Isaiah 5:1-30 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Isaiah 5:1-30. Let’s go!
Isaiah 5:1-7 (NIV)
1 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?
5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”
7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
On verses 1-7: A masterful communicator, Isaiah takes the message that God has given him and communicates it to the people of Judah in the form of a love song. But this is no ordinary love song. What is the point of this musical parable that Isaiah is singing? As Isaiah explains, the vineyard represents the people of Israel and Judah (v7), and the vineyard owner represents God. The point of Isaiah’s parable is that God had done everything a person in his position could be expected to do to care for his vineyard – that is, the people of Israel and Judah – and to make them fruitful. As God says in verse 4, “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?” Yet the people of Israel and Judah still remained unfruitful, persisting in bloodshed, injustice and idolatry. So God intends to change His approach. Instead of caring so much for His vineyard, He’s going to remove His protecting hand from the vineyard (“take away its hedge…break down its wall” – v5) and let the vineyard be destroyed (v6).
What can we learn from this? It matters to God how we respond to His love. God is not some pushover who will keep letting His love be taken for granted. If we keep pushing God’s love away, God will adjust His approach. If we disown God, God won’t stick around where He is not wanted (see 2 Timothy 2:12).
Isaiah 5:8-10 (NIV)
8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.
9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.
10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”
On verses 8-10: “Woe” is a curse-invoking term. Another way of saying “Woe to you” is “cursed are you”. In verses 8 through 25, Isaiah points out different ways that the people of Judah have cursed themselves by sinning against God.
Over and over Isaiah will point out the tragic irony of Judah’s sins and how God intends to respond to Judah’s sins.
For example, in verses 8-10, the irony of Judah’s sin is that they keep accumulating houses and fields that are meant to be lived in, and yet they are becoming more and more lonely, isolated and disconnected from real life (v8). So God’s response to Judah’s sin will be that, in the end, the mansions and fields that they put their hope in will become desolate, Isaiah says (v9-10).
Isaiah 5:11-17 (NIV)
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine.
12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.
14 Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers.
15 So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.
17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.
On verses 11-17: In verses 11-17, the irony of Judah’s sin is that they spend so much time and lose sleep chasing little things like drink and pleasure. Yet they don’t value the much more important things, namely God and what God has done (v11-12). So God will respond by humbling the arrogant (v15) and sending them into exile (v13). In so doing, God will show His justice and righteousness (v16).
Isaiah 5:18-25 (NIV)
18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes,
19 to those who say, “Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so 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 clever in their own sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
On verses 18-25: In verses 18-25, the irony of Judah’s sin is that they deceivingly think that sin is so real and that God is such an illusion (v18-19). They call good evil and evil good (v20). They think themselves wise and God foolish (v19, 21). They exalt those who are not worthy of exaltation (v22). They acquit the guilty and condemn the innocent (v23). Because Judah’s rebellion against God is continual, God’s anger burns continually against Judah’s sin (v25).
What can we learn from all this? God loves us intensely and cares for us thoughtfully, but when we turn against Him, His anger against our sin is intense and unrelenting. Notice that even after sinners have perished, God’s anger against Judah’s sin is still not satisfied. As verse 25 says, “his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised” (v25). Why? It’s because God’s holiness is that huge and God’s anger against sin is that great. It is only the death of a blameless, spotless lamb that will satisfy God’s wrath. That is where Jesus comes in. If we ourselves died for our own sin, God’s anger would still continue because even our own death could not make up for our sin. But because Jesus is eternal and perfect, His death is able to extinguish God’s wrath completely. That’s why the death of a perfect lamb – Jesus Christ on the cross – is necessary to turn God’s anger away from us.
Verses 8-25 shows us that when we live in sin it’s like we’re living under a curse; we spend our time, our bodies, our money, our lives on things that don’t matter and don’t satisfy, all the while missing the point of our lives. Praise God that Jesus’ death and resurrection broke the curse of sin on our lives.
Isaiah 5:26-30 (NIV)
26 He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
27 Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue.
30 In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened by the clouds.
On verses 26-30: Over 100 years before Judah would be carried into exile by Babylon, Isaiah sees a picture from the Lord of this exile taking place. As Isaiah says in verse 13, “Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.” Verses 26-30 vividly describe the nation that will come to ferociously attack Judah one day.
Father, Your love is real. Your holiness is real. And Your anger toward sin is real too. Thank You that only through Jesus’ death on the cross did Your righteous anger turn away from us. I pray that I would never take Your love for granted. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
