Bible Study: July 27, 2022

Yeah, I will. I guess I should mention at the beginning. Let me turn the recording off here for just a moment. Okay, so it's been a couple weeks, but we were last time and we got into a little bit of chapter five. You'll recall that we talked a lot about vineyards last time as we've gone through these first five chapters of Isaiah. As God has opened this book that's full of prophecy, doctrine, history, you name it, it's full of information and of course full of truth.

God opens the book of Isaiah with a warning message to his people. He'll talk about everything that he's done, all the benefits that he's supplied. Ancient Israel, we know that that's true of us today as we live in all the countries that I know that we're together here on from this evening. God has richly blessed us in so many ways, and yet we see the world around us fading away from God, turning away from God. And he talks about what happens when people will turn away from him. I guess just to kind of refresh our memories, because the picture of a vineyard is just one of those really salient points in Scripture.

It's a beautiful picture of what God is saying he did with ancient Israel, a beautiful picture of what he is doing with us. So let me share a picture that we did last time just to put us in the frame of mind of where we were and how a vineyard works.

And I will have to say, many of you sent me pictures after the Bible study last time of vineyards that you had visited, grape vines that you have planted, and even vineyards that you have. And that was very encouraging, and you know a lot. There's a lot we learn as we watch grapes grow. It's one of those props that God gave us that we learn a lot about ourselves and our calling through that. So this picture we put up last time, and this is a typical vineyard back in ancient times when the Bible was written.

And you can see all the people working together. You can see the watchman there in his tower. He's keeping a watch to keep animals out of the vineyards, people out of the vineyards. You see the people over there to the left that are the wine press because the ultimate product, valuable product out of a vineyard, is the wine that was going to be produced. You see the ladies here in the foreground that are picking the grapes.

You see just a very organized and a group of people that are working together. For the ultimate product of that wine, that wine that that vineyard should produce. And it was a very vineyards that were well put together are just pictures of efficiency, pictures of people working together.

And of course, Christ would liken that to our calling and our time with him. He puts us in his church. He gives us, as we learn in Ephesians 4 verses 15 and 16, he provides everything that the church needs in order to function and to do his will to attain that ultimate purpose for which he has called us. And so the vineyard is a beautiful, beautiful picture of that. We all have our roles to play. A vineyard cannot function without every, cannot be successful without every part that everyone plays in it.

Just like God's church, every single person that's in God's church, he's called for a purpose. Every single one is important to get the work done. So never feel that you're menial or that you're not doing it. You are important and God wants us to be here. Let me put up one more picture here. Because the other thing we see as a vineyard is, you know, the complete order, the complete order and a well-kept vineyard is a thing to behold. That's why people will visit vineyards. The Napa Valley in California is a huge tourist attraction, as well as a major wine producer in this country.

People will go there. They enjoy dinners there. They enjoy just walking through it because a well-kept vineyard is a joy to see. And the church that is following God's will, that is working together and doing his will, is a beautiful thing to see. It gives us the picture of what Christ said in John 13, 34, 35. By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have a gape, one for another. People see the order. They feel that the beauty of the fellowship that people are in, and it's a thing to behold.

And so as we continue in Isaiah 5, I wanted to put those pictures back in your mind because you'll remember in the early verses of chapter 5, God lays out what the elements of the successful vineyard are. In the first few verses there, he talks about how you clear away the stones. A vineyard is good to be on a slope because of the sun that hits it. You need the watchtowers.

You need all those things that are there that we talked about last time that I'm not going to repeat. And of course, God says, you know, look what I've done. He's the vine dresser, the husband, as I think Xavier told us the last time, the husband, he's the one who's made all this possible. And in verse 3 there, he says, what more could I have done? I literally gave you everything. You couldn't have had a more perfect situation if you had tried because I gave you everything.

And I expected that I would receive good grapes out of it. But he said, but what I've gotten, Israel, my people, I've gotten soured grapes or wild grapes, if you will. And so, you know, God is showing us. He provides everything we need, but we have to put the effort in, too. We have to work with him. We have to yield to him.

We have to let him direct us and become what he needs us, what he wants us to be in every aspect that he gives us. So that that vineyard and so that temple, the vineyard can be successful and productive. Remember, God is pleased with the fruit that's produced, just like a good vineyard produces beautiful, beautiful grapes.

They're kind of like miracles when you see those vines that aren't that attractive, but the fruit is really, really, really beautiful. And just like the temple that he's building with us. So I thought I would start with verse 7 here this evening. And our goal this evening is to get through chapter 5. We're going to see as we go through chapter 5, as God talks about a vineyard that didn't turn out the way that it should have, because he did everything right, that there will be consequences for that, as the husband and the vine dresser is not happy with what's going on.

You know, as we read through this, we might remember Christ as he walked with his disciples and remember he came upon a fig tree. And he went over to that big tree, had leaves on it, but when he looked on the fig tree, it had no fruit. It was a fruitless tree. And so he cursed that tree, you know, because it's supposed to have fruit. And so the vineyard that he plants should have fruit, and that's you and I produce the fruit as we yield to God and are led by his spirit. So verse 7. Well, let me pause. Are there any questions or any comments or anything not clear from last time that someone might want to talk about?

Okay, let's pick it up in verse 7 then. Verse 7 says, For the vineyard of the Lord, if there's any question that he's talking about his people, right? Ancient Israel, his people in the Old Testament. And as we saw last time, we're going to see clearly today, his people today, that's, you know, his physical Israel. As well as us, we're spiritual Israel, right? His people. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression.

For righteousness, but behold, a cry. Not a cry for help, but just a cry. Things weren't going, things weren't going well. So the fruit that he's looking for, I thought I'd get justice. I thought I'd see righteousness. No, I got oppression, and I got a cry.

I got a cry. You know, whether you want to put for help in there, not a happy, joyous people that they should have been. I want to stop and pause on that word justice for a moment, because we've talked maybe not as much as we should have about the contemporary, some of Isaiah's contemporaries, the prophets who lived at the same time.

And, you know, they'll talk about justice as well, as does Christ, one of the fruits that God wants to see his people say to produce. But let's first go over to Isaiah 59, because we're going to see this justice continue to be a factor in the book of Isaiah. You know, here in the early five chapters, as we look at it prophetically, we're going to revisit some of these points throughout the book of Isaiah as God continues to reveal what it is about Israel, how things are going to be, and then some historical things we'll see as well.

