C. The analogy of wild grapes ch. 5

This is the third and last of Isaiah's introductory oracles. The first one (ch. 1) introduced the book as a whole by presenting major themes with which the prophet proceeded to deal in chapters 2-66. The second chiastic one (chs. 2-4) presented the tension between what God intended Israel to be and what she had become. This third prophetic sermon (ch. 5) was a clever presentation of the present condition of Israel in Isaiah's day and its consequences. It starts out deceptively as a casual song, transforms into a courtroom drama, and ends with pure condemnation. Isaiah lured his listeners into hearing him with a sweet song and then proceeded to burn them with fiery preaching.

 1. The song of the vineyard 5:1-7

Isaiah, as a folk singer, sang a parable about a vineyard that compared Israel to a vineyard that Yahweh had planted and from which He legitimately expected to receive fruit.⁵⁷However, the prophet's original audience did not realize what this song was about at first. It started out sounding like a happy wedding song, but it turned out to be a funeral dirge announcing Israel's death. This chiastic "song"is only the first part of Isaiah's unified message in this chapter. His song flowed into a sermon.

"In a way similar to Nathan's, when he used a story to get King David to condemn his own action (2 Sam. 12:1-7), so Isaiah sets his hearers up to judge themselves . . ."⁵⁸

5:1-2 Isaiah offered to sing a song for his good friend about his friend's "vineyard,"a figure for one's bride (cf. Song of Sol. 1:6; 8:12). Really this song contains a harsh message about another person and his "vineyard,"namely, Yahweh and Israel. Isaiah painted a picture of a man cultivating his relationship with his wife only to have her turn out disappointing. But, as would shortly become clear, he was really describing God's careful preparation of Israel to bring forth spiritual fruit. The man double-fenced his vineyard and built a watchtower and a wine vat (storage tank) in it indicating that He intended it to satisfy him for a long time. Yet all His work was for naught; His vines disappointed Him. Ezekiel observed that if a vine does not produce fruit, it is good for nothing (Ezek. 15:2-5).

5:3-4 Isaiah next appealed to his audience, the people of Jerusalem and Judah, speaking for his well-beloved (God). He asked them for their opinion. What more could he have done to insure a good crop? Why did his vines produce worthless (sour) grapes? In view of what the owner had done (vv. 1-2), the answers would have to be, You could have done nothing more than you did, and, The grapes were the cause of the disappointment, not you.

5:5-6 The well-beloved explained what he would do to his disappointing vineyard. He would stop protecting it and abandon it to the elements and to its enemies. He would invest no more labor on it and would even stop providing it with the nourishment it needed to flourish. He would even assist in its destruction. This sounded like another Hosea and Gomer story.

5:7 Isaiah now shocked his audience by identifying the characters in his parable by name. His well-beloved and the owner of the vineyard was Yahweh of hosts, not some unnamed friend; the vineyard was Israel, not his friend's wife (cf. 1:8; 3:14; Ps. 80:8-18; Jer. 2:21; 12:10; Ezek. 15:6-8; Hos. 10:1; Matt. 21:33-44); and the Judahites were the individual plants in this unresponsive vineyard.

"Before the fall of Samaria in 722 BC the house of Israelmeant either the whole divided nation or its northern component. The prophets did not countenance the division, and whether specifically called to prophesy to north or south they tended to embrace the whole in their ministry (cf. Am. 3:1). Isaiah thus addresses the whole nation and then narrows his vision to the specially privileged men of Judah . . ."⁵⁹

The good fruit God looked for was justice (the righting of wrongs) and righteousness (right relationships), but the bad fruit the vines produced was oppression (the inflicting of wrongs) and violence (wrong relationships; cf. 60:21; 61:3).⁶⁰

As the vineyard disappointed the Lord, so this song disappointed its original hearers. It proved to be confrontation, not entertainment.

 2. The wildness of the grapes 5:8-25

Yahweh's crop was worthless because it produced wild grapes that manifested six blights. The word "woe"(Heb. hoy), a term of lament and threat, introduces each one (cf. Amos 5:18; 6:1; Rev. 8:13; 9:12). Two double "therefore"sections break the laments into two groups by concluding them (vv. 13-14, 24-25). The "woe"sections emphasize the crop produced, and the "therefore"sections the harvest (judgment) to come. In the "woes"there is a chiastic progression.

AThe property motive (vv. 8-10)

BSelf-indulgence (vv. 11-12)

CSin pursued (vv. 18-19)

C'Sin justified (v. 20)

B'Self-conceit (v. 21)

A'The money motive (vv. 22-23)⁶¹

 3. The coming destruction 5:26-30

The two brief sections explaining the reasons for Judah's judgment (vv. 13-17 and 24-25) give way to fuller clarification of these reasons here. This section is the climax of Isaiah's message in chapter 5.

5:26 The Judahites had taunted God to act in judgment and had concluded that because He had not destroyed them He could not. The prophet now revealed that Yahweh, as sovereign not only over their nation but over all nations, was preparing to call a foreign power to punish them (e.g., Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia). All He had to do was raise a flag or whistle and they would respond swiftly, even though they resided in a remote part of the earth.

5:27-29 Israel's enemy was ready and prepared to do the Lord's bidding. She would devour Judah as hungry lions consume their prey.

5:30 The enemy's attack would be as irresistible as the pounding of waves on a shore.⁶⁶Israel would find no hope by looking to the land for help because the clouds of God's wrath would darken it and make it foreboding. Israel would find no help anywhere, neither from sea nor from land.

This prophecy looks at a judgment coming on Judah and Jerusalem that was not far away in time. Perhaps the Assyrian invasion of the land that took place at the end of the eighth century (in 701 B.C.) fulfilled it. Judah receded to a low level from which she did not recover after this invasion. Perhaps it is also significant that the founding of Rome occurred about this time since it was another power that God raised up to humble His people.

"Thus Isaiah ends his preface. The message of the first two sections (1:2-31; 2:1-4:6) is that human sin cannot ultimately frustrate God's purposes and that, in God, mercy triumphs over wrath. But the third section (5:1-30) poses a shattering question: When the Lord has done all (5:4), must the darkness of divine wrath close in and the light flicker and fade? This was the day of crisis in which Isaiah ministered: a crisis for humankind, for the day of wrath has come and a crisis for God: can mercy be exhausted and defeated?"⁶⁷