And a gleaning shall be left in it, as at the shaking of an olive-tree two, three berries above, in the tree-top; four, five in its fruitful boughs, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel.
The chapter opens with a word against Damascus, but by this verse the prophet is looking at Israel and counting what survives God's harvest. Why does God cut His own people down to so little, and what do the few left over become?
Damascus was Israel's old ally. The striking thing in this judgment is that God does not spare the partner He calls His own.
Long ago Syria and Ephraim plotted together against the kingdom of David's son, and brought themselves down by it. Once again the remarkable feature of this judgment is that God will deal with His people as well as with their old ally... He will gather out all the causes of stumbling from them and punish the transgressors. He will use their enmity to purge that threshing-floor of the land of Israel. He will deal with His people in a judicial way.
Reaping corn, gathering grapes, beating an olive tree. Each picture ends the same way: almost nothing left, but not quite nothing.
The figure here is harvest, whether of corn or of grapes. It would leave them poor and thin. Yet a remnant would remain, like a gleaning of grapes or a few berries on an olive tree. That remnant will turn their eyes to "the Holy One of Israel," and away from the idolatrous things that once held them.
The counting in this verse — two or three, four or five — measures a nation cut down to almost nothing. One writer ties that thinning to a set time, and to troubles that end with the survivors turning back to God.
This prophecy relates to a time when "the glory of Jacob" is to be made thin, and "the fat of his flesh" is to grow lean. The people shrink so far that the survivors are like gleaning grapes, or the two or three berries left in the top of the highest bough after someone shakes an olive tree. Those who do survive look to their Maker instead of to the altars their own hands had made. They have respect to the Holy One of Israel, not to the groves and images they once worshipped. This is the outcome of these closing troubles.
The stripping has a purpose. It runs until the people have nothing of their own left to lean on.
In verses 4-6 we see the judgment of Israel, but gleaning grapes are left there. God disciplines His people till they stop resting on their own strength, instead of relying on God alone. Yet when dwindled down to a remnant of two or three here and four or five there, they shall look to Himself, the only source of strength, the Holy One of Israel... When God's people are faithless, they are able to act even with the shrewdness and wisdom of the natural man. When they do not rest on God, they are weaker than the world.
The few berries are no accident of the harvest. They stand on God's own choice.
If God is to punish their departure from Him by visiting them outwardly and inwardly, this passage plainly marks out a remnant as well. Mercy rejoices against judgment, and God makes good His own glory in both. But Jehovah's pruning hand must thin that returned remnant. Still the holy seed will be there when judgment has done its work over and over again. It is the stock, the rooted stump of the nation. There is ever a remnant according to the election of grace.
The same picture returns later in Isaiah. There the remnant does more than survive — it praises.
The gloom of judgments on the earth fills the first 12 verses of the chapter. But at verse 13 light begins to break. It points to a remnant of God-fearing ones, under the same figure used in Isaiah 17:6. So even in the darkest hour a note of praise will sound, and people will acknowledge and honour God.
- Left, not lost — the beating of the tree falls on God's own people, not only on their ally Damascus. God purges His threshing-floor and punishes the transgressors.
- Left thin — the harvest pictures show a nation made poor and lean, cut from a full crop to a few berries out of reach.
- Left leaning — the thinning goes on until the people stop resting on their own strength. Without God they are weaker than the world.
- Left looking — those who remain turn from the altars their own hands made to their Maker, the Holy One of Israel.
- Left singing — the same picture returns later in Isaiah, where the few left sound a note of praise in the darkest hour. There is always a remnant according to the election of grace.
In that day shall man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have regard to the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 17 opens with judgment on Damascus, Israel's old ally. Then it turns to Israel itself, whose glory shrinks until only a gleaning is left. Verse 7 is the turning point. A stripped people finally looks away from what its own hands made, and up to the God who made them.
The chapter is not only about a foreign city. God's hand reaches His own people too, alongside the ally they had joined.
Long ago Syria and Ephraim plotted against the kingdom of David's son, and it cost them dearly. Once again the striking feature of this judgment is the same: God will deal with His people as well as with their old ally. … He will gather out of them everything that makes people stumble, and He will punish those who do wrong. He will use their enemies' hostility to clear that threshing-floor, the land of Israel. He will deal with His people in a judicial way.
Real invasions lie behind this chapter. But commentators see the prophecy running on past them to the last days.
Isaiah 17 proves that the aim is the last days, seen through present circumstances. Here the Assyrian is the occasion, not Babylon: the invasions of Shalmaneser, Sargon and Sennacherib, above all Tiglath-Pileser and Sennacherib. But Jacob is brought low at the same time. In the remnant there is deliverance and salvation, in the lowest condition of Israel, and the remnant looks to God. The nation is judged for leaving Jehovah and trusting its own ways.
Only a few survive this judgment — and their eyes change direction.
So few of the people are left that the survivors are like "gleaning grapes," or the "two or three berries left in the top of the highest bough after the shaking of an olive tree." Those who do survive are pictured as looking to their Maker, not to the altars their own hands had made. They have respect for the Holy One of Israel, not for the groves and images that were once the objects of their idol worship. Such is to be the outcome of these closing troubles.
That turning is needed because idolatry does not stay buried. Commentators note that Israel had already suffered for it and had long abandoned it, yet Scripture says many will return to it — which is exactly why the call to trust God is pressed.
