Isaiah Lesson 9

We want to welcome you also. I wanted to start before we actually get into today's lesson to just touch base a little bit about some of Jeff's lesson last week. One of the significant elements of Jeff's lesson last week was the branch.

What is the branch? Okay, you guys, this was just last week. What is the branch? What's its significance?

Jesus.

Jesus?

I'm sorry, what?

Bare fruit.

Bare fruit. Okay, excellent. Yes, the branch is bare fruit. Specifically, when we're talking in these prophecies, we are talking about the coming.

Messiah.

I wanted to deviate just a little bit, and Jeff said I could do it.

I suggested it, actually.

Which I was going to do anyway. Last night, in our small group, we were studying in Zechariah, and we were in Zechariah 6. I want to read two verses out of it. With the teaching last week about the branch and the expectation that the prophet gives to the people, the best is yet to come.

That was how we closed off our lesson last night, that the best is yet to come. I'm reading from Zechariah 6, verse 11. What's going to happen at that point in time is, in Zechariah, the word of the Lord is given, and that's in the beginning of chapter 1.

Then for the rest of chapter 1 and start of chapter 6 are eight visions. The prophet sees a scene laid out in front of him, and often he says, what means these? The angel of the Lord, the narrating angel, gives him insight.

These scenes are laid out, and they're symbolic, and they teach something. When we get beyond these visions, we get into, and the word of the Lord came to the prophet. This is direct revelation. This is God speaking specifically what he wants them to hear.

He's going to tell them to go to these three dudes, totally unknown names, who came out of exile, and go to the house of a fourth. We really don't know anything about these guys, and get some of the gold and the silver.

This gold and silver had come back from Babylon. The king had allowed them to bring thousands and thousands of pieces of gold and silver for the temple. Then it says, take silver and gold, make an ornate crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

I want to bring that up for just a minute, because typically, in the Old Testament, who.

Wore a crown?

The king. The king.

It's a symbol of authority. It's a symbol of stature. In this case, the crown is to be made and put on the high priest. This is an important concept, is to be put on the high priest. Then it says in verse 12, then say to him, thus says the Lord of hosts, behold a man whose name is Branch, for he will branch out from where he is, and he will build the temple.

Of the Lord.

This ties back to where Jeff was last week. The promises of the coming Messiah are throughout the Old Testament, and they're powerful. When the Messiah comes, he is going to come as priest and king, in one person, and he will sit on the throne.

We know, as we go on from there, that the best is yet to come. I just wanted to bring that up, tying in where Jeff was last week with the branch. When you read about that, when you think about it, when you hear that, think Messiah.

Then when you think about that, think about how God plans to take Jesus after the order of Melchizedek, the priest, and Jesus, who sits on the throne of David forever as one, as our priest and our king.

Now we're going to get into Isaiah. We're going to start in chapter 5, verse 1. Jeff, please open us with prayer.

Oh, Father, we thank you that the branch has come.

Yes.

Our king, the one king that we look to and in whom we trust, we thank you, king of kings and Lord of lords. We thank you, high priest, the one who has taken away our sin by offering a sacrifice, not the blood of bulls and goats, which can never finally take away sin, but his one and only life, his own lifeblood.

Thank you, Jesus, for dying for us, lamb of God, the precious and perfect sacrifice. We look to you as our king and high priest, and we pray for John today as he teaches us that you would anoint him, empower him, strengthen him, and help him.

We pray for ourselves that we would be active listeners and able to receive your word. In Jesus' name, amen.

In the first four chapters of Isaiah, what kind of comments or descriptions has the prophet been given, has God given to the prophet, to describe the nation of Israel? And when I say the nation of Israel, we are talking about Judah at this point in time.

What kind of phraseology has he used? Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah.

Why?

That's the correct answer, but why?

Absolutely.

What else? I have a table set up for you over here.

Okay.

Their behavior. And he even gets to the point where he says, your offerings are vanity. And it's even to the point that if you try to pray to me, I'm not going to hear. And I think it was at that point in time, Bob, where are you, Bob?

You had said, yeah, you didn't listen to me. Why should I listen to you? And that's basically the indictment against it. We get into chapter five and we'll go around. If I point to you and you say, I'd rather not, we'll just move on.

Sandy, you're going to be my Isaiah five person. So you don't have to look anywhere else. Nancy, would you be willing to read when we get there?

Somewhere?

Would you be willing to read a passage out of the Bible for us?

All right.

