A Vision of God (Morning)
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Isaiah chapters five and six. We're continuing our study through the prophets. We finished Ezekiel a couple of weeks ago, introduced Isaiah last week. I love country music, believe it or not. Not modern country.
Joel Brooks:Not that I have a problem with that other than it's just terrible. I love the old country. You know, the the highwayman, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings. That's the songs that I grew up listening to. My my dad loved that music and I, whenever I hear, you know, like Lukenbach, Texas, Texas, I'm in the backseat of the car with my dad driving.
Joel Brooks:Also, I love that country music because I once shook Willie Willie Nelson's hand and I thought about not washing it but it had kind of a skunkish smell that needed to come off. And so I I love country songs because they tell a story. Usually, it's a sad story about broken relationships or somebody breaking the law but these stories serve as tales of caution. The listeners supposed to listen to the the tragedy and perhaps make better decisions in their life And Isaiah wrote for us a country song just like that in chapter five. Yeah, it is a song.
Joel Brooks:He likely even sung it. And it's a sad country song. Literally filled with both tears and beers. As you will see when we read through it. And he sang it in hopes that Israel would listen and perhaps change their ways.
Joel Brooks:Now, we're also going to read chapter six later but what I want us to first do is for us to just hear this song. Let me sing for my beloved, my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a vine or wine vat in it.
Joel Brooks:And he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, oh, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done it in it? When I look for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
Joel Brooks:I will remove its hedge and it shall be devoured. I will break down its wall and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste. It shall not be pruned or hoed and briars and thorns shall grow up. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
Joel Brooks:For the vineyard of the lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting And he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed. For righteousness, but behold an outcry. Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field until there is no more room and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing, surely many houses shall be desolate. Large and beautiful houses without inhabitant.
Joel Brooks:For 10 acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath and a homer of seed shall yield but an ethic. Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them. They have lyre and harp and tambourine and flute and wine at their feast, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord or see the works of His hands. This is the word of the Lord. You will pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Father, as we we always hope and pray, would you be so kind that you would take the words that we just read and through your spirit, you would write them on our hearts. You would open up maybe some dull minds and and hardened hearts and plant the seed of your word deep in there. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away. And Lord, your words would remain and they would change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. A couple of summers ago, Lauren and I, we got to go out to visit the wine country in Northern California. And like everyone else who has ever done this, we came back wine experts. I mean, I I can actually tell you now the difference between red and white wine. Although actually, I I cannot tell you really anything about, you know, the the tannins or if there's a hint or note of cherry in it or anything like that.
Joel Brooks:I did come back with an appreciation of everything that's involved in making wine. We got to, you know, visit a number of these vineyards and the people who own those vineyards, they talked about the grapes like they were their own children and they probably spent more time with them than their own children. They were passionate about their vineyards. They spared no expense in taking care of them And that's exactly what we see here in this this love song. It's about a man in his vineyard.
Joel Brooks:The the owner of this vineyard, he loves this vineyard like it's one of his children. And yet despite all of his labor, for some reason, the vines of this vineyard only produced wild grapes. And that word wild can be translated useless, worthless, bitter, or we might just say sour grapes. Now the owners puzzled as to how this could have actually happened. I mean, did everything he was supposed to do.
Joel Brooks:He even went above and beyond what he was supposed to do. He cleared the fields of every stone. He brought in only the the choicest, best vines to plant. He even constructed watch towers to protect the vineyard. In verse four, he actually pleads his case to those who are around him.
Joel Brooks:He says, what what more could I have done? Is there anything? And the answer is nothing. You did absolutely everything you could. The fault is not with the owner.
Joel Brooks:Now because this vineyard is now worthless, the owner says, well, he's gonna cut his losses by cutting it all down. I mean, why keep laboring over something, pouring in money into something that's never gonna bear good fruit. Now, sometimes when you hear a song that's about a car or maybe about a train or a road, it's really not about a car, a train, or a road. These things are just symbols. And it's the same here in this song, the vineyard is not a vineyard, the owner is someone else.
Joel Brooks:Verse seven, we read that the vineyard is actually Israel and that the lord is actually the owner. And so here the the lord is asking the question, what more could I have done for you, Israel? What more? I mean, think of it from one man, Abraham, he he grew them into a mighty nation And then he brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey. He has blessed them beyond measure.
Joel Brooks:And as a result, God expected them to be a blessing. He blessed them in order to be a blessing, in order for them to bear fruit. They were to be a light to the nations. He tells them in verse seven, the fruit he did expect, I expected justice from you and righteousness. But instead he says he only found bloodshed in the outcry of those being oppressed.
