Day 191 – Reading – Isaiah 5 – 8

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see anything you love in these chapters?

Isaiah 5.

The parable of the vineyard (5:1-7).  I can never read these verses without “hearing” the song that the Christian organization, JEWS FOR JESUS, sang so many years ago.

https://www.invubu.com/music/show/song/Liberated-Wailing-Wall/Vineyard-Song.html

Here is the last stanza of their song:

O, you who seek the Lord today
The lesson still holds true.
For what he sought of Israel
He still requires of you.
O, walk with Him in righteousness
And be a fruitful vine.
And press your life into His hands
That He might drink the wine.

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Anyway, Isaiah said it first, a song he wrote to the Lord, his “beloved.”  It’s a sad song, but it portrays Israel and Judah in that day. God did EVERYTHING for His Chosen Nation, including giving them this land forever. But they (like we all do) turned away from Him.  And the consequences?  They would be removed from that “very fertile land.” 

The LORD looked for justice and righteousness… but found in His people only bloodshed and iniquity. 

Jesus, the true vine, promises good and abundant fruit from us, His Chosen, when we abide in Him. (John 15:1-11)

Isaiah 5:8-30 tells of the consequences of Israel’s “rejecting the law of the LORD of hosts, and despising the Word of the Holy One of Israel.”  (Six woes)  And the LORD was “angry with his people. He stretched out His hand and struck them.”   

Isaiah says that God will “whistle for the nations far away … and quickly, speedily they will come.”  The picture is of a strong and well-equipped army.  “Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and NONE CAN RESCUE.“

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Isaiah 6.

This chapter shows the original calling of Isaiah, before he began to prophesy. He received the prophecies of the first five chapters AFTER this astonishing event.  He describes it here to authenticate what he’s written.  ‘Here’s how it happened, folks. Here’s how God called me…..’

• “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train (hem) of his robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim.” 
• “And one called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’
• “And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
• “And I said, ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
• “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he TOUCHED my mouth and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
• “And I heard the voice of the LORD saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
• “Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.”

Then God gave Isaiah his ‘marching orders.’  He was to go to the people of Israel and give them the warnings and predictions God would tell him.  They would not hear, their eyes would be blind, their hearts would be without understanding.  But still, Isaiah was to TELL THEM.

“How long, O Lord?” Isaiah asked.  God told him, “Until the cities lie waste and empty and the LORD removes the people far away, and the land is burned.”   

But God promised that a “holy seed” or remnant, WOULD hear and believe.

*** (WOW, what an experience!  Isaiah was changed.  And he went out to prophesy. (Go through the first chapters again, with this image in your mind.)

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Isaiah 7.

And now we see the armies that the LORD “whistled for.”  

In the days of Judah’s King Ahaz (grandson of Uzziah),  the kings of Syria and Israel (north) came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it.  When King Ahaz and the people heard they were coming, their hearts “shook as trees in the wind.”  So God sent Isaiah to meet King Ahaz at a specific location and to tell him…

• “Be careful. Be quiet. Do not fear. Do not let your heart be faint because of these two ‘smoldering stumps of firebrands’ because they have devised evil against Judah.
• “It will not stand. It shall not come to pass. Soon, Israel would cease to be a people, and Syria would be conquered by Assyria.

Then the LORD gave King Ahaz a choice to trust Him or not. 

He even told Ahaz to “ask for a sign to prove it was true … a GREAT sign (deep as the grave or high as heaven).”  But King Ahaz was afraid to “put the LORD to a test.”   (EVEN THOUGH THE LORD TOLD HIM TO!!!)

You can feel God’s exasperation when he says, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary GOD also???  Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign.”

Does that sound familiar?  You’ve read it in Matthew 1:22-23.

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name, Immanuel.   Then the prophecy gets more specific for King Ahaz.  Before a son born in nine months can distinguish between evil and good… the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. They will meet their doom at the hands of the King of Assyria.”  Whew! Good news, right?

(Not so reassuring was that the LORD would also bring the Assyrians against Judah. It would be the beginning of the end for them as well.  Babylon would eventually lead them into captivity.)

And the LORD would whistle for “the fly” (Egypt, known for flies) and “the bee” (Assyria, known for beekeeping).  These insects represented the armies of these countries, which would overrun Judah.

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Isaiah 8.

Then another strange prophecy that would foretell the Assyrian invasion.  Isaiah and his wife would get pregnant and have a son. They would name the boy, Maher-shalal-hash-baz.  Yep, you got that right. (Would you call him “Baz” for short?)  The words mean, “the spoil speeds, the prey hastens,” and they are a prophecy to Israel.

BUT, because King Ahaz called for help from Assyria against the nearer enemies, and didn’t call on God, that far enemy would rise like a massive flash flood and overwhelm them too … to their necks.

(***** Imagine if all these scary predictions were leveled at our own country.  Would the words sink in and be believed?  Would we turn from our wicked ways and seek “the gently flowing waters of Shiloah” (the Lord)?)

God gave a message to Isaiah and warned him not to walk in the way of the people, “Do not fear what they fear or dread what they dread. But the LORD of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary … and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and … taken.”

Whoa.

Isaiah answered. “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Israel, and I will hope in Him.”

I agree with Isaiah. Wait for HIM, Hope in HIM!