Isaiah 5:11-20

Isa 5:11

Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!

Then as normal the wealthy people always have feasts and parties separating themselves from the realities of life.  They awake in the morning and attend parties and while they are there they drink all kinds of alcoholic drinks all day until they get to the point they are inebriated.  Then when they are drunk their minds turn to lustful things and that inflames them to commit fornication and then the orgies begin especially if they are under the umbrella of one of their false gods.  In ancient times in pagan societies they believed that when they became drunk they would be closer to their god in that condition.  Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 29:6)  To get drunk was forbidden under the law because it was a pagan practice. 

Isa 5:12

And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

Four instruments are mentioned here which means that at these feasts there was plenty of music which could have a seductive sound when it is combined with the alcoholic beverages they were drinking within those feasts.  They were so focused on good times and feasts that they did not even consider the LORD who had brought them into the land and how he protected them.  The same scenario is being played out today in the nations of the world.  We are so focused on man and his supposed achievements that the nations of the world have excised God from their lives not realizing that it is God who keeps this world from destroying itself.  In the USA, God has been expunged from the schools, business, courtrooms, local government and other places as they no longer recognize the operation of the LORD’s hands and the eternal price will be paid.  Creation has been replaced by Evolution.  Biblical morality has been usurped by immorality.  The law of God has been supplanted by situational ethics.  The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. (Micah 7:2)  Micah 7:2 sums it up because it is hard to find any good people on earth, that is, saved who are also not compromised.

Isa 5:13

Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

Even though the Babylonian captivity was about 100 years away they were as good as going into captivity because they were paying no attention to the warnings that Isaiah was giving them.  They were also in captivity to their own sins making them prisoners of wickedness.  The leaders should have been warning the people about departing from the LORD but they possessed no knowledge because they were also sinning and getting wealthy doing it.  So when they go to Babylon they will be famished for food which would be the spiritual food because they will be under the false gods of the Babylonians.  They will thirst once again for the temple and will not be able to fulfill the demands of the law as they will be forced to worship false idols at the peril of losing their lives if they refuse.

Isa 5:14

Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

Since there were so many who walked away from the LORD and chose to follow the false gods, when Babylon comes into to remove them from the land there will also be great slaughter of them and those who have followed the false religions will be assigned to hell as all unbelievers are.  There will be so many who will die unsaved that hell will have to enlarge itself to accommodate all the souls sent there.  Hell will open its mouth and will be wide enough to lodge all the dead.  The glory was their shame and there was a multitude of people who followed that shame.  The “pomp” refers to the noise makers like those who go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  Their noise is loud and they rejoice in that noise because they believe it is real but in reality it is just a cover for their spiritual barrenness.  Even those who make sounds of mirth will not escape the fiery judgment of hell.

Isa 5:15

And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

The mean men are those who are the poor and frail which means that just because a person is weak or poor does not mean they will escape the judgment of God for their sins.  The mighty men who are the wealthy and the leaders of Israel shall be humbled from their lofty positions and the eyes of the lofty or proud will be humbled.  As they looked down on the poor people, their eyes will now see that they too have become poor and are like those whom they disdain.

Isa 5:16

But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

The fact that the proud and sinful will be judged by the LORD, he will be exalted as he will be seen as the exalted God of this universe who has the right and authority to bring judgment.  All the false gods they worshipped have no power to stop the judgment and God will be seen as the true God of Israel.  The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. (Psalm 9:16)  Judah will know that the LORD is the one who brings the judgment and they will realize that they cannot escape it.  The false religions endorsed what they were doing but in contrast to the false gods, the true God will show his holiness as he judges and condemns widespread sin within Judah.  He will be the righteous judge who will bring the ruling.  That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:25)  The fact that God is sanctified shows how separate he is from sin.

Isa 5:17

Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

Those who have become truly saved in Israel will be like lambs who will be able to feed without fear.  Once the sin has been expunged from the land, there will be righteous peace for the true believer.  Lambs will not eat when they are in fear but when they know the shepherd is protecting them, they can eat in peace.  Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. (Luke 10:3)  The waste places of the fat ones will be the property and lands that the rich people had to leave.  The wealthy people are tied to this world by means of wealth but the true lambs of God have their wealth in Heaven.  And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. (Revelation 21:21)  It is interesting that what people crave in this world, God uses for pavement in Heaven.

Isa 5:18

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

Here Isaiah brings the third woe.  The woe is upon them who incessantly commit sin as if they are being drawn into it by means of a cord attached to them drawing them into sin.  A cart rope would have been a very strong rope which had the ability to hold a cart together with the horse and to be able to tie down the goods it was carrying.  The picture here is that the people were sinning so rampantly it was like they were tied with a very strong rope from which they could not escape or break hold of.  The more you sin, the stronger the desire and urge to sin grows simultaneously.  It is like a drunk, the more he drinks the more he wants to drink because he is tied to it like a strong cart rope.  In other words, their sin was so strong, they could not escape its enticement.

Isa 5:19

That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!

Then these base sinners make a challenge to the LORD.  They claim they will not believe that God would dare to bring any kind of judgment unless they first see it.  They expected to see this judgment come upon them swiftly but if they did not see it happen quickly, then they believed it would not happen.  This is why they continued in their sin because they did believed that delayed judgment was no judgment.  This is the big mistake the arrogant sinners of our present generation make.  Just because they do not see the judging hand of God coming down swiftly they mistake the delay as no judgment and no God.  What they fail to understand is that before God judges a nation or the world he readies it for judgment until their iniquity is full.  But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (Genesis 15:16)  We must never neglect these principles we find in verses of Scripture which may not be more than just a few words nevertheless they are in the word of God.  This is why the present world seems to be so arrogant in their sin because they do not see judgment, YET!

Isa 5:20

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!