Commentary - Isaiah 17:7-11

Bird's-eye view

This passage in Isaiah is a hinge. It swings from a pronouncement of devastating judgment upon Damascus and Ephraim to the glorious result of that very judgment. The theme is a classic biblical one: God demolishes in order to rebuild. He tears down the flimsy, man-made shelters of idolatry so that men, stripped of their false confidences, might look to their true Maker and find refuge in Him. The central contrast is between looking to the "work of his hands" and looking to the "Holy One of Israel." Idolatry is presented here not just as a religious error, but as a form of cosmic stupidity and ingratitude. Men forget the God who made them, the Rock who saves them, and instead put their trust in things their own fingers have fashioned. The result of this foolish exchange is desolation. The very things they cultivated for their delight become a harvest of incurable pain. This is a covenant lawsuit in miniature, showing that when God's people adopt the worship of foreign gods, they will inherit the fate of foreign nations, utter ruin.

But in the midst of this ruin, there is a glorious "in that day." This is the language of divine intervention, the day of the Lord. When God acts, the first thing that happens is that human pride is shattered and men's eyes are redirected upward. The judgment is not merely punitive; it is redemptive. It is a severe mercy designed to cure Israel of her spiritual adultery. The desolation of the strong cities and the failure of the delightful plants are the necessary prelude to a restored relationship with Yahweh. God brings His people to the end of their own resources so that they might, at long last, remember Him as their only resource.

Outline

Context In Isaiah

Chapter 17 of Isaiah is an oracle primarily concerning Damascus, the capital of Syria (Aram), but it is inextricably linked with the fate of Ephraim, the northern kingdom of Israel. This is because, at this point in history (around 735 B.C.), Syria and Israel had formed an unholy alliance against Judah. Isaiah is declaring that this alliance will fail and that both nations will face the judgment of God at the hands of the Assyrians. The first six verses describe the coming destruction in vivid terms: Damascus will cease to be a city, and the glory of Ephraim will fade like a harvested field. The passage we are examining, verses 7-11, describes the spiritual consequence of this physical devastation. It shows what the judgment is intended to produce in the remnant who survive. This section, therefore, serves as a theological explanation for the historical events, rooting the political and military upheaval in the covenantal sin of idolatry and the redemptive purpose of God.

Key Issues

The Great Forgetting

At the root of all sin is a form of forgetfulness. Adam forgot the one simple command of his Maker. Israel in the wilderness forgot the God who had just split the Red Sea for them. And here in Isaiah, the cause of Israel's ruin is stated plainly: "For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the rock of your strong defense." This is not a simple lapse of memory, like forgetting where you put your keys. This is a willful, culpable act of ignoring who God is and what He has done. It is the creature turning his back on the Creator.

And what happens when man forgets God? He does not cease to worship. He simply redirects his worship downward. He forgets the Maker and begins to have regard for the things he himself has made. This is the essence of idolatry. Man, the image-bearer, forgets the original and falls in love with his own reflection in the things he can produce. He exchanges the glory of the immortal God for images. In this passage, that exchange is shown to be the height of foolishness. They forget the Rock of their salvation and then try to plant gardens to a strange god, hoping for a harvest. But a god you can plant in your garden is no god at all. The harvest of such worship is not life and blessing, but sickness and incurable pain. The judgment of God is simply Him giving men the logical consequences of their choices. If you forget the source of life, you get death.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 In that day man will have regard for his Maker And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

The phrase in that day signals a decisive moment of divine intervention. After the judgments described in the previous verses have done their work, a profound shift will occur. The focus of man's attention will be radically reoriented. Instead of looking down and around at their circumstances and their man-made solutions, their eyes will be lifted up. They will "have regard for his Maker." This is the fundamental turning point of repentance. It is a recovery of a right perspective, remembering that we are creatures and He is the Creator. The second clause reinforces the first: "his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel." This is not just a generic acknowledgment of a creator god, but a specific turning to the covenant God of Israel, the Holy One who has revealed Himself to them. The judgment has stripped away their illusions, forcing them to look away from their idols and toward the only one who can save.

8 He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands, Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made, Even the Asherim and incense stands.

