Posted: 3/01/06
Explore the Bible Series for March 12
Open up to an intense experience with God
• Isaiah 5:1-6:13
By James Adair
Baptist University of the Americas, San Antonio
This week’s lesson from the prophet Isaiah includes two well-known passages, the parable of the vineyard and the call of Isaiah, as well as a section containing six woes against evildoers. These two chapters discuss the problem of greed and the justice a holy God demands, and they suggest the proper human response to the divine call.
Isaiah 5:1-7
Mustang grapes played a small but not insignificant part in the summertime adventures of young boys growing up in South Texas in the 1960s and ’70s. Grapevines were ubiquitous in the trees alongside the Guadalupe River, and they invited us to take to them in imitation of Tarzan, proving our bravery by swinging far out over the river and back again, or sometimes just letting go and plunging into the cool water. (Warning: Do not attempt this at home! Grapevines can break—I speak from personal experience!)
When not visiting the river, small shoots of grapevine were highly desired in certain circles, alongside rope, as a free but (I’m told) inferior alternative to cigarettes. Finally, the grapes themselves were good for munching on while walking by a stream or in the woods.
However, there was a drawback. Some mustang grapes are extremely sour, and once you got the flavor in your mouth, it was hard to get it out again. Isaiah tells a parable in which God plants a vineyard of domesticated grapes, but it yields wild grapes instead, despite God’s careful attention.
In response, God vows to remove the wall protecting the vineyard so it will be trampled and become a wasteland, and furthermore, God will command the clouds to withhold rain from the vineyard.
What is the reason for this harsh judgment? “He expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” This passage contains two plays on words in Hebrew: justice (mishpat) vs. bloodshed (mishpach), righteousness (tsedaqa) vs. a cry (tse'aqa).
God demands his people treat others with justice and compassion. Many Christians are eager to decry modern society’s lax moral values, which they identify especially with sins related to sex (e.g., homosexuality and premarital sex), but are Christians equally concerned with the problems of poverty, lack of access to health care and war that afflict not only our own country but the rest of the world as well? Does God look at our world and see justice or bloodshed? As Christians, God calls on us to speak and act in ways that address all of the world's problems, not just a select few.
Isaiah 5:8-24
This series of six woes identifies sins characteristic of many of Judah’s leading citizens. The prophet singles out land grabbing, fiddling while Rome burns, defiance of God, Orwellian “newspeak” (i.e., calling something by its opposite), absolute certainty in one’s own wisdom and public corruption for particular reproach. People who practice these forms of unrighteousness overtly challenge the holiness of God, and Isaiah says God will not sit idly by and tolerate their behavior.
Isaiah 6:1-13
Have you ever had an experience so intense, so overwhelming, that years later, you still can remember it vividly? Maybe it was your first trip to the ocean, your first kiss, the first time you heard a particular song, a personal triumph, a wedding, a funeral.
Have you ever had an encounter with God that made such an impression that you’ll never forget the feeling you had at that moment?
In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah had such an experience while worshipping in the temple. Perhaps he had a particularly close relationship to the king—some scholars have suggested he was related to the royal family. The death of the king may have heightened Isaiah’s sensitivity to hear God’s voice.
Despite the loss of a beloved leader, Isaiah had a vision of God seated securely on the throne, unaffected by the temporary problems of the nation of Judah. Judah’s throne may have been empty, but the heavenly throne was occupied, so there was no need to fear.
In his vision, Isaiah saw strange heavenly beings (perhaps winged serpents) flitting about the throne praising God. They cried out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
Though this short adulation has traditionally been interpreted by Christians as a reference to the Trinity, the repetition of a word is a typical Hebrew way of expressing the superlative degree: God is completely holy; none other approaches God in holiness.
That Isaiah understood the statement in this way is suggested by his cry, which echoes the appellation applied to God: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah’s statement is both profound and provocative. It is profound because he recognizes the true state of sinful, weak humanity in the presence of almighty God. It is provocative because the prophet is not afraid to claim the extraordinary: He has actually seen God!
Isaiah’s exclamation offers a challenge to us more than 2,500 years later: Can we look at the world as it truly is, a world all too often characterized by terrible evil and suffering, selfishness and greed, hatred and inhumanity, and still see God?
If we can’t, then we’d better keep our mouths shut about the problems of the world, because although we might be able to criticize, we won’t have anything positive to offer. However, if we are able to see God, even dimly, then we will be able to draw on our encounter with the divine to exhort and encourage those around us. It is only when we have an authentic encounter with God, one that makes an indelible impression on our souls, that we will be able to say, “Here am I, Lord; send me!”
Discussion questions
• Does your world view stop at recognizing the world’s ailments, or do you have solutions to offer?
• What can you do to help right a situation that obviously is not what God would have it be?
• Where will you be God’s hands and feet this week so that his power might be known?
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