This chapter in Isaiah marks the end of the beginning and has a rather heavy flavour to it. Isa 5:1-7, the start of the chapter, is a love song. It showed Israel how God worked and invested so much in the vineyard and desired for the vineyard to bear good fruits. Instead of the desired good fruits, Israel bore wild grapes. This was to make clear the reality of Israel’s conditions before God. Israel was meant to and designed to bear good fruits, and God had done everything and provided everything necessary for growth (Isa 5:4). Yet, Israel bore wild grapes.
Thus, from Isa 5:8 onwards, we will read of how God is going to show Himself holy in justice.
(A) Woe to corrupt lives: the wealthy, happy, and haughty (Isa 5:8-17)
There is a weightiness to these verses. It begins with the word “woe”, and with it, carries the feeling of being cursed and damned. The first woe in Isa 5:8-10 is a picture of ruthless accumulation and greed. Israel’s behaviour ran contrary to what God told them in Lev 25:23-28. In the Levitical law that God gave, he designed a system of land owning that was incredibly sophisticated and careful. It was a a significant part of the law and not just a footnote. The law was detailed and they were supposed to live it out. In doing so, they will look different from the nations. God had revealed His law in bold-faced font, so that His people would live it, the nations would see it, and God would be reverenced in His holiness.
Thus, this is not just an issue of greed. We see here a lack of love for God’s law and also others. He had revealed Himself through the law. He intended for the land to provide for the people. What Israel displayed however, was ceaseless accumulation and greed, coupled with a defiance of God’s laws!
As a result of their rebellion of God’s law, they will be driven out of God’s land (Isa 5:9-10). Isa 26:26 also spells out the consequences of disobeying God’s law. All of their intention to maximise efficiency is shown to be foolishness. God is the one who provides anyway. Thus, because they reject His law, the consequences of the law fall upon them. They are cast out of His presence and their portioned and planned gain proves worthless.
The second woe is levelled at those who not only disobey God’s law, but also numb themselves to their sin through revelry and party (Isa 5:11-12). They indulge in pleasures, but they do not have personal communion with God. This is an image of hedonistic happiness. In doing so, they distract themselves from the LORD’s presence and action in their lives. What sort of things have numbed our hearts to God? Are we preoccupied with our phones or Netflix shows? What have you been drinking in times of calamity? How have you been responding to national calamity or to all the problems of the church.
The consequences are laid out in Isa 5:13-14. Therefore, they are sent out into exile for lack of knowledge. They disregard the personal God’s (LORD) presence, and so they are cast out from it. Beware your affiliation! The punishment fits the crime, and justice falls upon them. What do our circumstances tell us about our sins?
Isa 5:15-16 shows a reversal and man is put in place, while God reclaims His rightful place. The haughty are humbled, and God is exalted. God’s justice brings about the correct order to our world. God is God, and we are not. In just judgment, God shows Himself “holy in righteousness”. Isaiah is telling us that things God does not tolerate sins and stands idly by. He is the God of light and in Him there is no darkness.
Isaiah also shows us how God does these things that seem to give us over to the natural outcomes for disordered desires. As one of the Fellowship teachers put it so well, “What if God’s discipline at this time is simply to let us have what our hearts’ disordered loves and inordinate desire? What if He is letting us have isolation because we have been isolating ourselves? Or this spiritual drought because we have not been spiritually drinking? What if we are enduring this oppressive anxiety of working from home because we have always been overworking? Or the inability to truly get away and rest because we never take rest seriously?”
Some of us may also ask or be asked, “If God is so good, where is there suffering?” Isaiah is telling us that in part, suffering exists because God is holy. Because He is holy, there will be judgment.
Our response to the suffering and brokenness in this world begins with lament. But lament is not the same thing as being emotional. To lament is to grief in a way that recognises the holiness of God. We are meant to witness God in His holiness. Some of us are anxious about the ways of the world and the doom and gloom of it. But apart from feeling grief about it, also remember that God is revealing and showing Himself. Yes, sadness and grief is a good first step, but we need to take the next step, to also behold this God!
(B) Woe to corrupt hearts: the scoffer, moraliser, and antinomian (Isa 5:18-30)
The next woe in Isa 5:18-19 is to those that pursue sin. Sin is sped on by the falsehood that God is either incompetent or indifferent. In 2 Pet 3:3-4, Peter describes the scoffers that will pursue their own sinful desires and will also reject the promises of God.
Woe is pronounced also on those who “call evil good and good evil …” (Isa 5:20) and those who are “wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight” (Isa 5:21). This is a picture of those that justify their own sin, and in doing so, display moral perversion where things are being turned around on its head.
