Here I am, here I am

You see then that the thing in which God’s goodness shines forth most to us, is that by the preaching of the gospel to us we have, as it were, a token that he has pitied us, loves us, calls us and allures us to him. But when the doctrine preached to us is received by us with heart and affection, that is yet a further and more special token by which we perceive that God intends to be our Father and has adopted us to be his children. 

Not without reason, then, St. Paul says in this passage that we are blessed by God even according to his election of us beforehand. For it is not that we have come to him; it is not that we have sought him. But the saying of the prophet Isaiah [65:1] must be fulfilled in every respect, namely, that God shows himself to such as did not seek him, and that such as were far off see him near at hand, and he says to them, ‘Here I am, here I am. Although you have despised me, yet I vouchsafe to come to you because I have a care of your salvation’.

John Calvin (1509-1564), from his sermon on Ephesians 1:3-4

For the love of God (Isaiah 5:1-7)

In honour of the all-men worship team leading us in prayer and praise today, I want to preach today’s sermon in such a way as to help us men come to grips with what it means to love God completely and unashamedly as men of God. As brothers in Christ.

When I sent out the details of today’s talk to the worship team yesterday afternoon, the bible reader wrote back saying, “Are you sure it’s just these seven verses? There doesn’t seem to be much to talk about...”  I was praising God in my heart when I got that message, because here is a guy who isn’t satisfied with snacking when it comes to God’s word. He wants a feast! This was my reply, “You’re quite right. I am hoping to use Isaiah’s song in those seven verses as a summary of the chapter.”

God has a lot to say to us here in Isaiah Chapter 5, but I think (and I pray that I’m right in saying this) that the song at the beginning of the chapter is more than just an introduction to the main content of the chapter. It is more than just the opening act. Isaiah’s song is itself a sermon and what follows after those seven verses is an explanation and expansion of that same sermon.

Think for a moment about the songs that we sing here at the Chinese Church. Paul has chosen good songs for us to sing today. In our opening song, we sang these words, “You the perfect Holy One, crushed Your Son.” That’s from Isaiah Chapter 53, verse 10. We were singing the bible to one another. If I were to preach a good sermon today, maybe you’ll remember the main point of what I said or be able to recall one of the illustrations that I gave. But when you hear a good song, it sticks! It plays over and over in your head and you hear it all week - at home, on the way to work, when you’re doing the laundry. If you think about it, really, we have two sermons every Sunday here at the Chinese Church, not just one. You have this sermon that I’m preaching to you right now, but earlier on, we had another sermon - one which all of us were singing one another. Colossians Chapter 3, verse 16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,” that’s what I’m doing now, but then Paul adds, “and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”

Isaiah does both. He preaches God’s word by singing a song to God’s people. It’s just seven verses long, but I have six big points for us to take home today from these seven short verses.

1. Loving God means knowing what God loves

I will sing for the one I love

a song about his vineyard:

My loved one had a vineyard

on a fertile hillside.

Isaiah 5:1

You can’t love someone without knowing what it is that they love. A husband will want to know what his wife really wants for her birthday - which probably isn’t another i-gadget thingy.

Isaiah sings about his love for God but the whole song is about what God loves, did you notice that? He isn’t gushing about how much he loves God. Instead, every line of the song is about something that God loves, namely his vineyard. “I will sing for the one I love, a song about his vineyard.”

Now some of us are very uncomfortable displaying our emotions in public, while some of us wish we had more choruses declaring our love for Jesus. Isaiah’s song teaches us that there is a deeper underlying issue to this than just our emotions. On the one hand, Isaiah is unashamed to call God his beloved - he does it twice in the first verse. On the other, Isaiah’s song isn’t about his love for God; it’s about God’s love for his people.

Isaiah loves God because Isaiah knows God. He knows what God loves. Do you? Perhaps the reason why you have so much trouble singing a song like, “Knowing Jesus, there is no better thing; You’re my all, you’re the best, You’re my joy, my righteousness,” and when you get to end and sing, “And I love you, Lord,” your voice just drops a few notches; is because you’ve missed the point of the song. You have to know Jesus first in order to love Jesus - isn’t that the whole premise of the song? Knowing you, Jesus?

Furthermore, notice that right in the beginning, Isaiah is singing for God. The phrase could equally be translated “to,” as in, “to God,” but both the NIV and ESV read “for God”, and I agree with that. Why is this important? Isaiah is singing for God - on his behalf - to please God. That is why he sings about something that is close to God’s heart. I think that this really applies to the songs we sing here in the Chinese Church. The kind of songs that God is pleased to hear us sing aren’t just the songs that go, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” but the songs which say to God that we love the things that he loves. We love his church. We love his ways. We love his Son Jesus Christ. We love his word. We love the cross.

2. God displays his personal, attentive love through his handiwork in creation

He dug it up and cleared it of stones

and planted it with the choicest vines

He built a watchtower in it

and cut out a winepress well.

Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,

but it yielded only bad fruit.

Isaiah 5:2

Isaiah’s song is a mini-creation story of God as a gardener who gets down on his hands and knees and plants a vineyard. It is a labour of love. Isaiah tells us how the farmer digs up the stones and clears the ground. This was hard, back-breaking work which the farmer did single-handedly. Because he was planting grapes, it would have taken at least two years for the vines to mature and produce fruit, which is why the line which says, “Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,” would better be translated as “waited” for a crop of good grapes. But as we waited patiently for the vines to mature, he spent the two years building a watchtower and cutting out a winepress (which involved digging into the limestone rock in the hill - not an easy thing to do).

What is the point of this illustration? God’s love is visible. You can see it in his creation. He displays it in his work. It is even saying this: Authentic, personal love ought to be visible through a person’s initiative and effort.

Guys, you might have a hard time displaying your emotions, but you can still make your love visible - through your considerate and consistent work. The apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Thessalonica, “Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.” (1 Thessalonians 4:9) “I don’t need to tell you about how to love,” Paul says, “You already know this.” But then he turns around as says, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands.” He hasn’t changed the subject - he’s still talking about love - but what he is saying is, “Show your love through your work, but putting love before your work.”

Guys understand this. Paul even says to Christian men, “You know this.” And yet, we forget. We say to our wife and kids, “I’m working this job for you - to put food on the table, to put you through school, to pay the bills.” But time and time again, we put our jobs ahead of our wife and kids. We forget that we are meant to use our work to serve our loved ones and we end up using our loved ones to serve our work.

Isaiah says to us, “Look at God’s work. Just look at it. See how concerned he is for his vineyard. See how he gets his hands dirty. See how he lavishes his time and money on it.” Could you say the same about your work?

3. God’s love is not beyond our understanding

Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

What more could have been done for my vineyard

than I have done for it?

Isaiah 5:3-4

Isaiah is reasoning with his friends. “Think about it.” Isaiah says, “Judge between me and my vineyard.” He was saying, “What do you think?”

We need to remember that this was not a high-level debate between scholars and thinkers. It was an open invitation to the people of Jerusalem. Isaiah’s song was about a farmer and I wonder if many of his hearer weren’t simply farmers themselves. Similarly, when Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, he frequently used illustrations involving agriculture and fishing and occurrences from everyday life. For us, here in Cambridge, we need to remind ourselves that just because someone doesn’t have a Cambridge degree, or speaks a different language, or is much younger or older than us, does not mean that he or she does not have the means to understand God’s word and respond to the gospel. We should never be afraid to ask, “So, what do you think?”

