5:1  Let me sing for my beloved a love song about his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on the fertile brow of a hill.

Now, Isaiah uses imagery from about every aspect of ancient life and culture. And one of the things that happened, anciently, was that at certain times of the year, like at times of harvest, as here, in this case, they were harvesting the grapes and pressing them in the wine press, and minstrels would come and sing songs or play musical instruments such as flutes. And they would play while people pressed the grapes and it actually became a dance. The grapes were pressed in a depression in the earth that was flat and they threw the grapes in there and several people would go round and round, like today we do that on the trampoline. They would just jump up and down on these grapes, squeezing the juice out of them and the juice would flow down a slight incline into a lower vat. And there they would scoop it out, strain it, and that would become the wine. So, at certain times of the year people went around, knowing that, and they assisted in these things. Minstrels would go along, and they were in high demand at that time, and so Isaiah uses that kind of imagery.

“--For my beloved--” In other words, it’s a love song. Now, “my beloved” is the Lord himself. He’s the one that’s referred to, here. And the Lord, himself, in that sense, is an exemplar for those of his servants who are beloved. For example, he calls Abraham, beloved. Beloved also means to keeps covenant. To love, has a particular covenant definition. It’s actually a technical term of covenant language, of covenant terminology. The first of one “to keep covenant.” The vassal loves the emperor or the suzerain when he keeps the terms of the covenant. Jesus said, “if you love me keep my commandments.” That’s almost lifted verbatim out of the ancient near eastern covenant idea. Keeping of the commandments are the law of the covenant. When you keep the law of the covenant then you love the emperor, or the king, or the one with whom you have a covenant.

--A love song about his vineyard.” He, himself, is paralleled with his vineyard, here, which means that he and his vineyard are inseparable, as it were.
“My beloved had a vineyard on the fertile brow of a hill.” In another place where that word, beloved, is mentioned is in “the ascension of Isaiah,” where the Lord, himself, is called the beloved. Where it says, “ ‘had a vineyard on the fertile brow of a hill,” the hill could be a nation or a people of God, as it is a metaphor for that. It is a fertile nation, a fertile brow of a hill, so it is a choice land.

5:2  He cultivated it, clearing it of stones, and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in its midst and hewed for it a winepress as well. Then he expected it to yield grapes, but it produced wild grapes.

Like I said, there’s precious stones, semi-precious, and common stones. Well, these are common stones. So, clearing it of stones means what? Actually, it means to literally be getting rid of stones in a vineyard. That is an allegory, as it is here—and a lot of it in the book of Isaiah is allegory. “Getting rid of stones” means to get rid of the wicked. He planted it with choice vines and built a watchtower in its midst, and hewed a wine press, as well. “Watchtower” implies prophets, the watchmen upon the tower. We have good watchmen in the book of Isaiah, and we also have blind watchmen that don’t hear and don’t see. We have two kinds.

The “choice vines” are, as it says here in chapter five, verse seven: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah his cherished grove,” or his vines. It’s the people, themselves that we’re talking about all the way through, here. “He hewed a winepress as well.” The winepress is kind of the culmination of the whole process; you grow the grapes and you press them and you get the wine. The wine is what you want. It’s the end result. It also implies judgment. Later on, in chapter sixty-four we’ll see how the Lord treads the winepress alone, and it’s a judgment scene, there. So, it is saying that we’re looking for the fruit and by a certain time. If you don’t measure up, you know, then you come under condemnation. He says he expected the vineyard to yield grapes but it produced wild grapes. “These people,” or “this fruit” doesn’t measure up. The Hebrew word for wild grapes is a single word that we don’t have in English, “beushiym,” which means grapes or fruit, any fruit, really, that does not mature but rots before it gets ripe. We’re talking about a people who don’t fulfill the measure of their creation. They don’t take hold of the opportunity. They’ve procrastinated the day of their salvation, or whatever way you want to express it. They’re people who don’t make it.

5:3  Now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and you men of Judea, please judge between me and my vineyard! Judge for yourselves; he doesn’t have to judge.

5:4  What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it produce wild grapes?

He did everything. He planted it, he cultivated it, and it was all okay in its beginning. But then what happened? Well, this is the part that deals with the wicked. When the Lord expected it to yield grapes why did it produce beushiym, fruit that rots before it ripens?

