The Alliance that Failed
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Isaiah
18. An expository study of Isaiah, chapter 17
In this chapter, the alliance that we learned about in
chapter seven, reappears. You remember that the house of David, that is, the
king’s household and all of Judah, “shook
as the trees of the forest shake with the wind” (Is.7:2), because of the
report of two allies, joined against them. You may also remember that the
alliance was between Syria or Aram and the ten northern tribes of Israel. God
assured King Ahaz and his people that this threat would come to nothing: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to
pass” (7:7). Now we will see why they had nothing to worry about from that
source. God knows the future perfectly, therefore it is always right and always
safe to stand firmly upon His prophetic word.
A
cursed cup to drink
“The oracle concerning Damascus.” This is another oracle, and we know now that its synonym is burden, but Matthew Henry quotes a Caldeean paraphrase that helps
us to understand better this difficult word: The burden of the cup of the
curse to drink to Damascus. An
oracle is a bitter cup that is to be drunk and it contains a curse upon
Damascus. Damascus is the capital city of Syria, so they must first drink of
this “cup of trembling” (another way to describe the bitter cup, Is.51:17, 22;
Zech.12:2). From there it is passed around to all of Syria and then each of the
ten northern tribes of Israel must drink from it.
These visions pass before
Isaiah’s eyes, so, if he gives the account as having taken place in the present
tense, this is the reason why. Faith hears and takes this word, as good as if
it were already accomplished, because with God there is no future tense; the
future is history to Him. His word is sure and it is accurate. Concerning
Babylon, He said it would fall and “never
be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation” (ch.13:20). We can
go to Iraq and gaze upon its ruins in this 21st Century, because it
has never been rebuilt. Damascus likewise “will
become a fallen ruin” (v.1), however nothing is said about whether it would
or would not be rebuilt. It has been rebuilt and is today the capital of modern
Syria.
The first of the tribes of
Israel to fall were the 2½ tribes east of the Jordan River… Reuben, Gad and the
half-tribe of Manasseh. The most commonly mentioned city called Aroer of verse
two was on the banks of the Arnon River. It was built by the Gadites, assigned
to the tribe of Reuben, but by now was in the territory occupied by Moab. This
territory and its towns were abandoned and their buildings became sheep cotes.
No human life would disturb the flocks.
The delusion of misdirected unity
The Christian church has
often been deluded in joining forces as an advantage towards political
strength. Would to God we were united in prayer and in edification! But I have
yet to see a Christian political union reap any spiritual benefits. We need to
be very careful, with whom we become allied. Not long ago I heard someone refer
to the unified lie of Ananias and Sapphira and how then, they also came under
divine judgment together. Even marital oneness is not to be sought at all
costs.
In no situation is
righteousness and truth ever to be compromised at the cost of unity. These two countries sought a more potent
attack force by uniting their armies and I have already alluded to the fact
that this confederacy brought terror to Judah. However, in this chapter we see
them united in defeat. They brought each other down. “Damascus and the remnant of Aram (Syria)… will be like the glory of
the sons of Israel” (v.3)… leveled in defeat, the higher and brighter glory
of the one nation, only falling farther to arrive at the infamy of the other. “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade” (v.4).
The harvest reaped by the enemy
I was with the camp director the morning after
the camp closed and all the young people left for their homes. “The kids are
gone,” he said, looking around at the facilities, “there is no life here. Just
empty buildings.” I felt his sadness and all that we had were the memories of
good times behind us.
Don’t just read the
analogies… feel them. The emaciated body, the field left bare, the olive trees
picked, the grapes harvested, all point to a glory that used to be, but now is
gone, faded as the people leave their homes and flee their land. How the Spirit
of God inspires Isaiah to paint the picture vividly, in order to impress the
heart!
The gathering of the stalks of grain is not a nice
scene to behold (v.5). The enemy is harvesting the crops, which the natives
planted in hope. He holds the stalks in one arm and uses the other arm to cut
down more. A similar analogy is used in Revelation 14:19: “And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the
vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” It
is time for judgment and when it is finished, only a remnant is left.
Would you please notice, who is taken and who is left?
The Gospels are consistent with the Old Testament. Too many times, Christians
do not investigate sufficiently the Old Testament in order to get their
analogies straight. Jesus said, “My
doctrine is not mine, but His that sent Me” (Jn.7:16). His doctrine was
totally built on the foundation of the Old Testament Scriptures, laid out by
the Father, and you cannot possibly learn Gospel truth without learning the
principles of the Old Testament.
Who
is taken and who is left?
