“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.” Isaiah 5:8 ESV
Reflection: is the church today behaving more like Christ, or the world?
I got a phone call from one of the pastors at a church we had attended, as it had been a while since we last had been there. He introduced himself, and proceeded to say that they really missed us at church. At first I thought, that’s really nice to hear. A pastor taking the time to call us. It felt pretty good to be missed, especially from a body of fellow believers. But then I quickly realized that, while we had attended this church for a couple of years, we had actually never really met any of the pastoral staff. But he acted as if he knew me pretty well. In fact, we had only met a few of the people sitting around us at the Sunday service. So how in the world did this pastor know me, and that we had been absent for several weeks?
Ahhh, of course, our donation was missing.
It was the only possible explanation. They had our name and number from our donation records. Interestingly, they had never contacted us before, even after us trying to reach out to them. I had even written a letter to the pastoral staff about a wonderful experience we had at the church. In hindsight, we see that the focus of the church is not aligned with our beliefs, as they are very focused on teaching prosperity; even on speaking things into existence. This can easily lead into pursuing very wicked ways including forms of witchcraft; certainly away from following Christ alone, being aligned with the will of God. And, unfortunately there are many church communities like this one using scripture out of context, leading their flock astray, unknowingly into wicked ways.
It is nothing new.
We already read in the beginning of Isaiah chapter 5 how God had meticulously prepared the vineyard of Israel, but they only produced foul fruit. So God removed His protection for the land, and let the people follow their own folly into destruction. So let’s look at what specific behaviors God called out through Isaiah in a list of warnings or “woes to”, which of course is relevant for us to consider.
The first he mentioned here was the focus on continued accumulation of wealth, of greed. “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.” Isaiah 5:8 ESV. It talks pretty clearly about the continued appetite for increasing wealth, even if that means acquiring “a field” or property from others. This is nothing other than “covetousness” which is of course stated as one of the Ten Commandments.
The second one mentioned here is closely related to the first, which is gluttony. Excess indulgence in food and drink, even the enjoyments of life. We read “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! 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.” Isaiah 5:11-12 ESV.
Let’s read the rest of the woes and warnings from God here. “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, who say: “Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!” Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!” Isaiah 5:18-23 ESV.
Sadly, we can recognize many of these in our society today; even within many church communities. Bible commentator MacLaren said these woes are connected, “They are ‘all in a string,’ and where a community is cursed with one, the others will not be far away. They are a knot of serpents intertwined. We touch but slightly on the other vices denounced by the prophet’s burning words, but we must premise the general observation that the same uncompromising plainness and boldness in speaking out as to social sins ought to characterize Christian teachers to-day. The prophet’s office is not extinct in the church.”
God will not be mocked; He will deal with wickedness. Even among His people. “Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.” Isaiah 5:24-25 ESV.
Notice what caused this, “for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.” So, where are the pastors and leaders, calling out all the wickedness of our day, even within their own churches? We are to be different than the world, to be a holy people, living a Christ-like life. To imitate Christ and not the world.