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Isaiah


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3:9-12 "The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sins as Sodom , they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths."

 

Here is further reminder why affliction of Israel was inevitable — their spiritual life had gone rotten. Like king, like people! — and the shew of Uzziah's countenance literally bore witness against him when the leprosy rose up in his forehead. And as men of Sodom had declared their sin openly in the crudest of terms, so also had Uzziah asserted his bald intention to commit flagrant impiety. If only the people had declared that their sin was equal to that of Sodom, such an honest acknowledge­ment of sin would have been the first big step to repentance. But "the pride of Israel testified to their face: they did not return unto the Lord" (Hos. 7:10).

 

These "sinners against their own souls", brought themselves "the recompense of their error that was meet" (Pr. 8:36; Rom. 1:27). "The fruit of their doings" were "grapes of gall" from "the vine of Sodom" (Dt. 32:32).

 

So, "like people, like king!" The nation found itself ruled by a child — Ahaz in his early regency — and women were in authority; at this period the queen-mother had become a powerful influence in government (Athaliah, 2 Kgs. 11:1,3; and, later, the mother of Jehoiakim; Jer. 22:26). Amos referred to these "managing women" as "kine of Bashan" (4:1).

 

Also, alas, "like priest, like people" — "they that lead thee cause thee to err." AV margin is more correct: "they that call thee blessed", but instead of the normal word for the priestly blessing Isaiah has the sinister alternative "call thee happiness", with allusion to the asherah sex symbol which degraded Israel's religion so completely, calling sex the true "way to happiness". How like the twentieth century! And how like also will be the impending judgment!

 

Yet embedded in the mass of the nation was (as in Sodom) a faithful remnant, loyal to the old truth and the old way of life; and similarly, embedded in this sustained exposure of evil and irreligion there is an assurance for God's true people: "Say ye to the righteous (the word is singular, to suggest his scarcity), that it is good" — the Hebrew expression is straight out of Genesis 1, describing God now finding pleasure in His New Creation.

 

There is a remarkable connection here with Ecclesiastes, most probably written by Uzziah in his repentant old age: "Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God...but it shall not be well with the wicked..." (8:12,13). These faithful ones too shall "eat the fruit of their doings."

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3:13-15 "The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts."

 

It is the first, and by no means the last, of Isaiah's law-court figures (see, e.g. 41:1 -5, 21 -29; 43:8-12 — a good example of like characteristics in 1st and 2nd Isaiah). There is marked similarity also to 5:7. Is it possible that these verses belong there?

 

Here God is represented as being busy judging the judges. Those who should have been setting the tone of public life in the nation, themselves needed remonstration, denunciation and discipline. Psalm 82 is marvellously like this passage in phraseology and idea, and may well be an Isaiah psalm appropriate to this very time (a Psalm of Asaph because handed over to the Asaph choir in the temple).

 

There is similar reproof for elders and princes. This was the period when the princes first became a strong political force in the affairs of the nation. Earlier there was no sharing of what was the king's own authority. Micah (3:9-11) couples them with the false prophets, as equally unscrupulous.

 

The sudden switch (in the middle of v.14) to more direct address: "ye!", is very dramatic. It is as though the angel of the Lord in the middle of presenting his case before the great Judge turns suddenly to denounce directly the men of influence who stand there in the dock on charge.

 

"Ye have eaten up the vineyard!" — it is an echo of the days of Ahab and Naboth. The vineyard is the nation itself (5:1-7; 27:2; Ps. 80:8ff — another contemporary psalm). Similarly, when Isaiah charges that "the spoil of the poor is in our houses", the words are not meant literally, for these men were far too splendid in their way of life to consider appropriation of any contemptible items of property belonging to the desperately poor. But selfish oppression of the lower classes is certainly intended. As in many a country today, men of influence and power waxed fat through oppres­sion and sweated labour.

 

The figures of stone-breaking and grinding at the mill are very forceful, the more so because it is these men of authority who wield the hammer and turn the grinding wheel, and it is the harmless poor who are broken small.'

 

The invective of Jesus against the self-satisfied rulers of his time used the same figure about "eating up the vineyard", but with tremendous effect he inverted the other metaphor: "On whomsoever that stone shall fall, it will grind him to powder" (Lk. 20:14,15).

 

Judgment came in Isaiah's day, and in later spiritual crises also. But the most devastating judgment of all is yet to come, and then all the world — believer and unbeliever alike — will be sorry for wayward Jewry.

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3:16,17 "Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts."

 

An earlier hint about the bad influence of women in Israel's national life (v. 12) is now taken up on a full-scale exposure of society's obsession with beauty-culture, display, and dress. No less that twenty-one items in this category are brought together in this catalogue of feminine fashion and charm. Many of them have a foreign flavour. This was one of the ways in which the house of Jacob was being "replenished from the east" (2:6). Two of the items listed — "moon ornaments, chains" (v.18,19) — are mentioned elsewhere only in connection with the Midianites (Jud. 8:21,26).

 

More than one bewildered reader has wondered how Isaiah, statesman and prophet, came to be so familiar with all these technicalities of the beauty parlour. In a word the answer to this probably is "Mrs. Isaiah" - she was a prophetess in her own (divine) right. There is probably a close link between her inspiration and the many allusions in 2nd Isaiah to women and marriage and babies.

 

There are indications that this sustained exposure of the practical evils of feminine vanity was directed specifically at the women who were supposed to be dedicated to the service in the sanctuary of the Lord (on this, see B.S. 10.05).

 

The phrase "daughters of Zion" in this plural form is very rare (note 4:4,5); and it has to be remembered that many Biblical indications identify Zion with the Temple mount (contrast the modern howler about the S.W. hill of Jerusalem).

 

That superb Bible scholar Kay catalogues seven separate items mentioned here as having direct connection with the garments of the high priest, the best-dressed man in Israel. Now women of the temple, who originally had been glad to forego their personal vanities (Ex. 38:8), sought to out-do in appearance the most exalted man in the nation. Accordingly, Isaiah applies to these "haughty" women the very word which he has already used three times about "the loftiness of man" (2:11,15,17).

 

Women always like to catch the attention of men. But with their wanton (LXX: beckoning) eyes, these went out of their way to invite it.