5:5  Let me now inform you what I will do to my vineyard: I will have its hedge removed and let it be burned; I will have its wall broken through and let it be trampled.

Like I’ve said, the king of Assyria personifies the fire and the sword, and he’s the one that does the burning. He’s the one that invades the Promised Land. The “hedge” means some kind of protection, and that’s removed. Do we see that today, by any chance? Verse five: “ I will have its wall broken through and let it be trampled.” The wall, again, is the defense. The defenses are broken through. We saw that in chapter one, verses seven and eight where the enemy comes in and invades the Promised Land. That’s in the cross reference. The word, “trampled,” is a typical word link to the king of Assyria. In chapter ten, verse six it says, “I will commission him against a godless nation. I will appoint him over the people deserving of my vengeance to pillage for plunder, to spoliate for spoil--” Like I said, the thief in the night-- “to tread under foot like mud in the streets.” He treads the Lord’s people underfoot. He tramples them down, here, and in chapter twenty eight, and many other places.

5:6  I will make it a desolation: it shall neither be pruned nor hoed, but briars and thorns shall overgrow it. Moreover, I will forbid the rainclouds to rain on it.

So there’ll be no ministry there, anymore. The Lord not be ministering in the vineyard like he he has hitherto done, “but briars and thorns shall overgrow it.” In Isaiah briars and thorns are the wicked, or it signifies wickedness in general. Wickedness has taken over, but the wicked have also taken it over. They’ve overrun it; they’ve overgrown it. “Moreover, I will forbid the rain clouds to rain on it.” So, there’s no covenant blessings for them, because rain clouds means the Lord is blessing his people, here and in other places in Isaiah. He blesses them with rain to make their land fertile.

Remember that singular verse that we saw earlier? It said, “tell the righteous that it shall be well with them.” They shall eat the fruits of their labors right in the midst of all that doom and gloom. Well, this chapter, too, as bad as it gets, has a verse like that, verse seventeen: “Then shall his sheep feed in their pasture, proselytes eat in the ruins of the affluent.” And it goes right on again with the woes, again, after that. So remember that. It’s not a general condition. In fact, in Isaiah’s scenario the righteous are taken out in an exodus before the destruction comes, like Lot being taken out of Sodom before the destruction comes upon Sodom and Gomorrah. On the eve of the holocaust they exit out. For the wicked, the ones who remain, this is how it will be.

5:7  The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel and the people of Judah his cherished grove. He expected justice, but there was injustice; he expected righteousness, but there was an outcry.

In other words, his cherished grove is his covenant people. “He expected justice, but there was injustice; he expected righteousness, but there was an outcry.” Justice and righteousness are the foundation of all good, as I mentioned, or covenant blessings. Now the opposite happens. In Hebrew there’s a wordplay here. It doesn’t come through very well in the English, but you get the idea. There should have been justice and righteousness, and there once was. Remember the city; “righteous made its abode in her. She was filled with justice, but now, murderers,” chapter one verse twenty-one. These people were the people of God. Like I said, in the end time the situation is reversed. The people of God who apostatize are those who are now the covenant people. And they are subject to these judgments. The people who were the covenant people anciently who were cut of then, and incurred God’s judgments back then; they are now the ones who are received back. We’ll see that scenario in Isaiah.

5:8  Woe to those who join house to house and link field to field till no place is left, and you are restricted to dwell in the centers of the land!

Here we have a series of about seven woes, or covenant curses, that are pronounced upon the people. For what? Well, maybe for speculation, right? Joining house to house, linking field to field. How do they do that? Building townhouses, merges and zoning laws, condos? There are different ways you can do this. “‘Till you are restricted to dwell in the centers of the land.” The centers of the land are the cities. There’s no place left out there. Where? Out in the fields, or out in the rural areas. Why? Because zoning laws say you have to have twenty acres here or twenty acres there, or five acres minimum or whatever it may be, and You can’t afford that. So what do you do? You live in the city. So, the rich can get by, but, can the poor? Remember who the poor are. They are the Lord’s people. He watches out for the poor. He’s pronouncing a woe upon those who do this speculative kind of stuff. Because in so doing, they get richer and the poor get poorer. So it’s an injustice. It’s an inequality that prevails, here. It’s on those who are the cause of that inequality—whether they do it by zoning or by speculative endeavors or business or mergers or whatever it maybe-- that he singles out for a covenant curse.