You're going to get Psalm 80. Sandy, show her where that is. Kimberly, Hosea 10, and Bob, Jeremiah two, and Louise, Ezekiel 15. So Sandy, give me a verse one of chapter five. So we're just going to look at the first half of that verse, because the emotions that are coming out of this beginning just flow through the rest of the chapter.

So just filling in my blanks, let me do what?

Sing.

For who? And then it goes on to say that my beloved had a vineyard. If we try to put the pronouns there, let me sing me. That's the prophet Isaiah. Let me sing for my beloved. And that would be referring to God.

How would you describe the prophet's heart through the first phrase of the first verse?

Loving.

And loving who?

People.

In this particular case, he's saying, let me sing for my beloved, which is God. The prophet's emotions and the prophet's focus right now, he is in love with God. And that's going to flow out just into a feeling of worship, a love song concerning his vineyard.

When the prophet sings, he's expressing his heart. When the prophet sings, the implication of a song. What's the implication of a song?

What is this?

To God?

Yes. It's joy.

It's joy. I'm sorry.

Form of expression. It's one thing to be sitting in the quiet of your prayer closet and praying to God in your heart. I totally encourage that. Turn that into actually audibly proclaiming these words of praise.

There's a certain sense of elevation of your heart. There's a certain sense of elevation of these emotions. There's almost no better way to perceive something to be true than to actually say it out loud.

And he's saying here that, let me sing for my beloved. What's going on right now is the prophet is in love with God to the extent that he really can't hold it back. He has to. He just has to belt it out.

I would ask you to ask Jeff to sing, but I don't think he wants to.

I was actually singing in my office yesterday, Psalm 22, just to try to hear that. Because it said it's like a Gidduth, which is to the tune of the doe of the morning. So I thought, Psalm 22 as a song?

Because that's my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. So I tried to sing that and it was brutal. I was terrible. It is really hard to put that into a song, John.

But let me ask you a question. As you tried to put it into a song, what did that do for your heart and for your spirit?

I connected with that more than ever.

Yeah.

To sing the Psalms is, yeah, powerful, even if you can't sing.

Amen.

It is a great thing for you to do and not to be embarrassed to do it. If you're doing it on your own, nobody else could hear Jeff, but he was alone in the building, but he's belting it out. How many of you have ever sung in the shower?

Okay.

Yeah, absolutely. There you go. We've got the prophet right now who is singing to his beloved and it says that it is his love song. Concerning what? His vineyard. His vineyard. He is acknowledging God's sovereign ownership.

We're going to talk about the vineyard and what that represents in a minute. But in his love song, he's saying this vineyard belongs to Yahweh. It's his to do with, but it's also because the vineyard is his, this vineyard should have a response to the keeper.

It should have both. Sandy, give me one and two again, please. Let's talk about this vineyard for a minute. And again, we're talking about my beloved. We're talking about God. And it says that my beloved has a, don't make it tough.

It's just writing the scripture. My beloved has a vineyard. We'll talk about that in a minute. Where is this vineyard? On a fertile hill.

All right.

Now he has done several things in allowing this vineyard to flourish. He's done. What to the land?

Cleared it.

Now we can talk about that. We could probably spend the entire time talking about it. Why does the land have to be cleared? Anybody here ever grow up or work on a farm? Okay, I can say anything I want and you won't know if I'm right or not.

I will say this from my studies. In New England, as the pilgrims were establishing their farms and stuff, in the fields were rocks. Well, and weeds. Yes, rocks that had to get out of there. And so if you hike through New England, you're going to see these stone walls surrounding the.

Fields.

Those were the rocks that were inside. And they got in the way. That's what those rocks. And they had to do something with them. So they made stone walls to surround their fields. It says that Jesus took the land that his vineyard would occupy and cleared it.

What did he have to get out of there? And what do they represent?

Great answer.

Sin.

Canaanites. Any influence that could have disrupted the healthy growth of the vine, he removed it. Now, I go back in my mind, when I get to take the pulpit, I'm preaching out of Joshua.

Jericho.

Who won the battle?

Who fought the battle of Jericho? And it's not Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. Even though we've seen that little bitty, God fought the battle of Jericho. Joshua, they just walked around and watched what happened.

They left that. And the next obstacle was Ai. Who fought the first battle of Ai? The Israelites.

And they lost.

Well, because of Achan, there were four major sins there. And one was Achan and his greed. But another was the Israelites. And they didn't accept the sovereignty of God. God cleared the land. The people didn't clear the land.

