September 24, Isaiah 17
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.
- Isaiah 17:10-11
How often do you say, “I forgot?” Whether it’s an
item I was supposed to pick up at the store, an
appointment I failed to keep, or a task I said I
would perform, I blame my failure to do what I
should have done on a mental lapse. It’s not that
I was ignorant of the thing in question. My
problem in each of those scenarios is that my
behavior did not match what I knew.
Before Israel entered the land of Canaan, Moses
repeated the details of the law God gave them at Sinai. The Exodus generation was dead. The
entering generation needed to hear the law and
understand the covenant God made with their
parents. Moses cautioned them to remember the Lord their God and warned them of the terrible consequences that would come if they forgot him. He was talking about their behavior, not their score on a test about their knowledge of God. When Solomon exhorted his readers to
remember their Creator in the days of their youth, he was reminding them to live with an awareness of God and his will for their lives. Throughout the Bible, remembering or forgetting God is a way to express and explain why some people obeyed God and others disobeyed God. Our conduct is guided by whether or not we remember who God
has revealed himself to be, and what his will is
for our lives.
Chapter 17 reminded the Israelites of how foolish it was for them to trust in idols or human allies instead of trusting God. God wanted them to remember that he was Sovereign over all. He
assured them that he was in control and would
triumph over any adversary or opponent.
Ephraim (northern kingdom Israel) had formed an alliance with Syria to defend themselves from the Assyrians. God told them their ally’s great capital city would become a heap of ruins and the other cities would be places where the animals would roam. Israel’s defense would disappear as Syria’s control over the region evaporated.
Hard times were ahead for stubborn, rebellious
Israel. God would reduce Israel, once a strong
and healthy youth, to a weak and wilted old man. When they planted, there would be little or no harvest. Their decline, hunger and poverty would come as a direct result of their disobedience and unfaithfulness to God. They had forgotten God, and their lives showed it.
After disaster struck, Israel would finally
remember and look to God. They would turn
away from idols. Israel would learn its lesson, but the lesson would be costly.
Even as God allowed the Assyrians to destroy
the north and much of the south and advance on Jerusalem, God was still in charge. Through
Isaiah’s prophecy, the Lord reminded them that
the mighty Assyrians were under his sovereign
control. They would threaten the capital city, but
God would destroy Sennacherib’s army in a
single night and end the threat. Isaiah assured
the threatened Israelites, “This is the portion of
those who loot us, and the lot of those who
plunder us.”
Some states’ flags from the early colonial days in America bore the image of a coiled rattlesnake and warned would-be aggressors, “Don’t tread on me.” This chapter is like that—a warning to God’s forgetful people and their attackers that their ungodly behavior would result in fatal consequences.
This warning is good for us, too. Is there any area of my life where I conveniently choose to “forget” God and his will? Wouldn’t it be better for us to remember and behave like we remember God before we have to suffer the sad and painful consequences of forgetting God?
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—September 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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