For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 5:1-7

1 I will sing for the one I love
    a song about his vineyard:
my loved one had a vineyard
    on a fertile hillside.
2 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.

3 ‘Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
    judge between me and my vineyard.
4 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?
5 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.
6 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.’

7 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.

A. Find Out:

1. Who is the vineyard, what did the Lord expect, and find? v.7
2. What had He done and what had He expected? v.2a,b
3. What had He found instead? v.2c, 4b
4. What did He ask of the people of the nation? v.3,4a
5. What did He say He was going to do with it? v.5,6
6. Again, what had He expected and then found? v.7

B. Think:

1. Why was the Lord blameless?
2. Why were the people guilty?
3. How might the two things be true of our own nation?

C. Comment:

Isaiah now gives an allegory to illustrate what has happened. By the interpretation given at the end of it we are left in no doubt that it refers to the Lord and Israel (including Judah and Jerusalem).

The owner of the vineyard had gone to much trouble to set up the vineyard. He had chosen fertile ground for it, He had cleared the ground of stones, He planted the best quality vines and in anticipation he even built a wine press for pressing out the grapes. Yet when the grapes grew they were bad and moldy, poor quality.

The Lord had gone to great trouble to “plant” Israel, He had done everything for them to help them to prosper but instead they had simply turned away from Him. (The signs had been there almost from the outset as they grumbled in the desert, turned away in the time of the judges, demanded a king to rule them in Samuel’s time and then constantly turned away time and again). The sin of man was in Israel and although the Lord had done everything for them they had turned away. Now He was going to remove them. The amazing thing, not mentioned here, was that He would take the remnant and start again.

D. Application:

1. Israel were a chosen people who were, through their relationship with the Lord, supposed to be a light to all the other nations.
2. The sin of mankind constantly leads man away from God. It is only the grace and mercy of God that gives us any hope at all.

Passage: Isaiah 5:8-10

8 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.

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 will yield only an ephah of grain.’

A. Find Out:    

1. What were some obviously doing? v.8a
2. With what consequence? v.8b
3. What will happen to them? v.9b
4. Why does Isaiah know this? v.9a
5. What will happen to the vineyard? v.10a
6. What will happen to the seed? v.10b

B. Think:

1. Who is being condemned for what?
2. So what will the Lord do about it?
3. What will then happen to the land?

C. Comment:

Following the general condemnation of the nation come specific complaints against them. The first complaint that we have here is that certain people were abusing their position and were becoming all powerful and grabbing up all the land, enlarging houses and creating large estates where the ordinary people were forbidden. When the Lord gave them the land, it was for all the people to enjoy, but now some have starting taking it over to the detriment of the poorer people.

The Lord speaks to Isaiah about this matter and tells him what will occur. As a result of his clearing the men in authority out of the land, as we have seen previously, these fine houses will end up being empty, desolate, and run down. As a result of the absence of people in the land, there will hardly be any activity in the vineyards and in the fields and food production will be minimal.

This first of the six woes hits out at greed, injustice and abuse of power for selfish gain. The Lord is against each of these things and if we are in any place of material prosperity, or power or authority, we would do well to check our attitudes and our actions lest we find that we too fall in these things.

D. Application:

1. God is against greed and abuse of power and will judge it.
2. The affluent are particularly prone to these failings. Are they in us?

Passage: Isaiah 5:11-17

11 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.
12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
    pipes and tambourines and wine,
but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord,
    no respect for the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people will go into exile
    for lack of understanding;
those of high rank will die of hunger
    and the common people will be parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Death expands its jaws,
    opening wide its mouth;
into it will descend their nobles and masses
    with all their brawlers and revellers.
15 So people will be brought low
    and everyone humbled,
    the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
16 But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
    and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
    lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.

A. Find Out:

1. What are the next group indicted for doing? v.11,12a
2. Yet what don’t they do? v.12b
3. What will happen therefore? v.13,14
4. What will be seen to happen to mankind? v.15
5. What will happen in respect of the Lord? v.16
6. And what will be the state of the land afterwards? v.17

B. Think:

1. How would you summarize the indictment against the people?
2. Why do you think they will be exiled “for lack of understanding”?
3. How does the outcome match what we’ve seen before in Isaiah?

C. Comment:

After speaking against the wealthy land grabbers Isaiah now speaks against the revelers who spend so much of their time drinking and having parties. These people are those who are just concerned for PERSONAL PLEASURE; that is all that matters in their lives. Any thought of a relationship with God is far from them, and they trust in life just going on and on, serving their personal desires.