God cleared the land. And then it said, what did he plant? Choice vines. And there's a beautiful thought too. He took his people, his chosen people, and he put them in this land that he had already prepared.

And he had already cleared for them. And then what did he build?

Watchtower.

What's the watchtower for? To watch the plants grow?

No.

What's the watchtower for? All of these are right. There are things that are going to hamper the growth. And it could be an enemy planting weeds. Or it could be wild animals devouring. Or it could be a marauder coming.

Any of these things. The watchtower, once the land has been cleared, once the choice vines have been planted, the watchtower watches over this vine as it grows. Because of all of these bad things that could possibly happen to it.

And then he says, what else did he make? What's the wine press?

Yeah.

Now there's some interesting pictures there too. What happens to the grape when it goes into... It gets smashed. It gets crushed. Yeah, there's a lot of strong pictures there too. We bearing fruit in and of ourselves are not necessarily what God...

God may be putting us into a wine press for his things. Pastor Jeff and I were talking this morning and praising God for whatever may come out of this election. And if he's needing to put us into a wine press or put us into the refining fire, I go gladly.

Yeah, I go gladly. These are the things that God did for this vineyard that he calls his own. And it says he watched because he anticipated a crop of grapes. And then that horrible word.

But. But.

But what came out? Wild grapes, bad fruit. I want to talk about the vineyard a little bit. So that we have a little bit of an understanding from scripture what this vineyard is all about. Nancy, you've got Psalm 80.

If you could read that for me, please. With its shadow and the cedars of God with its bough. It was sending out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the river. Okay, now stop for there, but hold your place because I'm going to have you come back.

Let me paint the picture in Psalm 80. So where did the vines originate? According to that passage, where does the vines originate?

Egypt.

Let there be absolutely no mistake that the vines that we're talking about are God's chosen.

People.

When did the nation of Israel become the nation of Israel?

Egypt.

When they went to Egypt, originally they were a family. Right? And it was in Egypt during that time that they were there. And then eventually under the captivity in Egypt, they became a mighty nation.

And that's where God called the vine out of. He called his people out of Egypt. What did God do to prepare for the vines arrival? It says that he drove the nations out. Now remember when they went into Kadesh Barnea, that had the chance to go in almost immediately.

What did 10 of the spies say when they went into Kadesh Barnea?

Yeah.

There were nations in the land and they said they're like, now they said the land flows with milk and honey, but they're giants and we're like grasshoppers. Two of the spies said, no, our God is able.

I had the wrong focus. The nation is going to eventually go in. We read it in Joshua, they're encamped at Shittim and they're looking across and the two spies are sent in to Jericho and they go to whose house do they go to?

Rahab.

And what does Rahab say about the nations? These are the same nations that the 10 spies saw and said that they're like giants and we're like grasshoppers. What does Rahab say is the testimony of the nations?

Why?

Amen to that. God has already prepared these nations to be driven out before they ever even got there. He's melted their hearts. And not only does he drive out the nations, but he clears the ground for the vineyard so that it can go in.

And it says that initially this vine takes deep root. Then it says that he's going to provide the mountains and the trees for shade. He knows the heat of the burning sun and the midday. He's watching out for them.

He's taking care of them. And it says that the vines, the branches extended to the seas and the roots all the way to the rivers, they flourish. All right, Nancy, finish that passage if you would. Well, let's pursue that.

First of all, let's make an observation. It started out up through verse 11 talking about God taking the vines out of Egypt, preparing the land, planting them. They nourish, they prosper, they grow. And in those last two verses, the protective hedges are knocked down and the vines are left exposed and vulnerable to destroy.

A big change. And then there's this question, why did you do that, oh God? So I'll ask that question. After bringing the vine into the land, planting it, protecting it, nourishing it, seeing it flourish, why does he remove his hand of protection from the vine?

Without him, you can do nothing. And I like both of those answers. Rich, you identified that the people's behavior had become so abhorrent to God that he allowed. And then the truth is that without God, the vines cannot survive.

They need God. These vines that had become so healthy and so fruitful, they're not going to survive without God. Hosea 10, Kimberly? So this answers the question of why. Nancy observed the question mark.

What comes in are luxurious vines, are healthy vines. What ends up is destruction because they have abandoned God. Jeremiah 2, without God, you can do nothing. In fact, without God, it's going to go real bad for you.

Yes, go ahead.

The picture again, the choice vine who turned against God and the picture of the vineyard with all of the opportunity and all of the care and everything else. Yet there is this obligation for the vine, for the people to remain and abide with God.

