Isaiah 5:7-30
I. The CRISIS of bad fruit (v. 7). We saw last week that God’s well-tended and cared-for vineyard (the house of Israel, v. 7) produced only worthless wild grapes. (EX. Have you ever picked a little, hard, wild sour grape, then bit into it? It can be even more acrid than a lemon. It is worthless for juice, for wine-making, or for eating. In our passage this morning, the prophet Isaiah goes into more detail concerning these worthless ‘grapes’ (a metaphor depicting deeds and character.)
Our text today leads us to a very important question for each one of us. Does God have the absolute right to require and expect good fruit from you and me? If you know your Bible, then you know that the answer is ‘yes’. But, more on this in a moment, first let’s set the stage for our passage.
Preaching from the OT is a lot different than preaching from the NT; for several reasons. One is that the OT is the historical record of God founding, sustaining, preserving, and disciplining Israel. And, in your reading of the OT, as soon as you get to the seventh book (Judges), you understand very quickly that God disciplines His rebellious people by oppression from their surrounding enemy nations. This is a frequent them in the book of Isaiah as well.
But, in exploring this theme, we are going to marvel that God’s sovereignty over all extends to His control of evil. Take for example Joseph’s rise to the throne in Egypt. It is through the sins of others that God providentially moves Joseph from the pastures of Palestine to his royal post as vice regent of Egypt. Here is an abridged list of these evils: his father’s cruel favoritism, his brothers’ murderous jealousy, the lust and lying of Potiphar’s wife, and the treasonous plot of Pharaoh’s baker. How we need to enlarge our view of God Almighty! As we make application of God’s Word to ourselves this morning, it behooves us to know God’s purposes in His works of creation, redemption, and judgment (restoration). For the individuals who die lost in sin are those who have rejected God’s purpose for their lives. Christians used to go to church to hear what God demanded of them and to hear what they needed to repent of—now it is common for folks to attend services so that they can feel good about themselves (100 plus years of psychology have taken their toll; telling us that the real you is ‘self’ and its “I” focused yearnings, not the worshipping inner man.) Seldom heard in American pulpits today is what you owe God in the way of good fruit.
II. The CONTENT of bad fruit (vv. 8-23). Six woes, six clusters of bad fruit.
- WOE # 1 (vv. 8-10). Greedy materialistic extortioners. ‘Woe’ means deep suffering, grief, ruinous calamity, unavoidable judgment (too late). We learn from this first woe that increased wealth/possessions/property do not always result in profitability to one’s life. (Psalm 49; materialists are like the beasts that perish).
For he sees that even wise men die; the stupid and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses are forever and their dwelling places to all generations; they have called their lands after their own names. But man in his pomp will not endure; he is like the beasts that perish. This is the way of those who are foolish, and of those after them who approve their words. As sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd; and the upright shall rule over them in the morning, and their form shall be for Sheol to consume so that they have no habitation (Ps 49:10-14).
In Judah, real estate owners kept adding land to their spectacular estates. “They covet fields and then seize them, and houses, and take them away. They rob a man and his house, a man and his inheritance” (Mic 2:2, 9).
The rich were getting richer by disobeying the law of God which provided that the land be handed down within families and not acquired by rich land barons. By amassing more and more property, the poor were squeezed out by the greedy, which created a permanent poverty-stricken underclass.
But the Mosaic Law required that the land revert to its original owner during Jubilee year (50ᵗʰ, Lev 25) in order to guard against greed/avarice. A permanent sale within a walled city was allowed, but a permanent sale was not permitted within an unwalled city or the countryside. God is the true Owner. Everything is on loan! In reality, you are a tenant on your land, a tenant in your body. “LORD, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am” (Ps 39:4) (homeless, transient, account stewardship to real owner). By enlarging their estates, (‘never enough’) the land owners were isolating themselves (land buffers). (EX. Reminiscent of Ahab and Naboth, 1 Kings 21). Because this is God’s world, in due time, greed will always dissolve into emptiness. Castles become museums, and their former occupants lie in flames in hades. Those who set their heart on the world will face piercing disappointments. “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim 6:9-10).
- WOE # 2 (vv. 11-17). Sensualists, drunkards who have forgotten God. Through the ages, true believers have understood that if we remain in a state of nature, and are not transformed by God’s renewing grace, we will remain cut off from God and will ultimately perish. God’s grace applied makes true worshippers. But the majority of the inhabitants of Judah were doing what comes naturally; they had settled into a lifestyle of escape, entertainment, sensuality, and amusement. They gave vent to their natural passions, always looking for the next set of stimuli and thrill. You might be tempted to say, “What if it wasn’t hurting anyone?” “Is it a sin to just do our own thing?”
My friends, God is seeking true worshippers. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:23-24).
Those who worship in spirit and in truth diligently study God’s works (revealed in His Word), so that they may praise the Lord accordingly, in keeping with His glorious character and purposes. How opposite this is of the sensualist whose attention never rises above the horizon of earthly desires.
