Fifty two million people in the United States watched the royal wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton. People were captured by this modern fairy tale. It began in 2001 when upper class William and middle class Middleton met at St Andrews University in Scotland. In 2004, they were photographed skiing together in Switzerland, one of the first times they were publicly linked romantically. In June 2005, the pair finished college at St Andrews and each pursued a career. In early 2007 it appeared the fairy tale was over. The couple split. But later that year were seen back together again. And then, in October 2010, nine years after they first met, the couple got engaged during a vacation in Kenya. Prince William gave her the same diamond and sapphire engagement ring that Prince Charles gave to William’s mother, Princess Diana. They married on April 29, 2011. Fifty two million of us watched that wedding.
Why? Because we enjoy a good love story. We take pleasure in fairy tales. We love to see a couple with a bright and happy future.
In Is. 5 we hear another love story. The couple in this tale seems to have a bright and happy future ahead of them: 1Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes… (Is. 5:1-2 ESV). As we learn elsewhere, the vineyard in this love song represents the people of God and the vineyard owner represents God. It might strike us as odd that in a love song one person is called a vineyard and the other is called a vineyard owner. But this love song comes in the same tradition of songs today in which a person might say that his love is deeper than the ocean or that the girl he loves has hair as red as roses. Here, God, the vineyard owner, was so smitten with his people, the vineyard, that he dug the soil, cleared it of stones, planted it, built a watchtower to protect it, and hewed a wine vat in it so that its fruit bring joy to all.[1] God adores his people. And the future seems so bright for this wonderful couple. God has tenderly cared for this vineyard. Now he’s imagining the future they will enjoy together—abundant and refreshing fruit every season.
But then something terrible happens. Isaiah’s love song turns into a blues song: 5And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. (Is. 5:5-6 ESV). God lovingly dug the soil, cleared it of stones, planted it, built a watchtower, and hewed a wine vat in it. These are all the deeds of devotion. But now he’s going to just the opposite: break down its walls, make it a waste, not prune or hoe it, and command the clouds to send no rain. These are the actions of someone whose heart is broken. These are the words of a wounded lover. Something’s happened between these two that has caused God unspeakable grief. His heart is so broken that he now treats his former lover with anger and wrath.
Six times in chapter 5 God speaks a word of “woe” to his people. And at the end of chapter 5 God promises to punish his people though a foreign enemy who will attack them and devastate them.
Why? Why does God move from devotion to destruction? Why does God move from passion to punishment? What have his people done that has broken his heart?
The primary clue is found in vs. 7: 7…and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry! (Is. 5:7 ESV). This is the major clue to what’s happening in this chapter. It’s a small clue. It doesn’t give us as much detail as we’d like. We have to make some educated guesses in order to fill in the blanks. But we get enough here to see the basic picture. God expected something of his lover. He expected his people to live lives of justice and righteousness. Here “justice” refers to the right treatment of others, especially the right treatment of those who are often forgotten and neglected. It would include the poor. God expected his people to pursue the right treatment of the poor. But instead, he saw his people causing bloodshed. And he heard the outcry of those whom God’s people were mistreating. The words “bloodshed” and “justice” sound very similar in the original Hebrew language. Isaiah’s song uses a play on words. It’s like saying, “God looked for compassion on the poor but all he saw was consumerism.” “God looked for graciousness toward the poor but all he found was greed.” What broke God’s heart was the way his people were treating the poor.
As we’ll see in a moment, the bloodshed mentioned in this verse doesn’t refer to physically hurting the poor or murdering the poor. God does not see his people striking the poor or beating the poor. We read nothing about that in the rest of the chapter. Instead, God sees his people involved in something much more hidden and much less explicit. It seems that they have adopted a lifestyle and an approach toward money that is somehow bleeding the poor to death.[2] The poor are not dying the death of one massive blow but the death of a million small blows. And their outcry has reached God’s ears. The rest of the chapter explains.
8Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field…9The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing: “Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.” Isaiah is describing wealthy people who accumulate vast tracts of land. They live peacefully in their mansions and have the ideal life of luxury. Isaiah does not accuse them of illegally stealing this property.[3] These aren’t people who’ve gone out and hunted down the poor and stolen their land. They’ve merely taken advantage of good housing prices and good land deals. But in their zeal to expand their estate and keep up with the Jones, they’ve forgotten about those who have little.[4]
11Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them! 12 They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, 22Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink 23who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right. The real concern here is not alcohol per se but the self-indulgence and self-absorption of those who are drinking.[5] This section refers to wealthy people who can afford leisure time and have the resources to pursue pleasurable activities. The drinking here is probably that which was associated with lavish parties where people would be entertained by wonderful music.[6] But notice what all this self-indulgence and self-absorption lead to: they acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right! In other words, they stop pursuing justice. They enjoy the wonderful life they’ve worked for and they stop giving any thought to those who are deprived and who do not have what they have.
