Isaiah - Verse By Verse

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:13 (NIV):  "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."

Thought:  To me, just as the laws of physics speak of "an equal and opposite reaction" to an action, so God's judgments are an equal and opposite reaping of sins that are sown.  

Question:  Do I lack a proper spiritual understanding?

Why is Israel in exile?  Their sins have come between themselves and God, and He is forced to let them reap what they have sown.

How ironic!  Failure to grasp Who their Creator really is and what He desires from them creates a lack of understanding that alienates Israel from God, even unto "exile"; that is, a life in an unfamiliar place, separated from family and familiarity.  No one knows them better than their Maker; therefore, without Him, wherever they end up is an "exile" away from Him, where they all suffer alienation, lonliness and loss. 

Another irony:  the strong, protective men, most representative of health and vitality, are the ones weakened for lack of food.  The exact aspect they could have demonstrated through trust in God, that is, their strength, is denied them explicitly.  The masses of people perish, ironically, for lack of water.  The basic people lack the basic water to live.  God is our meat and our drink.  Without Him we "starve."  Christ is the Bread from heaven and the living water. 

This, of course, is prophetic of the Babylonian exile--a direct and equal consequence of Israel's many sins.  It also applies to us today, however.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, prevent me from going into "spiritual exile", that is, separation from You because of my sin.  Draw me ever nearer to You, Father, through Christ, the Bread of Heaven and my Living Water.  Amen. 

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:12 (NIV):  "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."

Thought:  To me, music that has no regard for, or respect toward, God is vain.

Question:  What makes me sing?

What are the reasons for our celebrations?  Here the Israelites have not gathered to celebrate the LORD, nor do they even have "regard for the deeds of the LORD", or "respect for the work of His hands."  By implication, they celebrate themselves, their own deeds and the work of their own hands.  Their music, like the wine consumption in the previous verse, has become a vain, self-directed, self-glorifying activity.  Even as they had "run after" wine in verse 11, so here they appear to pursue the pleasures of celebration for its own sake. 

This verse strikes at the heart of an important truth:  there is no reason to make song unless we do so to God.  All music ought to be ultimately aimed at praising Him, either directly or indirectly, for Who He is and what He has done, or to extoll His creation.  Any music that does not do this will only serve to emptily promote self and the devil.  At the heart of a great deal of secular music is the tragedy of Godlessness; that is, disrespect for God as Our Holy Supreme, and subsequently, the lifting up of self and sin instead as the idolatrous substitute.

Our God is a "jealous" God.  When He hears music upon the earth, He looks down to see the motive behind it.

Prayer:  Lord God, may I ever remember Your great deeds and respect the works of Your hands.  May You always be the inspiration of my music.  Amen.

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:11 (NIV):  "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."

Thought:  To me, making wine consumption a priority is a choice--not a "disease."

Question:  Does my life consist in a continual desire to escape?

Perhaps this is the reason that in verse 10 there is only a small amount produced from a 10-acre vineyard!  Rather than working hard, the servants are wasting time in "other" activities:  drinking wine being at the top of the list.  If the "fruits" of our labors are harvested only to bring pleasure and escape from responsibilities, we are a people worthy to receive only what we sow.

This verse has further practical application in a broader sense.  There will be only "woe" at the end of this kind of road:  a road that indulges the flesh while at the same time deadens the senses.  Our entire drug culture would do well to realize that a pursuit of any agent that alters God-given faculties is a sin against the Creator, and will only result in God's vengeful "woes" directed at those who pursue those agents.  We will reap what we sow.

God's warnings go out for all the world to read and understand.  There is woe to come when we sin in these ways!

Prayer:  Creator God, forgive me when I fail You!  Heal me from making wrong choices.  Lead me to honor You in all that I do.  Amen. 

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:10 (NIV):  "A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed only an ephah of grain."

Thought:  To me, God prospers those who honor Him.

Question:  Do I sense God's hand of blessing on my life?

Our continuing context of disobedience on the part of Israel and God's ensuing judgment upon them is still relevant in this verse.  A "bath" measurement is equal to about 38 liters or 10 U.S. gallons only.  Not much wine from a ten-acre vineyard!  And an "ephah" of grain is equal to 1 bushel or about 35 liters.  Again, a very small harvest from 10 bushels (a homer) of seed. 