Ezekiel 15, what's happening to the wood of the vine in that passage? It's burned up. It's nothing more than firewood. It's worth nothing more than if you were to walk along the seashore and see driftwood.

It's worth nothing more than to be burned. And he said, so will happen to you. So will happen to you. My beloved has a vineyard. And this is my love song concerning my vineyard. He cleared the land. He planted choice vines.

He set up a watchtower and he built the wine press so that what really needs to come out will come out of use for him. And he watched for a good crop of grapes. But what he got was bad grapes. Sandy, give me verses three to six, please.

Dave, I want you to get 2 Chronicles ready. Barb, if you would get John 15 ready. And Revelation 22. Carol, if you would get that ready for me, please. We have a vineyard that God took very specific care to select and to plant and to nourish and to protect.

And he expected what he expected but didn't. And so then he comes and he asks this question. Judge between me and my vineyard. Judge between me and my vineyard. That's very well said. We choose the vineyards instead of the vinekeeper.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's very true. I'm not sure how well that got picked up. So I'm going to try to paraphrase it. You know, so again, Pastor Jeff and I talking this morning that our church is potentially in a situation where we need to go through the fires of God and to be burned, to be purged, to be cleansed, to get the dross out.

That may be what we're heading for. And I rejoice in that. And I say, God, please bring it on. If that's to happen, that means I need it. That means I need it. The Beloved is saying, I gave everything.

And in fact, he says, was there anything more that I could have done? Was there anything more that I could have done? Now, instead of getting into a debate on the sovereignty and omnipotence of God, we're obviously not challenging that God was incapable of a different outcome.

God, God is sovereign.

Please.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

What's going on in this phrase isn't a challenge to God's ability to have done more. It's an indictment that the people are blaming their situation and not taking responsibility and acknowledging their sin.

God has provided the perfect situation for his vineyard, but the vineyard chose to go their own way. And Bob, you're right. It started way back in the... Actually, it started before the garden. It started in the throne of heaven when Lucifer said, I will make myself like the most high.

That's...

And then he says, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. Now, again, let's put ourselves into the context in Isaiah. Who is Isaiah?

Prophet.

Where is he prophesying and when and why?

Judah?

And why is he prophesying? Well, he's going to warn of that. There's a lot of things in his prophecy. One of them is you guys messed up and there are going to be consequences for what you've done,.

Bob.

And again, because none of you are farmers, I get to make these statements. From a distance, I would imagine it's not easy by the eye from a distance to say that's a good grape, that's a wild grape. From a distance, false worship can look like true worship, but it's what's on the inside that makes a wild grape a wild grape and not a grape worthy of going into the wine press.

So he's going to say, okay, Isaiah, in addition to the indictments against Israel, gives the answer. And that's the coming Messiah and the kingdom to come. So Isaiah is a book with indictment and hope at the same time.

Right now, he's going to tell you, this is what I'm going to do to you. And it's because of what you've done to me. And I'm going to paraphrase the things that Sandy just read. The first thing I'm going to do to you is I'm going to remove the protection, those hedges and all that protection.

I'm going to take them down. The second thing he's going to do is he's going to let the vineyard go wild. He's going to stop pruning. He's going to stop cutting out the bad. He's just going to let this vine go wild.

And then he's going to take away the rain. That life-sustaining nurture that the vines needed. He's just going to let it all go away. 1 Chronicles 14.

Dave?

2 Chronicles 16. The look on Dave's face when I said that was great. It's like when I'm out on the baseball field and I go, he's out.

Go ahead, Dave.

The eyes of the Lord go to and fro seeking those that he may support. The vineyard receives protection from the Lord. But when the vineyard goes bad, the Lord said, I'm going to take that protection away.

If you read some of these other passages in Psalm 34 .7, it says, the angels of the Lord encamp around those who fear him. God's hand is there. We can opt out of it by being obstinate and rebellious against him.

The vine is going to grow and the vine needs to be cared for. I'm going to speak very carefully because I don't have, this is not a green thumb. But I do remember growing up, my mom grew tomatoes. And she would have to clip certain offshoots.

She called them suckers. And they're these very lush, healthy looking shoots that won't produce any fruit. Why do you got to cut them out?

They do.

They take the strength from the rest of the plant. God is loving enough with us to clip out things that got to get out of the way, because they get in the way. Give me John 15, one and two. What God is saying, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard.