But there’s another reason why Isaiah assumes that his hearer immediately understood what he was saying. He was appealing to their experience of being disappointed in love. They knew, and you all know, that this song wasn’t about a farmer and his vineyard. It was a parable about love that had been rejected. And here we see the genius of Isaiah, he is appealing to their hearts. “What would you do in the face of such disappointment, after lavishing so much care and attention of someone you love?” CS Lewis once wrote:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

What was CS Lewis saying? If you know love, you will certainly know the hurt of having your love spurned. “To love at all is to be vulnerable.” You know that. You’ve experienced that.

And Isaiah’s point is: God has, too. Do you see the genius of this song? It isn’t simply about how lovely God is, or how loving God is. It is a song about how God’s love has made him vulnerable. It is a song about how God’s heart has been broken.

4. God’s judgement should not surprise us

Now I will tell you

what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge,

and it will be destroyed;

I will break down its wall,

and it will be trampled.

I will make it a wasteland,

neither pruned or cultivated,

and briers and thorns will grow there.

I will command the clouds not to rain on it.

Isaiah 5:5-6

The first line of verse 5 signals a radical shift in tone. Isaiah says, “Now, listen here, alright, this is definitely what I’m going to do.” He is telling his audience, “Make no mistake about this: This is going to happen.” He wants his hearers to have no doubt about his intent, his plans, his motives, his course of action.

What God does is dismantles his creation. That’s pretty important because the farmer doesn’t throw a stick of dynamite into this field and blow the whole thing up. (Yes, I know they didn’t have dynamite back then, but you understand what I mean!)

What does the farmer do? He takes away the hedge - and that leads to destruction. He breaks down the wall - and this allows wild animals to come in and trample the plants. He stops watering and pruning the vines - and this leads to weeds growing in the fields. It is cause and effect. The farmer takes away all structures of his work, he removes all protection from the vineyard and this inevitably leads to its destruction.

Now, this is not to say that God will not personally pour our judgement. He will and I’ll talk about this a little while later. The point in these verses however is the reversal of creation. God is removing his protection and all signs of his presence from this world and even this is enough to lead to its destruction.

Isaiah is saying: God’s judgement should not surprise us. Notice how God keeps saying, “I will... I will… I will... I will.” There will come a day when God will pour out his judgement for sin and when that day comes it mustn’t surprise us, especially if we claim to know his word. Friends, when was the last time you read about judgement in the bible? When was the last time you discussed it in your bible studies? When was the last time it was preached from the pulpit.

If you look ahead to Chapter 5 verse 19, we meet foolish men who question God’s judgement by denying God’s word. “Let God hurry,” they say, “let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it.” Now what kind of person would challenge God to hurry up and judge them for their sins? It’s not someone who hasn’t read their bibles. Friends, this is describing someone who knows the bible but ignores what it says and twists it to suit their needs. The following verses read, “Woe 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. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” (Isaiah 5:20-21)

If we are faithful in preaching God’s word here in the Chinese Church, we ought not to be surprised by God’s judgement, and yet...

5. And yet, we are often surprised by God’s judgement on our sin

The vineyard of the LORD Almighty

is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

are the garden of his delight.

And he looked for justice,

but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness,

but heard cries of distress.

Isaiah 5:7

The hardest thing to get across is not, “God will judge the world because of sin.” You say that, and sometimes an overly keen listener will shout out, “Amen, preach it, brother!” No, the hardest thing to get across is this: “God will judge me for my sin.”

That’s the revelation of verse 7. “The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel.” It’s not world out there. It’s not the pagan nations who are bowing down to idols. The vineyard is us. It’s our church. It’s my brothers and sisters at Rock Fellowship. We have turned against God. We are the ones who have rejected his love.

But someone might say to me, “But those guys had blood on their hands. Doesn’t verse 7 say, ‘he looked for justice but saw bloodshed, for righteousness but heard cries of distress’? I mean, our church isn’t perfect, but we don’t have any robbers or murderers of convicted felons.”

It is true that verse 7 speaks of bloodshed and violence, but the song doesn’t actually end there. You see, the next sixteen verses from 8 to 23 are an expansion of sins of verse 7. What we have there are six “Woes” that God pronounces on Israel. Let me quickly list them out for us. As I do, ask yourself, is this something that applies to us today?

“Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.” (Isaiah 5:8) This guy who adds house to house isn’t greedy - that’s not his problem. No, he wants to be alone. The reason he climbs the career ladder; the reason he studies for one degree and then another; the reason he hops from church to church - is not be more accomplished or successful. No, it’s so that he doesn’t have to answer to anyone. He “live(s) alone in the land.”

“Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up at night till they are inflamed with wine.” (Isaiah 5:11; also 5:22) Sounds like the typical undergraduate, but then again, the problem here is not simply drunkenness. The next verse talks about harps, lyres and banquets - meaning, food, music and partying. It is describing addiction. “Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit.” (Isaiah 5:14) They throw themselves into the pursuit of pleasure and yet the more they indulge themselves, the emptier it feels. They keep searching for that next high. It is a biblical analogy for idolatry, the worship of something that never truly satisfies.

“Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit.” (Isaiah 5:18, also 5:20 and 21) It is talking about the person who justifies his sinful actions by denying God’s word. He denies God’s judgement (“Let it approach... so we may know it,” Isaiah 5:19), he twists God’s word to suit his purposes (“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,” Isaiah 5:20), and he thinks he is clever enough to argue his way out of trouble (“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight,” Isaiah 5:21).

What are these woes describing? Selfishness, addiction and pride. They are describing our sins, our offences before a holy God, are they not?

Even after seven years of living here in the UK, I still love reading the newspapers from back home in Malaysia. Every day, I log on to the website and catch up with the happenings back home. What is interesting is to read the international section of the news, which is about five pages long, covering the events of the entire world. The articles are entirely imported from foreign newspapers, so what the Malaysian newspapers have to do is pick and choose which ones they think are the most interesting; which ones their readers want to read. Inevitably, these will include the most sensational news and the most controversial news - wars, violence, gossip, embarrassing mishaps by famous people. I wondered: What if the newspaper had to publish just one page of news on my life every day? Would someone reading it go, “How could Calvin do that? Gasp, I never knew Calvin could be so sinful! Huh, Calvin really messed up there!” We read everyday about the mistakes and mishaps of others and we shake our heads. Rarely do we take a moment to consider how God sees all too clear the sin that is in our hearts. He sees our selfishness, our self-worship and our pride.

They are as serious before his eyes as bloodshed and violence, because friends, these are offences that we commit against him.

Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people;

his hand is raised and he strikes them down.

The mountains shake,

and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

Isaiah 5:25

At the end of the six woes, Isaiah records God’s certain judgement upon his people. Here, unlike the farmer in the parable of the vineyard, God himself is the agent of destruction - his hand is raised; he strikes them down. Yet for all this, Isaiah say, God’s anger is not quenched. Now what is Isaiah saying? He is telling us that there is a punishment far worse than death for our sin. There is a judgement that is more fearful than physical death.

Which brings us to our final point.

