Isaiah 5:1

Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes... For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. (Isaiah 5:1–7)

When God plants a vineyard with every advantage and still finds only wild grapes, what does His love require Him to do?

The Song of the Vineyard

Isaiah continues speaking to Judah and Jerusalem, and he begins with this song of the vineyard of the Lord. As we read it quickly, it becomes clear this is not about a literal vineyard producing grapes, but about the people of Jerusalem, the nation of Judah, the children of Israel. And God was the one who called this people.

We have studied that calling here before, looking at Genesis chapter 12. God called Abraham to follow Him by faith, and Abraham did, and God blessed that whole family. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob—becoming Israel—begot the twelve tribes. Ultimately they ended up in Egypt for over four hundred years. They first went in during a prosperous time, invited to come, but they became slaves under harsh taskmasters, and they began to cry out to the Lord.

A God Who Hears the Cry of His People

Read through the Old Testament and you see story after story of the redemptive plan of God, and how He longs to hear His people cry out after Him. In some awesome way it touches the heart of God when people cry out to Him. Every parent here understands this. My son is thirteen months old and at a very needy stage; if I step out of the room, he instantly starts crying and runs to find me. It tugs at your heart. In much the same way, when His people cried out under their taskmasters, that cry came up to His ears.

So God raised up a deliverer in Moses. He brought them out of Egypt with a high hand, an outstretched arm, defeating the Egyptian army and bringing them over the Red Sea on dry ground. In the wilderness came a time of testing and proving—where God tested them but proved Himself to them. How many of you have experienced that in your walk, that He tests us yet ultimately proves Himself in the midst of the trial?

He provided bread from heaven; they woke and asked, "Manna—what is it?" He brought water out of rocks, led them with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day, and brought them into the promised land. He subdued their enemies, gave them cities they did not build and vineyards they did not plant. He provided for them in every way.

The Cycle of Rejection

Then comes Judges, right after Joshua's death. In their own land, blessed of God, the people began to depart from Him. And when they departed, God could not help but remove His hand of protection, because God cannot fellowship with our sin. In rejecting Him, they began to feel oppression as their enemies came in.

The book of Judges shows this cycle: the people worship God, the godly judge dies, they turn to idolatry, they fall into slavery under harsh taskmasters, and then they cry out. God's heart is broken again, and He raises up a deliverer—Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, Barak. They serve God for a time, but when that judge dies, a generation rises that does not know the Lord, and the cycle starts again.

Eventually they said, "We don't want God to rule over us; we want a king." Though His heart was broken, God gave them a king after their own choosing—Saul, a corrupt man. Then He raised up a king after His own heart in David, still an imperfect man, whose failures are written large in 2 Samuel. Earthly kings, however strong, always fail and fall away. Solomon brought Israel to great wealth and ascendancy—like the dot-com boom of the 1990s in America—but as with any boom there is a bust. After his death came Rehoboam, civil war, and a divided nation, with mostly bad kings leading the people away from the Lord.

All That God Had Done

So God was constantly tending His people. He raised Abraham from the east, brought him out of Ur, and planted him in a very fertile hill. Verse 2 says it metaphorically: He fenced it and gathered out the stones—He got rid of their enemies, removed anything that would stand in their way. He planted the best possible vine. He built a tower in the midst for protection—God even dwelt among His people in the tabernacle, in Shiloh, and later in the temple in Solomon's day. Though He is greater than any building made with hands, He still chose to abide in the midst of His people.

He made a winepress and did everything possible to assure a good vintage. Whether among the people of Judah 2,800 years ago or among the people of Escondido in 2009, God desires to find fruit among His people. We've been seeing this on Sunday mornings in Galatians 5—God looks in your life and mine for the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control. But here it brought forth wild grapes—bitter grapes. Even though He planted the choicest vine, the harvest was bitter.

"Judge Between Me and My Vineyard"

So God puts the question to them: "Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard." You be the judge—who is in error? Consider all God did to plant them in the land, then consider how constantly they turned away, and how often, when they suffered for it, they accused God of being the one who did it to them. We'll see that accusation repeated in this book.

