Isaiah 5-8

[wolfpurplemoon]

The start of 5 reminds me of something one of my commenters said about how you would treat apple trees that don't produce fruit, as a metaphor for God dealing with disobedient humans with a flood (which I felt was a very twisted form of morality). Here we have a vineyard that produces bad grapes as a metaphor for the people of Israel. God will turn his vineyard into wasteland for not bearing the right fruit and he does not know what more he can do for the disobedient people of Jerusalem and Judah, so you can imagine what is supposed to happen to them next.

Isaiah meets some six winged angels who clean his sins away and seem to be telling him to make sure his people can't repent or be healed, but the longest footnote ever tells me that this is an ironic command because these people weren't showing any inclination toward being saved so preaching at them is only going to drive them further away anyway, therefore it doesn't matter what Isaiah tells them. And so we learn that God can do sarcasm.

Some predictions about the demise of certain nations and the birth of a child who will know the consequences of sin and the difference between good and evil as he will grow up with very little to eat apart from milk and honey due to the destruction of the land through war and natural disasters.

Isaiah wrote down everything God predicted so when the prophecies are fulfilled he can produce them as proof of God's power over his people.

Comments

Seraphims

[jimmy bailey (from livejournal.com)]

The thing about the seraphims is that they are these beautiful (kinda) beast and yet even they praise God. We would fear them if they came here, and they fear God.

[djaboraine.livejournal.com]

Hello I have been reading your blog for a while now, And I must say I find it refreshing, we as Christians get so caught up on theological issues and we only have the views of believers, that we rarely ask ourselves what non-believers think.

I think you are showing more dedication by reading your bible everyday than most Christians.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts I have learned quite a lot from you, I think true wisdom is learning from others.

I also think we go about sharing our faith the wrong way. We are not here to argue people in to heaven, and we are not here to convince people they are wrong, that is luckily not my job to pass judgment, we are here to live out our Grace that was shown to us. We are here to live as an example, and most of the time we are terrible examples causing more problems that solutions.

One last thing I don't know if anyone has told you this, but I would suggest you read the The Message, a new modern translation of the Bible I personally read from this, makes the Bible read more easily

[wolfpurplemoon]

Thankyou for taking an interest in my project, and your kind words.

I keep moving between translations when I don't understand something, and I'm reading the KJV less and less and preferring more modern translations that I find online, I also read the footnotes that explain how they translated the Hebrew into English which helps with understanding the meaning behind the verses.

[voodooskeleton.livejournal.com]

The Message is apparently a really good version to read for this purpose. It's the one I've been reading.

[wolfpurplemoon]

I switched the online reader I'm using to The Message but it completely lacks annotations, however it reads very similarly to the New English Translation I'm mostly reading now so I'll stick with that and its annotations.

[voodooskeleton.livejournal.com]

I like The Message because I suck at reading so it's easier for me haha.

Translation

[(Anonymous)]

ESV (English Standard Version) is the closest translation to the Hebrew/Greek languages. Have you read this trans?

Translation

[john173.livejournal.com]

I suggest looking at the English Standard Version also.

It is supposed to be one of the closest direct translations of the original text.

[j.t. cheek (from livejournal.com)]

Interesting thoughts. And for me this passage was a hard pill to swallow(much like the rest of the book of Isaiah for me). But i think its important to remember that God is giving these words as a response to how the people were already acting. Eventually if we has people continue to cling to temporary things of this world instead of pursuing the eternal things of heaven, God will simply give us over to our desires. But that doesn't mean that there aren't consequences. This passage is dealing with a very greedy and wasteful people (5:8-10) so the outcome is logical (6:11). I know that that may not make it much easier to grasp but i think the first step in reading the books like Isaiah is first realizing the human condition.