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Thought for the Week

The Wild Grapes

I did not plan to spend lots of time in any of the Old Testament Prophets/Books. But, already I have digressed. Last week’s “Thought” on “The Vineyard” gave us something to consider. I know these words are from God, through Isaiah, to Israel. But, we can always take God’s word, search it for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and/or for instruction in righteousness to help us be better equipped to serve God. Warren Wiersbe proposes that Isaiah has preached his sermon, or used his parable and now begins to act like a troubadour and to sing a ballad “of the wild grapes” to Israel to attempt to seize their attention. I see here six woes. A woe is a sorrow, a grief, or a misery. These certainly fit and lead to more. We are in Isaiah chapter 5. The woe in verses 8-10, condemns those who are greedy, covetous, multiply houses and lands. This is at the expense of the “little man,” who is squeezed out of owning even small holdings, while the rich keep getting richer, or at least seem to. They continually seek to get more while it amounts to less. In verses 11-12, alcoholics are challenged. Remember Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, refuted the mockers in the crowd who said the Disciples were drunk, by reminding them it was only 9 in the morning. But we hear of those who need an “eye-opener” drink first thing in the morning. We have 30,000,000 combination problem-drinkers/alcoholics in our country. I preach “total abstinence” even though the Bible does not because I am convinced if a person never takes a first drink, he can become neither a problem drinker nor an alcoholic. Isaiah sees alcoholics bring within themselves the seeds of destruction. Woe in verses 18-19, comes to those who are constantly seeking some new evil, sin, wrong-doing, to engage in and proposing “The Holy One of Israel” can or will do nothing about it. “The Holy One of Israel” is Isaiah’s favorite term for describing God. Isaiah most certainly knows God can and will ultimately do something about sin. Have you heard of those who claim right is wrong and wrong is right? Darkness is light and light is darkness? This woe verse 20, may be more prevalent in our day than in Isaiah’s. Far too frequently our vocabulary does not match the dictionary. Brief examples are: “A fling” describing adultery, “a blob of tissue” to describe an unborn baby, “mishandling funds” for embezzlement and theft. The list is long and getting longer as we try to excuse sin by giving it a more harmless sounding name. The shortest woe, found in verse 21, may be the worst and most dangerous. It is pride. Whenever people begin to believe themselves to be always right in their own decisions and judgments, they are headed for a fall or ultimately for destruction. The sixth woe again highlights alcoholism but shows it dulls the thinking and wisdom of judges and leads to perversion of justice. These woes are corrupting the nation. Isaiah is well aware of these things and begins to warn the people. Isaiah is a good prophet and he uses a combination of warnings to alert the people and promises of blessings to entice them to get into a right relationship with God and to obey God’s commands. When God gives clear directions there is not good reason to seek some other direction. It only leads to death.

Scriptures to Read

Isaiah 5:8-19

Isaiah 5:20-30

I Kings 21:1-25

Proverbs 20:1 & 23:29-35

I Corinthians 6:9-20

I Corinthians :18-31

Romans 13:9-14

 

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