September 20, 2019

Isaiah 5:8-12


Rachel Workman: What sorrow for you who buy up house after house and field after field,
    until everyone is evicted and you live alone in the land.
But I have heard the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

    swear a solemn oath:
“Many houses will stand deserted;
    even beautiful mansions will be empty.
10 Ten acres[a] of vineyard will not produce even six gallons[b] of wine.
    Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket[c] of grain.”
11 What sorrow for those who get up early in the morning
    looking for a drink of alcohol
and spend long evenings drinking wine
    to make themselves flaming drunk.
12 They furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties—

    lyre and harp, tambourine and flute—
but they never think about the Lord
    or notice what he is doing.

I'm grateful that I don't have a heart that chases after more and more. Bigger and better. It has to be exhausting. What I do have is more than enough.
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John Burnett:   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.
10 For ten acres[a] of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
    and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”[b]
11 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!
12 They have lyre and harp,
    tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,
but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
    or see the work of his hands. 
Woe is not a good thing.  Especially to those who belong to the world and abuse alcohol or drugs.  Those who strive after wealth and build bigger houses than they need will one day find their houses desolate but this is exactly what the world (Satan) teaches.  Bigger is always better and you deserve more.  We deserve nothing but the “woe” described here but for God’s grace given to those who repent and believe, we will have mansions in Heaven.
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Monday’s reading for Isaiah 5:13-17

So my people will go into exile far away
    because they do not know me.
Those who are great and honored will starve,
    and the common people will die of thirst.
14 The grave[d] is licking its lips in anticipation,

    opening its mouth wide.
The great and the lowly
    and all the drunken mob will be swallowed up.
15 Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down;
    even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation.
16 But the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will be exalted by his justice.
    The holiness of God will be displayed by his righteousness.
17 In that day lambs will find good pastures,
    and fattened sheep and young goats[e] will feed among the ruins.

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