Isaiah, Chapter 5
Isaiah 5:20-21 · Vern Peterman · Jan 29, 2006
Isaiah, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262342311877

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We'll be proceeding in our continuing study of Isaiah here, chapter five. As we do that, we're going to look at chapter five in a nutshell here. The first seven verses of chapter five are often called the song or sometimes the parable of the vineyard.

Unfortunately, it's not a happy song because it's a song that tells about how the Lord had prepared and provided for Israel. and how the Lord had watched over them and cared for them in so many ways. And yet, in spite of his diligence as the vineyard manager and as the one who watched over all the fine details, the vineyard was not productive. As a matter of fact, it was terribly disappointing. And that's the way the song gets written, the first seven verses here.

Then verses 8 through 23 list the behaviors and mindsets of those people in Judah as they continue their drift away from the things that the Lord had laid out. They had complete disregard for what the Lord had said. And Isaiah is given the tough task of laying out what those things are. Verses 24-30 begin to outline the things that are about to come upon the people because they are setting aside the things that the Lord had laid out for them.

And so that's not a pretty picture. One of the things that comes out as we look at this chapter, Isaiah's got a lot of tough things to say. Difficult things to say. And one of the things that falls out of that is at times the Lord gives people tough assignments. Difficult assignments. You may have had one or more of those yourself.

Isaiah had to tell the rulers and the entire population something that they didn't want to hear. They did not want to hear what he had to say, even though it was exactly what the Lord wanted him to say. Isaiah had to stand out, not only saying something against what was happening and what people were doing and how they were thinking and what their practices were, but he also had to live in contrast to that. He had to stand out from the culture around him that was falling apart.

Though here we are in the church as a God-created body, The truth is that the Lord may also put us in tough places, too. The Lord may give us, as part of His assignment to us, some tough things to do. The truth is there are lots of tough roles that the Lord might assign, aren't there? The role may be tough in part because grace isn't always welcomed. That's something that certainly the Lord has given us to communicate.

What? Do you mean I can't earn it? I can't earn my salvation? What? Do you mean there's nothing I can do to be worthy? There's nothing I can do to add to what the Lord has done? No. And that's not an easy message to convey. People also, as simple as the Gospel is, frequently don't understand it either.

Just think of it. Think of how tough a job it is. Here's Hal and Roger and Mike. Just think of how tough it is to work with me. How grueling it must be How arduous and difficult a task, how great a struggle it must be for Peggy and for Vonnie to play with this quartet.

The truth is the Lord may put us in a lot of difficult spots. The Lord may put us in a lot of difficult places. Being a Christian parent is a tough calling. Might even be being a husband and wife is a tough calling. One of the things that we've talked numerous times about, and certainly this last summer as we taught on it, was the challenge of being a Christian husband and wife.

It's not for the fainthearted, and it's certainly not for those wanting to follow in their own power. Now, there's something else I found interesting. There's a verse in here that I actually saw when I was going through engineering school years ago. And it's one that's frequently quoted in urban planning texts and things of that sort.

Isaiah 5.8. 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. How about that? That's what it's like. It's not really good if you're talking to your neighbor and your neighbor hands you the salt for your recipe through the kitchen window to the next kitchen. Right? It's not a good thing.

So anyway, this is an interesting one that even the world has recognized. We'll divide these two verses up that we'll be focusing on here. This first one, Isaiah 520, says, Woe to those who, is the way it starts out, who call evil, that is the things that are evil, call those good, and good evil. We have that going on in our very own culture, don't we? It happens right here, right in this land that we live in. Substitute darkness for light and light for darkness.

One of the things we see frequently is morally and spiritually horrible movies getting multiple awards. You did an excellent job of being completely decayed and decrepit. Or, even among Christians, a prayer request that really turns into just gossip could happen. A number of films have had excellent movie quality and terrible morals.

This is one place, christiananswers.net, by the way, I think it's worth checking out. They give a number of reviews. One of them is a current movie in the theaters now. Movie-making quality for Brokeback Mountain, five stars. Standing. However, moral content, extremely offensive. There is both a thumbs-up and thumbs-down message there. Very well done films.