In Isaiah 59, verse 13, he says this, he says, In transgressing and lying against the eternal, and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Okay, this is when when people do that, depart from God, speaking oppression, revolt. Again, we can put ourselves, our eyes are open in today's world and see some of those words being spoken.

When we see those things, verse 14, justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off. The fruits of God, the benefits of God, the benefits of his way of life do not come with departing from God or speaking oppression, speaking revolt, speaking that resistance. That is the natural thing of us. The righteousness and the justice comes from yielding to God and allowing his Holy Spirit to guide and direct us and change us and make us submissive to him. Justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off. A verse that is so true, as we spoke of a couple times here, truth has fallen to the street, and equity, that's integrity.

People who are of an upright, righteous character and integrity cannot enter. So, truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. We've talked about that more and more as time goes on, as we stand against, you know, the morals of this world and the direction that we see. It's interesting because we had this Beyond Today magazine go out that you all have received by now, the one that has the stick figures on it and, you know, the new sexual revolution. There was an eye-catching cover, which is exactly what we were looking for, but in that, maybe I said this last time, I don't know, but we have had more cancellations of the Beyond Today magazine as a result of that magazine and that cover and the articles in it, Peter Eddington says, and any other magazine.

And that's actually a good thing because there are people who are reading and saying, I don't want that truth. I don't want to hear what you have to say. And Christ says, you know, we speak the truth and when we speak the truth, people aren't going to want to hear it just like they didn't want to hear it from Christ. So, you know, you will see the church more and more speak the truth and speak it boldly and draw contrast between what this world is speaking and what the Bible has to say.

So, so truth fails. He who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice, that there was no justice. So, you know, one of the contemporaries of Isaiah is the prophet Micah. So let's turn over to Micah. We have Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Opadiah, and if I'm right, Jonah, then Micah. Now Micah, you know, was in the same timeframe when you look at Micah 1 verse 1, you see there the same kings that Micah was living under the same kings that Isaiah was there. And so, you know, God had Isaiah prophecies revealed to him.

God had prophecies that he revealed to Micah. They're similar. Micah 4 verses 1 through 4 sound very similar to Isaiah 2, 1 through 2. Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. Chapter 4, oh, you know what? That's a little later. Micah 6 is where I want to go first. But you can see similarities between Isaiah and Micah.

And, you know, as you study this on your own, it might be helpful to read through the book of Micah, the little prophecy of Micah. And you'll see the similarities as we go through that. But in Micah 6, verse 6, he says this. He says this, he says, with what shall I come before the eternal and by myself before the high God?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousands, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? What is it that God is looking for? Micah is saying, is that what he's going to be happy of?

You know, the same thing that we read in 1 Samuel 15. He has shown you, verse 8, O man, what is good. Now, what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? I'm looking for justice. I'm looking for humility. I'm looking for people who are yielded. I'm looking for you to be merciful as I'm merciful. I'm looking for the fruit of justice and righteousness. Christ validating those very same things in Matthew 23, verse 23, as he's talking to the scribes and Pharisees as the day of his arrest, that last Passover day that he was alive draws nearer and nearer.

He becomes more and more blunt with the Pharisees about how they live and how they are not doing the will of God. In Matthew 23, verse 23, he echoes what Isaiah says, echoes what Micah 6, verse 8 says there. He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you pay tithe of mint and anise and common, and you have neglected the weightier matters of the law. You've neglected these, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the unders undone. Become people of justice and mercy and faith.

The fruit that God's looking for, things that will build, that will help us to continue to build all those fruits of the Spirit that we read about in Galatians 5, and 19, I think it's 19, well, Galatians 5, 22, so somewhere near the end of the chapter. Okay, so let's go back to Isaiah 5. And we can see the fruit that God is looking for. I looked for justice. I got oppression. I looked for good grapes. I got sour grapes. I looked for righteousness, the good grapes, but I got the sour grapes of a cry.

And then beginning in verse 8, he talks about six woes. Woe to the people who do this. And he talks about the behaviors that his people have. As we go through these, you're going to see these are the very same things that physical Israel, you know, as we look at the United States of America, Britain, Canada, Australia, you know, New Zealand.

The Israelite nations that have been so richly blessed as a result of the obedience of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those blessings that are recounted there in Genesis 49. He gives these six woes. When you see woes, understand those are curses. When God says woe to you, right? It's the same thing as in Revelation 12, when he says, you know, Satan has been cast down to you. Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth. These are things that are not good to have happen.

So it's the same thing here. In verse 8, he says, as far as the people who produce these sour wild grapes, this is what they do. This is what they do that God doesn't... That God does not God's way. Let me put it that way. Woe to those who join house to house. Now, what does that mean? I can turn back to Micah 4.

I think it's verse 4. Remember the verse? I think it's actually Micah 4, verse 5 and 6, where he talks about, in that day, every man will sit in his house under his big tree.

And he talks about, he gives this picture of what life will be like when Christ returns. And he shows everyone is going to have their own land. They'll be sitting under their own fig tree.

And the symbolism of that, that, you know, when Christ returns, there's going to be this harmony between God, earth, and man again. Something that has been disrupted in our lives. You know, we know that man and God are separate. We know that most of the world doesn't even want to deal with God. Even the ones who say they do believe in God don't really follow anything he says. They just give him lip service.

And I'm not talking about people in the church. I'm talking about the rest of the Christianity in the world, a billion of them that are out there that don't do what he says. But when God, but when Christ returns, land, land will be important.

We learn a lot from the earth we live in. As you look through the Bible, you see all the agricultural laws and society was very agricultural. They grew land. God showed them how to make the land fertile. We learn so many things from nature around us that when we don't know anything about nature, we miss so many lessons that would open our eyes to the things that we do. And so what has mankind done?

It's very subtle what Christ has done. We live in a time where house has been joined to house. How many subdivisions that are out there? Even where we are here in Cincinnati, our houses are a little spread out. We have a half an acre, but there's house after house after house. And so, you know, land is there as a decoration. You go out and mow it, but we're not really using the land. God intended that we would learn lessons from the plants that are out there, learn lessons from planting, see the miracle of what he had done, what he had done.

