I promised recently that we would sing that song the next time we came to a passage like we're looking at today. And we certainly have come to a passage speaking of the day of the Lord and the picture that it holds of judgment and of that eschatological sorting out of the wheat and the tares of those who rejoice to see His coming and those who will in awe and fear behold our majestic King. As we come back to this 5th chapter of Isaiah, I mentioned to you last week that the first section of this letter ends really with this text today. As we see the rest of chapter 5, the first 5 chapters begin something of an introduction to the book and kind of give us the setting and the themes and all of the glory and majestic terror that this book holds in it. all pointing ultimately to what we just sang about. And God's people redeemed by the grace of God and judgment falling upon the enemies of God. And all of it pointing to the sixth chapter, which is the calling of Isaiah and the commissioning of him for the message that we're already getting a taste of. We might wonder, well, why in the world would you do it this way? Why would you have five chapters of introduction and then the commissioning of Isaiah? And I think the reason is we need to see the weight of the message to understand the glory of the calling and the glory of the grace that Isaiah gets to preach and even speak forward to us of what God is going to do. on the other side of that judgment as he preserves a remnant of people and ultimately the promise made through that remnant of a Messiah who will come. And we've spoken about that. We've spoken about the judgment that's gonna befall the people and all the reasonings for it. We've been given many. We've been given that they are an adulterous people and a people who have marred the religious worship of God and a corrupt people, an unjust people. Those charges are gonna be levied again today. I think we're seeing an airtight case being made of why this judgment must come. But again, also, laced throughout it is this message of grace and of hope that you need to be looking for. And it might be easy in all of this judgment being proclaimed to miss it. And so over and over again there is a message that God will not forget His promise. And that on the other side of this great judgment and terrible judgment there will be a work of God to fulfill His promises made throughout Scripture. There will be a remnant and a people and even a king who will be on the other side of this judgment. And in that promise of the king, the promise made to Abraham is fulfilled. And the promise made to Isaac and Jacob is fulfilled. And all the prophetic word given over and over again, and even the covenant made with David of an heir who will reign forevermore is held in this promise of God to keep His Word on the other side of this judgment. And in fact, through this judgment, He is keeping His Word. And so we've seen all of that, I pray, as we've journeyed through. And now we come to this last part of this opening five chapters of the letter that Isaiah has, or the book of the prophecy of Isaiah that he has for us. And so I want to read this text again. As we hear these charges one more time, let us think about what is said carefully. And so he begins, Woe to those who join house to house, and add field to field, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land. In my hearing the Lord of hosts said, Truly many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield one ephah. Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night till wine inflames them. The harp and the strings, the tambourine and the flute, the wine are in the feasts. and they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands. Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself, and opened its mouth beyond measure. Their glory and their multitude add to their pomp. And he who is jubilant shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment. And God, who is holy, shall be hallowed in righteousness. Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, and in the waste places the fat one's strangers shall eat. Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if with cart ropes, 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 near and come, that we may know it. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness. who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe to men mighty at drinking wine. Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man. Therefore, as fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the shaft, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust, because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people. He has stretched out His hand against them and stricken them, and the hills trembled, and the carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth. Surely they shall come with speed swiftly. No one will be weary or stumble among them. No one will slumber or sleep, nor will their belt of their loins be loosed, nor the strap of their sandals be broken, whose arrows are sharp. and their bows bent, and their horses' hooves will seem like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind, their roaring will be like a lion. