Full Text for Isaiah- Volume 10 - What is the next major point of interest in Isaiah's writings? (Video)

No. 10. >> Thank you for giving us such helpful detail. I'm already beginning to see the role of the prophet in new light. What is the next major point of interest in Isaiah's writings? >> It is unfortunate that we can't spend time looking at least at every chapter in Isaiah 1 to 39. But because of the circumstances surrounding your time and your program, we simply have to choice specific text in Isaiah 1 to 39 to spend time on. And in this case, the next major important text would be in Chapter 5:1 to 7. The so-called Song of the Vineyard. This is actually a good time, also, within our instructional experience to ask the question: How exactly do I read biblical prophets? How specifically am I going to preach, teach and apply sections of the book of Isaiah? So you have before you now a slide. And it simply is entitled: How to read biblical prophets. And I want to work with you through these six different sections on this slide. And then we will look at Isaiah 5:1 to 7 in more depth. So using Isaiah 5:1 to 7 as a template to understand how to read biblical prophets, let's go ahead and dive in. The first point on the slide is entitled: Israel's Past People, Events and/or Institutions. We've already made the point in this course that Israel's prophets didn't simply make up new ideas. But they carried old ideas forward. And they didn't do that just in terms of a one-to-one correspondence. Earlier I said that vis-a-vis Matthew Chapter 12 Jesus says: One greater than Solomon, one greater Jonah and one greater than the temple is here. You see, it's always getting greater and better. One way to understand that is by use of metals. So we might say within early sections of the Old Testament that would be bronze. And then we move to silver. And then we move to gold in Christ. And then the platinum would be the second coming of Christ. So as God works and communicates through history -- to quote from my favorite theologians Bachman-Turner Overdrive: You ain't seen nothing yet. It's always getting better. And there's a richer dimension to what has been promised in the past in terms of its fulfillment in the future. So you see on our slide: Israel's Past People, Events and/or Institutions. Whatever Isaiah or a prophet does with Moses or David or the exodus or the Day of Atonement or Passover or the temple, they are going to say that now God is working in a greater way in their time as opposed to what he's done in the past. All right. So how does this relate to our text at hand? As Isaiah in Chapter 5 sings this Song of the Vineyard, this idea of vineyard is not new. He's not simply looking over the Judean foothills and saying: Ah, let me preach a sermon on a vineyard. No, he is reflecting upon the past action of Yahweh. And now he's taking it forward for his day. So as this relates to Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard, already in Exodus Chapter 15 Verse 17 God says through this Song of the Sea as Moses and Miriam sing it with their tambourines that he's going to take Israel and plant them in the land. So that's what Isaiah is aware of. Isaiah has read the Pentateuch. He knows that this is a metaphor for how God works in the world. So that's the first point on how to read biblical prophets. Ask: What is the prophet taking from the past and fulfilling now in his day. The second point is to ask the question: How does this fit within the sinaitic covenant? How are the prophets understanding these six points that we've already talked about in terms of preamble, historical prologue, stipulations, preservation and rereading, witnesses and blessings and curses? How do the prophets work in that? Specifically prophets talk about blessings and curses by means of two important chapters in the Pentateuch. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. Both of these chapters talk about blessings and curses. So you've preached some sermons already. It's Saturday night. You have no idea what your illustration is going to be. What did the prophets do when they didn't know where a sermon illustration was? Well, they couldn't log onto sermons.com. They went to Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. This is where they got their imaginary and their application and their stories. So as it relates to our task at hand within the sinaitic covenant, Isaiah is looking at Deuteronomy Chapter 28. And within these verses, we have these specific ideas. It says: The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze. The ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder. It will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. Within these three verses, one of the curses of the lack of hearing God's voice is that it will be dry. And there will be a drought. There will be no rain. So as we ask this question: How does Isaiah 5:1 to 7 relate to the sinaitic covenant and the blessings and curses, if you want to look with me in Chapter 5 of Isaiah, especially as we look at Verse 6, the second part, God says: Upon the clouds I will command so that there will be no more rain. Well, where does Isaiah get an idea like that? He gets it from within the sinaitic covenant. Specifically from Deuteronomy 28. So when Isaiah says that it won't rain, it's not just: Well, it's going to be dry. It means Israel is under the curse that God promised from Deuteronomy 28. So the next point, the third point, is I want to read biblical prophets not only looking toward the past, not only looking within the sinaitic community and covenant, but also within the future of Israel. God is going to do what he says in a prophetic text some time within still the life of the Old Testament. Within our text in Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard, the destruction, the judgement, you see, that's going to happen is going to be fulfilled in 721 with the northern exile and 587 with the southern exile. So I don't want to skip too quickly, you see, into Jesus and the New Testament. If I do that, then I'm only going about that deep into what the prophet is