Last week we studied the vineyard as a picture of both Israel and of us as God's own planting. The remainder of Isaiah chapter 5 details all of the various forms of judgment that are coming against Jerusalem.
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. 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. In some places and in some times it has been a characteristic of the liberal church to stress social issues instead of the atonement. I think that has sometimes slowed our response to provide practical help to those around us both saved and unsaved. You shouldn't be able to read Isaiah without thinking of the many times in which social righteousness or lack of social righteousness is highlighted as a sin that is drawing judgment.
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
Parties and even religious celebrations have simply become excuses for a party without any regard for God or the true reason for celebration. Like Christmas in America. Think of the reputation that the “Office Christmas Party” has in our culture.
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
Individuals were joking about God's judgment while they sinned. I've heard folks day, “Oh I'm just an old sinner” to explain their sin. In essence they seem to think that if God doesn't send lightning from the sky as they sin then He missed His chance to judge them. Not a rational view of God. These people used lies to promote sin and moral failure. 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. You are either lost and without hope or you are God's child and He will correct and discipline you. The fact that God is faithful to discipline and keep us it tremendously comforting and frightening at the same time.
Ultimately, our sin cannot frustrate God's purposes.
Isaiah built the prologue as a summary of the current situation and begins a additional explanation of the circumstances.
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Isaiah 6:1-3
Uzziah died about 740 BC and had been King for over 50 years. Isaiah began his ministry before Uzziah's death (verse 1:1) but in the events of chapter 6 we see a particular commissioning of Isaiah for ministry.
While no person has seen God in all His glory, God will cloth Himself and manifest Himself for our instruction and comfort. God filled the temple and so we know where Isaiah was during this revelation. God was on His throne and this picture is set over against the picture of an unrighteous king who has died. Even though foreign armies threatened, Isaiah saw God ruling in power. Isaiah also saw two seraphim standing as servants by God seated on His throne. We don't know what these “burning ones” looked like exactly. They may have been too bright get described in detail. Think of the seraphim as bright and flaming. Their 3 pairs of wings are each held in a position that describes and action that you should have each time you stand to worship God. The first pair of wings covered their face in an expression of awe at the Glory of God. The ears were not covered and the second pair of wings were used for flight so they could hear and obey God's command. The third pair of wings showed humility in covering their feet that would touch earth and could into contact with unclean things (John 13:10).
From these attitudes came the worship as they called back and forth that God was perfectly and completely holy and that the whole earth is filled with His glory. They were not exaggerating and it is as true today as it was in 740 BC. We have such trouble seeing God on the throne when we have problems in the world around us. We can't see the earth filled with His glory. The deficiency is in us and the glory is still there.
As we stand to worship God I pray that we would find awe, willingness to hear and obey, and humility in our hearts as we confess the truth that God is on the throne, He is perfectly holy, and the earth is filled with His glory. If these creatures that live in the throne room show those characteristics then how much more should we show awe, obedience, and humility.
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.
Isaiah 6:4-7
The voice of God called, the foundations of the temple shook, and His glory was manifested as smoke. Isaiah's first response was awe to the degree that he knew his sinfulness by contrast and his lostness. Along with awe came a conviction of sin that went to his heart and he knew his sin as well as the peoples sin. The focus was rightly on the lips for Isaiah as a prophet and the action was by God in Grace. The altar was the place for the blood sacrifice. This burning coal is the essence of substitutionary sacrifice.
So with the seraphim's first pair of wings, Isaiah experiences a terrifying awe of God. God sent the seraphim to Isaiah to take away his guilt and sin. I guess you know God has Isaiah's attention when a creature he has never seen before can grab a burning coal from the altar and come flying at him with his face covered and Isaiah didn't flinch. I imagine the seraphim was as fast as God's command so there was no time to flinch or worry about a hot coal on his lips.
The guilt and sin had to be taken away. It had to be atoned for. Isaiah wasn't wrong in saying he was lost but God's grace atoned for his lostness just as God does for us.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
Isaiah 6:8
Like the seraphim's second pair of wings used to fly to do God's will, Isaiah's next response in worship of God is to hear and obey God's command. Isaiah does not think up something to do for God but rather responds to God's call. We likewise need to respond to God's call. If we develop a program apart from God and then ask God to bless it we are likely to experience God's blessing and grace in correction.
And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.
Isaiah 6:9-13
Here we see the last pair of seraphim wings as God addresses what will be done on earth and Isaiah in humility doesn't argue or cry out. This would be crushing news and Isaiah, like Paul hundreds of year later, could wish himself cursed and cut off for his kinsmen (Romans 9:1-3). Isaiah in humility simply offers himself as the messenger.
People do not spontaneously regenerate. It is fashionable to make fun of early scientists who thought that life came from rotting fruit and meat spontaneously because they saw flies emerge. It was called spontaneous generation. It is even fashionable in some Christian circles to make fun of Darwinists for similar reasons. But at these Scriptures, and many others, we modern Christians can stumble because God makes it clear that there is no spontaneous regeneration either. When sinners are left to themselves they hear without understanding, they see but don't recognize what they see, and they become more blind, deaf, and hard of understanding. We simply will not ever turn from sin apart from God's Holy Spirit. Many in the Church today believe in spontaneous regeneration. We need revival sent from a Holy and Sovereign God desperately.
What a message for a prophet. Unlike Jonah, this would not bring repentance. Isaiah's only question is, “How long?” and the answer isn't good. God would only save a remnant. Only a burned stump would remain and captivity would take people far away. But even in judgment on a nation, our God keeps a people for Himself. There is no such thing as spontaneous regeneration but there is such a thing as regeneration. It is God's will to keep His people and the stump is the holy seed for His act of redemption. We can pray for God's action in the life of the unsaved and not worry about the hard heart of the unsaved. We know the heart of the father in the story of the prodigal and see the sovereign hand of God in the events that brought him back to the father. We can see God do great things in the life of those we pray for and we must not be guilty of the sin of prayerlessness.
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