Question: What was the symbolic reference in the song of the vineyard? Answer: Most famous use of the vineyard symbolism in the Old Testament appears in Isaiah 5, where we are told, “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.” In his “song” of the vineyard Isaiah recalls the careful and loving treatment that the owner (God) gave to his vineyard (Israel). ). Woe to those who cause bloodshed. who goes house to house, who run after strong drink, those who call evil good and good evil and who acquit the guilty for a bribe.
Question: What symbolic acts did Isaiah perform? Answer: The symbolic act, a staging of a prophetic message, is an interesting phenomenon associated with prophets, as, for example, the prophet Zedekiah’s wearing a set of iron horns (1 Kings 22:11), Ezekiel’s cutting his own hair, weighing it and then burning it. God tells Ezekiel to shave off his hair, then divide it into thirds. With each third of hair, he is instructed to burn, spread across the city, and scatter to the wind –, with a few hairs tucked away in his garment and a few hairs thrown into a fire.(Ezekiel 5), Hosea’s marriage to Gomer (Hosea 1-3), Isaiah’s naming his sons (Isaiah 7-8), and Isaiah’s walking around Jerusalem shirtless and barefoot (Isaiah 20).Isaiah appears to have assumed the role of a troubadour which is a French medieval lyric poet composing and singing in Provençal in the 11th to 13th centuries, especially on the theme of courtly love. So, Isaiah acquainted his people with the song of the vineyard in Isaiah Chapter 5: which, though planted with choice vines. Yielded wild grapes. Isaiah 5:2-4 NIV: He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Isaiah walked naked for three years as a sign and portent against ‘Egypt and Ethiopia’ in Isaiah 20:3 NIV; suggesting that is what these two nations would look like when the Assyrians got through with them. To a nation confused with wine in Isaiah 28:7 NIV: Isaiah thought the talk of a child might be needed.” Line upon Line” “Line upon Line “in Isaiah 28:10,13 NIV.
Question: What use does Isaiah make of symbolic names? Answer: Isaiah called his own children Shear-Jashub {that is, “A remnant shall return”} ( Isaiah 7:3-7 NIV: Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘It will not take place, it will not happen) The name Isaiah is derived from the Hebrew “Yeshaʿyahu,” which can be translated to “The God is Salvation”. In the Bible, Hosea and Isaiah were directed to bestow symbolic names on their children, which became recurring symbols of divine justice and mercy, destruction, gathering, and protection. (Isaiah 8:3 NIV: Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.) ( Isaiah 34:12 NIV: Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away.)
Question: How will the majesty of God manifest itself? Answer: Isaiah 2:12 NIV> The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled) Isaiah 2:17-19 NIV> The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear. People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. Isaiah 5:15 NIV> So people will be brought low and everyone humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
Isaiah was a prophet who spoke for God to the people of Judah, who were facing exile because of their idolatry and disobedience. Isaiah denounced idolatry as foolishness and insanity, and contrasted the powerlessness of idols with the sovereignty and glory of the holy one of Israel. Isaiah also proclaimed God’s promise of a new exodus and a new creation for his faithful remnant, who would be redeemed by the suffering servant. It reads in Isaiah 2:8 ESV> Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. It reads in Isaiah 2:20 ESV>In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold; which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, It reads in Isaiah 17:8 ESV> He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim ” Asherim is a sacred wooden post, pole, or pillar that stood near the altar in various Canaanite high places and that symbolized the goddess Asherah. Asherim is also an ancient Semitic goddess, sometimes identified with Ashtoreth and Astarte, worshiped by the Phoenicians and Canaanites. It is also any of various upright wooden objects serving as a sacred symbol of Asherah.” or the altars of incense. It reads in Isaiah 31:7 ESV> For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. Isaiah 44:9-20 is a vivid example of Isaiah’s polemic against idolatry. He mocks the idol-makers who use the same wood to make a fire, bake bread, and carve a god. He exposes the absurdity of worshipping something that one has made with one’s own hands, and that cannot see, hear, or save. He also reveals the spiritual blindness and deception that idolatry causes in the human heart.
Question: How does Isaiah deal with the nature worship of his time? Answer: “You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen. Isaiah 1:29 NIV> You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, Isaiah 17:10 NIV>
Question: How is God’s Lordship over history demonstrated in the ease of Assyria? Answer: He is not the King of kings and the Lord of lords merely in name. He really rules the nations. Therefore, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. It reads in Isaiah 10:6 NIV> I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. It reads in Isaiah 14:25 NIV> God says:I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” It reads in Isaiah 10:12 NIV> When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.
Question: What is Isaiahs’s idea of God’s lordship over history? Answer: Isaiah’s theology included the sometimes-comforting view that God shapes history, traditionally entering the human scene to rescue his people from national peril. Isaiah prophesied from 739–681 BC to a nation that had turned a deaf ear to the Lord. Instead of serving Him with humility and offering love to their neighbors, the nation of Judah offered meaningless sacrifices in God’s temple at Jerusalem and committed injustices throughout the nation. It reads in Isaiah 14:26-27 NIV> This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? It reads in Isaiah 17:13 NIV>Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. It reads in Isaiah 33:5-6 NIV> The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.
Question: How does God manifest himself in human life? Answer: When we are reading the scriptures, listening to one of His servants, or praying. Through the Holy Spirit, we hear His voice, speaking to us and telling us what we need to do. We will come to know Jesus Christ and see His hand in our lives if we will hearken unto Him. Hearken means not only to listen, but to also obey. Not just read the scriptures but seek to live what we’re reading. When we are doing this, then we can look for ways that He makes himself known in our lives. It reads in Isaiah 6:3 NIV> And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” It reads in Isaiah 5:16 NIV> But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts. It reads in Isaiah 5:19 NIV> to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel, let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”It reads in Isaiah 24:1-23 NIV> See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it, he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants, it will be the same for priest as for people, for the master as for his servant, for the mistress as for her servant, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore, earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. The new wine dries up and the vine withers, all the merrymaker’s groans. The joyful timbrels are stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers. The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred. In the streets they cry out for wine; all joy turns to gloom; all joyful sounds are banished from the earth. The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces. So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest. They raise their voices; they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord’s majesty. Therefore, in the east give glory to the Lord; exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth, we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!” Terror and pit and snare await you, people of the earth. Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the winds, so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls, never to rise again. In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days. The moon will be dismayed, the sun ashamed; for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, with great glory. ” It reads in Isaiah 30:11 NIV> Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!”
Question: What analogies from human life does Isaiah use to illustrate the power and skill of God?
Answer: It reads in Isaiah 10:15 NIV> Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it? As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up, or a club brandish the one who is not wood! It reads in Isaiah 10:33 NIV> See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low. It reads in Isaiah 29:16 NIV> You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?
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