Judge between me
and my vineyard (Isaiah
5:3).
In yesterday’s
reading Isaiah contrasts Judah, who doesn’t have the sense to know it owes its
sustenance to God, with a donkey who at least knows it can trust his master for
food and water. In chapter five, the writer describes Judah using the metaphor
of a well tended vineyard that nonetheless refuses to produce grapes.
The prophet speaks
in the name of God the consequence for the vineyard’s failure: I
will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled (5:5).
The Book of Isaiah
is full of judgment and consequence, but one of the keys to understanding
Isaiah is to look beyond the judgment. God certainly does. According to Old
Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann: “The harsh judgments announced by the
prophet are roughly matched by promises . . . that after the judgment of YHWH
upon the city, there will be a renewal and restoration. That renewal and
restoration does not in any way soften or diminish the judgment to come, but
asserts that judgment is not the ultimate prophetic word to YHWH’s city” [12].
If you’ve ever
suffered the consequences of bad decisions and thought, That’s it;
life as I know it is over, then
you need to hear the message of Isaiah. There are definitely consequences to
our bad choices, but there is also hope that transcends those consequences.
TODAY’S MEDITATION
What consequences have you
suffered and then lived to tell about? What’s that say for your future?
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