Wednesday, January 29, 2025 PM

Consideration about what hope there is for a rotten vineyard. Rotten vineyard being the house of Israel and the rotten vine being the men of Judah. We're going to read beginning in verse 8 of Isaiah 5.

Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father we thank you for the night, we thank you for a fellowship meal, thank you for opportunity to study your word together, thank you for the singing of your psalm.

Lord we pray that you would bless our time together as we read your word and pray and intercede for each other's needs. I pray that you would favorably receive us tonight because of your son Jesus Christ.

It's in his name that we pray, amen. Isaiah 5 beginning in verse 8. Woe to those who join house to house, they add field to field till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land.

In my hearing the Lord of hosts said, truly many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath and a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night till wine inflames them. The harp and the strings, the tambourine and flute and wine are in their feasts, but they do not regard the work of the Lord nor consider the operation of his hands.

Therefore my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge. Their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure.

Their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he who is jubilant shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.

Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture and in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat. Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as if with a cart rope that say, let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come that we may know it.

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 prudent in their own sight.

Woe to men mighty at drinking wine. Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man. So in Isaiah chapter 5, the first seven verses, we have the look at the rotten vineyard, the parable that is sung and then explained and interpreted.

And then we have this sevenfold woe in verses 8 through 23. We talked about the meaning of woe last time, the significance of God declaring this doom. And now we're going to make our way through the seven woes.

Now these are covenant transgressions. So when God declares woe, he's declaring a kind of covenant doom that has long been promised. So he's highlighting different ways that the men of Judah have transgressed against the covenant.

Remember the context of God's covenant blessings upon the people of Israel is modeled in this parable of the vineyard. Look how well he took care of them, did everything just right. Well that's what he did for Israel in history.

He blessed them and arranged things to be maximally good for them, like he did for Adam and Eve in the garden. Now they are transgressing the covenant and so he declares seven woes. I want to try to locate each breach of the covenant so we can understand what God's ultimate creation concern is being modeled there so we can see the Creator's righteousness fulfilled in Christ.

So first of all, there's woe to the property stealers. Woe to the property stealers in verses 8 through 10. Again it says, woe to those who join house to house. They add field to field till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land.

In my hearing the Lord of hosts said, truly many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath and a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.

Now as this is the first woe, it kind of starts everything off and deserves a little bit of extra attention and it, in a sense, colors all the rest of the woes with its meaning and in fact we'll end up kind of revisiting this idea at the very end of the list.

So God declares doom upon real estate tycoons. It appears to be. Building houses, owning lots and lots of real estate. They are just awful people, aren't they? And we teach our kids monopoly. What are we doing, folks?

Now what is the problem with owning vast amounts of property? What's the issue here? Is it so bad to live on a great estate without neighbors? To so join house to house and property to property that you can be kind of by yourself in the midst of the land?

Isn't that the American dream? To have the five acres with your house located in the middle with the wind break so nobody can see you and everyone can just mind their own business. Is that what this is talking about?

Well, God is against what is happening here. We're going to talk about what that means in a moment, but notice how he declares he's against this and he says, yeah, you're going to have splendid homes.

You're going to combine houses. There's the idea of I have this house and I'm going to buy that property. I'm going to move. I'm going to take all of the stones of this house and bring them over here and I'm going to make my addition here.

It's a really funny story in I think it's first Kings, maybe. I can't remember exactly where, but the Northern Kingdom built a fortified city on the border between Israel and Judah and then they got distracted by some war up north and they ran north to go fight.

While they were gone, the king of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, said let's go grab their stones. They went up there and they grabbed all the stones of the fortified city, went south and built their own fortified city.

Clever. In this case, it's, hey, I'm going to go take this house. I'm going to add it to my own. There's a real idea of just absorbing other people's property and then making yours more grand, adding field to field, house to house, until you're all alone in the midst of the land.

And so God says, yeah, you're gonna have these splendid houses and they're going to be empty. Oh, we didn't build so grand a house just to have it empty. And isn't it, isn't a grand, amazing looking empty house rather sad, if not creepy?

And nobody's taking care of it, nobody can keep up with it, and it's all falling into disrepair. Also, look at all these vineyards and fields, but look at what happens. They don't produce anything even close to a harvest.

In fact, the way that it's put, you get back a tenth of the seed you put in. You didn't get tenfold harvest, you got a tenth back of the seed you actually put in. Now that is a horrible way to farm. This, your houses will be empty and you'll be bankrupt.

That's what God is saying. So really, really bad deal. Obviously, they were trying to make money. Obviously, they're trying to increase their estates, but they're going to end up with nothing. So what's going on?

What's going on is that they're breaking God's law, they're acting contrary to the covenant that God made with Israel. So in Leviticus 25 verses 23 through 24, and in fact the entire chapter of Leviticus 25 describes property law and how to understand poverty, how to understand slaves when they are part of the Jewish nation, and so on.

And so there's a great deal of description about how the economics were supposed to work in the life of Israel under the Old Covenant. Now in verses 23 and 24, very helpful for us to have insight into this woe, God says the land shall not be sold permanently.

