Isaiah - Verse By Verse

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.

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