Meditate on it

The futility of those who choose to go their own way is described in Isaiah 5: "Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope" (v. 18, KJ). "What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart! (v. 18 NLT) From this Isaiah Bible study commentary: "They sinned and dared God to punish them. When punishment didn't come immediately, they chose to continue doing evil.  Raymond C. Ortlund asks us to  "Picture people, not horses, harnessed to a heavy wagon, pulling it along, straining with all their might"  Isaiah understands the burden that sin is.  But we do it to ourselves. Why?  Because sin is deceitful (Hebrews 3:12).  This is what is meant by cords of falsehood (v. 18)"  -Grace Church Memphis, Isaiah study "That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israe

The vineyard metaphor continues from the perspective of the vineyard owner who has done all he can to care for it, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" Isaiah 5:4 1. The vineyard represents Israel: "For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting." Isaiah 5:7. Psalm 80:8-9: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land." Jeremiah 2:21: "Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?" There is this overarching sense that God was faithful to his side of things and Israel was not. 2. What had the Lord done for his vineyard?  Everything He could---he br

Overall imagery:  The picture is a community without leaders--children and women are doing the leading.  No one wants to lead or wants responsibility for the mess.   The reason for this dynamic is that Israel has been brazenly proud, provoking the Lord. The image is that they will reap what they have sown--bad fruit or good.  The Lord stands up as if to judge in a courtroom.  (Isaiah 3:13 "The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.") Israel is accused of poor stewardship of His vineyard, especially Israel's leaders, "for you have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of poor is in your houses" (Isaiah 3:14).  God's people=the vineyard.  This vineyard imagery also is echoed in Isaiah 5:1, Isaiah 5:7, Psalm 80, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea. Leadership is accused of being materialistic and abusive of the poor. Isaiah paints a picture of the denigration of Israel to come through Babylonian captivity. The wealthy daughters of Zion will be str

Day 5 Isaiah 2:6-22 1. The Lord will reject his people because "they are full of things from the east, of fortune tellers, and they strike hands with foreigners (made alliances with pagans). (v 6) Their land is full of idols (v.8). They may set a king over them but not a foreigner, and he should not acquire many horses or wives, or too much wealth (lest his heart turn away).  Deuteronomy 14:14-17 When you see armies, horses, and chariots bigger than you--don't be afraid.  -Deuteronomy 20:1 Don't come to trust in the army and its resources more than the Lord--look to the Lord.  Isaiah 31:1 Trust in name of the Lord, not chariots or horses.  Psalm 20:7 "A sad sequence--money leading to idolatry." -BI 2. For those who do not repent, each man is brought low and will be humbled (Isaiah 2:12), people shall enter the caves of the rocks (Isaiah 2:19), they will cast away their idols to the moles and the bats (Isaiah 2:20), 3. They must cast away idols

Day 4 Background:  Chapters of Isaiah 2-6--earliest ministry of Isaiah circa 735 BC Reign of Uzziah?  One of general prosperity Isaiah 2:2-4 matches Micah 4:1-3.  The commentaries suggest they both echo back to a more ancient prediction. Passage: Isaiah 2:1-5 1. a. The mountain of the Lord was lifted high above all the other hills, and all the nations will flow to it. (Isaiah 1:2-3)  People will say "come let us go to the mountain of the Lord that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his path." He will judge between nations and settle disputes.  They will beat their weapons into agricultural tools and will learn war no more." Wow--Spurgeon's interpretation, worthy of contemplation: This is the magnificent picture of the text. I do not know that in all the compass of poetry there is an idea so massive and stupendous as this—a mountain heaving, expanding, swelling, growing, till all the high hills become absorbed, and that which wa

Disclaimer: working my way through Isaiah for the Advent season, using  this study.   These notes are my study answers--interesting to no one but me!  Day 2 The book is directed to Judah (Southern Kingdom) which would fall about 100 years later. The Northern Kingdom was in its final days. Isaiah 1:1  Isaiah had a "vision." “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me."  Isaiah 1:2 1:3  Ox knows owner, donkey its master's crib but my people don't know me. 1:5  Why do you continue to rebel?  Whole heart faint, whole head sick. 1:6-9  the city and people full of bruises....if the Lord had not left a remnant, we would be wiped out like Sodom & Gommorah. 1. He calls them His children; Ex 4:22--my first born son; Ex 6:6--my own people; Ex 19:5--my own special treasure, my kingdom of priests, my holy nation. "There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the fact that Judah is not directly addressed, but t

Working my way through Isaiah for the Advent season, using this study.   These notes are my study answers--interesting to no one but me!  Day 1 1. The 12 sons of Jacob are Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Isacchar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. 2. Explain the prophecy of Judah from Genesis 14:10  Gen 49:10  The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from his descendants, until the coming of the One to whom it belongs, the One whom all nations will honor. I think of a scepter as a symbol of power, so Judah will be a leader and his sons leaders until the coming of the Messiah ("the One to whom it belongs, the One whom all nations will honor).   It's a Messianic prophecy. All of the sons and their prophecies: Reuben --as unruly as a flood, will be first no longer (v. 3-4) Simeon & Levi --two of same kind, their weapons are instruments of violence--may I never be a part of their plans, for they murder

I've been a Christian for 25 years now--maybe more.  As a Catholic teenager, I knew God distantly, though I struggled with absolute faith in His reality and refused to align my life with Him for years. A prodigal daughter, I had my doubts and rebelliously went my own way.  It took all of my teen years and some of my 20's before I sorted that mess out.  Or He did. When I became a Christian--definitively and freely--at age 24 (1993), I began reading the Bible in earnest.  By now, I'd guess I've read it cover-to-cover 15 times or more.  For many years I worked through it annually, though I eventually tired of that pace:  it was too fast, as if I was flying over the landscape when I wished to walk.   The last four years I've spent at the opposite extreme--working through a chronological reading plan that was supposed to take a year. This allowed me to get lost in the landscape, which was fun in a different way.  I was mature and disciplined enough to eventually re-e