There are others, of course, who don't like the news at all. They only report the negative things and we don't fancy that we might end up with a negative outlook on life.
What about you? Do you fit somewhere in between?
A recent survey in USA revealed that most American citizens could still recall what they were doing when John F. Kennedy was assassinated that was on 22nd November 1963 in Dallas, Texas thirtythree years ago.
Perhaps some members of this congregation could tell us what they were doing when World War II began in 1939. My father kept a Sermon Register throughout his years of ministry. The record for September 3rd 1939 sets down an 11am service at Thompson Estate, a 2pm visit to Stafford Sunday School and a 7.15pm Anniversary service at Chermside and adds the comment "Returned home to find that Gt. Britain had declared war on Germany."
How well do you handle bad news the kind of news that is prefaced by "You're not going to like this, but you need to know..."? Bad news from the rest of the world is distressing enough, but is easier to take than the news that affects our own country, our own town, our own family, our own finances or state of health...
Sometimes we seem quite helpless before the bad news. But at other times there are things we can do especially if we listen and act soon enough.
The background to Isaiah 17 is a longer prophecy concerning the Lord's judgment of Moab.
Moab is the region east of the Dead Sea whose inhabitants descended from Moab, the son of Lot and his eldest daughter (Gen. 19.3137). When the Israelites were on their way from Egypt to the promised land, these distant relatives refused them safe passage. Indeed, Balak the king of Moab tried to get Balaam to put a curse on the Israelites (Num. 2224).
Across many years no friendship was possible. The one bright part of the story is the time spent by Naomi and her family in the land of Moab and the account of her daughterinlaw Ruth the Moabitess who returned with her to Bethlehem.
So there may well have been a sense of relief even of satisfaction in the Lord's judgment of Moab.
But now judgment is announced over Damascus and the cities of Syria. With the fall of these traditional enemies there would also have been a measure of satisfaction, but the message is coming closer to home "Israel will be defenceless, and Damascus will lose its independence. Those Syrians who survive will be in disgrace like the people of Israel" (v. 3).
Yes, these are dark days for Israel too! The bad news is coming much closer to home now! "A day is coming when Israel's greatness will come to an end, and its wealth will be replaced by poverty. Israel will be like a field where the corn has been cut and harvested. as desolate as a field in the valley of Rephaim when it has been picked bare. Only a few people will survive, and Israel will be like an olivetree from which all the olives have been picked except two or three at the very top, or a few that are left on the lower branches. I, the LORD God of Israel. have spoken" (vv. 46).
Why should this happen? And why should it happen to us, of all peoples? We can understand disaster coming on the Babylonians, and on the Assyrians (ch. 14). The Philistines (ch. 14) deserve all they get. Moab (ch. 15,16) has had it coming for a long time. Sudan (ch. 18) and Egypt (ch. 19) have deserved it too, so have Edom, Arabia (ch. 21) and Phoenicia (ch. 23). But why us? We are the Lord's chosen people. How often has the Lord said to us, "You will be my people, and I will be your God"? Has God forsaken us? Has God forgotten us?
"Israel, you have forgotten the God who rescues you and who protects you like a mighty rock. Instead, you plant sacred gardens in order to worship a foreign god. But even if they sprouted and blossomed the very morning you planted them, there would still be no harvest. There would be only trouble and incurable pain." (vv. 10 11)
"There is a God with whom salvation may be found, even the God who chose Israel, but Israel has forgotten that God. There was also a Rock which served as a true fortress, quite different from the cities of the fortress which had become as waste. That Rock, however, Israel had not remembered. Israel was unprotected; she had no fortress, no place of refuge. All that she did therefore would be subject to exposure... Folly is Israel's action; she turns to the idols and expects protection. When one expends labour upon vanity, the result must also be vanity... Israel strives for an inheritance; she will receive that inheritance, namely, oppressive pain. We reap what we sow. If we sow plants of pleasantness apart from God, we shall reap only the inheritance of tormenting pain" (E.J. Young, Isaiah, I, p. 472).
Bad news indeed, but there is something to be done.
"When that day comes, people will turn for help to their Creator, the holy God of Israel. They will no longer rely on the altars they made with their own hands, or trust in their own handiwork symbols of the goddess Asherah and altars for burning incense" (vv. 78).
There is something to be done! Those who have forgotten God, who have stepped out from under his protection can turn again to him for help, no longer relying on their altars to the false gods.
And is our trust truly in our Creator, the Lord our God? Or are we tempted to use God as a kind of insurance, a last resort, while our trust is really in our own handiwork, the altars we have made with our own hands? It is so easy to slip into a tenbobeachway situation our belief in God is mixed with so many other ideas and ideals from the age we live in.
And then the tough times come as they will! None of us is immune from tough times, but there is a final disaster that we store up for ourselves when we fail to live out our trust in God.
Don't wait for that day to come! Learn here and now to turn for help to the Creator the heavenly Father who has loved us so much that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. There is our Rock, our salvation. Put your trust wholeheartedly in him!
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