 

A woman with a shapely neck is always proud of the fact, and likes to make the most of it. But the New Testament uses the word in a more solemn context: "All things are naked and opened (neck stretched out) unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Heb. 4:13); an allusion to sacrifice.

 

But there was evidently a current cult of beautiful feet — as can well be imagined regarding women who went barefoot in the temple area: "walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet...bangles...ankle chains" (N.I.V.) — rather like the old nursery rhyme about "bells on her toes." The remarkable details about the death of Jezebel, priestess of the Phoenician Baal, suggest that the dogs left her feet because they were heavily hennaed (2 Kgs. 9:30,35).

 

Like the searing denunciation of men's achievements (in ch.2), there comes in here a like threat against all the futility of feminine finery — "A scab (the beginnings of leprosy; Lev. 13:2), and bald scalps" (N.I.V.). LXX has a word to describe their "comely shape", but Paul turns this phrase into its opposite: "uncomely parts" (1 Cor. 12:23), thus bringing sex-attractiveness into perspective.

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3:18-24 "In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, The rings, and nose jewels, The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils. It shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty."

 

There is a nice ironical flavour about the way Isaiah goes inexorably on with his catalogue of jewellery and beauty-parlour equipment, every separate item of it dedicated to an impressive superficial appearance, and none of it concerned with what the woman is really like. The Pharisees of Jesus' day similarly had their spiritual beauty-parlour, being entirely concerned with what in their outward religious life would provoke the admiration and envy of others. Caustically Jesus called them to cease concern for outward trivialities and to concentrate on "those things which come from the heart (the mind)". By implication behind this reprobation by Isaiah there is the same call to true godliness. These "daughters of Zion" doubtless preen­ed themselves on their devotion to the sanctuary, but what use was it to turn the house of the Lord into a fashion show?

 

Translators and commentators produce a wide variety of explanations as to what some of these beauty items actually were.

 

N.I.V. makes "chains" into "ear-rings".

 

With its modern American associations, the word "mufflers" obviously needs emendation; and "veils" is probably a good alternative.

 

Again, "bonnets" is too Victorian in flavour, and must give way to "head-dresses" — but of what kind?

 

"Ornaments of the legs" are perhaps "ankle chains", but there is no satisfying modern curiosity as to how they improved handsome appearance.

 

"Head bands" were really "sashes", obvious eye-catchers. "Tablets" were, almost certainly, "perfume bottles."

 

"Earrings" should read "amulets" or "charms" — how appropriate to the house of God!

 

There were "signet rings" also, and — probably — "nose rings", difficult though it may be to imagine women of a civilised race going in for such things.

 

"Wimples" may have been elaborate head-dresses such as are worn by some orders of nuns, but RV suggests "shawls" for the shoulders.

 

The intriguing phrase "crisping pins" can hardly be right, for it describes the "bags" in which Gehazi brought back the two talents of silver gained by deception from Naaman. Those bags would have to be considerably bigger than a small vanity purse, and at least as capacious as the out-size hand-bag favoured by some modern women.

 

Modern versions turn "glasses" into "mirrors", but instead LXX has "see-through garments".

 

All such aids to beauty and allurement will be of no avail when judgment falls, declares the prophet. No longer fragance, but stench; no elaborate hair-styling, but baldness; and sackcloth for a brassiere, and the ugly brand of a slave on a well-kept complexion.

 

"In that day"! — it is sad to think of the elaborate trivialities of women's vanity achieving such an end as this. But so it transpired when Assyrian Huns and Vandals swept through the Land; and so it will be yet again, in the dark days ahead.

 

But what is to be expected when God is ignored, and men and women, especially women, worship themselves?

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3:25,26 "Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground."

 

How will judgment fall so savagely on the proud empty-heads in Zion's temple so completely dedicated to the vain-glory of silly self-decoration and show? — by the stroke of war, and not just the chaos of earthquake foretold in chapter 2. The men whom they are set on bewitching with their frippery and nauseating artificiality will fall before Assyrian onslaughts. And these women, called "gates" because of their nominal duties at the doors of the temple, will sink to the ground in misery and hopelessness. Long years later Jesus echoed the LXX phrasing when he foretold how judgment would in time "lay Jerusalem even with the ground" (Lk. 19:44); and he then went on, precisely as in Isaiah, to tell a censorious parable of God's vineyard (Lk. 20:9ff).

 

There is no commentator who can resist comparing this picture of wretched Jerusalem, sitting helpless on the ground, with the coin struck by Vespasian after the A.D.70 devastation: a woman (Judaea capta") miserable and helpless under a palm tree.

 

It was only the virtues of Hezekiah and his faithful remnant which saved Jerusalem from this very experience in Isaiah's own day.

 

The experience of the adulterous woman brought before Jesus likewise serves to underline the longsuffering and forgiveness of God, for that very incident is linked with this prophecy by a remarkable echo of phrasing.

 

When all accusers had removed themselves from the scene which they now found so uncomfortable, "Jesus was left alone, and the woman (standing), in the midst" (Jn. 8:9; note here that the word 'standing' is not in the original text). It would seem that in her repentance she subsided on to the ground at the feet of her judge. Remarkably, the Hebrew word for 'desolate' means also "freed from guilt", the same word that is used in the trial of bitter waters, when the woman is declared in­nocent (Num. 5:19,23). By contrast, those whose names had been "written in the earth" were "ashamed" and "forsook the Lord" (Jer. 17:13).

 

Thus prophecy and gospel combine in declaring to Israel that, no matter how vain their life or how unfaithful their history, their repentance will yet bring freedom from all past guilt.

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Chapter 4

 

4:1 "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach."

 

The conjunction "And", together with the repetition of "in that day" (from 3:18) suggests that the chapter break may be misleading. Then verse 2 has another "in that day." Thus, the two chapters are really one. Yet whereas in ch.3 the emphasis seems to be markedly contemporary, there is no mistaking the strong Messianic emphasis in ch.4.

 

The commentators assume that here is a picture of severe depopulation through the ravages of war, seven women being glad to seek protection from one man. But more probably this is about "daughters of Zion", women of the temple service, who were to find themselves banished from abuse of their holy duties at the time of the sweeping reformation brought in by the vigorous young king Hezekiah (2 Chr. 30). The Hebrew verb "take hold" is a very obvious play on his name. It is the first of many such examples in Isaiah's prophecies. There is a constant juggling with the name of the godly king whom Isaiah so greatly admired.

