by Larry Ferrell | March 23, 2018
Assyria was the destroyer of both Syria and Israel (Ephraim). Damascus fell after a ruinous siege in 732 BC, and Samaria (the capital of Israel) a decade later in 722 BC. In verses 4-6 three images depict Israel’s condition after her collapse. She will be like an emaciated man whose fat has disappeared, leaving him lean and skeletal (v. 4), like a reaped field in which only a few stalks remain for the poor to glean (v. 5), and like a grove of olive trees that have been so thoroughly beaten that only a few pieces of fruit remain on the highest branches (v. 6). The same condition is described in verse 9.

In one sense, of course, Israel’s fall was simply the result of her foolish collusion with Syria. But it had deeper roots. Isaiah probes these directly in verses 10-11, and indirectly in the pivotal passage in verses 7-8. At heart her undoing was her long history of idolatry, which had eroded her single-minded commitment to the Lord, and opened her to a politics of convenience and worldly wisdom instead of trust.

The worship of the Canaanites consisted largely of the performance of rites which were thought to induce fertility in flock and field by a kind of sympathetic magic. One such rite appears to underlie verses 10-11 with their mention of finest plants and imported vines. Seedlings were induced to grow and blossom at an artificially rapid rate, probably at a shrine. But of course the evidence which they appeared to give of the potency of the god was false, and participation in such rites by Israelites showed that they had turned their backs on the Lord, and only One who could have given them security (v. 10a). As the plants soon withered, so would the hopes of the worshippers (v. 11b).

In verses 7-8, at the center of the passage, idolatry is described in more familiar terms. A contrast is drawn between gods that are made by human beings, Asherah poles, and incense altars (v. 8), and the one true God who is the Maker of all things (v. 7). And a day is spoken of when people will finally recognize the folly of idolatry and acknowledge the supremacy of Israel’s God. Isaiah foresees a day when people everywhere will finally forsake their man-made gods. The Lord’s immediate purpose is to induce Israel to do so, and judgment is the means He will use to bring it about. The repentance of Israel is central to His wider purposes, as the pivotal position of verses 7-8 suggests. He has declared war on idolatry.

Isaiah 17:1-14 Reflection Questions:
What do the verses 4-6 remind you of about our spiritual condition?
What in your life is eroding your commitment to the Lord?
Has God won the war of idolatry in your life?

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