6. Only those who see their sin, see their Saviour

The surprising thing about God’s final judgement is that it falls on the city - not just its sinful people, who have rebelled against God and are destroyed by his anger - but the city itself. From verses 26 onwards, God summons the enemy nations from distant lands to descend upon Jerusalem to completely destroy the land.

Think back to Isaiah’s song, doesn’t this sound familiar? The farmer removes the hedge, he tears down the wall and what happens? It is trampled. It is destroyed. It isn’t enough to simply rip the vines from the ground and throw them into the green recycling bin. No, every trace of the farmers blessing upon the land is removed and it is the same here. God’s final and most fearful judgement is seen in the destruction of the land when he removes every sign of his presence, of his blessing and of his love. All that is left is darkness.

And if one looks at the land,

he will see darkness and distress;

even the clouds will be darkened by the cloud.

Isaiah 5:30

Eight hundred years later, the New Testament records a single day when darkness fell upon the city in such a way that they didn’t simply say “the sky turned black” or “the sun was covered.” No, gospel writers Matthew, Mark and Luke all say this, “darkness came over all the land.” As that happened, the gospels go on to tell us that a lone voice was heard crying out to the heavens, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

What were the gospels telling us? Something far worse happened that day when Jesus Christ died on the cross. He didn’t merely suffer death at the hands of men. He was abandoned by God. Forsaken. God the Father, who from eternity past had loved his Son, now removed all signs of his presence, his blessing and his love from Jesus, his Beloved One, and God did this to demonstrate his love for you and me.

Looking at the cross means seeing how serious my sin is. It cost God the the death of his Son. But looking to the cross, I also see my Saviour. Jesus took my sin and gives me his righteousness and love.

And if we understand the purpose of Isaiah’s song, we see one more thing at the cross - we see the Beloved. Here is the one true treasure of God, Jesus is the One whom God loves, and the way to truly know God is to know Jesus and the way to truly praise God is to sing of the One his loves: our Lord Jesus Christ.

Your blood has washed away my sin

Jesus, thank You

The Father’s wrath completely satisfied

Jesus, thank You

Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table

Jesus, thank You

Lover of my soul

I want to live for You

(“Jesus, thank you,” by Sovereign Grace Music)

Preaching to the city: A review of Isaiah Chapters 1 to 5

The first five chapters of Isaiah have but one message: judgement. Each chapter is focussed on one specific audience: the people of Jerusalem.

So on the one hand, the topic is hard to take in. On the other, it is easy to assume the message is not for us today - that it’s meant for ancient Israelites or pagan worshippers.

I asked myself: Why does Isaiah spend five whole chapters on a topic either no one wants to hear or everyone thinks is meant for someone else? I used to think it was because his hearers were thick and stubborn; Isaiah kept hammering on about the same things over and over again out of frustration and anger with his friends.

After spending the past month studying these chapters together at the Chinese Church however, I have come to see a different side to the prophet. I think that Isaiah is a man who understands his audience all too well. He understood their diversity - in thought, in age, even in gender. He recognised their depth - in idolatry, in influence and in sin.

Put it like this: the things that a preacher chooses to focus on week by week in his Sunday sermon is not simply a reflection of his audience but often times, a reflection of what he thinks of his audience. Pastors in Cambridge love to preach on Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus; or his encounter with the rich young man. Why? Because they want to reach the students, the professors and the influential. That’s our primary audience here in this city, or so we think. Conversely, Chinese Church pastors rarely let a year go by without preaching another sermon on the prodigal son - an all-time favourite for Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival - when wayward sons and daughters are encouraged to come home to honour their parents/ their church/ their God.

Isaiah preached judgement. He wasn’t popular but that does not mean that he wasn’t perceptive. Isaiah knew his audience well. Isaiah spoke in such a way that everyone got the message: “This is God’s word speaking to me. This is God’s verdict on my life.” How did he accomplish this? By recognising the depth and diversity of his hearers; the same way we would recognise the depth and diversity of people in a city like Cambridge. He used words that resonated with each generation - past and present. He acknowledged differences between the local and the foreigner. He included both men and women. And he made the connection between our life-goals and our lifestyles. Here is a quick review of what we have learned so far in Isaiah Chapters 1 to 5.

Chapter 1: The past and the present

Isaiah begins by comparing and contrasting the city’s past and present. “Hear, o heavens and give ear, O earth,” is the prophet’s way of evoking Israel’s memory of its past experience in the desert under the leadership of Moses. Moses used the same words (in Deuteronomy 32) calling all of creation to bear witness to God’s word of promise. God had given them freedom from slavery. He had blessed them with a land to call their home. Finally, God had given them his law, which they were to obey as his people.

Isaiah however, recalls these same words to testify against their rebellion against God. “Children I have reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.” (Isaiah 1:2) In doing so, Isaiah is teaching us an important lesson about sin - it’s not a slip-up. Sin is not one-off. Rather, sin is a way of life lived in continuous rejection of God. Israel had repeatedly rejected God since the time of Moses, and all of creation stood as witnesses to their waywardness.

If their past was characterised by rebellion, then Israel’s present was marked by hypocrisy. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?” (Isaiah 1:12) They were observing all the festivals and traditions as prescribed in the law to the letter, yet God rejected all of their offerings, even their prayers. “When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.” (Isaiah 1:15) Why? The people of Jerusalem were using worship as a smokescreen. They were using their church attendance as a poor excuse to neglect their obligation to “bring justice to the fatherless (and) plead the widow’s cause.” (Isaiah 1:17)

The theme of justice (and righteousness) runs through the opening chapters of Isaiah to describe more than simply right action, but rather, right relationship. In essence, to act righteously is to reflect the character of God in generously loving and providing for the weak. The chapter ends with a prophecy foretelling how the city of Zion will be “redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.” Paradoxically, God will save his people through a single act that will display both his love for them as his chosen people, as well as his judgement upon them as rebels.

Chapter 2: The outsider and the insider

Chapter 2 focuses on the events surrounding the “latter days” - a future final plan predetermined by God that will include both the chosen people of Jerusalem as well as the foreign nations. In a vision, Isaiah describes the foreign pagan nations streaming up the “mountain of the LORD,” saying to one another, “Come, let us go up to...the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.” (Isaiah 1:3) Here were outsiders being brought into the kingdom of God and what drew them to God’s presence was his word - the gospel.

Conversely, the actual house of Jacob - the people of Israel, the insiders who grew up learning about God all their lives in Sunday School - were being called to follow the nations in their pursuit of God (Isaiah 2:5). Sadly, Israel had emulated the nations in a different way - through the worship of idols and pagan gods. “They are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines... their land is full of idols” (Isaiah 2:6, 8)

The rest of the chapter is given to describing the events of the final day of judgement when God alone is exalted above all the symbols of the pride of men. Faced with the presence of a holy and awesome God, the idol worshippers flee to “the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground.” (Isaiah 2:19) casting away “their idols of silver and... gold... to the moles and to the bats.” (Isaiah 2:20) In other words, even the most precious idols - silver and gold - become worthless and are thrown out with the trash.

Chapters 3 & 4: The men and the women

Chapters 3 and 4 repackages the same events of the Day of the LORD - God’s final day of judgement - in such a way as to reveal the innermost idols of the men and women of Zion. The way Isaiah exposes the deepest desires of the men and women is interestingly, not by asking them to talk about their hopes and dreams, but by confronting each with their worst nightmares.

