Isaiah 17:1-6 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.… In the spoliation and consequent decrepitude of Damascus and Samaria we have a picture of - I. A NATION DENUDED OF ITS POWER. Under the judgments of Jehovah the proud city of Damascus becomes a "ruinous heap" (ver. 1), the populous towns are pasturage of herds and flocks (ver. 2), the strong places are reduced to utter weakness like the departed glory of Israel (ver. 3); under his judgment Ephraim also shall waste away, shall be as barren as the reaped corn-field, shall be reduced miserably like the tree on whose uppermost branches only a few thin berries can be discovered (vers. 4-6). Under the action of God's righteous laws, the strong nation is thus reduced by sin, from power to weakness, from pride to humiliation, from wealth to poverty, from populousness to depopulation. And it is always sin which is the true account of the reduction. Violence may be the immediate cause of overthrow, but violence only succeeds when corruption has brought enfeeblement and decline. Greece fell, not by the Roman sword, but by its own inherent weakness. The fall of Rome was due, not to the might of the barbarians, but to the corruption which sapped it of its strength, and thinned the ranks of its citizens. If England falls at some future day, it will not be because some European power has become irresistible, but because luxury will have bred corruption, and corruption have laid it open to the weapon of its foes. Its fatness will become thin, its strength will be seen only on its uppermost boughs; it will fall a prey to the first strong adversary that assails it. II. A CHURCH BEREFT OF ITS BEAUTY AND ITS INFLUENCE. Churches do not, usually, suffer loss by the hand of violence. But, by sins of their own, they are often painfully reduced, so that they are as a man whose "fatness has waxed thin," as the field of corn that has been cut, as a tree stripped of its goodly fruit, with nothing left but "two or three berries in the top of the uttermost bough." The enemies which work this waste, which bring this pitiful reduction, are these. 1. Discord within the ranks. 2. The spirit of worldliness, robbing of devotion and therefore of strength. 3. Unbelief, acting as a cancer that cuts off all spiritual nourishment. 4. Inactivity, begetting selfishness of aim, and causing the Church to miss that noble exercise which is the source and spring of all moral vigor. The Church that would not be thus wretchedly reduced must sedulously shun these sources of reduction; that one which has to lament its wasted condition must "repent, and do the first works," and the field shall yet be covered with the precious grain, the tree with its clusters of fruit. III. THE INDIVIDUAL MAN DEPRIVED OF HIS POSITION OR HIS STRENGTH. individual instances, the words of the text find illustration. 1. When the proud, godless man is brought down from his high position; when of all in which he gloried nothing but a few berries on the topmost boughs are left. Let youth shrink from entering on a course which will certainly have this pitiful end; let those who are pursuing it abandon it at the very earliest hour. 2. When death (the penalty of sin) intimates its approach, when the leanness and fruitlessness of death are apparent, then let a man ask whether there is life in its fullness and fruitfulness awaiting him on the other shore. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. |
    |