Forgetting and Not Remembering Your God-Isaiah 17-18

“You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress…” (Isa 17:10a).

Theology in three words: Remember the Lord. Do not forget. You shall remember.

Theme: To remember God is to obey Him. To forget God is to not obey Him. You cannot claim to know and remember God if your life does not reflect it.

Questions for pondering and reflection in small groups:

• What does it mean to forget and to not remember God?
• Why might people forget and not remember God?
• What happens when you forget and don’t remember God?
• When we don’t remember God, do we allow our own strong feelings and emotions to dictate our choices, our decisions and our behavior?
• What difference would remembering God make?

Recap: God’s Grace to the Proud (Isaiah 15-16). Love (hesed) is used 250 times in the O.T. with hesed refering to God in the majority of instances. No single English word conveys its full meaning in Hebrew: love, mercy, grace, kindness, loyalty, compassion, steadfast love, loving kindness, reliability. A self-giving love. A passionate undying devotion from a superior to an inferior, especially when undeserved. It is the unconditional love that God extends to us. To refuse it is to refuse ever finding joy and peace in life.

Would you trust God in a crisis? The attack of Israel and Aram on Judah (Isa 7:1) precipitated a crisis of faith and trust (Isa 2:22; 7:4a, 9b). Judah [Ahaz], instead of turning to God, turned to the nations of the world [Assyria] for its help at the critical moment of difficulty (2 Ki 16:7). Thus, in Isaiah 17, Isaiah used this good opportunity (the mention of Aram and Damascus) to declare the larger truth in these chapters (13-23) that all nations of the world are subject to Yahweh (Isa 17:12-14; 18:1-7). So it would be foolish for Judah to either fear the nations or trust the nations (Isa 7:2, 4a, 9b).

Concerning Damascus/Ephraim [Syria/Northern Israel]

1. Judgment (17:1-6). Ruin, desertion and fading glory.
2. Repentance (17:7-8). Look to/turn to/worship your Maker, not idols.
3. Reason for judgment (17:9-11). Forgetting our God/Savior/Rock and our only hope.
4. Rebuking the nations (17:12-14). God is the ultimate ruler and reality, not the raging powerful nations (Assyria).
5. The futility of human conspiracies (18:1-7). God quietly waits until we realize the futility of our human efforts and schemes.

I. Judgment (17:1-6)

Ruin. 17:1-3 speaks of the fall of Aram (Syria), represented by its capital city, Damascus (Isa 17:1a). Her cities will be reduced to ruins (1b) and left to flocks (Isa 17:2). 17:3-4 changes the subject to Israel/Ephraim. Aram’s glory will be as fading as that of Israel (Isa 17:3).

Fading glory (17:4-6). The main topic in the rest of this section (17:4-11) is the fading glory of the Israelies (Isa 17:3-4). It begins with an extended comparison of Israel’s fate to that of a harvested field or orchard (17:4-6). Just as only a few stalks are left in a grain field or a few unripe fruits are left on the trees, so there will only be a remnant left of all that Israel once boasted of. As Isaiah son’s name Shear-Jashub suggests about a remnant returning (Isa 7:3), hardly anything of the nation of Israel will remain, though there will be something left.

II. Repentance (17:7-8): Looking to God and not to idols

Idolatry is a reversal of reality (17:7-8). God is the ultimate reality. Idols are counterfeit realities. 17:7-8 speak of that future day when the Israelites will be purified by judgment and will turn their backs on their idols. [Asherah poles refer to groves of poplar trees that were dedicated to the worship of the Canaanite fertility goddess.] The key emphasis is on worshiping their Maker (Isa 17:7), instead of what their hands have made (Isa 17:8). Would you worship God or your family, or children, or career, or church, or ministry.

III. Reason for Judgment (17:9-11): Forgetting and not remembering the God who saves us

Why judgment comes (17:9-10). The cities of Israel, like the cities of Aram, will be abandoned and desolate (Isa 17:9, 2). Why? Because God’s people have “forgotten God,” who is the only hope for deliverance and refuge (Isa 17:10). Instead of trusting the one who delivered them from Egypt and gave them the good land in which they live, they trust in their own strength and cunning.

To remember God is to obey God, to forget God is to disobey God. 17:10a, 10b is same point stated positively and negatively. These are important words because of the way Moses used these words in Deuteronomy. Hebrew does not believe it is possible to separate mental activity and real activity. What is it to remember God? It is to obey. If you do remember who God is and what he has done for you what are you going to do? You are going to obey him (because you remember him and trust him). Thus, to forget God is to disobey God (because you don’t trust him). By living in sin (wrongdoing), iniquity (bent) and rebellion (deliberate opposition) [Isa 1:2, 4], the people of God had essentially forgotten God, even though they went to the temple to worship, offer sacrifices and pray (Isa 1:12-15).

