Isaiah 17:10-11 Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength… I. FORGETFULNESS OF GOD IS AN EVIL WHICH TOO GENERALLY PREVAILS AMONG MEN. The text does not so much charge with positive wickedness (though it is implied) as forgetfulness of God, which supposes folly, because He is the God of salvation, and the Rock of strength. Consider these relations — 1. The God of thy salvation. (1) He is infinitely able to save His creatures, whether the salvation required be temporal, spiritual, or eternal. (2) He is always willing to save them. How inexcusable is maul How criminal to forget, to be unmindful of Him! 2. The Rock of thy strength. Here we may build, and the fabric will never be shaken. Here we may shelter, as in the cleft of a rock, and no evil shall prevail against us. For so helpless and weak a creature as man to have such a refuge, such a support, and to be unmindful of it, how great is his folly! But when may we be said to forget, and to be unmindful of God? When we live without thinking of Him — without praying to Him — without seeking His glory — without surrendering our souls, bodies, and all our cares into His hands. II. THE ATTENTION THUS DRAWN FROM GOD AND HIS SERVICE IS TRANSFERRED TO WORLDLY AND SENSUAL PLEASURES. The soul of man in this case strives to supply its want of happiness from the world: "therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants." Infinitely varied are the objects of the attention or culture of men, but they all proceed from the above principle, or rather have the same end in view. Some seek their pleasure in learning, others in the arts, riches, honours, employments, amusements. But they are "strange slips," not natural, not designed to. answer the intended purpose. The sons of men are determined to prove what the world can do for them. "In the day THE CONSEQUENCES OF SUCH CONDUCT. "The harvest shall be a heap," etc. (J. Walker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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: |
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