The harvest is one of judgment and the stalks are
taken away to be burned. “One will be
taken and the other left” (Mt.24:40,41). “First gather up the tares
and bind them in bundles to burn them up…” (Mt.13:30). The remnant is left,
after judgment. “Two or three olives on
the topmost bough… four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree” (v.6).
The Assyrian judgment harvest takes place and the bulk
of the ten tribes are carried away into captivity. They have lost their
autonomy, their king, and the future looks gloomy for the remnant that remains.
But will you watch now to see what the Lord begins to do? “In that day man will have regard for his Maker and his eyes will look
to the Holy One of Israel” (v.7). I want to reemphasize the spiritual
condition of these who were left in the northern kingdom. “They feared the Lord and served their own gods… the Lord … commanded
them, saying, ‘You shall not fear other gods… but the Lord… Him you shall
fear…” (2 Kgs.17:33,35). I am trying to show that the Lord will not
tolerate a heart that is divided. He forbids any other god to enter and demands
that He alone be feared.
“Christian”
idolatry
Can this dual commitment happen in New Testament times
and how does it manifest itself? I need to get quite specific here, because
what is happening in our day is so important that I do not want anyone to be
able to sidestep it. I assure you, it is happening right now in the lives of
people, who don’t know their own hearts. They try to convince themselves that
they love God only, but the fact is that they are married to men and to
movements, as the Israelites were tied to their nation and king. God stripped
them of both. They have been inordinately arrogant, when their movement and its
leader progressed, and their emotions are shaken, they are sad and confused,
because that movement and leader are threatened. Mourning over the judgment
that is falling proves the idolatry of the heart. They are not looking only to
their Maker, the Holy One of Israel. This is a message for those people, to
whom God brings judgment, in order to wrench idols from the heart. He is a
jealous God.
From the time of the division of the two kingdoms, the
religion of the northern tribes was independent from their brothers in the
south. They mixed new paganism and idolatry with the old ways of the Lord and were
disorderly and careless in carrying out His commands. From the time of
Jeroboam, their kings led them in this direction. But now, they had been
humbled and brought low, and King Hezekiah of Judah is moved to send an
invitation to the north to unite with the southern kingdom in keeping the
Passover in Jerusalem, as God had ordered. Some laughed and refused to attend,
but others came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, Asher and Zebulun to do the
will of God.
Two
unequaled Passovers
“So they decreed to make a proclamation
throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come and
keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem… So
couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and
his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, "O people of Israel,
return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from
the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your fathers and your
brothers, who were faithless to the LORD God of their fathers, so that he made
them a desolation, as you see” (2 Chr.30:6,7). Chapter 30 ends on this wonderful note: “So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for
since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been
nothing like this in Jerusalem. Then the priests and the Levites arose and
blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to his
holy habitation in heaven.”
In 2 Chronicles 35, King Josiah celebrated another
Passover: “No Passover like it had been
kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of
Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the
Levites, and all Judah and Israel.” We
no longer celebrate the Passover; we go to the cross. At the evening of the
last Passover, Jesus took the cup and the broken bread and said, “Take eat… drink.” The elements
represent His body and His blood and “as often as you eat this bread and drink
the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (1 Co.11:26) Those who are anxious to obey His
commands are careful to do this often.
Thousands of Christians were massacred by the
Communists in Cambodia. Some survived by hiding in the jungle. Friends of ours
visited that land a number of years ago and said that still, decades later, a
remnant of Christians continued to come out of hiding. Through the darkest of
times, we can look to the God of all hope to revive us, to bring the joy of
heavenly blessing and to give glory to His name.
God
and God alone
When a Christian prays, “Hallowed be Your name” he “will
have regard for his Maker and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel”. To
hallow His name or to sanctify it (the literal term) means to separate it from
all others. His name will be unique, apart from all else, and stand alone in
his life. The person who truly prays in this way, “Will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands, nor will
he look to that which his fingers have made…” (v.8)
Albert Barnes comments concerning these two verses: “Instead
of confiding in their strongly fortified places and armies, they shall look for
aid and protection to the God that made them, and who alone can help them.
National afflictions and judgments often have the effect to turn the eyes of
even a wicked and rebellious people to God. They feel their danger; they are
convinced of their guilt; they see that no one but God can protect them...”
John Wesley on these same verses: “A
man - Those few men that are left. Look - They shall sincerely respect, and
trust, and worship God, and God only.”