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they will roar and lay hold of the prey. They will carry it away safely and no one will deliver. In that day, they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened by the clouds. Amen. As we think about this text today, I want us to look at three points. First of all, the proclamation of woes. Second of all, the consequences of rebellion. And third, the nation in crisis. Beginning first with the idea of the proclamation of woes, it's not hard to find that in the text. From the very beginning, you see a series of woes that are mentioned here. There are something like six uses of the Hebrew word for woe, ahoy here, that we translate as woe. And that breaks down into five or six points of woe, depending on the commentator that's thinking about this or how you might interpret whether or not two of these woes are meant to be taken together or separately, regardless. It is a message of divine displeasure with the people of God. In fact, that's really what woe means here. It means a declaration, an interjection, a statement here of unhappiness, displeasure, and of coming judgment against the people who have turned their back on God and have done all the things that He called them not to do. Woe is a word we often see in prophetic messages, isn't it? In fact, Isaiah will pronounce a woe upon himself in the very next chapter. Woe is me. As he stands before the throne of Almighty God, he will declare a woe upon himself, realizing that he, standing before a holy and righteous God, is worthy of God's judgment. For he is a man of unclean lips and of a people of unclean lips. And so these woes are serious, and they are meant to be taken as serious. And we shouldn't miss it. This falls on the heels of what we looked at last week, which is a parable or song, a parable song of the vineyard. And if you remember, God says, I went and chose a choice land and prepared that land perfectly, tilled the soil, got it all prepared for it, and then I chose a choice vine and I planted it there and I did everything that could be asked. I went above and beyond anything that would ever be asked of how you should treat a land that you're planting to put a vineyard there. and expected then good grapes. What would you expect? All that work should pay off in a good harvest. And yet when he goes, he doesn't find good grapes. He finds sour or rotten grapes. He finds grapes unworthy of all the work that was put in, a poor investment, so to speak. And so what does he say will be done? Well, he says what you're already thinking, if you're hearing this, you'll utterly devastate that vineyard. You will lay it waste and you'll start again. And yet what's interesting about this is, I mentioned last week that if we want to see the grapes that he's talking about that came in, he reserves that for this section of the text. We're going to see the woes pronounced on the grapes, if you will. The grapes of wrath. It's interesting that we know that phrase. We have a song, right, about the grapes of wrath. And then also we know there's a famous novel by Steinbeck called The Grapes of Wrath. And he's referencing, really, Revelation chapter 14 there. which draws very serious attention to that. In fact, I've marked it so we could read what it says here, so we can see that there is an important message here about this idea of God's wrath and the grapes of wrath. Toward the end of chapter 14 of the Revelation, it says this, Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. So the angel thrust the sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it in to the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled from outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1,600 furlongs." Now that is graphic imagery, but the picture of the grapes of wrath is that one day God will gather those disappointing grapes On that last day, all those grapes that have not brought forth good fruit, if you will, but the grapes of wrath, and he will put them in a wine press and he will stomp them. And it'll be blood that comes out of that wine press, not wine. That is graphic imagery of the eschatological judgment of God and Steinbeck was playing on you knowing that in how the people of his novel were being treated and what would be expected to befall one day the oppressors. But as we think about the text today in Isaiah we would notice there's a connection here. It shouldn't be missed that Isaiah is saying there are grapes that have not pleased God and they will be gathered and they shall be put in the wine press and they shall be stomped. or another imagery that he uses here, is just utterly destroyed. Utterly destroyed. But again, we should recognize here a connection in the eschatological language that's shown here, the day of the Lord imagery that is shown here, that what God is doing now in the present is not separate from what He's doing on the last day. That He is separating out the wheat and the chaff, or the wheat and the tares, and that the tares shall fall under the judgment of God and the wheat shall be gathered unto glory. If you recognize that, then it'll help you to understand much of the book of Isaiah. And so when we speak about the grapes of wrath, he's really giving a preview here. What's shocking is when you think about the message we would have in Revelation, we would easily see, oh, these are the enemies of God. These are the enemies of God that he's going to gather and put into the press on that day. And what would surprise us in Isaiah 5 is he's speaking about his own people. He's speaking about Israel here. And so that should kind of surprise us. It certainly would surprise them. In fact, I think it's part of the reason they don't respond to Isaiah's message is it seems crazy to them. How can God speak of us as enemies? You remember even the