Isaiah 5 "The Vineyard"

"There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and he put a fence around it

and dug a winepress in it and he built a tower and leased it to tenants,

and went into another country.

When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.

And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.

Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves,

'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.'

And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him."

When Jesus tells this parable in Matthew 21,

it doesn't take long for the Pharisees to recognize that he was speaking of them.

They knew the scripture,

and they recognized the description in Isaiah 5 of the house of Israel as a vineyard.

By now you are probably getting used to some of the literary devices

that are used in Hebrew literature.

The most common is parallelism, where two related ideas or words are juxtaposed,

but also quite common is the chiasm.

We see another chiasm in verses 1-7.

First, the vineyard is depicted (1)

The vineyard cared for with five verbs, but it yielded wild grapes (2)

The central question: what shall I do with it? (3-4)

Yahweh's response: the vineyard neglected with five verbs (5-6)

The vineyard explained (7)

The opening and closing set the stage.

Judah and Jerusalem was a choice vineyard.

God has done everything for his people.

He has prepared his vineyard with care and diligence.

But the vineyard produced "stink-fruit" (here translated "wild grapes").

The difference between a wild vine and a domestic vine is simply the care.

God has lavished grace upon his people-

but they remain as if grace had never touched them.

If a well-tended vineyard produces stink-fruit,

what is the master to do?

verse 7 provides the transition between the parable and the rest of the chapter.

It is useful to hear the play on words

mishpat mispach

tsedaqa tse'aqa

The problem is one of justice.

In the six woes that follow,

the focus is on both the practice of injustice and the neglect of justice.

The structure of verses 8-30 is also a pretty tight literary form:

two woes followed by two "therefores"

and then four woes followed by two more "therefores."

Woe to those who join house to house (8-10)

Woe to the drunkards (11-12)

Therefore, my people go into exile (13)

Therefore, the grave will swallow them up (14)

And man is humbled low (15)

And Yahweh is exalted (16)

And lambs shall graze (17)

Woe to those who pursue iniquity and falsehood (18-19)

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil (20)

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes (21)

Woe to the drunkards who acquit the guilty (22-23)

Therefore they will be destroyed by fire (24)

Therefore God will bring the nations against his people (25-30)

(The end of v25 will be the refrain of chapter 9)

Beginning of v26 will launch chapter 11

1. Woe to those who join house to house.

We have seen how the Jubilee law was to prevent the large acquisition of land (Lev 25).

But the princes of Judah have forgotten this.

They are using their power to enrich themselves and build up their possessions.

They are attempting to drive out the other landowners.

To "dwell alone in the midst of the land"

means that you are the only landowner in sight.

But God promises an irony:

instead of dwelling alone in the midst of the land,

their houses will become desolate and uninhabited.

And all their great acreage will produce but a pittance.

Verse nine starts with no verb: "Yahweh of hosts, in my ears!"

It is intended as an emphatic cry.

It is from these sorts of warnings that our Lord says,

where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

What good is it to store up wealth, if you lose your soul?

2. Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after strong drink,

and who stay up late to drink wine.

They are partying-but they do not see the work of Yahweh's hands.

Alcohol, music and lots of food.

These are all good things-things that were commanded in the worship of God.

But they have taken these good gifts,

and perverted them for their own selfish pleasure.

In other words, the twentieth century was nothing new.

The 8^th century B.C. had its own version of sex and drugs and rock'n'roll.

Isaiah gives two consequences for these two woes:

1) Exile

2) Death

Verse 13 adds to the irony of the chapter.

They sought food and drink,

but they will go hungry, and the multitude will be parched with thirst.

They should have known better,

but they did not want to know the deeds of the Lord.

Their "lack of knowledge" is inexcusable.

They have pursued economic gain and personal pleasure-

and it will come back to bite them.

Literally.

Verse 14 connects us back to verse 8.

Just as they devoured the land, now Sheol-the grave-will devour them.

The partyers of verses 11-12 are included in this.

Those who pursue wealth and pleasure will be devoured by it.

Do you remember the haughty daughters of Zion in chapter 3?

