The Dire Consequence Series

Isaiah 5:9-10, 13-17, 24-30 The Dire Consequence

11/5/00 D. Marion Clark

9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:

“Surely the great houses will become desolate,

the fine mansions left without occupants.

10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine,

a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”

13 Therefore my people will go into exile

for lack of understanding;

their men of rank will die of hunger

and their masses will be parched with thirst.

14 Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite

and opens its mouth without limit;

into it will descend their nobles and masses

with all their brawlers and revelers.

15 So man will be brought low

and mankind humbled,

the eyes of the arrogant humbled.

16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,

and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.

17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;

lambs will feed

among the ruins of the rich.

24 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.

26 He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,

he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.

Here they come,

swiftly and speedily!

27 Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,

not one slumbers or sleeps;

not a belt is loosened at the waist,

not a sandal thong is broken.

28 Their arrows are sharp,

all their bows are strung;

their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,

their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

29 Their roar is like that of the lion,

they roar like young lions;

they growl as they seize their prey

and carry it off with no one to rescue.

30 In that day they will roar over it

like the roaring of the sea.

And if one looks at the land,

he will see darkness and distress;

even the light will be darkened by the clouds.

Introduction

In our previous message we reviewed the types of wrongdoers that Isaiah was pronouncing his woes upon. There are those who covet and defraud others to fulfill their greed. Others delight in debauchery. There are those who engage in deceit. Some have gone so far as to reverse the moral order, calling what is evil good and what is good evil. And then there are still others who make a mockery of what is good.

That Isaiah introduces each of them with the expression “woe,” means, of course, that they will be expressing that term some time in the future. Judgment is coming. I think in this context, Isaiah is speaking of the destruction and exile to come on the nation of Judah. Verse 13 speaks of his people going into exile, and verse 26 speaks of a doom that will come through other nations.

Let’s see what we can learn about God through this judgment to come.

The Judgment

The first lesson we can learn is that he fits the judgment with the crime. God is just. For the coveters who defrauded their neighbors to amass property and wealth, their property will become desolate (because they will not be alive to live in them) and the value of what their land produces will become almost worthless. For those who are filling themselves with drink and pleasure, ignoring the role of God, they will die of hunger and thirst. Instead of swallowing food and drink, they themselves will be swallowed by the grave. For those of deceit and who in their arrogance turn evil into good and mock what is noble, they will be extinguished as dry grass by fire and dead flowers by the wind. By the measure sinners use, so God judges.

The second lesson to note is God’s disdain of human pride. 15 cf 2:9,11,17

if anything G disdains it is man’s arrogance

- nt t pride of taking delight in pleasg someone else or in fulfillg one’s gifts

- t pride that gives credit to self

- that causes one to live for one’s own glory

- that causes on to compete w G

The third lesson is God’s righteousness. 16

holy – to be separated; G separated fr all other created beings in his purity

righteousness – holiness expressed in moral principles

justice – the application of righteousness

G relates out of his holiness