SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
7/13/2013 11:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
What Isaiah Sang
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
5:1-17
Message of the
verses: Dr. Wiersbe subjects that
this fifth chapter of Isaiah’s book is really a song a kind of a folk song that
Isaiah sings to the Lord. There is a
very similar story that our Lord tells to the Pharisees in Matthew 21:33-44, a
story that they knew was talking about them to which they became very angry
over. Let’s look at the first seven
verse of chapter five: “1 ¶ Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my
beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile
hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the
choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a
wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced
only worthless ones. 3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard. 4 “What more was there to do for My vineyard
that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did
it produce worthless ones? 5 “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to
My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down
its wall and it will become trampled ground. 6 “I will lay it waste; It will
not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge
the clouds to rain no rain on it." 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of
Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for
justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of
distress.”
We have the song given here that shows us that Isaiah is
speaking about the nation of Israel, for God did a great miracle in producing
the nation of Israel by having a 100 year old man produce a child from his 90
year old wife. From there the story goes
on to have this offspring marry and have two children of which one of them God
chose to continue towards the promised Seed.
From there Jacob had twelve sons which would form the twelve tribes of
Israel and they would end up in Egypt for four hundred years as God would make
a nation out of this family of 70 people that went into Egypt. God would send a deliverer to deliver them
out of Egypt, Moses who was suppose to die as a baby, but instead was raised in
Pharaoh’s palace would, when he was 80 years old led the children of Israel out
of Egypt and across the Red Sea on dry land to avoid the invading armies of the
Egyptians. After wondering forty years
in the wilderness God would bring this nation, His nation, across the Jordan
River on dry ground and then they would conquer the heathens who lived there
for the glory of God. Later He would
raise up David to make a covenant with him that would produce the Messiah many
years later. After many of David’s descendants
were kings of the Southern Kingdom the nation fell into sin, sin so bad that
God would have to send judgment to them.
As we look at the rest of the verses in this chapter we will see some of
these “worthless grapes” that they produced that angered God so much.
Covetousness (Isa. 5:8-10): “8 ¶
Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, Until there
is no more room, So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land! 9 In
my ears the LORD of hosts has sworn, "Surely, many houses shall become
desolate, Even great and fine ones, without occupants. 10 “For ten acres of
vineyard will yield only one bath of wine, And a homer of seed will yield but
an ephah of grain.’”
Leviticus 25:23-28 will show us the laws that these
greedy people have broken: “23 ¶ ’The
land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and
sojourners with Me. 24 ’Thus for every piece of your property, you are to
provide for the redemption of the land. 25
’If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of
his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his
relative has sold. 26 ’Or in case a man
has no kinsman, but so recovers his means as to find sufficient for its
redemption, 27 then he shall calculate
the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it,
and so return to his property. 28 ’But
if he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he
has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee;
but at the jubilee it shall revert, that he may return to his property.” In the calculation that is written in
Isaiah’s book we see that ten acres of grapes only produced six gallons of wine
and six bushels of seed produced only a half a bushel of grain.
Drunkenness (Isaiah 5:11-17): “11
Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong
drink, Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them! 12 Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and
harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine; But they do not pay attention to
the deeds of the LORD, Nor do they consider the work of His hands. 13 Therefore My people go into
exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst. 14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its
throat and opened its mouth without measure; And Jerusalem’s splendor, her
multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it. 15
So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased, The eyes of
the proud also will be abased. 16 But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment, And the holy God will show
Himself holy in righteousness. 17 Then the lambs will graze as in their
pasture, And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.”
God did not require total abstinence in the OT, and this
is passed onto the New Testament as Paul writes to the Romans in 13:13 “Let us
behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual
promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.” Ephesians 5:18 says “And do not get drunk
with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” Drunkenness is what Isaiah is writing about
in this section, and I am not here to argue about whether or not a person
should drink, or not, but surely not to get drunk is wrong. These people were drinking in the morning all
the way through the evening and eventually the grave will be the one who is
feed by these people.
We will continue to look at these sins in the next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: We can see many
of these sins in our country today and one of the things that make it easy to
commit these types of sins in our country is the media. Yes our world is shrinking more and more
everyday as our technology is becoming faster and faster and so we can view
different programs that help led us into sin on things like smart phones or
tablets or TV’s or computers. It is kind
of like the frog in the kettle thing and pretty soon we will be cooked before
we even know it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 46:1-5.
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear,
though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; 3 though its waters roar and
foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy
dwelling place of the most High. 5 God
is in the midst of her, she will not be moved, God will help her when morning dawns.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “A Silversmith” (Acts 19:24).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Jesus was born in what year?
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
7/13/2013 12:10 PM
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