop ready for harvest and thus, it shows the extent to which Israel will be impoverished and emptied out.
There will be a remnant (Isa 17:6). Often, in gleaning, there would be some trees that were not wholly stripped. This would often be the inaccessible branches. This verse grants some hope, that there will be a surviving few even in the widespread and severe devastation.
To understand why Isaiah 17:1-6 must happen, we need to understand the context. In I Kings 11:30-31, we read of how the prophet Ahijah tears his garment into twelve pieces to represent twelve tribes. The prophet explains that God is judging Solomon for his sins, for idol worship and will rip out the control of ten tribes from Solomon and will give to Jeroboam. But Solomon will retain one tribe — the tribe of Judah will remain under the control of Solomon (1 Ki 11:32-39). This is rooted in God’s love and promises to David. Then Solomon dies.
In the next chapter, in 1 Kings 12:1-20, Rehoboam, son of Solomon was made king. Jeroboam comes with the ten tribes of Israel and he asks that Rehoboam discontinue the oppression, the forced labour of the ten tribes that was instituted by Solomon. Rehoboam says let me think about it and in 1 Kings 12:6-11, he speaks to two groups of people. First, the old and wise who stood with his father, with years of experience. They tell him, treat the people well and they will serve you. Yet, he rejects the wisdom of the older ones and listens to the young ones who tell him to double down, to give away no power, and to declare that he will be even greater and more prosperous than his father. His father disciplined with whips, but Rehoboam will discipline with scorpions. 2 Kings 12:16-17 are sad verses because when the people of Israel hear this, they say, what portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. They abandon the house of David and Is is divided. The north abandons the inheritance of David which was the promises that God had issued to David
In Isaiah 7:1-9, we had learnt previously that Syria and Ephraim had aligned and it was frightening to Judah. In Isaiah 8:1-8, the prophetic message, that torrential waters would come from Assyria to swallow up Judah and Israel. This was because Israel preferred the King of Syria over God in the face of Assyria, which was a looming threat in Assyria which was conquering and therefore, the Israel — Syria alliance was formed. God was angered by Israel’s turning away from Him
The crisis we face might be different, but at the heart of it, we can relate to being in crisis and worrying. Why does your heart go in worry? Do you turn to the Lord as your Saviour, or do you go to the fastest thing that you think will be your salvation — job, bank account? If our attention is paid to the wrong thing in crisis, God opposes it, and He opposes it strongly.
So with this context, we look back at Isaiah 17:1-6, we see that Damascus, the object of Israel’s trust will be destroyed and shown to be insufficient. Specifically, Damascus will cease to even be a city and will become a heap of ruins. The object of Israel’s hope, will be brought down and emptied out. Israel too will be made desolate, will be a land where animals can freely roam undisturbed — a land completely destroyed. Israel will lose its security and Damascus will lose its kingdom (Isa 17:3). It will be a widespread and holistic judgment of this alliance between Syria and Israel.
The northern kingdom sought something logical — worldly survival. Yet, they were functionally a nation of atheists. They had abandoned God’s promises and He was no longer with them. To them, God’s promises were ancient and far off. They were not of value, they provided no security. They had aligned themselves with worldly forces. This passage shows us that God directly opposes such alliances and will bring them to ruin. We see ruin and desertion in a lesser sense in Ukraine and our hearts ache, what more this kind of holistic destruction?
These verses issue us an important warning, to examine our alliances and what has our attention. In times of crisis, the answer is always to turn to and lean on the Lord who is our surest and firmest foundation. Coming back to our main question, what has your attention, we see that Is was concerned not with God, or His promises. Their attention was caught up in worldly conflicts and forces and self-preservation. They are driven by this to an alliance with the ungodly that results in sure destruction and ruin. Where does your heart go in times of conflict? In times of crisis, what has your attention? Newspapers, bank accounts, CVs? What and who do we align ourselves with in times of crisis? People of our social and economic group? These will all fail us, like Damascus failed Israel. God will not hold back. He will show us just how fragile our worldly foundations are and just how wrong we were to place our hope in them.
(B) God judges and destroys to bring His people to Himself
This is also a day of repentance, of turning away from idolatry, and a turning to God (Isa 17:7-8). Man turns away from idols, the false and the unholy, and instead, will be focused on what is of true value. In that day, man will look to His maker, the Holy One of Israel. “Man” suggests that Isaiah is looking to more than just Israel. It is a broader term. Isaiah 17:8 presents contrasts — Maker vs created things, created idols, created altars things that man has made. Note that the Asherim and the altar of incense were associated with the worship of the goddess Asherah, who symbolises life and fertility. These were structures in place for the people to seek blessings and favour from gods.
