As we begin Chapter 5 we are beginning the last chapter of what is essentially a prologue to Isaiah. In all of the discussion of judgment remember that God still claims His people. The judgment is a result of God refusing to abandon His people to their sins. The chapter begins with a familiar analogy in which His people are represented by a vineyard.
Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 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. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 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? 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. 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. 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!
Isaiah 5:1-7
Isaiah may have sung this on an occasion such as the Feast of Tabernacles. The song can a draw you in only to find you've condemned yourself. There are a number of things to pay attention to here as God's people in this age. First of all, who planted and cared for the vineyard? God did and He made ever provision for the productivity and security of the vineyard. There was no deficiency in the cultivation. The production of the vineyard was expected as a natural result of the planting. However, the fruit (literally stink fruit) showed that the core of the vine was wild and showed no effect of cultivation even though the primary difference would be the care in the vineyard. The primary difference between wild and cultivated is the cultivation.
The chief characteristic of the production was bloodshed and an outcry coming from unrighteousness as the oppressed cry out. This was what replaced the expected fruit of justice and righteousness. The judgment is the destruction of the vineyard as it is eaten down, trampled by foot and hoof, full of weeds, and without water. It is become a dry and dusty wasteland.
Jesus also uses this same sort of analogy when He was teaching about Israel and their position in the first century AD.
“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? (from Psalm 118:22,23)
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Matthew 21:33-44 (Also found in Luke 20).
One of the first jobs I ever had was working in a plant nursery in Tucson, Arizona. We fooled around with grafting one variety on another. I was never good at it so I guess it is good I wasn't interested in surgery. However essentially all the citrus we sold were grafted. Wild root stock grew quickly so you could use the wild root stock to produce plants and then graft the fruit variety on to it and grow it for a few years to get a product you could sell. I remember on day the owner pulled out a particularly big citrus tree labeled as an orange and said it was no good. It was so pretty but he showed me that by looking very carefully at the trunk you could tell that the wild root stock had taken over and the orange was gone.
In God's vineyard it works the other way around. All the glory goes to God as wild stock is grafted to good roots. The Kingdom of God is given by grace and grace alone to us who produce its fruit by grace. Although the stone was rejected in the first century, it is the chief cornerstone. We are found by Him and blessed by Him and all heaven rejoices at the product. I want to point out two points that should produce great humility in our hearts.
First, we are utterly dependent of the grace and power of God. Jesus is the “root stock” and there is no other. He said;
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:1-5
As Martin Luther pointed out, nothing is not a little something. Our application of the means of grace (prayer, meditation, bible study, fellowship, worship, etc) indicate the degree to which we accept Christ's statement of our need and position. When we neglect the means of Grace we are stating more clearly by action that words that we do not accept the statement of our Lord that apart from Him we can do nothing. When we pursue the means of Grace then we are showing by action that our heart has accepted this verse. I'm speaking here to myself first.
Secondly, I want to stress that God's grace is far above all we could ask or think. God in His grace has done something that any rational human husbandman would not attempt. A human husbandman may graft the cultivated to the wild for some purposes. However, God has grafted the wild (you) onto the cultivated (the Son of David, Seed of Abraham).
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
Romans 11:17-24
We have become the Children of Abraham by the actions of our Sovereign God. He leaves no room for us to be proud about this. While someone in our class may actually be a descendant of Abraham according to the flesh, all of us who are saved by the blood of the Lamb are Abraham's spiritual descendants. Remember the warnings here are toward us as a people and nation. As Paul makes clear only 3 chapters earlier nothing can take us out of the hand of God as saved individuals but if our nation falls away through unbelief and a failure to remain in His kindness then we'll be cut off.
In response to 1) our dependence on the vine and 2) the graciousness of our being grafted in as wild to the cultivated vine, we should display great humility as a people and nation. As Paul says, we should “stand in awe”.
The remainder of Isaiah chapter 5 details all of the various forms of judgment that are coming against Jerusalem.
Woe to those who ejoin 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. The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing: “Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath (6 gallons), and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah. (6 bushels yield half a bushel)”
Isaiah 5:8-10
Excess wealth in the face of need will be judged.
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! 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.
Isaiah 5:11-12
Excess consumption in the face of need will be judged along with a lack of thankfulness and focus in celebration and worship.
Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst. 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. Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness. Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
Isaiah 5:13-17
Sheol is generally used in biblical poetry to mean death and the grave. God continues to call Judah “my people”. God is correcting sin and even here we see grace as He refuses to leave His people in sin.
Often in our generation we see people who mock God while they sin and reject good things. This was also a characteristic of those in Isaiah's time.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, 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!” 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! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!
Isaiah 5:18-21
So individuals were joking about God while they sinned, they were morally corrupt, and they were full of pride and self-righteousness. Their heroes and valiant men were simply known for their over indulgence and corruption.
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.
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.
He will raise a signal for nations afar off, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, quickly, speedily they come! None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken; their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind. 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. 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.
Isaiah 5:22-30
As this prologue wraps up God summarizes after a couple of “therefore” statements what He intends to do to correct the sinful state of His people. I think we often thing that the winner of a battle must be more righteousness than the loser. However, in this case we see God using nations that don't know Him to discipline those who are His people. So this nation with a perfect army is not righteousness or holy. God uses this unrighteous people according to their unrighteousness to discipline and correct His people. You can't take refuge in your sin thinking that God can't judge you because others are worse than you are. If you are God's child then He will correct and discipline. Of course on the other side of the discipline, God's people are righteous and the army of the unrighteous is destroyed. The fact that God is faithful to discipline and keep us it tremendously comforting and scary at the same time.
Ultimately, our sin cannot frustrate God's purpose.
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