For men, our worst nightmare is lose control. Isaiah paints the scenario of God stripping the city of all its leading men, its strong men, its influential men, its smartest men, its honourable men, leaving behind childish men. “I will make boys their princes and infants shall rule over them.” (Isaiah 2:4) One brother passes the buck to the other to clean up the mess, “You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule.” (Isaiah 2:6) No one wants the responsibility, yet every guy in the room is still an expert on what needs fixing.

To the proud women of Zion who flaunt their beauty in order to draw attention to themselves, Isaiah speaks of a day when God will strip away both beauty and the beholder. The anklets, headbands, pendants, bracelets; the Prada, Maybelline and Jimmy Choos - every single item of beauty in their cupboards and dressing tables - will be gone. But that is nothing compared to mourning the loss of their husbands killed in battle. “Your men shall fall by the sword... empty, she shall sit on the ground.” (Isaiah 3:25-26) Beauty becomes meaningless without a beholder. Loveliness becomes emptiness without a beloved.

Yet for all this, the vision of that same day of judgement ends with a promise of glorious salvation. God himself will restore the remnant of Jerusalem and his presence will unmistakably cover the entire city. “For over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.” (Isaiah 4:5-6) Judgement is not the last word in the plan of God, but restoration, fulfilment, joy, beauty, strength, life. And ultimately, Jesus, the branch of the LORD.

Chapter 5: The people and their land

Chapter 5 begins quite unexpectedly, with Isaiah singing a love song that would have caught his friends off-guard. “Ah, a breath of fresh air after all this doom and gloom,” they would have said to themselves. “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard,” (Isaiah 5:1) Isaiah began. It was a song about a farmer, pouring all his money, time and energy into a plot of land to grow grapes. For all his expense and effort however, the garden yields nothing but wild and stinky grapes. Isaiah reveals his song to be a parable of Israel’s unfaithfulness and unfruitfulness. In the same way that the Beloved looked for good grapes but found only bad, so God “looked for justice, but behold bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry.” (Isaiah 5:7)

Repeatedly, God pronounces a “woe” on the people of Jerusalem. “Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field.” (Isaiah 5:8, see also verses 11, 18, 20, 21 and 22) Each “woe” is a cry of lament. God’s heart is broken to behold the sin of his people. They have spurned his love and rejected his call to repentance.

What is unique in this chapter, compared to the previous four, is how judgement is portrayed from God’s perspective. He sees our sin and knows the true condition of our hearts better than we realise ourselves. Here we get three descriptions of what sin is and does. Firstly, sin is selfishness: we add house to house, degree to degree, job to job - not to provide for others, but to separate ourselves from the riffraff and exalt our personal status. (Isaiah 5:8) Secondly, sin is an addiction that can never be quenched, but leaves us hollow and empty. “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink.” (Isaiah 5:11) Thirdly, sin is the rejection and deceptive manipulation of God’s word. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20) “They have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 5:24) For each and every sin, God responds with certain judgement, yet he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32), lamenting over their hardened rebellion, and calls us to turn from destruction.

Curiously, God’s final words of judgement is reserved not for the people but for their land. “For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.” (Isaiah 5:25) He calls forth the nations to bring complete destruction upon the city of Jerusalem, to the extent that “if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress, and the light is darkened by its clouds.” (Isaiah 5:30) Why is this? I think that Isaiah is teaching us the full extent of the punishment of sin - something that goes beyond physical death. God judgement is truly seen in the complete removal of his blessing - no more temple, no more city, no more kingdom - not a single trace left of God’s presence in a place which was once the symbol of his elective love. Christians cannot help but recall another incident in the New Testament recording how darkness fell upon the land, just moments before a lone voice cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45-46) For believers, the last word of God’s judgement is not Hell - as real and certain as it is - but Jesus. On the cross, God displays his full judgement for sin and his divine love for sinners, through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf.

The Vineyard of the Beloved (Isaiah 5)

As we read through the verses of this week’s passage from Isaiah chapter 5, some of us might have said to ourselves, “Oh no, judgement... again? Why not a sermon on joy, instead? Week after week, I come to this church and all I hear about is God’s judgement; how God is so angry with our sin! How can I bring my friends to hear such a distressing talk? You are just going to make them feel miserable about themselves!”

If that is you, or if you are a new visitor with us today, let me just say that what we are doing here isn’t so strange. Christians gather each week not in order to praise one another for all the great things we have done. Quite the contrary. We acknowledge all the ways in which we have failed to live our lives for God. I’m talking about the Christians here, not the non-Christians. We, as Christian believers, are confessing to God all the ways in which we have ignored him and let him down - all ways in which we have sinned against God - and we dare to approach this holy, righteous God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Isn’t that what Communion is about? The bread and the cup symbolise the once-for-all substitutionary death of Jesus, who took our punishment of death on the cross. Friends, this isn’t therapy. It’s not simply a way to feel better about ourselves. Rather, the bible is calling us to Get Real: To get real with our sins because there is real forgiveness and there is real restoration at the cross. God takes away all that guilt. God puts your sin - yes, even the ones you are so ashamed of - God puts them all on Jesus, and then God clothes you with his righteousness. God covers you with his love.

Believe it or not, today’s passage is actually about God’s love. It is a passage that teaches us how difficult it is - not for us to love God - but for God to love us. I wonder if you’ve ever thought of that? Maybe you think that God ought to love everyone, that’s his job. Maybe you think God must love you; after all, you are so adorable. But isn’t it true that the people who love you most in your life - your mum, your dad, your spouse, your boyfriend or your girlfriend - are ones whom you have hurt the most in your life? The longer that they have loved you, the more occasions there have been when you’ve broken their hearts. Your loved ones are the people you’ve hurt most precisely because they are your loved ones.

It is no different with God. God looks at our lives and he doesn’t just go, “Aha! I saw that sin. Gotcha!” What this passage teaches us is that God looks upon our sin; God looks at the pride and the boastfulness of our sin; and he says, “Woe!” Six times in this passage, God responds to our sin by saying, “Woe!” The essential scene in any Hong Kong drama serial, is where the main character falls on his knees and cries out, “Tinnn ahhh!!” (Meaning: Why God! or Why Heaven!) It is a cry of frustration; a lament of deep sadness and grief. When God says, “Woe!” he isn’t saying, “All of you are going to be fried papadams!” rather, God is grieving over their sin. God is saying, “Why? Why have you done this?”

Verse 8: Woe to you who add house to house...

Verse 11: Woe to those who rise early... to run after their drinks...

Verse 18: Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit...

Verse 20: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil...

Verse 21: Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

Verse 22: Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine

Today’s passage invites us to do something quite extraordinary: The bible is inviting us to take God’s view and to share God’s heart. It is inviting us to love the way God loves; but as a consequence of doing so, to be hurt the way God is hurt - by those whom he loves. Isaiah Chapter 5 teaches us four lessons:

1. How God’s love is spurned

2. How God’s grace is taken for granted

3. How God’s word is challenged; and

4. How God’s judgement is much worse than we think

God’s love, God’s grace, God’ word and finally, God’s judgement. Let’s look at Isaiah Chapter 5.

How God’s love is spurned

Isaiah begins with a love song. He picks up his guitar and begins to sing.

I will sing for the one I love

a song about his vineyard:

My loved one had a vineyard

on a fertile hillside.

