Isaiah 5:8-23

THE WOES OF APPLICATION

TEXT: Isaiah 5:8-23

8

Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land !

9

In mine ears saith Jehovah of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

10

For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.

11

Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that tarry late into the night, till wine inflame them!

12

And the harp and the lute, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of Jehovah, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.

13

Therefore my people are gone into captivity for lack of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude are parched with thirst.

14

Therefore Sheol hath enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth among them, descend into it.

15

And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is humbled, and the eyes of the lofty are humbled:

16

but Jehovah of hosts is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.

17

Then shall the lambs feed as in their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall wanderers eat.

18

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin as it were with a cart rope;

19

that say, Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!

20

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

22

Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink;

23

that justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

QUERIES

a.

What is wrong with acquiring houses and fields?

b.

What is drawing iniquity with cords of falsehood?

c.

Who would call evil good, and good evil?

PARAPHRASE

Woe to you who acquire property so others have no place to live. Your homes are built on great estates so you can be alone in the midst of great expanses of land! But the Lord of Hosts has sworn your awful fatewith my own ears I heard Him say, Many a beautiful home will lie deserted, their owners killed or gone. Ten acres of vineyard will produce less than ten gallons of wine, and ten bushels of seed will produce less than one bushel of grain. Woe to you who get up very early in the morning to debauch and debase yourselves with endless carousing and drinking of strong drink. Your addiction is insatiable and you drink yourselves into a stupor. By the riotous merriment of your festivities accompanied by the loud, pagan music, you have very effectively turned your attention away from the work of the Lord and have made yourself insensible to His ways. Sin has so darkened your spiritual understanding you are as good as banished from the Lord's presence into captivitythere is no alternative left to Him but to punish the leaders and the people of this nation with the consequences of their rebellions. There will be both spiritual and physical starvation. Death and the grave are waiting with mouths wide open to devour the multitudes that will die. Those who revel in injustice, drunkenness, and pompousness will be swallowed up in God's punishment. In that day the haughty shall be brought down to the dust; the proud shall be humbled; and the Lord of Hosts will be exalted above all, for He alone is holy, just and good. The devastation of what was once the vineyard of the Lord will be so complete as to turn the glorious land into pastures for wandering flocks of sheep and goats. Woe to those who are so enslaved to their sins that they drag them along with them everywhere they go like dumb oxen pulling carts. The ropes which bind them to their sins are the lying vanities with which they have deceived themselves. They are so brazen as to mock the Holy One of Israel and dare the Lord to punish them. Hurry up and punish us, O Lord, they say, We want to see what You can do! Woe to them that turn all values upside down and say that what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right; that black is white and white is black; bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. Woe to those who are wise and shrewd in their own estimation! Woe to those who are heroes when it comes to getting drunk, and boast about the wine they can hold. Woe to those who pervert justice by taking bribes, letting the guilty go free and putting innocent men in prison.

COMMENTS

After the general warning conveyed to Judah by the song or parable of the vineyard, six sins are pointed out as those which have especially provoked God to give the warning. He now pronounces woes of application against each of these sins.

Isaiah 5:8-10 WOE AGAINST MONOPOLY AND GREED: Selfishness - greed for possession of land and houses. Many rich people are notorious for this sin. They are not satisfied to own a small business, however well paying; they must monopolize. It gives them a sense of security and power. God never intended for a few to control the wealth of the world. These men of Isaiah's day were land-grabbers to the extent that there was no room left for the poor man who must either live on the property of the landowners as slaves or immigrate to another territory. This violated the Mosaic law which had apportioned a parcel of land to each family head. This land was to remain in the family. If it should have to be sold, it was to be returned to the original family in the year of Jubilee, God's judgment is spoken directly into the ear of Isaiah. There can be no mistakeGod will judge! Desolate houses; barren and unfruitful land. Ten acres of vineyard normally should produce 4,000 gallons of wine instead of 8 gallons. The land would produce but l/10th the seed sown.

Isaiah 5:11-17 WOE AGAINST DISSIPATION: Misuse of God's beneficence. They rise early, not to work and live constructively, but to revel and play in riotous music, feasting and dancing. A greedy, grasping, monopolizing people. Luxury loving, drinking, feasting and reveling. Consuming the landwhile the rest of the people lived like slaves. The only liberty they care for is a selfish libertylicense to do as they please. There is no room in their drink-weakened, pleasure-loving brains for serious thought of sober government. Their only thought is how to enjoy this moment, this day; and they squeeze every day dry and fling it to one side after it is finished.

