Isaiah-5

Isaiah 5

Isaiah 5:1-30 – The Vineyard Son of Love and Rejection

 Isaiah 5:1-7 (ESV)
¹  Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
²  He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
³  And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴  What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
⁵  And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
⁶  I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
⁷  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!

V1a – The ‘me’ must be Isaiah, the prophet  –  The owner or ‘my beloved’ is kept secret.

V.1b-2 – It is written to lead the audience to agree with the prophet that his beloved built a vineyard before they perceived the full application of his final condemnation in V.7.

Isaiah is using the word “vineyard’ as a symbol of God’s people.  The lover’s devotion to the vineyard is highlighted in the care he did for preparing the vineyard.  Then after completion waits for the hopeful waiting for the vines to mature, but he finds only sour rotten fruit.

V.3-4 – “And now”  –  Questions:  “Who is at fault?”  Did the owner not work hard to establish the vineyard?  Did he then deserve to have a good crop?  Their answer sets the trap.  It is like the prophet Nathan confronting King David asking what should be done to the rich man that took the poor’s man’s only sheep that lived within his household.  (2 Samuel 12)

V.5-6 – “and now” – The owner of the vineyard resolves to take a course of action.  The owner not only abandons the vineyard for a better plot of land, but attacks it.  He takes down the fence, not cultivating it anymore, and preventing rain to fall on it.  There was no hope of getting anything good from it, so he destroyed it.

V.7 – “surely/truly” “For” – The vineyard Is identified as a symbol of Israel and Judah.  The prophet’s application was clear.  God’s grace would end and his curse would fall on these oppressive leaders because their lives did not demonstrate the basic godly characteristics of justice and righteousness.

Quote ROrtlund:  We tell ourselves, “If only I had more time, if only I had a better wife/husband, if only I were married, if only my job weren’t so demanding, if only I had more money, I’d really live for the Lord.” We tell ourselves, “If only we had contemporary music in our church, if only we’d keep that contemporary music out of our church, we’d be the church we ought to be.” “If only this, if only that …” These are all excuses. At bottom each one implies a criticism of God, as if he hasn’t already given us all we need to live well for him (2 Peter 1:3).

God uses the same criteria for the behavior of the people in positions of leadership, especially those in religious leadership.
The woe oracles in this paragraph give a detailed justification of God’s accusation against his people, who produced the sour rotten grapes of bloodshed and cries of distress (5:7).

What has God done for us?  He has made a new arrangement for us, the New Covenant, so that the righteousness of the Law will be fulfilled in our actual moral character by the Spirit’s power.

We need to stop thinking how successful we ae and figure out what it’s going to take to go to the next level of productivity.  We need to take advantage of the full advantage with the opportunities God is giving us.

Theological implications:

This song reminded the listener that God was the lover who had poured out his love for his special vineyard. Each person in his vineyard was specially created, planted, and continually cared for by God’s grace. People deserved no credit for their election or their privileged status; it happened totally by grace. Once God chooses an individual or a people, he tenderly cares for and protects his own. As this happens he patiently waits for his people to produce good fruit in their lives. In his sovereign oversight of his people God observes what happens in society and he knows what kind of fruit his chosen vines produce. He views all fruit as either rotten or good according to his standards (not ours—Matt 7:15–23). God’s protection and care may be withdrawn from those who are unrighteous or who fail to produce godly fruit (cf. John 15:1–7). God is especially severe on privileged people who mistreat others through injustice.  (Quote: New American Commentary)

Isaiah 5:8-25

Isaiah 5:8-25 (ESV) 

⁸  Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
⁹  The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing: “Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
¹⁰  For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”
¹¹  Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!
¹²  They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands.
¹³  Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.
¹⁴  Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down, her revelers and he who exults in her.
¹⁵  Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
¹⁶  But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
¹⁷  Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
¹⁸  Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes,
¹⁹  who say: “Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!”
²⁰  Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
²¹  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
²²  Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
²³  who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!
²⁴  Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵  Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

The woe oracle derives from the social context of lamenting the death of someone at a funeral or the mourning of an approaching death.  This genre implies that Isaiah wept as he communicated the words. 

Isaiah wants his audience to see that he is sorry to hear the good life in the nation will soon end.  Lot of blame is placed on the wealthy that illegally took land from the poor people of Judah.

V.8 – The rich were getting richer, and the poor were getting squeezed out.  God had given land to each family and it was intended to be passed down to prevent a permanent underclass that was now existing due to the rich and powerful taking advantage of some.  A social injustice occurred.

1st woe – V.9-10 – A sense of injustice if people take another’s home from them.  The cursed land will yield 1/10th of what was sown.  (Deut. 26:2)

V.11-12 – people spend too much time drinking wine.  Refers to the wealthy people who can afford the leisure time with the resources that affords them time to pursue more pleasurable activities.  These activities in lieu to pursing God and his righteousness.  Today one can focus on pleasure and leisure activities to the point of setting aside their time with the Lord.

V.13-14 – 2 predictions given:  1) go into exile for lack of knowledge   2) men go hungry and parched with thirst.

When people behave as they are they will end up losing it.  They will go into exile and may not even understand why it has happened.  POINT:  If they could not perceive their own spiritual problems, then there would be no way for them to learn from their errors and change their behavior.  Isaiah considers this blindness a perennial spiritual problem of the people of Judah throughout the book.

