December 22, 2018: Day 21 – Isaiah 17

It is hard for us to understand what it is like to have an oracle written against a city which has been around for millennia.  Nothing in the Bible was ever written about North America.  Nothing in the Bible was ever written about my European ancestors.  The Bible contains writings that people with Middle Eastern and African descent would be able to understand as addressing them directly.  There is still a city called Damascus and it is still located in the same place where it was located back when Isaiah was writing his prophecy.  Does that ever take your breath away?  If it doesn’t then it should at least humble you to make you realize that our background is so limited compared to that of those in the Middle East.

The passion about the land and the passion about the history is one that we simply cannot understand.  When there is an oracle written about, or against, Damascus, then a Christian living in that land now would be able to understand it at such a different level than we who live in this Western civilization that is so different from what we are reading. 

We begin this chapter with the heading of an oracle concerning Damascus.  If you go back and look at the map you will see that it is north of Israel and in a region that was called Aram.  You see Aram mentioned in vs.3.  You notice in vs.14 that the prophet gives a bit of a vengeful perspective when he describes all the destruction that is to come to Damascus and Aram and gives the reasoning behind it: “This is the fate of those who despoil us, and the lot of those who plunder us.”  I guess Isaiah was not quite into the whole 70×7 thing.  I get it.