Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. (Isaiah 1:7)
We considered the first part of verse 7 yesterday and want to finish up this idea today. It is a fairly full and unpleasant idea, but very definite in the Scripture.
“Is desolation” is a Hebrew mode of emphatic expression, denoting that the desolation was so universal that the land might be said to be entirely in ruins. This is in line with the prior picture drawn of the human body being so badly beaten that was unrecognizable. The picture here is that of being entirely empty of anything valuable or desirable. This is especially significant since just some 700 years before Israel had been given a “good” land “flowing with milk and honey”!
In Exodus 3:8 we read:
So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Exodus 3:17 & Exodus 13:5 say God will bring them:
…up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.
Leviticus 20:24, quite naturally, puts it in terms of Law when it says:
But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
Numbers 13:27 records the report of the spies who went into the land who indeed said that the land was all that God said it would be and provided examples of its fruit:
27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
Deuteronomy 1:25 is the reminder to Israel after the punishment of their wanderings that this was so:
25 They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us.’
Deuteronomy 1:35 reminds them of the words of the sentence of God in Numbers 14:21-23 as He condemned that entire generation to wander in the wilderness for 40 years while at the same time reminding them that it was, indeed, a good land that they were missing!:
35 ‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,
Deuteronomy 4:21 speaks of Moses being forbidden from entering “that good land” because of his lapse at Meribah (Numbers 20:11-12)
21 Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Deuteronomy 6:3 and Deuteronomy 11:8-9 both urge Israel to be sure that do, indeed see to it that they obey the command of God and follow after Him that they are blessed and inherit the land “flowing with milk and honey” that He has promised them:
Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you— ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
“Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
Deuteronomy 26:9 tells the nation that they are at brink of that inheritance:
He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”;
In his prayer in Deuteronomy 26:15, Moses acknowledges that God has done His part and brought them to that land, a:
“ ‘…land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
A part of this charge is a bit further in the book, in Deuteronomy 27:3 where Moses goes on and says:
You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ just as the Lord God of your fathers promised you.
The lands was indeed all that God had promised! But Moses knew that they would turn away. Through him, God warns them in Deuteronomy 31:20:
When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant.
And that is the record of the rest of the Old Testament. Joshua 5:6 tells us that the generation that sinned in the wilderness was consumed as God had said. They did not enter that “good land”, the land “flowing with milk and honey”.
For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
700 years later, the great prophet Jeremiah spoke for God, warning of the coming judgment on the Southern Kingdom, in Jeremiah 11:1-5:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 3 and say to them,
‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant 4 which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,’ that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is this day.” ’ ” And I answered and said, “So be it, Lord.”
The nation, whom God desired to bless by causing to dwell in a good land, a land of milk and honey, are reminded that cursing follows disobedience (just as Moses had told them)!
Later in Jeremiah 32:21-23 this same prophet tells them that the calamity that has befallen them (the Babylonian captivity) is because of their own disobedience. It was small wonder that Jeremiah was not the most popular guy on the block!
21 You have brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror; 22 You have given them this land, of which You swore to their fathers to give them— “a land flowing with milk and honey.” 23 And they came in and took possession of it, but they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them.
Ezekiel in Ezekiel 20:6 and 20:15 makes references of similar vein, which in context, end up being like condemnations.
On that day I raised My hand in an oath to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands.
So I also raised My hand in an oath to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands,
The point of all of this is that God had brought His people into a land flowing with milk and honey, a good land, plentiful provision and abundant supply. The clear implication is that this land was different that lands around it. God was giving them as land that was special and would see that it remained special.
All of that stands, therefore in stark contrast to the statement in Isaiah 1:7a:
Your country is desolate…
The land that was good is now not good. The land that flowed with milk and honey now flows with nothing! The land that would have support the lives of millions will now barely support the lives a remnant. The contrast is striking, as it is intended to be!
“Desolate” is a ruin, a waste, i.e., a state of utter ruin, often relating to uninhabitable land as a sparsely populated area as in the state that God promised to make the other nations before Israel when He brought them into the land in Exodus 23:27-29[1]:
27 “I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
Metaphorically it can also speak of being in despair, and formally, being clothed in ruin, i.e., be in an emotional state of worry and anxiety as in (Eze 7:27+), (note: some sources translate “clothed in horror.”)[2]
‘The king will mourn,
The prince will be clothed with desolation,
And the hands of the common people will tremble.
I will do to them according to their way,
And according to what they deserve I will judge them;
Then they shall know that I am the Lord!’ ”
The point is that the land had become the opposite of what God had intended for them. God had promised a land flowing with milk and honey, but it had become a land empty and devastated and unable to support any live at all. All of this because of their sin and the judgment that God had pour out upon them.
Isaiah uses this language later in the book as well:
And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. (Isaiah 5:5)
Isaiah 6:9-11
9 And He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 “Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”
And He answered:
“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolate,
Isaiah 24:10-12
10 The city of confusion is broken down;
Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.
11 There is a cry for wine in the streets,
All joy is darkened,
The mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city desolation is left,
And the gate is stricken with destruction.
None of this was unexpected. None of it was unexpected by Isaiah himself. He knew that his ministry would be a long one and one that would be largely unfulfilled.
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[1] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 9039, #2). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[2] Ibid.
“And” – A simple coordinating conjunction used to connect on thought to another. Here it connects the thought of the ravished city in the verse before with the idea of the daughter of Zion that follows. In this instance it is quite useful as it personalizes the passage and causes us to think, not in terms of the nation, but takes our thoughts and with the introduction of the term “daughter” next, to much more personal and intimate level where we will not detached, but will be more apt to take to heart what Isaiah will be saying. It is actually quite a good bit of writing.