We have a book that we've been talking about in the apologetics class, The Da Vinci Code. 40 million copies as of two weeks ago, sold worldwide. In March it comes out in paperback. May 19th will be the movie release. Very well done movie, again. Ron Howard, the director. Tom Hanks, actor.

However, it's full of falsehoods. We barely scratched the surface as we touched it in the apologetics elective last week Or here's one a message that some of the folks door-to-door I actually heard him tell me Christ died for us so that we can earn our own salvation Okay, he made it possible for us to do this Now this is a Hebrew poetic pattern it has woe to those who and then there's three statements that have although they say different things have a similar pattern don't they not only a similar literary pattern, but are essentially restating the same idea in different words. One of the things you'll notice, there's this mirror image that's going on here, okay? And in this mirror image you have evil, good, and good evil. Darkness for light, light for darkness, bitter for sweet, sweet for bitter, okay? So the mirror image is also in each one of these woe unto warnings that's given there.

So it's a statement of woe, so we need to ask the question, actually, in part because woe isn't a word that we use a lot. I don't know about you, but I usually don't go saying it too many times. Nancy can't handle that. OK. Besides, why would I need to? Anyway, so the question we have here, what does woe mean? So this is a woe, not a woe, OK? So you get the idea. W-H-O-A. So for a real woe, it's an expression of pain or grief, agony.

Sometimes despair is mixed in with it. It's either something that is happening now, as was happening with a computer yesterday, or it's anticipated in the future. Of course, that is part of what Isaiah is pointing to. This is, look at what's coming upon you, it's not good. It can be expressed about someone in their own life, the woe is me kind of phrase, It can be expressed by someone else about what is about to take place, or possibly is taking place. Isaiah is doing it in this passage, and he's actually going to make reference to himself in the next chapter here.

So we'll see that next week when we take a look at it. A woe is not just a minor irritation. People don't say, woe is me, I've got a hangnail. Woe is me, I've just got a little sliver. Woe is me. I don't have a fingernail file to get this snag off. A woe is not a minor irritation. It is something that happens that when it does take place, it's severe, it grabs your attention. It's what you think about or most of what you think about. It is something that is frequently radically life-changing in the negative. So Isaiah used this word for woe for others and for himself. And he uses it 20 times plus in the book of Isaiah. Six of them are in this one chapter. The six woes go like this. In chapter 5, woe to those who add house to house.

That's the one we looked at before. How about that? This is maximizing development at the expense of everything and anything else. Rise early and pursue strong drink. Early to bed and early to rise. Something about that. What you do after your rise matters.

And he's saying woe to that. Who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood. Ah, they have falsehood brought along in the trouble. Trouble? Yes. Falsehood added to it in order to make it become about. Add to that the ones we'll be looking at here called evil good and good evil and are wise in their own eyes and then are heroes in drinking wine. We'll of course be looking at these two here, 20 and 21. Let's take a look at verse 20 and kind of identify what each of those is saying.

The first one, call evil good and good evil. This first of the three warnings is clearly about the idea of confusing spiritual and moral evil. Moral definitions. Good is bad, bad is good. Or, substituting darkness for light. The second one here is using a metaphor, isn't it? Darkness and light, spiritually, morally, do make a difference.

And what you call what does matter. One of the things that happens in our household is I typically, not always, but I typically am the one who rises early. And Nancy would tell you, the thing that I just get horrified about is the thought of waking her. It doesn't bother her in the least because she goes back to sleep in three seconds. But it bothers me. So I don't like to wake her.

So frequently I'm up and I'm stumbling around in the dark. So sometimes if you were to think about what's it like when you walk around in the dark, if somebody were able to see you doing that, the behavior would be odd, very strange. The things that you reach out for bump into, don't reach when you thought you were reaching them, that kind of thing. Darkness and light do matter in the real world, in the physical world, and they do matter in the spiritual realm as well, and in the moral realm.