 

These words, then, are to be read as a repentant appeal by certain of the reprobated temple damsels that they may be allowed to continue in their religious duties. 'Let us continue to have thy name called upon us (Hezekiah means 'Jehovah hath taken hold — of us'), even though it means that we have no share in the food and other perquisites normally provided for temple staff.' (On this see B.S. 10.05).

 

These women are evidently to be seen as a faithful few from among the greater numbers who (in ch.3) have come under prophetic censure.

 

The pattern is to be the same in the last days. Kay suggests equation with the seven churches of Asia — Gentiles turning to Christ, the "One Man", at a time when Jewry in general was fit only for condemnation. But even those seven were by no means as admirable as they might have been. In the time of those early ecclesias the name of Christ did not take away reproach, it brought it. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye" (1 Pet. 4:14).

 

More probably, there is here a symbolic picture of a faithful remnant in Israel in the 20th century turning to faith in Christ as the Messiah. In recent years (1988) there have been signs of such a development.

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4:2 "In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel."

 

There is here a marked change of tone. Isaiah still speaks of "that day", but now there is comfort and reassurance for "Israel's escapers."

 

The primary reference of these words is to Hezekiah, the godly leader, and to the startling salvation which God wrought in his days. The appropriateness of the prophet's phraseology, right through to chapter 66, to the vivid events of that reign is readily traceable in every chapter. In this early section it is prophecy soon to be fulfilled, within a generation. In the body of the book — chapters 6 to 35 — there is even more immediacy. In what is often referred to as "2nd Isaiah", there is a building on the exciting events of Hezekiah's reign in order to present yet more fully the great work of the Messiah.

 

But all through, as has been seen already in these early chapters, the real theme is Messiah and the salvation he brings to his "Israel."

 

Thus, in the first instance, this verse foretells (even before 7:14) the birth of a scion of the house of David who will be "beautiful and glorious", both in the eyes of his God and before the nation. "Them that are escaped of Israel" is a phrase foretell­ing the amazing deliverance (e.g. 49:8-13; Jl. 2:32) of the multitude of captives driven off by Sennacherib; and "the fruit of the Land" anticipates the unequalled prosperity of the countryside in the year of jubilee which God explicitly promised (2 Kgs. 19:29,30) and then gave (Is. 61).

 

But "the Branch" (tzemach) is also undoubtedly the Messiah (Jer. 23:5; 33:15; Zech. 3:8; 6:12). In a whole lot of places the corresponding verb also carries this idea (consider 43:19; 45:8; 55:10; 58:8; 61:11; Ps. 85:12; 132:17; Ez. 29:21; Lk. 1:78; Heb. 7:14). Yet in "Ministry of the Prophets", R.R. applies this verse to Israel!

 

There is also a different word netzer, but with essentially the same idea, in the familiar prophecy (11:1) of "a Branch out of the stem of Jesse" (the same root comes in the Hebrew text of 26:3; 42:6; 49:8 — all Messianic passages).

 

There is here a delightful assemblage of descriptive words: "beautiful, glorious, excellent, comely." The second and third of these occur together in Exodus 28:2 describing the garments of the high priest "for glory and beauty." And the first of the four is turned by LXX into a word which the New Testament uses about the Glory of the Lord (Lk. 17:24; Acts 12:7; 2 Cor. 4:6). So also "excellent" describes God's awesome "majesty" in judgment (2:10,19,21).

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4:3 "And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem."

 

Again there is here a hint of a testing tribulation for the holy city, but with a more explicit declaration of safety for God's faithful remnant ("he that remaineth" is the same as Elijah's lament: "I only am left;" 1 Kgs. 19:10). Although the whole of Israel was called to be "an holy nation" (Ex. 19:6), in fact only this remnant were actually "called holy", and were written "for life" in the faith-testing experience of Sennacherib's invasion. It is demonstrable (33:20; 31:5; 30:29; 26:20; 29:1) that that siege came to its climax at the time of a Passover comparable with the great Passover of Hezekiah's reformation. Thus, the godly, who, in spite of the invasion threat honoured the Lord with their Passover feast, were saved from the destroying angel as their forefathers were in Egypt. As the name of God was written on their homes in blood, so now the faithful remnant was written: "For life in Jerusalem."

 

Later chapters expand considerably this theme of God's saving of Jerusalem and his faithful ones there, for it provides such a splendid foreshadowing of the final deliverance of the holy city by the Messiah (cp. Jl. 2:32).

 

The "Book of Life" idiom concerning "those who are written" is a lovely one scattered profusely through the Book of Scripture. Moses was willing to have his name blotted out of God's Book, that Israel might be forgiven (Ex. 32:32). In Ezekiel's time false prophets, deceiving the people with false writings, were themselves not written in "the writing of the house of Israel" (13:9). But for those who fear the Lord and speak often concerning him there is "a book of remembrance written before him" (Mal. 3:16). All things concerning Messiah were written beforehand, clearly and explicitly "In thy book all my members were written, which (later) in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them" (Ps. 139:16). But his wilful enemies were "blotted out of the book of the living and were not written with the righteous" (69:28). On the other hand, for those who are truly Christ's, their names are "written in heaven" (Lk. 10:20), "in the book of life" (Phil. 4:3). This is the Book taken by the Lamb out of the right hand of Him that sits on the heavenly throne, and which is therefore called no less than five times "the Lamb's Book of Life" (Rev. 13:8; 3:5; 1 7:8; 20:15; 21:27). It is known that from ancient days, and certainly in the time of Jesus, family records were preserved in the temple (the present passage in Isaiah refers to this): but "the general assembly and church of the first born" have their names "written in heaven", in a heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 12:23). Consequently, in the last great "time of trouble, such as was not since there was a nation even to that same time...God's people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the Book" (Dan. 12:1).

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4:4 "When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning."

 

Does this verse belong with what precedes or what follows? The word for "when", hinting at a contingency or possibility rather than a certainty, usually begins a new sentence or a new idea. And it will be seen by and by that this harmonizes with v.5,6.

