Isaiah 5-6

Introduction

I know Wednesday nights always hard people to get here about the seven o’clock hour. I found out in the auditorium all the time. But I hope there’ll be several more come in because I think it’s so important we try to keep up uh with the studies in Isaiah. I told uh I think it was Aurelia, I said if you ever had a class of math in the house in school, it was important to every lesson. You miss a lesson and you kind of missed out on some things. So studying Isaiah, while uh you know, one just doesn’t exactly feel like a math class, but it is important to try to keep up keep up one with the other. And I hope thus far you’ve not become discouraged, but rather encouraged to say, hey, it doesn’t read like maybe some parts of the Bible, and maybe a little more, it takes a little more thought.

Well, what’s this talking about and backing off? But uh it’s a great book, obviously, for having so many sites of quotations in the New Testament. I said some 60 quotations in the New Testament, some 85 different citations of uh those. Some of those 60 are repeated more than once. Obviously, it’s an important prophecy. And we also many times uh, you know, Isaiah is called the dean of the prophets or the messianic prophet, and and consequently uh that attributes the fact that it’s a very important study. We we began of course uh with chapter one, and that’s uh kind of you might say uh a prototype of the whole book. And you grasp that then you kind of grasp really what is the major role and purpose of our Isaiah.

And uh in those chapters, of course, we learn some things of God’s attitude toward his people. So let’s let me start always. I want to kind of till we get really where we just answer them like that. Some questions about Isaiah. First of all, if somebody were asking you what does the word Isaiah mean? What would you say, Doug? His word, his name. Literally means anybody? Prophet, spokesman. No, that’s what a prophet is. His name means salvation of the Lord. Name means salvation of the Lord. And if you were to give an approximate date in the history of the Old Testament, where would you fit Isaiah? What dates do we usually give for him? About what? 700 BC. You said 739 to 690. Alright. We we say somewhere around 739 because in our lesson tonight, he it was in the year that King Uzziah died that he had the vision of the Lord and the call.

And we usually date that somewhere around 739 BC. And if he prophesied for nearly something like 50 years or so, somewhere around 690. It’s hard to be just exact and say this is definitely it, but in that period of time. So if you’re thinking about Old Testament history, where does that fit? First of all, and I say where does it fit? With the nation of Israel. Were they still as one body or had they already divided? Divided by the right. Around the divided kingdom, then we. And in fact, when did the northern ten tribes fall into the hands of the Assyrian captivity? What date do we usually give for that? 72, 722. Yeah, somewhere around 722, generally is the date we’ll give, which means Isaiah was very active at the time the northern kingdom was taken into the hands of the Assyrians.

Well, when do we date for Judah falling? You might give three different dates. I mean, first of all, when was Daniel taken captive? It’s usually when we’ll start with the fall in this 605 BC. John’s just taught all this if you guys were in your class here in this classroom last time. But when was the temple just about destroyed?

Usually 687 to 686, somewhere around there. Now, why would I bring that up? Except if Isaiah finished his prophecy around 690, I said 687, I mean 587, about a hundred years before the temple was destroyed. He his last work. So give or take. So the prophecy of Isaiah is certainly important in the history. I want you to get the time in your mind and background obviously. And obviously, um, if the northern kingdom was taken into captivity 72, Isaiah wasn’t taken captive because where did he live? Where did he where did Isaiah live? Jerusalem. Alright, and he prophesied mainly to the southern kingdom, didn’t he? To Judah. And therefore, why was there a need for him? What was the spiritual condition of Judah at the time he began his prophecy?

What was a let me go back. Let me ask the other question. What was the economic condition? They had all they need. Very prosperous, and that’s how we got that last Sunday’s lesson, even. They were full of pride because of it. And that you know, with with prosperity often comes the feeling of self-security. I think our nation is certainly on that trail. We’re self-secure. We’re not going to be defeated. We’re not concerned at all. We we may hear the news about what Iran’s doing and North Korea is doing or whatever. But frankly, the average person in this country, we’re quite self secure. And we may be, we we may not fall. But but nations before us have fallen who thought they were secure, and Judah is one of them.