5:9  The Lord of Hosts spoke this in my hearing: Surely many buildings shall lie desolate, large and fine houses unoccupied.

Large and fines houses are the rich, right? They’re the ones who can afford to live in such places. The desolation is part of the destruction that the Assyrians wreak upon the Lord’s people. And “large and fine houses unoccupied” means that when destruction happens they’ll be destroyed or exiled or scattered, but mostly destroyed.

5:10  A ten-acre vineyard shall yield but one bath, a homer of seed but an ephah.

So, actually, the land will yield less in that day than the seed you put into it. In other words, a situation of famine, or drought, which is a covenant curse. Invasion by enemies is a covenant curse. Burning of houses is a covenant curse, desolation—all these are covenant curses.

5:11  Woe to those who go after liquor as soon as they arise in the morning, who linger at night parties, inflamed by wine!

In other words, alcoholics, or those who depend on alcohol. They have a dependency; they have to have it the first thing in the morning. They’re also party animals. These things are literal. The context, here, all the way through, is very literal. He’s just spelling out some of the sins of the people. There are more ways to sin that you can say, but here’s a few samples. This is not everything. Here are some things that are going on:

5:12  There are harps and lyres, drums, flutes, and wine at their banquets, but they regard not what the Lord does, nor perceive his hands at work.

Like I said, they’re party animals; they’re having a good time, kind of like the sons and daughters of Job. Then Job would offer evening sacrifice on behalf of those children of his who were partying -- “but they regard not what the Lord does, nor perceive his hands at work.” So it’s a form of idolatry. It takes them away from God and the things of God. They don’t know what the Lord is all about, what he’s doing. What are his “hands at work?” In the book of Isaiah the Lord has two hands, the left hand and the right hand. The left hand is the king of Assyria, the hand of punishment by which the Lord smites his people. The right hand is their hand of deliverance, the Servant, through whom he saves his people. And we’ll see that later on where those terms are identified, specifically, with those two individuals. While they don’t perceive these things the king of Assyria comes along and do they see what he’s going to do? Did people perceive what Hitler was going to do, a few years before the Second World War? Probably not. Do they perceive the Servant for whom he is? They’re out of touch, spiritually. All idolaters in the book of Isaiah are inflicted with spiritual blindness.

5:13  Therefore are my people exiled without knowing why; their best men die of famine, their masses perish with thirst.

My people is a covenant people; we’re not talking about somebody else. You can’t point the finger. “Taken captive”--that is a covenant curse. “For want of knowledge”--knowledge, or to know, is a covenant term. If they kept covenant with the Lord, they would know him face to face. And they would know all about everything, all that they needed to know. They would have the spirit of revelation, individually, and they would have revelation and the word of God through the Servant or through the prophet. They would have plenty of knowledge of what’s going on, of what they needed to do. If they’re taken captive it’s because they did not magnify or fulfill their covenant relationship. They did not keep the terms of the covenant to qualify them for that kind of knowledge.

“Their best men die of famine, their masses perish with thirst.” Like I said, the whole society dies, except a few that go on the exodus, a tithing of the people, as we’ll see in chapter six. Famine and thirst is a lack of bread, a lack of water, which is a covenant curse. It afflicts everybody, the elite in the masses, as we’ll see in other places.

5:14  Sheol becomes ravenous, opening its mouth insatiably; into it descend their elite with the masses, their boisterous ones and revelers.

Sheol is the underworld, spirit prison, or hell. In other words, they perish. They die. “Opening her mouth insatiably; into it descend their elite with the masses, their boisterous ones and revelers.” All the party animals will end up down there. They can party down there, if they want. This is, I guess, where the idea of the gates of hell comes from. It’s the underworld. Now, the word “mouth” is also a metaphor of the Lord’s Servant, but not in this case. In this case, it is of the king of Assyria. He’s also a mouth. The book of Daniel calls the king of the North a mouth speaking great things against the Lord, the Most High. The king of Assyria is a mouth. He’s the mouth of the wicked, mouthing off against God and against God’s people, just like Hitler was mouthing off against the Jews and against God’s people. So, that’s another level on which we can read this. We can read this literally as people going to their death, or about this being a person who is spouting his propaganda against the people of God and against God himself. Chapter thirty seven, verse twenty-three, for example, says, “Whom have you mocked and ridiculed? Against whom have you raised your voice, lifting your eyes to high heaven against the Holy One of Israel. By your servants you have blasphemed the Lord.” He’s stirred up against the Lord. It talks about his snortings and his bellowings. That’s the king of Assyria.

