Isaiah 16: 6-9

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;
Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;

His idle boasts are false.
⁷ Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.
You will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth
As those who are utterly stricken.
⁸ For the fields of Heshbon have withered, the vines of Sibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;

Its tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.
⁹ Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;
I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh;
For the shouting over your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.

Despite Isaiah's counsel and compassion, Moab remains senseless in its response to the prophet. The destruction to come will be fulfilled, and Isaiah describes the nation's losses and his continued grief over the situation in our passage today.

Moab might have seen a mighty act of redemption had it dealt with the long-term issue of its heart--pride, which Isaiah describes as "excessive." This is a nation proud of its pride!  #1 in arrogance! Best boasts by a boaster! You get the idea. With God, all things are possible. Without God, pride is a hard sin of which to repent; excessive pride...woo....

"It is not the rash and rigid censure of one or two concerning them, but it is the character which all that know them will give of them. They are a proud people, and therefore they will not take good counsel when it is given them. They think themselves too wise to be advised; therefore they will not take example by Hezekiah to do justly and love mercy. They scorn to make him their pattern, for they think themselves able to teach him. They are proud, and therefore will not be subject to God himself nor regard the warnings he gives them."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

["Too wise to be advised." There is a young lady of note (??) who made blazing headlines in entertainment news this week. Perhaps there is something in this message for her.]

"Therefore...," (vs. 7) trouble is coming, and no one will escape its coming. The nation will "wail" and "howl," (King James Version). Mourning will beset Moab. In the capital, Kir (the likely city meant by Kir-hareseth), the people will "moan for raisin cakes." This is the first reference Isaiah makes concerning a chief business of Moab--grape production. The nation was widely known for its growing of grapes as well as its manufacturing of wines. (Jerusalem was one of its key importers.) Raisin cakes were made from dried grapes, as you would expect, into a granola bar of sorts. The Encyclopedia of the Bible calls them "an imperishable food." Soldiers took them out into the field with them. If the Moabites would not even have their emergency box go-to food available, things would be awful.

With verse 8, we read of the destroying of the grape crop, which can just as well be read metaphorically of Moab itself. The vines in Heshbon, the prominent Moabite city in the north that we looked at in Isaiah 15, will be withered, as will those in Sibmah, a suburb of Heshbon to the northwest. In the Assyrian attack on the nation, the "choice clusters," that which would have spawned a new crop, will be trampled. The tendrils of the vines--the coils that reached out to support the plant--had once stretched from Jazer at the furthest point north, to the deserts east and south, to the Dead Sea. No longer!

Isaiah weeps (vs. 9), and "bitterly" so, over the loss of this great resource and gift, as well as over the nation's plight, "drenching" the cities of Heshbon and Elealah, who, otherwise, would have celebrated over a great harvest. "...For upon your summer fruits and your harvest the shout [of alarm and the cry of the enemy] has fallen." (Amplified Bible) 

Once again, it is a study of contrasts, Moab and Judah--and, remember, Isaiah is speaking to Judah, even as he is speaking to Moab. Judah would know redemption, in the near future with Hezekiah at the hand and mercy of God, and in the future in the final coming of a Savior:

"The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.

You shall multiply the nation, 

You shall increase their gladness;
They will be glad in Your presence
As with the gladness of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian."

--Isaiah 9: 2-4

But gladness at the time of harvest--both in its defeat by Assyria and in the final days--will remain an unknown joy of Moab.

“According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity
And those who sow trouble harvest it.

'By the breath of God they perish,
And by the blast of His anger they come to an end.'"

--Job 4: 8 and 9

"...And his remnant will be very small...." The prophet's grief over the loss of a nation. ...'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: www.bio.brandeis.edu , www.calvaryfullerton.org

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Next week:  Isaiah 16: 10-14
 
Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 5: 8-12

  

Woes for the Wicked

⁸ Woe 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!
⁹ In 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.”
¹¹ Woe 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!
¹² Their 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.

We will be looking for six "Woe to those..." as we read forward in Isaiah, Chapter 5. After presenting the "Parable of the Vineyard," the prophet now introduces six specific judgments brought upon God's people.

"Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field...."

--vs. 8

The first pronouncement goes against greedy landowners of the day, though the picture described could easily represent the sprawling suburban growth seen in the time before the crashes that stalled the U.S. economy. The county in which I live continues to struggle with how much growth is good for supporting the community and how much growth takes away from the natural, pastoral beauty and space of the land as it is. The trouble in this passage is with the greed and with violating God's intentions for the land.

"'The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land. If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.'"

--Leviticus 25: 23-25

First off, the land belongs to God! This is one of those principles that we don't acknowledge all the time, either. Our name may be on the title of the house, but we truly don't own the land. God also wanted for His people to retain within the family of God that land that He had given to them. Note the provisional intent of the kinsman.


But this is not what was happening, as the mark of success became not joy in God and family but in how much one acquired, even at the loss of family and one's senses.

"They covet fields and then seize them,
And houses, and take them away.
They rob a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance."

--Micah 2:2

Verse 9 says that houses "shall become desolate." Recall what we read in the parable. The Lord will "lay it waste." What He built no longer existed, and He would not tolerate what was being built in its place. Greed and earthly wealth will pass away at His hand. Look at the phrasing used by Isaiah here: "In my ears, the Lord of hosts has sworn...." Pretty strong! No wonder that Jesus would come to affirm these words before His death in speaking of Jerusalem--after laying out His own "woe to's" in Matthew 23.

"Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

--Matthew 23: 38 and 39

The punishment facing the landowners would be tangibly noticed, as explained by verse 10. There would be a marked reduction of what had once been successful crops of grapes and grain. My study Bible indicates that, judging by the amounts listed, famine-like conditions might have existed. Clearly, God was intervening.

"You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”

--Haggai 1:6

"Woe to those who...pursue strong drink...."

--vs. 11

The second woe condemns the drunkard. So important to differentiate between the drinking of wine and its production from the pursuit of strong drink. Obviously, growing and harvesting grapes for the production of wine was a significant industry for Israel. It still is! But what verse 11 speaks to--and quite a few other verses in the Bible--is the overindulgence of drinking and the resulting disregard of other things, like "the deeds of the Lord" and "the work of His hands." (vs. 12)


God is at odds with the pursuit of a pleasurable life when it involves leaving Him out and blurs one's vision to the point of saying self-interest is the only interest. Judah was drunk on itself, as it forgot all that God had provided. Recall the beautiful words of the parable, with God taking such great care in finding the choice land and growing His people in fertile, protected surroundings. He wanted to be among them again like the pillar of cloud and fire. But the opportunities for earthly gain were too enticing to ignore, and led to their ill pursuits--pursuits for which God would not stand: "He will tear them down and not build them up." (Psalm 28: 5b)


We, again, see that though God does not run out of grace, He cannot continue to freely give it in the face of a people who do not pursue Him. This was affirmed to me in this past Sunday's message at my church, in which our interim pastor quoted from Romans 1:

"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice...."

--Romans 1: 28 and 29 (excerpt)

God gives over Judah to its depraved mind. "Therefore My people go into exile...." as we begin with verse 13. ....'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: bible-history.com; blog.myjli.com

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Next week: Isaiah 5: 13-17

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).