May 13, 2014

“Woe...Exile”

Blessings folk!


The people of the Lord were pursuing the wrong thing.

They were pursuing stuff…
- building house upon house

• attaining more and more land
• partying constantly

Woe to those...

Isaiah 5:8-12

8 Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!
9 In my ears the Lord of hosts has sworn, “Surely, many houses shall become desolate,
Even great and fine ones, without occupants.
10 “For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine,
And a homer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,
Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!
12 Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine; But they do not pay attention to the deeds of theLord,
Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

The Lord was sending His people into exile because of their sin.

Isaiah 5:13-17

13 Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;
And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
15 So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,
The eyes of the proud also will be abased.
16 But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.

The people lacked knowledge.
They were pursuing the things of the world.
Honorable men famished...from lack of the Word. Soon from lack of food.
The same for the multitude in that for which they thirst.

The splendor of Jerusalem would go to Sheol.

The common man was to be humbled.
Important men were to be abased as were the proud.

But…
Again, that important word “but”…

The Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment.
The Holy God will show Himself in righteousness.

We are in like situation today.
People lack knowledge...especially the people of the Lord.
People are consumed with the things of the world rather than the things of God.

Judgment is coming.
In Whom do you trust?
What are you pursuing?