trying to communicate. And I want to go as deep as I can so I can appreciate and apply, preach and teach this prophetic word. So those are the first three questions I would ask of a prophetic text. Now, I'm staying within the Old Testament. Well, the fourth question, obviously we've talked about this already, is I want to say: How does this relate to Jesus? How is Christ now seen within this prophetic text? Specifically as we relate these questions to Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard, one marvelous text comes to mind. And that's in John Chapter 15. Where Jesus says: I am the vine. You are the branches. We're going to see as we get into Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard, that this vineyard was a mass. This vineyard produced sour grapes. We need a faithful vine. And that faithful vine is seen in Jesus, who is the true vine. So I want to say: How does Jesus relate to a prophetic text? You may remember this rather obscure but important verse from Revelation 19:10 B that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So I want to see: How is Jesus portrayed in a prophetic text? I also want to say: How is this text now related to me? To the baptized life? On our slide it says through the Word and the sacraments. It's a marvelous promise of God that in Romans Chapter 11 Saint Paul says that we Gentiles -- I assume I'm talking mostly to Gentiles here -- we have been grafted into the vine. By the grace of God we are now connected to Christ and to the promises of God to Israel in the Old Testament. And so God now plants me in his Word, in his sacraments. Why? So that I can bear fruit. Jesus says in John 15: Fruit that will last. Saint Paul says in Galatians 5:22 and 23 that by the Spirit we produce fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. So I want to say: How is this text applying to me through God's Word and sacrament? The last section now that I want to ask of all biblical prophesy is: How is this related to the last day? The eschatological promises for the people of God. We know that just as God took Israel as a vine and planted the nation in the Promised Land, so one day through Christ he will take us and plant us in the eternal Promised Land. As John says in Revelation 21 Verse 1: The new heavens and the new earth. So there you have it. We won't use this six-point template every time we look at a prophetic text now much but I certainly want you to ask these six questions as you go about interpreting and understanding this vast literature we have in the Old Testament called the prophets. Let's move in now to our text in a more specific way in terms of Chapter 5. Let me give you an overview. These first seven verses are a love song. And it's a love song between the lover, who owns the vineyard, and the vineyard, the beloved. Isaiah is probably delivering this sermon at the Feast of Tabernacles, which you can read about in Leviticus 23:34 through 43 and Deuteronomy 16:13 through 15. This would be a fall harvest festival in which people would be rejoicing in the goodness of God, especially as it relates to their vineyards. So try and imagine Isaiah speaking in Jerusalem to this group of farmers and business people who have all this abundance in terms of grapes. Maybe in their hands. Certainly on their minds. That's the situation in which the prophet finds himself. He then crafts a parable, a judicial parable to be more exact. A parable essentially takes earthly ideas to communicate spiritual truths. But he does this in a judicial way. What do I mean about that? A judicial parable is when the parable is told so that those who hear the parable actually end up accusing themselves. You want an example? A great example is in II Samuel Chapter 12 where David has committed adultery with Bathsheba. He's been instrumental in the death of Uriah the Hittite. So Nathan, the prophet, comes and tells David a parable. And it's a parable about a poor man with a little sheep. And a rich man who comes along and takes all that the poor man has, this little lamb. And Nathan asks David: Well, what should be done with this rich man who took the poor man's little lamb? And David says kind of loose translation: Off with his head. And then Nathan says in fine Hebrew: ***Atah hesh. Loosely translated: You command, David. See, so David has accused himself. It's a judicial parable. Jesus does this sometimes in the New Testament, specifically when he reuses this parable in Matthew 21:33 through 46. In that parable Jesus updates Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard, and asks what the owner of the vineyard should do to these people who had been over the vineyard who have -- in Jesus' day he says they've stoned others. They've sent others away naked. Others they've killed. Jesus says: What should the owner of the vineyard do with these renters who have been so vicious and so mean spirited? And the people in Jesus' day in Matthew 21 say: He should bring those wretches to a wretched end. And Jesus says: You've just accused yourselves. Because you are those very people. All right. So that's what Isaiah is doing. He's using a judicial parable so that people end up accusing themselves at the Feast of Tabernacles. All right. Well, let's go ahead and look at the text specifically. Verse 1: I will sing now to my beloved a song of my beloved of his vineyard. All right, what's the vineyard? The vineyard is the nation of Israel. Again, Exodus 15:17 and also Psalm 80:8 through 18 would provide added depth and understanding how Israel is this vine planted in the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey, so that they produce fruit. Fruit that will last. This vineyard in Verse 1 of Chapter 5 of Isaiah was planted on a very fertile hill. So we want to understand what's behind all of this. The very fertile hill. A land flowing with milk and honey. God took the best vine, we'll talk about that momentarily, and put it in the best place for maximum fruit. Verse 2: What did God do? He hoed it and he cleared it of stones. And he planted in it a soreqah, that's the Hebrew word. A soreqah, a choice vine. This word