To whom, then, should Israel trust, if not in Jehovah? It might seem strange that such an appeal should be needed. Could not everyone see the idols and learn what they were? Had not their ancestors suffered for idolatry? Had they not renounced it for centuries? All true. Yet we read that most of the nations will go back to this sin and worship idols again (Isa. 2:20; Isa. 17:7-8; Isa. 30:22; Isa. 31:7; Hosea 14:3). And the call to trust in Jehovah will be needed all the more, because in that day those who fall away will be outwardly prosperous.
"The Holy One of Israel" is Isaiah's own title for God, and verse 7 uses it. It carries two more thoughts: Redeemer, and Creator — which is what "Maker" says here.
Throughout Isaiah He is called "the Holy One of Israel." This title of the Lord, who deals with His people in judgment and in mercy, appears twenty-five times in Isaiah. Read 1:4; 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7 … The Holy One of Israel is Jehovah; He is the Redeemer of His people. … This Holy One is the Creator. "The Holy One has created it" (41:20).
This turning is not only national. Grace meets people one by one, and it meets those who have nothing left.
The same prophet speaks of a faithful remnant of the people who will cling to the Holy One of Israel, believing His word and profiting by His grace (chap. 11:20; 17:7). This will be an individual work. Whoever believes on the Lord will not be ashamed. … The great principle of grace comes out here. It is the same grace in the precious words of the Lord Jesus: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3).
- Stripped. God judges His own people, not just their ally. He thins their glory to a gleaning and purges the land like a threshing-floor.
- Looking. At Israel's lowest point, the remnant looks to God. Deliverance is there, not in the nation's own ways.
- Exchanged. Their eyes turn to their Maker, not to altars their own hands built. They look to the Holy One, not to the old images.
- Named. The One they look to is Isaiah's "Holy One of Israel" — both Redeemer and Creator, which is why He is called their Maker.
- Personal. This looking is an individual work of grace. Whoever believes will not be ashamed. The blessing belongs to the poor in spirit.
And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, nor have regard to what his fingers have made, neither the Asherahs nor the sun-images.
Isaiah 17 opens with a message against Damascus. The prophet then turns to Israel, whose glory God is about to thin out, and verse 8 shows what a stripped people will no longer look at. Why must God reduce a nation to almost nothing before it stops looking at what its own hands built?
Syria and Ephraim — the northern kingdom of Israel — had joined against Judah. The judgment strikes both.
Long ago Syria and Ephraim conspired against the kingdom of David's son, and it ended in their own defeat. Once again the remarkable feature of this judgement is that God will deal with His people as well as with their old ally… He will gather out all the causes of stumbling from among them and punish the transgressors. He will use their enmity to purge that threshing-floor, the land of Israel. He will deal in a judicial manner with His people.
The thinning in the verses just before is not random loss. It has a purpose. The few who remain are the ones who look up.
God chastises His people until they stop resting on their own strength instead of relying on God alone. Yet when they have dwindled to a remnant of two or three here and four or five there, they shall look to Himself, the only source of strength, the Holy One of Israel. For their idolatry they had been made desolate.
The verse works by contrast. For every thing the eyes leave, there is One the eyes find. That change of gaze is the outcome of the trouble.
Those who survive are pictured as looking to their Maker, instead of to the altars which their own hands had made. They have respect to the Holy One of Israel, instead of to the groves and images which were once the objects of their idolatrous worship. Such is to be the outcome of these closing troubles.
Two titles do the work. "Maker" answers the altars that men made; the Holy One of Israel answers the groves and images. What you made can never replace the One who made you.
God's judgment does not stop with the people. It reaches the idols themselves. (Where the ESV has "the Asherim" and "the altars of incense", the older translation these writers used says "groves" and "sun-images".)
There is "the iniquity of Jacob" which will have to be purged from them by these severe dealings from the hand of God… for Jacob the smitings will reach to the altars and groves and sun-images, which shall be ground to powder. So the very judgments that God will inflict upon His people, largely by the hand of other people, will have the effect of destroying the very things that had been a snare to them.
It is easy to read this verse as a description of something long finished. One writer lists it with other passages to show the opposite: the sin returns before it is dropped for good.
Could not all see the idols, and learn what they were? Had not their forefathers suffered for idolatry? Had they not for centuries renounced it? All true. Yet we read that the majority of the nations will return to this sin, and again worship idols. (Isa. 2:20; Isa. 17:7-8; Isa. 30:22; Isa. 31:7; Hosea 14:3.) And the call to trust in Jehovah will be all the more needed, because in that day those who fall away will be outwardly prosperous.
Altars and carved poles are not the only things hands can make. The same instinct works with better vocabulary.
Are not men today really worshipping Christ after their own fashioning? Are they not worshipping a god which they themselves have manufactured, out of their own thoughts, calling it by the name of the living God? … The root of it among professed Christians is putting Christian activity in the place of Christian faith. Faith must always be at the foundation. If Christian faith is not there, there is bound to be an idol of some kind, no matter how great the activity may be — even activity that looks fruitful for God.
- Stripped — God thins the glory of Jacob. A people who leaned on their own strength have nothing left to lean on but Him.
- Turned — the eyes move from the altars their hands made to the Maker who made them. Images give way to the Holy One of Israel.
- Purged — the same blows that fall on Jacob grind his altars and images to powder. The snare itself goes.
- Ahead — writers read this as still to come. Idolatry returns before it is dropped for good, and the call to trust the Lord matters most when those who fall away look prosperous.
- Today — a god assembled out of our own thoughts is still handiwork, however familiar the name written on it.