It’s a lesson learned from the Bible, in fact. The fact is that with that economic came and that self-security came, what kind of a spiritual attitude then? Yeah, this that’s enough. That says it. In fact, in chapter one, what did God say? They were sick, how sick were they in a body? Head to toe. And how would God listen to their prayers? Wouldn’t he listen to them? You see, that’s another great lesson, I think, for today, because how many people today think, well, it doesn’t really matter. I may not be very religious, but boy, when I get in trouble, I pray. But does God always hear everybody’s prayer? He doesn’t promise to hear everyone’s prayer. And certainly those who are caught up with false religion. And yet these people were sacrificing to God.

What made their religion false? Because they made sacrifices. What did God say about their sacrifices? He didn’t like it. Well, I didn’t want it. I will not, I will not have them. In fact, God’s wrath was really somewhat stirred up about it. He said, I’ve had enough of burnt offerings of rams and fat fed cattle. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls and or of lambs or goats. Well, with that attitude, we learn how important it is, and Isaiah is going to stress it over and over and over again. The sins of Judah and how important it is to do God’s will in God’s way. Now, lesson Sunday in chapter two, we learn you might say Jerusalem in the ideal. Because chapter two, verses one through four is a very important prophecy.

How that uh that in the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established in the top of the mountains, all nations shall flow into it. The word of the Lord will go forth from Jerusalem. A picture, I think, in prophecy of what the church. Today, the Lord’s house, the Lord’s family, exalted above all the hills. All nations flow into it because it is not simply for those who may be born a Jew, but rather the gospel is for all. And if the word of the Lord first was preached in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2, we read of that. But after those verses of chapter 2, he then talks about Jerusalem, the real. Now that’s Jerusalem, the ideal. But then in chapter 2, beginning with about verse 6, he would say, verse 6 of chapter 2, you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they’re filled with eastern ways.

In other words, what’s happened to you? Well, they they got like the neighbors about them. They began to build their idols. And yet in all of that, they still thought themselves quite secure. And they were full of pride. And therefore he speaks about it in chapter 2, how that their pride would be brought down. And then the chapter 3, in fact, how that he would just turn topsy turvy, you might say.

People of immature and certainly not good wisdom. What’s going to happen to Judah? It is going to fall. God is going to take away. Even he talks about the women in the last few verses of chapter three. Because women were involved just like the men. And uh no doubt women influenced even the men of that time, but they were just as guilty as the men, we might say. So from Jerusalem the ideal to Jerusalem the real, and finally in chapter 4, the first uh three or four, we’re real all chapter four, you might say Jerusalem the redeemed. And it’s a messianic prophecy that there’s going to be a time. So here’s what Isaiah does. He prophesies to the people, repent. You’re guilty before God, you need to turn back.

1. The Vineyard of the Lord

But if you don’t, God will spare how much? A remnant. He said, You’d be like Sodom and Gomorrah if I did not at least spare the remnant. And so there would be out of that come the Messianic prophecies, the time of the future. God would remember his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. People didn’t deserve it. His people didn’t deserve it. But there seemingly always were at least a few who remained faithful. Now in chapter 5, our lesson starts with a parable. In the first few verses, it’s a easily understood.

In verse 1, in my well beloved, has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, he cleared out its stones and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst and also made a wine press in it. So he expected it to bring forth good grapes. But it brought forth what? Wine. The vineyard of the Lord. And what do you think this probably represents? Rebellion.

He made them a nation. It wasn’t of their doing. They prospered. They’ve been given the land to live in that God promised them. Even God had promised to Abraham, hadn’t he? And as they came out of Egyptian bondage, they went to their land. And in every way, God had blessed them. And so in verse 4, what more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Can you feel the perhaps the exasperation of God? Jeremiah, even almost a hundred years later. Jeremiah, God through Jeremiah, said much the same thing. Why have you turned against me? Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet because he wept for the condition that was going to fall upon Jerusalem and Judah. He wept from God’s perspective.