V.14 – Result – “Sheol”  will die

V.15-17 – God’s actions are declared….   Describes what God has done.  The divine plan on earth was designed to bring people to the place where their lives and actions would exalt God alone.  Because God’s people were not glorifying Him if was necessary to humble the proud by removing the things that made them so proud.

1st principle:  Understanding God’s work on earth  – “God’s divine plan”

The 2nd principle:  God will be exalted because he acts with justice and righteousness to demonstrate his holiness.

God’s holiness describes his glorious divinity and the justice with which he rules the world and deals with mankind.  God’s goal is to use every providential act to cause his holiness to infiltrate all of creation.  This is done via His dire judgment and his grace.

PONT:  God will always be holy., then God will be glorified.

V.18-19 –  Their sins are illustrated as being in a wagon load being pulled by cords.   –Isaiah laments those who purposely attach themselves to sin though ‘useless deceitful falsehoods”.  Their perverted attachment to false beliefs led the people of Judah to make preposterous claims about God’s work in this world.

V.20 – the 4th cluster of wild grapes…..

We humans don’t make sense as we rationalize sin.  We redefine it and change the labels as we change the laws of God.  Without an absolute standard of divine Justine, false human reasoning and uncontrolled passion can rationalize and justify almost any act.  We especially do that if the act will benefit us in some way.

V.21 – the 5th cluster reveals a spirit of misplaced self-confidence….  It is a moral reversal.  People don’t do what is right because they believe they are the judge of their own actions.  Thus they make their own moral standards and laws to guide them.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote: Sin is very clever; it always brings forward its reasons, its arguments. Sin knows us so well; it knows that we like to think of ourselves as highly intelligent people. So it does not just tell us, “Do this”; it gives us reasons for doing it, and they appear to be so wonderful. But the whole point is that in reality they are specious; they are empty and foolish. The reasoning is always false reasoning. The arguments are always wrong.

V.22-23 –  6^th cluster – the issues of drinking and social oppression is once again addressed by Isaiah’s woes.  The corruption of the ‘elite’.  The people suffered as the judges and witnesses were paid off.  Thus, the guilty was declared just but ‘justice’ for the ‘just, innocent’ person was denied.

V.24-25 –  The destruction of plant life to the very roots.

The 1^st is the root of the problem: they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

2^nd is the judgment by the army of Assyria.  God’s holy response to all the sinful activities of His people.  Their willful acts that showed no respect for God’s instructions.  Isiah reminds the listeners of the burning anger of God and his powerful outstretched hand of judgement.

Isaiah 5:26-30 (ESV)
²⁶  He will raise a signal for nations far away, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
²⁷  None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken;
²⁸  their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind.
²⁹  Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and none can rescue.
³⁰  They will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened by its clouds.

 Here is a poetic image of how God is going to bring about te destruction predicted in the song.   (This was dated in the time of Uzziah.)

This attack will not simply be the work of one of Judah’s traditional enemies (one of the small nations around it), for it is pictured as an invasion by a mysterious nation that will travel a great distance to reach Judah.
The swiftness of its movement means that it will come unexpectedly fast and without much warning.
God is the one who will orchestrate this plan and sovereignly rule over everything that happens. He will choose the enemy nation; he will call that nation to arms by whistling for this mysterious enemy (cf. 7:18 where God’s whistling will bring the Assyrians); and he will lift up a “banner, signal” (nēs) in a prominent place (cf. 13:2; 31:9) so that troops can gather together. God himself will direct and facilitate their path to Jerusalem.
The protector and savior of Judah will now oversee the destruction of his vineyard.

1. 29-30 – The paragraph ends with a description of the conclusion of the battle using the imagery of lions capturing their prey. This is fitting because kings sometimes compared themselves to lions (the lion of Judah). Afterwards there will be darkness and gloom over the land.

THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS. These woes assure the reader that God will judge sin severely. The lament conveys the truth that God is terribly saddened when his people reject him or his revealed instructions. Nevertheless, in the end he will hold all people accountable for their actions, especially his own privileged people. This message maintains the justice of a Holy God even as God cries over the rebelliousness of his children. In spite of his deep desire to care for his people, his holiness will be exalted only through the execution of his justice (5:16). People can pretend God does not exist or question whether he actually controls what goes on in this world (5:19a), but their unbelief will not change or nullify the fact that God has a plan for the righteous and the wicked (5:19b). All sinful and proudly independent people who scorn God’s standards will have to face the anger of God’s wrath (5:25). God’s methods of punishment will vary over time, but he rules the world according to key principles that people must heed (5:12, 17). Everything happens according to God’s plan (14:24–26) and no one is able to alter his will or prevent him from accomplishing his plans (14:27).

The prophet’s role, and each reader’s responsibility, is to warn others of God’s impending holy judgment and to persuade the ungodly to change their ways. Like Isaiah, preachers, teachers, and parents need to weep over the evil that pervades this world. It is especially sad when friends, neighbors, fellow workers, children, and fellow church members do not classify their evil deeds as sins against God. People need to communicate their deep sadness, explain the just demands of God, encourage people to humble themselves, and warn of irresistible judgment for those who do not glorify God. There is no hope for those who ignore, scorn, or reject God (5:12, 17, 24). One day an Almighty Lion will roar over them (5:29).  (quote: New American Commentary)

 John the Baptist told us how to receive grade:

Luke 3:8-9 (esv)

⁸ Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. ⁹ Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”