Joel Brooks:It's a great song, isn't it? Granted it's a little bit better in Hebrew, at least it rhymes in Hebrew. It's a depressing song. I'd actually love to hear Johnny Cash sing it. I mean, can't you just picture like he listened to his deep bass, that last line there?
Joel Brooks:He looked for justice but only bloodshed. I mean, it's just I we need cash singing this to us. But we haven't even come to the worst part. The bridge is yet to come. The bridge is full of woes.
Joel Brooks:Isaiah now gives the people of Israel Six woes concerning six different ways the Israelites are producing sour grapes. We're not going to have time to go through every woe but I do want to point out a couple of them. The first woe is found in verse eight. Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field until there is no more room and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. The lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing.
Joel Brooks:Surely, many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses without inhabitant. That word woe there is the same word that Isaiah introduced to us back in the first chapter. The one that means ah or alas. It's a word of both anger and sorrow. Outside of the prophets, it's only used at funerals.
Joel Brooks:And so there there is anger here, but it's it's also a lament. The source of this woe is that there were some in Israel who were buying up their neighbor's property, their neighbor's homes, all in order to have larger property, larger homes. And you might be asking what's what's wrong with that? I mean, don't we see this? It happens all of the time here in Birmingham.
Joel Brooks:And it's hard for me to picture, you know, Isaiah out in somebody's front lawn going, woe to you, you know, as as they're doing that. Doing that doesn't have to be wrong at all. It depends on why and it depends on how you were doing this. The problem here is that these people were going through all of their house renovations and their land purchases. They were doing it all at the expense of their community.
Joel Brooks:They're not just buying the adjacent homes. They're pushing the people of Israel out of their inheritance. You gotta remember that when the Lord brought Israel into the promised land, He did not just divide up the land among the tribes, you read that He actually gave a portion of the land to every single family. That was going to be their inheritance. And and when he gave that land to their to these families and said, this land is to never be sold and must never be taken from them.
Joel Brooks:It was a way of ensuring that every generation after them would have a portion of the promised land. So the problem here was that these wealthy people were coming in and they were pushing the poor people out of their God given inheritance. All in order to have a larger home. And they didn't just push people out. They were pushing people away.
Joel Brooks:They they were using their wealth to actually put distance between themselves and the rest of the community that the lord had given them. And this is not what the lord wanted his people to do with their wealth. I almost shared this last week when we were talking about justice but we see how the lord wants us to use our our wealth one place in Deuteronomy 24 in which god is giving his people instructions as they go into the the promised land, this land flowing with milk and honey. He tells them how he wants them to go about their work and to use their land and to enjoy the gifts that he's giving them And he says this, he says, when you go in there, remember you are a community. Remember, he he lists three groups.
Joel Brooks:Keep in mind the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow as you go about your business. He gave them specific instructions about how they were to harvest a field, and he said they were to intentionally leave sheaves behind so that the poor could come and get some. He said if you have olive trees, only beat them once. Don't go back and beat them a second time, let the poor do that. He said, if you have a vineyard, go and just do one pass at getting the grapes.
Joel Brooks:Don't do it again. Leave the rest of the grapes for the poor. Remember that ultimately all these things are mine and that you're part of a community. In other words, what the Lord is saying here is, hey, I am giving you an abundant land. I'm giving you things for you to enjoy, things for you to earn a living from.
Joel Brooks:But just remember that you're part of the people of God, that these things are not entirely yours. Your goal must never be to just try and to maximize your profits, try to fully realize 100% of your earning potential. That's not the goal. I know you could probably make 20 to 25% more if you beat that olive tree a second time. Don't do it.
Joel Brooks:Leave some money on the table for those in your community. In other words, he's saying, don't squeeze them out. To do so is unjust. Here in Isaiah five, the the wealthy are squeezing others out. They have this scarcity mentality actually that they just need to hoard.
Joel Brooks:They don't. God's been abundant. They don't have to have that scarcity mentality. They can leave stuff on the table. They can give it out.
Joel Brooks:The next woe that the lord gives is in verse 11. Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening, evenings as wine inflames them. They have lyre and harp, tambourine, and flute, and wine at their feast, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord or see the works or work of his hands. I don't think the primary concern here for Isaiah is that these people are drinking too much. Although they were and and that is a sin.
