Page 41 - Isaiah Student Worktext

For Israel to take them in, for us to take in refugees, is a beautiful picture of salvation. People coming
for the free gift, people who don’t deserve it, couldn’t earn it. In reality, we are all spiritual refugees,
coming with nothing to offer and desiring compassion and forgiveness.

V. 11-12 Isaiah says that his heart will resound for Moab. Still, Moab had a responsibility: to put away
their ‘high place’, their false gods, very much like we are called to put away the old things. If we don’t,
like Moab, we won’t prevail.

Not everyone in Moab was prepared to make the changes—they only wanted safety.

V. 14 Within three years, which was the term of service for a hired man, the ‘glory of Moab’ would be no
more. It would be almost wiped out…but there would be a remnant. It would be ‘small and feeble’ but
those who had accepted the truth would be spared.

Chapter 17 In the previous chapter, Isaiah had compassion for the refugees of
Moab. We won’t see much in the way of compassion in this chapter. This one
prophesies destruction in the city of Damascus.

Damascus is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. It predates
Rome by over 1000 years. It was a strategically located city, one of the only accessible land routes
between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Because of its location, it was the launching site for many invasions
against Israel.

Like the prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, this one predicts total destruction, but does not
proclaim that it will never be inhabited again.

V. 1-3 Damascus will cease from being a city, it
will become a ruinous heap. The city will
become a grazing place for flocks, which lie
down in peace. There will be no one to bother
them.

Also mentioned in V. 3 is ‘Ephraim’ which is part
of Israel. God’s people, along with their enemies
the Syrians, will meet the same fate and for the
same reasons: idol worship.

It’s hard to accept God’s equal treatment of
pagan cultures and His people, but it’s all
because of their disobedience. The City of Damascus today

V. 4-8 The mention of the ‘harvester’ here is not referring to crops, but to the gathering of people.

And yet, in V. 6, ‘gleaning grapes’ will be left. This indicates that there would be a remnant, like the
harvesting of grapes with some left for the poor to harvest. Like shaking an olive tree, you would get
most of them, but ‘two or three’ at the top remain.

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