Sermon Tone Analysis

Woe to the Wicked

If you remember from last week, we talked about the Lord bringing to mind the story of a land owner who planted and vineyard.

He sought to care for the ground, preparing it for the choice vines to make a premium vineyard.

So he planted, cultivated and waited but only wild grapes sprang up, Nothing good was found and so it was to be destroyed.

The owner is God and the vineyard we know is Judah, and it produces no good fruit if you will, instead it produced poor fruit.

In like manner, Judah will be judged for they did not produce the fruit as God desired.

Their works, life are evil.

So lets continue our look at Isa 5, and today we begin with verse 8.

Now this section is often titled as Woe to the Wicked.

Namely because of the “woe” oracles .

It’s a detailed look at God accusations and justification of His actions against the people.

Sin always has consequences.

So here begins the first of two woes that will be delivered.

In Israel, land was a sacred commodity.

It didn’t belong to the people persae, I truly belonged to the Lord.

The people, Israel were settlers on the land, they were inhabitants who used it , worked it, took care of it on behalf of the Father.

Here in this verse some one has enjoyed a good life, He has acquired more and more land, more and more property.

The wealthy made great estates to reside on.

They lived alone, there but enjoyed the land.

God says Woe to these that acquire land from others.

Remember these people did not let the land return during the year of Jubilee, they sinned against the people and God himself.

God has said very forcefully, Isaiah says I have heard this from the Lord.

God is outraged.

Soon those big houses you have put your trust in, those houses that you did wrong to obtain, oh they will be empty soon.

God will take those homes away from them.

And their vineyard will have a very meager crop, one bath = about 6 gallons in modern day terms.

A whole vineyard should produce so much more, but God’s judgment is against them.

A homer is equal to about 10 ephahs ( 1 ephah is about 1 bushel ) so their grain fields are only going to produce about 1/10 of what it should produce.

There is no wealth in any of that, in truth that have lost money.

The character and conduct of the owners has brought judgment upon themselves.

And then with verses 11-12, brings the second woe

So there is that word again.. Woe.

A woe represents the righteous anger of God.

Here in these verses we find that God is angry over the self indulgence of the people.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning looking for their next drink, maybe even to chase after strong drink.

Woe to those who chase after such things and they in fact they drink all the day long.

It say here that late in the evening their drink inflames them or makes them intoxicated.

And in v 12 it carries forth to those who party, and indulge all the more.

He says they have the lyre and harp, the tambourine and flute, and wine at their feasts.

They live for themselves and God says they have no time for God or anything else except themselves.

They are in a terrible place...

Now verse 13

Therefore, because of land grabbing, their sinful indulgences, these will go into exile for their lack of understanding.

And these who once enjoyed all they could stomach in regard to food and drink will now be hungry and thirsty.

This last line, is parched with thirst, seems to indicate that their exile as not yet come, but will soon take place.

Verse 14

Death and the grave has been pictured here as a hungry monster into which all will descend.

The rich nobles who had everything will go down into death, poor and without anything.

They have learned nothing, and certainly they are not ready to meet God.

Here is where the sad nature of this verse is....

They had much and missed God and living for him, and in judgment psychically have lost everything and spiritually, they have not loved God.

Verses 15-16

The Lord is holy my friends.

He is and will continually be exalted above all things, but not man, in fact those who sought self, they are brought low, they are humbled.

God is holy, he is righteous, full of mercy and justice.

Here we see the real separation betwen God and sinful men.

Verse 17

Here we see the results of God’s holy judgment of Judah.

The status quo will be so transformed that lambs will graze on the grass in the ruined cities, and young rams that are herded by the nomads will eat grass where the rich used to dine in luxury

Now lets look at verses 18-19

Here we begin with a new section that contains a “woe”,

The first on here mourns those or laments those who purposely attach themselves to sin using deceitful falsehoods

Now the picture here is an animal pulling a cart with ropes.

The attachment to sin that that people have is one that constricts them more and more, and instead of life, they have death.

They become arrogant in thier sin and refuse to trust God

They challenge God to do something, it is like the Jews asking Jesus for a sign.

And even though Isaiah has told them in the earlier of God’s judgment, they do not believe it, They do not even thing that God is there to do anything to them or not.

So sadly, no reason to change their ways

Verse 21

This third WOE mourns the moral reversals in the previous woe.

They do what is right in their own eyes, they believe they are the gods of their own destiny.

They make their own moral standards instead of following God’s law.

Now verses 22-23

Here is a 4th woe, it addresses the issue of drinking an dsocial oppression once again, the problem we looked at in verses 11-12.

These heros, military champions are known more for drinking and making drink instead of the actions that made them heros to begin with..

The poor is oppressed and their homes are taken from them and so are their fields.

People had no right to take it from another since it belonged to God

God gave it to his people to live and use, but it was His land.

The rich have stolen it from those God and granted use of it and in even in courts the poor could not find justice becasue the judges are persuaded with a bribe,

The poor and needy are enslaved and oppressed because of the acitons of others.

Now look at verses 24-25

So because of sin,and the result of God’s judgement we see that this will happen.

As fire destroys plant, straw and stubble , dry grass and roots and even flowers will pass away.

Just as plant life can be easy to destroy by fire and natural elements in this world.

The Lord will judge His people.

They will be like helpless plants who are dependant on what the Lord gives them.

Just as plants are helpless before fire so judah will be helpless before the anger and judgment of the Lord.

Why is judgment coming, the answer is God’s holy response to all these activities that we have been talking about, these things should have caused the nation to mourn because of thier sin, but they did not, so judgement waits for them.

Listen to Amos 8:3

Every person who despises what God reveals in the Scriptures should stop and pay attention to God’s just ways of dealing with sin. it is a fearful thing to be caught by the outstretched hands of an angry Almighty God.

Now we come to the last 4 verses of the chapter, verses 26-30

This attack will not simply be one of Judah’s traditional enemies, it is pictured as an invasion my a mysterious nation that will travel a great distance to reach Judah.

This is a new idea for Judah, no one as every faced such a thing..

The people of Judah do not know what to expect, what kind of troops they might have...

The swiftness of movement means that they will come fast and without warning.

God will bring this about, he will raise up this nation to punish his people because of their sin.

Now verses 27-28

The people wonder who this enemy is, God does not name them to them but portrays them as a well oiled machine, a army that is strong and well equipped.

Certainly they have more than enough warriors, equipment and strength to defeat Judah.

Why, the Lord has raised them up for this very purpose.