He created the earth for us, not just to feed us and not just to provide what we need, but also to teach us lessons, physical man, what we need and how he provides. And so today we see house, house, house, house, house, condos, people living on top of each other, cities, you know, cities and and that are just there's no land at all. People have no connection at all. Sherry, Sherry, did you have a comment? Yeah, I was just going to say yes.

And then they're getting rid of all the farmland now and other countries are buying up all of our land and our farmland. And this is because everybody keeps... it's crazy. It is. So we see where society is today, right? Because the very next verse you said it there, he says, what are those who joined house to house, got all these things, you know, all these houses on top of one another, they add field to field. He talks about people buying up land.

You know, when God when God brought Israel into the Promised Land, you remember in Joshua, I think I wrote it down. I don't know that we need to turn there, but in Joshua 13, you know, he said, Here is the land that's allocated to all the 12 tribes of Israel. I'm giving them this land. And he intended that they would always have that land.

It's important to God that they would have that land. And but as we've seen society and centuries and decades go by, what do we see? People buying up land, people don't have land, land being taken away. You know, Sherry said it. It's been in the news, at least I've seen it the last couple of times, about how China is buying up the farmland of America, you know, and some of it very close to naval bases.

And this is drawing the question, what are they doing? What are they doing with all this land? This is America's land. God gave America the land, and yet others are buying it up. Others are buying it up. And it's, you know, God says, Whoa, to those who do that. Whoa, to a nation that allows that to happen, that you've lost the value of what land ownership is. He gave that to people. You know, one of the one of the slogans of this World Economic Forum, that's, you know, just kind of like, I don't even know how people buy into it says, you will own nothing.

No, by 2030, they said you will own nothing, but you'll be happy. You'll own nothing, but you'll be happy. We'll own all the land, we'll own all the houses, you'll rent from us, we'll be controlling everything, but you'll be happy. That's not what the Bible says. He says, Whoa, whoa, to you when that happens, when you allow that to happen. They add field to field.

There, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land. You know, there is no... For the shabby. Yes, yes, Xavier. Just to add a statement in relation to that statement that those people say you will own nothing but be happy. Yeah, I heard recently that one German manufacturer of cars, when they sell your cars now, they'll give you all the bells and whistles, but you have to pay a subscription for everything.

You don't really own the car, but you pay a subscription for a heated steering wheel, a subscription for a remote start, a subscription for cooling seats, heated seats, everything. And if you don't pay, they turn it off. Wow. It's not really your car, and this is BMW. This is what their future vision is. So if you want it, you can have it. We'll just send a message to the car and you'll have that service or that load screen. But if you don't, we'll turn it off. That's right. But you'll be happy.

You'll be happy. So that's the world we're going to, right? And so when you read these verses and you see where the world is going, because make one mistake, that it is going there, right?

I mean, there's no doubt when you see how everything's working together. God says, whoa, he doesn't say that's a good idea. Yeah, Dale. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I'm teaching an ESL class this summer, which I sometimes do. And it's interesting. A lot of young people, and we're, it's a conversation class this morning, they were talking about, you know, the environment, you know, balancing a man's needs versus taking care of the environment, you know, taking care of nature.

How do we, how do we do that? What harm are we doing to the environment and, you know, pollution and how can we make it a better world, a better environment, healthier? It was very interesting. One of the questions that talking with the current scripture you're reading is, half the students, I think there's maybe 12 in the class, and half of them didn't think parks were necessary. You know, nice go out to a park, you know, it's just interesting. And half the class was saying, what? You don't want, you don't, you don't want parks.

We need parks. We need to, we need to see the green and we need to get out in fresh air. It's beautiful. It makes us feel better. It's good for us. And I thought that was very interesting how half the class didn't think parks were important.

And the other, the other half said, yes, they are very important for our well-being, you know, interesting. That is interesting. And so many kids are that way, right? They're just happy to stay in the house and play video games. They could care less if they ever go outside. Yeah, it's a strange, strange time we live in. And yeah, yeah, we lose something by, you know, more and more studies come out saying people that are depressed, people that have, you know, these issues, if they would just go out more, if they would just, you know, they specifically mentioned gardening activities, and one of them I heard a few days ago, right?

If they would just do some gardening, they would, they would find themselves calm and relaxed and everything. So, something to it. Yeah. Yeah, that's one thing I said to them in a diplomatic way. I guess I said, you know, you probably have to admit that all of you, if you went out into the country, you probably would enjoy it. Maybe they said, yeah, we would enjoy it. If they would just make themselves go out, right? Yeah, make themselves. This resistance to even go outside sometimes.

So, yeah. Mr. Shavey, can I also bring out that it says here that it's woe to those who do that, you know, unfortunately, some of us, the poor and some other people are in a condition where they have to live on top of one another. They can't afford much more. So, we've got to bring up that it's woe to those who do that, it says, right?

Right. And that's the country we live in, right? So that's, yeah. Yeah, I mean, we all, I mean, I'm sure there's some that who have farms and whatever. And that's that's great, but not all of us, not all of us do that very few. And some of us, you know, do the economical reasons have to live in close quarters and no fault of their own. Yeah, yeah. We live in a society, but it is not what God's will is, right? So a society that does that, God's going to show what is the direction is going in. So that's the that's the world we live in, not by your choice or any of our choices.

But that's what we're we're thrust in. So we see the times that we live in. Okay, and again, look at, you know, in verse eight, that they don't have any place where they can dwell alone, you know, alone time is good. You saw Jesus Christ, you know, many times he was with his disciples, but sometimes have to be alone and being alone in nature, you know, can help sometimes to really connect with God in a way that that you can't with the ceiling, you know, ceiling and around ceilings and everything around you.

So, okay, verse nine. In my hearing, the Lord of hosts said, truly many houses will be desolate, great and beautiful ones without inhabitant. You know, all these great houses, we see mansions. I mean, every city has these great mansions, right? God says all those things where people put all their stock in these great, big, beautiful houses, you know, they're going to be without inhabitants, they're going to be desolate, they're going to lose everything.