prophet Habakkuk was just completely confused about how God works in these mysterious ways we sung about earlier. How can He use a more sinful nation to bring judgment upon us? And God says, because you're wicked, because there's wickedness among you and it must be judged. And so as we look at this, we see immediately that God has looked upon His vineyard, which should be just and righteous, and He finds it to be unjust and unrighteous. And so He says, what shall I do? Well, verse 8 begins to tell us, He will bring a woe upon them. A woe is, like we said, this message of coming judgment. coming judgment upon His nation. Woe for what? For those who join house to house, who add field to field until there is no place. Now this might seem confusing to us. I would say that there is definitely a covenantal context to this. We've got to go back to the Torah to understand exactly what's being referenced here. I think there is application for us today about greed that doesn't care about other people. We're willing to trample and destroy other people to improve our own lot. I think that is being pictured here. But there is a specific covenantal context to this woe. Because God declares in the Torah that when He brings them into the land, the land belongs to Him. It is His land. He says it quite explicitly. And not only is the land His, but He appoints each part of the land to the different tribes, and that they are to apportion it by family, and so on and so forth. God seems to care about this so much that He says, look, if hazard or difficulty should befall a family, what are you to do? As a community, you're to take care of one another. If somebody needs food, give them food. Don't take their lack of food or a bad harvest when you had a good harvest as opportunity to gobble up their land. Take it as an opportunity to share in your abundance with them. But if something happens to a family, so much so that they have to sell their land because they're in need of funds, then purchase it at a fair price. And even then realize that you don't permanently own it. This is in the covenant. But that you must allow them to purchase it back as soon as is possible that that family land is preserved in their family. And if they are never able to purchase it back, what has God ordained? Every 50th year to be a year of jubilee in which all the lands return to the families that originally owned them. So really you're just renting that property for a time until it returns to the family it originally came from. And so in that fairness of assessing a price to the land, if a person had to sell it, you would say, well, there's only 12 more years till Jubilee. And so what would be a reasonable price if I'm to hold it for 12 years? And you would try to be fair. And that's what God called his people to do, to deal fairly with one another. And yet what he has found is a people who instead want to add field to field to field to field. gobble up more and more. And if you go to the other prophets, which to get through this text, which is quite large today, we can't do too much of that. But the other prophets speak of people who are preying on their neighbors when they fall on hard times. Instead of helping them, they need some food or they need some help. Instead, you take the opportunity to say, I won't help you, but I'll tell you what I will do. I'll give you a little money in exchange for your land. An unfair price. They take advantage of the misery of their neighbors. And God says this is forbidden. Why? Because the land isn't yours to begin with. The land was given to all of you as a gracious gift. Now if you want to hear this directly from the Lord, I'll quote Leviticus 25, 23-28. The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me, and in all the land your possession shall grant redemption of the land. If one of your brethren becomes poor and has sold some of his possessions, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, that he may redeem what his brother sold. Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it, then let him count the years since its sale and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the land of him who bought it until the year of Jubilee, and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession." So this is the law the Lord gave His people in the covenant. You have your land, and if you end up purchasing other people's land, it's just for a time. It must be eventually returned to that family. And again, what Isaiah is picturing here is a people who are so greedy, they just want to keep adding land upon land upon land upon land so that they can become enriched at their neighbor's expense. And what's interesting about this, when you consider it is, they don't care what the word says. Now again, I'm trying to say this is particular to the covenant that God made with Israel. This doesn't mean if you buy a piece of property in 50 years God expects you to return it. But it does tell us some principles about what God cares about. He cares about fairness. He cares about people taking care of one another. And one of the things that we need to think about as we come to this text is this was a people who said, what did you say God's word says? I don't really care. I don't really care. If it means depriving me of what I want, I'll choose my ways over God's ways. I'll choose my will over God's will. I'll choose my wisdom over God's wisdom. And this is a problem. For a covenant people who were ordered around the Word and Revelation of God, this is a problem. They