It is a song about a farmer who gets down on his hands and knees and digs up the stones, clears the ground and plants a garden. It is hard, back-breaking work - but the farmer spares no effort or expense. He builds a watchtower and winepress - these were huge structures, one for protection, the other, for production. What he was building was a vineyard; he was growing grapes to make wine. It would have taken at least two years before any sign of a harvest, but when the first vines began to mature, the end of verse 2 tells us, “it yielded only bad fruit.” Literally, stinky grapes.

The story doesn’t end there. Isaiah turns to his friends and asks, “What more could I have done?”

What more could have been done for my vineyard

than I have done for it?

When I looked for good grapes,

why did it only yield bad?

Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge,

and it will be destroyed.

Isaiah 5:4

“Erm, OK,” some of us are thinking, “That’s a bit extreme - tearing the whole place up over a few sour grapes.” That wasn’t what Isaiah’s friends would have said though. To build a vineyard of this scale would have been like pouring your life savings into a business venture only to have it fail completely. But even that doesn’t capture the emotional anguish of Isaiah’s song. This farmer went the extra mile. His vineyard was a labour of love. When we read that the farmer tears down the walls, leaving the plants exposed to the elements and uncared for, some of us might go, “It’s just plants. What’s the big deal?” But try telling the third-year London Met student from China that his degree is just a piece of paper and that “It’s no big deal.” He will say to you, “You are talking about my life.” Or tell the employee who has just been made redundant, “It’s nothing personal.” And they say, “What of the years I’ve given to this company? How can you say, it’s nothing personal?”

But as you’ve probably already guessed, Isaiah’s song isn’t about money or investments or plants. It’s about people. You can understand, can’t you, what it feels like when a person lets you down; when another human being spurns your generosity and love?

The vineyard of the Lord Almighty

is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

are the garden of his delight.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Isaiah 5:7

We get that Isaiah is talking about people. Some of us are even smart enough to note that God is addressing a specific group of people - the house of Israel and men of Judah - meaning, men and women who have grown up knowing God and worshipping God all their lives. But many of us miss the fruit. We don’t ask, “What is God really looking for in my life?” We don’t ask, “What is the fruit?” or I suspect, we misunderstand what fruitfulness means. It’s not being successful. It’s not trying your best. It’s not even being good and well-behaved.

What is God looking for? In a word, it’s justice. “And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness but heard cries of distress.” (The Hebrew word qavah means to “expectantly wait for”, not simply to look at. It is the same word used of the grapes back in verses 2 and 4) God was waiting for his people to grow in righteousness and justice, but what this teaches us - and this is vitally important - is that righteousness and justice are a response to God’s love. Why is this important? When Christians live according to God’s ways, it is never to earn his love, but as a response to his love.

Or put it another way, when you have been married for a while, and you know that your husband likes Big Macs, and you make a trip specially to get a Big Mac for him, do you know what you are doing? You are seeking the good of your “Beloved,” as corny as it sounds, that’s what you are doing. You just to please him. That is what the bible means by righteousness and justice. It is acting in such a way as to reflect God’s righteousness in order just to please God, to acknowledge the goodness of his love. (The Hebrew word tzedekah means acting rightly in relationship to another person)

Conversely, sin is a personal rejection of God’s love. The New Testament says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.” (Romans 1:21) One of the reasons why we find it hard to sing hymns praising God for who he is is because there is something in us that just doesn’t want to owe anyone anything. Not our parents. Not our teachers. Not even God. The same passage from Romans says that every person on the planet has a sense of God as creator and sustainer, “people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

But Isaiah is saying something even more significant than that. He is speaking to those of us who have known God’s love personally and intimately. We’ve grown up hearing about him. He has intervened in our lives again and again. Even with all these personal testimonies of God’s goodness, our hearts still turn against God. We spurn his love. Isaiah Chapter 5 isn’t a condemnation of the pagan unbeliever. No, it’s for you who have grown up here in the Chinese Church all these years, but have never given any serious thought to what it means to know this God. Our familiarity with God has bred a contempt for him, such that when we do sin, it’s something personal between us and God. When we do sin, we are displaying our stinky grapes with pride.

How God’s grace is taken for granted

The second lesson we learn from this passage is how God’s grace is taken for granted. Here, Isaiah describes the peculiar condition of the man who is so hungry for success but ends up in solitude.

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field

till no space is left and you live alone in the land.

Isaiah 5:8

Here is a man who is hungry, who is passionate, who is ambitious. Here is a man who concentrates all his efforts in life on feeding his own hunger and appetite yet the irony of the whole thing is this: he is never satisfied. He always needs more.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning

to run after their drinks,

who stay up at night

till they are inflamed with wine.

Isaiah 5:11

Here is a word of application to those beginning their first year at university: Just because you can does not mean you should. Just because you can stay up all night to party; just because you are old enough to drink yourself under the table; just because no one is going to tell you who you should or should not hook up with, does not mean that you should.

Just in case you think I’m picking on those who like to go clubbing on the weekends, let me just say that this applies just as much to the hardworking student. Remember that Isaiah also speaks the ambitious man: The man who adds field to field, house to house is not unlike the student who climbs from degree to degree in the effort of separating himself from the lower classes. As a businessman, you must drive a businessman’s car. As a professor, you must sit with other professors in the dining hall. As a Cambridge student, you might go to a church that has other Cambridge students (and certainly not Anglia Ruskin students). Now I’ve heard every excuse under the sun, including the ones that go, “But I’m trying to reach other undergrads/ businessman/ academics with the gospel.” Yet in the very churches/workplaces/dormitories/housing these individuals are in, they sit alone, by themselves, away from everyone else. The reason? They are simply passing through. The are biding their time till they can graduate onto the next even more exclusive level.

Does that describe you and your life situation? You are always seeking yet never satisfied. You are always clamouring for more yet you are never quite content with what you have. Friends, heed the warning of the prophet Isaiah: God’s judgement on such selfishness is the promise of emptiness. Your mansions will become museums, your businesses will be bankrupt (verses 9 and 10). The very things you have worked so hard for will become worthless. And that’s just for starters.

Isaiah wasn’t speaking figuratively. In fact, things get pretty specific from verse 13 onwards - especially in reference to the exile. Two hundred years later, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem and transported all its officials and noblemen back to Babylon (it’s where we get the account of Daniel).

Therefore my people will go into exile

for lack of understanding;

those of high rank will die of hunger

and the common people will be parched with thirst.

Isaiah 5:13

Eventually, God promises his people in exile, that he would bring them home. But there is none of that here. Here in Isaiah Chapter 5, there is only judgement and it’s there for a reason.

But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,

and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.

Isaiah 5:16

This is saying something very important about God’s judgement and it’s this: God has every right to judge. “The LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice.” Do you know what this is saying? God will be praised for his judgement, not inspite of it. He will be exalted. Why? Because it is the right response, it is the appropriate response - it is the only justifiable response - from a holy and righteous God. If he is God, he must punish sin. If God is a holy God, he must punish sinful men and women.

Now notice the same pair of words - justice and righteousness - as we met earlier on in verse 7. Back there, God was looking for our justice; God was patiently seeking our righteousness. Here in verse 16, we see his. What is this passage saying? When we do not respond to God’s love with the fruit of righteousness and justice, God will respond to our sin with his righteousness and his justice.