It's not the end all and be all. Ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath. And look that up, that says, well, what that kind of means is one bath was seven and a half, seven and a half gallons, right? So if you have 10 acres, and acres back then kind of meant how much you could, how much you could work in one day. If 10 acres only produced seven and a half gallons of wine, you would be quite frustrated. It's like almost nothing. It's almost, it's almost better to have nothing because it'd be so frustrating to have so little that means nothing.

So that's what he's saying in verse 10. This is what's going to happen to people who do that, forsake the land and who do all these things we've read about in 8 and 8 and 9. Ten acres of vineyard shall produce very little and an omen seed shall yield one ephah. They will produce almost nothing.

You didn't want to deal with the land. You're going to suffer. You're going to suffer. We're going to see famine come up here in a couple verses. So that's one woe. The next woe we see there in verse 11. Woe, woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night till wine inflames them. Well, what God is showing is that vineyard produces wine. Wine has many benefits. But the abuse and overuse of wine is not a good thing. Everything in balance. God uses wine as a symbol of some tremendous things in the Bible. But wine, people can become drunk on it if they abuse it.

That's not good either. The Proverbs talks about too much wine. We read about Noah when he got off of the Ark planted vineyards. He was drunk. We had this negative thing on that. Got to do everything in moderation. We all know that the dangers of alcoholism, that's been well discussed in our society.

There's treatment programs out there. The good ones are based on biblical principles by accident, I think. But they work if people really focus on it because they're based on biblical principles, the 12 steps, for instance. But here, when it talks about intoxicating drink, who continued until night till wine inflames them. You know, wine, back in that day, that would have been the thing that would intoxicate people. Today, it's not just wine, right? Sherry? Did you have a comment, Sherry? Okay. If you're talking, Sherry, you're muted. I'm sorry. I thought I unmuted.

I know somebody that's in AA, and they do not talk about God anymore. They talk about their higher power. And that's what they say. When you say God, they're like, no, it's my higher power. And I'm like, okay, whatever. I've heard that. They still recognize it has to be someone besides you. You don't have the power to overcome that. You can't look to someone else. There are Christian, so-called Christian-based programs that don't do that.

That I hear are very good. Sometimes they get into other things, but they will use God. So if that's ever a need, you might seek out one of those.

Yeah, but there's more than wine that can be intoxicating to us, and that can lead to this state that God is talking about. We live in a world where there's a lot more things that can intoxicate us that people will rise up early to do and continue to doing all day long. We've got internet, we've got entertainment, we've got drugs, we've got pornography. We have so many things in the world today that are intoxicating to people that just lure them in and cause them to just waste their lives. That's what all these intoxicating things do. If someone gets completely dominated by wine or whatever alcoholic drink they have, they become a slave to that. It takes their life. That's what they're committed. That's kind of what they do. So they have to overcome that to reclaim your life, to redeem the time. It takes God's spirit to help overcome those things you need. You need His strength to do that. But it's not just wine today. I could never take a sip of wine except on Passover for the rest of my life. I could absolutely be intoxicated. I could sit here all day and play on the internet, get involved with video games, waste day after day after day, wake up in the morning and think, I can't wait to get back on whatever game it is. That's what I'm going to spend my time doing. After I do that couple hours, I've got this other game. I could do that all the time. What does that mean? I could sit and watch TV all day. I could watch every talk show that comes on the air day in and day out from the beginning. I could watch TV all day in and day out from morning till night. Where is life at that point? What he's talking about here is we're kind of wasting our time. Wasting time. Time is valuable. We read about that all through the New Testament as well. Paul says redeem the time. It's important. We count the days. We number the days. We order our steps and order our days so that they're beneficial to us and we're progressing as we want. That's what he's talking about there. We have to take verses like that and say, not just pat ourselves on the back if we have no issue with wine, but are there other things that can consume us? It's a different world than it was back then. They didn't have internet and TV and radios and all the things that can consume our time. Wodua Society says that does that. Back in Ezekiel 16, when it talks about Sodom and Gomorrah, and I know you remember verses 48, 49, and 50 in there, it talks about what's the sin of Sodom? We know with the sin that everyone knows about Sodom and Gomorrah, but it was the sin of idleness. They had leisure time, and they misused that leisure time. They didn't make use of it. They allowed them to become more and more depraved, more and more perverted, as they just wasted time and didn't redeem it, and they grew farther and farther and farther away from God.

Same picture of the world that we live in today. The more leisure time that we have, the people fill it with meaningless things. Nothing wrong with video games, in balance, nothing wrong with watching TV, nothing wrong with that. But if it consumes our life, then it becomes an addiction for us, and that's what we live for. Then we might want to look it up or watch out what we're doing there a little bit.

Verse 12. The harp and the strings, the tambourine and flute. You read about worshiping God, and you see how music is a part of that. And wine are in their face. Well, wine is in our face, right? Passover, we do wine. There's nothing wrong with having wine with dinner.

He says all these things are in their wines, in their feasts, but it's all about those things. They don't regard the work of the Eternal. They're not really paying attention to what God's will is. They're just, hey, here's the music, here's the wine, let's just do this.

I read that and I think about the churches in the world. What their claim to fame these days are, even as I've learned recently and where we meet in Orlando, it's all about a music ministry. The sermon that's given is just a very short little thing, but it's like you've got to have a really good music ministry and entertain the people.

All the flutes are there, the drums are there, the guitars are there, the pianos there, the little keyboard is there, but they don't really know and worship God. They just are there to be entertained. And that's what God is saying here. They've got the elements that God doesn't mind seeing in our worship of Him, but they're not really paying attention to what His will is. They're not really studying His Word.

They don't regard the work of the Lord. They don't consider the operation of His hands. They just don't. That shouldn't be a picture of you and me. We should be. What is the work of God? That is what we are doing, not just on the Sabbath day, but every day of our lives.

Because the operation of His hands, God is always at work. Jesus Christ is always at work. He's given us as His body a commission to accomplish. And that's what we need to be doing.

Not bad to have some leisure time, not bad to have a little entertainment, and to have fun times and whatever, but not at the cost of not regarding the work of God. You know, when I see that word consider, they don't consider the operation of His hands.

