Isaiah 17
Are you apprehensive about what our Creator might do to a people who seem to have
forgotten He is God and we are not? If so, you and I are on the same page, for it seems
we are living in such a time as this, I often refer to it as our present darkness. God spoke
about such a time to Isaiah in bringing judgment on Damascus, and He has spoken to us
in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 of such a time. “But understand this, that in the last days there will
come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant,
abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen
with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of
godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV)
Before you freak out over the last three words of 2 Timothy 3:5, it does not mean to not
talk with them, it’s telling us what our mothers said, bad friends will lead you away from
God and the good He has planned for your life. If we were to avoid such people we could
not go to work, live in a neighborhood, or go to church. The people of Damascus are like
the people of the USA, this is why judgment is coming: “For you have forgotten the God
of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though
you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger, though you make them
grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.”
In verse 3 where God is speaking about the remnant of Aram will be like the splendor of the
Israelites, is not a good thing for both of these nations will be destroyed. In verses 4, 7 and
11 the term “On that day” is used and points to a time beyond the present. God is not telling
them to stop going to Temple, but that their worship is not from the heart, it’s a mental activity,
it is not based on obeying His commands, it is not a desire to walk worthy of fellowship
with God.
In verse 13, HCSB footnote on page 1155 states; “Mighty waters is often and image of
social and religious chaos (Ps 18:16; 29:3; 32:6). And in verse 14, we see the judgment
of God coming quickly, in a single day it began in the evening and was gone by the morning.
We should not be looking to a prophet to proclaim such an oracle against the United States,
for we have the complete Scripture, and God has spoken in His handbook on life, we call it
the Bible, it’s a good read, you will need the Spirit of Truth, the one Jesus refers to as our
Helper to give you insight into what is to come. And this writer, on the authority of th
e Scriptures, must tell you that “On that day” and no man knows the time, Jesus is coming
back, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, mighty God, it is a day I’m looking forward to,
what about you?
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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