5:15  Mankind is brought low when men debase themselves, causing the eyes of the high-minded to be downcast.

This is the same idea we had earlier, in chapter two, verse nine: “Mankind is brought low when men thus debase themselves, causing the eyes of the high-minded to be downcast.” This is so because the high-minded are people whose minds are pure. Their thoughts are elevated things, and when they see these debasing kinds of things, these horrible corruptions of society they can hardly stand them.

5:16  But the Lord of Hosts will be exalted by a just judgment, the holy God show himself holy by his righteousness.

What does that mean? The Lord is exalted when he delivers his people. He delivered the Israelites out of Egypt; that was an act that exalted him. His people praised him for that. They thanked him. They sang songs of salvation. He became well-known among the nations of the Near East as the God of Israel who did those miracles for his people. That’s how God is exalted. So he’s going to be exalted, now, by bringing on a just judgment as he did then, upon the Egyptians. So he’s going to bring a just judgment upon the wicked at this time. If he’s a just God, then he has to intervene, to deliver the righteous from the wicked, because he’s not going to allow that situation to prevail forever. That would be unfair. There’s a protection clause in his covenant with his people, that when the wicked threaten the righteous, then he intervenes, just as he did in Egypt.

“The holy God shows himself holy,” because he’s an exemplar of holiness. It is the holy who are the elect, the ones who survive the destruction. How does he show himself holy by his righteousness? Because he’s also the exemplar of righteousness. And “righteousness” is also a metaphor describing the Lord’s Servant who exemplifies righteousness. He personifies righteousness. He’s a model of righteousness for people in that particular day with its peculiar challenges. So, when the Lord raises up Righteousness from the east, in chapter forty-one, verse two, and the Lord’s Servant commences his mission, that’s how God shows himself as holy. It shows that God is now intervening in the affairs of people, just as he intervened in the affairs of his people in Egypt when he raised up Moses to deliver them. The wicked, in other words, go to a judgment that is just, without mercy, and the righteous are also judged at that time, with mercy, because they are delivered by the Lord’s Servant, out of the destruction. That is how they are delivered. Chapter one, verse twenty-seven says, “Zion shall be ransomed by justice, those of her who repent, by righteousness.” Because by their righteousness and justice they survived. They were ransomed by Righteousness, the person, as well. And that’s what he does, here.

5:17  Then shall his sheep feed in their pasture, and proselytes eat in the ruins of the affluent.

So, even though that judgment is harsh upon the wicked and destroys them, in fact, for the righteous there will be deliverance. This is a very peaceful scene isn’t it, sheep feeding in their pasture. What more peaceful scene is there than that? Do you know of one? The sheep feeding in the pasture is used by artists and it’s so beautiful. That’s the scene. And in the midst of all of that world-wide destruction there’s this beautiful pastoral scene. That’s what Isaiah’s saying. It will be so different for the elect. “And proselytes eat in the ruins of the affluent,” means that the houses that were left desolate in chapter five, verse nine, and other ruins are rebuilt, later on in the book of Isaiah, by the Servant and those whom he ministers to-- they will re-inherit those places of which the wicked were dispossessed.

5:18  Woe to those drawn to sin by vain attachments, hitched to transgression like a trailer,

I always identify these people with the camper culture that’s out there. They make that into a religion, spending their Sabbath days out there hitched to transgression like a trailer. They carry their trailers behind them. But maybe that’s too limited. “Vain attachments,” is like a fetish or some other form of idolatry that keeps you occupied, or preoccupied with it instead of with the things of God. Instead of with serving people you’ve got your little hobby, and your little thing that you do; it’s your “thing.” It’s taking you away. It’s taking you away from reality.

5:19  who think, Let him quickly speed up his work so we may see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel soon come to pass, and we will know!

In other words, show me a sign. Or, if this is really going to happen, and if we’re really going to get the Second Coming, well, come on, let it happen then. “Let him quickly speed up his work so we may see it! Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel soon come to pass, and we will know!” In other words, prove it, they say. Show us a sign. Obviously, they’re unbelievers and they’re giving the believers a hard time.

5:20  Woe to those who suppose what is evil to be good and what is good, evil! They put darkness for light and light for darkness; they make bitterness sweet and the sweet bitter.