You cannot claim to know God if your life does not reflect it. “Forgotten” and “not remembered” (Ps 78:11, 42) refer to the failure to keep the mind fixed on God. What does it mean to keep the mind fixed on God? In the theology of Deuteronomy, remembering and forgetting form a fundamental concept (Dt 8:10-20; 10-11, 19-20). What is in view is not primarily a mental activity, although it does involve such activity. Rather, remembering is a mental activity which issues in certain kinds of behavior. Conversely, the absence of corresponding behavior negates any claimed mental activity. Thus, one cannot claim to know God if their life and behavior does not reflect it.

One who remembers acts accordingly. God wants his people to recall his unique, never-to-be-repeated acts on their behalf with the result that their present actions will be in keeping with his character. If their present actions are not of such a nature, then they do not truly remember who God is and what God has done.

Thinking you remember God when you don’t. If God has touched my life, yet my life is not different, then I have not perceived the implications of that touch; it is in fact void of significance (1 Cor 11:24-29; Gal 3:1-5). Thus, the Israelites may well have continued to look to Yahweh as their national god. They probably continued to see themselves as being faithful to God and orthodox, even while assimilating idolatry and paganism into their faith. Though they claimed to be the people of God they were not trusting God, for they were trusting in their idols and other nations for their security (cf. Isa 2:22).

“Salvation“is not an occasional act but an attribute of God. “God your Savior” is “the God of your salvation.” He is a “saving God,” “your saving God.” God’s people (Israel) could never say, “Ah, but he will not save (me / us) now,” for God is ever the saving God and “your saving God.” God is never not saving us, unless we refuse to trust him to do so, by making our own plans and insisting on our own schemes.

Rock is a dynamic metaphor, not static, providing fortress-like protection. In the OT, “rock” is not just a broad symbol for divine strength, durability, etc (Dt 32:4, 15, 18, 30-31; 1 Sa 2:2; Ps 19:14; 28:1; 62:2, 6; 78:35; 95:1). It’s link with salvation indicates that it is not a static but a dynamic metaphor. Its origin is from Exodus 17 regarding the provident rock from which the saving waters flowed (Ex 17:6). The Lord as Rock is the Lord in his dependable, saving actions, providing the fortress-like protection which his people need in a menacing world.

“Fortress” is “place of strength.” It is the same word as in “strong cities” in Isa 17:9. Thus, Isaiah insists that the way of faith is the way of true realism in this world.

The inadequacy of human strength (17:10b-11). Like 5:1-7, 7:10b-11 is familiar to these largely agricultural people. They have done everything that their human strength can do. They have purchased the finest “imported vines” (Isa 17:10b), perhaps an allusion to alliances with foreign nations. Even if they were skillful enough to cause the plants to bud and bear fruit in a single day (which they obviously cannot do), yet their harvest would be worthless (Isa 17:11). The coming judgment cannot be averted by human skill. The best of human effort is not enough to solve the human problem. Someday the remnant will learn this fact.

IV. Rebuking the Nations (17:12-14): Who actually rules the world?

God, not the powerful nations, is the ultimate reality (17:12-14). According to 17:12-14, it is unnecessary to become afraid because of the nations which are like a raging sea (Psalm 46), for they will be gone. The waves crash and roar with frightening power. It seems as though they are the ultimate reality with which we must come to terms. But in fact it is not the case. It is the One who sits in the heavens who is the ultimate reality (Psalm 2). They have their day. But the nations are no more substantial than bits of chaff or like rolling tumbleweed (Isa 17:13). Suddenly night falls and in the morning nothing is left of what seemed so enduring (Isa 17:14).

No one controls their own destiny. Isaiah is attempting to get his people to focus beyond the apparent realities onto the One who is reality in himself. The nations have their own plans and purposes. But they do not control their own destinies (Isa 14:24-27).

V. The Futility of Human Conspiracies (18:1-7): In the end whose purposes will be accomplished?

Wait on God who will act in his own time. In 715 Ethiopian Piankhi mastered Egypt and sought to play a part on the world stage. Envoys went to all the Palestinian states promising Egyptian aid in an anti-Assyrian rising. The world knows no security but collective strength (Isa 18:1-2a). Isaiah shows otherwise, as Ephraim and Aram’s collective strength failed miserably (17:1-5). Security can be found only in the Lord (Isa 17:7, 10), and one day the remnant will enjoy it (Isa 17:3, 6). This is a microcosm of the Lord’s plan for the world. God rules all the nations (17:12-14; 14:24-27). It would be better to take a different message to the nations: wait on the Lord (Isa 18:3), for he is planning his sudden intervention (Isa 18:4; 17:13). The harvest expected from human plans will come to nothing (Isa 18:5-6). But a world remnant will gather to the Lord in Zion (Isa 18:7).