It was kind of like this. What has God done? What has he not done that you needed? Why would you turn against the Lord? And so in chapter 5 of Isaiah, we have much that same kind of feeling and questioning. What more could I have done? And so in verse 5, he said, Now please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned. Break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I’ll lay it waste. It shall not be pruned or ducked, but there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also commend the clouds that they rain no rain on it. That’s pretty hard, isn’t it? Is that too hard? Why, verse 7, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant.

He looked for justice, what did he get? Oppression. He looked for righteousness, what did he get? A cry for heaven. And so in verse 8, woe to those who join house to house, they had fill to fill, etc. And one of your uh applications of this uh of this lesson, I referred you to this very point in Isaiah 5, in fact, verse 25, I went forward, where in Isaiah 5, verse 25, he says, the anger of the Lord is aroused against his people. He has stretched out his hand against them, stricken them. The hills trembled. Their carcasses were as refused in the midst of the truth of the streets. Point I made from that, and as you look through this chapter, and we’ll have some others later on too.

This looks like a hard and uncaring God. Is that the kind of God that we would think of? I’m afraid in our generation of time, so many people, shall I say, the common people of the world have listened to some of denominational preachers who emphasize the love of God? Let’s just preach love. Let’s just preach the message of love. Well, obviously, we can’t overdo the love of God in the real sense, for God is love. The very fact that we have the promise of the provision for eternal life through Jesus Christ is an act of love. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. What we must remember is God is a God of wrath as well. He is a God of justice.

Yeah. But did God say, Well, now you’re my chosen, and it really doesn’t matter what you do, I’m going to still bless you. It’ll be all right. Is that the God you you see in the Bible? No. Just the opposite, isn’t it? He loved them. He provided for them, just like this vineyard is. He said, I planted, I dug out all the stones, I planted the very best vine. The choices of vine that you can find. I put in that vineyard. I made everything just especially for you, and what have you done with it? And so is God unjust by having wrath? Certainly not. In fact, in chapter 5, there’s six woes that are found in this chapter. And I, you know, one of the things to me in studying the prophets is how much history really does repeat itself.

2. Woe to Those Who Join House to House

And I mean by that, people of later generations all look back at this and say, we’re doing like they did. And we ought to learn a lesson from it. And surely if God’s wrath was stirred up against those people that were chosen by him to be his people, you think his wrath would be stirred up against us. What are the six woes? Verse 8, first of all, woe to those who join house to house. They add field to field, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land. In my hearing, the Lord of hosts said, truly many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones without inhabitants. For ten acres of vineyards shall yield one bath, and a homework of seed shall yield one ephah.

We’ll talk about that for a moment in just a moment. But uh who uh who what prophet is contemporary with Isaiah and Micah? Let’s turn to Micah chapter 2. In Micah chapter 2 and in verse 2, I think we find even Micah saying something very similar to this same point. Micah 2 and verse 2. Well, I’ll just say verses 1 and 2.

You have it, Doug? Why don’t you read it? Woe to them that despise iniquity and work evil upon their beds when the morning is light. They practice it because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet, coop covet fields, and take them by violence and houses and take them away. So they oppresses, oppresses, oppress a man and his house, even a man and its heritage. Alright. Both Micah and Isaiah speak of the covetousness, the average, the greed, the selfish ambition. In effect, rich landowners never get enough. You know, what is covetousness? You know anybody that’s covetous? Often say I think that’s a question. You know, it’s probably a deceitful kind of a sin. Because it’s really not wrong to desire things, is it?

No, we work hard with the hands, and we may purchase things, and that’s good. But the covetous person is never content. And in fact, his desire for more possesses him. That’s really what covetousness becomes, where it really you have this goal. And so he says they join house to house and land to land. They never get enough. It’s like a man says, I’m not covetous, I just want the property next to my fences. He gets that. I’m not covetous, I just want the same story. He keeps repeating it until finally he’s possessed by that. He’s constantly striving for things. And what happens, Isaiah, in here in Micah also is in the process, what happens to the poor? Can the rich outbid the poor and take the property away from the poor?

