Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 3, part 21

In prophesying the fate of Damascus and Syria as a whole, the prophet turns his attention to Ephraim-Israel, saying in Isaiah 17:4,

⁴ Now in that day the glory of Jacob will fade, and the fatness of his flesh [flesh] will become lean.

Isaiah refers to Israel as Jacob to emphasize “his flesh” and the fact that his 20-year time in exile in Haran set the prophetic pattern for the nation’s longer exile to Assyria. Jacob was a fleshly believer until he recognized the sovereignty of God and thereby became an overcomer named Israel. The nation in Isaiah’s day was no longer worthy of being called Israel, so the prophet refers to it by its fleshly name as Jacob (“deceiver, supplanter, heel-catcher”).

Once again, the prophet uses words that prophesy on a deeper level. The nation’s “flesh” was to become lean. The Hebrew word for flesh is basar, which has a double meaning. In this case it is translated “flesh,” but later in Isaiah 61:1 it is translated “good news.”

⁶¹ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news [basar] to the afflicted…

Jesus quoted this at the start of His ministry in Luke 4:18, saying, “He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.” Hence, the “good news” is “the gospel” that Christ preached. In John 6:54-56 Jesus explained this, saying,

⁵⁴ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

To hear His gospel was to eat His flesh. Jesus was expounding on the Hebrew word basar.

So when we compare Jesus’ words with those of Isaiah, we find that the Jacobites in his day were “lean,” because they had been consuming the wrong “gospel.” They had consumed fleshly gospels rather than the true gospel of Christ. Eating Christ’s flesh would have fattened their spirits, but instead, eating the fleshly words of the false prophets had made them lean.

Gleanings

Isaiah 17:5, 6 says,

⁵ It will be even like the reaper gathering the standing grain, as his arm harvests the ears, or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain in the valley of Rephaim. ⁶ Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives on the topmost bough, four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree, declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

The prophet shows here that the law of gleanings was prophetic and referred to the remnant, that is, the overcomers. The “reaper” in this case was Assyria cutting down the Jacobites as if they were stalks of grain. Likewise, Assyria shook the olive tree to bring the olives into his own vat and for his own use. And yet God promised to retain a remnant of grace in the midst of great tribulation.

The law of gleaning grain and grapes is found in Leviticus 19:9-11,

⁹ Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God. ¹¹ You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.

Deuteronomy 24:20 speaks also of gleanings from the olive tree:

²⁰ When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

This law is directly related to the law giving widows, orphans, aliens, and the poor the right to glean in any man’s field. We see this illustrated in the story of Ruth, who gleaned in Boaz’ field (Ruth 2:23). Those who did not have man’s covering—the protection of a kinsman redeemer—were covered and protected by God Himself (Exodus 22:22-24). As their Protector, He also provided for their needs through the law of gleanings.

The gleanings thereby represented the remnant of grace which enjoys the direct covering of God Himself. They have been orphaned by the church, often exiled (excommunicated). So we read the cry of David in Psalm 27:9, 10,

⁹ Do not hide Your face from me, do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation! ¹⁰ For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up.

With this in mind, we find Isaiah comparing the Assyrian conquest of Israel as beating the olive tree but sparing the gleanings that represent the remnant of grace. Keep in mind that under the Old Covenant, the law of gleanings was a command, which men were responsible to obey, but under the New Covenant, this law was a promise that God was responsible to keep.

 Because it was a promise, it was also prophetic of the years in which “Jacob” was in exile during the long tribulation. Paul says in Romans 11:7 that the remnant of grace was “chosen,” and that the rest of the Israelites were blinded—i.e., not “chosen.” There has been a remnant in every generation, even in the midst of great wickedness and darkness when it appeared that righteous people were nowhere to be found (1 Kings 19:10).

The remnant of grace acts as a preserving agent in the midst of wickedness and corruption in the world. These are also the first fruits, whose purpose is to sanctify the harvest. Whenever the priest offered the first fruits offering to God (barley, wheat, or grapes), it sanctified the harvest, allowing the people to harvest their crops.

Paul refers to this same purpose in another way in Romans 11:16, saying,

¹⁶ If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.

Man-Made Altars

Isaiah 17:7, 8 foresaw the purpose and the ultimate victory of the remnant, saying,

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

Dr. Bullinger’s notes on this verse tell us:

A man. Lit. the man. Heb. adam.

He explains that when adam appears with the definite article (“the”), it refers to the man in Genesis 2:7. Otherwise, without the definite article, it refers to mankind in general. In the case above, Bullinger says that it refers to Adam himself, who stands as the representative or head of all mankind. Hence, we can see this as a reference to Jesus Christ first, for He is said to be “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Christ, in turn, leads the entire human race back to God, even as the first Adam had led them all astray (Romans 5:18; 1 Corinthians 15:22).

We may view Isaiah’s prophecy as the result of God’s promise and as the sanctification of the whole harvest after the first fruits have been offered to God. Jesus Christ will not look to man-made altars, that is, altars made of stones shaped by man. An altar represents one’s heart, and when men try to become righteous by their own efforts and works, they only pollute their inner altars. The law of building altars is found in Exodus 20:25,

²⁵ If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it.

The remnant of grace are those whose altars are shaped by the Holy Spirit. Those who are merely religious attempt to perfect their own hearts by their own will, their own strength, and their own works, but though their altars may look beautiful, they remain polluted in the sight of God.

This is the gospel of Christ (basar) and the purpose of the Holy Spirit who works from the inside out, while most religious men shape their inner heart-altars from the outside by the power of their flesh. When Isaiah 17:7 says, “In that day,” the prophet refers to the future when the promises of God will be fulfilled through Christ.

In That Day

The prophet then speaks of a more immediate “day.” Isaiah 17:9, 10 says,

⁹ In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest, or like branches which they abandoned before [“because of,” KJV] the sons of Israel; and the land will be a desolation. ¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants and set them with vine slips of a strange [zur] god.

This is the day of Jacob’s exile, when their cities will be abandoned. The ungodly actions of the “sons of Israel” were the cause of this desolation. They had forgotten God who had fathered the nation. Moses prophesied this apostasy many years earlier in Deuteronomy 32:18,

¹⁸ You neglected the Rock who begot you and forgot the God who gave you birth.

 Instead, they figuratively planted vineyards “with vine slips of a foreigner” (or foreign god). The word picture is that of an Israelite husbandman splicing grape stems from foreign lands onto his vines. Spiritually speaking, it refers to the Israelites trying to splice the doctrines and practices of foreign gods into the worship of the God of Israel.

The result, as we will see shortly, is that the “vineyard” had become polluted by false gods, and that this is why both Israel’s cities were to be abandoned and Damascus was to become a “heap.”