The revelry of the Judeans crowded out any consideration of the works of God (v. 12) (attention to God’s works and worship go together, Ps 145). They cared nothing for His deeds. Ethical result: to not care for the works of God’s hands is to not have concern for the crown of His creation, our fellow human beings, God’s own image and likeness. These areas of care are mutually exclusive; we either have concern for one another, or we care only for our own pleasures.
- WOE # 3 (vv. 18-19). Arrogant scoffers who defy God. Sin lies to us, its promises of fulfillment and liberty are false, for sin becomes a massive burden and weight that we pull; it drags us down. Long-practiced habits of sin are hard to break. Confirmed habits if not repented of lead to presumption (“I will continue to get away with this without a day of reckoning, I will yet escape; I have so far.”). Look at the attitude of these men in vv. 18-19. They pulled their sin with them like carts, in spite of the checks of providence and conscience. But, that deeply rooted insolence led to scoffing. They challenged the Almighty to do His worst! They ridiculed the righteous, and defied the Lord and His prophets, and engaged in taunting. In modern vernacular, they said in effect, “Bring it on!” As if they were stronger than God. (EX. Puritans: habitual sin produces an attitude of an unconquerable soul.) “Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?” (1 Cor 10:22). My friends, God is not bluffing. . .
. . . The divine threat that God would decisively judge was met with unbelief. How reminiscent this is of the increased number of scoffers in our day, this was prophesied by the apostle Peter. “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation” (2 Pet 3:3-4).
- WOE # 4 (v. 20). ‘Progressives’ who reverse morality. It is overt rebellion against God to attempt to overthrow and overturn moral distinctions. Dr. Peter Jones has phrased this as, “Satan gains followers when people blur the distinctions that God has made (distinctions between Creator and creature, man and woman, child and parent, human and animal, good and evil).
A seared, scar-covered conscience is a terrifying thing (1 Tim 4:1-2). At TMU, I sometimes ask my students, “What is the worst thing that could happen to you under the Mosaic economy?” “Then, what is the worst thing that can happen to a person in this present dispensation?” Answer: Being given over to a depraved mind, when moral reasoning no longer functions correctly/accurately. But, no amount of scar tissue on the conscience can remove all sense of right and wrong. Notice the way Romans chapter one concludes:
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them (Rom 1:28-32).
The chilling ending to Romans one is that those who willfully reverse morality (good for evil; evil for good) are publicly advocating that reversal (in our nation it is being hardened into law) yet they know that those practices are worthy of death.
When, in our practice the law of the Lord is consistently rejected, it is possible to lose moral discernment. This should be a warning, even to professing Christians: it is an easy journey from doubt, to skepticism, to the reversal of values when it is presented by contemporary culture as new wisdom. True believers today are horrified at how quickly (warp speed), our nation has embraced the agenda of the moral revolution. It is an agenda antagonistic to divine wisdom.
In view of this downgrade (vortex of decay) recorded in Isaiah 5, we would do well to keep our conscience honed, and clean, and calibrated to Scripture. Make sure it is ‘all clear’ between you and heaven. Welcome being searched by God like the Psalmist. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps 139:23-24). Keep short accounts with God that you may have light from above, even when clouds and darkness are round about us. “The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” On the evening of August 3, 1914, the day before Britain officially declared war with Germany, the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, was watching the gas lamps being lit in London.
- WOE # 5 (v. 21). Proud truth-suppressors who are wise in their own eyes. All pride is based upon ignorance. These city dwellers trusted in their money, their military might, their political alliances, and their hired mercenaries. Then, pronounced themselves ‘wise’ for relying on these supports. They were not depending upon God’s protection (a willful neglect of Israel’s callings and history). “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Prov 26:12).
How we should take this to heart that God’s grace thrives in our lives when we urgently feel how much we need to be saved from ourselves. The godly man is constantly suspicious of his own heart, ever aware of his desperate need of grace (God, I am pleading with you, do not leave me to my own devices), by contrast, the hypocrite is constantly suspicious of God (doesn’t want his agenda thwarted).
- WOE # 6 (v. 22-23). Corrupt judges that acquit the wicked for a bribe. Well-paid jurists who line their pockets money in order to protect criminals is not a new phenomenon. (EX. Edwards on diminished capacity.) These judges went straight from the courtroom to the bar to drink with their fellows, but often drank alcohol before taking the bench in the courtroom. Is it any wonder their judgment was clouded? Their wealthy clients paid to have justice overturned, and the rights of those violated were removed. Then, they boasted about their unjust decisions! Personal excess is not a private matter, no man is an island, our behavior has an impact on the whole of society. Apart from the fear of God, in which He is our very environment, mankind ‘medicates’ its despair (lack of meaning) in binging, escapism, indulgence. (EX. London was a much different place prior to Whitfield and Wesley (filth, crime, debauchery, gin mills on every corner). Gospel preaching brought great revival. Next Isaiah targets the ultimate cause of bad fruit.
