Isa 5:8-23 | KingComments | STEP | The parable of the vineyard is followed by a sixfold “woe” over the “worthless” grapes (cf. ) produced by the people. In it God pleads against the people and shows them their sins, their ‘worthless grapes’, in detail. We also see this order in the Gospel according to Matthew. First the Lord Jesus tells a parable of a vineyard ( ). A little further, He pronounces a sevenfold woe on the leaders of the people ( ). The first woe of Isaiah is about greed and greediness ( ; cf. ; ). We recognize this ‘worthless grape’ in the unbridled materialism of our days. It is the urge for always more. If necessary, others are robbed of their possessions. The picture is selfishness in its highest form, someone who has surrounded himself with everything he wants and lets no one else share in it. This goes against God’s commandments not to steal and not to covet ( ), by which He protects the private property of the members of His people. It is the property He has entrusted to each member. Those who are guilty of this greed violate the LORD’s ordinance ( ; ), for the land always remains the property of the LORD ( ). They do not think of returning the property to the original owner in the year of jubilee ( ). Had they done so, they would have received rich fruit ( ). The LORD has communicated the judgment on this dealing to Isaiah in his ears, which means to him personally. He has been told that the LORD will see to it that they will not benefit from their greed (cf. ). Their beautiful houses will be destroyed and life will disappear from them because the occupants will perish ( ). A house can still be so beautiful, but when life is gone from it, it is dead. Also the land will barely yield anything ( ). A vineyard of “ten acres” will yield only between twenty and forty-five liters of wine – a bath is presumably between twenty and forty-five liters. And a homer of seed – a homer is presumably between two hundred and four hundred and fifty liters – will yield only an ephah – an ephah is presumably between twenty and forty-five liters. This means that the sown seed will yield only ten percent or less. To this we can apply the saying: ill-gotten gains never benefit anyone. The lesson is: if we forget that everything we have belongs to Christ and appropriate it to ourselves, spiritual dryness and lack will strike us (cf. ).

‏ Isaiah 5:8-23

The First Woe

The parable of the vineyard is followed by a sixfold “woe” over the “worthless” grapes (cf. Isa 5:2) produced by the people. In it God pleads against the people and shows them their sins, their ‘worthless grapes’, in detail. We also see this order in the Gospel according to Matthew. First the Lord Jesus tells a parable of a vineyard (Mt 21:33-41). A little further, He pronounces a sevenfold woe on the leaders of the people (Mt 23:13-36).

The first woe of Isaiah is about greed and greediness (Isa 5:8; cf. Isa 57:17; Mic 2:2). We recognize this ‘worthless grape’ in the unbridled materialism of our days. It is the urge for always more. If necessary, others are robbed of their possessions. The picture is selfishness in its highest form, someone who has surrounded himself with everything he wants and lets no one else share in it. This goes against God’s commandments not to steal and not to covet (Exo 20:15 ; 17), by which He protects the private property of the members of His people. It is the property He has entrusted to each member.

Those who are guilty of this greed violate the LORD’s ordinance (Num 36:7; 1Kgs 21:1-3), for the land always remains the property of the LORD (Lev 25:23). They do not think of returning the property to the original owner in the year of jubilee (Lev 25:10 ; 13). Had they done so, they would have received rich fruit (Lev 25:18-19).

The LORD has communicated the judgment on this dealing to Isaiah in his ears, which means to him personally. He has been told that the LORD will see to it that they will not benefit from their greed (cf. Hag 1:6 ; 9). Their beautiful houses will be destroyed and life will disappear from them because the occupants will perish (Isa 5:9). A house can still be so beautiful, but when life is gone from it, it is dead.

Also the land will barely yield anything (Isa 5:10). A vineyard of “ten acres” will yield only between twenty and forty-five liters of wine – a bath is presumably between twenty and forty-five liters. And a homer of seed – a homer is presumably between two hundred and four hundred and fifty liters – will yield only an ephah – an ephah is presumably between twenty and forty-five liters. This means that the sown seed will yield only ten percent or less.

To this we can apply the saying: ill-gotten gains never benefit anyone. The lesson is: if we forget that everything we have belongs to Christ and appropriate it to ourselves, spiritual dryness and lack will strike us (cf. Psa 106:15).

The Second Woe

The second woe (Isa 5:11) is about the hedonists, people addicted to pleasure, the “lovers of pleasure” (2Tim 3:4). They see life as a great feast and drink themselves full of intoxicating “strong drink”, which in those days was made from fermented dates, honey, and barley. Such a life is worthless, it can be compared to worthless grapes. There is nothing in their lives in which God can find joy. On the contrary, He is disgusted by it. People who live like that are addicted to that way of life. Someone who wakes up in the morning and as first of his action reach for the bottle is certainly addicted to alcohol (cf. Ecc 10:16b; Acts 2:13-15). If you are intoxicated, you at least forget the nasty things in life. It is like opium.

Inside, inwardly, intoxicated and outside surrounded and stunned by noise is the ‘ideal’ situation to ensure that they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD, that they have no interest in them (Isa 5:12; cf. Amos 6:4-5). They do not “consider the work of His hands”. They are completely blind for what the LORD does.

Today we see how people are completely absorbed in alcohol and drugs, in heavy metal and death metal music that makes them insensitive to any signal that warns them of the deadly consequences. As a result, they sink lower than animals that instinctively still make good choices (Isa 1:3). It must be clear to us that these things can also be found among those who call themselves Christians. The use of strong drink and drugs is not just a practice of the world around us, but occurs extensively among Christian youth.

