GOD’S JUDGMENT: BUT HE SAYS “WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE FOR MY PEOPLE?”
We have to remember the words of God's overflowing love, without which He would have never pronounced such harsh words of judgment against even unrepentant Israel and nations.
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. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
‘Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.’
The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
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. … 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. …
Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes…
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…
Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the 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. 25 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. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. ISAIAH 5:1- 25 (Line added)
In Isaiah ch.5, six woes upon unfaithful Israel, God’s covenant-breaking people are pronounced. The first indictment is against materialism in vs.8-10. The second indictment is against hedonism in vs.11-17. The third indictment is against the sinfulness of the wicked ensnared by his own evil deeds in vs.18-19. The fourth indictment is against intentional denial and distortion of the Word of God in v.20. The fifth indictment is against self-deception under the relative and limited view of the world in v.21, which Apostle Paul exponents well in 1 Co.1:18-31. There, Paul, using the ultimate oxymoron, declared:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
The sixth indictment is against lack of justice in vs.22-23.
After the six woes, the Lord shows that the only remedy lies in the Word of God, saying:
for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
However, upon the unrepentant nation of Israel, God’s judgment will continue
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, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land (Is.6: 11-13).
Thus, the Lord gives a prophecy of a time when the restoration of Israel will ultimately take place by the Messiah, who will grow as a shoot from the stump of David’s dynasty.
Isaiah’s prophecy was partially fulfilled by the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem 2000 years ago and the rest of it will be completed by His Second Coming before too long.
I believe that we have entered a countdown stage of its completion since the Covid-19 pandemic began two years ago, because what is going on now all over the world is apparently a judgment of God against unrepentant nations, i.e., not only Israel but the whole world. The whole world has turned wicked like never before in recent times. Above all, the corruption of what used to be known as Christian countries is serious. God’s anger is simmering especially against idolatry and shedding of innocent blood.
Verses 9-10 of Chapter 6 of Isaiah are one of the most quoted verses of God’s tragic Words in the New Testament:
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. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Christ used them, addressing the miserable spiritual state of the crowd when He explained why He should speak to them in parables. Apostle Paul also quoted them to expose the poor spiritual state of those who rejected his message. Apostle John as well, applied these verses to faithless Israel in his time. However, we cannot understand this stern verdict of God fully without mentioning ‘the song of the vineyard’ (vs.1-7), quoted in the beginning.
God has indeed abandoned His people with such harsh words, but we have to remember the words of His overflowing love:
What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?