Substitute bitter for sweet. This is a third of those three warnings there. Here's another metaphor. And he uses, instead of sight, he uses taste as the example. Have you ever bitten into something and it doesn't at all taste like what you were expecting?

Once there was a lady, her name was Josie, and this was, I'd do work for her in her yard and trade for my work, she would fix me lunch, which was quite an undertaking for her. I'd work all day and so would she. Anyway. She was a great cook, and one of these old-fashioned cooks, it was a handful of this and a sprinkle of that, and she just put things together that way. Did a wonderful, wonderful job, except for once.

She switched the salt and the sugar quantities in the pumpkin pie, okay? And so while usually I raved about her food, I said, Josie, there's something not quite right about this, okay? The shocking taste was a little bit too much to take. And he's using the taste analogy here, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, to carry this point across. It's not a slight difference. It's not, hmm, that's a little off. It's shockingly different. Substantially different.

And one of the things I think for us to take a look at is, if you look at it, in the world around us, good and evil are often pitted against each other. These are themes in entertainment and books. We see it also in government, and a lot of that is certainly biblically justified. There are biblical basis for that. And even in a great many of the world's religions, good and evil are pitted against one another. How they're described is often different, but very commonly that's a major theme.

If we look at scripture, however, the Lord reveals himself to us in scripture. He is infinitely holy. Goodness is not just a relative quality, but an absolute quality, an infinite quality of the Lord. We kind of skip beyond the word good and use the word holy. His goodness is infinite and absolute. It is not something that just attaches to him, but something that is essential to his character. The other point we make here is evil isn't just opposition to God, it is the absence of God. It is the absence of His life. It is separation from God.

If you look at Ephesians 4 that we studied, this passage in 17-20 goes this way. He talks about the futility of the mind. He talks about being darkened in their understanding. He talks about ignorance that is in them, and the hardness of the heart, and having become callous, all descriptions of what's going on inside.

Why is the character of man, apart from God, described this way? Excluded from the life of God. It's missing something, and something that is essential. The nature of man, the sin nature, is trying desperately to find life apart from God. That he, the source of life, is excluded, and thus the rest of the mind of the sin nature is characterized this way. Notice, the practices flow out of the sin nature as described. The practices, we frequently talk about, well, there's this sin or that sin, and together we describe them as sins. The practice comes from a nature. And he spelled that out here.

There is the death-driven search in this sin nature. this one that lacks understanding, this one that is separated from the life of God. There is a death-driven search for an alternate life source. No, I don't want that. I don't want the life that God has. I'll find my own. But it's a desperate search. It is a death-driven search. This chronic lack of life is to fill this gaping hole that is in the heart of the unbeliever. to find a way to put life where life is not. If we think about it, people look at all kinds of things to try to find life. People chase all sorts of things, and the myth, and they spend billions of dollars conveying this myth to you, you know that, don't you? The myth is that there's life to be found outside of him.

Oh, you know how it goes. If you just buy this car, you'll be fulfilled and satisfied. You'll never want anything again until next year. If you just eat enough of our ice cream, if you just spend your money at our store, that will be satisfying to you. That will be fulfilling. You see, what folks are doing is they're being offered the water of life. They say, no, I'd rather not have that. I'd rather not have the life that God has. I'll find life somewhere else. I'll find that water elsewhere. Thank you. Or no thank you. Really what it ends up being, however, is a deluge of death. A deluge of death.

What does that look like? The world is forced by separation from the life of God to call life what is really death. You see that death out there? Oh, that's life. That's what they're telling you. They make the big switch. From then on, there really is no choice, is there? You've got to say, all these other things that I'm pursuing, all these things that I'm chasing, those are life. It's death, isn't it? But they're saying it's life. They have to. They have to do the switch. The evil good, the darkness light, the bittersweet.

If that isn't satisfying you with the hamburger, If you don't feel fulfilled inside, just biggie-size it. Then that'll do it. You just need more money. That'll do it. Oh, man, if I just had more of that stuff, then I'd be happy to the core. I would be fulfilled and delighted every moment.