There is a tight connection from this set of woes between our moral perversion and our lies and doubts about God. It doesn’t happen over a day. In fact, it happens slowly over time. Ps 36:1-2 pains a picture of flattering self in own eyes until you stand in judgment over God.
We can easily see how it describes the culture wars in our lives. But know that Isaiah is also primarily speaking to God’s people. Some of us may be too preoccupied with transforming the nation than to be a transformed nation. This really calls us to think about what you are tasting and indulging in right now. Are you delighting in things that are clearly wrong and tweaking your tastes to fuel that?
In Isa 5:22, woe is also pronounced on those who appear to glorify sin. This took the form of indulging in strong wine and drink, and perpetuating injustice by accepting bribes and not standing for the rights of the innocent.
What is the outcome? He continues this picture of a useless vineyard by describing how these vines that bear wild grapes are condemned to their roots, utterly consumed (Isa 5:24-25). Without a doubt, the prophet is telling us that our sin will consume us. This image was picked up in Jas 5:6, where our tongue and the words that we use can destroy us.
Sin is not just a choice or a preference, but it is a downward slide into a life that is hellish.
Dwight Moody was a writer of numerous Christian books, and experienced the great Chicago fire. Of his experience, he writes:
“It was my sad lot to be in the Chicago fire. As the flames rolled down our streets, destroying everything in their onward march, I saw the great and the honorable, the learned and the wise, fleeing before the fire with the beggar, and the thief, and the harlot. All were alike. As the flames swept through the city it was like the judgment day. The mayor, nor the mighty men, nor wise men could stop these flames. They were all on a level then, and many who were worth hundreds of thousands were left paupers that night. When the day of judgment comes, there will be no difference. “
When judgment comes, all who sin, regardless of our backgrounds, will be judged.
But what sits at the heart of Israel’s rebellion? They are anti-law people (Isa 5:24b) and antinomians. In rejecting God’s law, they reject God. God’s judgment falls upon much more than corrupt behavior. falls on a rebellious, deceitful, self-righteous, God-despising heart.
God had given His law as part of His provision and it was meant to be good for them. In mirroring the behaviour of the law, they were to show God’s character to the watching nations. But because they had despised His law, He makes Himself holy through judgment.
Isa 5:26-30 shows us 2 tragic ironies at work. Judgment will come quickly. In Isa 2:3-5, we read of God’s original vision for Israel and plan for the nations. it was a picture of hope as we read of how the nations were to flow to Israel and wars were to cease. But because God’s people had rejected the law, there was no way for the nations to learn. In Isa 5, because Israel had rejected the law, the nations will now come to consume them instead of learning! Instead of walking in the light of the Lord, the light is now darkened by the clouds of judgment.
This teaches us that God cares about how we engage in the Bible! He does not give us His word casually. It is not there to inspire us when we need to. He gave us His word to be made known to the world. And when we fail to do so, He shows Himself in judgment.
To behold God as holy means to see what His heart loves and what He hates. And when we look at God, and then look at what we are consumed by and focus on, we see the ways that we are not holy and have rejected Him, only to bring judgment on ourselves.
(C) A welcome and a warning: Let us walk in the light of the LORD (Isa 5:30)
The rest of the prophets speak of God acting in judgment, but also in providing salvation. God whistles and judgment falls (Isa 5:26), but He also promises to whistle and gather His people to Himself (Zech 10:8). It takes them about 700 years later for some of the words of hope to come true.
In Jn 1:1-5, we read of how God is light, in whom there is no darkness at all. Jesus is the light. In Isaiah we see how God pours out these dark clouds of judgment. The coming of this light is not necessarily good news for people used to darkness.
What more will God do? This light takes on true darkness (c.f. Matt 27:45). God has hidden us in Christ; He will hide us in His holiness.
Thus, as we continue to read Isaiah, we don’t do so with a sense of detachment. Isaiah helps us see the weight of Calvary. When we say that Jesus overcame the darkness and bore our sin and judgment, it is bearing the weight the judgment written about in the prophets.
We are to also remember that He draws us into His light. What more could God have done? We who know God and His light, we know that He has given us everything. Test yourself. Consider the fruit you are bearing. Are you captivated by the lustres of this life? Is your heart captivated by the lusts of this world? Is your mind captive to the thoughts of this world? Being a Christian might be hard today. It might be tempting and sweeter to follow the ways of the world. But hear these words in Isaiah and remember that judgment is also real. Flee to Christ. See this God. We have a much greater Light than the lights of this world.