And good and evil, like I mentioned earlier, are covenant terms. So, what is evil is covenant breaking, and they suppose that to be good. They’re breaking the laws of God in all the ways that you can do that. And what is good, which is covenant-keeping, or loyalty to the covenant with the Lord, they suppose to be evil. They kind of have their values turned upside down, but they don’t know it. “ They put darkness for light and light for darkness,” and like I’ve said we’ve talked about the light of the gospel. The Lord’s law and precepts are a light to the nations. So we could say that they think that that is darkness. That is darkness to them. And what is darkness, to us, that’s their light. So their getting a different standard of values, all turned around. But it seems to be more deliberate, here, isn’t it? It seems like more of a choice, rather than just happenstance. Light and darkness are also metaphors for the Lord’s Servant, and for the king of Assyria, or for the Lord himself who’s the light. The king of Assyria personifies darkness, and not just him, but his philosophies, as well. He has a false philosophy or ideology that he promotes. Some people accept that ideology and that person, and to them those things are good and light. The Lord’s Servant is a light. So some, in effect, would be rejecting the true Messiah, or the temporal Messiah, and saying that the antichrist is the Messiah. And I guess that’s why he would be called the antichrist in the scriptures, because he’s the opposite of what Christ is. This would be like some choosing Satan, before Christ himself. “They make bitterness sweet and the sweet bitter.”

5:21  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own view!

And that verse is probably no accident that it follows verse twenty, where people’s values are overturned. And it alludes to pride, doesn’t it? Later one we’ll see how the wisdom and the learning of the wise and prideful gets overturned. Now, they’re into some kind of conceited mindset. No doubt, they let that be felt and known around them, and subject other people to that.

5:22  Woe to those who are valiant at drinking wine and champions at mixing liquor!

They should be valiant in covenant-keeping. Like I said, the Lord himself is called The Valiant One of Israel. And there are those who are valiant, that are mentioned in the book of Isaiah. But these are not valiant, in that sense, at all, but in the opposite sense: “drinking wine and champions at mixing liquor.” Champions, usually, in this milieu, alludes to war heroes, people who are champions at fighting wars or defending their nation.

5:23  Woe to those who acquit the guilty for a bribe but deny justice to the innocent!

This alludes to judges who take gifts or rewards or whatever you want to call the bribes, who don’t pass a proper sentence.

5:24  As a blazing fire consumes stubble, and as dry weeds wane before the flame, so shall their roots decay away and their blossoms fly up like dust. For they have despised the law of the Lord of Hosts and reviled the words of the Holy One of Israel.

So, they’re all burnt up in the fire. Again, Sodom and Gomorrah type of fire. It identifies the them as dry weeds. Weeds, in this derogatory sense, are non-productive. They’re a nuisance, something that you would weed out. Here, people are likened unto these weeds that are weeded out. You have to weed them out and throw them on the fire. The roots and blossoms, on the other hand, have an even deeper connotation. Because roots have the connotation of ancestry, and blossoms have the connotation of descendants. So these are left without ancestry that they can claim as their own, or without descendants-- which is a covenant curse. Whereas, the elect have roots and blossoms and fruit, right? They have ancestors. They have descendants, offspring. Decay, rot, and dust, terms we saw earlier, are chaos motifs. So, the wicked go back to their elemental state, becoming a non-entity, or non-entities. They’re reduced to the dust. And then, by way of summing up, or giving reason: “For they have despised the law of the Lord of Hosts and reviled the words of the Holy One of Israel.” So there’s no justice and no righteousness there. The law of the Lord of Hosts, and the words of the Holy One of Israel spell out the terms of the covenant, and show that they have not kept covenant. They have not only despised it, but reviled against it. So they have made themselves enemies of the Lord and his covenant. Who would they revile against if not those who are keeping the terms of the covenant. Right? They don’t just sit at home in a corner, reviling against God, do they? How do they revile against the Lord and his covenant? If somebody tries to help them then they revile. So they subject those people to persecution. That’s how they revile.

5:25  Therefore the anger of the Lord is kindled against his people: he draws back his hand against them and strikes them; the mountains quake, and their corpses lie like litter about the streets. Yet for all this his anger is not abated; his hand is upraised still.

