He says, hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you.
This is spooky language. This is spooky language about souls going into hell. Verse 14 in Isaiah 14, man, if we could just preach this to the unbeliever. Jesus said it this way, enter by the narrow gate.
Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his study called Meals for Hell in Isaiah chapter five. Woe to those who join house to house and field to field till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land. I love this verse.
I've memorized it for years. And in New York City living there, this verse was like, yes, Lord, get me out of here. House to house and field to field.
And I got here, I carried it a little bit too far. Because I see developers buying farmland and putting up these houses two inches apart from each other. Look at the greedy guys. They can't even give you a little space in the backyard just like back in Long Island and New York and other places. And then God says, yeah, but I'm calling you to minister to people who will live in these houses. Oh, all right. I just had this this morning when my daughter was sitting in the car and said, what are they building this? She said, it looks like an apartment building. Man, they're crowding them in again. But I remember what God said.
So I blamed her. Anyway, this is the problem here. Now, this is not outlawing row houses or apartments.
It certainly isn't giving them a plus either. It is a reflection of God saying, ideally, people need some space to live. And when I've got that, I can't throw a rock and hit my neighbor from my front porch. I've tried so many times. I'm working on it. But I have space now. And, you know, if he wants to play his music loud, well, not too loud.
He can do things. It's just nicer to have space. But and that's not a rebuke to those of you who may, you know, just not have that privilege.
So I just kind of a personal touch to this. But it's not a rebuke to those who may live in a project, for example, project building. Anyway, there are ideals. There are lesser ideals, such as life with all of us in different areas.
Anyhow, coming back to this, this is the first woe. Woe to those who join house to house. The greedy developers, now they happen to be realtors, but that doesn't mean all realtors are this way.
Not at all. But these, what made them a covet and greedy is that they went out of bounds. And they created congestion, man-made congestion in Jerusalem because they're stealing the land from the people. And the people had to go somewhere once their land was gone. They couldn't live out in the woods. So they would enter and end up in Jerusalem paying rent. And this was an oppression on the people. The well-to-do were systematically taking land from others. Now I don't know that this is the motive, but we know a lot of big store chains have put out of business mom-and-pop stores. If you want to open, you know, a little breakfast shop, you're going to have to compete with some big guys.
And it's going to be hard to survive unless you have a large population where there's enough to go around. My point is, I don't know that somebody said, hey, it's too bad we're putting them out of business and had a calloused heart. I don't know that. But in this case, that is what was going on. They were coming up with ways to grab the land of the people, violating property laws of the Mosaic law. Micah, who is a prophet at the same time, he writes about this.
And this little verse that I'm quoting is not capturing the whole spirit. Amos slams it. He was writing to the north.
He's gone. Anyway, Micah says, they covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. And so there's a witness to what Isaiah is saying that, yeah, they're stealing the land and they're jamming them into cities. And woe to those. This is trouble. Not to the people who are stuck in the houses, but to those who are causing this condition. So I have the list of the seven woes here that he's going to go out.
But instead of reading them to save time, we'll just cover them as we go. So the first one is, woe to those who join house to house and field to field till there's no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land. Isaiah has 22 woes throughout his prophecy.
Here's just seven of them. Anyway, verse 9. In my hearing, Yahweh of hosts said, truly many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones without inhabitant. For 10 acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.
So what's going on here is, first, you got to love. Isaiah says, oh, the Lord spoke to me on this very clearly, and it was him. And he's saying that those who have grabbed the land and built these beautiful houses, it's all going to backfire.
God is expressing his outrage. They think they're going to steal this land and produce, you know, these crops and sell them for the outrageous gains. Well, they're going to be meager gains. They're not going to be large gains and thus the language, 10 acres will yield one bath. And the percentages like 10% is all they're going to get out of this.
90% loss. Habakkuk had a similar prophecy, and in his day, the Jews were coming back from the Babylonian captivity, and he and Zechariah were exhorting the people, saying, listen, you've got to build your house of worship. You started it, and then you abandoned it. When the little pressure came, you've got to build this temple. You're living in pretty nice houses right now, but look at the house of the Lord.
It's just a slab. And so he writes, you have sown much and bring in little. You eat but do not have enough. You drink and you are not filled with drink.
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he earns wages to be put in a bag with holes. And so he's saying, yeah, you're not satisfied. You have these gains, but they're really not gains, are they? They're testimony that you can't find satisfaction without a right relationship to your God. And he and Zechariah were successful. Verse 11, here's the second. Woe, woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink to continue until night till wine inflames them. So self-indulgence, we move from greedy covetousness.
There are different types of covetousness, but the first one was greed-based. This is self-indulgence of these drinkers. And they just were consumed by alcohol.
It's a twist, right? Consuming alcohol until it consumes you. And the vineyard owner came to his vineyard looking for devout disciples. Instead, he gets devoted drunks. They are devoted to this. They rise up early and through the rest of the day. Their whole purpose in life now is to be under the influence of alcohol.
