CHAPTER 5

(760 B.C.)

SONG OF GODS VINEYARD: A PARABLE OF JUDGMENT

¹Now will I sing to My wellbeloved a song of My beloved touching His vineyard. My wellbeloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill (the first four Chapters were one complete Prophecy; now a new Prophecy by Isaiah begins; it has no connection to the previous Prophecy except in Message; the vineyard is Israel; the singer is Elohim and the Beloved is His Beloved Son [Lk., Chpt. 20]):

²And 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. (Isaiah is using metaphors to describe the vineyard, i.e., Israel. Despite all the work done regarding this vineyard, it brought forth wild grapes. It should have been the choicest of fruit, but, instead, it brought forth a worthless product.)

³And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard.

⁴What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? (In these Passages is an awful finality. When the Lord said there is nothing more He could do, this denotes an effort of retrieval that is far beyond our capacity to grasp or understand!)

⁵And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:

⁶And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. (As is obvious, there is now a change in the Message; the style becomes abrupt, the tone fierce and menacing. Consequently, the Lord did exactly what He said He would do. During the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and then in A.D. 70, all of this came to pass, and in most horrifying detail.

The rain spoken of concerns spiritual renewal. Since Israels rejection of Christ, there has been no spiritual rain in any capacity. As well, she has brought forth briars and thorns in the spiritual sense.)

SIN OF JUDAH: GREED

⁷For 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. (Instead of this vineyard of the LORD producing good and pleasant plants, it produced instead oppression and wickedness.)

⁸Woe unto them who join house to house, who lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the Earth! (The expression field to field refers to covetousness. They were coveting more fields until they would own them all, so as to be great in the Earth. This is the first Woe!)

⁹In my ears said the LORD of Hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

¹⁰Yes, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. (The Lord had promised in the beginning that Israel would be a land of milk and honey. Now, because of sin and rebellion, He promises desolation.

Incidentally, the word ephah has reference concerning its total fulfillment in the Prophecy of Zechariah. It concerns Babylon being rebuilt in the land of Shinar [Zech. 5:5-11].

This is all because of the spiritual declension and fall of Israel. Even though this Prophecy was given nearly 2,800 years ago, truly the beginning of its fulfillment has already begun. Babylon will be rebuilt, whether the city or the system [Rev., Chpt. 18].)

DRUNKEN INDULGENCE

¹¹Woe unto them who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! (As the first Woe! was pronounced on covetousness, now a second Woe! is pronounced on pleasure-seekers. As well, this mirrors the modern Church [II Tim. 3:1-5].)

¹²And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the Work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of His Hands. (The instruments of music are not condemned, but their wrong use is. The Blessings of God are the source of all the good things which have happened to us, but presently, even in the Churches, we no longer consider the operation of His Hands.)

¹³Therefore My People are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. (The captivity of which Isaiah speaks is a spiritual captivity that was already pandemic in the nation. The reason:

They had no knowledge of the Word of God.

If the modern Believer doesnt understand the Message of the Cross, which in effect is the story of the Bible, then spiritual captivity is the result. Freedom over the world, the flesh, and the Devil can be brought about only by Christ and what Christ did at the Cross, which gives the Holy Spirit latitude to work in ones life. All that is required of the Believer is to exhibit Faith in Christ and what Christ did at the Cross, and this on a perpetual basis [Rom. 6:3-14]. But the truth is that the modern Church has knowledge of many things, but little at all as it regards the Word of God.)

¹⁴Therefore Hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he who rejoices, shall descend into it. (The end result of this captivity is eternal Hell; consequently, the bottom line reads, Jesus Christ and Him Crucified or eternal Hell.)

¹⁵And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled (the sense of this Passage is that pride is the cause of Israels sins, as well as our sins):

¹⁶But the LORD of Hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God Who is Holy shall be sanctified in Righteousness. (This Passage means that the Holy God shows Himself to be Holy by Righteousness; by executing this righteous judgment on Jerusalem, the Holy God shows His Holiness. God must judge sin, either in Christ on the Cross, which is its rightful place, or else in the individual, which spells doom.)

¹⁷Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. (The meaning is that human habitations will become pastures for animals, which is exactly what happened to the Holy Land.)

INIQUITIES AND APOSTASY

¹⁸Woe unto them who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope (now the third Woe! is pronounced against those who openly pile up sin upon sin and scoff at God):

¹⁹Who say, Let Him make speed, and 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! (The implication of this Passage is chilling! Isaiahs Prophecies are being mocked by the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. They use one of Isaiahs favorite titles of God, not from any belief in Him, but rather in a mocking spirit.)

²⁰Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (This is the fourth Woe! The idea is that Israel had so perverted the Scripture that anymore they didnt know right from wrong. Does it sound familiar?)

PRIDE, INTEMPERANCE, AND INJUSTICE

²¹Woe unto them who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! (This is the fifth Woe! Self-conceit is the antithesis of humility; as humility is, in a certain sense, the crowning virtue, so is self-conceit a sort of finishing touch put to vice.)

²²Woe unto them who are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

²³Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! (This is the sixth Woe! This seems to be a repetition of the second Woe! However, there is a marked difference!

This Woe! concerns the leaders of Judah. They are drinkers but do not succumb to their liquor; therefore, this sixth Woe! may be considered to be pronounced more upon their corruption than upon their drinking, and so is really quite distinct from the previous Woe!)

GOD WILL BRING JUDGMENT ON JUDAH

²⁴Therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, 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 of Hosts, and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel. (Judgment is now pronounced, and will come in two directions a judgment of ruin and destruction.

The phrase, despised the Word, does not refer to the written Word, but to the declarations of God by the mouth of His Prophets; however, in effect, much of what the Prophets said was included in the written Text.)

²⁵Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against His People, and He has stretched forth His Hand against them, and has smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this His Anger is not turned away, but His Hand is stretched out still. (These words imply that Gods judgment upon Judah will not be a single stroke, but a continuous smiting, covering some considerable era of time.

The language used is meant to portray the coming horror in cataclysmic terms. There is to be no mistake concerning Gods intentions.)

²⁶And 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 (these Verses through Verse 30 portray the coming judgment by Babylon):

²⁷None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken (the metaphor is meant to describe the power and fierceness of the attack of the enemy):

²⁸Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind (the Holy Spirit, looking ahead some 150 years into the future, would proclaim by Prophecy to Isaiah the coming judgment; all of this was given at this time in order that Judah might turn and repent; but sadly they did not, because they would not!):

²⁹Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yes, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. (Again, this is meant to denote the fierceness of the intruder.)

³⁰And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof. (In that day when the judgment proceeds and Judah looks to her own self for deliverance, she will behold nothing but darkness and sorrow.

Judahs only help was God. Without Him, they had no hope. It is the same presently with individual Believers.)