How God’s word is challenged

Despite these sober words of warning, there are always those who will question God’s judgement. The way they do that is by challenging his word. “The plan of the Holy One of Israel, let it approach... so we may know it.” They were challenging God to put into action all that he has spoken in his word.

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,

and wickedness as with cart ropes,

to those who say, “Let God hurry;

let him hasten his work

so we may see it.

The plan of the Holy One of Israel

let it approach, let it come into view,

so we may know it.”

Isaiah 5:18-19

After all, for Isaiah’s friends, all they kept hearing were words, words and more words. Where was this judgement he spoke of? “Let me see it, then I’ll believe.”

Isaiah was an odd fellow by our modern standards. He didn’t go up to his friends and say, “God loves you and has a plan for your life.” Nope, he said, “God hates your sin and will one day punish you for your sin.” If Isaiah turned up in the Chinese Church today, none of us would want to sit next to him, much less, ask him to help out at Sunday School (though I wonder if the kids would love having him as their teacher!) Why? Well, because this guy is just too extreme! He is insensitive and plain disrespectful!

But more than anything, I suspect the one reason why we read these words of Isaiah and get all hot and bothered under the collar is because he keeps talking about one thing over and over again: judgement. And while I do understand how important it is to be clear and loving when talking about God’s judgement here in the church, and when evangelising our friends and family, I want to also caution us from denying God’s judgement altogether. Because, you see, that’s what Isaiah’s friends were doing. They began by denying God’s judgement. And before long, they were denying God’s word altogether.

Woe 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.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

and clever in their own sight.

Isaiah 5:20-21

For a document that was written 2800 years ago, Isaiah describes a way of looking at life that is dominant in today’s thinking: postmodernism. Here were individuals reacting to Isaiah’s claims of judgement by rejecting God’s word altogether as objective truth. Good becomes evil. Evil becomes good. Who is to say which is which? This is all the more surprising, if you remember that Isaiah was talking to God-fearing Jews. They knew God, they knew the bible, yet in their cleverness, they twisted God’s word to suit their own lives and to justify their sinful lifestyles.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine

and champions at mixing drinks,

who acquit (or justify) the guilty for a bribe,

but deny justice to the innocent (or take righteousness from the righteous).

Isaiah 5:22-23

Their motives were far from intellectual. These friends of Isaiah didn’t stumble into some new form of thinking that challenged all previous presuppositions about the bible which then caused their faith to come crashing down into pieces, resulting in their abandoning God and becoming free-thinking atheists. No, the reason was simply sin. They wanted to justify a lifestyle that wouldn’t condemn them. They wanted to do what they wanted to do without feeling guilty or worrying about the consequences. The wanted to to be heroes at drinking wine, champions at mixing drinks - alcohol was their calling. More interestingly, these same individuals justify (masdiqe = make righteous) the guilty and take the righteousness (wesidqat) from the righteous (saddiqim).

We’re back to the theme of righteousness. Previously God looked for our righteousness but found only wickedness. Then God responded with his own righteousness, which meant judgement over our sin. But here, something peculiar happens. The men and women of Isaiah’s day heard the warnings of God’s word and decided to redefine their whole understanding of righteousness altogether. They weren’t content with being innocent. They wanted to be right in doing wrong. They made the guilty righteous and they denied justice to the innocent. More than denying God’s judgement, the people of Jerusalem were distorting God’s word. And the reason for this was not intellectual doubt, it never is. It is sin and the desire to be justified in our sinfulness.

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw

and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,

so their roots will decay

and their flowers blow away like dust;

for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty

and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 5:24

The section ends with God raising his hand in judgement against his people with a terrifying picture of death on the streets of Jerusalem (verse 25). You would think that that would be awful enough, but no. The very next verse reads:

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

his hand is still upraised.

Isaiah 5:26

There something worse than death, this verse seems to be saying to us. There is something more fundamental to God’s judgement than the horrible end to our physical existence. Which brings us to our final section: How God’s judgement is worse than we think.

How God’s judgement is much worse than we think

He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,

he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.

Here they come,

swiftly and speedily!

Isaiah 5:26

What follows is a picture of relentless destruction without a trace of mercy at the hands of Jerusalem’s enemies. God calls the armies of the enemy nations to utterly decimate the city. “Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,” meaning, there is no possibility of delay. “Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung,” meaning these are soldiers and executioners, not peacemakers and politicians. “They growl as they seize their prey, and carry it off with no one to rescue.” These invading forces pounce upon they prey hell-bent on destruction, but here is the shocking revelation: they are merely doing God’s will. He whistles for them, and the nations answer his call. They carry out his execution.

There is something more fundamental to God’s final judgement than death and it is this: God removes all traces of his blessing and presence. We see this in the closing words to the prophecy which draw our attention to the state of the land.

And if one looks at the land,

there is only darkness and distress;

even the sun will be darkened by clouds.

Isaiah 5:30

What we see here is the reversal of creation and total removal of God’s blessing upon the land. Even light is replaced with darkness. What this is saying is: God would no longer have anything to do with this place. This land would be utterly forsaken.

Do you know that the New Testament writers, in describing the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, include the curious description of the sky turning dark. Except they didn’t just say that sky turned dark, or that the clouds covered the sunlight. No, what they say is this: “Darkness came over the land.” And do you know what were the immediate words of Jesus right after that description? Do you know what Mark, Matthew and Luke recorded Jesus as saying, immediately following the darkness?

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Friends, Jesus Christ didn’t simply just die on the cross. Death wasn’t enough. Do you know the bible is saying happened to Jesus on the cross? God the Father forsook his son. He removed all traces of his presence, his blessing, his love from the One being he truly loved from all eternity.

That is what it took for God to forgive your sin and my sin. God poured out all of his anger and punishment on Jesus. All that happened to Jesus before was nothing compared to this; whether it was the rejection of the crowds, the mocking of the soldiers, even the nails driven through his hands and feet. There was something which Jesus knew - and I dare say, even feared - worse than abuse, humiliation and even death itself. It was being forsaken by God the Father, but that was precisely what happened on the cross.

The story is told of a group of prisoners gathering for a bible study. (Gives new meaning to the phrase “cell group.”) The question was asked: Who killed Jesus? Some said, “Pilate.” Others said, “The crowd. They killed Jesus.” One man, who had been silent throughout the discussion, kept his head bowed down. “I did,” he answered solemnly. “I killed Jesus.” But friends, looking back at what we learned today, the bible is saying that the real answer is not Pilate, it’s not the crowd, it’s not even our sin - for all the punishment we deserve for our sin. On the cross, God killed Jesus. God condemned his own Son to take the penalty of our death on our behalf.

Why? As a display of his own love for us.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

What does this mean for us? We’ll review the four lessons we learned from this passage - but in reverse order, looking at God’s judgement, God’s word, God’s grace and finally God’s love.

Firstly, God’s judgement. We see it part in these horrible pictures of destruction in Isaiah’s prophecy. But there is a place where we see it even clearer - and that’s the cross. On the cross, Jesus Christ took the full wrath and punishment for sin - which included death, but was more than death. It was complete separation from God, the author of life.

Secondly, God’s word. Part of our aversion to the whole topic of judgement stems from our denial of God’s word. Something like this really shouldn’t surprise you, if you have been reading your bibles.

