Isaiah 17:10
Because 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: Because 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 stands in the first part of Isaiah, chapters 1-39, in the group chapters 13-23 made up of burdens against Babylon, Philistia, Moab and other nations. It belongs to the prophecy against Damascus, an ancient and important merchant city in Syria whose setting includes a fertile valley at the foot of the Anti-Libanus Mountains. It was given through Isaiah, whose name means Jehovah is salvation, between 760 and 698 B.C., beginning as a young man in the reign of Uzziah and continuing through the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah in crucial times in Judah typical of the great days to come.
Isaiah is the Gospel prophet, speaking more than any other Old Testament prophet of the last days, the sufferings and work of Jesus Christ, and the kingdom of glory to come. In this verse God is the rock of strength and salvation, the true source of strength and salvation. To forget Him is to fail to remain mindful of Him, while those who keep Him in mind find Him a secure shelter like a great rock in a weary land.
Forgetting God, the source of salvation and strength, brings as its consequence planting pleasant plants and setting them with strange, foreign slips. The strange plantings represent a deceptive religious work, including false reformations and converts that do not last. The verses that follow place this work near the harvest and the rushing of nations, when they are scattered like chaff. The verse applies to religious bodies that have rejected the truth about Christ's second coming, whose rejection leaves them open to deception and brings them near destruction.