Admin
|
On Isaiah 5: 5-6
Posted : 24 Jun, 2013 05:48 AM
5-6
"And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." Isaiah 5: 5-6
The metaphor of the vineyard is found also in the New Testament. For example in Luke 20: 9-16, "Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.
10. And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty.
11. And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.
12. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out.
13. Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him.
14. But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.
15. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?
16. He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid."
And in Luke 13: 6-9 "He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.
7. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
8. And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:
9. And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down."
Luke 20: 9-16 is about "husbandmen" taking over the Lord's "vineyard, and killing his Son when the Son was sent to redeem the vineyard, which had fallen from obedience to God."
Then Luke 13: 6-9 is a parable about the fig tree in the vineyard, and the fig tree has fallen away from obedience to God and from his truth. It is bearing no fruit. But the dresser of the vineyard asks the Father to let him give the fig tree new life, by digging about it and putting some fertilizer on the ground by it.
Isaiah 5:5- 6 is about the same vineyard and the same fig tree in the vineyard. A Christian might say that Isaiah 5: 6 is only about the falling away from truth in the Old Covenant timeline. This would protect the present day churches from a prophecy saying they will fall away as physical Israel did in the Old Covenant time. But several New Testament scriptures which are plain texts predict such a repeat of the falling away of physical Israel, such as II Thessalonians 2: 3-4, Luke 13:18-21, I Timothy 4: 1, II Timothy 3: 13, and II Timothy 3: 1-2, 4-5, 7-8. And Matthew 24: 11 and I John 4: 1 are plain
scriptures which say that many false prophets will arise.
But Isaiah 5:5- 6 also says God will judge the vineyard, and take away the vineyard's hedges, protections given it by the Lord. And "there shall come up briers and thorns." Briers and thorns are metaphoric for something more than just that the vineyard is allowed to go to waste and weeds grow up in it whereas before there were fruitful trees.
Thorns and briers appear elsewhere in scripture. �And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns� Isaiah 7:23.
�Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel [read Jesus] shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day� Isaiah 10:17
God says in Isaiah 5:5- 6 that He will take away his spiritual hedge, or shield from the vineyard, and He will allow it to be overcome by those two factions - thorns and briers - which will take over His �vineyard� Isaiah 5: 7 explains much of the metaphor of the vineyard. "For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant..." This house of Israel is physical Israel in the Old Covenant time.
Followers of the theology of John Darby, C.I. Scofield and Lewis S. Chafer will probably argue against the concept of physical Israel because that concept contradicts what this man made theology says, that God now has two peoples, Israel and the church. In their argument they are arguing against Romans 9: 6-9, "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."
The children of the flesh are physical Israel, those who reject Christ and are not of the elect. They are not the seed from Abraham (Galatians 3: 29), who are also the seed of God, the elect.
Followers of Darby and company are also arguing against I Corinthians 10: 18, "behold Israel after the flesh..."
Israel after the flesh is physical Israel, which Paul distinguishes from the children of the promise who are counted as the seed. In Galatians 4: 25-26 he distinguishes between Israel, called Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children from "...Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."
Those who have a dialectic mind argue against the absolute truth of scripture, its facts, and want to make scripture easily compromised, bent and made to conform to their man-made theology.
The two factions - thorns and briers - in Isaiah 5: 6 are metaphoric for something more specific than just weeds. Look at Revelation 9: 3, 5 "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power....And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man."
Scorpions as a metaphor is found in Ezekiel 2: 4-6. "And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house." Ezekiel 2: 6
Here Ezekiel mentions briers and thorns in connection with scorpions, and says not to be afraid of their words, meaning they speak false doctrines. However, scorpions are only one of the two factions of Isaiah 5: 6. There is a second member of the pair, which is found in Revelation 9: 15-16, 18-19,. "And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them........18. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19.For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt."
The huge army of horsemen of Revelation 9: 16 are the many false prophets of Matthew 24: 11. In verse 19 they are likened to serpents. So the second member of the pair, with the scorpions are the serpents. Serpents as a metaphor are found in Matthew 23: 27, 33 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness...... Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
The serpents are the leaders of the scorpions, and the serpents are those of Revelation 9: 18 who are able to kill the third part of men, or of man. They "kill" men spiritually by their words, for in Revelation 9: 17 and 9: 18 it says that what kills the third part of men comes out of the mouths of the serpents. It is the words of false doctrines which come out of the mouths of the serpents to kill that third part of man, which is his spirit, that part of him given by God the Father through Christ and the Holy Spirit to enable him to live in the house forever (John 8: 35). Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (I Corinthians 25: 50). Man's mind and body are flesh and blood.
So, the thorns and briers of Isaiah 5: 6 are the serpents and scorpions, the false prophets and their followers.
Post Reply
|
