Send Me
Isaiah Chapters 5&6
He Looked for Justice, but Saw Bloodshed
In verses 1-7 of Chapter 5 begin as a song. The song should be a love song, and it begins as such, with the analogy of the Beloved and his vineyard. But the song goes wrong almost from the beginning, as the vineyard is established and lovingly tended by the Beloved, but yields only bad fruit.
The role of the singer is an odd one, as he begins singing to the Beloved or of the Beloved, but as quickly as the love song goes wrong, the prophet singer begins to give voice to the Beloved. In a manner similar to the rebuke Nathan gave to David (2 Samuel 12:1-13) or the way Jesus questioned the chief priests and elders regarding his Parable of the Tenants (Luke 20:9-16) the singer, on behalf of the Beloved, asks the people of God to witness the failure of the vineyard. As in the first chapter (1:11-13) the injury of the Beloved is not in the face of the people’s worship, but in the fact of their worship: the Beloved looked for justice but found bloodshed, and looked for righteousness and heard cries of despair.
Woe to You
In the remainder of the chapter, what should have been a love song completely deteriorates. What had been words of praise become words of condemnation. We have not the time or space to go into each of these, but the first (verses 8-9) seems particularly relevant today. As today, the people of Isaiah’s day put their trust in material wealth, which is just one of the ways we abandon out God and put our trust in ourselves. This self-reliance is spoken of more directly in verses 20-21, where the prophet speaks of those who pursue their own morality and their own wisdom. In an image that will recur in following chapters, verse 25 speaks of the outstretched hand of the Lord, which remains outstretched, even though the people have suffered greatly.
This combined image of the redeeming God of love and the angry God of judgment is a recurring theme of Old Testament prophecy. In Jeremiah 23:19-20 (and repeated in 30:23-24) the prophet speaks of terrible judgment that comes from the heart of the Lord. Jesus also (in John 12:44-50, for example) spoke of the way in which his mission was one of love for those who accepted it and at the same time condemnation for those who rejected it, and following the Parable of the Tenants (Luke 20:17-20) Jesus speaks of the stone rejected by the builders which has become the cornerstone. This image comes not only from Psalm 118:22, but is repeated in Isaiah (8:14; 28:16).
Holy, Holy, Holy
Chapter 6, verses 1-4 begin one of the very familiar passages of Isaiah. Chapter 1 verse 1 tells us that Isaiah’s prophetic ministry spanned the reign of four kings of Judah, beginning with the reign of Uzziah. There is a confusion of names with regard to Uzziah. In 2 Kings 15:1-7, we read of a Azariah, son of Amaziah who was anointed King of Judah at age sixteen and who continued to reign through his son after Amaziah himself was afflicted with leprosy. 2 Chronicles provides much more detail of the reign of King Uzziah, son of Amaziah, who was became king at age sixteen (2 Chronicles 26:1-5) and who had a confrontation with a priest named Azairah during which Uzziah broke out with leprosy and continued to reign through his son.
Whatever his name was, Uzziah or Azariah, he was good king whose reign provided Judah with a great deal of stability at a time when the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were in perilous decline. The death of such a great king was of enormous impact to the people of Judah and it left them in doubt as to their present security and future identity.
In this setting, the prophet Isaiah has a vision of the true King, the Lord Almighty, a reminder that though the people have put their trust in various kings who came and went, and were better or worse, the true, lasting King is the Lord God Almighty, whose reign is greater than any earthly king, and whose identity remains constant, and whose security will never fail. Perhaps it is an idea that is applicable to any age, but it certainly seems uniquely applicable to our own age. Whatever we may think of our current security or our future prospect, we must remember that whether they are relatively good or relatively bad, our security and identity comes not from our elected leaders, but from the Lord God Almighty, and the whole earth, no matter what our evaluation of it may be, is full of the glory of the Lord.
Woe to Me!
Chapter 6 ends (verse 13) with a bleak message of hope. The hand of the Lord remains outstretched, and when only a tenth of the people will remain, the land will again be laid waste. The people of the Lord will be as saplings which spring up from the stump of a fallen tree.
But before this darkly hopeful proclamation, the prophet Isaiah, who has been speaking to the people for the Lord, begins to speak to the Lord as a representative of that frail remnant of the people who remain true to their Lord. In verse 5, as Isaiah has been speaking for the Lord to the people decrying “woe to you” he now finds himself in the holy presence of the Lord and says of himself, as we must all say of ourselves, I am unclean, and I live among a people who are unclean. Woe to me!
Send Me!
Any encounter we have with the pure, holy, and unchanging presence of the Lord will leave us changed. In the very setting of the inescapable judgment of the Lord, the prophet in verses 6-8 encounters the ever-present redemption of the Lord. Though it is with a coal of fire, the prophets lips are cleaned. After the cleansing, he is able to hear the Lord say “Whom shall I send?” and to answer “Here am I, send me!”
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. (John 20:21 KJV)