 

"The filth of the daughters of Zion" (it is a filthy word, too) is the prophet's summary of the elaborate description of their finery (3:16-23), or his impression of inner defilement in spite of outward graciousness. He saw them "as an unclean thing, and all their righteousness as filthy rags" (64:6). "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness" (Pr. 30:12). Bathsheba may wash herself most thoroughly from her uncleanness, yet if without a word she lead the man after God's own heart into disaster she has no cleanness in the sight of God. "Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God" (Jer. 2:22). It was as true of the nation in general, as of its fashionable daughters.

 

"The blood of Jerusalem" especially, that is its murders (1:15,21) and its acquiescence in the foul practice of passing babies through the fire to Moloch (2 Chr. 28:3), comes in for special reprobation.

 

All these evils must be "washed away," or else "purged" by "a spirit of burning." These were the alternatives John the Baptist set before the nation in his time — either the water of repentance or the purging of the threshing floor with un­quenchable fire (Mt. 3:10,11). So also Jesus: the branches of the Vine are either cleaned by the husbandman so as to bear more fruit or they are cut off and cast into the fire (Jn. 15:2,6).

 

It is an interesting exercise in interpretation to sort out whether or not the "spirit" of judgment and burning is to be read as a "blast" (RVm), and if so what kind of blast?

 

Already (1:25,31) Jerusalem has been threatened with purging by fire, as in a metal-worker's furnace. And powerful verses in chapter 30 reinforce this idea: "Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger...his tongue as a devouring fire...And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard...with the flame of a devouring fire...the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone" (30:27,30,33).

 

This judgment came at the time of Sennacherib's threat against Jerusalem. God "sent a blast upon him," though precisely how is not clear. Was it hurricane, or the whirlwind of the Lord (Ez. 1:4)? However the destruction came, it was so near to Jerusalem that the inhabitants saved from the invader, must have been in a state of mortal terror when a spirit of God, "the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians" (37:7,36).

 

There will certainly be a counterpart to this in the last days when the awe-inspiring violence of the Lord's deliverance accomplishes the same double purpose of scattering assembled enemies of Israel and also bringing the nation to its knees in fear, repentance and thankfulness. "I will rain upon him (the invader), and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone...So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward" (Ez. 38:22; 39:22).

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4:5,6 "And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the city the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain."

 

It is a wonderfully impressive picture of Zion sanctified and protected by the presence of the Shekinah Glory. Almost every term employed is special to such a meaning:

 

  1. ”Every dwelling place" (RV: the whole habitation) — the word always refers to the sanctuary of the Lord.
     
  2. "Mount Zion" means the temple area.
     
  3. "Assemblies" invariably describes a holy convocation.
     
  4. "Cloud" — there are only two possible occurrences out of a great many where this word does not refer to the Shekinah Cloud; e.g. the cloud of the Glory with Israel in the wilderness.
     
  5. And so also, often, the word "smoke"; e.g. 6:4; Ps. 18:8; Gen 15:17; Jl. 2:30.
     
  6. "Shining" also, in all occurrences, refers to the Glory of the Lord.
     
  7. So also "flaming fire" frequently; e.g. 10:17; 29:6; 30:30.
     
  8. "Defence" should be read "bridal canopy" (comment on this later), but the idea implied is that of the Glory defending Zion; cp. the pillar of cloud and fire protecting Israel (Ex. 14:19), and see also Ps. 105:39; Zech. 2:5.
     
  9. So also the words "shadow...refuge...covert."

 

Very clearly these verses fill out yet more explicitly the picture already given of a Jerusalem, and especially of a temple and its environs, not only purged of abuses but sheltered and blessed by the protecting presence of the visible Glory of God.

 

This is the first prophetic intimation of precisely how God would save Jerusalem from disaster. The "spirit of judgment and burning" when God sent a "blast" (s.w.) by means of an angel against the camp of the Assyrians is matched by a spirit of protection which the same Glory of the Lord exercised over Zion — and this because in it was "the Branch of the Lord" (godly Hezekiah) and a faithful remnant of repentant "daughters of Zion." And — it will be shown later — this happened at Passover (the word "assemblies" is probably a Hebrew intensive plural for one specially important holy convocation).

 

But all that, itself yet future, was to be only a prototype of the greater deliverance which Jerusalem will need before long when Messiah, the true Branch of the Lord, is in the midst of his people. Then there will be mighty "kings of the earth who set themselves against the Lord and against his Anointed." But the holy city and its faithful remnant will be completely protected by an overshadowing "canopy" of Shekinah Glory. The overwhelming of Sennacherib's army will be matched by a comparable out-pouring of judgment, and the Holy Land will know the horrors of war no more. Can it also be inferred that this awe-inspiring crisis will come at a Passover? At that time "a Man shall be a hiding place from the wind (the Spirit)" (32:2). He will spread his skirt of protection over the repentant ones of Jerusalem. Thus he will be "a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall" (25:4).

 

The Epistle to the Hebrews, written shortly before the A.D.70 cataclysm, looks back in several phrases to this Isaiah passage, as though implying a protection then for the Lord's faithful: "Ye are come (as though for Passover — and the siege began at Passover) unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the God of the living creatures...and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven...Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling (as at the first Passover)..." all of these expressions seem to link up with Isaiah 4 and its background.

 

But in the great Day yet to come the canopy of protection will be a bridal canopy — this is the normal meaning of the word (Ps. 19:6; Jl. 2:16 only), for Christ will have come to be united with his Bride. And as the Glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34,38), so now there will be "a fulness of him that filleth all (his redeemed) with all (grace and blessing)".

 

No wonder Isaiah uses that great word "create", for it will be a glorious New Creation.

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Chapter 5

 

5:1,2 "Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath 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."

 

The immediate problem to be resolved here is: Does this Song of the Vineyard run on to the end of verse 7, or is it just verses 1,2, with the rest added as divine commentary?

 

Careful attention to the pronouns points to the second conclusion; and the Lord's version of this song in his parable of Matthew 21:33-44 confirms the idea. "His vineyard" (in v.1) becomes "my vineyard" (in v.3ff). Verses 3,4 are not "song" but expostulation. Verses 5,6 are an angry threat of judgment, followed in v.7 by God's self-justification for the rigorous treatment meted out.