It's a very real tragedy down through the ages. Verse 12, the harp and the strings and the tambourine, the flute, the wine are in their feast, but they do not regard the work of Yahweh nor consider the operation of his hands. And so, not only were they just being consumed by the alcohol they were consuming, they were what we would say party animals. They loved the social events. They loved to go where there was the alcohol and the people.
The party days, not the Lord's ways, that's their life. We know people like this. We've met people like this. And if you haven't, you will. Psalm 10, Psalm 10, Psalm 10, Psalm 10, the wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God.
God is in none of his thoughts. That's these folks. Overindulgence dulls sensitivity to the spirit. And that's why there's such thing called fasting.
And there are different ways. There are facets of fasting. You can just abstain from, you know, maybe you love your morning tea. And when they say, I'm going to drink it this morning, I'm just going to fast from it and just draw close to the Lord. You don't have to just like starve yourself near death. A lot of people have health conditions.
They can't take those kind of fasts anyway. Anyway, Amos writes about this also. And this to the northern kingdom. He talks about them who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments and invent for themselves musical instruments like David. But that whole section, I have it here but I'm not going to read it.
Anyway, he talks about, he's saying, you guys are into music and you dig into the old festivities. But look what you're doing to other people. Look what you've done to Yahweh.
And look at the result. The Assyrians came and took them all away. Verse 13. Therefore, my people have gone into captivity and because they have no knowledge, their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst. You say, well, where's the timeline here?
Well, it could be all over the place. He could be referring to the northern kingdom. He could be referring to Judah because Assyrians were making raids into Judah and taking cities. Or he could be, all of them, and prophetically saying, this is where this is going to end up.
Because these people thought there were no consequences. And this lack of knowledge, he says here, because they have no knowledge of God, of course. Hosea called that out.
Hosea already ministered in the north. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Ignorance is not a virtue. You know, ignorance is bliss.
It depends on what you're talking about. But when it comes down to hardball, to real life, ignorance is not a virtue. The prophet is saying, all of this is going to cave in on you.
This lifestyle is going to cave in. Proverbs 19, 2. It is not good for a soul to be without knowledge.
Unfortunately, you have the other, the pendulum swings the other way. You have people who worship knowledge. Paul talks about those always learning, never coming into the knowledge. Just amassing information to be little know-it-alls. Who likes a know-it-all? Raise your hand. And if you, funny, know-it-alls don't know their know-it-alls.
So they don't know it all. All right, verse 14. Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure, their glory and their multitude with their pomp. And he who is jubilant shall descend into it. And here we have food for the grave. The meals for hell. Hell will consume them all. That's what the prophet is saying. Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself and opened his mouth.
See the big hippo opening his mouth. And they're just partying. They're going to hell in first class. They're just having all their fun. You know, I heard a comedian once say, I like to sit in the back of the plane. It's because first class is the first one to hit that mountain. That's the humor. It's ridiculous. I heard another comedian say, I sit in the back of the plane, you never hear about a plane backing into a mountain.
All right, just stick with my jokes. See, that's what happens. Anyway, all their pomp, all their godless rejoicing, they're going to descend into hell. And Isaiah, he'll bring this up again in chapter 14. He says, hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you.
This is spooky language. This is spooky language about souls going into hell. Verse 14 in Isaiah 14. Man, if we could just preach this to the unbeliever. Jesus said it this way, enter by the narrow gate. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.
And there are many who go in by it. Verse 15. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. Well, God resists the proud. The arrogant people are really not going to do well with God. We can only understate what awaits those who side against God.
There's really no way to overstate it. Verse 16. But Yahweh of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness. And so there the prophet says, as Abraham did, shall not the God of the universe do right? There we have the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment. No one's going to be able to in hell say, I didn't get a fair chance.
I got a bum deal. You won't be able to, in those areas we can't answer, God can answer that. He didn't entrust us with that. Verse 17. Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, and in the waste places of the fat ones, strangers shall eat. Well, here at first glimpse, it seems like this pastoral scene with the lambs are just, but these are the ruins, the waste places, all those houses they were building, all the things that they were so precious to them. When we realize that the flocks are roaming among the ruins of devastated property, then we say, oh, this is judgment.
Those mansions surrounded with lush vineyards would become ghost towns, and the shepherds will roam there with their flocks. Verse 18, woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as if with a cart rope. You got to love the language. You know he knows people like this, and he's writing this.
He knows people. This is the third woe, and it is dedicated to those who are dedicated to sin in defiance of God. In other words, those who are into hedonism in the face of God.
Yeah, yeah, keep your God. I'm going to have fun kind of a thing, and so when he says, and sin as with a cart of rope, it's a word picture of someone pulling a cart, a little cart with a rope that is loaded with sin. It's a load of sin in their cart, always dragging iniquity with them wherever they go. I've got my cart, and you know people like that no matter where you take them. You know you take them out of the city and into the country. They look to do crime. You take them from the country to the city.
They look to do crime. No matter where they go, they bring it with them. Iniquity that is. Verse 19, 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. There's two things in that with the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah is saying to me he's the Holy One of Israel, but he also knows they're little sarcastic, facetious little words, the Holy One of Israel, and they're cynical.