On a literal level the Lord is angry with his people, yes. But he’s is not an angry, vengeful God. That’s not his nature. We think when we read the Old Testament that the God of the Old Testament is a vengeful, angry God who’s always wanting to smite and punish people. Is that true? He did a lot of that in the Old Testament. But that was because the people kept aborting their destiny. They kind of kept forfeiting their calling. They kept breaking the covenant and getting themselves into big messes. Only occasionally they did not. Under the rule of king David they did not, and under king Hezekiah. In a few instances they did not, when things went well for them. God is not an angry God. He’s a long-suffering and loving God. Then why does it say the anger of the Lord of Hosts is kindled against his people? Is there a righteous anger? When Christ cleansed the temple in Jerusalem and cast out the moneychangers who were buying and selling there, within the courts of the temple, was that righteous indignation? It was. There is room for that. But the word, anger, is also another metaphor, a pseudonym of the king of Assyria who personifies God’s anger. Chapter ten, verse five says, “Hail the Assyrian, the rod of my anger. He is a staff, my wrath in their hand.” He personifies God’s anger and wrath. So, when it says the anger of the Lord is kindled against his people—that is, against his wicked people-- it means that the king of Assyria is all stirred up against them, on that metaphorical level. He’s all het up. It is literal. It is always literal, first.

But, on a metaphorical level there is that connotation. And you’ll always see that, and you’ve always seen that throughout history that the enemies of the Lord’s people are some of the most virulent types the earth has ever seen. And Hitler is a good example. He was always mouthing off. He was always angry in those great speeches. And everyone saluted him and all those things. Did you notice the venom in that person? And you’ll see that again with this modern king of Assyria, whoever he is. You’ll see that will be a constant trait of his all the way through his speeches, and through his actions. There will be this anger, as a venom against God and his people. He draws back his hand against them and strikes them. That is, the Lord does. The Lord draws back his hand, the king of Assyria, the left hand of punishment. The king of Assyria is an instrument in the Lord’s hand, or Is the Lord’s hand, to punish the wicked. He is the wicked destroying the wicked, or punishing the wicked.

“The mountains quake, and their corpses lie like litter about the streets.” Yes, there’ll be mountainous quakes, earthquakes that will cause death. But also the word mountains is a metaphor for nations, as we will see in chapter thirteen, for example, and in chapter sixty-four. It’s a synonymous parallel with “nations.” So we could say that the nations quake. And their corpses like litter about the streets. Litter is like refuse. It’s a chaos motif, where the people are reduced to chaos, by the king of Assyria.

In chapter fourteen, in talking about the king of Assyria, or rather, the king of Babylon which is the same individual-- King of Babylon is a religious title which Assyrian kings, or conquerors of Babylon anciently applied to themselves.--it says in chapter fourteen, verse sixteen: “Is this the man who made the earth shake and kingdoms quake, who turned the world into a wilderness, demolishing its cities?” That’s what he does. And those are word links to him. Anger, the hand, quaking of the mountains—those are all word links to the king of Assyria. In other words he causes mass destruction. “Yet for all this his anger is not abated; his hand is upraised still. There’s that refrain that I talked about, that we see here in chapter nine and ten. The anger of the Lord of Hosts Is the king of Assyria. And it’s not abated all at once. The king of Assyria does his work and it doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s enduring, until the work is done. “Hail the Assyrian, the rod of my anger. He’s a staff, my wrath is their hand,” chapter ten, verses six again. Hand and anger, here are in a synonymous type of parallel. “His hand is upraised still,” ready to smite a second time, a third time, a fourth time.

5:26  He raises an ensign to distant nations and summons them from beyond the horizon. Forthwith they come, swiftly and speedily.

Here, the raising of the ensign is parallel with the raising of the hand at end of verse twenty-five. Both are raised, because he is also the ensign. He’s the ensign that rallies an alliance of wicked nations “from beyond the horizon,” to assist him in conquering the world. We see that also, in chapter thirteen: “Raise the ensign on a barren mountain. Sound the voice among them.” Chapter thirteen, verse two: “Beckon them with the hand to advance into the precincts of the elite.” And then in verse four it talks about a vast multitude of nations assembling: “The Lord of Hosts is marshaling an army for war. They come from a distant land beyond the horizon, the Lord and the instruments of his wrath to cause destruction throughout the earth. Lament, for the day of the Lord is near.”

