Isaiah 5:1-7; Singing a Sad Song II

But then, in vv. 3-4, the tone of the passage changes. Instead of the first words of the chapter being the introduction to a song of victory or fulfilled love, they preface a sad song. Notice the tone change. Verses 1-2 describe the caring action of the beloved. The end of verse 2, however, gives the unexpected result of all this care: the vineyard yielded wild grapes and not good grapes. Then, verses 3-4 gives the indictment of the people. We go from the singsong third person words of vv. 1-2 to the beloved's speaking in the first person. After indictmnet you need to have some kind of decision or judgment, and that follows in vv. 5-6. For every verb of tender caring in vv. 1-2 is a verb of destruction in vv. 5-6. The beloved "dug it and cleared it of stones" (v. 2), but not he will "remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured" (v. 5). Though the acts of creation of the vineyard are mentioned in the third person, the destruction is in the first person. A very personal destruction is in view.

That is why it is such a sad song. All the effort and care, all the careful sculpting and gift-giving, all the hewing and planting, seemingly went for naught. In the vivid words of v. 7 (in the Hebrew), God sought justice (mishpat) but got bloodshed (mispah) in return; God desired righteousness (tsedekah) and, instead, got a cry (tseakah). The cascading alliterative words emphasize the divine disappointment and make any sensitive reader realize what truly is at stake in Israel's rejection of God--nothing but blood, tears (sweat is missing!) result. The promising song to the beloved has, within seven verses, ended up as a cry of pain from the divine, and a real sense that this noble experiment with Israel was over.

III. The Song--Second Verse (in the Future)

There are no words in the text of Is. 5:1-7 to give us hope that the situation is reversible. Yet Is. 1-12 has a series of passages (chs. 2; 9; 11) where hope is rekindled. Thus, even though hope isn't directly addressed in our passage, it is present in the early chapters of Isaiah. Another biblical passage I like which explores the pain in the divine mind at rejection by the people, and God's desire never really to let them go, is Hos. 11. I will close with several quotations from that passage.

First, we have the love:

"When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son" (v. 1).

Then there is the disobedience:

"The more I called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols" (v. 2).

There follows a sort of divine protest, like the words in Is. 5:3-4, as if God can't believe that people to whom God had been so gracious would do this to God.

"Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them," (vv. 2-4).

Then, as with Isaiah's song of the vineyard, judgment has to come:

"They shall return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.
6 The sword rages in their cities,
it consumes their oracle-priests,
and devours because of their schemes.
7 My people are bent on turning away from me.
To the Most High they call,
but he does not raise them up at all," (vv. 5-7).

But then, in a note that goes beyond the thought world of Is. 5:1-7, the prophet Hosea takes us into the mind of God and shows us the divine struggle with the decision to send them into exile. Can God really give up the people? Can the people whom God has chosen out of all the peoples of the world to be a special possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, the people whom God has dandled on the divine knees and eased their way in the world through walking cords, can God really give them up? Hosea gives this answer--

"How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
9 I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath," (vv. 8-9).

The promise of the Scriptures, though not mentioned in Is. 5:1-7, is that God's work continues with the people, even when the vineyard is destroyed; even when the people were sent far off into a land where they couldn't sing a song to God. And that, friends, is the two-part Word of God this morning. God's care and judgment are real, and we fool ourselves if we think that our actions carry no repercussions. But God's care is also permanent, and we fool ourselves if we think that it can be cut off as quickly and easily as people cut off each other in life. God is a God for keeps. That is the good news for today.

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