Isaiah 5:11-30 - Thorough Depravity

Isaiah 5:11–30 (ESV) — 11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them! 12 They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands. 13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst. 14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down, her revelers and he who exults in her. 15 Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low. 16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness. 17 Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich. 18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, 19 who say: “Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!” 20 Woe to those 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! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! 22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right! 24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. 26 He will raise a signal for nations far away, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, quickly, speedily they come! 27 None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken; 28 their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind. 29 Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and none can rescue. 30 They will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened by its clouds.

Target Date: Sunday, 31 December 2023

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

20 – put - שׂוּם sûwm, soom – very common word for placing or putting. This one is a participle, but does not have a significant effect on the translation or meaning.

NASB translates this “substitute”, pulling the meaning of “swap”.

any wise, appoint, bring, call [a name], care, cast in, change, charge, commit, consider, convey, determine, + disguise, dispose, do, get, give, heap up, hold, impute, lay (down, up), leave, look, make (out), mark, + name, × on, ordain, order, + paint, place, preserve, purpose, put (on), + regard, rehearse, reward, (cause to) set (on, up), shew, + steadfastly, take, × tell, + tread down, ([over-]) turn, × wholly, work.

to put, place, set:—appoint(9), appointed(9), assign(1), assigned(2), attached(1), bestowed(1), bring(1), brought(1), care*(2), changes(2), charge*(1), charged(1), charges(2), consider(4), consider*(6), considered*(2), determine*(1), determined(1), disguises*(1), establish(3), established(5), establishes(1), establishment(1), expected*(1), fasten(1), fix(1), formed and made(1), gave(2), give(7), grant(1), had(1), hunt*(1), impose(1), impress(1), impute(1), inflicted(1), insert(4), invoke(1), keeps(1), laid(19), lay(10), lay down(1), lays(1), leave(1), loaded(1), look*(2), made(45), make(67), makes(9), mark(3), named*(2), ordained(1), orders(1), paid(2), painted*(1), pay(1), pay attention(2), performed(3), place(15), placed(21), plant(1), prepare(1), preserve(1), put(123), puts(6), putting(2), really set(1), recite*(1), regard*(1), render(1), repaid(1), required(1), seized(1), seized*(2), serve(1), served(1), set(108), sets(3), shave*(1), shed(1), show(1), station(1), stationed(3), steadily(1), substitute(2), surely set(1), take(5), taken(1), takes(1), taking(1), throw(1), told*(1), took(3), transformed(1), treat(1), turn(1), turned(2), unobserved*(1), work(1), wrought(1).

Moral standards were destroyed by new definitions of sin (see Amos 5:7), people using God’s vocabulary but not His dictionary.

22 – heroes - The terms used refer to military heroes and champions, but these are only champion drink-mixers.

Thoughts on the Passage:

The woes spoken in this passage do not necessarily denote distinct groups; these are the same people, and these are the grave sins for which they will be judged.

Each of these sins are common to all, although some may be incidentally innocent of one sin or another.

These woes all describe the spirit of the age, not just for Isaiah’s age, but for all ages.

Innocence in any one of these sins does not absolve anyone from guilt for the breaking of the covenant.

10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. – James 2:10-11

18-19 – The wicked, who have crafted fine cords to tether their sins to themselves, are calling for God to do His work quickly, as if He were being slow in delivering them.

This shows their thorough cluelessness as to the holiness and purposes of God.

26 – What will come quickly is His judgment – from an unexpected direction at a sudden time. The nation is far away, but prepared for the day of God’s wrath.

19 – The Holy One of Israel – in the mouth of these wicked men, this title which should be said with the greatest respect is little more than a curse. They mock God, they taunt Him that they have not yet been consumed. They dare Him to come and do something to them, so deep is their pride and evil their hearts. This leads directly to the indictment of verse 21 – they are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight.