Joel Brooks:I think what he's doing here is describing a people who were entertaining themselves to death. From the moment they wake up, they're bored. From the moment they wake up to to late in the evening, they just spend their time looking for the next distraction to deal with their dull, meaningless lives. And let's admit it, you know, all of us all of us do that at times, don't we? Move from distraction to distraction.
Joel Brooks:These people here, they're they're so bored. They spend all of their time looking for the next party, for the next con for season two to finally come out on Netflix, whatever it is. They're they're looking for the distraction. Compare that. It's Isaiah says, that's what they're looking for, what they don't see is the work of the lord.
Joel Brooks:They see those things but they don't see how the lord is actually working all around them and they're not asking how can we be a part of that? We don't have time to go through all the other woes In verse 20, Isaiah, he does go on to mention that these people here, they call good, evil, and evil good. He also says that they consider themselves to be wise in their own eyes. In other words, these people have become really good at rationalizing their sin. Really good at it.
Joel Brooks:Are aren't we all really good at that? I mean, we're so good at justifying things that the Bible calls unjust. We can call our lack of generosity. Just say, no, we're just we're just saving for a rainy day. We can call our lust.
Joel Brooks:No, that's just a little harmless fun. We can buy every luxury item around us and we call those things essentials. And we could call our sustained isolation from community as, you know, that's just me enjoying some me time. There's endless ways that we could go about just rationalizing our sin, calling evil good. So, those are the woes that Isaiah gives us.
Joel Brooks:He actually ends his sad country song with lyrics about how black clouds they're moving in and they're beginning to block out the sun that once shown on the promised land. And you can hear Cash singing it, can't you? Behold darkness and distress, light darkened by the clouds. As I was studying this chapter, I kept thinking, man, this is just sad, sad country song. It's just sad.
Joel Brooks:I mean, sad existence. Who would wanna live this way? And I began to ask the question, what do these people need in this moment? What do they need to change? What could possibly happen to just snap them out of this?
Joel Brooks:I mean, it's almost like they need to be slapped. I mean, it it's hard for somebody who who thinks they're actually doing the right thing, that they're wise in their own eyes, who've rationalized every sin. It's hard to snap them out of that and get them to see things a different way. And so I actually began to write down what these people need, what I imagined they needed. I wrote down three things.
Joel Brooks:I said, you know, these people, they need a fresh vision of a God who is in no way boring. Second, they need to become aware that they are full of sin. And three, they need to be given something meaningful to do. They need to be given a mission. And lo and behold, that's exactly what is given to Isaiah in chapter six.
Joel Brooks:Let's read chapter six. And the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the Seraphim, each had six wings. With two, he covered his face and with two, he covered his feet and with two, he flew. And one called to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the lord of hosts.
Joel Brooks:The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the lord of hosts. And one of the Seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
Joel Brooks:And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here I am, send me. Now, I've preached on this text many times over the years.
Joel Brooks:I've actually never preached on it in light of Isaiah five. You actually see it in a in a in a different light. Here we see it's it's the year that Uzziah died. He ate his his reign lasted fifty two years. So you have to go back to the Nixon administration.
Joel Brooks:He had brought in a time of enormous peace and prosperity. Everything was really good. Down Jones is up. People's portfolios are booming. Then he dies and now everybody's wondering what's going happen.
Joel Brooks:And so, Isaiah, he goes to church and he actually has an encounter with the lord. Who knew you can have an encounter with the lord at church? He has this vision of the lord sitting high up on a throne. The train of his robe filling the temple like filling every area. That word for glory when it says the the glory that's over all the earth.
Joel Brooks:Literally in Hebrew means heavy. And as this glorious filling the room, Isaiah is kinda feeling like he's he's being crushed. The word train there, the train fills the room. It's actually just the Hebrew word for hem of a garment. That's how big the Lord was.
Joel Brooks:Just the hem of his garment fills it all. It makes you wonder just how large the one sitting on the throne was. I noticed that Isaiah doesn't even attempt to describe the one on the throne. He can't. Words fail him.
Joel Brooks:So Isaiah sticks to what he can describe which are all those creatures around the throne. These Seraphim. Seraph meaning fiery. These are fiery, burning, winged creatures and they're fluttering all around. We we don't know how many there are.
Joel Brooks:In Revelation five, when John has a vision of the throne, he says there's millions of them around the throne. They're calling out to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. We read also in Revelation that they say this night and day and they never ever stop. What are what does it mean to be holy though?