 

There are close resemblances to the Song of Songs. In particular, "my beloved" occurs only there, and is there identifiable as the Shepherd who becomes wooer and at last Bridegroom of the maiden who is the central character. So also here, "my beloved" is probably, in the first instance, Isaiah himself, soon to be married to the singer who is later called "the prophetess" (8:3), a term which indicates that she too spoke inspired utterances on God's behalf. But since Isaiah, the well-beloved, is before the nation acting on God's behalf, when later he says:

 

"my vineyard", he means, of course, God's vineyard of Israel and Judah, as defined in verse 7.

 

But indeed that specific definition can hardly have been needed, for from the time of Jacob's prophecies to his sons this figure of speech has been familiar. Isaiah himself had already used the metaphor with great effect: "the daughter of Zion left as a booth in a vineyard" (1:8), and princes denounced for "eating up the vineyard" (3:14). And before very long Psalm 80 (an Isaiah psalm?) was to employ the same figure with reference to the ravaging of God's Land by ruthless Assyrian invaders: "A vine brought out of Egypt...a vineyard which God's right hand planted" — the allegory is sustained through most of the psalm, and — like the vineyard song now being considered — takes on an impressive Messianic meaning. Both Jeremiah (2:21) and Ezekiel (15:1-8) make vivid caustic use of the same figure, and it burgeons into yet greater fruitfulness in Christ's two parables, of Vineyard (Mt. 21:33-44) and True Vine (Jn. 15:1-6).

 

In Isaiah's own day this kind of parable was specially appropriate because of the intense development of vineyards in Uzziah's reign: "husbandmen and vinedressers in the mountains and in Carmel (which means 'God's vineyard'): for he loved husbandry" (2 Chr. 26:10).

 

And now to the details here:

 

"A very fruitful hill" is really a despairing translator's paraphrase. Literally: "the horn of a son of oil." Of course, there is a characteristic play on words here: "horn...vineyard" (qeren...kerem). "Horn of oil" comes only in 1 Sam 16:13 — the anointing of David; and "my beloved" is really "my David." So there is double allu- sion — not only to God's Land given to Israel, a Land flowing with milk and honey, but also to the line of David as its appointed rulers. And "fenced it" is another paronomasia playing with the names of Uzziah and Hezekiah. Truly, God did fence Israel in — with high mountains in Lebanon, desert in the Negeb, the Great Sea to the west, and the deep Jordan valley to the east.

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The "stones gathered out" were Canaanite stocks and stones. Literally, "he threw stones", but this must mean "he threw them out".

 

But was the Land planted with "the choicest vine"? In one sense, yes; for Israel are the seed of Abraham, God's friend. Or is the phrase used in irony about what only seemed to be a choice vine. The Hebrew is literally: "vine of Sorek", with sardonic allusion to what a woman of Sorek did to God's dedicated Nazirite (Jud. 16:4).

 

The strong substantial tower contrasts markedly with the flimsy booth which describes Jerusalem in its later helplessness (1:8). This "tower of the watchmen" (2 Kgs. 17:9) was the ever-present order of prophets (Jer. 6:1 7) raised up by God as unflagging reminders that "the Name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe" (Pr. 18:10).

 

The "winepress" was the temple and its sacrifices.

 

Then the Almighty "looked", waiting patiently for the vineyard to fulfil the purpose He had with it. But instead of the finest grapes, there were only stinkers — this is the literal meaning of Isaiah's deliberately-chosen word of abomination. What a contrast with "the Branch of the Lord beautiful and glorious" (4:2)! Yet Moses had foretold that it would be so: "Their vine is of the vine of Sodom...their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter" (Dt. 32:32,33). And a century after Isaiah, Jeremiah had the same reproach: "I planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed (from Abraham): how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me!" (2:21).

 

There was a bitter disappointment in heaven, yet was there earnest intercession also: "Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it...as the new wine in the cluster" (65:8) — there was always a faithful remnant, often obscured amidst a mass of corruption. So God promised: "I will not destroy them all". But at the earlier time of Isaiah's parable it seemed that nothing could withhold judgment.

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5:3,4 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What 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?"

 

Here is an appeal to reason such as could hardly be brushed aside. "Come, let us reason together" (1:18). But, just as Nathan's parable told to guilty conscience-stricken David invited him to condemn himself and thus be led to repentance, so now Jerusalem and Judah are appealed to, to condemn the worthless vineyard which in the parable represents themselves. Could the divine owner have possibly adopted any other measures than those already employed? (2 Chr. 36:15). Whoever else, He is not to blame.

 

Then wherefore? Are soil or climate to blame? No! it is "a very fruitful hill." Even the vine was a vine of good stock. And yet it has proved perverse! Here is a mystery to baffle even a heavenly Husbandman.

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5:5,6 "And 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: And 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."

 

The appeal (v.3,4); Tell me! what should I do to my vineyard which I have not already done?' has apparently gone unanswered. So answer comes from the Owner Himself: The hedge round it will be fired; the wall will not just be allowed to deteriorate but will be violently broken down; and the vineyard itself will be trampled into ruin — by "the boar out of the wood, and the wild beast of the field" (Ps. 80:12,13). The entire place will be let go to ruin. All effort at husbandry will be abandoned! The wilderness will assert its savage authority. The curse of Eden — "briers and thorns" (32:13) — will flaunt itself in every corner. And all this not because it is now "the field of the slothful" (Pr. 24:30-34), but because of the utter disgust of the Owner at the futility and discouragement attending his most pains­taking endeavours.

 

More than this the Owner reveals himself now as the Lord of hosts of angels (v.7) with power to command the clouds that they will withhold their blessing (Lev. 25:21; Is. 55:10,11). What happened in the time of Ahab and Elijah was only a token of later divine displeasure showing itself yet more markedly in the with­holding of spiritual blessing from Israel. The word of Moses had been like "the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass"(Dt. 32:2). But now dew on Gentile ground all around but not on Israel's fleece (Jud. 6:39), "a famine of hearing the word of the Lord" (Am. 8:11; 4:7), The beneficent message of the prophets would be withdrawn.

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5.7 "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."

 

That first word: "For", explains the bitterness of this judgement: This vineyard and this planting is God's special delight; from its very beginnings He has looked forward with anticipation and intense pleasure to growth and prosperity. And now, this! Instead of so much good, so much bad. The wild grapes have the same look as the good ones, but they are just not fit to eat or turn into wine. And this sharp disappoint­ment is expressed in carefully-chosen words which sound the same but are the exact opposite. Instead of judgement, oppression. Instead of righteousness a cry of the oppressed. Not Mishpat, but mispach. Not tz'daqah, but tz'aqah. Not rule, but misrule. Not exactness, but exaction. Not equity, but iniquity. Not right, but fright.