I think of the verse in Haggai, and let's see if I wrote that down. Haggai 5, I think, if you want to be turning back there. Haggai 3rd from the last book in the Old Testament. Haggai 5, let me look it up here. Haggai 1 verse 5. I think, well, I don't think, I gave a sermon using that phrase there in Haggai 1.5. Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. Think about it. What are you doing? Are you doing God's will? Are you reviewing how you live your life? It's very easy to slip into habits that we don't see coming, right?

We let a little thing go one day, and all of a sudden it becomes, we get a little further and further away from what we need to do. We need to consider our ways. Verse 6 says, you've sown much, but you bring in little. Well, you know, we know that we're supposed to be sowing the seed that God wants us to sow.

You've sown much, but you bring in little. You eat, but you don't have enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages earns wages to put into a bag with holes. Are you doing God's will? Are you just going through the motions?

Or are you really looking and seeking God's will when you sow, you know, sow your own personal crops or when you sow them in the church? If you're reaping, if you're sowing a lot and reaping little, we might want to consider our ways. And God accentuates that there in verse 7, as us as the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. It's a message, you know, that we should all be looking at, too, and looking at our lives.

And if things aren't, if things aren't, you know, we all have trials and things like that. If they're not producing what God wants, we might need to consider our ways and how, you know, much attention we are spending regarding the work of God, as it says here in Isaiah 5 verse 12. Again, that's a woe. When we depart, when we don't consider what we're doing and God's will, that's not a good thing.

Verse 13 of Isaiah 5, he tells us what's going to happen to people, you know, who rise up early in the morning that they may follow in toxicating drink. Therefore, 13, therefore my people have gone into captivity. Ah, what's the ultimate result of a lifestyle like this? They've gone into captivity. Ancient Israel, they followed that pattern. They went into captivity in 720 BC. Same thing, you know, history repeats itself. God is very clear about what will happen. If you're taking notes, you know, you might want to go back later tonight and look at Deuteronomy 28. In Deuteronomy 28, God says, here's the blessings.

If you obey me, here's the blessings that will endure to you. But if you depart from me, this is what's going to happen. And as you read through Deuteronomy 28, it's a long chapter. Many of the things that he says in Deuteronomy 28 we see right here in Isaiah. Right? Isaiah 5 has got, again, repeats to his prophets what his word is. So that's something maybe you'll want to do later. Well, therefore, my people have gone into captivity. Why? Because they have no knowledge. They haven't been considering God's way.

They've just been kind of going through life. They haven't been being schooled. They haven't been paying attention. Maybe in their, certainly in the world's churches, they're not getting any knowledge about God. They're getting everything but what the knowledge, the true knowledge of God is because they have no knowledge. Now that, I know, should trigger something in someone's minds about what happens, what a verse is. Anyone can think of a verse that talks about when people have no knowledge.

Happens to be another contemporary of Isaiah. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. You're absolutely right. You know where that is? Nope. No, no. Hosea 4 and verse 6. And Hosea, when you look, you see that here he was. He was prophesying. God was working with him at the same time that Isaiah was. The same kings mentioned that were there as Isaiah came. Hosea was alive during that time. And Hosea 4 verse 6, it says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. They know the truth. They haven't considered my ways. They're not doing my will. They're not knowing me. All these things have happened. Joining house to house. Giving up the land.

Wasting their time on all these things that are around them. You know? And they're not doing that. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you've rejected knowledge, I will reject you for being priests for me. He's talking about the shepherds there who have not been teaching God's way. Because you've forgotten the law of your God, I will forget your children. I mean, God's way is very clear. We follow him. We do his will exactly. And following very closely, well, exactly, the word of the Bible more and more as we understand it.

And as he opens our minds to see how every word applies to our lives, the blessings will be there. And when they're not, you know, some trials come just to strengthen our trials. I think I'd prefer to use the word opportunities come to strengthen our faith, strengthen our trust, our reliance on God. We need that. We need that. We know the times are coming when times are going to be tough. We have to do those things. If a trial comes over and over and over and the same thing happens over and over and over in our lives, boy, we need to stop and think, wow, what am I doing? What am I doing?

I haven't learned the lessons that God wants me to learn. These trials come that we become stronger in our faith to God. Okay, back in Isaiah 5, verse 13, my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge. And then it says they're honorable men. They've gone into captivity. That's not a good thing, right? They're honorable men are famished. Well, that means, you know, they're chief men. They're starving. There's a famine in the land. The food has dried up.

The water has dried up. The honorable men, you know, that might be the politicians, the leaders, right? They're honorable men are famished and they're multitude. That's the common people, you and me. And they're multitude dried up with thirst. The whole land is in a state of famine. And the Bible talks about famine and pestilence and all these things that come upon a nation that rejects God and departs from him. Their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst. Verse 14, there's another therefor. What happens in times of famine when people are starving and when there is no water available and a land has stopped producing the food that everyone needs because we're physical creatures dependent on a physical world that we're all dependent on a God who provides the rain, who provides the sun, who provides the food that we have.

No matter how self-sufficient we think we are, we absolutely are not everything. Depends on God. He's been merciful that despite it all, all of us have food day in and day out when we want it. Therefore, verse 14, she'll, that's the grave. I think most of us know that. Therefore, the grave has enlarged itself and it's opened its mouth beyond measure. Their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he who is jubilant shall detend into it. What does that say? Many are going to die. Many will die as a result of the famine.

We've read that in Ezekiel. It talks about a third die by famine, a third by the sword, a third go into captivity. We read a few weeks ago in Isaiah 6, talking about the remnant that will be left. In verse 13 of Isaiah 6, the next chapter over talks about there will be a remnant left. There will be so many die, just 10%.

We'll be there because death, when God says, Whoa, whoa, whoa, when you do these things, what happens? You know, it has dire consequences. Life comes through Jesus Christ. Life comes through God. Life comes through obedience to Him. Death comes through doing the things of the world. Death comes from doing things our own way. Death comes from neglecting God, resisting God, rejecting God, thinking that we have all the answers.

When Adam and Eve chose Satan, they chose death. The only way to life is through Jesus Christ and yielding ourselves completely to Him. Okay, let's go on here. Verse 15. God talks about, again, here's a nation that's been brought low. They've got people dying. They've got famine going on in the world because they didn't regard the work of God. They didn't pay attention to what His will was. In verse 15, He begins to talk about pride again. Now we talked about pride.