20 – Calvin - The preposition ל (lamed), prefixed to the words good and evil, is equivalent to Of; and therefore the meaning is, They who say of evil, It is good, and of good, It is evil; that is, they who by vain hypocrisy conceal, excuse, and disguise wicked actions, as if they would change the nature of everything by their sophistical arguments, but who, on the contrary deface good actions by their calumnies.

But he addresses a general reproof to all who flatter themselves in what is evil, and who, through the hatred which they bear to virtue, condemn what is done aright; and not only so, but who, by the subterfuges which they employ for the sake of concealing their own enormities, harden themselves in wickedness. Such persons, the Prophet tells us, act as if they would change light into darkness, and sweet into bitter; by which he means that their folly is monstrous, for it would tend to confound and destroy all the principles of nature.

It is easy to be a prophet if you think you are better than the people.

God’s judgment has 2 primary purposes:

1. To call His people, even those yet unidentified to man, to repentance through the humiliation of judgment.

They shall be severed from the loves of this world.

They will be brought to the things of first importance.

They will be forced to trust God without the supports and distractions of the things of this world.

2. To completely remove His enemies.

They have filled up the measure of their sin.

They have made their final denial of God’s gospel terms of grace and mercy.

They have received their final earthly judgment, and have only the terror of God’s final judgment remaining.

These things are written for our instruction: not only to tell us the sins to avoid, but to show us the extent of God’s wrath so that we may understand the depth of His mercy. We are so woefully ignorant of what it means to be holy – what it means for us to be holy or what it means for God to be holy – that we don’t even have a good analogy. We only have His word to define it for us.

The natural man is not concerned about holiness; he is concerned with remaking the world into HIS image, even if it is fallen. He seeks his own pleasure and comfort, power and dominion.

What we see in this passage is God’s response to the natural man, who was born at war with God and will not be reconciled through any effort of his own. All the natural man wants from God is someone powerful to control; when he finds he cannot do that, he declares his unbelief and goes on to find ways to control other things.

God’s declaration of truth through His word, even when it is harsh, is powerful and gracious. He did not have to give us a warning; He did not owe us another opportunity. But He sent prophets to declare His truth to hardened people – grace far beyond what we deserved.

Consider the days of Noah: when the prophet, by the word of God, ceased to preach, God’s judgment came swiftly and finally.

That is the message of the rainbow – He would never again leave us without His witness on earth.

Likewise God’s judgment on Sodom – it came suddenly, without warning to a people who had ignored all previous warnings.

And then He sent His Son:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. – Hebrews 1:1-2

What is the Good News of this passage?

We must never forget that there, but for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, go we. They are to be judged by the immovable justice of God through His Law, and they will be rightly condemned for their sin. But lest we shake our heads at these unworthy people, we must catch ourselves and remember we are EQUALLY unworthy of God’s grace and mercy. We have all transgressed this same Law, perhaps not in the same way as presented in this passage, but we are divine criminals just the same. But perhaps we do consider our own counsel supreme; perhaps someone does lose their head into the bottle or the drug; perhaps someone does, deep in their heart, tempt God to judge them; perhaps someone hearing this is redefining what God has declared to fit their own opinion. That is certainly the spirit of the age: accessible intoxication, pride, open sin, and the hubris to redefine for ourselves what even a male and female are. But Jesus DIED to overcome these things, not by hitting it with a bigger bat of the Law, but by drawing those who are trapped in these sins to Him, His forgiveness, His gospel, and His truth that makes you free.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – 1 Corinthians 6:11

Teachings:

God’s Law is not negotiable or up for redefinition.

God reserves these great woes for those who do not repent and follow Him.

The fact that God sent a prophet tells us He is offering a better way – a way forward in faith.

We cannot repay, we cannot undo what has been done, but we can trust Him and follow Him through His Spirit.

Sermon Text:

We turn again this morning to the fifth chapter of the prophet Isaiah.

And the important question for us to consider this morning is this:

What is God’s message to those whose hearts are hard?