Thirdly, God’s grace; and the lesson is simply this: Don’t take it for granted. Paul writes to the Corinthians says, “We urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.” (2 Corinthians 6:1) Paul was talking to Christians who knew the gospel, who had heard the gospel again and again, and he said to them, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” Meaning, don’t waste time. Respond to God’s offer of forgiveness in Jesus. Today.

Finally, God’s love. And the reminder for us as Christians is: nothing can ever separate us from God’s love through Jesus Christ - not even death. He who did not spare his own Son - but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him give us all things. That is a wonderful promise, isn’t it? In Jesus, there is no more condemnation. And because of the cross of Jesus, there nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the fullness of God’s perfect love.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:35-39

The gates of Zion (Isaiah 3-4)

In this week’s study of Isaiah Chapters 3 to 4, we find God speaking to the men and women of Zion, confronting each gender with their respective struggles and sins, in terms that each could understand. It was picture language of course, as much of what God said to the men applied to the women as well, and vice versa. But as we learned in the previous chapters of Isaiah, identifying the idols of our hearts - the things which draw us away from loving God - is a tricky thing. It can be a very painful thing.

How does God do this? He speaks to our deepest and darkest fears. In this passage we keep meeting the phrase, “In that day.... in that day.” It was a day of judgement, when God would pour out his anger on our sin. It was a day when our deepest fears become reality. But you see, it would also be a day, when God can finally do his work of salvation in us - not by taking away our dreams but fulfilling them more wonderfully than we could ever imagine.

When men are no longer men

What is the nightmare scenario for men? To lose control. Men are terrified of looking weak and incompetent. Even when we know we are not up to the job, we still try to put on a show or we pass the buck to someone else under the guise of humility.

You see, the deepest worry of every man is not losing his job. It’s not losing all his money. No, the nightmare is this: to have a job that comes with all of the perks - the office, the car, the business cards - but to be absolutely useless. People are kow-towing to you in the hallways, but you know that they’re making jokes at your expense behind your back.

Isaiah Chapter 3 begins with God stripping the city of all its men - all its strong men, all its influential men, all its political leaders, all the intelligentsia - leaving behind children. “And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them.” (Isaiah 3:4) By that Isaiah does not literally mean kids and teenagers. No, these are childish men. Men who are good at pointing all the problems but never the solutions. Men who are only concerned with their own needs, not the needs of others. Isaiah gives us a picture - a dialogue - between two such men.

For a man will take hold of his brother

in the house of his father, saying:

“You have a cloak;

you shall be our leader,

and this heap of ruins

shall be under your rule”;

in that day he will speak out, saying:

“I will not be a healer;

in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;

you shall not make me

leader of the people.”

Isaiah 3:6-7

Here are two brothers living in their dad’s house, shifting the responsibility to one another. “You deal with this mess,” one says. “No, it’s not my mess, you take care of it!” the other replies. Look at the reasons why. The first guy says to his brother, “You have a cloak.” What he is saying is, “You look the part.” A lot of us do this, even though we know superficial it is to choose our leaders based on their appearances, we still want the pastor with the PhD. We still want the CEO who went to Cambridge. We want the guy with the cloak.

But then look at the brother’s response, “In my house there is neither bread nor cloak.” What is he saying? In part, its, “I’m not qualified,” which kinda sounds humble. But in reality he is telling his brother that he needs a real job. He doesn’t have bread. He needs a real job that will pay him enough to feed himself. He’s got his own problems and he doesn’t have time to solve the problems of others.

Here is a picture of judgement for men - and notice, it’s not fire and brimstone. It’s worse than that. It is the loss of control. Its that frustration of only being able to see the problems, never the solution. Its that dreadful feeling of uselessness and worthlessness that makes you feel like less than a man. That is God’s judgement on these men: he strips them of their manhood. The real question is why? We can understand judgement as wrath and anger and pain - though you might disagree with that - at least that makes sense. But why does God judge men in this peculiar way? Because sin means stripping God of his godhood.

For Jerusalem has stumbled,

and Judah has fallen,

because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord,

defying his glorious presence

For the look on their faces bears witness against them;

they proclaim their sin like Sodom;

they do not hide it.

Woe to them!

For they have brought evil on themselves.

Isaiah 3:8-9

The expression in verse 9, “the look on their faces,” is similar to when we say in Cantonese, “Pei Min,” or “Give face.” That is these men were giving face to one another, acknowledging each other’s status and achievements, all the while, ignoring God. The picture here is of men and women sinning against God, but more than that, living their lives independent of God. They couldn’t care less what God thought of their deed and actions. “They proclaim their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it.” This is the essence of sin: rebellion. God is no longer our ruler. God has no say, no significance and no control over our lives. I hope you realise that when sin is defined in this way, it doesn’t just mean doing bad things - stealing, lying and cheating - but this means we can look quite respectable on the outside and still be rebelling against God in our hearts. Sin means I get to call the shots; I am the boss of me.

God says one day he will remove all the men of influence and expose sin for what it is: the futile attempt of settings ourselves up as mini-gods. If you look back to the list of leaders in the beginning of the chapter, you see there, amongst the elders and leaders - the soothsayer and the clever enchanter. Meaning, the men that the people of Jerusalem looked to for leadership and inspiration were not simply strong, smart and sexy - they were pagan worshippers who led God’s people away from God. Such that, when God finally removes these men from leadership, it never crosses their minds to turn to God. What do they do? They turn to one another. The man says to his brother, “You take their place.” The men still want to be in control. Even in the face of disaster; even in the face of desperation, it never crosses their minds to repent of their self-sufficiency, to turn to God, to ask for help.

Man’s desire is always to dominate at all costs. They must always have the remote control (even though they can never decide what’s good on TV). They must keep driving on ahead at full speed (even though the GPS tells them they’re way off track). God says to these childish men, one day they will be stripped of their dominion, for it is God who gave them their dominion in the first place. For it is God who entrusted dominion into their hands in the first place, not for personal gain, not for personal glory, but for God’s glory. And one day, even the most stubborn man will have to acknowledge that he is not lord of all, God is.

Man’s desire is always to dominate, but next, Isaiah speaks to the women, whose deepest desire is to be desired.

When women are no longer women

The Lord said:

Because the daughters of Zion are haughty

and walk with outstretched necks,

glancing wantonly with their eyes,

mincing along as they go,

tinkling with their feet,

therefore the Lord will strike with a scab

the heads of the daughters of Zion,

and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.

Isaiah 3:16-17

If every man wants to be the boss, Isaiah reveals to us that every woman wants to be beautiful. If the worst nightmare for men is that one day, they will lose all control over their lives, then the deepest fears for any woman is that one day, she will no longer be loved. God says to the women of Zion, that day will come when you will be stripped of all your articles of beauty. Why? Because for these women, it wasn’t enough to be beautiful. They wanted to be noticed. Or put it another way, beauty was no longer the end but a means to an end. Everything about the way that they dressed, even they way that they walked, said, “Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!” The women of Zion used their feminine beauty as a tool to gain prominence, attention, worship.

In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; the signet rings and nose rings; the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

Isaiah 3:18-23

Now the application of these verses is not: Women can’t wear makeup or that girls can’t wear jewellery or nice clothes. That’s not the point. Please don’t quote me by saying, “Calvin taught us that all the girls must only buy the cheapest, the most worn out and tatty clothes from second-hand shops. Maximum 3.99 pounds!” That is not the application of these verses.