I'm going to stop pruning it. And if he's not pruning it, that means those branches that don't bear fruit are going to be allowed to grow and grow and overtake and bear no fruit whatsoever. If God needs, we need God's hand pruning those things in out, out of our lives so that what remains can turn to him.

Revelation 22. Scripture uses this image of the water. I'm the living water. He uses this picture that God nourishes and provides for us the picture of the water. Revelation 22 is the ultimate picture of that water coming right out of the throne of God in the new Jerusalem.

I will even remove the rain. Your vines are done. They're going to wither up and they're going to die. Sandy, give me five through seven, please. I'm sorry, just verse seven.

I apologize.

Deborah, if you would get Deuteronomy 28, you're going to get verses one, two, and nine together. Rich, Deborah's going to get Deuteronomy 28, verses one, two, and nine. Rich, you're going to get 28 of 15 and 58.

There's two of them there. And Deuteronomy 28, 63.

Christine, right?

Yeah, if you would get that. All of them are Deuteronomy 28, yes. For you, you've got 15 and 58, not through. We'll be here forever. Okay, he now tells us what's happening here. He's explaining what he's already told us.

The vineyard of the Lord of the hosts is who? It's the house of Israel. If you were ever uncertain about it, he closes that uncertainty down right there. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.

And the men of Judah are what? What are the men of Judah? The planting. So if you have this massive vineyard, that's the house of Israel. And each individual plant are the individuals within that. By the way, the individuals are the ones that need to be pruned.

The individuals are the one that are supposed to be bearing fruit. The individuals are the ones that need the water, all right? And God has already said, what am I going to do? I'm going to remove the protection.

I'm going to remove the pruning. I'm going to remove the water. Okay, it's the individuals. Now, it says he looked for what? And what did he get?

Bloodshed.

It's going to say different things in different versions. That's pretty much the predominant. And he also looked for what? And instead of that, he got what? Cries for help, distress, outcries. He had brought this choice vine.

He had prepared the land. He had planted it. He had nurtured it. By implication, he had been pruning it because it says, I'm going to stop pruning it. He had done all these things for it. And what he wanted to see coming out of it was a good crop of grapes.

And now he describes. What is that good crop of grapes? It's justice and it's righteousness. Put in another way, it's the heart. He wanted their obedience. Take that all the way back to Isaiah 1. Even when you pray, I won't listen.

I'm tired of your meaningless feasts and everything else. Instead of that, he gets something else. Bloodshed and outcry. Going into the Hebrew, it's really kind of clever. He does a little bit of wordplay.

And the wordplay is to say, you're pretending, but you're not quite there. If you go into the Hebrew and you see the words that are there. On the outside, they're pretending that they're doing what God would want.

But when you really look at it, they're not doing what they wanted. Let's look at the first couplet. Mishapot is justice. That's what God expects. And the people are kind of pretending like we can get close enough with Mishapot.

The words are very close intentionally that I wanted justice. I wanted Mishapot, but you are giving Mishapot. They're pretending that they're good grapes, but they're wild grapes. And so therefore. And the second one is he wants righteousness.

Tzedekah. And it's tzedekah.

It's so close.

It's so close, but it's entirely different. They're playing games with God's requirement for them to be just and then to be righteous and coming so close, like I can get away with it. But God is looking right into them.

And he's saying, no, no, no, no, it's not justice. It's bloodshed. And no, no, no, it's not righteousness. It's disaster. It's despair. Deuteronomy 28, one and two. Those are the promises. He's taken this vineyard and he's given it everything.

Just stay, abide in me. These blessings are innumerable. Deuteronomy 28, 15, Rich. That big old word, but. And then Christine, if you would give me verse 63. The warning here, Isaiah is starting out with this love song.

My beloved has a vineyard. And the picture that there is this amazing vinekeeper who loves and protects and provides for, it ends with a picture of judgment. Now, what comes in between is very well described as rich red in Deuteronomy 28.

If you don't follow me, all these curses are going to come upon you. The nation of Israel had everything they possibly could have had. And they missed one thing, and that was the heart. And therefore, God's judgment is going to come upon.

Very, very, very fair warning.

Significant.

All right.

We're at the time. Are you going to go close it off? Yeah, I can close in prayer.

So, Father, we thank you so much for giving us everything that we need for life and godliness. Thank you for the provision of Jesus Christ for us. And thank you for your means of grace, the ordinary means of grace that we would be able to walk in righteousness.

So we pray that we would avail ourselves of those things that you would be pleased in our lives. Lord, as we look to you in Jesus name, we pray.

Amen.