 

Isaiah has plenty of examples of this literary device, obvious enough in Hebrew, but tricky in translation.

 

Does this parable, and its commentary, have to end on such a sour note?

 

Indeed, no! else God's purpose with Israel is a failure. The parable is resumed at 27:2, when the command to the clouds is reversed, and briars and thorns are burned together. There is a heart-warming climax: "He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (v.6). But the time for that is not yet, but it is very near.

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The parable of the vineyard — N.T. version and N.T. commentary

 

In Matthew 21:33-44 (and Mk. and Lk. parallels) Jesus told the story again in greater detail. The meaning of the parable is so straightforward as not to call for commentary here. It can hardly be accident that a vineyard in "a horn of a son of oil" is matched by Gethsemane, vineyard of oil, which is otherwise meaningless. The householder's apparent puzzlement — "What shall I do?" — is a literal echo of Is. 5:4 LXX. "I will send my beloved Son" similarly leans, very obviously, on Isaiah. And Christ's question to his hearers: "What will the Lord of the vineyard do?" matches the exasperation expressed in the earlier story: "Inhabitants of Jerusalem, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard."

 

Instead of righteousness, there was a cry, a mighty shout bidding Pilate "crucify him" (Mt. 27:21 -23). Hence the fulfilment of the Woes pronounced by Jesus just after his vineyard parable (Mt. 23:13ff), the counterpart to those in Isaiah 5:8ff.

 

There can be little doubt that James also, in his epistle (5:7), makes direct allusion to Isaiah's parable: "Behold, the husbandman (God) waiteth (s.w. Is. 5:7) for the precious fruit of the earth (till it receive the early and the latter rain)...Be ye also patient..." And to this day the Husbandman, and those who share His hopes, look for the Israel vine to bring forth a good crop. But now, for long centuries, only thorns and briars, fit only to be burned (Heb. 6:8; Is. 5:6,5RVm.). Even the treading down (v.5), which Jesus also foretold (Lk. 21:24) is yet to be resumed (Zech. 14:2; Mic. 7:13).

 

Happily, in due time, all the depressing features of Isaiah's parable will be re­versed: "The seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things" (Zech. 8:12).

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5:8-10 "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! In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah."

 

This is the first of a sequence of six Woes in this chapter (v.8,11,18,20,21,22). But 10:1 -4 reads very readily as yet another (if so, how displaced?); and 6:5 is yet another, of a much more personal character.

 

With the exception of 6.5, all these Woes concern social abuses which Isaiah was not alone in denouncing. The Law of Moses exposed the land-grabber as a menace to society: "The inheritance of the children of Israel shall not remove from tribe to tribe" (Num. 36:7). "The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine" (Lev. 25.23). Always there must be the right of redemption — at any time, for a cash payment, but in the Year of Jubilee a free restoration; and verse 6 (=Lev. 25:21) hints at such a Year being due; but this makes difficulties with an already difficult chronology.

 

Micah (2:1,2) and Amos (2:7; 4:1,9; 5:11) both expose as irreligious the acquisitive spirit. It is not the methods by which lands and houses were acquired which these men of God denounced but the fact that they were acquired. Everyone knew the spirit of God's Law about such things. Even weak vicious Ahab had a bad conscience about Naboth's vineyard (1 Kgs. 21:1-7). But in Isaiah's day the evil flourished nevertheless, but the entire nation saw the example of their land-greedy king ("in the low country, and in the plains...in the mountains, and in mount Carmel;" 2 Chr. 26:10), and the wealthy set about doing likewise. Thus the poorer folk were squeezed out: "there was no room in the midst of the Land" (3:14; Hos. 5:10).

 

Isaiah reinforced his denunciation of this selfishness and oppression with a pointed and unusual reminder that his words were not his own: "In mine ears said the Lord of hosts" (22:14; 2 Kgs. 20:4,5). The inevitable judgment — a ravaging of all these fair estates — was being foretold in good time. Ahaz was not yet king (though he may have been regent), but it was not until much of Hezekiah's reign had run its course that the promised retribution caught up with this pride and greed. And even though the threatened desolation were to appear, as happened (on the face of things) through natural circumstances, such as Assyrian invasion (24:3-7) or locust swarm (Jl. 1:10-12), it must "of a truth" (verily!) be seen as the hand of God. Had not Moses said that it would be so? (Lev. 26:20,31).

 

The result: ten acres of vineyard yielding only 8V2 gallons of grapes, about one five-hundredth of a normal harvest; and the crop from a cornfield only one tenth of what was sown!

 

What a reproof of king Uzziah's insatiable enthusiasm for husbandry!

 

In later generations the same reproof was called for. Evil king Jehoiakim took no notice of the courageous denunciation from the lips of Jeremiah (Jer. 22:13,14 — another Woe!), and paid for his heedlessness with the vilest of deaths.

 

The apostle James castigated his Sadducee contemporaries for following the Johoiakim pattern (5:4 especially). And the holy Pharisees were just as materialistic. So Jesus trounced them for their selfish prosperity: "Behold, your House (the finest house ever built) shall be left unto you desolate" (Mt. 23:38).

 

To what extent are these signs of this materialism among the Lord's people today?

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5:11,12 "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And 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."

 

Another mighty social evil, so serious as to merit yet another "Woe" later in this series. It was, doubtless, a speedy consequence of the great surge of development in husbandry (by new methods?) in Uzziah's reign (2 Chr. 26:10). Extension of vineyards meant, of course, a big stimulus to wine production and so to over­indulgence. It is easy to infer that the prophets saw this as a major factor in the decline of the nation's morale and morals. Not only Isaiah but also Amos, Joel, and Hosea were scathing in their scornful denunciation of alcoholism made respectable (Is. 28:1-9; Jl. 1:5; Am. 2.8; 4:1; 6:6; Hos. 4:11; 7:5 — and also contemporary Pr. 31:4,5; 20:1; 23:29-32).