The picture we get is a picture that’s scarily familiar. Isaiah doesn’t see men and women who actively and aggressively hurt the poor. Instead, he sees people who are living the good life, people who have achieved the American dream, people who have worked hard for all they have and who like to celebrate and have a good time together. The problem is not their possessions nor their parties. The problem is that in their pursuit of the good life, they’ve basically forgotten those who have a bad life. These are people who see and care only for themselves.[7] They’ve gotten so caught up in getting a raise, and expanding their business, and enlarging their house, and celebrating with their friends that they literally think nothing about the poor.
And this has broken God’s heart. He loves his people but he can’t stand what they are doing. It grieves him to see the way they are forgetting those who have nothing. It devastates him to see how they focus only on themselves and forget their needy neighbor next door.
In other words, what most angers God is self-centeredness and self-indulgence that leads to the neglect of the poor. Last Sunday we looked at how Isaiah’s audience lived in their own little world and forgot about the nations. This morning we’re getting a glimpse at how they lived in their own little world and forget about the needy. They didn’t actively mistreat the poor. Thus just didn’t do anything positively for the poor. And God says that’s a kind of bloodshed. Their neglect of the poor was killing the poor. What most angers God is self-centeredness and self-indulgence that leads to the neglect of the poor.
In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to ascend Mount Everest.[8] Today, thousands of people have reached the summit of the world’s tallest mountain, many paying over $60,000 for the climb. And in the rush to the top, amateurs who have paid this fortune will do anything it takes to get to there. David Sharp became a casualty of this mentality. This 34-year-old engineer from Cleveland managed to reach Mount Everest’s summit. But, he ran out of oxygen on the way back down. As he lay dying, 40 climbers passed him by. They were on their way up. They were too eager to get to the top to stop use up their oxygen on David. As a result, David Sharp died. According to Ed Viestrus, who has scaled all 14 of the world’s 8,000 meter peaks, Sharp’s death is not unique. “Passing people who are dying is not uncommon. Unfortunately, there are those who say: ‘It’s not my problem. I’ve spent all this money, and I’m going to the summit.'” These climbers didn’t steal David’s oxygen. They didn’t beat David up. They simply did nothing. They just walked on by. They were too caught up in their own lofty goals and thus neglected David. That’s the kind of self-absorption and self-indulgence Isaiah points out in chapter 5. But in this case it’s not egotistical climbers passing a fellow climber. It’s decent people buying a new home, expanding their business, and throwing some social events for friends and coworkers. It’s hardworking people moving up in the world. But as they move up they neglect those who are in distress on their way down. They don’t beat them up. They don’t steal what little they have. They just ignore them. They just walk on by. And it breaks God’s heart.
But Isaiah’s points out that while God’s people were neglecting the poor, God was not. God remembered those forgotten because of his people’s self-centeredness and self-absorption. 7…and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry! (Is. 5:7 ESV). God saw how the careless consumption of his people was bleeding the poor to death. God heard the cry of those who had little. This series is called “Tangled” because Isaiah paints a portrait of a God who is tangled up in the world, tangled up with people we often neglect. Here, Isaiah shows that God is tangled up in the lives of the poor—the very people neglected are the very ones God hears. The rest of chapter 5 is filled with all the actions God is taking on behalf of the poor. His people are doing nothing. But God is about to do everything. If his people are on their way up walking right by the poor God is on his way down stopping to help every person in distress.
Ron Wade is with us today. Ron believes strongly in a God who remembers the poor. Ron believes in a God who does not walk on by, but who stoops and stops to help those whom others have forgotten. And as a result, Ron does this as well. Ron leads HopeWorks, an organization which provides hope and help for the unemployed. He leads a dedicated group of people who pursue justice for the poor. Ron is here today to share with us how God is remembering the forgotten through HopeWorks.
Sunday, May 22, is our opportunity join Ron and God in remembering the poor. We are raising $122,000 that morning for our World and Urban missions. Part of that contribution goes directly to HopeWorks. All of that contribution goes toward efforts that will remember the forgotten in Memphis, the MidSouth, Papua New Guinea, Ukraine, and the Philippines. I hope you’ll give generously and sacrificially on that day. We’ll all need to give about four times more than what we give on a normal Sunday. Your gift on that day is one way for you to no longer just walk on by. It’s your way of making a big difference in the lives of people whom God loves dearly.
[1] Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah 1-39 Westminster Bible Companion (Westminster John Knox, 1998Brueggemann, Kindle: 47.
[2] Brueggemann, 48.
[3] Larry Walker Isaiah 1-39 The New American Commentary, Volume 15A, (Holman Reference, 2007), Kindle: 5177.
[4] Brueggemann, 51.
[5] Brueggemann, 52.
[6] Walker, Kindle: 5195.
[7] Brueggemann, 52.
[8] “The Crowd on Mount Everest,” The Week (6/30/06), 13.
