In Isaiah 5, God, through the prophet Isaiah, gives to Jerusalem and Judah (v. 3, and later includes the house of Israel, v. 7) the parable of an unproductive vineyard that He Himself planted and nurtured. He expected this vineyard to bring forth good grapes, but instead it brought forth wild grapes. Based on the Hebrew, the commentator Clark reveals that these wild grapes are “Poisonous berries…not merely useless, unprofitable grapes, such as wild grapes; but grapes offensive to the smell, noxious, poisonous.” In verse 7, God discloses to His people the application of this vineyard parable: He [God] looked for justice [from His people], but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
This application is followed by a set of “woes” declared on God’s people, with the corresponding judgments (vv. 8-30). A “woe” is a “passionate cry of grief or despair; a lamentation”. In summary, these woes are declared against those who make greedy real estate deals, who love their drinking parties and don’t consider the works of the Lord, who pursue vanity and sin, who call evil good and good evil, who are wise in their own eyes, who are mighty at drinking, and who are involved with bribery.
The next chapter has another “woe”, which might seem unexpected. Isaiah, who is used of God to give woes on others, now declares a woe on himself! He exclaims this after he is given a vision of God’s holiness (vv. 1-4): Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. (v. 5) We see this type of reaction recorded of other godly men who saw their deep depravity in the presence of the LORD: Job (Job 42:5-6), Daniel (Dan. 10:15-17), Peter (Luke 5:8) and John (Rev.1:17). Spurgeon stated, “God will never do anything with us till he has first of all undone us.” May we each daily see more of God’s holiness, confess and turn from our sins, and serve Him with greater zeal by His grace alone!
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” (Is. 6:8)