Previous Section: The Fall of the North
Another prophet, Isaiah, who many believe to have written his work in the mid 700’s BCE, shortly after the time of Amos and Hosea, aims many of His prophecies at the two houses, the House of Israel and the House of Judah. Israel’s two houses are described as God’s vineyard (or forest). that resides within His protective walls/hedges. Isaiah warns us that God’s protective hedge may be removed, allowing the thorns and brier’s to enter.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? 5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
Isaiah 5:4-7 ESV
The removal of the protective hedge around the two houses allows the Assyrians in. And while Assyria is chosen to be the instrument of God’s wrath, they are not blameless in their conquests. The Assyrians are not to boast, for although they stand in His vineyard among the briars and thorns of His backslidden people, they too will be consumed there, for they are a tool, like an axe or saw, and are themselves, not free of guilt. Yet a remnant of Israel will be retained.
15 Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! 16 Therefore the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire. 17 The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day. 18 The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the Lord will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away. 19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down. 20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. 22
For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. 23 For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.”
Isaiah 10:15-23 ESV
God must destroy the vineyard and the trees of His forest with the Assyrians entering His protective hedge, but God’s delightful plant (primarily Judah) will be kept as a remnant and allowed to return to power in order to fulfill the promise to Abraham and the line of Judah to bring in Christ (Gen 28:14,49:8-12). The south is shown mercy in fulfillment of Hosea 1:7:
”But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”“
Hosea 1:7 ESV
We will see that it is not the last time God will show mercy to Judah prior to Christ. After the rule of Assyria’s King Sargon II comes to an end, King Senneacherib (705-681BC) unsuccessfully sieges Jerusalem in 701BC. He suffers many losses as an angel of the lord destroys 185,000 of his soldiers outside Jerusalem’s gates (2 Kings 19:35 below). But while a remnant remains in Jerusalem, he is able to set up vassal Kings in Judah. We see the future remnant of Judah reiterated in the 2 Kings account of the siege of Sennacherib, King of Assyria.
“29 And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord will do this. 32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 33 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh.
2 Kings 19:29-35 ESV
Isaiah then directs our attention to Judah’s remnant (God’s pleasent planting within the vineyard) within Jerusalem in Isaiah chapter 1, which is likely written toward the end of Isaiah’s life after the scattering since it is addressed to all 3 Kings of Judah in Isaiah’s lifetime and includes King Hezekiah, who reigned after the scattering in 715BC. Isaiah states that Judah’s remnant are left as survivors, as a city besieged all around in His vineyard. They are a sole witness, as though God’s precious plant is now a defensive tower or booth in His vineyard, or a lodge in a cucumber field, besieged all around. Just as God’s judgement shines as a light (see Hos 6:5) to a desolate land that was judged as Sodom and Gomorrah, Isaiah now warns this witness to God’s wrath that they too are like the rulers of Sodom and a people of Gomorrah, who must turn from their ways or be destroyed as their northern brethren were.
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” 4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. 5 Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. 7 Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. 8 And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. 9 If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah. 10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.”
Isaiah 1:1-11 ESV
So God’s vineyard is Israel, and consists of the two houses. The House of Israel is overrun by the Assyrians, but the House of Judah is left as a tower or booth to fulfill their role in bringing in Christ through the line of Judah.
Next Section: The Potter’s Vessels