Now when we sell land, we expect to, if we bought it free and clear, we shouldn't expect to have to give it back in a few years, right? But under the Old Covenant, the land was not supposed to be sold permanently.

Why? God explains the reason. For the land is mine. So in this covenant arrangement, God says you get to live on my land. The land is mine, so I get to decide how this is supposed to go. He says you are strangers and sojourners with me.

The land always belonged to God. And he said you're just strangers and sojourners, and so if you have a land and possess land and use the land, you're just stewards. You're not actually full out owners of the land.

And in verse 24 he says, and in all the land of your possession, you shall grant redemption of the land. So when God says I'm gonna give you Canaan for your own possession, and then he had Joshua cast the lots and apportion out all of the tribal allotments of the land there in that second half of Joshua that's really hard to read, and I said the border goes from this unpronounceable place to this unpronounceable place and down this ravine to this unpronounceable place.

All of that was saying this is where the tribal allotments are given. God is giving this inheritance to the tribes, and he says now when you sell the land, just remember you're not going to own it or you buy the land, you're not gonna own it permanently.

The land was belonging to God and therefore he had a lot to say about how they handled the land. Now the people in the land were so closely associated that how they handled the land meant how the people themselves would be blessed.

So they had to observe Sabbaths. Not every seventh day, yes, but also every seventh year. And then there were Sabbath weeks and Sabbaths during feast days, and then when you had seven full cycles of Sabbath years, you had, on the top of that, the year of Jubilee, which is every 50 years.

And on the year of Jubilee, all those real estate deals cleared off the books, went back to zero, and you start again. In fact, you had to evaluate the land that you were buying and selling against the year of Jubilee to see how much value there was left in that land.

That was the way that God arranged for the economics to work in Israel. So, how they handled the land in Sabbaths, how they handled the land with the way they treated their own slaves when they were fellow Jews, the way they gave tithes off the produce from their lands, the feast seasons that they would observe with their produce and according to what they would work or not work on their land, all of it had covenant implications.

If they didn't treat their land right, God said the land's gonna spew you out, and eventually it did. So, Leviticus 25 is a great resource to read if you want to learn more about how the economics worked in the Old Covenant.

Also, Numbers 27 and Numbers 36. So, Leviticus 25, Numbers 27, and Numbers 36. Now, by Isaiah's day, these covenant parameters and obligations were being ignored for what you call a more standard approach, in which people were buying land and keeping it, not giving it back during the year of Jubilee.

They were acquiring slaves, not setting them free every seven years. There was all kinds of covenant breaking going on because that stuff's just getting in the way of wealth to be made. And therefore, according to the covenant standards, it was wrong for them to, over time, create these massive estates, these large estates, where they accumulated themselves these big plots of land where there's nobody else around them, and they would live by themselves in their luxury.

That took a long time to build up, and it would never reset. It would never reset, and they would just hold on to what they had. Micah, if you remember from our introduction to Isaiah, Micah was Isaiah's contemporary.

And Micah got all his best stuff from Isaiah, but I think Isaiah gave him permission, so it was fine. But in Micah chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, we hear a similar type of woe. Micah chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, Micah says, Woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil on their beds.

Now, what are they calculating on their beds? Well, we'll see. At morning light, they practice it because it is in the power of their hand. So, all night long, they've been plotting and thinking about what they're going to do.

Maybe they'll take care of it down at the city gate with the elders. Maybe they'll manipulate somebody in the marketplace, but they've got a plan. Verse 2, they covet fields and take them by violence.

Remember Ahab and Jezebel, how they took the vineyard of Naboth by...it wasn't Naboth, it was Naboth...took the vineyard of Naboth by force, by violence, remember that? And also houses and seized them.

So, they had fields and houses, which is the same thing we're reading about in Isaiah, and seized them. So, they oppress a man in his house, a man in his inheritance. Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, nor shall you walk haughtily, for this is an evil time.

And later on, verse 9, he puts into perspective the women of my people you cast out from their pleasant houses, from their children you have taken away my glory forever. So, in defiance of the covenant, some in Judah were buying up a whole lot of estates, making them into one.

They were living like a squire, living alone, lording over all their serfs, and they wouldn't let it reset. This was a complaint not only in Isaiah, but also during Jeremiah's day, and you can read about it throughout the Old Testament, as often God, through his prophet, condemns the injustice being done in the land.

The injustice was they weren't abiding by the stipulations of the Old Covenant concerning property law. So, God says, I'm going to bring my doom upon you. Those big old houses you have are going to be empty.

Now, what does that mean? It's the curse of barrenness, right? No descendants. That was part of the Old Covenant curses. And then those fields and vineyards, you're going to have a harvest, also part of the Covenant curses.

Famine, lack of productivity, weakness, and this is the danger that Moses warned about. Way back when Moses was finishing up his writing of the law, probably in a little tent in the Acacia Grove under the shadow of Mount Peor, right before they cross over the Jordan River, he's sitting there writing out all of the first five books of the Old Testament, and preaching to that second generation, Deuteronomy, the second law, the second giving of the law.

