For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 17:1-8     

1 A prophecy against Damascus:

‘See, Damascus will no longer be a city
    but will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted
    and left to flocks, which will lie down,
    with no one to make them afraid.
3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
    and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
    like the glory of the Israelites,’
declares the Lord Almighty.

4 ‘In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;
    the fat of his body will waste away.
5 It will be as when reapers harvest the standing corn,
    gathering the corn in their arms –
as when someone gleans ears of corn
    in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet some gleanings will remain,
    as when an olive tree is beaten,
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
    four or five on the fruitful boughs,’
declares the Lord,
the God of Israel.

7 In that day people will look to their Maker
    and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars,
    the work of their hands,
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles
    and the incense altars their fingers have made.

A. Find Out:

1. Where will be destroyed? v.1,2
2. Yet where also is included? v.3
3. To what is that latter destruction compared? v.4,5
4. Yet what hope is given? v.6
5. On that day to whom will men look? v.7
6. How will that differ from what they did before? v.8

B. Think:

1. What TWO nations are linked here?
2. For what are Israel apparently being judged?
3. Yet what hope is given them?

C. Comment:

Israel had made an alliance with Syria (Aram) and so the Lord pronounces against Damascus, its capital (v.1). It will become a ruin as will its other main towns (v.2). In 732 B.C. Tiglath-Pileser III captured Damascus and made it an Assyrian province and also took some of the northern cities of the northern kingdom, Israel.

The main focus seems to be upon Israel (we assume it is the northern kingdom although that is not made clear) and the prophetic picture is of the land being harvested (v.5), but the implication is that it is the heads of the nation who will be taken, not a wholesale clearing of the land (v.5c). Yet there is some hope in this message of judgment, as there always is when the Lord judges nations. The hope comes in the promise that there will be a remnant left after this takes place. There will be a smattering of people who had been faithful to the Lord – that is the implication of the reference to the fruitful boughs (v.6).

The outcome of this judgment and its cause are then given. The outcome will be that the remaining people will turn to God (v.7). That is the outcome and that is different from what had been before, which is the cause of the judgment. Previously the people of Israel had been worshipping idols (v.8) which they had made. Thus the judgment seems to have a dual cause: alliance with Aram & alliance with idols.

D. Application:

1. God will judge idolatry.
2. Yet with judgment there will be mercy for a faithful remnant.

Passage: Isaiah 17:9-14

9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

10 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,
11 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.

12 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!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
    when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
    like tumble-weed before a gale.
14 In the evening, sudden terror!
    Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
    the lot of those who plunder us.

A. Find Out:    

1. What will the cities become like? v.9
2. What had Israel done? v.10a
3. What frustration will occur? v.10b-11
4. What are the nations of the world like? v.12
5. Yet what happens when God intervenes? v.13,14a
6. So what reassurance does that bring? v.14b

B. Think:

1. What will happen in the land?
2. Why will it happen?
3. Yet what security is given?

C. Comment:

In chapter 17 you may have noticed three times: “In that day”. The first one (v.4) indicated the coming judgement-harvest of Israel. The second one (v.7) indicated the final outcome, that the remnant would turn back to God, and the third one (v.9) gives the final state of the land. 

Verse 9 is difficult to understand. “Their” and “they” is set against “the Israelites”. It is probable that the prophet is referring to the ungodly pagan worshippers now present, and subtly compares them to the faithful, obedient, godly people who first entered this land.

There follows a denunciation of Israel, the reason why this has happened: they had forgotten God (v.10) and turned away from Him. So now they try to continue as if everything was normal, they plant out their vines (v.10,11), tend them, feed them and generally do everything they can, but God has decreed no harvest! 

Verse 12-14 come as a balance to all this promised destruction. The prophet speaks of the nations (and no doubt he has the invaders from the north in mind) as if they were like a raging sea that cannot be withstood. Imagine the pictures of a hurricane lashed sea, so nothing can stand on the shore. That’s what the invaders seem like, but the truth is that the Lord only has to speak a word and they fall back. They may come in the morning, but are gone by the evening when God speaks.

D. Application:

1. God’s judgements cannot be withstood.
2. The instruments of judgement (nations) are still under God’s control.