What is His message for those who have no clue what holiness is, and who wouldn’t seek it if they did know?

What is His message for people who are perfectly content to go to church but never encounter the true God?

Six times in this chapter alone, God declares “woe” on those who believed they were His people.

Six times God has His prophet declare the lament, the cry of great distress, over the people.

He sees their sin, and it is grievous to Him.

Look back through this chapter, now and even more later, and see it is not the JUDGMENT of their sin God is mourning,

It is what those sins have done to His choice people, the very ones He had planted and nurtured from the start.

Each of these WOE’s is not for the judgment He is sending, but for the rottenness each of these sins has produced.

He is lamenting FOR them!

He is crying out for those thoroughly rotten scoundrels who:

Rob the poor.

Mock God.

Drink themselves to oblivion.

Tie themselves tightly to their sins.

And who pervert even God’s created order and His declaration of what is good.

This is not just the sin of Judah we are talking about here.

This is our day. This is us.

Every single result that is punctuated by a “Woe!” is something you and I see every day – some of us even in our own lives.

We live in this same sin-hardened world, and unless something happens, it will get worse.

Look at how God describes them:

11 - They start off early chasing intoxication.

It is what gets them out of bed.

The thought or the physical need of another drink of alcohol or another hit of that drug propels them from their mattress.

God even describes them, in the heart of the day, in verse 26 as “Mighty men, heroes, at drinking wine.”

And “valiant men in mixing strong drink.”

How useless are their lives, how fruitless?

Mighty men, heroes, valiant warriors are meant to be fighting good battles, defending the nation or their families.

Instead, they have become pathetic drunkards, with their most valiant deeds done when they shake a mixing cup.

And then, when the drink or drug has its way, they are reduced to impotent creatures, unable to defend themselves, much less those who have been placed into their charge.

But be careful if you think you cannot be guilty in this area.

How much of our lives are squandered, wasted?

How much of our intellect is spoiled on things that are as addictive as drink and take as heavy a toll?

I have known people who will play a video game for hours at a time every single day.

Whose reason for rolling out from under their covers and putting their feet on the floor is to get to their computer to log in.

They are mighty warriors – in cyberspace – in the digital world of make-believe.

Or perhaps they rise just to check their social media posts.

Or their stock portfolio.

In verse 18, God describes these same people as those who lash themselves to sin and iniquity.

Who craft these beautiful braided ropes so they may tie themselves more tightly to their sin.

They forge the bonds that are used to enslave them.

In many cases, rather than being ashamed of their sin, they stand up and parade it – they hold it with “pride”.

They wear it as a badge of honor that they are out-of-step with what is right, and they celebrate their practice of what is wrong.

As God says in verse 20 – they call evil good and good evil.

They offer light but deliver darkness.

They advertise the sweetness of their lives and conceal the real bitterness of them.

I feel certain it has been as bad as our nation at SOME point in the past, but I cannot think of any nation at any time that has even tried to redefine what is male and female.

This is certainly something to lament, to “Woe”, that people would allow themselves to be so deceived as that.

And all because, as we see in verse 21 – they are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight.

They trust what they know, what they can see.

But even more, they trust only that which they can control, they which they can manipulate.

That is why they mock God in verse 19:

Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!

They want God to perform for THEM.

To listen to their will, and to do what they tell Him.

They don’t want to hear about their sin;

They want to hear about how wise and clever they are, how worthy they are.

How lucky God is to have them on His team.

These are the things that rotten people are, that rotten people do.

And it is these things that make them worth nothing except to be judged, graded, and discarded.

Their hearts are hardened so thoroughly they might be made of granite.

So, coming back to the original question: What is God’s message to these people, these rotten grapes?

Repent!

Come to me, and I will give you rest.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

To them who are thoroughly sinful, utterly depraved, entirely dead already in their sin – God bids them to come through Jesus Christ to life.

