“Don’t Forget!”
Isaiah 17
We continue with the oracles Isaiah gave against the nations surrounding Judah and Israel. These oracles were placed between the stories of King Ahaz and King Hezekiah to demonstrate how foolish Judah and Israel were to trust in the nations around them rather than the God who had chosen them.
Today’s Scripture gives a prophecy of doom on Syria and Israel. Verse one begins with the city of Damascus, one of the great cities of the ancient world. It still remains the capital city of Syria. If you look at the map I provided in your bulletin you will see that Syria is positioned directly above Israel to its north-east. However, Old Damascus, has been placed on the 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the world by the World Monuments Fund, in hopes that by doing so it will draw more public awareness to its seeming demise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus
Isaiah also mentions the city of Aroer, on the north bank of the River Arnon to the east of the Dead Sea, today it is in Jordan. The town was an ancient Moabite settlement. He states that it will be deserted and left to the flocks, who will lie down and not be afraid. Then Isaiah mentions Ephraim, which referred to the northern kingdom of Israel and was part of an alliance with Israel and Syria against Judah. Because of their close relationship, God announces His judgment against Ephraim, which is part of Israel at the same time He speaks to Syria. You can read about the fulfillment of this prophecy in 2 Kings 15:29 and 16:9.
The saga continues today. Israel’s interaction with Syria remains conflicting. When Syria occupied the Golan Heights, which is a strategically crucial high plateau above the whole region of Galilee, Israel was under constant threat of invasion and shelling.
Until Syria decided to make an all out invasion of Israel from the Golan and miraculously Israel was able to beat them back and take over the Golan Heights. Thus, Syria has complained that they rightfully own the Golan and want it back. Israel won king of the mountain and refuses to give it back, as it is a strategic spot and necessary for their security. Syria refuses to give up and continues to fight Israel through terrorism and their support of militia groups in Lebanon, hoping to one day increase Syria by including Lebanon and parts of northern Israel. We continue to watch and wait to see what will happen.
However, as we continue to read, Isaiah continues with the description of the fate of Israel. He states it will be like a harvested field. There will only be a few stray stalks of grain, or a few wizened pieces of fruit left at the top of the branches. Such will be Israel, hardly anything of the nation will remain, but there will be some, a remnant that will remain faithful.
And in the future day, when the Israelites will be purified by judgement, in that day, they will turn their focus back to their Maker and no longer will they look to their idols or the work of their own hands. God will take away from Israel all of the wrong things they have trusted in, their altars, their wooden images, their incense altars, and even their strong cities where they had put their trust to protect them. God’s purpose for doing this was to remind them their only hope was to be in the LORD.
This section of chapter 17 ends with the Israelites being reminded that the results of their forgetting God as their Savior and not remembering who was their Rock and fortress, would be that their work would eventually reap nothing. They would purchase the finest plants, they would import the very best, and they would put in the energy to make them grow, and although the plants would bud, yet their harvest would be nothing. It would resemble a day of disease and incurable pain. How discouraging!
The LORD’s judgement was
to make sure that all of their hard work would produce…. Nothing.
The prophet Haggai describes God’s judgement like this, in Haggai 1:6
“You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
Yet, when we listen to Jesus, and have our service and energy directed by Him, we experience a different result. In Luke 5:1-10 you may recall the story of Jesus when he was at the Lake of Gennesaret with people crowding around him so much that he had to borrow a boat so he could push out a bit and teach the crowd from a distance. When Jesus was done speaking He told Simon, the owner of the boat to take Him out to the deep water and let the nets down for a catch.
Simon’s response reflects this judgement, as he said, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” Unlike those being judged, Simon continues in faith by saying, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Instead of a remnant, the fishermen caught such a large number of fish that their net began to break!
Why was Israel reduced to a remnant?
The answer is found in verse 10,
“You have forgotten God your Savior;
   you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.”
Wow!
That doesn’t seem like such a “great” sin!
Why does God need us to remember Him anyway?
Many believe that if they leave God alone, well, God will just leave them alone, right?
Not so.
Actually, it is a sin to forget the God of your salvation.
Why? You may ask.
There are a couple of reasons:
Because He created you Because He is the God of your salvation So if you want salvation, you need to remember Him. If you forget Him, well, you can forget about your salvation.
End of discussion.
This may seem trite but when you really think about it, it is the sneakiest place for Satan to win. Many people think that since they are not bank robbers or murderers that they are not SO bad and Satan does not have control over them. But that is where they are dead wrong, figuratively and literally. Satan doesn’t have to make us “bad” to lose our salvation, he can simply make us forget and he has won the battle. Satan wants us to forget the God of our salvation so that we ultimately will result in losing our salvation. We can forget because of a lot of reasons: laziness, lack of attention, we become distracted, we place our focus on other things.
It doesn’t matter why we forget, Satan could care less about how, he is more concerned in the result of us not remembering who is our Rock, our fortress, and our salvation.
Yet, throughout Isaiah God reminds us that although judgment is inevitable, and will be severe, God’s goal is not to annihilate us, but to purify us. We have hope, there is a remnant. And the remnant will have experienced the judgment and will have learned the lessons of destruction.
The lesson learned can be ours today,
we can learn by others mistakes.
We need to recognize our own responsibility for the disasters we create.
We need to not forget God,
but turn back to God,
and look to Him
rather than to the products of our own skill and creativity,
for our hope.
Then,
and only then,
will we recognize
that God has not failed us,
but that He is our salvation.
Let’s pray.