are violating the covenant willfully. Now, if you look at verses 8 and 9, it tells us something here. You've spent all of your attention on greed and on gaining a great property for yourself and on gaining a great home for yourself and yet, listen to what he says, many houses will be made desolate, even the great ones. All that you are doing to violate God's Word and to build a kingdom for yourself, God will strike it down. And not only that, you think all this great land that you're accumulating will produce more and more produce? Not if God is not with you in it. Notice what he says here, for ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath. One bath is like something like eight gallons. That's a terrible return. A terrible return of wine on your investment. In other words, if you go against God and think, well, in my own ways I can achieve greatness, God says, not if I'm against you. You'll achieve nothing. And look, one homer of seed shall yield one ephah. A homer is ten ephahs. You're planting ten ephahs of seed to receive back one ephah of yield or of harvest. In other words, 90% is being wasted. This is the opposite of what we see in the New Testament of the picture of blessing and of yielding back a multitude of a harvest. You're getting very little for your investment. We remember over and over again the Lord warns us of these things. Unless the Lord guards the city, the night watchman stays awake in vain. Unless the Lord builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Again, if the Lord is against us, it will not yield well whatever we do. And so there is another woe right after it in verse 11 that we want to look at, because there's a woe to those who rise early in the morning. Why? There's nothing wrong with rising early, right? I mean, that's a smart thing. That's a good use of our time to be up early. But it's why they raise up early. They don't rise up early to honor the Lord with work. They rise up early that they may follow after intoxicating drink. Well, who could do that? In those days there weren't government agencies to help you if you were poor, right? You relied on if somebody would help you. The only people that could rise up and drink all day long were the rich. And the idea here is they no longer engage in work at all or any labor or anything that God has called them to do, but instead their entire day is about taking care of their own pleasure, taking care of their own things. They continue from morning when they begin drinking until evening. They have harps and strings, tambourines and flutes. Wine is ever present at their feasts. They're living lavishly. Now, to put this in context, they were in an agrarian society. Most people got up at dawn and worked hard and worked until nightfall hard, back-breaking work, right? The work that our own grandparents did, right? We were a more agrarian culture back then. And these people have joined land upon land and taken the people who formerly owned those lands and made them laborers on the land, and now they are living richly off their backs. Now again, this is a violation of the covenant God made with Israel. But He says, notice what the result of all this luxury is for them. They do not regard the work of the Lord nor consider the operation of His hands. They've forgotten God. One of the dangers of having everything you need is you think you're without need. There is a danger in having all of your needs met. There's a danger in all these luxuries of forgetting God. And so, my friends, what we need to recognize here is He's saying of these people, they have forgotten the Lord. They don't know what He's doing. They no longer recognize God's plan, His will, His commandments. They no longer recognize the covenant that He made with them or the nature of that covenant. that if unto me you are a righteous people, if you obey my laws and commandments, then unto me you shall be a righteous people. That's what I was trying to say. And that you shall remain in the land. But if, when you get into that land, you disobey this covenant, if you break this covenant, then you shall be utterly spit out of the land. You've forgotten all of that. And so, my friends, you live as a people without knowledge. Verse 13, we'll get to that. We want to come back to the therefores in our second point. If we move down just a little bit further, we would see here that ultimately the threat is going to be, again, just like in previous chapters, what you put your hope in and trust in will be utterly taken away from you. You put all of your meaning and life in this land that you own, in this home that you own, in your possessions, then your possessions will fail you. If not in this lifetime, then on the Day of Judgment, they will fail you. And so that is implicit in this message. If we go down to verse 18, we see the third woe. Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity. I think, what in the world is being said here? The point that Isaiah is making here is to be vain is to be self-focused, right? And they are pulling upon themselves sin by the cord. In other words, they haven't tripped into sin. Sin hasn't befallen them. They have pulled it upon themselves with cords of their own vanity. These are not a people who are innocently fallen into this sin, but they have actually heaped it upon themselves. And notice, they pull their sin upon them as if with a cart rope. You need to pull a cart somewhere, you hook something to it, an animal or a rope, and you pull it. And that's what they're doing with sin. It hasn't befallen them. They have pulled it to themselves. And then I want you to see here how far this vanity reaches. Look at what Isaiah says next. They say, let him make speed and hasten his work. They're speaking about God's judgment. They're saying, if Isaiah, what you're saying is true, show us that it's true. If God is going to do what you're saying, bring it on. Now, I don't know what in the world somebody's thinking, except we see this in the world today, where people say, if your God exists, let Him reveal Himself, show Himself. If you as a sinful human being stood in the presence of God, it would be disastrous for you. It's His mercy that He's not revealing Himself to you in that way. And yet these people who do not believe the word of God, do not believe the prophetic word being said, say, show it to us, bring it here, show it all to us. Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come that we may know it. He's revealing it to you in the message of Isaiah. Just open your ears and listen to the message of Isaiah and you will hear the revelation of God. And He's declaring to you by faith those things which one day you will see. But you won't hear it. We see another woe in verse 20. And it's a woe, I think, that is, this fourth woe is a woe of inversion. You could say a woe of perversion. But it's of making things what they aren't. Those who call evil good and good evil. That's a popular trick of Satan in our world, isn't it? To make those things which are evil look good. and to make those things that are good look evil or dishonorable. And God pronounces a woe on such behavior. If you take that which is abhorrent to God and you make it attractive, there is a woe upon you. My friends, that ought to be frightening to people in our age who put darkness for light. They call the things of darkness light and the things of light darkness. There is a woe resting upon such people and who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter. Now, this is where we come to verse 21, and there's a debate on whether or not there's five or six woes. I mean, clearly there's a woe mentioned in verse 21, but I think it's really along the same lines. Because the problem that we see in verse 20 are people who put their own reasoning above the reasoning God gives us in His Word. Those who are wise in their own eyes, who are prudent in their own sight. Now, if you think that's a separate and sixth woe, I've got no argument against you. But the root is the same. Because when you hear people say, maybe call evil good and good evil, they almost always, when you say, well, wait a minute, God's Word says, what will they say? Well, that can't be what it means. Why? Because my reasoning tells me something different. My own thoughts are different than that. My own beliefs are different than that. My own concerns are different than that. My own heart gives me a different approach. And that might seem wise to you today, but my friends, it will fail you on that day. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. My friends, we need to realize what the Bible tells us. Our hearts are desperately wicked. We need the revelation of God to be led rightly. And he's telling us this. Now verse 22 brings us to our, by my counting, fifth, but like I said, some people say sixth, woe, woe to the men mighty at drinking wine. Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink. Now before we come to 23, which explains this to us, this again is the idea of drinking, of having alcohol all the time, whenever you want it. If your only concern is where can I get my next glass? I don't think so much the picture here is of an alcoholic, Although it could be, but I think the picture more is somebody who is just focused on their own fulfillment, everything they want, not caring at all about the will of God or His commands. And particularly here, notice that it's speaking of mighty men and valiant men. The men who formerly were mighty are now mighty only at serving themselves wine. The men who were formerly valiant are now valiant only in mixing intoxicating drinks for themselves. Men who were once valiant and honorable now are just drinking. What are they known for now? No longer great acts of valor, great acts of might, or great acts of protecting the people. These are your former heroes. And now they're known for sitting and just pouring drink after drink for themselves, enriching themselves. And you'll see that because in verse 23 it says, "...who justify the wicked for a bribe." and take away justice from the righteous man. Once these are the men that you turn to to protect the weak, that you turn to to seek justice, that you turn to to protect the widows and orphans, and now they're the ones who heap up trouble upon people like that if it pads their pockets a little bit more. I think you'll see that when you look at the therefore in a moment. Because the picture here in this last woe is what formally was glorious is now worthy of judgment. What was formerly valiant and great is now despicable. So as you look at these, the Lord is telling you as He goes and inspects His vineyard, what He's finding is rotten grapes, not a set-apart vine, not a cultivated vine, but a wild and sour vine. A vine that's just like all the other vines of the world. He says, I came and specially planted this vine. And yet it's just like all the other vineyards, just like all the other vineyards in almost every way. And so the expense that he talks about in verses 1 through 7 of this chapter doesn't look