Woeful People, Exalted God
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
We gotta eat our veggies!
In Isaiah
Book of prophecy
700BC
From Judah
Follows on from the Song of the Vineyard, where God compared his people Israel to a perfectly planted vineyard that produced rotten grapes. God promised to plow in the vineyard.
Our passage is in some sense an investigation into the reason
We’ll make our way through the Woes one by one, reading each in turn. Then I’ll make some comments on each.
There won’t be particular application at each point, but we will see from the whole that the application is:
“God judges the wicked, so find righteousness in Jesus Christ”
1. Woe to the Land Grabbers
1. Woe to the Land Grabbers
With these “woe”s, don’t get too caught up by the word “woe” itself. In Hebrew this is something of an exclamation. It is literally “hoy!”. Maybe comparable with our Aussie “oi!”, but it’s not just for getting attention, this word is usually used a preparation to announce judgement, it is negative. It precedes pain and suffering, That’s why In English it is often translated “woe”.
The first woe, the first attention is brought to the wealthy land owners. First we get and explanation of the problem, then the judgement for their actions.
Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
Snapping up land. Presumably from the poor and not of the good of others.
Land developers get a bad wrap. I have done a lot of work in land development, and while there are certainly some slimy characters out there, most of the developers I met are just average folk trying to make a living. Now the difference between the land developer and these guys in ancient Israel is that at least the developer is trying to make something that people need, they’re doing our community a service.
On the other hand these guys were just amassing land, maybe to make large estates, maybe just because they didn’t want riff-raff for neighbors. The effect is that they basically drive everyone off because there’s no land left.
How were they doing this?
The covenant law of Israel required that land be kept in the family and passed down to each generation. land that was “sold” was only supposed to be a lease, because it would return to it’s rightful owner after max 7 years.
It is highly possible that they weren’t respecting God’s law and they were manipulating things so that they kept the land indefinitely.
This would mean poorer folk, who may have sold at a good price, eventually would need the land back for their family to survive.
“By accumulating more and more land, the powerful are driving the weaker members off the land that God allotted to them, and all for greed.” (Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1249).
For the agricultural land, essentially the idea would be to make large commercial farms, but because their actions are greedy and oppressive, God will bring judgment:
The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing: “Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”
10 acres (4ha) - Literally 10 yoke of oxen, the area they can plow in a day. (Before the perpetual advent of tech, this was a stable measure).
10 acres of vines will make only 22 litres.
220 litres of grain will make only 22 litres grain.
Their big houses will be empty
Their big farms will produce nothing.
God will not reward their greed and oppression. He will exile, he will destroy their crops.
2. Woe to the Serial Party-goers
2. Woe to the Serial Party-goers
Our next woe highlights those who’s life revolves around partying. They’re always living for the weekend, they think that getting drunk is a good night. They are described here:
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!
In this description they are so keen to get back into it, they’re up as early as possible, not for the sake of pursuing righteousness and godly work, no, they’re just chasing after more sensual pleasure. More self gratification.
We would put it this way, they’re waiting at the door when the pub opens in the morning, and they’re the last to leave at night. They’re always looking for a good time at the bottom of a bottle.
Now there’s nothing wrong with enjoying strong drink or wine as a gift from God, but like all good gifts, there is a moderation that is required. We’ll come back to this in a bit. The same goes for music! It is a good thing, a gift from God, but it can also be used to sin and ignore God, lets see that in the next verse:
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.
They love their music, they love a good band, but the band is not using their music to honor God, but instead they go on as if God does not exist, or doesn't care about what they do.
Not all music needs to be “religious music” but it is a misuse of music to use it to use it to celebrate evil, to teach sin, to enjoy it cut off from the creator who gave it, to get into a mindless trance.
The best music honors God, it acknowledges God as creator of the world and an active participant in the world.
But, woe to the ones who are constantly chasing that party high, whether it be at the nightclub, at the festival, at the pub. A good party with great music is a good thing, but if your life revolves around it, especially without reference to God, then you’re sinning against God.
Excursus: Exile & Exaltation
Excursus: Exile & Exaltation
Now in our passage, we take a diversion from our 6 woes for a moment. This is my new favorite word: Excursus. It’s an extended examination of a point.
Here the point being ex, to reflect on the larger problem in Judah and how God fits with that.
Here’s the broader problem:
Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.
It is though the people are thirsty because they don’t have knowledge. It is ironic because we were just reading about people who were always drinking!
This is the problem, they are parched, they need sweet refreshing knowledge to quench their thirst,
If only they had knowledge, then they wouldn’t be sent into exile.
So what knowledge are they talking about here?
This is the knowledge that is not acknowledged in the last verse. It is Knowledge of God, of his deeds, of his work, of his covenant.
So it seems the people, the broad populace are suffering because they have not been taught, and the people who should have been teaching them are off partying.
Remember, in this context the masses are agrarian, living hand to mouth. The only people who could afford to be partying it up all the time were the elites, the people who had inherited lots of wealth, or those who were supported by the people (like priests and rulers)/ But even like in our present day, those who are supported by church donations, or who live on public money, they are supposed to give a return to the people they serve.
The local leader were meant to uphold God’s righteousness and justice.
The priests were supposed to teach the people God’s word and lead them to worship God well.
Instead it seems they are off partying all the time, or amassing property, and so the people suffer.
SO now, everyone suffers. Those leaders, the honored men, will go hungry, and God’s people are thirsting for knowledge.
If only someone had taught them about right and wrong. If only someone had shown them the right way to follow God.
Instead, this is what happens:
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. Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
Death. Many people will go down into the grave, Sheol.
These proud party goers and land grabbers will be be humbled, and they will take a multitude with them.
God opposes the proud, and when those proud are leaders of people and nations, it often means the whole nation is brought low.
But just in case you thought God was overdoing it, that this wasn’t fair, he tells us in the next verse:
But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness. Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
God is right, he is just to bring judgment upon the nation. The people and their leaders deserved what was coming to them.
We need to be able to understand 2 things at the same time.
A person can be a victim from another person’s sin
While being responsible for their own sin.
Our world has trouble understating this. They think that you’re either a victim or an oppressor, not understating that you can be both or neither!
The people were victims because they were not taught the knowledge of God, but they were also guilty because what little they did know about right and wrong they still didn’t follow.
SO God was right to humble them all.
God is exalted in Justice! He shows himself holy!
Because of his holy judgement, there will be a desolate land where the homeless will squat in the once grand estates
In our day we face a similar problem, people have no knowledge!
We need people to take it to them!
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
We are the priest of God in the world, we have the Gospel, we have a comission to take it out, so GO take it out!
There are vast numbers who are pridefully standing against God, they need to hear!
3. Woe to the Sin Wranglers
3. Woe to the Sin Wranglers
Back to our woes.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, 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!”
They mock God as they sin. It is though they have hitched up sin like a trailer and they’re dragging it around with them saying, if this sin is so bad, let God come and tell me himself!
I don’t trust your
4. Woe to the Evil Speakers
4. Woe to the Evil Speakers
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!
5. Woe to the Big Headed
5. Woe to the Big Headed
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
6. Woe to the Big Drinkers
6. Woe to the Big Drinkers
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!
The LORD Strikes
The LORD Strikes
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.
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.
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! None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken;
So What?
So What?