"What could have been done more to my vineyard than I have done? Is there anything else I should have done?" At the end of verse 4 it is as if the people stand speechless and dumbfounded. So God says, "I'll tell you what I will do. I will take away the hedge, and it shall be eaten up. I will break down the wall, and it shall be trodden down. I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged. There shall come up briars and thorns, and I will command the clouds that they not rain upon it." Then He explains so no one misunderstands: "The vineyard of the LORD is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant."

The Fruit God Was Looking For

What fruit did He seek? "He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry." God's desire was to find judgment and righteousness in that city. We saw it back in Isaiah 1:21: "How is the faithful city become a harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers." Once it produced a good vintage; now the silver had become dross, the wine mixed with water, the princes rebellious, companions of thieves, loving gifts and rewards, not pleading for the fatherless or the widow.

Here is the interesting thing: the people felt safe in their religion. They believed they were doing exactly what God wanted and could not understand why He was angry. They offered sacrifices, observed feast days, kept the temple, priesthood, and Levites—from a religious standpoint everything looked in order. The wicks were trimmed, the lamps full of oil, the sacrifices offered at the right times. But what was missing? There was no judgment, no righteousness. They were companions of thieves who would not plead the cause of the fatherless or the widow.

What God was looking for had nothing to do with their sacrifices. He told Saul through Samuel in 1 Samuel 15 that He does not delight in the blood of bulls and goats; He looks for a broken and contrite heart. David understood this, and so God called him a friend. God looks for the application of His law in our daily lives. In Matthew 25, when God divides the sheep and the goats, He says, "I was naked and you clothed me; I was hungry and you fed me; I was sick and you visited me." Those applications of the law of love pleased God—and the same is true here. Israel had a form of godliness, a beautiful temple, many priests, countless sacrifices—and yet to God it was sin (Isaiah 1:11). "I'm looking for justice," He says, "not sacrifice."

God Removes His Protection

So God reveals His plan: "I will take away the hedge, and it shall be eaten up. I will break down the wall, and it shall be trodden down." I believe this is one of God's first steps in judgment upon a people—He removes their protection. And with the loss of protection comes the loss of blessing. When God removes His protection, the enemy is able to come in and destroy, because that's all he knows how to do. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

We see this pictured in Job. On earth Job had a blessed life—many servants, a great family, immense wealth. But in heaven Satan stood before God, who asked, "Have you considered my servant Job?" Satan answered that Job served only as a mercenary, because of God's blessings; take it all away and he will curse You. God replied that He would remove His protection, allowing Satan to take everything but Job's life. Satan had said, "You have put a hedge around him," and God removed the hedge.

Now, Job's case differs from Isaiah's: Job was righteous, and God used his life to prove that righteousness against Satan's false accusation. Personally, I never want to stand in Job's place as a test subject. But when His protection was removed, Job's goods and family were taken away in what looked like natural disaster—a whirlwind destroyed his children's house; robbers stole his goods and killed his servants. Through the lens of Scripture we recognize a deeply spiritual thing happening in the physical realm.

Calamity and the Spiritual Realm

We will see this repeated throughout Isaiah. God moves in the spiritual realm, but it is manifested in the earthly realm in very earthly ways—famine, flood, fire, earthquake, locust invasion. Read these at the temporal level and you'd think they were merely headlines in the newspaper, but from a biblical perspective there is a spiritual reality behind the scenes. If you take anything from Isaiah and the Old Testament, recognize that the physical, temporal calamities of our world today are spiritually connected. Say that publicly and some will call you a lunatic—perhaps I'll get some phone calls when this airs in a few weeks. But this is what the Scriptures reveal. They give us a peek into the spiritual realm, which we will see vividly in Isaiah 6 when we behold the throne room of God.

Woe to the Greedy

Because of the lack of justice, judgment, and righteousness, the woes of Isaiah 5 begin. "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!" That word woe is well translated: destruction is certain, sorrow is coming. Sorrow to those who buy up house after house and field after field until everyone is evicted and they live alone in the land.

