Chapter 5
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Verses 1-4: Isaiah describes Israel as the
Lord’s vineyard, and even though He cared for it, it has produced bitter grapes
instead of sweet.
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Verse 5: God will be the one who destroys his
vineyard.
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Verses 8-30: Isaiah makes 6 claims of judgment
against Judah, each beginning with ‘What sorrow…’
o 1.
The first is against those who acquired their wealth via obtaining land at the
expense of the poor.
o 2.
The second is against drunkards, who embodied the corruption of society in
general.
§
“They never think about the Lord or notice what
He is doing.”
o 3.
The third is against those who live in sin and mock God.
o 4.
The fourth is against those who overturn the moral order established by God.
o 5.
The fifth is against those who think they are wise or full of knowledge.
o 6.
The sixth is again directed against those who over consume alcohol.
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Verse 25: Because of the way God’s people have
rejected His law and despised His word, God’s anger burns against them, and his
fist is, “posed to strike!”
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Verse 26-30: Basically is a description of the
destruction that will happen when God’s wrath comes down. It can be summed up
by the last sentence, ‘only darkness and distress will be seen; even the light
will be darkened by clouds.’
Sometimes it takes a pretty graphic picture to get my attention. I would say that its a safe bet to say the same thing for a lot of people. Unless it has personal consequences on an individual's life, a lot of times it is pretty easy to see something or read something and just pass it off as applying more to someone else than yourselves. Thats one of the reasons that I like this passage, because it makes it hard for me to pass it off to someone else. In Chapter 5, Isaiah lists off a series of 6 oracles of judgement made against Judah, and then gives the reasons for why those judgements were made. When I look at the list of those sins above, I can't ignore them, because I'm guilty of every one of them at some point in my life. I constantly struggle with sin and thus mock God. I constantly think to highly and proudly of myself and think I'm smart and full of knowledge. There was a time in my life where I struggled with over consuming alcohol. Money and the acquisition of wealth is constantly in the back of my mind. I can keep going if you want me to, the point is Isaiah might as well be reading off my own list of sins instead of Judah's. And then after reading the reasons for judgement, he then goes on to say what will come as a result of those sins. Isaiah 5: 30: "Only darkness and distress will be seen; even the light will be darkened by clouds." He's speaking in a metaphor here about the land of Judah, but what I take that to mean is that ultimately our sins lead us into darkness, into an absence of the light, the light that is walking with God and being in His presence. Because of our sins, or rejection of God's law and His word, God's fist is poised to strike against us. We deserve to be put into a place of darkness. It's going to take awhile, but Isaiah is beginning to make the first main argument of his point throughout the whole book. That we are sinful, and we deserve the punishment and the wrath of God. We deserve darkness.
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