We ever hear stories sometimes of that happening. And where the rich are left without provision for them. And so I think that’s number one woe. He said they join house to house and field to field. But what will God do? Well, verse 10, what happens finally is he says, Ten acres of vineyard, vineyards shall yield one bath. Now we don’t measure in Ephes and Bath and Homers. Anybody have happened to work that out, what he’s talking about, Jim? Bath of six gallons of over 30, 360 pounds, and an equus 36 pounds. All right, translate that into our language now. What does he say when he says 10 acres will yield one bath? Well, six gallons wouldn’t be very much produce for ten acres. Ten acres uh I read somewhere where ten acres is about what one yoke of oxen could plow in ten days.

And then when he got through with all that, all it would yield would be six to eight gallons. So that’s that’s not very good, right? And the epha was a dry grain measurement, whereas the bath was a liquid measurement. But a Homer, when he would say that a Homer of seed shall yield one epha. You’d hope if you went out and planted, you you guys who are farmers, if you planted a gallon of seed, how much produce would you hope to get back from it? A bunch. More than a gallon? Oh, absolutely. Well, what this is saying, so you plant, you plant ten gallons and you get only one back. One tenth, the uh the epha is one tenth of a homer. So that’s what he’s saying.

3. Woe to Those Who Follow Intoxicating Drink

Look, you go out and labor hard, but God’s gonna make you where you’re not very prosperous at all. Woe to those who are covetous. Number verse 11, woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night, till wine inflames them. We have any people like that these days? Uh ever now and then in the newspaper or the news, I hear something about uh the bars can stay open how late in Orlando? Oh two. Till two. And I think some have been complaining that was too early. Right? Are there those who can’t get enough? We always said you always said the private bars that can still connect to two. It can stay open after two, yeah. They’re those who search for them, right?

So they it says they continue until night till win until wine inflames them. And not only that, uh the provocative music arouses the sensuous excesses. The verse 12, the harp and the strings, the tambourine, the flute and wine are in their feasts, but they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of his hands. Therefore, my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, their multitude dried up with thirst. What do you mean they don’t have any knowledge? Is there any reason why they don’t have any knowledge?

And Hosea chapter, all right, Dave. You start to say something. That’s right. Uh and Hosea, Hosea even said, My people are God who was in my people are destroyed for their lack of knowledge. But he blamed the priests for not teaching and for the people for not listening. He said, The priests have gotten to where they’re just teaching what the people want to hear, rather than teaching what God wants them to hear. And so they they have no knowledge, but don’t blame, you know, don’t say God didn’t give it to them. He he provided they shut their ears. In fact, in verse 14, Sheol has enlarged itself. Now, somebody may have a different word there instead of shiol. What is Sheol? The grave. I think the NIV has death right there, but still the same.

So it’s enlarged his mouth. In other words, God’s going to make it where are they just going to uh completely continue to rebel in their wine and you know it’s always going to eat, drink, and be merry all the days that they won’t know. There’ll come a time where death has enlarged itself, opened its mouth beyond measure. Their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled. The eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment. And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness. Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, and in the waste places of the fat ones, strangers shall eat.

4. Those Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil

You see, within this, you have mixed together the wrath of God against the evil, but there’s also the promise for those who are righteous. Those who are humble will be blessed by the Lord. Verse 18 starts a third of six woes. Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if with a cartwheel.

You hear that today, even. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, wow, what has God done? Let him do something that we can see and know. Uh but it’s a said, you know, that draw chords uh where he says that they uh cords of vanity. Uh with this mockery, it’s it’s like uh one would pull a wagon cart and they they have sin that follows just like the wagon follows the the ox in front of it, so it is that here goes their sin continues to multiply, and they’re saying all along, well, we don’t see anything that God has done, sort of mocking. Let it let him let it let him do something that we can see. Following that in verse 20, they reverse moral distinctions. Oh, 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? I ask on your thought question. Can you give any examples of that happening today? Any illustrations of that, maybe? Anybody come up with one? That happened today. Sure. Uh just enforcing the speed limit. Okay. All right. People that want to speed, they don’t want to see the speed limit in force. In fact, when the police do it, they blame them for having quotas, and they blame them for speed traps, and they judge them for having evil motives. Yeah. All right. Something that should be good, enforcing the law, they consider it evil. Evil. All right. Any other examples? Divorce. Divorce. Divorce is good, isn’t it? We’re just so tired of one another, and God wants me to be happy.