What is this woe for? It is literally for greed—greed displayed in their real estate dealings. Do you see the irony? Their desire for independence instead of interdependence: buying up land to lock themselves in the middle so they need not be connected with anyone else. Isaiah says he has heard the Lord swear a solemn oath: many houses will stand deserted, even bountiful mansions empty. Might we call it foreclosure? Then He adds an economic collapse—ten acres of vineyard yielding only five or six gallons of wine, ten baskets of seed yielding one basket of grain.

Woe to the Drunkards

"Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning"—I say amen, but the verse continues—"that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!" The harp, viol, tabret, pipe, and wine fill their feasts, but they regard not the work of the Lord. The second woe is for wantonness and drunkenness, repeated in the sixth woe of verse 22. Drunkenness was a serious problem in Judah and even worse in the northern tribes, where the vineyards flourished—still a wine-growing region near Eshkol today.

When a nation becomes abundant in wealth, it has more time to enjoy the pleasures of this world. The boom gave Israel more time for pleasure-seeking, and they sought it until wine inflamed them. "Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge." It echoes Isaiah 1:3—the ox knows his owner, the donkey his master's crib, but Israel does not know. Hell enlarges herself and opens her mouth to receive them; the mean man is brought down and the mighty humbled. God will humble their pride and arrogance, just as we saw in Isaiah 3 and 4. "But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness."

God Exalted in Judgment

This is hard for us, because we dislike the idea of judgment. I had a conversation with a Bible college student trying to grasp the day of the Lord and the judgment coming upon the unrighteous. The Bible reveals we will be there to watch this judgment meted out—and when we do, Scripture makes clear that none of us will say, "Lord, I just don't know if this is right or fair," because God will be exalted in His judgment. We will see that He is completely righteous on that day.

Woe to Those Who Parade Their Sin

"Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope." There are two ways to read this. One: woe to those so laden with sin they must haul it around in a cart—as if they need a U-Haul to carry it. But the better reading is: woe to those who parade their sin. For the most part sin is hidden; most people do not want it exposed. As John 3 says, men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. People even foolishly thought their secret sin was hidden from God.

But there comes a point when a nation is so far removed from God that it begins to parade its sin. We see it in our own land with pride parades, where people glorify their sin, bringing it "out of the closet." This will inflame some who see it on TV, but Scripture speaks of a nation becoming so depraved that it parades its sin. Really this parading is a defense mechanism for guilt; they know they're guilty and want everyone else to accept it to appease that guilt. So we may look on and say "that's vile," or we may be broken for them, recognizing they are so ridden with guilt they don't know what else to do. May God save them and bring the transformation only He can give.

They even mock God: "Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it." If there really is a God, why hasn't He judged me? "My sin is openly before Him; let Him do something." The scary thing is, there is coming a day when He will stand up to judge.

Woe to Moral Confusion

"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!" A nation is prepared for judgment when there is depraved moral confusion—where they change morality, calling evil good and good evil, saying, "Who has the authority to call something right or wrong? What's wrong for you may be right for someone else."

It is this moral confusion that says abortion is good and those against it are bad; that calls homosexuality acceptable and labels those who call people to repentance "haters"; that says evolution is fact and God's Word is fiction; that says fornication is right and those who call it wrong are oppressive and archaic. Psalm 19 says the Word of the Lord is sweet as the honeycomb, while the counsel of man is bitter. We live in a nation where the counsel of man is esteemed above the wisdom of God—putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to the Self-Wise

"Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!"—fool's wisdom. Romans 1 speaks to this. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." That which may be known of God is manifest in them, for the invisible things are clearly seen, so that they are without excuse. They knew God but did not glorify Him; professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and God gave them up to vile affections—men with men, women against nature—receiving the recompense of their error. "Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind."

Notice that phrase: they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. There is a wholesale rejection of God in our society today. God is almost like firmware, hardwired into us—you can't change it unless you change the chip. The only way to get rid of the knowledge that there is a God is to be given over to a depraved, reprobate mind. So God hands them over.

Professing to be wise, they became fools—self-proclaimed experts rejecting true knowledge for their ideology. We're seeing it right now in the global warming debate; in recent weeks emails have surfaced showing some of these experts hiding the facts. And if you really study the evidence for macro evolution—from the goo to the zoo to you—it does not support the claim, so they must do scientific gymnastics. The amazing thing is that when you become wise in your own eyes, God has an awesome way of humbling you. Science is steadfastly convinced of something until it discovers some new thing and has to rewrite all the textbooks. Destruction is certain.