III. The CAUSE of the bad fruit (v. 24). Despising the Lord and His Word. The root of all their sin is that delight in God died and was replaced by despising God (and His holy nature, His Word, and His requirements). Habitual sin makes a person ‘flammable’ stubble so to speak (the fruitless part of a field), for God is a consuming fire in judging the wicked. Contempt for Scripture is contempt for God Himself; who in His matchless goodness has revealed Himself in His Word, the Bible. His wrath is kindled, the consequences are truly horrifying in vv. 25-30.
IV. The CONSEQUENCE of bad fruit (vv. 25-30). Destruction by invaders. V. 25 -- God sends a holocaust upon rebellious Judah. God abandons them to their foreign oppressors. And, in so doing, He vindicates the honor of His holiness and authority. He ‘stretches forth His hand’ against them—against the blasted vine. The consequences are extreme, the carcasses of men are strewn on the ground and are torn by dogs—bodies are tossed out into the streets as if waste, refuse. The living do not have the strength (or the heart) or the will to bury them. Yet, God’s anger is not turned away as long as there is stubble to burn.
Vv. 26-30 -- God designs the ruin of His provoking people, He raises up military forces from afar; He summons them. He ‘whistles for them’—the most powerful and violent big shot in the East, Assyria comes running. God has all the creatures at His beck. At the news that their slayers are at the gates, Judah is in confusion, shame, and shock. Vv. 27-29 -- The enemy is frighteningly efficient in its precision, and not weary. They will accomplish their task. They are the instrument of God’s fury. Their arrows are sharp to wound deep with death blows. Vv. 29-30 -- Those who would not hear God’s voice in the prophets that He has sent, will hear the voice of their enemies roaring against them. There is no prospect of relief; the enemy comes like a flood, not sparing. God hides His face (hides love and mercy) in sending this judgment. God’s agents of vengeance are the armies of Assyria and Babylon. (EX. Lamentations, Jeremiah cries a river of tears in his post mortem of a holocaust.)
V. The CURE of bad fruit. Christ, the true vine and source of all good fruit. In condemning heartless, hypocritical religion God calls for repentance, in Amos He says, “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:23-24). That change only takes place when there is penetrating ruthless honesty before God, when a person is crushed over his or her sin, and by God’s strength, forsakes sin and begins walking in obedience to God.
Notice John the Baptists’ preparatory message of repentance in anticipation of Messiah’s ministry: “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Lu 3:8-9).
Now our Isaiah passage (though written 2700 years ago) has great relevance for us as those who live in the gospel age. Our Savior ‘updates’ the vine metaphor in Isaiah 5 by His discourse in John 10, applying it to the church. God wants results from those who claim to have tasted His mercy and grace. The good fruit of the indwelling Spirit of Christ is described in Galatians 5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). We are to receive His grace with a whole heart of devotion and consecration so that our fruit-bearing is a relational ‘byproduct’ of abiding in Christ as we walk in faith, love, fellowship, and obedience with Him. We could say it this way, the final answer and solution to all of our failure, our unfruitfulness, our carnal rotten fruit is Christ Himself. True believers have been grafted into Him, into His life. And as members of His body, joined to Him, He produces His character through them by His Spirit. He has told us in John 15, “apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). We must be careful about making excuses for our unfruitfulness. Q. Are you abiding in Christ, walking with Him taking up your cross and denying yourself? (Mt 16:24-26). If you abide in Him, you will produce fruit that honors God, blesses those around you, and lasts forever. But we need to examine ourselves, Scripture commands we do so. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Cor 13:5). Do you have the confidence that Christ is in you by faith? Is Christ ruling and governing you as Lord and King? Saving faith has fruits, faith works by love and purifies the heart.ⁱ It is an active faith that testifies to the operation of God’s grace in your life. Can you boldly say, “I know my Redeemer lives, He has wiped away my sins and He assures me of His love for me?” Scripture warns that those who habitually produce the fruits of the flesh will not inherit the Kingdom of God but will be under God’s wrath forever (See Col 3; Eph 5; etc.). Thus, the apostle Paul states, “And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor 6:1). This means that Paul was addressing a problem; their practice did not measure up to their profession as Christians. Their lives were so inconsistent as to constitute a denial of the logical implications of the gospel, namely that Christ died for them so that they might no longer live for themselves but to His glory (2 Cor 5:15).ⁱⁱ Grace is the glorious gospel of reconciliation, that Christ who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21). This grace is transformative. The gospel of God’s grace has a goal; to make us like Christ. It is but a half gospel that only focuses on escaping damnation and does not stress the object and goal of grace to make us like Christ. Hal Farnsworth account: “Do you see all of your relationships as existing to move others closer to Christ?” That’s a condition for bearing good fruit unto the glory of the Lord.
Endnotes:
i Matthew Poole, A Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 3, pp. 637-638
ii Philip E. Hughes, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, pp. 218-219