Joel Brooks:What exactly are they ascribing to God? And they don't just say He's holy, they say He is holy, holy, holy. If he if the Hebrews wanted to emphasize something, they would say it twice. So when you read through your bibles and you come across something that says it's pure gold, it's actually in Hebrew, it's gold gold. Here to repeat something three times, which no other attribute of God is described in this three peat manner, that says you're supreme.
Joel Brooks:He is supreme alone in his holiness. But once again, what does it mean? For most of us, the word holy, we tend to think of it as meaning he's sinless or he's perfect and of course, that is part of what it means. But the Seraphim here, they're certainly sinless, but they're still covering their eyes. They can't gaze on something so holy.
Joel Brooks:The Hebrew word for holy, it's Kedosh and it means at its core other. Other. Now when something is so radically different from you or anything else that you you know of, it doesn't fit into any class that you know of, and there's just no words you can really use to describe it, then it's other, it's holy. And God here, he's not just other, he's other, other, other. Isaiah later is going to say, to whom will you like in God?
Joel Brooks:Or what likeness will compare with him? Nothing. He fits into no class. That's why he actually gives his name Yahweh is I am. He simply is.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't say I am power. He doesn't say I am kindness. He doesn't say any of those things because that would put him in a category. He just simply is. He is altogether other.
Joel Brooks:He is supremely other and there's no other beauty, no other power, no other wealth, no other pleasure that in any way compares to him. So they keep saying this back and forth going on and on. Let me ask you a question. Do you think these Seraphim are bored? Do do you think they're bored as they have to continue to do this?
Joel Brooks:Do you think that maybe after doing this? I don't know. For an hour, week, month. At some point, they started pulling out their iPhones looking, wondering how long do I have to keep doing this? Do you think they were longing for a break?
Joel Brooks:Maybe where they could just, just for a moment, can I just can I just leave this place? Maybe just lay on the couch, veg a little bit? I mean, we get bored, don't we? When we do the same things over and over, when we see the same things again and again, have the same experiences over and over. What about these angels?
Joel Brooks:These angels are not born. They're this moment something so thrilling, something so utterly and indescribable, beautiful. You couldn't pull them away with a thousand horses. There's there's nothing you could do to drag them away from this site. They they they can't help themselves as they were just saying over and over to one another.
Joel Brooks:Have you ever seen anything like this? There is absolutely nothing like this. There's absolutely nothing like this. There's absolutely nothing like this. The scene here is one of indescribable joyful wonder that we can't even imagine.
Joel Brooks:Once again, Isaiah, he can't even describe it. He can only behold it. But there is enormous joy here as they look on the lord and his beauty. I mean, you you go to the ocean, you see a sunset or go to the Grand Canyon or whatever it is. If you're with a with a friend next to you, you try not saying, isn't that beautiful?
Joel Brooks:You can't help it. The saying it completes your joy. I mean, I love it. You know, I'd say this to my kids all the time. We go to the mountains.
Joel Brooks:I'm like, do you see those mountains? Like, dad, they're right in front of us. It's kind of hard and miss. But I'm not saying it for her benefit, I'm saying it for mine. Look at those mountains.
Joel Brooks:Can you look at them? That's what they're doing. They're completing one another's joy. Can can you see that? Nothing's like him.
Joel Brooks:Nothing's like him. Nothing is like him. So let me just ask a question. Are you bored? Church boring to you?
Joel Brooks:Bible boring to you? Or are you like those people in chapter five who spend their life moving from one distraction to the next distraction just hoping to see something different? If so, I would encourage you, ask the spirit of God to open up the eyes of your heart that you might behold him as holy. Ask him to give you a vision of his holiness. Now as Isaiah is having this vision, things begin to shake.
Joel Brooks:Now the threshold of the temple actually begins to fall apart, and Isaiah begins to feel like he's falling apart. He cries out, woe is me. I am lost or I am undone or I'm falling apart. Now this is the turning point in Isaiah's life right here. Because up to this point, what has Isaiah been doing?
Joel Brooks:He's been dishing out the woes on all the other people. They're the problem. The the problem with the world is their sin, their selfishness, their idolatry, their neglect of the poor, their empty worship, but now he doesn't cry out, woe is them, he cries out, woe is me. There's been six woes this point up to in Isaiah. He reserves the seventh for himself.
Joel Brooks:Because when god walks into the room, he realizes he is just as guilty as everyone else. Even though Isaiah is a prophet, he speaks for a living about God. He realizes his lips are unclean, and he stands condemned before such a holy God. There's a temptation for all of us to to look at other people as the problem. They're the ones who need to repent.
