Chapter 5
The state and conduct of the Jewish nation. (Is. 5:1-7) The judgments which would come. (Is.
5:8-23) The executioners of these judgments. (Is. 5:24-30)
Is. 5:1-7 Christ is God's beloved Son, and our beloved Saviour. The care of the Lord over the
church of Israel, is described by the management of a vineyard. The advantages of our situation
will be brought into the account another day. He planted it with the choicest vines; gave them a
most excellent law, instituted proper ordinances. The temple was a tower, where God gave tokens
of his presence. He set up his altar, to which the sacrifices should be brought; all the means of grace
are denoted thereby. God expects fruit from those that enjoy privileges. Good purposes and good
beginnings are good things, but not enough; there must be vineyard fruit; thoughts and affections,
words and actions, agreeable to the Spirit. It brought forth bad fruit. Wild grapes are the fruits of
the corrupt nature. Where grace does not work, corruption will. But the wickedness of those that
profess religion, and enjoy the means of grace, must be upon the sinners themselves. They shall
no longer be a peculiar people. When errors and vice go without check or control, the vineyard is
unpruned; then it will soon be grown over with thorns. This is often shown in the departure of God's
Spirit from those who have long striven against him, and the removal of his gospel from places
which have long been a reproach to it. The explanation is given. It is sad with a soul, when, instead
of the grapes of humility, meekness, love, patience, and contempt of the world, for which God
looks, there are the wild grapes of pride, passion, discontent, and malice, and contempt of God;
instead of the grapes of praying and praising, the wild grapes of cursing and swearing. Let us bring
forth fruit with patience, that in the end we may obtain everlasting life.
Is. 5:8-23 Here is a woe to those who set their hearts on the wealth of the world. Not that it is
sinful for those who have a house and a field to purchase another; but the fault is, that they never
know when they have enough. Covetousness is idolatry; and while many envy the prosperous,
wretched man, the Lord denounces awful woes upon him. How applicable to many among us! God
has many ways to empty the most populous cities. Those who set their hearts upon the world, will
justly be disappointed. Here is woe to those who dote upon the pleasures and the delights of sense.
The use of music is lawful; but when it draws away the heart from God, then it becomes a sin to
us. God's judgments have seized them, but they will not disturb themselves in their pleasures. The
judgments are declared. Let a man be ever so high, death will bring him low; ever so mean, death
will bring him lower. The fruit of these judgments shall be, that God will be glorified as a God of
power. Also, as a God that is holy; he shall be owned and declared to be so, in the righteous
punishment of proud men. Those are in a woful condition who set up sin, and who exert themselves
to gratify their base lusts. They are daring in sin, and walk after their own lusts; it is in scorn that
they call God the Holy One of Israel. They confound and overthrow distinctions between good and
evil. They prefer their own reasonings to Divine revelations; their own devices to the counsels and
commands of God. They deem it prudent and politic to continue profitable sins, and to neglect
self-denying duties. Also, how light soever men make of drunkenness, it is a sin which lays open
to the wrath and curse of God. Their judges perverted justice. Every sin needs some other to conceal
it.