I think it's in Isaiah 2, it's in Isaiah 3. Here we have it in Isaiah 5 again. Pride, pride, pride. It leads to death. We have to be aware of that and constantly we're all prone to it. If we don't watch and keep ourselves in check and yield ourselves to God.

Verse 15. People shall be brought down. Each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. What do we need to do to follow God? We have to realize our way isn't the way. Only Jesus Christ is the way, the life, and the truth. That's what we have to remember.

We have to be people of humility. We have to watch ourselves and remember always that we are completely reliant on God. Not one of us that are sitting here tonight or will ever listen to this, not one of us do the things we do because we're so smart, wonderful, whatever. Everything we do, everything we have is because of God. We are completely dependent on Him and if we think we're self-sufficient, He's the one who gave us life.

We live on an earth where He provides everything. If He stopped letting it rain, we would all die. We have absolutely no ability to sustain life. It's what God has given us. We always remember to be humble. Whenever we think we've got the world by the tail, we need to stop by and think, no, God is...we need to yield to God and allow Him and recognize Him. It's one of the chief things that we really read later on in Isaiah about Satan. God created Him. God gave Him the beauty. God gave Him all the talents that He had and somewhere along the line, Satan forgot that and thought he was smarter than God and better than God.

Everything we have, every talent, every skill, everything comes from God. It's good that we're supposed to use it, we're supposed to multiply it, we're supposed to do all those things, but it came from God who created us. I'm going to give you a couple verses. I'm not going to turn there because I know we did this a couple weeks ago. It talks about pride in Isaiah 3. I mentioned Isaiah 3. 16, Isaiah 2, verses 11 and 12, Isaiah 66, verse 2. At the end of the book, it talks about, to this one will I look, who is humble of a contrite spirit, who trembles at my word.

And then Proverbs 29, 23, 16, and 18, it says pride goes before a fall, or pride goes before destruction. Well, people will be brought low. I mean, if we have that, God will bring us low, he will humble us. But verse 16, the eternal of hosts, he will be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy will be hallowed in righteousness. The whole world will eventually see that God will be glorified. He will be glorified in Christ on earth.

It will show where the truth is. Verse 17 is really a beautiful verse here. It says, in one way, it's a very physical verse, but it's very spiritual as well. It says, The lambs shall then, when God is exalted, when God is revered as God and worshipped as God, then the lambs shall feed in their pasture.

You know, one of the more peaceful pictures you can look at is lambs feeding in a pasture, right? It's a beautiful thing. They're on a green hillside, and you see them just sort of lined up there. They're eating, and they're at peace because they have a shepherd that's washing over them and everything like that. And in one way, that's what happens. They're at peace. But you know, the lambs in the Bible can picture you and me as well, right?

The people of God who have humbled themselves, who realize we need a shepherd, and who have yielded to the shepherd and follow the shepherd wherever he leads. And of course, that great shepherd is Jesus Christ. In our churches, we have pastors who are shepherds who are following Jesus Christ, and that's what their job is, right? Then the lambs. That's you and me. A beautiful picture. The people.

The people of God. The people in the millennium. They'll be there. They'll be feeding in peace when the King of Peace returns. And he brings true peace to the earth for the first time since before Adam and Eve chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of God. Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, and in the waste places of the fat ones, strangers shall eat. Now, that word waste again talks about the dissipation that we've talked about, the waste of everything that God has given us.

I'll just leave it at that. We can talk about that. In the waste places of the fat ones, the ones who profited on earth, strangers shall eat. There will be the lambs who are feeding there.

Okay, so God paints a picture of this is what's going to happen, but Jesus Christ will return. Everything will turn out good because there is hope in Him, even as we look at the world around us and everything. In verse 18, then we see another woe, another sin, if you will, that the people of God, the vines in the vineyard, commit.

Woe to those who draw iniquity. This is some interesting verbiage here. Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as if with a cart rope. I'll kind of tell you what it means, and I'll show you something from a commentary.

It means these are people who will just link up sin after sin after sin. They will just pull it behind them. They're just committed to sin, dedicated to sin, and they just multiply it. As I was trying to figure out, I thought, this has got to be some kind of verbiage that applies that Israel would have known back in those days. This Elikot's commentary, I thought, probably gives us a pretty good indication of what was going on or what Israel back then, when Isaiah was talking, would have understood when they read the words there that are there.

He says that, draw iniquity with cords of vanity. He says this phrase is boldly, boldly figurative. Evil doers are thought of as harnessing themselves as to the chariot of sin. If you can imagine, right? Not attaching themselves to God, but attaching themselves to the chariot of sin. The cords of vanity, and remember vanity, emptiness, ungodliness, utility, meaning it's going nowhere, produces nothing good. The cords of vanity are the habits by which they are thus bound. So we have people, and we know we have people in this world, you listen to what they have to say, and it's like, how much more garbage can come out of your mouth?

I mean, what are you thinking? How can you say that is good? How can you say that's wonderful? And how can you think any of this? So we kind of see what he's saying there. The cart ropes there, the second part of verse 18, the cart ropes, which are thicker and stronger than the cords, represent the extreme stage.

Now that's interesting. Of course, you got the ropes there, the cords, then you got the cart ropes, the extreme stage. Now as we look at the, as we look at, I'll just take America today, and where we are in the extreme stage. If we had ever, I can honestly say 10 years ago, someone said that in America, you know, transgenderism would be the thing and you were as a hero if you did that, that we would be espousing in our schools that my son at eight years old decided he wanted to be a girl one day that I could be held accountable for not giving him drugs to help him be that way, or if I suffer, so if it's a girl that wanted to be a boy.

I think that's impossible. That's just silly stuff. And yet we live in this stuff. We live in this time that just bizarre things happen that you think how, what are people attaching themselves to that you can keep and come up with these ideas and even begin to think that that's, that that's a good idea. And that's what that's what good is. And so it's talking about that there the cart ropes represent the extreme stage when such habits become irresistibly dominant.

