AWAKE, ARISE, AND TRIUMPH
Thursday – September 23, 2021, Tishrei 17, 5782
MY BELOVED
Greetings precious saints, sons of the Father, brothers and sisters of the Son. Welcome back to this intriguing and empowering study of the wonderful Bible Book of Isaiah. All of the Bible is empowering for it is instructive in how to live or how not to live.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV)
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Much of what we have studied so far is how not to live and the consequences required by justice of unrighteous living. Today we will be moving forward into chapter five but first please take a moment to share these teachings as widely as possible. The featured picture today was taken recently of Donna and me at a local restaurant. God is so good. Now, let’s move forward reading aloud our primary Bible text for today.
Isaiah 5:1-3 (KJV)
1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
The “beloved” here is the Lord (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) and the vineyard in this case is His people. He gave them all they needed and more expecting the choicest harvest but instead it produced wild grapes. God is real ticked off, He has been talking about this rebellious, disobedient people in one way or another for several chapters now. Doesn’t this sound a lot like the accounts of the “pounds” and “talents”? Now let’s move forward in this chapter and see the consequences of being an unproductive vineyard.
Isaiah 5:4-7 (KJV)
4 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?
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
You can hear the frustration in the Lord’s voice as He asks what more He could have done for the vineyard. Do you suppose He is asking Himself and us the same question as He looks at the disarray in the Church? Now the Lord speaking through the Prophet Isaiah starts to talk again about the consequences. Please don’t look at this as the Lord doing it, we tear down our own hedges by unbelief, disobedience, and idolatry. The Lord has put in place spiritual and natural laws and He watches over those laws to see that they function the same all the time. For example, on the physical side the law of gravity is not hit and miss. On the spiritual side, the law of sowing and reaping is not hit or miss either. Remember there was a hedge about Job and who tore that hedge down? It was not God, it was not Satan, but it was Job. God does not tear down our hedges although from a pure power standpoint He certainly could but He would have to violate spiritual law in so doing. He will not do that and the demons and the Devil himself cannot do that. Only we ourselves have the authority to tear down or build for that matter our hedge. When we tear down the hedge the serpent will bit, we certainly saw that in the Book of Job when Job tore down his hedge with fear.
Ecclesiastes 10:8 (KJV)
8 He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
Now, let’s take a look at verse seven as we end for today. First let me remind us all of the following verse which is illustrated over and over in Scripture and certainly in our text.
Romans 8:6 (KJV)
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
To be carnally minded is to be focused on carnal things and spiritually minded is to be focused on spiritual things. I can’t speak for you but I like the sounds of life and peace quite a lot better than death. Our flesh and unrenewed minds shout real loud brother and sister but with the Holy Spirit we are well able to put the flesh, that old man under. Now, verse seven. The Lord of Hosts in Scripture is the second person of the co-equal triune God, the one now called Jesus. At that time His vineyard was Israel, today it is His body, the ecclesia (the Church). Then and now He was looking for justice and found injustice, He was looking for righteousness but found cries of distress. Dear ones let us not look at this as the foolishness of an ancient peoples, but a reflection of us. Let us examine ourselves.
1 Corinthians 11:28-31 (KJV)
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Lord willing, I will pick up right here next week.
2 Chronicles 20:20 b (KJV)
20 … Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Until our next publication, as your Bible Teacher and a Prophetic Voice in your life I speak this blessing over each and every one of you, receive it, believe it, doubt it not, and speak over yourself and your family by faith in Jesus’ name!
Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)
24 The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you;
26 The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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