Neither God’s nature nor human nature have changed. These timeless warnings from Isaiah’s time serve still to caution us even today.
Just to help get you started on verse 8, think of it as a transition from many small businesses and homes to fewer, consolidated homes and businesses of a much smaller group now running things. Sort of sounds something like… “Beware of shutting down small family businesses to be replaced with a few behemoths like Amazon or Walmart”. Could be a similar concept with homes as well as businesses.
Woes for the Wicked
8Woe 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!
9In my ears the LORD of hosts has sworn, “Surely, many houses shall become desolate,
Even great and fine ones, without occupants.
10“For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine,
And a homer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain.”
11Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,
Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!
12Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD,
Nor do they consider the work of His hands.
13Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;
And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
15So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,
The eyes of the proud also will be abased.
16But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
17Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.
18Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood,
And sin as if with cart ropes;
19Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near
And come to pass, that we may know it!”
20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!
22Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
And valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!
24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
For they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25On this account the anger of the LORD has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.
And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.
For all this His anger is not spent,
But His hand is still stretched out.
26He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation,
And will whistle for it from the ends of the earth;
And behold, it will come with speed swiftly.
27No one in it is weary or stumbles,
None slumbers or sleeps;
Nor is the belt at its waist undone,
Nor its sandal strap broken.
28Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;
The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;
It growls as it seizes the prey
And carries it off with no one to deliver it.
30And it will growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.
If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;
Even the light is darkened by its clouds.
This prophecy contains quite the vision of warning and punishment to come. While Jerusalem has already experienced this in Isaiah’s time, we can learn from it and apply it still today, hopefully to avoid God’s wrath.
Spend sometime rereading this scripture today, reflecting on each piece as you seek to understand it clearly. Ask the Spirit to guide you in understanding and applying it to your life. I would highlight the following section again for your prayerful consideration. This runs rampant today throughout society and even churches.
20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!
I invite you to pray with me:
Father, please grant us understanding and wisdom. Increase our faith. Let Your people have greater clarity than ever in regard to what is good and what is evil. Help us to be humble and not be “clever in our own sight”. Help us rely on You and Your word. Thank You for Your word which is good for teaching and instruction forever. Amen.
Shalom. May the grace and peace of our Lord, Yeshua, be with you. Devotion by John in service to Christ
—-
Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.