The Merchandise of Nations: Isaiah 14:28-17:11 and America's Trust in Financial Security

The burdens of Isaiah 14:28 through 17:11 fall upon Philistia, Moab, Damascus, and Ephraim, yet a single thread runs through them: nations and men who set their confidence in something other than the LORD are brought down. Philistia is warned not to rejoice that “the rod of him that smote thee is broken,” for a worse serpent would follow (Isaiah 14:29). Moab is pictured fleeing with “the abundance he hath gotten, and that which they have laid up” (Isaiah 15:7), for “we have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud” (Isaiah 16:6). Damascus and Ephraim receive the sharpest word: “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” (Isaiah 17:10). They planted quick, foreign growth for a fast harvest, but “the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow” (Isaiah 17:11).

This is the perpetual sin of trusting in “strange slips” rather than in the Rock. America today does the same when men and women give their allegiance, their vote, and their affection not to righteousness but to whichever candidate, party, employer, or program promises the fattest check. Scripture calls this by its name: “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare” (1 Timothy 6:9), and the rich man's wealth is “his strong city” (Proverbs 18:11). The LORD set the choice plainly through Jeremiah: “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm” against the man “that trusteth in the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5, 7).

Like Damascus, a nation that forgets “the God of thy salvation” for the sake of strange, borrowed prosperity will reap a harvest of grief. “In that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 17:7)—not to whoever offers him the most financial security, “for riches are not for ever” (Proverbs 27:24), “but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about” (Psalm 32:10).