Isaiah - Verse By Verse

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. 

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:3 (NIV):  " 'Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.' "

Thought:  To me, God has every right to expect good from our lives.

Question:  Do I own a sense of allegiance to God?

God brings this story/analogy to rebellious Israel.  They are to pass judgment--Who is to blame here for this failure?

God is showing how very reasonable it is for a Creator to expect, even demand, that His creatures produce what He intended--what He wants.  He invites the Israelites to feel in their hearts and minds, the weight, as it were, of God's right to expect "good fruit."

Of course He has the right--He is their/our Maker!  I think of Romans 12:1:  "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."  (King James Version)  That word "reasonable" is so appropriate, not only for what Paul is saying in Romans 12:1, but also as we sense the tone of this verse in Isaiah.  Why should God not have the right to expect spiritual productivity in the lives of His children?  It is only reasonable.  And if He does not find it, it is only reasonable that He has the right to pass whatever judgment He sees fit.

Prayer:  Creator God, I bow my heart before You.  Cause me to accept fully Your right to expect good works in my life.  Help me to produce "good fruit"--deeds and works that make You smile.  Amen.  

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:2 (NIV):  "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."

Thought:  To me, God clearly longs to see us "bearing fruit" in our lives.

Question:  Am I accountable to God?

God prepared Israel, His chosen people, to receive Him and serve Him by "clearing" their way and "planting" His commandments among them.  He "built" His protection into the plan and remained watchful over them.  He does the same with us today, giving all peoples open opportunities to come to know Him.  He draws people, influences people, watches out for them and causes His Word to be available to them.  He works in hearts and lives in various ways, many of which are "painful" to us, even as "digging" and "clearing" may be harsh techniques to the earth, but always these diggings and losses are for our good.

The very best quality of planting is used by God--no shoddy vines ever come from Him.  We all have every opportunity to excel with what God gives us.  God goes further.  He erects protection over us to withstand the ever-present enemy, and He "constructs", or causes to develop in us, ways to extract the "fruit" we produce so that others' lives can be benefitted.  All of this is done as we develop and grow--long before we reach maturity.  

Finally God looks into our lives to see if any good fruit, as He reasonably expects to see, has popped out yet.  But in this case there was blighted fruit.  Oh, fruit was there; but it was not fit for consumption or use at all.  How disappointing for God!  He has put all good hard work and all good things into this project, yet it yields Him pain and tragedy.

Prayer:  Lord, because You are my Lord, make me more responsible to You!  Help me to realize I will give an accounting of myself and my "fruitfulness", or lack thereof, to You.  Amen.

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:1 (NIV):  "I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard:  My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside."

Thought:  To me it is a privilege to read of the love God has for us.  The scriptures overflow with warm reassurance.

Question:  Do I know God has a plan of love for me?

Remember, God is speaking here.  He is The Lover of our souls and we are His beloved ones, we who receive what He gives us:  His Son.  The gift of Christ is brought to us like the most beautiful song imagineable.

The beautiful poetry of the prophet Isaiah could never outshine the deep truth of this divinely inspired scripture:  God has a work of love to accomplish!  He has invested Himself in His people Israel.  He has a vision of fruitfulness.  He has goals in His mind's eye.

This also can apply to the church age and to us as believers in Christ.  God retains us as a project of growth and fruitbearing.  We, the vineyard "project" cannot produce wildly on our own.  No vineyard survives long without maintenance and care.  We begin in the fertility of Christ as our Savior and foundation:  God the Father is the "lanowner" and His Son is the "vinedresser".  God becomes our true Father through the work Christ completed on the cross. 

Will we let Him work in us to fruitfulness?

Prayer:  Lord, I want to be a "good" vineyard:  fruitful, free of "weeds" and pleasing to You!  I pray today to that end.  Amen. 

Scripture:  Isaiah 4:6 (NIV):  "It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain."

Thought:  To me, God's protection of His children in the Day of Wrath is the best "insurance policy" anyone could want!

Question:  Do I have the assurance of God's protection?

Indeed the "cloud of smoke by day" and the "glow of flaming fire by night" is for protection!  (See yesterday's verse:  Isaiah 4:5)  What's important, I think, is to see God's loving protection for His remnant of believers--that they will be protected from what the rest of the world will undergo in the "Day":  the "heat" of God's Day, and the "storm and rain."

We cannot say with certainty what the "heat", "storm and rain", may fully entail, but the book of Revelation does give us some insight!  

It is a real comfort to know that God's children, who are not appointed to wrath will be protected from it.  (Romans 5:9: "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!"; I Thessalonians 1:10:  "...and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."; and I Thessalonians 5:9:  "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."

What a typical display of the very warm love God has for His children!

Prayer:  Thank You, Lord, for saving us from the wrath to come!  Thank You for Your loving comfort in verses like these.  Amen. 

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