Isaiah 17:5-7

DIMINUTIONS AND CHANGES OF LIFE

Isaiah 17:5. And it shall be as when the harvestman, &c.

God’s visitations of judgment are the subject of the prophet’s burdens (Isaiah 17:1). So the text. Adversities and sorrows set in. Blessings gone, except a few. “Two or three berries,” &c.

I. The various illustrations of the text.

1. In the adverse changes of life. Many who were rich and prosperous are now poor. All gone, except two or three berries. Some so through their own folly, &c.; others by the allotment of Providence, sickness, &c. (H. E. I., 4403–4406, 4975–4986).

2. In the failure of bodily health and vigour. Once strong and robust, &c.; now left but a few berries, &c.

3. In the bereavements of kindred and friends. Once a crowd of them—parents, brothers, sisters, children—but they have gone, one after another.

4. In the powers and capacities for useful activity. Once active, useful, but now frailty and weakness have superseded. This is distressing to the sensitive, &c. Pushed aside by another generation.

5. It will apply to times and seasons of probation. How wise was old Barzillai! (2 Samuel 19:31). The indications of age, &c. (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Few years left, &c., or even days.

II. The uses we should make of the subject.

1. It should impress us with the vanity of earthly things. All fleeting, all retiring; like the seasons, like streams.

2. The folly of earthly-mindedness. How extreme! Grasping shadows, resting on the moving wave, building castles in the air, &c.

3. The necessity of wisely using our opportunities. For the best ends. Working while it is day—now, while we have light and life.

4. Seeking a fitness for the world of the future (Hebrews 10:34; Hebrews 11:3).

5. Believing and devotional confidence in God.

Application:—Christ is ever the same. In all His offices, work, and graciousness, He is without a shadow of turning.—Jabez Burns, D.D.: 150 Sketches of Sermons, pp. 296, 297.

This striking passage depicts the process of God’s judgments upon Israel. We may take it as suggestive—

I. Of the sweeping destructiveness of calamities in human life (Isaiah 17:5). How often has the picture been realised!—

1. In the history of nations. The process of the depopulation and misery with which Israel was threatened, may be imagined from the view given in chap. Isaiah 3:1. Modern parallels may easily be found, the wars of the Roses, the plague of London, &c.

2. In the social calamities of families. One after another is broken up, one relationship after another is severed, until only an “outmost” branch is left as a remnant. Widow, orphans, friendless. Such are those who remain to tell the tale.

3. In the physical calamities of individuals.

4. In the degradation of the soul through the deceitfulness of sin. In some extreme cases, what a sad undermining of character and destruction of capacity do we behold.

II. Of the hopefulness of human life even when it is at its worst (Isaiah 17:6). Though the reaper has made sure work, yet enough remains to give hope. There is here true gospel, suggesting such thoughts as these:—

1. Begin at the point of your ability, however low it may be. Every man is rightly expected to make use of whatever power he has. If it is only sight, or only hearing, or only one hand, one talent out of ten, he must use it. The loss of the other nine will not excuse his neglect of the one he has.

2. Beginning thus low down, yet in earnest, we have the assurance of improvement and progress. We have abundant illustration of this in the history of the “remnant” that was left in Israel (2 Chronicles 30:11; 2 Chronicles 34:6; 2 Chronicles 34:9, &c.). We see here an encouragement for every sinner who will awake, though late, to the true purposes of life. Redemption is the favourite work of God. He is on the side of feeble, struggling men, and delights to encourage and help “the remnant” which is spared (H. E. I., 934–941, 956, 958, 2368, 4790–4792; P. D., 474). The very purpose for which Christ came into the world was to help the struggling, to save the lost. Those who have been brought down to the extremity of need and the verge of despair may find friendship and help in Him (H. E. I., 928, 929).—William Manning.