Whatever you pursue will consume you.

And so verses 15-17 add on to the "therefores" with three "and" clauses:

(The "waw" in Hebrew has a variety of meanings,

but here it provides a very obvious literary structure)

verse 15 echoes precisely the words of 2:9

"So man is humbled and each one is brought low"

We are still in the "word that Isaiah saw",

from chapters 2-5.

We are called to remember that the LORD has a day

against all those who exalt themselves.

The eyes of the haughty are brought low.

Verse 16 echoes 2:11, 17, and expands on it,

"And Yahweh of hosts is exalted in justice."

His vineyard did not produce justice-but Yahweh will!

"And the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness."

His vineyard did not produce righteousness-but the Holy God will.

God himself will bring justice and righteousness,

a point that Jesus will make in his parable with the image of the Son.

Verse 17 then gives a vision of the future of Jerusalem.

The lambs will graze over the area that was once inhabited.

Nomads, or tramps, will reside in the emptiness that was once Judah.

In the beginning God created all things.

The earth was formless and void-tohu vbohu-in other words, empty and barren.

God is bringing the Promised Land back to a state of tohu vbohu,

emptiness and barrenness.

Then Isaiah launches into another set of four woes.

And if the first set of sinners were bad-

they at least had the excuse of being mindless about it!

They were like those today who go about their ordinary business,

probably go to church on Sunday,

but for them church is a one day commitment.

The other six days are for material profit and personal enjoyment.

This next set is much more intentional about their sin.

3. Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes.

These mockers even dare the Holy One of Israel to do his worst! (Verse19)

They know that what they are doing is wrong,

and that God has said he will judge them,

but they don't care-"bring it on!" "Let it come!"

4. 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!

Their whole moral compass is upside down.

5. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

These calculate every move and think that they've got it all figured out.

But they do not reckon with Yahweh!

6. 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!

These are unlike the partyers in verses 11-12,

because they are not merely mindless pleasure-seekers;

they use their skill in consuming alcohol to manipulate the courts on their behalf.

And once again Isaiah provides two therefores:

3) therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,

and as dry grass sinks down in flame,

so their root will be as rottenness,

and their blossom go up like dust.

They have intentionally rejected the law of Yahweh of hosts.

They have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

The final therefore not only connects to the four woes,

and indeed, not only connects to the six woes of the chapter,

but takes us back to chapter 2, connecting to the language of God's arising in anger,

and the peoples fleeing in terror.

4) Therefore the anger of Yahweh 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.

Verses 22-30 may have been originally a part of the material in chapter 9.

That refrain "for all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still"

is the refrain of chapter 9.

It is possible that Isaiah took that material and moved it to chapter 5 for his introduction.

The other option is that Isaiah wrote this section with a view

to calling our attention to the connections between chapter 5 and the next section.

But either way, verses 22-30 call us to look beyond the coming judgment.

If God has so consistently called Israel and Judah to repentance,

he must have some purpose other than their complete destruction.

Verses 26-28 then speak of God's judgment in history.

Verse 15 echoes 2:9,

signaling the end of the "word that Isaiah saw" in chapters 2-5.

As it began with the vision of the nations streaming to Zion to hear the law of the LORD,

so it ends with the nations streaming to Zion....to destroy it!

But it is God who brings the nations against his people.

(This will be a theme in Isaiah 6-12)

And they will accomplish his purposes.

When you read the newspaper, you need to read it in terms of what God has promised.

The nations are obeying the call of God to execute judgment against the wicked.

And nothing can stop them.

The language of verses 27-30 is that of a relentless force that nothing can hinder.

Indeed, verse 29 compares them to the lion that carry off their prey-and none can rescue.

and verse 30 compares them to the sea.

The roaring of the lion and the roaring of the sea-both unforgiving heralds of death.

Isaiah 2-5 ends on a very pessimistic note.

It ends without hope-leaving an unanswered question as to Israel's future.

It is in this context that we hear of Isaiah's call.

At this point we need to hear that God has called a prophet to explain this!