Isaiah 17:9-11

c. COLLAPSE

TEXT: Isaiah 17:9-11

9

In that day shall their strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it shall be a desolation

10

For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips:

11

in the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom; but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

QUERIES

a.

What were the forsaken places in the wood, etc.?

b.

How does the harvest flee away in the day of grief?

PARAPHRASE

In that day the well fortified cities where they might think to find refuge from disaster will be useless ruins. Their cities will be like the old, ruined fortresses left behind by the Canaanites when Israel occupied the land. The reason for the collapse of your security is that you have forsaken the true God of your salvation and have not given attention to the Rock upon whom alone it is safe to stand. Although you plant your gardens to your pagan images and tender them the most meticulous care and protection, and although they produce blossoms of loveliness, they will not bring you deliverance. What little satisfaction you may have will disappear suddenly and absolutely in the desperate days of judgment to come.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 17:9-10 a FORTRESSES: In that day when the Damascus-Israel coalition collapses, Israel's defenses and great fortified cities will be as useless as those ruins of the old Canaanite cities still visible in the woods and on mountain tops in Isaiah's day. When will men learn they can never build any fortress (physical, philosophical or psychological) that God cannot overwhelm and reduce to ruins? Men try to fortify themselves with things or ideas against God's invasion of their selfish goals and aims. Unless a man surrenders to God's conquest of his heart, man's citadels are inevitably reduced to ruin and the man himself incarcerated in a prison-hell of his own choosing.

Isaiah 17:10 b - Isaiah 17:11 FLOWERS: The reference to planting pleasant plants, and setting strange slips, probably refers to what some ancient writers called little Adonis gardens. They were little gardens of flower pots or baskets with pleasant plants and slips growing in them in adoration of the Greek Adonis cult. The women of Damascus and Israel were giving these pagan gardens of idolatry their most careful and tender attention. It is suggested they may have been doing this to bring about some magical, mystical resurrection of the dead Baal (who during the dry season had died). They even used hothouse-plant methods to promote quick growth and sprouting. They may also have been appeasing the gods of fertility in order to magically insure a good crop at harvest time. Whatever their reasons, Jehovah, through His prophet, predicts that they will not reap what they expect. What they expect to harvest will never materialize. Instead they shall reap days of grief and desperate sorrow.

QUIZ

1.

What day is referred to in Isaiah 17:9?

2.

What is the comparison used to illustrate the desolation of Israel's cities?

3.

Are there other fortresses man builds to isolate himself from God besides of stone and wood? What are they?

4.

What are the references to plantings and slips?

5.

What is to be the consequence of Israel's idolatry?