Isaiah 17:7-14

Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They’ll lose interest in all the stuff they’ve made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is. And yes, the Day is coming when their fortress cities will be abandoned—the very same cities that the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when Israel invaded! And the country will be empty, desolate. And why? Because you have forgotten God-Your-Salvation, not remembered your Rock-of-Refuge. And so, even though you are very religious, planting all sorts of bushes and herbs and trees to honor and influence your fertility gods, And even though you make them grow so well, bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms, Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest you’ll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain. Oh my! Thunder! A thundering herd of people! Thunder like the crashing of ocean waves! Nations roaring, roaring, like the roar of a massive waterfall, Roaring like a deafening Niagara! But God will silence them with a word, And then he’ll blow them away like dead leaves off a tree, like down from a thistle. At bedtime, terror fills the air. By morning it’s gone—not a sign of it anywhere! This is what happens to those who would ruin us, this is the fate of those out to get us.