Anything else? What about homosexualism? Yeah, oh, this is the simply the alternate lifestyle. What’s so wrong with homosexuality? Anything else? About abortion. Oh. All right. Look at Romans chapter 1. Just to point out a word that’s there. In Romans chapter 1, he speaks about how the wrath of God is stirred up against evil. Verse 18, and it continues on listing some of the things that men have done. But in verse 24, there’s a series of three different verses that say God gave them up. Romans 1 24, God also gave them up to uncleanness. In the lust of their bodies to dishonor their bodies among themselves, exchange the truth of God for the lie. Sexual immorality is really the word that’s there translated uncleanness. In verse 26, for this reason, God gave them up to vile passions.

You may have a translation that renders that as homosexuality. Because as he describes in the next verses, women exchange their natural use for what’s against nature, and men leaving the natural use of woman, burning lust for one another, men with men committing what’s shameful. So here’s homosexuality. But to me, when I get down to verse 28, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them, here’s the word again, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Debasem. Anybody have a different word for that? Retropate. Reprobate mind. Depraved. Depraved mind. Literally, it carries the idea in the Greek. They get to where they cannot distinguish right from wrong. Good from evil. It’s kind of like the verse of Isaiah 5.22.

They call evil good and good evil. They transfer sweet for bitter, bitter for sweet. And there are people who have no fear of the Lord, even in our generation, who indeed have come to that point that, you know, God gave them up. He did not force them to serve him. He gave them over to do their own thing. They didn’t want God, so you know, God let them go. But what happens is evil men wax worse and worse, as Paul wrote Timothy. And so you can get to the point where truly they don’t feel any guilt because they don’t have the sense of moral right or moral wrong. And I’m afraid we’ve got a lot in our generation and our nation who have reached that point.

Does history repeat itself? Amen. There’s somewhere in the Bible where it says that the young does not blush. Yeah. Well, there’s the shame of their sin. They do not blush. It’s in Jeremiah chapter 6, I think it is. But now, with uh verse 21, we have the fifth woe. Uh verse 21, woe to those who are what? Wise in their own eyes, prudent in their own sight. Conceit. Well, when man rejects the counsel of God, what happens to him? He’s able to guide himself. And so, you know, even Solomon in Proverbs 14, there’s a way which seems right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. But but many, many passages speak about that. Even this context in Romans chapter 1, I was just referring to.

Says as much that men, they become wise in themselves. Thinking that says to be wise, they really become foolish. They become as fools. But then finally, where he says in the verse 22, the sixth woe, they pervert justice and righteousness. He speaks here again about them drinking wine, and yet it’s a different one from the first or the second woe that we read back in verse 11. In verse 23, they’re mighty, their men mighty at drinking wine. Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink. But here’s what they do who justify the wicked for a bribe, take away justice from the righteous man. So in their rulers whose addiction to strong drink prevented ruling with keen minds. And there’s a facade of maybe they are performing important duties as judges, but their attitude is such that they have a little bit under the table, and they’ll pervert justice.

Again, let’s look at Micah. In Micah chapter 3, we find Micah saying some of the similar things. In Micah chapter 3, verses, I believe it’s 9 through 12, 9 through 11, I want you to see. Micah 3 beginning in verse 9. Now hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob, rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity, who build up Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with iniquity. In verse 11, particularly. Her heads judge for what? Her bribe. Her priests teach for pay. Her prophets divine for money. The very even the religious leaders. You reckon there are any preachers today that do that? Surely none. Inverse the rest of that verse says, yet they lean on the Lord. And they say, Is not the Lord among us?