Woe to Corrupt Leaders

"Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!" The ones who judged in Jerusalem were the leaders, so He addresses them. They are strong to mingle strong drink and they justify the wicked for a reward—they take bribes.

I once read in USA Today that the city in America with the highest per-capita alcohol consumption is Washington, D.C.—not Las Vegas, as you might think. Leaders boast in how well they can hold their alcohol. What kind of thing is that to be proud of? Proverbs 17:15 says, "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD." Even among His own people they had become abominations.

"Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble... so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel." A burning will come, destroying them root and blossom, because they turned from God's law. Psalm 107 says those who rebel against the words of the Lord and contemn the counsel of the Most High sit in darkness, the shadow of death, bound in affliction and iron. Depart from the Word of God and you will find yourself in bondage—spiritually, and eventually physically.

"His Hand Is Stretched Out Still"

"Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them." The picture is God angry with righteous indignation, His hand ready to spank. He has already spanked them once. "And yet for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." In other words, "I've spanked you once and you haven't learned; I'm going to spank you again." Has any parent said that to a child? I heard it often. As I told you a few weeks ago, God's punishment is always for purification; He disciplines that we would be disciplined. He repeats this refrain four more times in Isaiah—9:12, 17, 22, and 10:4.

If they are not changed by the chastening, He will strike again: "He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly." First He judges from within; if they will not be chastened, He whistles to the nations—their enemies—and calls them to come. In the earthly realm it looks like a war, an invasion, a terrorist attack, but spiritually it is the judgment of God.

They will come so swiftly that none shall be weary or stumble, none shall slumber or sleep, not even loosening their belts or breaking a shoelace; their arrows sharp, their bows bent, their horses' hooves like flint, their wheels like the whirlwind, their roaring like a lion that lays hold of the prey, and none shall deliver it. "And if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof." It will be a dark, bleak day when this judgment comes.

Line Upon Line

And what did the people of Isaiah's day say of him? They said he repeated himself like a broken record—"He might as well go teach the children's ministry, those just weaned from the milk." In Isaiah 28 they mocked, "Line upon line, line upon line; precept upon precept, precept upon precept; here a little, and there a little." They wouldn't listen.

So the judgment came—first by the Assyrian armies under four kings, who destroyed the northern ten tribes and nearly destroyed the south under Sennacherib in the 700s B.C. Only the grace of God under Hezekiah spared Judah and Jerusalem from complete destruction. You would think they would learn, but they didn't, and 150 years later the Lord came by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the nation entirely.

Learn From History

Winston Churchill said those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. In 1 Corinthians 10, after recounting Israel's failures, Paul says, "All these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Everything from Genesis to Malachi was written as an example, that we would learn from Israel's failures and victories. And in the very next verse: "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

May we learn from the history of Israel. I believe it is no accident that America—the greatest superpower the world has ever known, as far as we can tell—is not mentioned in the prophetic events of the last days. It's a scary thing to consider, but may we take to heart God's Word. And this is a good December Christmas message, isn't it? May we learn.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank you that this passage in Isaiah shows it will be bad for the wicked but well for the righteous in that day. We thank you that you are our strength, our shield, our high tower, our exceedingly great reward, the lifter of our heads. We thank you that you have set a seal upon us, that you will be our provision and our protector, and though the mountains be cast into the sea and the nations rage, you are enthroned in heaven tonight.

God, you have given us a message in these last days, and you said repeatedly, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church." Would we hear? Open our ears, and give us boldness to share this politically incorrect message among a people who are dying, for your Word says your wrath is coming upon all unrighteousness and ungodliness of those who suppress the truth. I do not want to see your wrath come upon anybody in Escondido, San Marcos, or Valley Center. Give us compassion for the lost and a passion for souls, an urgency to share your truth even though some will be offended. As John Wesley spoke, may we be those who pull the sinner from the fires of hell, a brand plucked from the fire. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.