He warned the people of Israel about what was going to happen when they go into the land, and they inherit this promised land that was flowing with milk and honey. He says, you're gonna say in your heart, this is in Deuteronomy 8 verse 17, he says, you're gonna say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand has gave me this wealth.

Well, if that's the case, then I get to do with it whatever I want. But what if it was God's land? What if it was God's power that got you this wealth? What if it was all due to him? Then he gets to say, doesn't he?

So, they should not be thinking like that, that my power and the might of my hand has gave me this wealth. They should remember God. The problem, of course, by Isaiah 1 is that they have forgotten God.

The need is that they should remember God. So, verse 18 of Deuteronomy 8 says, rather than forget God, verse 18 says, you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers as it is this day.

So, we hear that remembering the Lord, he's the one who gives you the ability to to get wealth so that you may live according to the covenant, right? But they've forgotten that, they've set that aside, they're not following that.

Now, when we think about how the covenants are operating, it's like, well, why don't we take up Old Testament property law, and why don't we use that for our society today? Why don't we do that? Well, because the covenants are addressing the ruin of creation and thus they possess its shape and are speaking to its concerns, but ultimately the covenants are fulfilled in Christ.

And so the principles are there that we need to think about, but the practices are no longer. We don't keep on sacrificing animals, we don't take the first tenth of our wheat harvest to a brick-and-mortar temple, do we?

Maybe you do that, I don't know. We don't do that, do we? Things are different. The covenants in addressing the ruin of creation do possess its shape. God created Israel, right? God created Israel. He put Israel into the garden land, right?

It was flowing with milk and honey, it was beautiful and productive and so on, and he called for proper relationships. He said, you're gonna love me supremely, love each other rightly, steward the creation faithfully, exactly what he said to Adam and Eve in the creation mandate.

He created everything in Genesis 1 with 10 words, then God said, then God said, then God said. Tenfold, he created everything. And then God, when he made the covenant with Israel, 10 words, right? The 10 commandments, 10 words.

Then God said, then God said. Here's the 10 words, and now he's going to, so he's got the same shape as creation. He's doing something intentionally here, and one of the things that they have to recognize, especially in these commandments, they have to deal with not being idolatrous and the Sabbath day where you're gonna arrest your household and not cracking the whip and making them work 24 -7, not stealing, not coveting.

All those different laws are emphasizing the fact that God is the one who made it all. Didn't he do that in creation? He made it all. Adam couldn't claim credit for planet Earth, couldn't claim credit for the sun, moon, and stars, couldn't claim credit for the creatures, couldn't claim credit for Eden or the garden within Eden, couldn't claim credit for any of it.

God gave it to him and said, here's how you're gonna run it, right? That's why in the covenant that God made with Israel, he says, here's the land, I gave it to you, here's how you're gonna run it. So it's all based on the fact that God owns it and then entrusts and then gives it to those made in his image that they should steward it in the way that he desires.

Should Adam and Eve do everything extremely well, it still doesn't make them possessor and owner in that sense of creation, neither Israel of the land. Well, thinking of how the land promises and the land particulars are fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and Hebrews 4 is an excellent chapter for that.

We find, first of all, our rest in him, but also Hebrews 1 says he's the heir of all things. He owns it all. It's all his. And since he has won the position of the right hand of God, name of all names, and everything belongs to him, well, then everything we own is what?

Ultimately belonging to Christ. It's his. So when we maximize our stewardship, when the master gives us one talent, let's go make him another one. When he gives us two, let's go make two more. When he gives us five, let's go make five more.

Wow, what are we doing? We're maximizing our stewardship for Christ. It's an interesting story when you begin to study some of the Christians who have been excellent top-shelf entrepreneurs, have done really really well so that they can maximize the advance of the kingdom in the name of Christ.

They would not have been able to do that if they had not recognized, first of all, here are the principles of sound economics according to the wisdom of the scriptures, and all that belongs to Christ, and I'm going to do the best I can for him, and watch how many things can happen that are good.

Remember, in the New Testament, it tells us to work diligently so that we may have something to share. So there is an idea here of, okay, it all belongs to Christ, we recognize that, and so we should maximize our stewardship for him.

The goal is not that we accumulate and accumulate and accumulate so that we may live alone, right? The whole idea of, I want to maximize all my financials so that I can please me, myself, and I. That's not the goal.

That's not the goal. The inheritance, the land, the creation doesn't belong to us. It's God's. It belongs to him, and in fact he's granted it all to Christ. He's the king, and we live on his turf. So when we read about the property stealers in verses 8 through 10 of Isaiah 5, it's not so much that God is against real estate agents or real estate tycoons.

He's not condemning them. In fact, God is not condemning wealth. He's not condemning the acquiring of wealth. He is condemning the misuse unto selfishness of wealth, something that was of great concern from creation onward, even under the reign of Christ.

We'll leave it there. It was an important section to start with, and then moving forward, there are woes against the pleasure seekers and presumptuous, the perverts, the proud, and all of these characteristics seem to coalesce into the persona of the prince, somebody who you encounter more than once in the Old Testament, the princes of Judah.

In fact, they managed to take all of these transgressions and combine them into one horrible kind of lifestyle.