The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale. Sermons
I. THE POETIC REPRESENTATION. It is one of sublimity and terror, appealing through the sense of hearing to the imagination, and calling up indefinable alarm and sorrow. He hears in the distance the gathering of a multitude of nations, represented by the imperial name of Asshur. These hosts spread out in long line like the rolling wave, one excited surging mass, threatening to carry everything before it into destruction. Such an image may represent any great movement which seems at any time to threaten the spiritual life of a Church, of a nation. Never was there a time when anxious listeners did not hear such rising sounds in the distance; the statesman trembling for the welfare of institutions, the believer for the stability of faith. Is there just cause for alarm? Let the prophet answer. II. THE PROPHECY OF JUDGMENT. Remarkable is the picture of the sudden change. The power of the Divine Word is instantaneously felt. "It costs God simply a threatening word, and the mass all flies apart, and falls into dust, and whirls about in all directions; like the chaff of threshing-floors in high situations, or like dust whirled up by the storm." In the evening the destruction of the Assyrians begins, and in the morning they are completely destroyed. And the oracle ends with an expression of triumph over this portion and lot of the spoiler and the plunderer. LESSONS. 1. The Church, Christianity, religion, civilization, seem in every age to be threatened; yet they are ever safe. Force, numbers, armies, have but the show of strength when confronted with the spiritual world. 2. God is ever in his heaven - cannot and will not desert his place. 3. His judgments and rebukes are the expression of the eternal truth of things, and must prevail. - J.
Woe to the multitude of many people. These verses read the doom of those that spoil and rob the people of God. If the Syrians and Israelites invade and plunder Judah — if the Assyrian army take God's people captive, and lay their country waste, — let them know that ruin will be their portion. They are here brought in —I. TRIUMPHING OVER THE PEOPLE OF GOD. They rely upon their numbers. They are very noisy, like the noise of the seas; they talk big, hector and threaten. II. TRIUMPHED OVER BY THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. God can dispirit the enemies of His Church, when they are most courageous and confident, and dissipate them when they seem most closely consolidated. This shall be done suddenly (ver. 14). ( M. Henry.) II. THE RESISTLESS EXECUTION OF THE SENTENCE OF DOOM. III. THE SWIFTNESS WITH WHICH THE SENTENCE OF DOOM IS EXECUTED (ver. 14). It is true that the punishment of the wicked often seems to be delayed (Ecclesiastes 8:11); but — 1. Sin and punishment are inseparable. 2. Whenever the punishment comes it is sudden. Such is the blinding and delusive power of cherished sin that its penalty always finds the sinner unprepared to receive it; it is always a surprise and a shock to him. Conclusion —(1) Nations and armies cannot successfully evade the penalties of their sins; how much less can the individual sinner do so!(2) The certainty of the punishment of all unrepented sin should lead us seriously to reflect upon the attitude we are assuming before God.(3) The subject should lead to repentance, but not to despair (Psalm 130:7). (W. Manning.) People Amorites, Aram, Hivites, Isaiah, Israelites, JacobPlaces Aroer, Damascus, Syria, Valley of RephaimTopics Afar, Chaff, Chased, Circling, Driven, Driving, Dust, Fled, Flee, Flight, Gale, Grain, Hills, Hurricane, Mountains, Nations, Peoples, Pursued, Pushed, Rebuke, Rebukes, Roar, Roaring, Rolling, Rumble, Rumbling, Rush, Rushing, Stop, Storm, Surging, Tops, Tumbleweed, Waste, Wasted, Wasting, Waters, Whirling, Whirlwind, WindOutline 1. Syria and Israel are threatened6. A remnant shall forsake idolatry 9. The rest shall be plagued for their impiety 12. The woe of Israel's enemies Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 17:13Library The Harvest of a Godless Life'Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.'--ISAIAH xvii. 10, 11. The original application of these words is to Judah's alliance with Damascus, which Isaiah was dead against. … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Child Jesus Brought from Egypt to Nazareth. Isaiah Links Isaiah 17:13 NIVIsaiah 17:13 NLT Isaiah 17:13 ESV Isaiah 17:13 NASB Isaiah 17:13 KJV Isaiah 17:13 Bible Apps Isaiah 17:13 Parallel Isaiah 17:13 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 17:13 Chinese Bible Isaiah 17:13 French Bible Isaiah 17:13 German Bible Isaiah 17:13 Commentaries Bible Hub |