August 19, 2009
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Fig tree question, Isaiah 5 by Pastor Don
Bible study from 7/31/09 on Isaiah
The Day of the Lord is when God breathes out His vengeance on those who hate him.
There was a question about a previous study about the fig tree that Jesus cursed – we had ascertained that the fig tree represented the nation Israel, and the question was that if Jesus cursed the root of the fig tree then does that mean the nation Israel died then? Could it revive?
Pastor Don spoke in reply about the will of God. The sovereign will of God states it and it is. We want to obey the will of God, the sovereign will of God, but God gives us the authority and permits certain things, possibilities, and if we get outside of the perfect will of God there are conditions that will be faced. The determinate will of God is based on what you received or rejected from Him.
Sovereign – do what you do, not change
Covenant – relationship with Him
Determinate – response to what is determined. We will to do.The fig was a response to what Israel chose to do, they had the covenant relationship with God and stepped outside the covenant, rejecting God. If you choose to enter in a covenant, and then reject that covenant you will be destroyed.
The nation was in a covenant relationship with God, but they moved to reject God’s covenant, and the sociopolitical establishment at that time was what rejected God’s covenant. No one can declare themselves the High Priest of God, that was established for the nation of Israel and the descendants of Aaron.
In Ezekiel, God asks Ezekiel if those dead bones can arise, and Ezekiel told God that only God knew that. God will not raise Caiaphas up and put him back in power. In the Bible there were over 600 prophesies that Jesus fulfilled and the priests at that time knew it. When they looked for Jesus they were aware of the signs and wonders, and the proof from the testings that they gave Him, and they chose to ignore the truth of who Jesus was.
Jesus said in effect in his three year ministry, as the parable states, let me dig around the roots, fertilize them and see if the tree bears fruit. They looked and saw and rejected Jesus. Symbolically Jesus goes to the fig tree, sees it produces no fruit, and curses it. There were some on the high court of Israel that were different – Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.
The prophets predicted 173,880 days and that was the Palm Sunday to the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem. But though these priests and Levites had a form of tradition and religion their hearts were far from God.
God is looking for a heart response from man, not a tradition. So these people became a people blinded to the truth. People’s minds are like concrete, thoroughly stirred and well set.
God did keep His promise to Abraham, and there was a remnant that was preserved and there will still be a remnant preserved. And because Israel rejected Jesus, it gave us a chance to come to Him. But God will not go back on His Word. God places His Word above Himself, and Israel will be preserved, at least a remnant of the people.
We then looked at Isaiah 5 briefly.
Isaiah 5:1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: my Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
People of God, we are the Lord’s vineyard.
Isaiah 5:2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it; so He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.
If there were good grapes the people would be blessed. We look at what is happening in our country as our leadership produces wild grapes, so many of the disasters that occurred would not have happened had we blessed God. God is over our land, but He does not have to bless disobedience and rebelion. When bad things happen – things insurance companies call “acts of God”, terrorism etc, people ask where was God? The truth is that God was on the bench that people put Him on, for they were producing wild grapes and rebelion.
Isaiah 5:3-5 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
It is God’s vineyard. He permits us to live in it. But if we disobey Him and rebel, He will take away our protection, our hedge of protection. We may feel that God should protect us, even when we are in rebelion, but that is not the case.
Isaiah 5:6-9 I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. 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 for help. Woe to those who join house to house; they add field to field, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land! In my hearing the LORD of hosts said, “Truly, many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.”
Here it plainly states that Israel is the vineyard, and that this vineyard because of rebelion, injustice, and oppression the nation will be desolate.
Isaiah 5:10-12 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield one ephah. Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink; who continue until night, till wine inflames them! The harp and the strings, the tamborine and flute, and wine are in their feasts; but they do not regard the work of the LORD, nor consider the operation of His hands.
Wine is ok, drunkenness is the problem. The people came to God’s feasts to get drunk and party, not to consider God and His provision.
Isaiah 5:13-14 Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.
Sheol is another word for hell. Sheol was not supposed to be so large, it was only supposed to be for the fallen angels, but because of the sins of the multitude, God enlarged Sheol to accommodate them.
Isaiah 5:15-16 People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
Judgment
Isaiah 5:17-18 Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, and in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat. Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if with a cart rope;
We sin, and in our vanity and pride think we can protect, support and provide for someone else.
Isaiah 5:19-20 That say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it.” Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man! Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust; because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
