Tuesday, March 2, 2004
Lenten Fast
The Martyr Hesychios the Senator
6th Hour: Isaiah 5:7-16 1st Vespers: Genesis 4:8-15 2nd Vespers: Proverbs 5:1-15
Isaiah 5:7-16 RSV, especially vs. 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, a cry!" Before considering the reading for today, it is well to review the whole of the fifth
chapter of Isaiah, which divides into four parts. First, the Lord sings a song concerning His vineyard, which was the second
half of yesterday's reading (5:1-7), in which God complains against Judah and Jerusalem: "When I looked for it to yield
grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?" (vs. 4).
Second, the reading today advances into a lyric parable with a catalog of six woes, each specifying a sin of the people
against which the Lord issues judgment. The subject of today's passage (vss. 8-16) is two of these woes. Third, the other
four woes (vss.16-26) will be addressed tomorrow. Fourth, the final section of the chapter is not assigned. It describes the
coming conquest of the nation by foreign armies as instruments of God's judgment (vss. 26-30).
In the today's reading, God pronounces His first woe against the covetous who are forcing their neighbors off their family
property. Driven by the passion to "join house to house" and to "add field to field" (vs. 8), wealthy landowners squeezed
their poorer neighbors from their hereditary lands, until "there [was] no more room...in the midst of the land" (vs. 8).
When one member of God's people takes another's land, he disenfranchises a brother from what God has given him. Such
acquisitions could be accomplished by excessive debt and interest or by judicial force, as in the case of Ahab and Jezebel
against their neighbor, Naboth (1 K 21:1-16). However, the removal of others from their lands was not only a violation of
the tenth commandment (Ex. 20:17), but also a breach of fellowship and a rejection of communion.
In uttering the first woe, in addition to specifying the sin, the Lord also declares the sure judgment which will follow:
desolation and depopulation (Is. 5:9), as well as crop failure (vs. 10). Historically, the sequence of greed, land
appropriation, and depopulation have repeatedly led, all over the world, to rural poverty, starvation, and the hindering of
food production. This happened during Isaiah's time in Judah, during the time of the Lord's ministry in Galilee and Judea
because of Roman Imperial policies, and during collectivization under Soviet policies. It is a sin every people must
actively prevent or else they will endure God's ordained consequences.
God then proclaims His second woe against those who are wasting their lives in drinking and carousing. "Woe to those
who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening till wine inflames them,"
enjoying "lyre and harp, timbrel and flute...at their feasts" (vss. 11,12). Observe that the indictment against "feasting" is
coupled with a second charge of failure to "regard the deeds of the Lord," to "see the works of His hands" (vs. 12).
Sinners, preoccupied with self-indulgence, do not see the hand of God at work in the affairs of their lives or communities.
Then and now, such people are secularists, people we know well.
In the end, predictably, both for secular man and for godless societies, there will be captivity, death, hunger, and
humiliation (vss.13-15). These same declarations of consequence appear in the Magnificat, the Song of the Theotokos: "He
hath filled the empty with good things and the rich hath He sent empty away" (Lk. 1:53). In all generations, God opposes
greed, aggrandizement, self-indulgence, and the spurning of His will for His people.
Spare us, O Lord, according to the multitude of Thy mercy, for our days have passed away in vanity. Wrest us out of the
hand of the adversary and forgive us our sins that we may put off the old man and be clothed upon with the new man and
may live unto Thee in all things.