 

Evidently devotion to liquor had got past the status of an occasional indulgence or celebration (and that is bad enough in itself). Now it was become part of the nation's religion. As Abraham had risen up early to proceed to the offering of Isaac, and as depraved Israel had risen up early for the licentious worship of the golden calf (Gen. 22:3; Ex. 32:6), so now the men of Judah dedicated themselves at all hours to drunkenness. Beginning in the early hours, they later slept it off in the heat of the day so as to be able to resume in the evening.

 

In these orgies the example was set by priests and was rationalised by evil men whose specious talk gained them the reputation of prophets: "If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people" (Mic. 2:11). More than this, the jollity of these occasions was increased by the way in which the instruments of the temple orchestra made this dissipation respectable (Am. 6:5,6; 1 Sam. 10:5). Holy feasts and "the work of the Lord" in his temple (v.13) were prostituted to debauchery. And, in another sense, "the work of the Lord" — His judgment was even then taking shape — was given no consideration by these heedless inebriates. "His work, his strange work...his whole work on mount Zion and on Jerusalem" (28:21; 10:12) was airily and tipsily dismissed as beyond the sober consideration of a steady drinker. "Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it", they said derisively (v.19).

 

It may be that Isaiah intended his excoriation of their drunkenness in yet another sense, for this is certainly the idea in a later prophecy: "They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes, the prophets: and your rulers, the seers, hath he covered" (29:10).

 

The nation was certainly getting in a bad way.

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5:13,14 "Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it."

 

The repeated "Therefore" puts beyond cavil why the retribution spoken of is fully determined by God. It is a visitation so sure as to be spoken of as already accomplished. They are still "my people," and that very fact is the ground of their punishment: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Am. 3:2).

 

God's people were destroyed — were destroying themselves — through lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6). "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider" (Is. 1:3). And here (5:13), LXX emphasizes that it is lack of knowledge of the Lord.

 

History repeated itself. An even more intense tribulation came on Jerusalem in A.D.70. The Lord's most detailed prophecy of that downfall ended with a sorrowful: "because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation" (Lk. 19:44).

 

"Thy honourable men are famished" is really a paraphrase, correct in idea, as the parallelism shows, Literally: "his glory is mortal men of hunger" (Mt. 5:6). It is a picture of rich self-indulgent revellers made haggard by privation. The LXX addition: "dried up with thirst for water" is attractive, as making a sardonic contrast with the abundance of wine in verses 11,12. Compare the Lord's warning about 20th century high-living: "surfeiting, drunkenness, and cares of this life" (Lk. 21:34).

 

In the judgment now foretold, the Grave opens its mouth without measure. Is there here an allusion to what literally happened to Korah and his fellow-rebels (Num. 16:30-33)? Significantly the Hebrew text uses a singular verb for all four items: "their glory...multitude...pomp...rejoicing;" all are lumped together in one great destruction. And then (in 14:11) the same vivid figure describes the fate of the divine agent of wrath; he too suffers in like fashion (cp. also 10:15,16).

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5:15,16 "And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness."

 

Here verse 15a repeats 2:9, and verse 16a is like 2:17c. So either Isaiah is quoting what he has already written (as being specially appropriate here), or these two verses have somehow been transplanted from chapter 2 (cp.10:1-4, which may have had a like experience).

 

The words "bowed down" and "humbled" occur repeatedly in chapter 2 (in v.9,11,12,17).

 

Over against this human unworthiness stands God the Holy One (the holy El; cp.6:3), whose judgment will proclaim the stark contrast, as it did in the judgment on Nadab and Abihu ("I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me;" Lev. 10:3), and on the exclusion of Moses and Aaron from the Promised Land ("God was sanctified in them"; Num. 20:13). In Isaiah's day Assyrian invasion was to take a vast number of the unrighteous into captivity, and also the fire of the Lord was to destroy the unholy invaders. And, very similarly, this 20th century will see the situation repeated in an unholy Israel — God that is holy will be sanctified.

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5:17 "Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat."

 

If, as seems probable, this verse runs on from verse 14, it presents a picture of drastic social change as a result of Assyrian invasion. The poorer and more devout people (the "lambs") who had been dispossessed by wealthy and unscrupulous landlords are one day to find themselves better off, thanks to redistribution of property by good king Hezekiah in his year of jubilee (37:30,31; 61:1-4) —but this only after much ravaging of the land ("waste places") by invaders. There is a somewhat similar picture in chapter 7:21.22.

 

Zephaniah, echoing this Isaiah passage, uses the same literal-figurative language: "I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty...I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord...they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid" (3:11-13).

 

It is tempting to read Isaiah's expression for "after their manner" as "according to the word (of the Lord) about them." And LXX, by one change of letter, has "lambs" for "strangers." If, however, this is not acceptable, the reference is to Gentile in­vaders (1:7). But a more forward-looking interpretation could apply this passage to the "vineyard" taken away from Israel and given to Gentile strangers, specially regarding the preaching of the gospel (Mt. 21:41,43).

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5:18,19 "Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: That 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!"

 

This third Woe does not make much sense until the figure of speech employed is clearly recognized. An idol called Iniquity, or alternatively Sin, is set up on a cart. Its devotees attach ropes, and dutifully draw it in procession like an Hindoo juggernaut. Very probably there is allusion here to the idolatries introduced by king Ahaz, the outstanding one of which was an Assyrian deity (2 Kgs. 16:10). Thus this de­nunciation, certainly known to the Assyrian kings, made Isaiah a marked man, to be put to death most miserably when captured in Jerusalem. This is why the prophet, a leading statesman also, was not included in the deputation (36:3) sent to negotiate with Rabshakeh.

 

Isaiah uses the same kind of derisive language, only now with strict literality, when describing the plight of Assyrian idols at the time of Sennacherib's retreat from Jerusalem. Dragged on a cart by weary beasts, they are unable to help their devotees at all, or to help themselves from being captured by pursuers. All this is implied in chapter 46:1,2.

 

With similar language Paul refers to Judaistic devotion to the Law as "a yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5:1). What a contrast with the call of Christ to those weary and heavy laden (with an Iniquity and Sin which are an inevitable inheritance): "Take my yoke upon you...my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Mt. 11:29,30).

 

However, Isaiah's current contention was with scornful men of Jerusalem who satirically (as in 28:10) chided the prophet with having a futile message: 'You prophets say, but nothing happens! Why doesn't your Holy One get a move on, and do something?' It is typical tu quoque: 'You say our gods are helpless. Well, what about yours?' (cp. 66:5).