So, those are word links. “The ensign, to distant nations”--that’s the king of Assyria. The Lord raises him, and he serves as an ensign to rally them into this one big alliance that will do this work of destruction. “He summons them from beyond the horizon.” Anciently, those were always the Assyrians or the Babylonians, that came from Mesopotamia into the Promised Land to do this kind of destruction, the Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors. In a latter-day context, it will still be from beyond the horizon, wherever that may be. “Forthwith they come, swiftly and speedily.” So, once they get their act together, it happens quickly. And it’s a prolonged destruction, as we’ll see.

5:27  Not one of them grows weary, nor does any stumble; they do not drowse or fall asleep. Their waist-belts come not loose nor their sandal thongs undone.

Why does it say all these negative things? They don’t do this, they don’t do that. Because, when we analyze each of these terms, or each of these descriptions, we understand that Israel exhibits the opposite of the description of the enemy, here. It is Israel that grows weary. It is Israel that stumbles, drowses and falls asleep. Israel’s waist belt is loose and their sandal thongs are undone. So, a disciplined army comes at a time when the Lord’s people are undisciplined. When the Lord’s people have fallen asleep, and are in a state of corruption they are easy game for any invaders.

5:28  Their arrows are sharp; all their bows are strung. The tread of their warhorses resembles flint; their chariot wheels revolve like a whirlwind.

This is a very powerful army of people. Not a friendly proposition, at all. This has a very negative connotation all the way through, here. All through this chapter, in fact.

5:29  They have the roar of a lion; they are aroused like young lions: growling, they seize the prey, and escape, and none comes to the rescue.

It’s like no one puts out the fire, or the same idea. To be consumed by wild animals is a covenant curse. That’s the connotation here. The connotation of covenant curse is all the way through here, to be invaded by enemies “from beyond the horizon,” which was from Mesopotamia, anciently. They were a militaristic world power from the north that came in and invaded the Promised Land, anciently, and they will be today. And while they’re so militaristic, the Lord’s people will be in a state of corruption, and half-asleep. The righteous, actually, go out on an exodus; these are not the elect that will be suffering these things.

5:30  He shall be stirred up against them in that day, even as the Sea is stirred up. And should one look to the land, there too shall be a distressing gloom, for the daylight shall be darkened by an overhanging mist.

In that day is the day of judgment. “Stirred up,” again identifies the king of Assyria. It’s a word link to the king of Assyria. In chapter thirty-seven, for example, verse twenty-eight, it says, “I know where you dwell, and your comings and goings and how stirred up you are against me.” Here , the Lord is addressing the king of Assyria, directly. He’s stirred up against the Lord and against the Lord’s people, “even as the Sea is stirred up.”

The book of Isaiah calls him by the names, “sea” and “river,” which were ancient, near-eastern powers of chaos, in the Canaanite myth of Baal and Anath. Sea and River were the two names of the power of chaos, or a false god-- The Sea in commotion, or the River in flood.
All the way through the book of Isaiah, Isaiah identifies Flood imagery with the king of Assyria. He’s the new flood that floods over the earth. His armies, as they conquer the earth, are like a new flood that flood over the everything and destroy by fire and by the sword. The new flood, in other words, is a flood of fire that the king of Assyria launches.

“And should one look to the land, there too shall be a distressing gloom, for the daylight shall be darkened by an overhanging mist.” So, people try to escape from this king of Assyria, he’s so stirred up against the Lord’s people. If you don’t go on the exodus, you’ll try to run from the cities to escape destruction there, to the countryside. Will that work? Perhaps, but there, too, will be calamity. This last part of chapter five is very similar to the last part of chapter eight, verse twenty-two. It says, “they will look to the land but there shall be a depressing scene of anguish and gloom and thus they are banished into outer darkness.” These are the equivalent of the five foolish virgins, in other words. They were the people of God. The five wise were preserved by the Lord’s intervention. But the five foolish remained in outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And that is a covenant curse for these individuals. They will survive. Otherwise it wouldn’t call them virgins. They were just those of the Lord’s people who were not valiant. They’re not the elect. But they will have to live through that time of distressing gloom and darkness that the king of Assyria causes. He personifies darkness. If he caused that kind of world-wide destruction there would be a pall of darkness over the whole earth, and the sun, moon, and stars would not be visible, as it says in Isaiah, chapter thirteen. It says “the stars and constellations of the heavens will not shine. When the sun rises it shall be obscured.