No harm can come on us. I just think that’s an outstanding portrayal of men past and present who think that really doesn’t matter. You know, well, we’re we’re right. We’re religious. And yet they have perverted justice and righteousness of God. Mm-hmm. What’s John? You know what the difference is in verse 22 that we’re talking about men mighty at drinking wine, the difference between that and intoxicating drink. Well, uh, well, particularly with well, let’s just say with verse 11, where he says these in verse 11 have the intoxicating drink, they continue with it all day long. They rise early and on into the night. Whereas I think in verse uh 22, you you’ve obviously got something different. They’re just a they’re detached from each other. And and I think the emphasis in verse 22 has to do with the fact that they are perverting justice.

5. The Anger of the Lord Is Aroused

You know, I think let’s do it this way, probably the socially elite drink, but with it they they uh they may not always be drunk, but they get high, and they probably sometimes uh uh they have they have their uh cronies that they will befriend and give what do business with. Do business with, I guess is the right word. So I think the wine is more associated with that than with drunkenness, like verses 11 and 12 about that. Patty. You said it exactly before I even said it. They drink with their friends and then they work out deals with their friends. Yes, that kind of thing. I think that’s more the idea. That’s well said. Well, what is God’s attitude toward it? Verse 25. Therefore, anytime you see the word therefore, you know it precedes with what’s written before.

The anger of the Lord is aroused against his people. He stretched out his hand against them, stricken them, and the hills trembled. Their carcasses were his refuge in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away. But his hand is stretched out still. We’re gonna get this later when he talks about the nations. It doesn’t mean his hand is stretched out still. He doesn’t relent. You know, we’d say uh oh Lord, please quit. This is enough. Have I been punished enough? But he said, No, no. In fact, what happens later is verse 26. He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar.

He calls out really what’s describing here, Assyria. What’s gonna happen from a distant nation? Why? A distant nation. And and uh he will whistle to them from the end of the earth, surely they shall come with speed and swiftly. No one will be weary or stumble among them, no one will slumber or sleep, nor will the belt on their loins be loose, nor the strap of their sandals be broken. He’s saying it’s they’re gonna come with haste. And the Lord is really using them. Isaiah 10 in verse 5, he talks about Assyria as the rod of his anger, and so even here he’s giving a prefix to it that God calls them and they will be used. In fact, in verse 28, their arrows are sharp, all their bows are bent, their horses’ hooves will seem like flint, their wheels like a whirlwind, their roaring will be like a lion.

6. Isaiah’s Vision: Woe Is Me, I Am Undone

Like a lion before its prey may roar. He said that’s where they’ll be like. In fact, they will roar like young lions. Yes, they will roar and lay hold of the prey. They will carry it away safely, and no one will deliver them. And that day they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened by the clouds. Kind of a dark picture, isn’t it? But you see, the justice of God against sin. That’s really what you’re seeing in this. Isaiah prophesied, and we look back and know the truth of it. It happened, just like God had promised it would. Chapter 6 is one of those chapters we sometimes wonder how Isaiah is put together.

You’d have thought chapter 6 ought to be chapter 1. And yet Isaiah is not written in a format like we would say, okay, every chapter follows chronologically behind the other. In fact, there’s some question, and I don’t know the answer, and I’m not sure anyone does that’s living today to say how and why did it get put together in this form? We know it has two major divisions. In fact, we say the first, how many chapters are the Assyrian period? 39 and the last 27 have to do with the Babylonian period. We can do that much. But other than that, sorting it out. But chapter 6 is Isaac one of the highlights of the chapter. You need to stop and think. How many times have you heard?

Oh, not really.

What a great statement. What Isaiah sees in the year of the king of Uzziah died, he saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high nept to the train of his robe filled the temple. Can you imagine that? You ever been to a wedding where this bride has this long train? We don’t have too many today like that. I guess I’ve seen it maybe with a marriage of Diana in England, you know, you see those royal weddings. But you wouldn’t dare step on that train. I mean, you know. But this train fills the room. And while there are many scriptures in the Bible of God’s uh being certainly approachable, yet here’s one where he is exalted. And you don’t really approach you, the train fills. And then what happens?