Why does God say that one day he is going to throw out your entire wardrobe? And let’s face it - it’s a pretty long and extensive list. Many of you girls have these very things at home. In your minds, you might be going, “No! Not my Prada shoes!” Nothing is left out of this list, as if to say, every single thing will go. Why does God say this?

Because sisters, as much as you might think that these things make you look more beautiful, they don’t. Not in God’s eyes.

You see, as many times as you might like to look in the mirror and say to yourself, “You’re worth it!” dressed in your finest clothes, with stunning makeup, hair-done up; as much money as you might spend, as much time as you might dedicate to making yourself look stunning; it is nothing compared to having someone else say to you, “You are worth it.”

The most beautiful women in the world can be at the same time, the most insecure. They were the supermodels and catwalk models of their day. They were beautiful, but that wasn’t enough for them. They had to be always beautiful. They had to always be reminded that they were beautiful. And the more attention that they received, the tragic thing was this, the less they believed it. That’s why they needed “accessories.” The handbags, the perfume, the scarves, the headbands, the flowing dresses. These accessories became essential. They might have said, “I’m worth it,” to themselves, but their hearts were saying, “These things are all I’m worth.”

And God says to these women, “The day will come when all your articles of beauty will be stripped away. In fact, on this day of judgement, you won’t even want to put on your makeup. Rather, you will dress yourselves in sackcloth.”

Instead of perfume there will be rottenness;

and instead of a belt, a rope;

and instead of well-set hair, baldness;

and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth;

and branding instead of beauty.

Your men shall fall by the sword

and your mighty men in battle.

And her gates shall lament and mourn;

empty, she shall sit on the ground.

Isaiah 3:24-26

Beauty becomes meaningless without the beholder. Loveliness is emptiness when there is no one to love. Why are these women of Zion dressed in sackcloth? Why are their heads shaven? It’s not because someone took their clothes away and shaved their heads; no, it’s because they are in mourning. Their men have fallen by the sword. Their husbands have been killed in battle.

Isaiah says, “Her gates shall lament and mourn.” The whole city is in mourning. The entire city has been stripped of its beauty. The entire city is covered in ashes. She is empty. It is a description of hollowness, worthlessness, even meaninglessness. She sits on the ground. Lifeless.

And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.”

Isaiah 4:1

I know there are guys who read this verse and go, “Cool.” It isn’t cool. It is tragic and frankly, humiliating. Seven women chasing after one man (“You can be Monday, You can be Tuesday, You’re Wednesday...”). They don’t say to this man, “Love me. Take care of me. Protect me.” No, these women will look after themselves, they will feed and clothe themselves. But what they say to this man is, “Let us be called by your name.” It is a proposal of marriage.

Guys don’t get this. Mention marriage to a guy and he’s thinking about how much the wedding is going to cost or how cool he is going to look dressing up like James Bond. Girls have been thinking about their wedding day since five. They know what flowers they want to have, which dress they are going to where, what colour tablecloths to get. They’ve thought about the kind of house they are going to live in and how many girls and boys they want to raise. Why? Because the deepest desire in a woman is to be desired, to be cherished. To be loved.

Here we learn that even in the most desperate of times of judgement, even when the only guy available is a loser who can’t provide for these women, who isn’t thinking of their well-being but his own selfish gain - these seven women would still rather be loved by a loser of a husband than not loved at all. “Take away our shame,” they say to him.

Yet notice as well, that earlier, this was the same thing the man was asking of his brother. “Lead us! Take care of this mess!” Don’t you see, Isaiah is not describing two different nightmares but one and the same. Not two situations but the same worst case scenario. They lose their identity. They lose their purpose. They lose control. And they come to the point when they recognise that they can’t look within, they need to find help from outside themselves.

Both men and women recognise a need that they can’t fulfil themselves, and they turn to someone outside to fill that need - whether it is beauty or purpose. And it is here that Isaiah speaks of a day - the same day, in fact - that these men and women of Zion will finally recognise God as the only one who can give them the significance, the worth and the affirmation that they so long for.

The branch of the LORD

In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.

Isaiah 4:2-4

It’s still Zion, the same place. And it’s still the same people, “the daughters of Zion,” though these are those of remain in Jerusalem, called “the survivors of Zion.” It is even the same day, the Day of the Lord.

But something has dramatically changed. These survivors are now filled with pride and honour. The branch of the LORD is described as beautiful. In case you didn’t get that, these were the two sins of the men and women back in Chapter 3. The men were proud of their strength and prowess and this led them to rebel against God. The women were haughty in their own looks and beauty that wanted more to be worshipped than to worship God. These were the same sins which resulted in judgement on the men and women of Zion. And yet, pride and beauty characterise the new redeemed community in Jerusalem. How can this be so? Because God is at the centre of the city.

Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

Isaiah 4:5-6

The word for “canopy” (khupah) is the Hebrew word describing a wedding chamber, or the honeymoon suite, if you like; while “booth” (succoth) means tent, especially reminiscent of the tent of God during the Exodus. Here is a dual image of a wedding and worship. God comes as the true bridegroom of Zion, cleansing her by a spirit of fire and judgement and clothing her with beauty and righteousness. God comes as the redeemer of his people, pouring out forgiveness for their sin, sheltering them from the heat and rain. God saves the men and women in his city in such a way that strips them of the idols of their hearts but at the same time, fills their deepest longings and desires with himself. Zion is fruitful once again, not a heap of ruins. God takes away their shame and calls them by his name: holy.

The question I want to end with is: How do we get this? God’s promises are for Jerusalem, we’re in Cambridge. Isaiah speaks of a future day to come, can we apply this to our lives today?

To answer that, look back to verse 2, because its packed with clues and descriptions. Isaiah calls this new community of God, the branch of the LORD - and that word branch refers to a new family tree, meaning that God will raise a new people. He calls them survivors who “remain in Jerusalem.”

The reason why Christians can look at these words and know with absolute certainty that they have received these promises is because of Jesus, who once turned to his disciples and said to them, “You are the branches.” It was his last conversation with them before going to the cross. Jesus was on a steady course to his death - where he would be humiliated, despised and rejected - but he wanted his disciples to know that through his death, they would receive life; through his humiliation, glory. And Jesus said this:

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

John 15:5-8

Jesus says to us, “I am the vine, you are the branches,” and calls us to remain in him. He is calling us to find our deepest satisfaction, our truest joy in nothing else and no one else but him. Apart from Jesus, we wither and die, but in Jesus, we find life, purpose, joy, righteousness, peace. Love. And the reason why Jesus chose to say these words on that day was because that was the day when he would take our shame, our rejection and our sin. On the cross, Jesus took God’s punishment for sin on our behalf. It was the same day and the same event, both judgement from God and salvation through God’s Son, Jesus.

Isaiah was speaking of this day - a day when our deepest fears come to life. God would pour out his full anger for our sin; God will expose the shame of our sin, on this day. Yet, Christians know that on this day, Jesus took the penalty for our sin and offers us forgiveness, reconciliation and life. That is what we see on the cross. That is why we keep coming back to the cross, to see our sin, to see our God, and to see our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:4-5