This lack of understanding of the LORD’s deeds, this lack of knowledge of Him, becomes fatal to them (Isa 5:13; Hos 4:6a). As a result, they do not realize that they will go into exile. The high-income elite will “famish”. The “multitude”, the wicked ‘ordinary’ population, will die of thirst.

They will meet the skinny reaper, who with his throat wide open and his mouth wide open like a greedy monster is ready to devour them (Isa 5:14). Without them noticing it, the nobility and the average human being are hopping to that all and everyone devouring monster. In this way they descend dancing and swinging down into the endless black hole.

Then it’s over and done with all that cheering and hopping. Of all the pride of both the common man and the man of prestige nothing remains. They both bend their knees under judgment. The common man, like the distinguished man, has lived only for himself and was not inferior to the distinguished man. Both have had their eyes open to everything in pride, except for the LORD. Their eyes will be abased forever (Isa 5:15).

God will enforce recognition of His attributes and rights (Phil 2:9-11). The downfall of the arrogant man is the result of the judgment of “the LORD of hosts” (Isa 5:16). He will be exalted by the exercise of judgment, which sharply contrasts with the humiliation of man. This sharp contrast also exists between the unholy behavior of man and the holiness of God, Who is emphasized here as “the holy God”. His holiness is expressed in the maintenance of His righteousness.

Righteousness and holiness are the characteristics of the new man, who “has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:24). As a result, the believer who belongs to the church is able to do righteousness in the midst of evil. While he is surrounded by evil, he can live in holiness, which means separated to God.

When the people are gone into exile, shepherds of foreign nations will let their sheep graze in the deserted land as if it were their own (Isa 5:17). Foreigners will feast on what God intended for His own people, but which His people have feasted on themselves in unbridled greed. After judgment, they leave everything behind and strangers will eat it. This is literally fulfilled by the Arabs who lived there for centuries, while Jerusalem was in the hands of islamic peoples.

The Third Woe

The third woe is pronounced on the next ‘worthless grape’ and that is on those who are addicted to iniquity. With lying tricks they commit iniquity (Isa 5:18). It is not without sarcasm that Isaiah depicts animals carrying a burden. The burden of iniquity lies high on the cart of sin which these people drag with ropes. The underlying idea is that the act of committing small iniquities, “cords of falsehood”, will gradually lead to coarser iniquities, “sin as if with cart ropes”. They believe that they are in control of their sinful activities. But it is the other way around: “He will be held with the cords of his sin” (Pro 5:22).

While, as slaves to sin, they plod toward judgment, they are challenging God (Isa 5:19). With boasting language they defy Him to put His warnings into action: ‘If you are there, show yourself, do something!’ This is the height of audacity and blasphemy (cf. Mt 27:42; 2Pet 3:2-3; Ecc 8:11; Jer 17:15). They don’t hesitate to abuse and scorn the name of “the Holy One of Israel”, the name Isaiah always uses to make God’s holiness stand out in the face of the unholiness of the people. It shows their hardening, which Isaiah must seal in the next chapter (Isa 6:9-10).

The Fourth Woe

In this verse Isaiah points to the fourth ‘worthless grape’: turning moral principles upside down. About this comes the fourth woe. Knowingly and willingly they turn values and norms upside down. They reverse everything God has said. What God calls evil, they call good and vice versa. That is an abomination to the LORD (Pro 17:15). They do the same with darkness and light and with bitter and sweet. False teachings are presented as truth and the truth is made out to be a lie.

This is highly topical in our days. Gays have to be able to get married and marriage as such is presented as a squeezing yoke. Abortion, i.e. murder in the womb, must be possible, but the death penalty – which God prescribes in case of murder – is abolished as being murder and inhumane. It is the foolish reversal of things by man without God.

First comes the negative, to which they assign a positive meaning. The consequence cannot be other than that they change the positive into something negative. We see this strongly with the Pharisees who attribute the work of the Lord Jesus that He does through the Holy Spirit to Beelzebub (Mk 3:22-29).

“It is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God” (Jer 2:19), but they say it is good. They imitate the devil who told Eve that it was not evil, but good to eat from the forbidden tree. Asaph says: ”The nearness of God is my good” (Psa 73:28), but they say it is evil. In everything they deliberately contradict the precepts and the revealed will of the LORD. Not only do they declare His will invalid, but they twist it and knowingly go against it. This is one of the characteristics of the end time (Rom 1:32).

The Fifth Woe

The fifth woe strikes the pride and complacency of those who are wise in their own eyes (cf. Pro 3:7). This too is such a ‘worthless grape’. Someone who reverses values considers himself wise and his own opinion clever. Someone who boasts of his own wisdom and intellect, produces an unbearable stench. This attitude stems from the attitude we see under the two previous woes. It is an attempt at self-justification, which leads to the searing of the conscience.

The Sixth Woe

The sixth woe comes over the leaders of the people. They too are totally rotten. They are now described as lovers of wine, men who boast of knowing how to prepare it (Isa 5:22). What they do is also worthless and stinks. With an undertone of sarcasm Isaiah compares these leaders to “heroes” and calls them “valiant men”.

It’s the boasters, the brawlers, people who are easily bribed, because they don’t follow any principles (Isa 5:23). Because of their misty gaze, they have no view of the law. They are very loose with the law and twist it when they can benefit from it. They are addicted to power and enrich themselves at the expense of the poor. We see this with all kinds of rulers throughout the centuries. We also see it with the false shepherds (Eze 34:1-6) and in the characteristics of the antichrist (Zec 11:15-17).

The spiritual counterpart of “being heroes in drinking wine” is being filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18). This leads to a clear discernment between what is of God and what is not.