Isaiah 17:10-11

Isaiah 17 is a proclamation against Syria and Israel which judges them for allying themselves against Judah and Assyria (who of course weren't allied). Interestingly, Northern Israel is promised a remnant like Moab. This time however, it is for an entirely different reason. God had promised that Israel would always be a nation, and so to keep His promise, a remnant must always remain. A part that applies directly to us is verses 10 and 11

'Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
And have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold,
Therefore you will plant pleasant plants
And set out foreign seedlings;
In the day you will make your plant to grow,
And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will be a heap of ruins
In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.' (Isaiah 17:10-11)

Notice first who He is talking to. He is talking to Israel, because God is the God of their salvation and the Rock of their Stronghold. But He says they have forgotten about Him and are not mindful of Him. The context is provided by the next few lines. ' Therefore you will plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings;' . They have forgotten about Him specifically when they do things. And planting plants is always a good thing, intended for good reward. So Israel is accused of not remembering God when they try to do 'good' things. And what is the consequence?

'In the day you will make your plant to grow,
And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will be a heap of ruins
In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.' (Isaiah 17:11)

Where they try their hardest to make the seeds flourish to come out as a plant, the harvest is but a heap of ruins. Without God, their best efforts avail to nothing. Now this would probably be prophecied directly to their alliance with Syria, which was an act which they thought would benefit them, but in doing which they left God out of the equation. Hence the prophecy directly predicted the failure of the alliance and the destruction of Israel and Syria.

But it has much significance for us as well. Many times we talk about evangelizing as 'planting the seed'. If we leave God out of the equation, if we water that seed with our own intellect and make it flourish with our own arguments and thoughts, then inevitably the harvest will be a disaster. For God is the only person who can save anyone. It will not in the end be because of us that a person is converted. We can only tell him what we know and let God take care of the rest. That is NOT to say we don't try our hardest to save anyone. God, may be looking for a little effort from us to work His wonders Himself. But we should ALWAYS realise that it is God who saves. Never forget to include God in anything you do, or else the harvest, or the reward for that thing will be failure.