appears only two other times in the Old Testament. It's the best of the best. It's AAA. It's 10. It's A plus. Whatever metaphor you want to use, this is the best vine in the best place. Now, when did God clear it of stones? This would take us back to the book of Joshua where God cleared the Promised Land of all the Canaanites and Hivites and Jebusites and Amlicites and Moabites and Edomites and Bud Lights and Miller Lites and flea bites and mosquito bites. Are you with me out there? So the land is cleared of stones. And the soreqah, this choice vine, is planted in the land flowing with milk and honey. And what did God do in Verse 2? He built in its midst a tower. You would never build a tower of stone in a vineyard to live. You would plant a little hut, a little tent. What does this it tell us? Many times in parables in both Testaments, there's normally something of a shock value where something just doesn't make sense. For example, in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke Chapter 15, the father runs to the prodigal son. A First Century Palestinian Jewish man would never run. That would be socially unacceptable. There's the shock value. This God will run to meet wayward sinners, even if it is embarrassing to him. Even if it is humbling for him. The same truth is here in this parable in Isaiah Chapter 5. What's the shock here? The tower planted in the midst. God sees in the midst of his people in Chapter 7 Verse 14 of Isaiah as we've said already: His name is God with us. So this owner of the vineyard is right in the middle. Inhabits the vineyard by means of this tower. Well, it goes on in Verse 2. He makes a wine vat for it. And he waited. He waited. This is a word that's going to be repeated two more times in this particular parable. God is a patient God. He waited. A soreqah vine wouldn't produce fruit for four or five years. So this is a very patient owner of the vineyard. He's very patient. Slow to anger it says numerous times in the Old Testament. For example, Jonah 4 Verse 2, if you want to look that up. Slow to anger. Abounding in steadfast love. He's a patient God. He waits for ***anavene and he gets ***beshuene in the Hebrew. He waits anavene, good grapes. But he gets beshuene, sour, stinking rotten grapes. This is a love story gone sour and south. Israel is sour grapes. What's that all about? We'll come back to that at the end of this time on this particular question. So Verse 3, the prophet asks the people to judge between the owner of the vineyard and himself. Verse 4, what more could the owner of the vineyard had done for this particular vine? He did everything, didn't he? The fertile hill. He cleared it of stones. He lived right in the middle of it. But he waited, you see. The second time we have this word in Verse 4. He waited for good grapes, on in a convenient, and he get beshuene, sour stinking grapes. What is God going to do? Verse 5. He's going to destroy the vineyard. He's going to burn it and allow horses to trample down its walls. Verse 6 thorns and thistles will grow in the vineyard. And here is the covenant curse. God will not command rain on the vineyard. The vineyard is going to die. So there you are at the Feast of Tabernacles. You're celebrating. And you hear about these rotten people in the vineyard who have not produced fruit. Who in the world are those dirty gods? The judicial parable comes out. Verse 7: The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And each man in Judah a planting of his delight. We have met the enemy. And he is us. You are this vineyard. You are the ones whom God has bestowed and lavished so much on. And you are the ones who came up with absolutely stinking rotten fruits. What was the stinking rotten fruits? I'm so glad you asked. The end of Verse 7: God waited -- there's the third time. This is a patient God. He waited for justice and behold, bloodshed. For righteousness and behold, crying out. Justice and righteousness. Two keywords in prophetic literature. Two key ideas in the study of the book of Isaiah. What did these words mean? Well, first we have to look at a text in II Samuel Chapter 8. II Samuel Chapter 8 speaks about David. And David's final victory over the last enemy called the Edomites. And once the last enemy is destroyed in II Samuel 8 Verse 15, we have these words: David reigned over all of Israel. And David did -- here it is -- justice and righteousness for all the people. And in II Samuel Chapter 9, the narrative we have here defines what justice and righteousness is. It's taking care of a man named Mephilbosheth. Mephilbosheth was a son of Jonathan. And Mephilbosheth was dropped by someone caring for him at a small age. And he was crippled. He was an outcast. He was on the fringes of society. He had no economic addition that he could make to Israel. David in II Samuel 9 invites Mephilbosheth to come and eat at his table. That's what justice and righteousness is, see. Not just for a select few. Not just for the people who are rich and famous. Not just for the pretty people, the powerful people. But for people like Mephilbosheth. That's what Isaiah is crying out for in Chapter 5 Verse 7. Where is the justice? Where is the righteousness for the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the poor, the needy, the widow, the orphan, people who are crippled? Isaiah says it's not there. It's not there. God looked for justice and there was bloodshed. And for righteousness there was crying out. Israel failed miserably to produce fruits for all the people in their community. So where do we go from here? We have a new Israel. We have a new vine. And this vine produced fruit. In fact, Jesus' ministry is marked by taking care of people like Mephilbosheth and blind Bartimaeus and dead Lazarus and little Zacheus and the woman at Jacob's well and on and on it goes. You see, Jesus says: Whatever you do to the least of these, brothers, you've done unto me. Jesus is finally the faithful vine who demonstrates justice and righteousness for sinners and marginalized people like you and me. So there you have it. Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard.