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

[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.