Scripture Daily

Context No. 210 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 65:8-12: in context

8The LORD says, “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for a blessing is in it:’ so I will do for my servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all. 9I will bring offspring out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains. My chosen will inherit it, and my servants will dwell there. 10Sharon will be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me. 11“But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to Destiny; 12I will destine you to the sword, and you will all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn’t answer. When I spoke, you didn’t listen; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”

Isaiah 65 comes late in the book, spoken to the community that has returned to the land after exile. That community is split. Some are still seeking the LORD, and some have taken up other cults, and this passage sorts one from the other.

It opens with a farmer's image. When a cluster of grapes still holds good fruit, you do not throw the whole bunch away, because a blessing is in it. God says he will treat his servants that way, keeping them for the sake of the good among them rather than destroying everyone together. Those servants will inherit the land, and even the valley of Achor, remembered as the place of Achan's sin, becomes a quiet field for herds to lie down in.

Then the turn. To those who forsake the LORD there is a different word, and it names their practice exactly. They spread a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny. Fortune and Destiny are Gad and Meni, gods of luck and fate, and the table is a meal laid out to court them. God's charge against them is not complicated. I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not listen. What table have I quietly set for luck, while telling myself I was still waiting on God?

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