 

So many of the prophets had to cope with this kind of challenge: Amos (5:18-6:3), Jeremiah (17:15), Ezekiel (11:2,3; 12:22,23,27), Zephaniah (1:12),' Malachi (2:17; 3:1); Jesus also (Lk. 17:20), and last of all, Peter (2 Pet. 3:3,4).

 

Was it in answer to this scornful jibe: "Let him make speed, and hasten his work," that Isaiah called his new-born son Maher-shalal-hash-baz (8:3)?

 

Nor was this the only answer. From now on Isaiah gave repeated emphatic assurances: God has said He will act, and He will!:

 

"Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory" (46:12,13).

 

"I the Lord will hasten it in his time" (60:22).

 

"Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance...he will come, and save you" (35:4).

 

The relevance of these passages to the Last Days is clear enough. In these times there are plenty of people who scorn the idea of God coming to the rescue (after due discipline) of a decadent and violent civilisation, but that scorn will not in any way deter ultimate divine action.

 

Isaiah's contemporaries were scornful enough. Echoing the prophet's favourite title of the God (1:4; 5:24) he represented, they derisively demanded: "Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, and (then) we shall know!" "Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us" (30:11).

 

These perverse contradictory attitudes had their answer in the remarkable vision of the Almighty — "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts." It was answered also by the trenchant threat of judgment with which these Woes conclude (v.24-30).

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5:20 "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!"

 

How easily men come away from the wholesome principles of the Word of God, and with high self-esteem proceed to fashion their own more palatable morality! The psalmist may well say: "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth" (119:103). But for a big proportion of mankind the wisdom of the Word is only bitterness. The natural man finds these waters bitter, and he feels justified in complaining at their astringency. It is only the Tree that can make them sweet (Ex. 15:25).

 

So also with the appointed burnt-offerings of the Lord. The burning of the flesh sent a column of acrid smoke ascending up to heaven; yet always "the Lord smelled a sweet savour" (Gen. 8:21, and many others), because behind every true burnt-offering there was the offerer's spirit of thankfulness, repentance, and re-consecration to God.

 

Human judgement almost invariably makes the wrong choice, the wrong assess­ment, swinging to the wrong extreme, making the wrong decision. Said worldly-wise Caiaphas: "It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not" (Jn. 11:50). But God turned this Caiaphas foolishness into wisdom. The high priest proposed evil, and called it good; therefore, woe unto him!

 

In every generation men dedicate themselves with avidity to the worship of Mammon, and call it their greatest good. And how many there be who find "the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb", only to learn that "her end is bitter as wormwood" (Pr. 5:3,4), as deadly as AIDS.

 

Even a godly woman like Naomi could get her perspective wrong: "I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty" (Ruth 1:21). Yet that full-ness had brought little comfort in the land of Moab. By contrast, now she was back in Bethlehem and, with such a daughter-in-law, she was more "full" than she knew.

 

Always, then, let a man mistrust his own judgement.

 

But Isaiah found himself in the midst of experienced influential men who through folly or wilfulness were turning God's laws upside down. Woe unto them! When a man is self-afflicted with this kind of twisted outlook on life there is no hope for him.

 

One of the greatest curses of modern times is this double-speak. It has poisoned every aspect of human relations. A mighty military machine of frightening potentiality is called Defence. An aggressive political campaign is called a Peace Movement. Wholesale criticism and disparagement of the Word of God is paraded under the respectable name of Scholarship, whilst those who try to be honest with Holy Scripture are reckoned stupid or in darkness. A pseudo-science of psychology is called into being to give a flamboyant sanction to self-indulgence and all kinds of im­morality. Thus sin is blithely abolished.

 

However good they were at this sort of thing in Isaiah's day, or in the time of Caiaphas, the twentieth century has completely outpaced them. It has even left its plain mark on the ecclesias.

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5:21 "Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!"

 

This fifth Woe was directed, very probably, at the statesmen in Ahaz's court, men who had all the confidence in the world in their own powers of judgement and of political manoeuvring. The same men — Shebna, and people of that ilk — were the plague of the reign of Hezekiah: "The wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their words are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?" (29:14,15). "Woe to the rebellious children, said the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin" (30:1, and see v.2 and 31:1,2). A vivid passage, in 28:9ff, expresses in caustic terms the contempt these self-confident schemers had for the innocence and ingenuousness of the faithful remnant.

 

This Woe says its warning briefly to all generations. Right up to the present day, among the people of the Lord there are always those with a sublime confidence in the utter Tightness of their own judgements. "Wise in their own eyes", they find it im­possible to believe that they may be mistaken, and therefore they find it not only possible but easy to believe that their decisions are utterly right and unimpeachable.

 

The emphasis of Scripture is all the other way: "Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from (this) evil" (Pr. 3:7). "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceits? There is more hope of a fool than of him" (26:12) — in other words, such a man is the worst kind of fool. Yet often enough it is such who, by sheer self-confidence, muscle themselves into positions of high influence. Expressing their opinions in strong dogmatic fashion, they get the reputation of being "safe", and therefore to be followed.

 

But the word of Jesus was: "I thank thee, Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."

 

The great curse of the Judaists in the first century was their utter inability to believe that they were wrong. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Rom. 1:22; written about Jews, not Gentiles as is often supposed; B.S. 13.02). "I would not have you to be ignorant of this mystery (the gospel going to the Gentiles), lest ye be wise in your own conceit, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until..." (11:25). Could it be that a similar "blindness in part" is happening to the New Israel, and especially the Judaists among them?

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5:22,23 "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 two halves of this sixth Woe do not seem to hang together. If there is a connection between the two it is via Proverbs 31: "It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the judgement of any of the afflicted...Open thy mouth (not for drink, but to dispense even-handed justice), judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy" (31:4,5,9). How seriously strong drink weakens a man's will to do what is right!

 

But the emphasis here is on taking a reward, a bribe. And this suggests that perhaps the word "Woe" has fallen out from the beginning of verse 23 which in that case would be Woe 7.

 

If however the two verses are kept together, the main idea seems to be: Woe to them who are heroic in their drinking exploits but who are cowards at standing up for the rights of the poor.

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