Captivity is the inevitable consequence of such dissipation. Moral, intellectual, political and spiritual enslavement surely follows such decadence. Loss of personal worth, personal identity and death await such actions. In this instance, the people, their wealth, and their haughtiness will come to an end. Both high and low will meet the same endcaptivity.
The lambs and sheep of foreigners will feed in their land. The places formerly owned by the wealthy shall be occupied and used by strangers. Assyrians, Arabs, Samaritans and other nomadic tribes inhabited this land during their captivities.

Isaiah 5:18-19 WOE AGAINST UNBELIEF: Not having faith in God they sin openly as those who draw or pull after them a load of sin with cords or ropes. They are so enslaved to their sins and to Satan, they are like harnessed oxen who pull heavy burdens; the difference being men voluntarily wish it to be so while animals have no choice. And we call animals, dumb! And far from being penitent, they are brazen. When told of God's coming judgment, instead of fleeing to hide in the rocks, they scoff, What is God waiting fortell Him to come on. We would like to see Him come in judgment! The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Absence of the fear of the Lord leads to stupidity (Cf. II Tim. Chapter s 3 and 4).

Isaiah 5:20 WOE AGAINST MORAL CONFUSION: Moral confusion always results from unbelief (Cf. Romans 1:18-32). Where there is no faith in God there are no clear-cut moral distinctionsno clear conception of what is right and wrong. There can only be moral relativisma thing is right because we want it to bemoral anarchy. Dostoïevski has his priest character say, in The Brothers Karamasov, If there is no God everything is permissible. Nietzsche, the insane German philosopher, insisted that what the world needed was a transvaluation of values. Nietzsche was simply carrying out his evolutionary atheism to its rational end. When unbelief takes over, all values are turned upside-down. What is good is said to be bad; what is bad is said to be good. The playboyism of our 20th century attempts to convince people that Christian ethics (especially in sex) are evil. Where this reversal of values occurs, cowardice becomes caution; recklessness becomes courage; stinginess becomes thrift; prodigality becomes generosity; sin becomes maladjustment! Right or wrong becomes a matter of custom. Cursing, drinking, promiscuous sexual activity, gambling are all justified on pragmatic bases. There appear as many ethical standards as there are individuals. People make up their own laws to suit their own purposes. Recognition of authority, except for oneself, disappears. Society soon resembles a chicken with its head cut offno coordination, no purpose, no control. Moral anarchy results in civil and social destruction and death.

Isaiah 5:21 WOE AGAINST CONCEIT: Not only do they sin blatantlythey take pride in their adeptness in sinning. They are wise in their own eyes. The farther men drift from God in unbelief the more conceited they become (Cf. Romans 1:18-32; 2 Peter 3:3-7; 2 Corinthians 10:7-12). God becomes something to set on a table as a kind of ornament. Religion becomes a fetish, having no real place, no real function in life. The real issues and problems of society are made relative to selfish interests. Pride is the snare of the devil. Pride brought the judgment of God upon angels.

Isaiah 5:22-23 WOE AGAINST PERVERSION OF JUSTICE: Selfishness is the first step into degradation. Selfishness means dethronement of God. As a result of such dethronement men turn to false securitiesfalse gods. Wine, sex, money all are sought as replacements for God. The leaders of Judah become sotsalcoholics. Drunkards administered the government! In America we have drunken legislators, drunken government executives, and drunken military leaders administering our government! Drunkenness, graft, bribery, injustice, corruption of all kinds were rampant in Judah at this time. The justification for such action was cynical unbelief. One important issue of such living is moral anarchy. The inevitable consequence of such a society is arrogant rulers and an oppressed populace. The leaders of the country boasted and prided themselves, not in how well they ruled, but in how well they mixed drinks and how drunken they were able to become.

QUIZ

1.

Name the sins for which the rulers are judged guilty in this section.

2.

Show how unbelief leads to social, political and intellectual enslavement.

3.

When have such sins been prevalent in men other than in Isaiah's day?