We just get worse and worse and worse things that are unimaginable. Probably, he says where this comes from, probably the words may point to some idolatrous procession in which the chariot of Baal or Asheroth was thus drawn by their worshippers. And that that helped for me to kind of illustrate what what is God saying there. I'm hitching my wagon and my future to this these pagan senseless perverted ideas and I get further and further away from even common sense, no common sense. And so we look, you know, again, we look at the world around us and God says, Whoa, to these people, right. And we see that if we're if we got our eyes open, we see what's going on, and probably marvel at some of the things that that we see going on in the world around us here.

And then in verse 19, they kind of mock God. Verse 19, Woe to those that say, Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it. Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw on to your income that we may know it. Yeah, God, go ahead. What are you going to do? Right. Go ahead. See, let's see what you can do. You've been talking about it forever. You know, people will say about us, you know, oh, you've been talking about the return of Jesus Christ forever. When is he really going to come?

Come on, Jesus Christ really going to return to this earth? It's the same thing that Peter talks about a second. Peter three says in the last days, mockers, the stoppers will come saying, Where's the promise of this coming? Come on, don't talk to me about Jesus Christ returning to earth. The world is going is in a mess. Jesus Christ isn't there. We don't believe in God anymore. And that's the kind of kind of society that we see.

No one is thinking about. No, speaking of God, how silly can you be to believe that Jesus Christ is returning? Mock what all this means, right? So again, we see God says, Whoa, whoa, to a society that becomes that way doesn't mean his people, you and me are that way. But his physical people, Israel, who have been really blessed, greatly blessed, that depart from him and would have that attitude, you know, God will withdraw the blessings.

He says he says he will. And verse 20, verse 20, and where are we on time? We're going to get through verse 30. Some of these I don't have to do a lot of explanation on. God is very clear. The words mean as much to us today, just as clear as they did when they were reported by Isaiah and preserved for us. Whoa, to those who call evil good and good evil. That's the world we live in today, right?

You and I will be called evil because we believe in the words of the Bible. We'll be called haters, you know, we'll be called racists. We'll be called all these things because we stand by the law of God. Because they say all these good evil things that the Bible says are evil. They call them good. We're the ones that are going to be called evil. So we see that happening and we can see the direction of the world. Who put darkness for light and light for darkness. You know, light, Jesus Christ is light.

He's the light of the world. The truth is light. And yet we hear truth is fallen in the street. You know, we hear leaders say, believe my truth. This is the real truth. Anything you believe is not truth. You don't believe what I believe. You don't believe truth. This is your new light, is what they would say. Who put darkness for light. And their light is very dark. You know, it is darkness and not of God. Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Verse 21, Whoa! Whoa to those who are wise in their own eyes.

I've got the way. I've got the better idea of everyone. Look what I've done. Look at the policies I put into place and da da da da da da da. I don't pay any attention to God. I don't go back to the word of God. That is where wisdom is. I mean, the word of God is the foundation of knowledge. It's the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. What are those who are wise in their own eyes? And prudent in their own sight. Not in God's sight. You know, Proverbs 14, 12 tells us, you know, the way...

Well, I know that. It's right out of my mind. You know, the way a man leads to death is paraphrasing if there's someone else who's thinking of that right now can say it.

So there's a way that seems right to a man. That's it. Thank you. That's it. There is a way that seems right to a man. But the ends thereof are the ways of death. Exactly. So, OK. Verse 22. Woe to men, mighty at drinking wine. Well, you know, wow, I can hold a lot of liquor.

That can mean that. Or, you know, I can do all these great things that mean nothing. I'm the best, I don't know, name of video game. I don't know any video games. Years ago, I remember my son playing Halo. I'm the best Halo player on earth. Wow. OK, that's great. Woe to men, mighty at drinking wine. Becoming a toxic. Woe to men, valiant for mixing and toxicating drink. That's their claim to fame. Nothing spiritual. All dedicated to the physical. Who justify the wicked for a bribe.

You know, how much do we, you know, I know the media does a very good job of covering bribes, but if you're reading other things than just the mainstream news, you see some of the corruption that's going on there and how everything has to do with bribes, even in our healthcare field. As you look back at the vaccination and everything that kind of gets covered up, but you read about the $350 million that go to this person and that group of people and whatever so that medicine can be there. And medicine and healthcare has become, it's become, whatever. One day we'll talk about that more. It has become a place where bribes rule and money rules, not the well-being of people necessarily, especially in some of the new stuff. Who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man.

You know, one day, one day, some of us, right? Maybe, maybe me one day, who gets hauled in front of a judge and I've given a sermon that talks about the Bible, they accuse me of a hate crime because I'm saying these things. Will they? Will they convict me? Absolutely they'll convict me because justice won't be certain, it won't be righteousness, it'll be their truth. Look, he was preaching against this or he was preaching against that, throw him in jail. So be it if that's what God's will is. They take away justice from the righteous man because he's doing the things opposite of what the world says. So again, we have these woes. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. When these things happen, when you see the nation depart from God and these things become prevalent in it, you know, Christ would say when you see these things happen, know the time is near. Know the time is near. Therefore, verse 24. Therefore, always here's the consequence when you see this, therefore, as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chap, so their root will be his rottenness. Their, you know, their society is going to get, going to get consumed and their blossom will ascend like duff. Beautiful. One day it just becomes dust. It's all disappeared. Why? Because they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despise the word of the Holy One of Israel. Always over and over in Isaiah, you'll see this is happening because you didn't listen to God. In Isaiah, you got a picture of Isaiah who would be sitting there telling Israel this. This is what's going to happen because you didn't follow God. You didn't turn back to him. Jeremiah, Micah, Hosea, Amos, you know, another contemporary of Isaiah, Amos. Over and over, the prophets would say turn back to God. This doesn't have to happen to you. And so God says, this is why. You didn't listen to me. You didn't follow my will. You didn't do my will. You did your own thing and departed from me. Therefore, verse 25, another therefore, therefore the anger of God is aroused against his people. That would be the physical people. It could be you and me too if we depart from God. We just kind of compromise and become neglectful and lazy and lazy and everything. But he's talking about his physical people here. Therefore, the anger of the Lord is aroused against his people. He stretched out his hand against them and stricken them. And the hills trembled. We read the verses earlier in Isaiah. We saw the verses in Revelation where when God shakes the earth, people know it's God. They run into caves. They hide behind the rocks. They don't want to acknowledge it's God. Their hearts are so hardened against God, they don't want to admit it, even though they know it, because they're just so steeped and I will not yield to God. The hills trembled and their carcasses were his refuse in the midst of the streets. The land just littered with what the carcasses were because people wouldn't choose life. They chose death. It seems like such a simple thing. And they lost their lives and lost everything because they simply wouldn't do it God's way and yield to him. Again, the lesson of ancient Israel, they didn't have God's Holy Spirit. You and I, without God's Holy Spirit, that gives us the strength to overcome, we can't do it either. We would be just like these people without God's Spirit. That's why it's so valuable to keep in a state of repentance before God, of yieldness to him, and to exercise.