like a good return on, excuse me, a good investment in terms of his return. And so as we go quickly to our second point, we want to see what he says about this. What are the consequences of this rebellion? Well, as we look at it, we see that there are going to be consequences. That's the therefore. In fact, this entire passage is led by woes and therefores. Woes to say here's where God's judgment is going to be pointed and on whom it's going to be pointed, and the therefores to explain exactly what's going to come to pass. So why will He bring this wrath? Well, He's told us. But this wrath upon this vineyard will be done in a marvelous way. We see it in verse 13 with the first therefore. Therefore my people have gone into captivity. Now He's speaking before it happens as if it has already happened. Because in the counsel of God it has already happened. It's just simply going to come to pass. And so, therefore, he says, my people have gone into captivity. Why? They had no knowledge. Their honorable men shall be famished in the multitude, dried up with thirst. They'll need, but they will not have. Sheol, the picture of the abode of the dead, is enlarging itself. It's getting ready for a great feast. In the same way a snake unhinges its jaw to be able to get a larger meal, Sheol is unhinging its jaw that it might gather up all the people who will fall under judgment. What a graphic picture. Opened its mouth beyond measure. It's exactly what Isaiah is picturing here. And in their glory and multitude and pomp, guess what? They're going to descend into judgment. And yet it's interesting, isn't it? Even the lofty, they won't even escape this. With all of their advantages, they will not escape it. but notice what will happen as they are descending into judgment. The Lord of hosts, in verse 16, shall be exalted in judgment. We've said this over and over again. One of the important things to recognize in how God works is He is exalted both in His saving of people through His grace and His judging of people through His justice. And He says here at the same time that He is exalted in this, He will be exalted in this movement of justice as evil is judged And notice the result of this. All those fields and homes that you built will one day just be the grazing place for sheep. It's kind of again, you know, you have not had peace, you've had violence and bloodshed. One day it'll be peace again as the sheep come into the land and graze. There's another set of therefores in verse 24. As fire devours the stubble, the flame consumes the shaft. We recognize fire spreads very quickly through things that are dried out. Again, what should have been lush and wonderful is dried up. And so fire consumes it. That which once was glorious and just is now unjust and will be consumed. It will not be fertile. It will not bring forth fruit. Why? Well, look there in verse 24. He tells you directly, because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts. They were given that law as part of the covenant. I've tried to establish that. Go and read Exodus 19 and see what the Lord says about that. In fact, if we go further into the Torah, we find the book of the covenant and how God says that these are the things that you must do. You must do them. And they have said, no, we reject the law of God. We walk away from the law of God. We walk away from this relationship with God. They've despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. You see that a moment before when they're mocking. Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come. How can you show that you despise the word of the Holy One of Israel more than by mocking it? And so, my friends, we see here what he's saying. Because of all these things, destruction is coming. The anger of the Lord is aroused against His people. He has stretched out His hand. Think of the irony of that. It's by His outstretched hand that He delivered His people out of Egypt. And now he says, I turn my hand against you in judgment. He has stretched out his hand against them and stricken them. And then eschatological language again, the hills tremble, carcasses were his refuge in the midst of the street. And still his anger is not turned away. Now you think, this is talking about the exile and the Babylonians that are coming. And he uses some Assyrian language because the only thing you would have as a reference point in the Southern kingdom is what's already happened to the Northern kingdom. But I want you to realize that the Lord tells us very clearly in this Word that this is not happenstance. This is not a historical occurrence. It just happened by chance. And oh gosh, it worked out really good for Isaiah. Because if Nebuchadnezzar had not come, then we would have looked like fools and false prophets. No, look at what it says. He, meaning God, will lift up the banner to the nations from afar. He's waving a flag. Come over here. If you think that's not what he's saying, look at the very next part. He will whistle to get their attention from afar. God whistles and says, over here, here's who you want. Come against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. And how will they come? Swiftly, speedily. They won't be tired. There'll be no refrain from the destruction coming. No sign of weakness, no sign of any victory, no sign of anything that will be, even for a moment, a relenting of this assault. They won't slumber, they won't sleep, they won't even have the strap of their sandal break so that they gotta slow down for a moment and fix it. Nothing