Joel Brooks:They're the ones who need to ask for forgiveness. They're the ones who need to be listening to the sermon. How many times have you thought that? I hope so and so is listening to this sermon. But the truth is we are the problem.
Joel Brooks:It's us. I mean, sure, we might look decent enough when we compare ourselves to other people but what about when god walks into the room? When god walks into the room, all of us are exposed as frauds. All of our rationalizations and justifications for our sins that once were so wise in our own eyes, those things just fall away. And our only thing we can say is, woe is me.
Joel Brooks:I am a sinner. Isaiah here is so convinced of his destruction. Notice, he doesn't even ask for deliverance. He doesn't even ask for forgiveness. He knows he's doomed.
Joel Brooks:But he doesn't know just how loving and forgiving the lord is. The lord so merciful. He provides forgiveness. He doesn't hear through this image of of one of those Seraphim getting a burning coal from the altar and touching Isaiah's lips with it. The the Seraphim doesn't have to use a tong because the coal is so hot.
Joel Brooks:Remember, they're the fiery ones. They can take the heat, but this coal is so holy. They can't touch it. And they take that holy coal, and they just touch the lips of Isaiah with it and his sins are atoned for. Now we all know that a burning coal can't actually do this.
Joel Brooks:This is an image. This coal is a image of the future atoning work of Jesus on the cross. Notice that this coal, it comes from the altar. The altar where the sacrifice of atonement would have been made. Jesus is that sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:Think back to that song that we Isaiah started us off with back in chapter five. In verse four, he he raised up this one question, this lyric. It was, what more was there to be done for my vineyard that I have not done? And of course, everybody around is like, you did everything. You did everything.
Joel Brooks:There's nothing more you could have done. But the truth is the lord did do one more thing. What he decided to do, he thought since these grapes here, since these vines here only produce sour grapes, I'm just going to come down down to this world and become divine. I'm going to be the vine and everyone attached to me will bear fruit. That's what he does.
Joel Brooks:I remember the vine represented Israel as a nation. It represented the Jewish people. So God came down to this world as a Jewish man. Israel was supposed to bless the world. They were supposed to be a light to the nations.
Joel Brooks:They failed, but Jesus didn't. He fulfilled his calling. And in John 15, he actually said these words, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Now, he obviously has this song in Isaiah in mind. He's fulfilling Isaiah's calling, his true calling.
Joel Brooks:Jesus goes on to say to his disciples after he says, he is the true vine and his father is the vine dresser. He says, I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. You can do absolutely nothing.
Joel Brooks:So here we see Jesus is the one who atones for our sins. Isaiah only felt like he was being crushed by god's holiness. Jesus was crushed on the cross. Isaiah only felt like he was coming undone. Jesus, he was undone.
Joel Brooks:We also see that Jesus is the vine, the one who gives us new life. And now through his spirit, we can actually bear fruit and we can live a life that's pleasing to God. And because of all of that, Isaiah, now he can move from saying, woe is me to now saying, lord, send me. Send me. He's now given a mission and he's empowered to do it.
Joel Brooks:After the lord atones for Isaiah's sins, he asked the question, whom shall I send? Whom shall go for us? Now, before giving Isaiah too much credit for saying, here I am, send me. Remember, he's the only one in the room. I may have been a little awkward if he was just quiet in this moment It's it's a question directed towards him and so he he does step up and he says, me, here I am.
Joel Brooks:Send me. And the Lord does. Hear me, if you want to be the type of person that the Lord uses to change this world, He only has one requirement. And it's not your strength that that you're stronger than people around you or smarter or wealthier or that, you know, you're just a go getter. That's not it.
Joel Brooks:His one requirement is this. You know you're a sinner who's been forgiven by the grace of God. You know that it's not your works that save you, but it's what God has done for you. So if you realize your sinfulness and that you were saved by grace, that's the type of person that the Lord uses. The start of this book, Isaiah said he'd give us a vision.
Joel Brooks:He said, I'm going give you a new way of seeing life, a new way of doing things. Well, here it is. He's asking us to abide in Jesus because he's saying apart from him, you can do absolutely nothing. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, you are the vine.
Joel Brooks:We are the branches. Apart from you, We can't bear fruit. We can accomplish absolutely nothing. We can try. We keep spinning our wheels.
Joel Brooks:We can keep working as hard as we can. But the fruit we bear is useless. So Jesus, I pray that through your spirit, you would tell us to run to you, to attach ourselves to you. Thank you for coming to this world, Jesus, and atoning for our sins, for giving us your spirit, for showing us who God is, for giving us a mission. And we pray this in the name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