Strong cities of Damascus (likely not Israel because it mentions children of Israel in this verse) will be abandoned – cities were symbols of prosperity and development and safety (Isa 17:9). The security perceived with these strong cities will be proven wrong. The faith put in these strong cities will be proven false.
What we see is that the means through which God is working is also clarifying and spiritually insightful for us. It removes obstacles, attachments and things that affect our vision of God! They finally see where their security really lies. The hymn, “I asked the Lord that I might grow” has these lines:
I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request
And, by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in ev’ry part.
Yea, more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe,
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Humbled my heart and laid me low.
“Lord, why is this,” I trembling cried;
“Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death?”
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”
“These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”
God is using what might seem like painful destruction to destroy the schemes of earthly joy that Israel has. This is what God does for us too. He takes our idols — work, bank accounts — and when He removes them, it seems painful and confusing. But when He does it, He is showing us how these are really false, and it calls us to turn to our Maker!
This shows us that in that day, in that final day, the remnant will turn away from created, unholy idols and turn to the Creator, the Holy One. They will fully realise how bright and valuable God is and see in contrast how fragile and futile their worldly alliances were. Their attention will be turned away from the worthless and towards the One who has supreme value
What are you looking to? What are you worshiping? What structures do you utilise to gain blessing and favour? We may not burn incense or fashion idols to worship, but we have social media and jobs and CV and all these ways in which we worship ourselves and our image. The people were meant to hear these words and turn away from their idols, will we do the same?
Does this seem harsh to you? The crushing of idols and worldly security is always a shocking event because we place to much hope in them. We must remember that through all this, God is ridding us of our false hopes and is showing us that He is our surest foundation.
But what is the reason for the destruction and desolation we have covered so far? It is because Israel has forgotten the God of their salvation. It is because they have not remembered their Rock and refuge (Isa 17:10). When we are not firm in faith in God and put our faith on sinking sand, then we will sink. Remember who God is, a God of salvation, a Rock and a refuge. He is a reliable, stable, sturdy saving God whom the people turn to for protection and safety. He has shown this to be true time and time again in Israel’s history. How could they forget this good and faithful God for the fleeting alliance with Syria? How could they turn from a God who had shown them that He saves, to look for salvation elsewhere? To look to another as a Rock and refuge? How unforgivable, but we too do the same when we forget God and indulge in sin
Do we forget God when we face crisis and fear? Do we turn to ourselves or others for refuge and salvation? This is the natural tendency of our hearts! We must remind ourselves that our God is one who saves and is our refuge!
What do the people do in Isaiah 17:10? They plant pleasant plants and sow the vine branch of a stranger. Instead of turning to their rock and refuge and saviour, they turn to agriculture — they sow the vine branch of a stranger. Isaiah 17:11 shows us that they pick plants that will grow quickly, which grow on the day they are planted, which blossom in the morning that they are sown. A desire and desperation to have quick and visible yield. But this is all futile, no matter what the people do to plant and sow, their harvest will be empty in a day of incurable pain and grief — it will be washed away. Because they have turned away from the harvest giver, their works are futile. Do you forget the saving Rock and Refuge? These verses remind us that forgetting this God leads to ruin, and that this God is good enough to crush the things that have our attention to turn us more to Him.
Isaiah 17:12 begins with “Ah”, which signals contemplation or meditation and a shift to a more macro point of view. The nations seem fearsome, and being described as the thunder of many peoples, they thunder like the thundering of the sea, the roar of the nations, they roar like the roaring of the mighty waters (Isa 17:12). Though the nations roar, God will rebuke them (Isa 17:13). The roaring and thundering is from the people of the world and is set against God. Yet, they are chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm. Chaff is an empty shell, easily tossed around, they are helpless and illustrates that the peoples who roar against God are empty and hopeless and in contrast, God can blow them away easily, His rebuke is their end.
Isaiah 17:14 also shows us how little the nations against God are. They present trouble in the evening, but by morning they are vanquished. They can do nothing against God. The destiny of those who oppose God, who roar against Him and loot his people is this certain defeat. It shows us that God is sovereign and far above all the human conflicts we see.
These verses serve to remind us again and again that our future and hope should not be placed in alliances and securities apart from God. We are prone to look for security from whatever crisis we are in. We turn to things or people for our deliverance. Israel is called to turn away from worldly powers and temporary kingdoms, and instead, trust in their Maker. Today, we know what we have an even surer security in Christ. We have been rescued and have a sure and stable foundation in the Lord.
What has your attention in times of crisis and worry? Has God ever shown you the emptiness of an idol you worshipped? How can we practically ensure that we stand on the firm foundation that is Christ, instead of things and people who will only disappoint?