What they do is they're given a choice for life, and they say, no, not that. And so they have no choice but to call death life. Personal preference. You hear that phrase, people have a preference for whatever it is. Do you know what the sin nature prefers? Death. The sin nature prefers death. To each his own. Each sin nature his own death. Born that way. How is the sin nature born? Exactly like it is, without God's life. But, it's born that way. Or the product of the environment. Why the product of the environment? because there's no life from the Lord.

What feels right? What feels right for the sin nature? Death. What's right for me, if I'm asking the sin nature? Death. Or you deserve... You hear that one? If you deserve what they tell you on television, how come they're not delivering it to your front door? What the sin nature deserves, it will ultimately get. but not what they're advertising.

You see, what they're doing is trifling with toxicity. Calling good evil and evil good isn't something you can do without consequence. In the same way you don't pull toxins out of the refrigerator and put it on the table for lunch without consequence, we can't take what flows from spiritual death and call it life. Ah, yes, a nice cup of life when it's really toxic death. One of the things that I did in the engineering realm before heading off to seminary is cleaning up a lot of toxic waste at different places. And boy, you had to be careful how you handled that stuff. You certainly didn't want to sit down with that stuff all over your hands and have lunch. Not the right thing to do.

But morally, spiritually, isn't that what the world's asking us to do? Isn't that what the sin nature says, oh, I prefer it? Preferred out of sin nature is 10 out of 10. The world doesn't have good answers, does it? It's important for us to recognize it. And that's what Isaiah is doing. He's calling, like we would say, a spade a spade. He's calling it what it is. Look, you're taking evil and you're calling it good. You're taking what is good and calling it evil. He's telling it like it is.

The world says, oh, well, you just need some of this. Not happy with that? Oh, we got the fix for that. You just need lots more of this, okay? That's exactly what you need. If you're not happy yet, just consume more of whatever it is. That'll fix it. Isn't that the world's message? Isn't that what the sin nature says? Oh, yes. Now, look at Romans 6, 4. What's the message there?

Therefore, we've been buried with Him through baptism, that is, being placed into. That's baptism, okay? into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness, and that word newness means a newness in kind, of a new kind, a newness of life, real life, not evil that's called good, not good that's called evil, but total, complete newness of kind. Identification with Christ is God's solution. The world has its own solution. That's everything else.

The moral relativism that's apparent in what Isaiah is saying. You know, this was said 2,700 years ago. Moral relativism isn't some new sophisticated thing that we just cooked up. Isaiah looked at it and he called it what it is. You guys are calling bitter sweet and sweet bitter. Room's pitch black and you're saying it's light. He says, this is no good.

Moral relativism says there's no absolute basis for judging what's right and wrong. How can you possibly tell? What's right and wrong can only be determined between human beings within a specific cultural setting. That's exactly what Isaiah is pointing out in this passage. You are looking at yourselves between human beings to determine what's right and wrong. And the truth is, there isn't any right way to do it. What's right in our culture might be wrong in another.

A number of you are aware that my grandmother was a missionary in the Fiji Islands during the time when there were cannibals there. And she spoke to people who were and had been cannibals. And one of the interesting things there, capital city, Suba, so here's the main city, and she said you'd go to the marketplace and there would be chicken meat and pig meat and people meat lying out at the market. You could buy any one you want. And she said people would come to the Lord and then they would come kind of with a look of horror and they would say, I'm glad the Lord forgave me because I used to eat people.

And they recognized that this was wrong. And it was not just because it was some cultural thing. It wasn't because in the white culture we don't eat people, but in the Fijian culture we do. But it's because when they came to the Lord, it was clear from the Lord's character, eating people isn't the right thing to do. From His character, because it is not just relatively wrong, it's absolutely wrong. because they had to murder somebody to do it. They had to take somebody's life involuntarily to do it. That's not relatively right, depending on what culture you're in. That's flat out wrong.

