61. Sinful Confederacies (1)

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Hymns: RHC 565 Have you Counted the Cost 414 Is Your All on the Altar 413 Rise Up, O Men of God

Isaiah 17:1-14

1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts. 4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. 5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel. 7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. 8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.

Sinful Confederacies (1)

OUTLINE

  • Sharing the Same Desolations (v1-3)
  • Desolations Amplified (v4-6)
  • Could Have Repented (v7-8)

The book of Psalms opens in Psalm 1 with an exquisite picture of the truly Happy Man but states in verse 1 what he does not habitually do. Happy is the man that has not walked or does not walk in the counsel, live after the manner, on the principles, or according to the plans, of wicked men and in the way of sinners has not stood. The word “sinners” denotes those who fall short of the standard of duty, as the word translated wicked denotes those who positively violate a rule by disorderly conduct. Together they express the whole idea of ungodly or righteous men. The three verbs denote the three acts or postures of a waking man, namely, walking, standing, and sitting, and are therefore well adapted to express the whole course of life or conduct. It is also possible that a climax was intended so that walking, standing, and sitting in the company of sinners will denote successive stages of deterioration, first occasional conformity, then fixed association, then established residence among the wicked, not as a mere spectator or companion, but as one of themselves.

The same kind of negative description reappears in Psalm 26:4, 5, and in Jer. 15:17. It is of course implied that no one, of whom any of these things can be affirmed, is entitled to the character of a Happy Man.[1]

4 I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. 5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked. [2]

17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.

The happy man is a portrayal also of a happy nation that walks in the will of God.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel, named Ephraim here, has walked out of the will of God by making alliances with Syria (Damascus) and both would fall to the Assyrians.

Damascus was once a great and flourishing city, as Naaman had asked, “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?” (2 Kings 5:12a). Now Damascus, named here for all that follows, has become something that is no longer a city. She is a heap and a fallen ruin.

Sinful confederacies will be no strength, no stay, to the confederates, when God’s judgments come upon them. See here what the glory of Jacob is when God contends with him, and what little reason Syria will have to be proud of resembling the glory of Jacob. [Matthew Henry]

Assyria was, of course, the destroyer of both Syria and Israel. Damascus fell after a ruinous siege in 732 B.C., and Samaria (the capital of Israel) a decade later in 722 B.C. And if the prediction of v1-2 was not literally fulfilled (Damascus did not in fact become a heap of ruins), it was certainly fulfilled in the sense that the royal power departed from Damascus (v3b). It was transformed from the capital of a sovereign state into the administrative centre of an Assyrian province. The old Damascus, in this sense, simply ceased to exist. It was no more. Its ally Ephraim ((Israel) suffered the same fate (v3a), and it is on Israel in particular that the focus falls from this point onwards. [The Message of Isaiah, Barry Webb]

There are grave consequences to unholy alliances.

  • Sharing the Same Desolations (v1-3)

1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.

Step by step Isaiah brings the announcement of judgment closer home. First Damascus, then Aroer, and lastly Ephraim. The fortified place, probably Samaria, will cease to exist for Ephraim and the kingdom will also be taken away from Damascus.

Damascus and Ephraim, the two enemies who had threatened Ahaz, are now mentioned together. There will be a remnant of Syria left over by the invaders of Assyria and from that remnant, even the kingdom will be taken. What is left of Syria and Damascus will resemble what is left of the former glory of Israel. In that word “glory” Isaiah comprises everything which the natural man would boast in. Included are fortresses, leading personalities, mighty troops, power and splendour of weapons. All in which men had vaunted will be taken. The glory will have departed. [Edward J. Young]

If the people you trust do not trust the Lord, their judgment may become your judgment. [Wiersbe]

Recall the background story – Isaiah 7:1-8 (KJV) And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field; And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.

This is the sequel of Isaiah’s prophecy here in chapter 17.

It was also the same time that Isaiah gave the prophecy of the virgin birth – Isaiah 7:10-14 (KJV) Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

For God’s people who trust in Him, there is no fear of sudden desolation – Proverbs 1:33 (KJV) But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

For Ephraim, supposedly the people of God, and yet have joined with the unbelievers, shall not prosper – Proverbs 1:23-32 (KJV) Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

  • Desolations Amplified (v4-6)

4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. 5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.

God’s judgment on Israel is pictured as a sunset and a heavy person losing weight, of wasting sickness (v4), as well as a field that has no fruit for the gleaners (v5-6). [Wiersbe; Motyer]

The glory is the false glory of worldly power and status where Assyrian vaingloriousness is subject to wasting disease.

Isaiah 10:16 (KJV) Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

The picture is of internal forces of dissolution at work; unbelief as a cancer.

Syria and Damascus now retreat into the background, and the reason for what Isaiah has been saying appears. By Jacob, the prophet has reference to the ten tribes, and by designating them Jacob he brings to their mind their illustrious ancestor. From Jacob’s devotion to God the ten tribes have fallen far. Their glory is to become poor and weak, so that men will not delight in it any longer. The ten tribes are personified, and Isaiah may thus speak of the fatness of his flesh; the people’s prosperity will be made lean. The richness, the wealth, the beauty – all will pass, and in their place will be hunger and leanness. [Edward J. Young]

Through the field of standing corn the reapers go to pluck the harvest grain, and with their arms reach out to take the ears. Once the ears are taken, only the stalks remain. So will the glory of Jacob be at the time when the Lord visits in judgment. Northwest of Jerusalem is the vale of Rephaim, noted for its richness. But when the harvest is gathered there will be nothing left of that fruitfulness. So is the judgment coming.

By shaking the trees one gathered the olives. A thorough shaking would leave gleanings of two or three on the branches. The judgment was to be such a shake up, distilling the nation and leaving only a few. No matter how fruitful and loaded with olives the tree might have been, the shaking would leave only a few gleanings remaining. The threatened judgment would thus be great in extent, reaching to the top of the tree. Israel would be gleaned thoroughly.

  • Could Have Repented (v7-8)

7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. 8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.

2 Chronicles 30:11 (KJV) Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.

The judgment would be so severe that some would look in expectation for help to the God who had made Israel a nation, the God who had established the covenant and formed Israel into the theocracy. Israel had forgotten that she was but a creature and that she owed to the Holy One all the blessings and the privileges which she had received. Sometimes it takes severe judgments to bring us to our senses so that our eyes look intently and steadily, not to man, but to God. [Edward J. Young]

If only they had turned to God before the sun set or the disease waste away the body or the blight destroyed the harvest! But they trusted their own idols and not the true God (v7-8). How easy it is to put confidence in the work of your own hands and not in the God who made those hands! [Wiersbe]

If there is to be a true looking unto God and dependence upon Him, there must be a turning away from idols.

1 Thessalonians 1:9 (KJV) For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;

Just as it was for Pharaoh who will not acknowledge the LORD faced the ten plagues that will totally ruin the nation.

There is no repentance, no true trusting upon and waiting upon God. If a man indeed trusts God, he does not trust altars. The conversion in Israel will be genuine. Looking unto his Maker, man will not pay regard or look with expectation to the alters of idols. To trust in them and to depend upon them is the height of folly.

To be continued…

[1] Alexander, J. A. (1864). The Psalms Translated and Explained (p. 10). Andrew Elliot; James Thin.

[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version., Ps 26:4–5). (1995). Logos Research Systems, Inc.