will stop them from accomplishing this. When they come, they will utterly devastate Judah. Their arrows are sharp, their bows are ready, their horses' hooves are like flint on the ground, wheels like whirlwind, they'll be like lions. Now, we don't live around lions. But again, we recognize the imagery here. A lion would come into your camp, bite you on the shoulder, maybe kill you right there, but at least then drag you outside the camp. And here's the thing, who's going to come save you? Well, maybe it's one lion and you've got several men with spears. Maybe they'll come and try if they like you, you know. But what if it's lions and you've been drug out of the camp and there's more lions? People tend to say, wish we could help him, but I don't know if there's a way. No one can deliver you. And the Lord says, on that day when the lions come and they drag you away, no one will deliver you. And then he goes in verse 30, and I want to go to our third and final point here of essentially this word of devastation, a nation in crisis. When you look at this, that 30th verse speaks of this. On that day they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea. Now, my friends, if you think lions' roars are loud, and I think that's the trauma of a people that have experienced attacks by lions and those loud roars. But if you think that's loud, think of the roaring of seas, of water crashing against you. In our own region, we've recently seen the destruction of water, haven't we? What it can do. I think for many of us it shocked us how much devastation water can bring. And so when you think about this image, it's of a tidal wave of judgment and destruction coming across the land of Judah and wiping everything away with a roar that is so loud it deafens you and leaves the nation in a pitiful position. I want you to realize that this opening section ends with what would seem to be a hopeless note. Look at this. If one looks to the land, this land of promise, this land that we've been in, this land that we've been favored and set apart in, if one looks to the land, what do they find? Darkness and sorrow. And the light of God's providence and favor is darkened by clouds of judgment. That is a graphic picture of hopelessness. And praise the Lord He's given those notes of mercy and grace and of keeping His promise along the way. Or we would come to this point and say, it's over. God is not going to do what He once said He would do. He has shuffled off the people of Israel. They are done. And the promise is done. And there's nothing left. Because look, the land is dark and sorrowful and mournful and there is no more light. But my friends, He's been telling us along the way the light that is the gospel light cannot be put out. The light of hope in the Messiah cannot be put out. It will shine even through these ages of darkness. The reason I think that we're given these five chapters first is we need to feel the weight of all that as we come into the sixth chapter. We're going to get to this next week. And you know this part, I'm sure. But it's the year King Uzziah died. The one thing we have going for us is we've got a decent king and we've had peace and prosperity and everything's been good. And now even that's about to be taken away. If Isaiah is right, we're on a downhill slope fast. And Isaiah will see the true king of Israel, not Uzziah, the true king of Israel. And he will hear that, yes, though judgment is coming, there is life remaining in the stump of the cut down tree. And that is a gospel hope. And so in closing today, I want to say that this is a little bit of a message that is challenging as we come to the Lord's table. But it's good sometimes to remember what we are saved from. There are woes that are upon sinners. There are judgments that are upon sinners and they are not pleasant. Over and over again we see a people here that are reminded that there is a message of condemnation and judgment, but there is also a message of grace and hope throughout Isaiah's book and throughout the entirety of Scripture. All 66, if you will, books of the Bible and 66 chapters of Isaiah's book of prophecy. And the message is that we need to hear God saves sinners by His grace. He saves us from something. We were talking in Sunday School this morning about we only recognize our need of a Savior if we recognize that we need to be saved from something. Well, what do we need to be saved from? Well, this chapter is a pretty good picture of it. The woes that befall a people guilty before a holy and righteous God, and that's all of us. We all stand guilty in Adam before God. But the Gospel tells us that Christ, that God sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, into this world who bore our sin upon the tree. He redeemed us by His work and by His grace. And that because of that grace, all who hear the Gospel and believe and trust in Christ, they shall be saved. And those clouds of doom are rolled back for the people of God. Rolled back. And the light of His grace shines through. And so my friends, it's not just that in Christ we are received and received in, but the glory of the gospel is that we're received back as sons and heirs, even allowed at the king's table. So my friends, as we hear this message of woe and doom and we come to the Lord's table as His people, we should recognize the thanksgiving that we should have as we come to our King's table by His invitation. If you can come to this table and partake of it because you are His, then my friends this morning give thanks.