They're apathetic. Peter talks about scoffers will come in the last days saying from the beginning our father, and well this is what Isaiah is saying. He knew what they were thinking, and he's be publishing it. People mock God as they're going to get away with it. Jeremiah said it this way. Indeed they say to me, where is the word of Yahweh?
Let it come now. Those cynical challenges taunting God. Ezekiel in his time, which is around Jeremiah's time, he came up almost a proverb. Son of man, what is this proverb that you people have about the land of Israel, which says the days are prolonged and every vision fails. They're mocking my prophecies. Here they are in captivity, and they're mocking my prophecies saying all the prophecies have failed, you know, and it's, you know, unbelievers do this. That we may see, continuing in verse 19, that we may see it, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come that we may know it. And so there they are taunting the Lord.
They did this to Christ on the cross. Matthew 27 42. He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he is the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him. Yeah, but it'd be too late.
If he did, it'd be too late. Anyway, taunting God is the dumbest thing a human being can do. Anyway, verse 20, woe to those who call evil good, good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
This is the fourth woe. Those who subvert moral principles, we are infested with them globally. Globally, you have people trying to reinvent morals and tell you that the evil things, they applaud evil, and they look down on people. Well, you don't lie, you know, you don't drink, you know, it's just, it's just, anyway, Jeremiah 11 15, when you do evil, then you rejoice. That's messed up.
They're upside down. Proverbs 17 15, he who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh. Nothing has changed since those words were put in print. Verse 21, woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. The fifth woe, arrogantly, people who are arrogantly self-impressed.
That word arrogant is just such a dominant word coming off the Old Testament pages, that kind of self-exaltation that looks to reduce others or steal from them. Anyway, we closed last Sunday with 2 Corinthians 10 12, we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Professing to be wise, they became fools, says Romans 1 22. Proverbs 3 7, do not be wise in your own eyes, fear Yahweh and depart from evil.
Empty of God, full of self, that's that group. Verse, the next one, verse 22, woe to men mighty and drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink. Verse 23, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man.
So we have two woes here, the sixth and the seventh. Woe to the men mighty in drinking wine. They're powerful at being drunks, is what is being said, and they corrupt justice as an outcome of this little world they live in.
It is sarcastic here. Isaiah is saying, let's pin a medal on them, that's what you do to war heroes, you call them the mighty men. Remember the mighty men of David? Isaiah is saying, they're mighty and they're valiant when it comes to alcohol, alcoholic products.
So he says again, see, they even have a medal for that. Amos 6, who drink wine from bowls and anoint yourselves with the best ornaments but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. And so he is saying, you don't care anything about what God cares about.
And we find this in corrupt politicians, their aides, their advocates, those with an agenda. Verse 24, 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 Yahweh of hosts and despise the word of the Holy One of Israel. Well, fire effortlessly devours and overcomes straw and stubble and he's saying, you can't resist God, he's going to devour it in judgment. And when he talks about their roots will be rottenness and their blossom ascend, Isaiah must have had own plants.
And he's just using that picture of, you know, you've killed the plant, this thing should have been beautiful, but you destroyed it. He says, because they've rejected the law of the Lord, there's the bedrock of all their vices, all seven of the wolves are going back to how they failed in the vineyard, the malfunction of the vineyard, and it is the rejection of God's word. He says, and despise the word of the Holy One, as though it's not enough to reject God, they hated him too.
And so that's where, and despise the word. And there are those that are here today, hence the next set of verses. Verse 25, therefore the anger of Yahweh is aroused against his people. He has stretched out his hand against them and stricken them, and the hills trembled. Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets, for all his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. And he's probably pointing to the northern kingdom and or perhaps the raids against the Judean cities that yielded many corpses, stretched out the hand to judge them. Verse 26 is pretty much self-explanatory. Verse 26, he will lift up a banner to the nations from afar and will whistle to them from the end of the earth, surely they shall come with speed swiftly. So the coming Babylonian invasion, he will lift up the banner of the nations, he will send the signal, that's the use of the banners there, like a flagman on a ship, signal man on a ship. Now they just text each other. I don't know. In a submarine texting a destroyer.
I can't get a signal. All right. Anyway, verse 27, he's saying here God is sovereign, and he's going to deal with this. Verse 27, no one will be weary or stumble among them, no one will slumber or sleep, nor will the belt on the loins be loosed, nor the strap on their sandals be broken. Verse 28, whose arrows are sharp and their bows bent, their horses hooves will seem like flint and their wheels like a whirlwind.
Flint rock is strong and durable. Parallel of this is Joel chapter 2, verses 2 through 9, and there Joel talks about troops that are coming that are so disciplined you're not going to be able to beat them. Anyway, that's what's being said here. Verse 29, their roaring will be like a lion, they will roar like young lions, yes they will roar, they will lay hold of the prey, they will carry it away safely, and no one will deliver. And that's exactly what Nebuchadnezzar did. He just carried them off to Babylon. Verse 30, in that day they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea, and if one looks on the land behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened by the clouds. So what did they gain by resisting God? That's a good question to ask somebody. What are you gaining by keeping Christ out of your life if you can get the shot?
No happy ending for the wicked and the defiant is how this concludes. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry we invite you to visit our website crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
