AP

Isaiah 17:10-12  You have forgotten God your Saviour; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.  Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.  Woe to the many nations that rage – they rage like the raging sea!  Woe to the peoples who roar – they roar like the roaring of great waters!

Does this prophecy have a particular message for us today?  The chapter opens as a word against Damascus (Syria), and there is no indication that this is not also the case for these verses, even though Isaiah’s very pointed words “You have forgotten God your Saviour; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress” would appear to have particular relevance to the Northern Kingdom of Israel”!

I wonder whether the close proximity of Syria to this Northern Kingdom, and its being able to observe close at hand the saving power and continued providence of Israel’s Covenant God, renders them culpable for their failure to acknowledge the LORD (Yahweh) as the one and only true God and as the Sovereign Creator.  Some people think this sort of prophecy doesn’t really have any message for us today because we are not a theocracy as Israel was.

But our situation is not much different from that of Damascus.  We have a strong heritage that powerfully informs us that there is a God who is the Sovereign Creator (cf Romans 1:18-20 – “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”). Also, he has provided a ‘Rock’ (Jesus) as a Saviour (cf Psalm 19:14 – “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”)

Yet, in spite of our long heritage in these truths, our culture has forgotten them!  I don’t think it’s a ‘long shot’, therefore, to draw from the principle involved in Isaiah’s prophecy that we should not be surprised if God brings his Judgement upon us because we have not remembered. What he did to Syria back then, in terms of economic hardship and failure, and if “the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain” looks familiar.  Are we not experiencing signs of this already?

– Bruce Christian