This verse describes the necessary flip side of the previous one. To look to God requires looking away from idols. True repentance is not just adding God to your portfolio of spiritual assets; it is a wholesale rejection of all rivals. Notice the emphasis on the source of these idols: they are "the work of his hands," that which "his fingers have made." Isaiah mocks the absurdity of worshiping something you yourself have manufactured. You cannot save yourself, and neither can anything you make. The specific objects mentioned, the Asherim (wooden poles representing a Canaanite fertility goddess) and incense stands, were central to the syncretistic, pagan worship that had corrupted Israel. In the day of God's visitation, these things will be seen for what they are: worthless, powerless artifacts of rebellion. The man whose eyes have been opened by grace no longer has any regard for them.

9 In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest, Or like branches which they forsook before the sons of Israel; And the land will be a desolation.

The prophecy returns to the physical consequences of their sin. The very things they trusted in for security, their "strong cities", will be overthrown. The imagery is one of utter abandonment and ruin. They will become like the pagan sites the Canaanites forsook when Joshua and the sons of Israel first conquered the land. There is a terrible irony here. Israel, by adopting the worship of the Canaanites, will now suffer the same fate as the Canaanites. The covenant promised them blessing and security in the land as long as they were faithful. By being unfaithful, they have invoked the covenant curses, and they will be driven from their fortifications just as their predecessors were. The end result is stark: "the land will be a desolation." Sin always promises strength and fortification, but its ultimate product is always ruin.

10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation And have not remembered the rock of your strong defense. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine branches of a strange god.

Here is the theological foundation for the entire passage, the reason for the judgment. "For" introduces the cause of the desolation. It all comes down to a great forgetting. They forgot God in two specific capacities: as the "God of your salvation" and as the "rock of your strong defense." He is the one who saves and the one who protects. To forget this is to forget everything essential about Him. And what is the result of this amnesia? They turn to other means of securing blessing and fertility. The "delightful plants" and "vine branches of a strange god" likely refer to pagan horticultural rites, perhaps the gardens of Adonis, where small pots of fast-growing herbs were cultivated in honor of a pagan deity, symbolizing a desire for quick, magical results. Having forgotten the true God of the harvest, they turn to the cheap magic of false gods.

11 In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in, And in the morning you cause your seed to flourish; But the harvest will be a heap In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.

This verse describes the tragic futility of their idolatrous efforts. They pour all their energy into this false worship. They fence in their pagan gardens, tending them with care. They see what appears to be initial success; the seed seems to flourish quickly. This is the deceptive appeal of all sin and idolatry, it often provides a quick, superficial sense of life and progress. But the final outcome, the actual harvest, is a disaster. Instead of a bounty, they reap "a heap", a pile of ruin. Instead of a day of joyful celebration, it is "a day of sickliness and incurable pain." This is the harvest of idolatry. It promises delight but delivers disease. It promises life but delivers pain from which there is no recovery, apart from a turning back to the God they had forgotten. The entire enterprise of man-centered religion is a frantic gardening that yields only a harvest of sorrow.

Application

This passage from Isaiah is a diagnostic tool for the human heart in any century. The temptation to forget our Maker and trust in the work of our own hands is the default setting of our fallen nature. Modern man may not set up Asherah poles in his backyard, but he has his own "strong cities" and "delightful plants." We trust in our financial portfolios, our technological prowess, our political ideologies, our educational attainments, and our curated online personas. These are the altars we build with our own hands, the things we look to for salvation and defense.

And like ancient Israel, we forget. We forget that every good gift comes from the Father of lights. We forget that our next breath is a gift of His grace. We forget that the only true security is to be found in the "rock of our strong defense," the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we pour our energies into cultivating our little gardens of self-reliance. We fence them in, we tend them, we watch them flourish for a morning. But the harvest is always, eventually, a heap of ruin. Financial markets crash, technology fails, political saviors disappoint, and our carefully constructed identities are revealed as fragile shams. The day of sickliness and incurable pain arrives.

The message of Isaiah is that God, in His mercy, often allows our strong cities to be forsaken. He allows our harvest to fail. He does this not to destroy us, but to get our attention. He brings us to a place of desolation so that "in that day" we might finally lift our eyes and have regard for our Maker. The gospel is the ultimate "in that day." In the day of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, the power of every idol was broken. He is the true God of our salvation and the only Rock of our defense. The call for us is to repent of our functional atheism, to stop forgetting the God who has saved us, and to look away from the worthless work of our hands and fix our eyes on the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ our Lord.