Isaiah 5

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Dave Burnette's Commentary

Isaiah Chapter 5

Written By: God through Inspiration

Penned By: Isaiah

Date Penned: (700-681 BC)

Overview: To Tell of God's Salvation through the Messiah (c 1-66)

Theme: Words of Judgment (c 1-39)

Message: God's People Are in His Vineyard (v 1-30)

Isaiah 5 Commentary

(5:1-7) Good Fruit - The lesson of the song of the vineyard shows that God's chosen nation was to bear good fruit--to carry out his work, to uphold justice. The people did bear fruit, but the fruit was bad. Jesus said, "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20). Examine your own "fruit" by looking at how you treat others, both in your words and actions. Is your fruit good or bad, sweet or bitter?

(5:8-25) Sins of Destruction - In this section, God condemns six sins: (1) exploiting others (5:8-10); (2) drunkenness (5:11-12); (3) taking pride in sin (5:18-19); (4) confusing moral standards (5:20); (5) being conceited (5:21); and (6) perverting justice (5:22-24). Because of these sins, God punished the kingdom of Israel with destruction by Assyria (5:25-30). A similar fate was awaiting the kingdom of Judah if they didn't turn from these sins. 5:10 God's judgment was so severe that a ten-acre vineyard would only produce six gallons of wine. By comparison, one acre was normally expected to produce 1,000 gallons.

(5:11-13) Leaving God - These people spent many hours drinking and partying and never thinking of the Lord. Isaiah predicted that eventually many would die of hunger and thirst. Ironically, our pleasures-if they do not have God's blessing--may destroy us. Leaving God out of our lives allows sin to come in. Pursuing our own pleasure while ignoring or exploiting the needs of others leaves us empty and under God's anger. God wants us to enjoy life (1 Timothy 6:17) while avoiding activities that could lead us away from him. Where are your thoughts and activities taking you?

(5:13-17) Judgement - This took place when Israel was exiled to Assyria and Judah was exiled to Babylon. Where once there were parties with food and music, there would be hunger, thirst, and death. These people brought judgment on themselves. Turning away from God exposes us to destruction.

(5:13) Honorable Men - The nation's heroes and leaders--the "honourable men"--would suffer the same humiliation as the common people. Why? Because they lived by their own values rather than God's. Today we idolize media, business, entertainment, and sports figures because of their money, fame, and ability to live as they please. Are your heroes those who defy God or those who defy the world in order to serve God?

(5:18-19) Sins Consequences - Some people drag their sins around with them. Some do so arrogantly, but others are burdened and worn out by their sins. Are you dragging around a cartload of sins that you refuse to give up? Before you find yourself worn out and useless, turn to the one who promises to take away your burden of sin and replace it with a purpose for living that is a joy to fulfill (see Matthew 11:28-30).

(5:20) Without God - When people blur the distinction between good and evil, devastating consequences are sure to follow. Today's culture emphasizes never judging others. People say, "No one can decide for anyone else what is right or wrong." For example, they may think that getting drunk regularly doesn't necessarily mean a person has a problem, that extramarital soon all moral choices will appear fuzzy. Anyone who tries to live without God is headed for a breakdown and much suffering.

(5:24) Suffering - The people suffered because they rejected God's words, which reveal the secret to a well-lived life with joy and purpose. It is sad to see so many people today searching for meaning in life while ignoring or spurning God's Word. We can avoid the error of Israel and Judah by making reading, understanding, and obeying the Bible high priorities in our lives.

(5:26-30) Disobedience - This passage describes what God would do if the people disobeyed him (see Deuteronomy 28). Assyria began to torment Israel during the reign of Ahaz (735-715 BC). Assyria, a powerful aggressor, destroyed the northern kingdom in 722 BC and scattered the people throughout its own empire. Darkness, the void left when God abandoned the people and removed the revelation he had given to them, symbolizes the terror of war. Sin has consequences. Although the judgment was not immediate, eventually Israel was punished.

Dave Burnette's Life Application
Being Know by Your Fruit

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today, we continue in the Book of Isaiah with Chapter 5. In our text today, we see God's people in His vineyard as a lesson that God's Chosen nation was to bear fruit. Some of the fruit was sweet, and some was sour, depending on the obedience of Israel. In applying, we see the principle of how we are known by our fruit. A life of obedience to the Word of God will produce sweet fruit in due season, while disobedience will produce sour fruit. How about you? Do you see how our lives produce fruit in our lives? Let us learn from our text today and Isaiah introducing us to the principle of producing fruit to realize that we will known by our fruit.

Isaiah 5

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Isaiah 5

¹Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

²And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

³And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

⁴What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

⁵And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:

⁶And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

⁸Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

⁹In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

¹⁰Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

¹¹Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!

¹²And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

¹³Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

¹⁵And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

¹⁶But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

¹⁷Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

¹⁸Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

¹⁹That 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 nigh and come, that we may know it!

²⁰Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

²¹Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

²²Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

²³Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

²⁴Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

²⁶And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

²⁷None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

²⁸Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

²⁹Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

³⁰And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

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