We are not told exactly how God brings about such fruitlessness.  It may be through pests or blight or disease in the fields, or natural disasters such as floods, hail, freezes or fires.  However it happens, God has chosen not to "bless" Israel's agricultural efforts.  Israel is judged.

When will we realize that even today's agricultural plenty is not the result of fertilizers and irrigations only, but is directly controllled by God Who looks upon the hearts of those who work the land?  And when will we realize this truth is applicable in all walks of life:  God prospers those who honor and obey Him.

Prayer:  Dear God, You are the Lord of the harvest.  All bounty is from You!  Help me to acknowledge You, credit You, thank You and praise You for all Your blessings.  Amen.

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:9 (NIV):  "The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:  'Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.' "

Thought:  To me, "great houses" and "fine mansions" have too much consumed the minds and hearts of the people in our country.

Question:  Will desolation and lonliness characterize my life's end?

Why is God bringing desolation and death to the Israelites? 

Let's review the reason for God's judgment against the Jewish people:  from Isaiah chapter 2 we saw these sins:  failed leadership (verse 6), practice of superstitions and divination (verse 6), too much, and apparent love of, money (verse 7), and idolatry (verse 8).  Also in chapter 3 we saw a list of "transgressions" committed by Israel:  oppression of the poor (verse 5 & 12 & 15), "words and deeds against the LORD" (verse 8), and pride (verse 16).  

Thus we see here in their lives without God that lonliness and death intensifies:  they have fine, luxurious surroundings but no one to fill them.  It's not so much that God gets up and plots desolation, following through to bring it about with His mighty, supernatural acts.  No.  All He has to do is let the natural consequences occur.  The people have done this to themselves.  "Surely", He says.  As the night follows the day, desolation will follow in natural course on the heels of greedy wealth accumulation.  To ignore God and live for self will reap an empty existance.

Prayer:  Father, each day help me to see Your "investments" of my time, my talents and all that I have been blessed to receive from You.  Amen. 

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:8 (NIV):  "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."

Thought:  To me, our nation has many "woeful ones" whose goals are only materialistic.

Question:  Have I counted the cost, and looked ahead to the outcome, of my lifestyle?

Material accumulation really seems to irritate God.  His nature is completely opposite to the idea of greed and accumulation.  He gives generously.  He "dispenses" Himself, through grace, in the form of gifts to men.  This verse contradicts His Nature.  It erects borders of private property and extends them greedily, pushing out the poor. 

Thus He prepares judgment for the ones who choose to pile up land and property to the point of excluding neighbors.  What good is it to alienate yourself by greed?  It would be so much better to have many more friends by sharing what you have with them to meet their needs. 

What woe might God give to these people?  Perhaps "merely" the consequences of what they have chosen to do:  live alone with their "stuff" until they die.  And alone they will surely be.

I am reminded of the rich man in Luke 12:16 - 21:  "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  He thought to himself, 'What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.'  Then he said, 'This is what I'll do, I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.'  But God said to him, 'You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'  This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." 

Prayer:  Lord God, help me to invest in eternal values.  Help me to put aside my natural greed and give to others.  Help me to invest in those around me rather than the sphere of my own "empire."  Help me to be rich toward You, Father.  Amen. 

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:7 (NIV):  "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."

Thought:  To me, it is justice and righteousness, or what we today might call equity and morality, that are indeed lacking in our culture.

Here God clearly explains the analogy, so that no one can say they do not understand.  Israel is the vineyard, and the Jews are the people to whom this is primarily directed.  God will "destroy" them because they have gone "bad."  This applies to Christians as well though, because, as stated in Romans, we Gentiles have been "grafted into" the vine that is Jewish ( Romans 11:17 - 24:  "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches.  If you do, consider this:  You do not support the root, but the root supports you.  You will say then, 'Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.' Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith.  Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.  For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.  Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God:  sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness.  Otherwise, you also will be cut off.  And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.  After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!").

God joyfully plants His vineyard, "the garden of His delight," looking to see qualities come forth that please Him.  Instead, He is very much displeased, finding only "bloodshed" and "distress."  War, killing and oppression have filled the land.  "Justice" and "righteousness" are not found.  God has every reason to harshly judge His people!

Prayer:  Lord, cause me to become more pleasing and delightful to You!  May You become The One to Whom I bow for accountability.  Amen.

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:6 (NIV):  " '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.' "

Thought:  To me, the justice and wisdom of God is deep and perfect!

Question:  Has my life become a wasteland?

