GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ISAIAH 3:13-15
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13 The LORD takes his place in court. He stands to judge the peoples. 14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and leaders of his people. He says, “It is you who have totally devoured the vineyard. The plunder you have stolen from the poor is in your houses. 15 What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt? declares the Lord, the LORD of Armies.”
The Bible often uses the language of the court to describe God’s final judgment on mankind. This is natural and quite helpful, since the seriousness of a human trial brings our minds at least part of the way into the seriousness of being judged by God himself. His pronouncement will not only affect our physical lives, but our eternal disposition. With similar language, David had said three hundred years before: “He summons the heavens above, and the earth, so that he may judge his people.”
By saying LORD, the prophet shows that Almighty God is the judge; there is no other. But the New Testament tells us that God the Son in particular is the supreme Judge. “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). And again: “The Father has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:26). Therefore we see that according to his human nature, as well as divine, the Son of God occupies the throne of judgment. His judgment, which is part of his exaltation, is applied to his human nature as the proper subject. It is the man, Jesus, who will judge all, and this authority has been given to him. There are many who deny that the human nature of Christ is essential to his position as judge. We must not defer to them as if this is insignificant or unimportant, or else we rip pages from the Scriptures and burn them in the winter furnace as King Jehoiakim did (Jeremiah 36:23).
Those who will be judged on the last day include two groups, each with a particular leader among the many. First there will be the evil angels and Satan who was first among them. It was for them that hell was first constructed, formed, and set apart for their punishment by God (2 Peter 2:4). Then there will be the judgment of human beings in general, but especially of the godless (2 Peter 2:9) and the Antichrist above all (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). Here in verse 14, Isaiah brings us to the judgment of those wicked leaders of God’s people who plundered them and stole what was theirs. The evidence is there, irrefutable: “The plunder you have stolen from the poor is in your houses.” There is no contest; no defense.
Another accusation about these leaders is that they have “totally devoured” the vineyard. They did not simply steal from the people, they left nothing for the people at all. The verb usually means “to burn,” and can mean something as light as “singe” (Isaiah 42:25), but here we see an intensification of the act, and also the completed, accomplished fact.
The accusation does not change as the prophet goes on: “What do you mean by crushing my people?” “Crushing” is a powerful, serious crime. The leaders have not only exploited their people, using them for their own advantage, but they have hurt them, maimed them, along the way. As a characteristic of leadership, it is a form of oppression that is blind. For anyone to exploit the people they lead is a common sin, and one to be condemned. But to crush them? This leaves (if you will forgive a sinful analogy) no one to exploit next year! Who will plant the grain and tend the vineyard for you to steal from the next time you’re hungry?
But it goes further than that. They have been “grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt.” “Into the dirt” is not in the text, but it is added here to make sense of the expression in English. The verb is one among many used for grinding grain (Job 31:10), but here it shows an act of simple, mindless violence against the innocent.
This is the second time that “the Lord, the LORD of Armies” has been used as a title in Isaiah (see 1:24). The presence of the addition of “Armies” reminds the reader of God’s Almighty power, the power he used to create the universe and the very same power he will use to raise the dead and judge all mankind. This is Christ, the holy and the supreme, who gave himself for us to rescue us from the wrath of the final judgment. His wrath.
His compassion is given to us, and we are covered by his blood for our sakes.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Isaiah 3:13-15 He stands to judge