Now you may be looking into your Bible here in Isaiah 5 asking yourself “Where does he see the word ‘repent’ anywhere in this passage?”

It looks like God spends verses 24-30 telling them about the judgment that is coming on them quickly.

And, to be honest, it looks pretty harsh.

This is where you have to take a step back and ask yourself “WHY would God tell them all these things?”

Why would He detail their sinful abominations?

Why would He give them the specifics about how they would be judged?

Why would He send a prophet to them in the first place?

SO THEY WOULD REPENT.

God doesn’t waste His prophets.

He didn’t owe the people of Judah any more warning than they had already.

Moses had already told them:

For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands. – Deuteronomy 31:29

God sent His prophet to call them back, to call them to repent.

The word ‘repent’ isn’t even required for the message to be there from God.

If someone woke you in the middle of the night screaming “Fire!”, would they REALLY have to tell you to get out of the house?

I feel certain you would agree that would be understood.

Jonah 1:1-2 - Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

This was the bare-bones message Jonah preached to them as well.

And their response?

The king declared: Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” - Jonah 3:8-9

Even the harsh word of God preached by a reluctant preacher who really hated the people he was preaching to – even that word could bring about repentance.

Now, we know that Judah didn’t repent in great numbers after Isaiah’s prophecy, and that they were eventually carried off into exile in Babylon.

But that doesn’t lessen the grace of God’s message to these rotten grapes.

And thank God it doesn’t because there, but for God’s grace, we are in the same boat.

We read many of these stories in the Old Testament, and we see the judgment of God poured out,

And we see God’s wrath coming down.

And we know that all these things are written for our instruction.

Unfortunately, many teachers of our day take the wrong instruction from these passages.

They think we should, like the good prophets of old, preach the Law of God to everyone who will hear.

That the more we pronounce the WOE’s and the condemnation of sin to the pagans of this world, the closer we will be to what God wants us to do.

It’s even relatively easy to speak as modern-day prophets the condemnation of sin in the Law, especially if the preacher considers himself morally superior to the crowd.

But see what it says in Hebrews 1:1-2

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. – Hebrews 1:1-2

Long ago, God spoke through the Law; but now, He proclaims His gospel.

That is the theme of the entire book: the superiority of Jesus Christ over the Law.

The message of the gospel is not ‘Get your life together’,

The message of the gospel is ‘Get your life to Jesus Christ!’

You may be thoroughly rotten – I assure you that without Christ, you are.

But that is precisely who Jesus came to save – people who are bruised and crushed by sins from every side.

People whose works stink up to heaven with their sin.

He came to save people YOU wouldn’t even want to save.

He came to seek out, search for, and SAVE people who are lost and rotting and dying.

He didn’t save you to leave you in that state – that is why we study the Law of God – to discover what pleases Him.

Because we have no natural ability to choose the right or the good, we must rely on His word to guide us in doing good things.

And one of the glorious things in His Scripture is chapters like this – even chapters of judgment.

When we see His judgment pronounced, we see them judged in these cases by the immovable justice of God through His Law.

And we realize that is exactly how we will be judged if we are not found in Christ.

But before we simply shake our heads at these unworthy people, we must remember we are just as UNWORTHY as they are.

We are undeserving of God’s mercy and grace as they are.

Our sins stink just as badly as theirs, even if we are more respectable in public today.

We are, each one of us, criminals against the divine. We have all broken God’s Law, and done it willingly and heinously.

But the message of Jesus Christ to them and to us is not to hit us over the head with a bigger Law-bat;

It is to draw those who are trapped in these sins, enslaved by them,

To Him, to His forgiveness, to His gospel, to His truth that makes us free.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – 1 Corinthians 6:11

It is a woeful tragedy that so many today try to redefine God’s Law to fit their self-created morality.

But it is a tragedy that must be met with the overcoming message of the cross of Jesus Christ,

The message of His grace and mercy.

It is that message alone that reached you; it is that message that will powerfully reach into our world.