God withdraws His good care of pruning and cultivation from the person who fails to bear "good fruit"; yet even His withdrawal of rainwater and the subsequent growth of "briars and thorns" is His best tactic of care because in judgment abides mercy:  some will see their error and turn and change.  Else why would God do this?  Out of immature anger?  No.

For the Israelites, and we Christians, to be made into a "wasteland" is a sad testimony.  It displays how we have disobeyed God.  Yet it is a biblical truth that it is a worse lot to have tasted God, then reject Him in the end. (Hebrews 6: 4 - 6:  "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.")  Israel had "tasted" God.  They had been "enlightened" on Mount Sinai and seen God's powers there.  To have witnessed so much of God and then to have chosen to turn away from Him will surely mean that their lives will be worse than before!  God will withhold the "rain" from such a one, when, previously, the "rains" are ordered by Him to fall on both the righteous and wicked, (Matthew 5: 44 & 45:  "...He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.")  What can follow from such drought except complete destruction?

Psalm 80: 7 - 19 is an appropriately applied and parallel passage.  It shows a repentant spirit--so needed by Israel, and so needed by us today!  "Restore us, O God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.  You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.  You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.  The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.  It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.  Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes?  Boars from the forest ravage it and the creatures of the field feed on it.  Return to us, O God Almighty!  Look down from heaven and see!  Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.  Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish.  Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.  Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.  Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved."  Interestingly, "the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself", who I believe refers to Christ, becomes Israel's, and our, only salvation.  Without Him we will not find God's pardon.

Prayer:  Righteous Father, Your justice is flawless.  Thank You for Your firmness and "tough love"!  May I learn from life's lessons what it is that You desire to see in my life.  Help me to seek You always.  And thank You for Jesus Christ, mankind's only hope for salvation and revival.  Amen.

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:5 (NIV): " 'Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard:  I will take away its hedge, and it well be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.' "

Thought:  To me, things not going well in my life are an immediate signal from God.

Question:  Has "protection" been removed from my life?

God reaffirms His authority.  He has the right to do whatever He wills at this point.  He created this vineyard, He can do anything He chooses with it now.  His choice?  No more protection will be available:  no more "hedge" or "wall."  This leads to almost immediate destruction and "trampling."  The enemy may enter freely--there is no more barricade around Israel, (or the unfruitful Christian).  Disobedient Christians experience more attacks from the enemy than do obedient, fruitful ones, because God removes His protection in order to correct them. 

Does your life feel "trampled" upon?  Maybe the LORD is trying to tell you something.

Prayer:  Loving Father, it is truly a grace from You if You remove the hedge of protection around me.  Perhaps then I will examine my life and return to You.  So be it!  Amen. 

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:4 (NIV):  " 'What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?  When I looked for grapes, why did it yield only bad?' "

Thought:  To me, we often blame God for our own wrong behaviors.

Question:  Has my life born "good" or "bad" fruit?  Why?

God illustrates the fact through these two questions that His efforts are above-board, and that it is not wrong for Him to now expect good fruit.  He poses the great questions of 1) what more could I do? and 2) why bad fruit? now to Israel.  They need to think about why they've "gone bad."  And, of course, so do we.

By asking the first question, God makes it clear that it is not His failure or insufficiency that has caused this problem.  Mankind needs to look deep within themselves to discover their shortcomings in the eyes of God.  By asking the second question, God goes even further to remove blame from Himself.  He has given us every good thing necessary for productivity, but we have often wasted what He has given, or lost it through disuse, or misused it for wrong purposes.  We owe God so much!  And there is really nothing more that He needs to do:  we need to be "doing"!  The apostle Paul states in Romans 1:14 that he is a "debtor" to God (King James version), and "obligated" to preach the gospel. (NIV)  Why?  Paul rightly realizes how much good God has done for him and his response is to be busy doing for God in return!  Paul again refers to how he is moved to serve God in 2 Corinthians 5:14:  "For Christ's love compels us...", (NIV), and in the King James, "For the love of Christ constraineth us..."  

Let us not be guilty of wasting our gifts and talents.  Let us not be guilty of failing to use them at all.  And let us not be guilty of misusing them selfishly or wrongly. 

Prayer:  Father, You have not failed me.  If there is a lack, it is my doing!  Strengthen me to respond to Your good gifts by producing through them what You want in my life.  Guide me to find what You want by looking deeply into Your Word.  Amen. 

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