Above it stood the seraphim. Each one with six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew. Again, we can imagine why is it all like that? Maybe, maybe there’s some sense of humility with it as they cover their face and the cover their feet. But the cry of one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And then at that moment the post of the door were shaken. Now, if you were in this presence, can you imagine? What if all of a sudden we’ve had a rainstorm tonight? What if all of a sudden this building began to tremble? But you knew it wasn’t just a storm from nature.

Maybe you’re in the temple area. You’re in the vision with God. You know the post are shaking because of God’s presence. And further than that, the voice of him who cried out, the house was filled with smoke. Kind of awe-inspiring, right? So I said, verse 5, Woe is me, for I am undone. Because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. What do you think he’s saying? I’m undone. Any reason to think Isaiah was a bad kid growing up? Got in all kind of trouble? He didn’t see God was to die. That’s right. And frankly, in comparison with God, who is he? I mean, I’m trying to say here, maybe, as far as we know, might have been a good, you know, we say, Well, he came from good people.

In fact, his father was probably the brother of the king, royalty, and yet he said, I’m a sinner. Who am I? Come more to the understanding, there’s more and more people today who don’t think that they’re, they think, you know, I’m a good guy. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And it’s it’s hard to convince them of the necessity and the nature of their sin and the really terrible nature of it. And that ultimately comes from a lack of knowledge of who God is and how perfect and exalted he is. We we people tend to compare themselves with other people. I know I’m a lot better than that person on the side of the street with a sign of uh I’m homeless. Oh well, I know I’m a lot better than that person that’s in jail.

And frankly, we might even be in a group like this and say, Oh, I think I’m better than that fellow over there. You know, I’m here all the time. He doesn’t come or she whatever. We make comparisons. But the very best in the presence of God can say, I’m undone. Who am I? So what happens here? Here’s he feeling the guilt of his sin in comparison with God, and one of the seraphims comes having a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away. Your sin purged. Talk about the grace of God. Number one, we were talking about the normative man’s sin in comparison with the holiness of God.

And then number two, the grace of God. Did he deserve this? Nothing had he done to deserve this. And really, when we say we’re saved by grace, we have done nothing to deserve forgiveness of sins. Only by the grace of God as He made the provision for us. And then you could say, and I’m hurrying through this, I wish I’d left more time for it, but in verse 8, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for me? And Isaiah quickly says, I’m not I’m here on my Lord. Send me. Now at this point, as he asks, Lord, where is it that you’re going to send me? And how long will I be there? What will I gonna be doing?

He doesn’t say any of those, does he? What’s he told? He might want to change his mind when you read the rest of this. Because the rest of it, he said, Go and tell this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, the ears heavy, shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed. Wait a minute, Isaiah. You’re supposed to go, and you’re not going to have any success. I mean, the people you preach to, they don’t want to hear it. They won’t understand it. They’re going to close their eyes. You still want to say, Hear my Lord’s in me.

Anybody note how many times that verses 9 and 10 was quoted in the New Testament? This is one of those one quotations that’s found five times. It’s quoted in Matthew 13, 13 through 15. I asked that on your question. John chapter 12, 40, Mark chapter 4, 12, Luke chapter 8, 10, and Acts 28, verses 26 and 7. And you have that in your workbook, lesson too, those verses. So how many times? People may hear and do not understand? Is it God’s fault? Can see but don’t perceive. Because why? They close their eyes and close their ears. But I want to finish. Verse 11. Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant. The houses are without a man, the land is utterly desolate.

The Lord has removed men from afar, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. But yet a tenth will be in it.

Is that a remnant? Maybe. As a cherubim tree or as an old, whose stump remains when it’s cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump. There will still be, you know, the tree itself may be taken in captivity, but there’s going to be a stump there, and out of it will grow a new beginning. So out of the remnant, God’s people still came forth. Messiah was born of the seed of Abraham. Well, I wish I had a little more time. I want to go to those questions. I might start Sunday morning with those questions. So