“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory'” (Isaiah 6:1-13).
There is a stump beside our driveway that I perceived as dead, until the spring came and new branches sprung forth. They were covered in the gorgeous delicate purple blossoms of the redwood tree that was once there. I pondered why the tree was cut down in the first place if such delicate blossoms could occur. Perhaps it became diseased and the main trunk died. Perhaps it never showed such beauty to its previous owner. In a horrifying passage in Isaiah six God asks Isaiah to take a message to his people Israel. The message is not to save them, but instead to harden their hearts. God compares his people to a dead tree that needed to be cut down. Israel was no longer producing any Holy fruit. God shows Isaiah His glory and beauty in the temple and the text notes that it was in the year King Uzziah died. The date of this event is estimated to be approximately 740 B.C. and the Assyrian Emperor Tiglath-Pilesar III, a formidable military foe, was all but knocking on Israel’s doorstep. Having the strength of king Uzziah was one of the last hopes of this great nation to hold back the storm that was waiting and now he was dead.
The heart of Israel had turned from trusting in God’s power to their human kings to save them. God sees his people’s hearts as vineyards with only rotten vines. Only the best love and care and pruning had gone into the vines and time and time again they produced rotten fruit. In Israel’s time, setting up a vineyard took years to clear the rocky soil, build walls with the rocks and prepare the dirt to produce good fruit. Despite a heritage of God’s power on full display for years, the people still turned away. What was God left to do? God says in Isaiah 5:5″ Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard; I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” In the following verses God admits that the vineyard is the house of Israel and the “men of Judah are the garden of his delight.”(Isaiah 5:7). God realized that the only way to truly save his people was to cut it all away, and he laid into motion the beginning of the end of the nation. All the favor and prosperity they had taken for granted would become darkness as the nation was conquered and carried off to captivity. In their arrogance they never believed anyone could penetrate their holy cities. They had seen God win one battle after another for his namesake and glory. The Israelites did not realize that the last battle would take place against his own people as he allowed discipline, captivity and hardship to war against the battle in their hearts. They had completely thrown themselves at other religions and idols. Their bad fruit had become greed, cynicism, self-indulgence, relative morality and social injustice. Their idols had made them so perverse they were unrecognizable to God, a useless vineyard or rotten tree. He says that the land will be utterly forsaken and laid waste.
In our own arrogance we might believe we can also find comfort in our Christian label or heritage. We may think we can face the idols of our culture unaffected. God asked me to give up some of my longstanding idols for comfort this year. If there is one thing God cannot tolerate it is an unclean and wandering heart.
Pause and Reflect: Is there anything you turn to where God wants your attention instead?
For me, my struggle since having children was the desire to zone out from stress and loneliness with a combination of social media, TV shows and Youtube. In the past I have made idols out of shopping and spending money. It seems in different seasons of my life different idols can grip our hearts. This year God has asked me to get rid of them, destroy them, and fill the emptiness I fear with Him. He is a jealous God and wants our full attention and affection, because He knows he is the only all consuming thing that will not eat us alive. I have let idols be my distractions for too long. Things my hands have made, the esteem of man. The notice and attention of others. How they grip my heart. The need to finish a TV show I have binge watched. The fear of missing out on some knowledge on Youtube. An attempt to cure loneliness with mindless scrolling on social media. I am here God, forgive me for my delay. Convey what you wish to teach me.
In the very last verses of Isaiah chapter 6, there is hope.
God says “But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the Holy seed will be a stump in the land”(Isaiah 6:13). You may ask where is the hope in this? God has just claimed he will cut down the seed, his people, to mere stumps. How can they ever establish from a stump. If we back up to Isaiah 4, we find our answer “In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors In Israel”(Isaiah 4:1-3)
Who is this branch, the branch that will come out of the stump of Jesse? The hope that will dawn after Israel has been captured and held in captivity and left for years in darkness. The stump sat there for 400 years seemingly dead. Then one night in the darkness, the Star of Bethlehem appeared and the branch that was promised, Jesus Christ, sprung up from the stump. He is the hope that remains when it seems all has been cut down. The small green leaf that will grow and grow into a mighty tree that now not only provides hope for Israel but also all the world. He came to graft all the people of the Earth to His branch. He is also our only hope for producing good fruit. He is still connected to the lineage and the stump which God formed, but He alone can produce the good fruit. In our belief in Him we must stay connected to the branch, the vine, the source or like the vineyard from before, all our good works are useless vines and rotting stumps. May we put our trust in the true branch and let God prune away all that is useless and idolized.
