Book
of Isaiah
Isaiah 5
Isaiah 5:1-17, God’s
vineyard yields bad grapes. What God will do about it. vs. 18-20, “Woe
to those who call evil good and good evil.” [that’s happening
right now all across our western Judeo-Christian democracies, isn’t
it?] As Halley points out, this had a historic fulfillment in
Isaiah 5:1-17, “I will sing for the one I love a song
about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines. He
built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. [drinking wine
and alcohol in extreme moderation is not wrong folks, it’s
just the overconsumption of it that is wrong or sin] Then
he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
‘Now
you dwellers in
The
vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of
Woe
to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space
is left and you live alone in the land. [A
severe warning to all you money-hungry land developers who do this
and yet live out in the wide open country on acres of land. I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.]
The
Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing:
‘Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine
mansions left without occupants. A
ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath [6 gallons or 22 liters]
of wine, a homer [6 bushels] of seed only an ephah [3/5 bushel]
of grain.’
Woe
to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay
up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the
deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands. Therefore
my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men
of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with
thirst. Therefore the
grave [Hebrew Sheol] enlarges its appetite and opens
its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and
masses with all their brawlers and revelers. So
man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant
humbled. But the Lord Almighty will be exalted
by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy
by his righteousness. Then
sheep will graze in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the
ruins of the rich.”
Verses 18-19, “Woe
to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness
as with cart ropes, to those who say, ‘Let God hurry, let
him hasten his work so we may see it. Let
it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of
Verses 20-30“…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.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and
clever in their own sight.
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent. Therefore
as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in
flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like
dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned
the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people;
his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The
mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. [From here on this seems to be a cross-reference to Joel 2:1-11.]
[Verses 25b-30] Yet for
this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here
they come, swiftly and speedily! Not
one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps;
not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken. Their arrows are sharp, all their bows
are strung; their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, their chariot
wheels like a whirlwind. Their
roar is like that of a lion, they roar like young lions; they growl
as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue. In
that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, he
will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened
by the clouds.” [If that isn’t a cf. to Joel
2, I don’t know what is.]
Isaiah 6
In
Isaiah 6:1-5, Isaiah sees the Lord in vision on his throne in the temple. Verses. 6-9
give the assignment that was given to Isaiah by the Lord. Verses. 9-10
show the people of both
Isaiah
6:1-13, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord
seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled
the temple. Above him were seraphs [seraphim], each
with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two
they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And
they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory!’
At
the sound of their voices the doorposts and the thresholds shook
and the temple was filled with smoke.
‘Woe
to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For
I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean
lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’
Then
one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which
he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See,
this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin
atoned for.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom
shall I send? And who
will go for us?’ And
I said ‘Here am I. Send me!’ He
said, ‘Go and tell this people:
‘Be
ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never
perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull and close their eyes. [Hebrew;
Septuagint ‘You will be ever hearing, but never
understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Vs.
10 ‘This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly
hear with their ears, and they have closed eyes.’ The
Hebrew here would indicate this condition had already been reached
back then, as it has apparently been reached in our western “Christian” nations
now. Scary? You bet. Let’s
read on.] Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and
turn and be healed…” Comment:
In Matthew 25, Jesus made the analogy that the Christian church, all of it, was like ten bridesmaids. Five
of them had taken time to properly fill their lamps with oil (i.e.
the Holy Spirit), five hadn’t. Point is, all
of them were asleep right up to the announcement that the Lord was
coming. I.e. they were all spiritually sleeping! Isn’t it time to wake up? Let’s continue. “Then
I said, ‘For how long, O Lord?’ And he answered: ‘Until the cities
lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone
far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And
though a tenth remains in the land [i.e. the House of
As Halley so well explained all this had a prior fulfillment. It will yet have a future fulfillment as well. This makes the book of Isaiah very interesting and sobering as well. When the Lord returns, as it says, he will bring his reward with him. Revelation 2-3 and 5:10 shows us that this reward is made up of positions of rulership side-by-side with Jesus in that glorious Kingdom of God he is coming to physically established on earth at his coming, as he has already established it in our hearts and minds by his indwelling Holy Spirit and our sanctification.
Isaiah 7
Isaiah 7, vs. 1-10, starts out under the times of Isaiah
when
Isaiah 7:1-25, “When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of
Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of
Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem,
but they could not overpower it. Now
the house of David was told, ‘
In
that day the Lord will whistle for flies from the distant streams
of
Isaiah 8
Isaiah 8:1-14, the prophecies of Assyrian invasion of the
10 northern tribed House of
Isaiah 8:1-22, “The Lord said to me, ‘Take a
large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz
[Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz means quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil]. And I will call in Uriah the priest and
Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.’
Then
I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a
son. And the Lord said to me, ‘Name him
Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. Before
the boy knows how to say, ‘My father’ or ‘My
mother,’ the wealth of
Raise
the war cry, [or do your
worst] you nations, and be shattered! Listen,
all you distant lands. Prepare
for battle, and be shattered! Devise
your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but
it will not stand, for God is with us.
The
Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to
follow the way of this people. He
said: ‘Do not call conspiracy everything that these people
call conspiracy [Or Do not call for a treaty every time these
people call for a treaty]; do not fear what they fear, and
do not dread it. The
Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one
you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses
of Israel [i.e. Judah and Israel] he will be a stone that causes
men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of
Here
am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We
are signs and symbols in
When
men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and
mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why
consult the dead on behalf of the living? [verse 20] To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this
word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed
and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward,
will curse their king and their God. Then
they will look toward earth and see only distress and darkness
and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.” Halley says, “In
connection with the Syro-Israel invasion of Judah, three children
are mentioned: one in the family of David, “Immanuel” (7:13-14);
and two in Isaiah’s family,
“ Shear-jashub” (7:3),
and “Maher-shalal-hash-baz”
(8:1-4)…[this name] means “The spoil speeds, the prey
hastens,” that is, Syria and Israel shall be speedily despoiled. Thus naming his child
for the idea of swift deliverance…Isaiah’s way of emphasizing
[how about “the Lord’s way of emphasizing”? Who
was talking to Isaiah anyway?—telling him what to write?] what he
had already predicted [i.e. what the Lord had told him to write down
as a prediction, prophecy of the Lord] in 7:4, 7, 16. It promptly occurred. The victorious Assyrians swept into
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