And they realized it once they came to know the Lord. Good and evil have an absolute definition, not because we're absolutely adamant about it, and Burns really narrow-headed and narrow-minded, but because of God's character. God is the one whose absolute character is expressed by what Isaiah is laying out here. God isn't just laying out, this is morality because I'm just playing a game. We just have some sort of a cosmic monopoly here. And here's the rules of the game, and when we're all done, we'll put the money back in the box. No, that's not what this is. It's not inconsequential.

Isaiah, as we've mentioned before, and we're going to mention it again because he keeps saying it more than any other book in the Bible, says God is the Holy One of Israel. He is uniquely holy, and He is absolutely holy. He is the unique, singular, Holy One of Israel, holy through and through by His essential, eternal nature. Holiness isn't something that just sticks to the outside, or He kind of says, you know, that's mine. personal preference. I kind of like holiness. No, it is his basic character and that's what's being expressed. Those who call evil good and good evil substitute light for darkness and darkness for light.

Absolute holiness was expressed in the law that was given to Israel, not just in the Ten Commandments, they had 613 laws. All those laws, 365 of them, said don't do this, don't do that. All those laws expressed God's moral character. That's why they were there, because of God's character. Absolute holiness was expressed to Israel by means of the law given to Israel. They see that even in the New Testament here in Romans 7. You shall be holy for I am holy. He asked the people in Israel to be holy because he's holy. It's his character that is the basis of what he was telling them to do.

The people of Israel are blessed or cursed based upon their living conformity to that holiness, that morality that came from God's character. Now, in the eternal position that the Lord has placed us as believers, we have placed faith in Him and we are made holy. It isn't our best efforts to reveal God's holiness that make us good, not at all. His holiness is expressed in believers in the church because as they place their faith and trust in Him and walk in the eternal position that He has given each believer, which is holy, it's to be lived out in everyday life.

But He could write to the believers in Ephesus, and later on He was going to say, Stop your stealing! Quit lying to one another! But before he even said that, chapters before, he said, saints in the church in Ephesus, their position was fixed in the heavenlies. His life for the believer is given for us in our walk, whereas our life is in the heavenlies with him, that great exchange.

Now, the next verse here talks about those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. And this is human beings evaluating, am I clever? Am I wise? Judging for themselves. And we have, guess what? Another Hebrew poetry pattern. But what does it amount to? Human beings evaluating themselves, I'm wise, or even telling another human being, oh, you're wise, is a funhouse mirror image without the fun. Without the fun. This verse is about how human beings assess wisdom and cleverness amongst each other. We asked the question before, where does life come from? This answers the question, where does wisdom come from?

We might say in our culture, oh, that person just has a poor self-image. Or they have too good of a self-image. That might be the problem. But Isaiah points out the real problem with any humanly based insight. We're looking at ourselves trying to figure out, am I wise? Trying to look at ourselves anyway. They're assessing their own wisdom by human measure, by human viewpoint, based on how humans see it. And that's not going to work. Not good enough.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. It's clear Isaiah is pointing out to these people as he is examining and seeing Here's what's going on as the Lord is having him speak out his truth. He's pointing out to these people their life does not match up with God's absolute standard of holiness. And because they're looking at each other, they're free to call darkness light, to call bitterness sweet, to call good evil. So they think. And so they think without consequence. The truth is that there are consequences for everything, aren't there? There are consequences for everything.

Today, I'm thankful that the Lord has taken so many of the eternal consequences of doing those things that I have been the source of and placed them upon Himself. Taken upon Himself by His marvelous grace, His love. And though He certainly sees the way in which I need to grow and to change, the Lord has by His marvelous grace given His life, and I can count upon His life because I'm in Him and not my own.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage here, we're just thankful that we don't have to look upon our own human judgment. We don't have to look upon our own human resources. We don't have to look at life and struggle with what is wise, what is true, what does matter, where is life. Where do I find life? Instead, we know that our life is in you. And we know that as we walk this earth, that you are our life. And we can trust in that. Thank you for all the life that you are for us. In Jesus' name, Amen.