These foolish people will be taken into exile and will die at the hands of their enemies, says the Lord in His judgement against them. Their pride and arrogance will be brought down by the time He’s finished with them, just as He had said before in 2:11 and 17. By the time the Lord is finished with them, the land will be quiet and the sound of all the noisy reveling will have gone and all that will be left will be the sheep quietly grazing.

The next time you hear of a non-Christian party, or see a film of the rich revelers in Hollywood, remember they are godless and that God will call them to account. In fact anyone whose focus is on personal pleasure and who trusts that the good life will simply carry on, and who doesn’t bother about God, will be held accountable and will have to answer to the Lord.

D. Application:

1. God doesn’t object to personal enjoyment. He made a good world.
2. God’s objection is when we exclude Him from our lives.

Passage: Isaiah 5:18-23

18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
    and wickedness as with cart ropes,
19 to those who say, ‘Let God hurry;
    let him hasten his work
    so that we may see it.
The plan of the Holy One of Israel –
    let it approach, let it come into view,
    so that we may know it.’

20 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.

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and clever in their own sight. 22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
    and champions at mixing drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
    but deny justice to the innocent.

A. Find Out:

1. What are the third group charged with? v.18
2. What do they also do? v.19
3. What are the fourth group charged with? v.20
4. What are the fifth group charged with? v.21
5. What are the sixth group charged with? v.22
6. And what also do they do? v.23

B. Think:

1. What relationship is seen here between sin and godlessness?
2. What is the link between selfishness and loss of truth?
3. Do you see these things in modern society?

C. Comment:

From powerful land grabbers and pleasure-seeking revelers, Isaiah now quickly deals with four other complaints that the Lord has against his people.

First there are those who bring sin and wickedness into every area or activity of life and who are now bound to these things. There is also within these people a cynicism that doubts God’s existence or His presence with them. They almost use His apparent absence as an excuse for their behavior. These are the SINFUL CYNICS of society.

Next come those (who may be the same people) who have so distorted truth that black has become white, evil become good. Our own society in the West has now been doing this for many years. Absolutes of right and wrong from God have been softened and eventually turned right round. These are the TRUTH DISTORTERS.

Next come those who think they are the source of all wisdom (not God); they are the worldly wise who are in fact the WORLDLY FOOLISH.

Finally there are the social elite, the wine experts and cocktail drinkers, who misuse their positions by taking bribes and they have become the JUSTICE PERVERTERS.

In all of these cases TRUTH HAS BEEN LOST and the people live in unreality, ungodliness, and unrighteousness.

D. Application:

1. The enemy constantly tries to distort the truth.
2. The first lie is, “It will be all right. God won’t do anything”.

Passage: Isaiah 5:24-30

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 strap is broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp,
    all their bows are strung;
their horses’ hooves 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,
    there is only darkness and distress;
    even the sun will be darkened by clouds.

A. Find Out:

1. What will happen to these people and why? v.24
2. What is the Lord feeling and doing? v.25
3. Who does He call? v.26
4. How do they come? v.27
5. How also do they come? v.28,29
6. What will they bring to the land? v.30

B. Think:

1. How is the destruction that the Lord is bringing first described?
2. How is the means of the destruction then described?
3. Why is this coming?

C. Comment:

In verses 8 to 23 where the Lord brings six indictments against the people, He also brought two “Therefore”s (v.13,14) saying how He would deal with them. Now at the end of the “woe”s there are two more “therefore”s which reiterate that the Lord will bring destruction to this people. This is because of His anger against their sinful rejection of Him and their rejection of righteousness. The coming destruction is compared to a bush fire spreading across the land and will go on and on until the Lord has achieved His purposes.

The latter part of the chapter then indicates HOW He will bring the destruction: by a foreign people. He portrays this people as eager, alert and well equipped (v.27), fully ready for battle (v.28), coming with tremendous violence (v.29), that will result in the land being left in darkness and distress (v.30).

“Does God bring war?” is sometimes asked. The answer from this and numerous other passages is clearly, yes. He lifts His hand of protection and stirs nations from afar to rise up. His purpose is to bring discipline and purging of sinful ways. The Lord’s objective is always to protect the earth from the total destruction of sin so that a remnant might continue to live within His provision and blessing.

D. Application:

1. Unrestrained sin destroys and needs to be destroyed.
2. A cancer has to be cut out. So does sin.