18:1-3 says that instead of envoys coming from the Ethiopian king of Egypt to invite Judah to join a coalition against Assyria, envoys should tell them to wait on God (Isa 18:3). 18:4-7 is a direct message from God. While the nations are in turmoil like the waves of the sea, God quietly waits and will take action at just the right moment (Isa 18:4), cutting off the oppressing nations and leaving their corpses on the mountains.

God on the throne is the one ultimate reality. In the midst of earth’s struggles, it is often hard to believe that God is really on the throne. Suppose a modern-day Isaiah announced in 1942 that Germany and Japan (who ruled fully half the world between them) would be completely powerless in just a little over three years, he would have been laughed at and scorned. Despite the military power of those two great nations, they were swept away. God is the one reality who does not change or fade away. God is the One with whom we must come to terms.

What and whom are we relying on, putting our trust in, linking our lives, welfare and futures with? Ephraim chose Damascus, and sank along with its chosen associate. The powers of the world offered no security, rather the reverse.

Are we careful and discriminating enough when it comes to forming relationships, taking on business partners, falling in love? Is our confidence in well-founded insurance and assurance policies, sound investments, sufficient goods stored up? Or are we as firmly wedded to the God of our salvation and the Rock of our stronghold (Isa 17:10)? What do our neighbors see? Much more, what does the Watcher of Isa 18:4 see?

Spiritual exercise. God + your (________) = _______+_______.

• Anger = s___-c______ + gr_________.
• Greed = ge________ + ho_________.
• Lust = pu____ + wo_____.
• Jealousy/envy = ki______ + w___ w_____.
• Bitterness = gr_______ + th__________.
• Depression = p____ + st_______.
• Anxiety = c___ + con_______.
• Loneliness = con________ + com_________ + ful_______.
• Sin = rep______ + reg_________ + ren_____.
• You = Romans 8:28 + Genesis 50:20 + ……………

(Answer key: self-contro + graciousness; generosity _ hospitality; purity + worship; kindness + well-wishes; gratitude + thanksgiving; peace + stability; calm + confidence; contentment + completeness + fulfilment; repentence + regeneration + renewal; ……. – countless Bible verses.)

Questions:

1. Though Damascus is addressed in this judgment oracle (17:1–3), why do you think Ephraim is being addressed together? (Think about chapter 7 and which nations were threatening Judah there.) How does the issue of God’s people not trusting human nations come into play here? [Although Damascus has never been totally abandoned as Babylon was, it did suffer terrible devastation at the hands of the Assyrians in 732 BC (17:1–2).]
2. Why do you think the focus shifts completely to Israel (17:4-8)? Notice again the issue of “glory” (17:3, 4). Why is it counterproductive to seek our own glory (17:4-6)? What is the proper motive for achievement (Phil 3:8)?
3. 17:7–8 are in prose. This suggests that Isaiah joined them to 17:4-6. Why? What is the intended outcome of the judgment recorded? Has anything like this ever happened to you? [“The Valley of Rephaim” (17:5) was a fertile valley leading up to Jerusalem from the southeast. It was one of the few places were grain could be grown in Judah. The Philistines often used it for access up into the Judean highlands (2 Sam 5:18).]
4. What titles are given to Yahweh in 17:7? What is the contrast with 17:8? How does this relate to us?
5. [“Deserted because of the children of Israel” (17:9) is possibly recalling the cities the Canaanites deserted when Israel conquered Canaan.] Again we begin with a prose verse (17:9). What is the relationship between this and 17:10–11? What does it mean to forget and not remember God (17:10a)? Why will what is planted not grow (17:10b-11)? Is this an arbitrary punishment from God? Why not?
6. What is the contrast between 17:12–13a and 17:13b–14? How is this conveyed in the images used? What should this say to us in times of political uncertainty?
7. [Cush is the name for Ethiopia which was considered to be the southern extreme of the world.] What is missing from 18:1 (13:1; 14:28; 15:1; 17:1; 19:1; 21:1; 22:1; 23:1)? Compare the content of 18:3–6 with that of 17:12–14. What do you observe? (Remember that the chapter divisions were put in sometime after the 5th century AD). Now compare 18:2 with 18:7. What is said about (and to) other nations in this series, with what is not said about (or to) Cush?
8. What is the message of 17:12–18:7 about Yahweh and the nations of humanity?

Isaiah 17-18 (John Oswalt session 9).