If this doesn’t happen, nothing has happened and all
is in vain. In the lifetime and ministry of Isaiah, King Ahaz of Judah visited
Damascus, just at this time, when it was taken over by Tiglath-pileser, the
king of Assyria. There he saw an altar and he sent the pattern and measurements
to Urijah the priest, who promptly built a replica in Jerusalem. The altar
built by Solomon was pushed aside to make room for this heathen workmanship. Do
we find this repulsive? Then why don’t we find it equally repulsive, when the
successful patterns of the world are brought into the church? Why do we resort
to its public relations methods, to its publicity, its salesmanship, its
programs and its methods? We are no different that King Ahaz in bringing the
patterns of Damascus to Jerusalem (v.8).
How often did the Lord say that if Israel resorted to
the same evil for which the Canaanites were driven from the land, the same would
happen to them! As these seven nations were judged, now it is Israel’s turn to
be judged (v.9). In Leviticus18:28, the Lord warned that if Israel would defile
the land, the land itself would spew them out and so it happened. Does this
happen in the church age? Jesus warned that the lukewarmness of Laodicea was
turning His stomach and if there was no repentance, He would likewise spew them
out. “Judgment must begin at the house
of God”, and an attempt to go on with church business with a lack of
spiritual power, when ritualism has replaced the moving of the Holy Spirit,
when there are repeated cases of leaders falling into sin and when there is an
influx of the styles, manners and practices of the world, then we can be
assured that His judgment will fall.
The God of your salvation, the One God with nail prints
in His hands is the only One of whom we should testify and praise. “You neglected the Rock who begot you, and
forgot the God who gave you birth” (Dt.32:18). I am absolutely sick of people
testifying of men and places, from where and from whom they have gotten help.
If they remembered the Rock of refuge, there would be no place in the heart for
anyone or anything else.
Foreign
pleasure plants
Israel imported plants of pleasure from afar. These
things were filling their lives and wooing their hearts. It typified confidence
and pleasure in foreign powers, especially Egypt, which always is a type of the
world in the Bible (v.10). Are our pleasures and our confidence placed in the
world’s fountains?
Israel was focusing on these imported foreign plants,
giving early and careful attention to them, rather than turning to the Lord in
prayer, as the spring of all worthwhile blessings. Be assured, the time will
come when God will show the folly of the attention, which is focused on earthly
sources. Whereas God’s work can never be taken away, the Assyrians help
themselves to Israel’s labors. After all the effort given to planting, cultivating,
and fertilizing, the eye-opening disappointment at harvest time, when it
becomes evident that nothing eternal has been reaped, will be severely painful.
Isaiah says that the sickness will be incurable… too late for treatment (v.11).
Hope turns to despair. All the work fed the pride and vanity of men, so instead
of the expected and promising harvest, it is removed by the enemy. It was
idolatry!
The Assyrians are halted, defeated and routed
Now the prophecy moved to the south and we hear of the
invasion of the Assyrians against Judah (v.12). These last three verses join to
bring this chapter to a very pleasant end. It is so very poetic and expressive,
and this is the beauty of God´s literature. Some of it is done in song. We have
the books of Psalms, Proverbs, which are almost entirely poetic, and certainly
it is present in the prophets, as well. The Lord doesn’t just record the facts;
they are portrayed by song, prose and poetry with style and beauty. God is a
God of color and rhythm.
Clarke says: “It is a
noble description of the formidable invasion and the sudden overthrow of
Sennacherib; which is intimated in the strongest terms and the most expressive
images, exactly suitable to the event.” The Assyrian army was mighty, proud
and self-confident, but it didn´t leave like it came. There is great irony in the
mighty works of God, written for the encouragement of Judah and for us. One
Angel was sent to defeat the enemy, but it is the Angel of the Lord (Is. 37:36)…
the divine Angel. Isaiah writes so much of Him and we´ll cover this event more
thoroughly later in this book.
The description of verses 12 and 13 helps our
imagination view this powerful military invasion by a world-conquering army
that has rumbled into many countries already, defeated their armies and
overthrown their governments. Only our God is capable of stepping in front of
this formidable force and with one word of rebuke, they come to a halt. He not
only stops them, He turns the battle around and against the enemy and they run
in retreat. He is an incomparable God. See the comparison: Like chaff before the wind; like
dust before a gale. Isaiah sees it in vision and reports in present tense
(v.13). The future tense need not be used, because God’s prophecies are as sure
as if they had already taken place.
It only took one night and 185,000 soldiers were
annihilated… “they are no more” (v.14).
See the reversal from terror upon Judah, because of the powerful invasion at
nightfall, to “no more” at the dawn.
Not one is left; they are either dead or they have fled the country. Not only
was fear removed, the enemy itself was removed and there was nothing more to
fear. This was a victory that the faithful could always fall back on. What
happened on this occasion will always be the case. God places these landmark
victories in our life, so that we will never forget them. He wants us to know
that what took place here, will always be the case.
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