As I said in one of my last sermons down there in Orlando in Jacksonville, by reason of use, use the tools God gives us. Don't neglect them. Practice them and use them. They will arm us. They will arm us and make us ready to use those weapons that God gives us.

Verse 25, for all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Even though all this is going, God will punish until the people turn to him. He will humble because people have to be humble. That's one of the lessons of the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement. People will be afflicted and they will come to God in a humble state of mind. They will be completely decimated when they appear before him and then when Satan is put away and they'll have lifetimes to learn God's way. He will lift up. And verses 26 to 30 here are interesting. He kind of says what's going to happen, right? He says, He, God, will lift up a banner to the nations from afar. He will whistle to them from the end of the earth. Surely they will come with speed swiftly. So we read other verses. Jeremiah 5 verse 15 here in this section of Scripture. Joel 2-7 will talk about this army that comes. They just consistently march and everything fades before them. It's a picture. When ISIS was in its heyday and they were marching through Iraq and Iran and no one knew how to stop them. They said people would just run in terror because they were evil, vicious, cruel people, ISIS. And I always thought of Joel, this people. People flee in terror because they're so awful. And God is saying that. He will do it. If you won't listen to me, then I will bring these armies from afar, cruel and vicious people, he says, many times. Jeremiah said the same thing to Judah. Babylon will come down. They will conquer you with Syria, the most cruel of all, eventually conquered Israel. He will whistle to them from the ends of the earth. Surely they will come with speed swiftly. One of the prophetic words that you've heard me talk about, and it's in 2 Thessalonians 5 there, suddenly.

Suddenly these things happen. It's not really suddenly for the people of God because we see the leaves on the, we see the buds on the trees. We see what's happening. But for the world who's blind, who's just like, oh, everything's going to go on the way it always has been, it'll be like, what, how did this happen? How did everything fall apart literally overnight? It shouldn't happen to you and I, Paul says, as you remember in 1 Thessalonians 5 there, but surely they will come with speed swiftly. Later on in Isaiah, we'll see the same thing too. So let's turn to Isaiah 31 here for a second.

Isaiah 31.

Chapter, oh, I'm in verse 26. I'm looking at my notes someplace else here. Isaiah 30, I'm sorry. Isaiah 30 in verse 12.

Again, this is, this is, you know, if you read through chapter 30, you can see the same type of attitude here that's talking about in Isaiah that we've been reading about here in chapters 2, 3, and 5. Verse 12 says, Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel, because you despise this word, and because you trust in oppression and perversity. That means you trust in the ways of the world. You trust in the world more than you trust in me. Because you trust in oppression and perversity and rely on them. Therefore, this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly and an instant. You know, you are relying on society, you're relying on all these things, and you're not going to realize, you're not going to realize your eyes weren't open, and that wall is going to burst and everything you trusted in everything you relied on is going to disappear. That will be where the weeping and gnashing of teeth and the regret comes in. Why didn't I use the time to build the trust in God? Sherri, did you have a comment? Just, you had a sermon I just watched in 2018 on all of this, just what you're talking about now. And you were talking about the wall bursting. Okay, yeah, the wall bursting, exactly. Yeah, and verse 14, he shall break it like the breaking of the potter's vessel, which is broken in pieces. He will not spare, so there not shall, shall not be found among its fragments, a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water from the cistern. You know, that's his anger, will not turn away. He will humble the people. Why? Because he wants them to finally experience the goodness, the peace, the joy that comes from loving God and serving Him. Verse 27, no one will be weary among this nation or this army that God calls to punish. No one will be weary or stumble among them. No one will slumber or sleep. Nor will the belt of their loins be loose, nor the strap of their sandals be broken. You know, every time I see pictures of the North Korean army, the other day I saw pictures of the Chinese army marching. I think of these verses. They are completely disciplined, the way the American army used to be, maybe still is, but they look fierce when you look at them and they look like you want to take notice if they're coming. Right? No one will stumble among them. They will be there, they will be there for a mission, and they will get the job done. No one will be weary. No, the belt on their loins won't be loose. The strap of their sandals will not be broken. Their arrows are sharp, their bows are bent, their horses' hooves will seem like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. Well, there were no mass weapons of destruction back in Isaiah, but we know, we know if you read Prophetic Times, I send that out every week, there hasn't been one in the last couple weeks.

Watch what it says in there, that weapons that these other countries, these other nations like China are developing, right behind our back, right under our noses. And those weapons will be used, those weapons will be used as they slowly, silently, and behind the scenes keep building those things and then look at verses like these. Their arrows are sharp, bows bent, horses' hooves will seem like flint, 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. The Bible talks about captivity. What will happen at that time? They will carry it away and no one will deliver. Only God can deliver at that point. Only He can heal the nation. Only He can bring them back from captivity. Ancient Israel never returned to their land. When Christ returns, He says, physical Israel will be brought back to their promise. They never returned, they lost it. 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. It's all become dark. God ends chapter 5 on a very somber note. If you remember, we read chapter 6 back at the beginning of our study of Isaiah, the calling of Isaiah. In the introductory chapters, God talks about what He's done and what He's going to do. He warns the nation. In the rest of the book of Isaiah, we'll be talking about these things and God will give us instruction. It's a very interesting book. We won't look at Isaiah 6. You might want to look at it again. We've already read it once. It recounts the calling of Isaiah. God forgives his sins. Isaiah is willing to go out and speak to the nations. We'll pick it up in chapter 7 next time. We will find other prophecy in chapter 7 going forward. Let me leave it with that and open it up for any discussion. I'm going to shut the recording off just because I keep getting reminded.