“The Lord takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people. The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: ‘It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?’ declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.”
Isaiah 3:13-15 NIVUK
A courtroom scene emerges in Isaiah’s vision, and the people are in the dock. Initially, the Lord “enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of His people”. And the indictment includes vineyard ruining, plundering the poor people in the land, “crushing [God’s] people” and “grinding the faces of the poor”. Isaiah’s vision was presented with non-legal, pictorial language, and we have to unpack it to determine what the charges meant for the Judahites.
Firstly, the vineyard referred to God’s people, those who were governed and led by the “elders and leaders”. It has been estimated that there were about 100-120 thousand people in Judah at that time, people mainly involved in various forms of farming, and in Jerusalem, there was a royal administration and religious institution from which the people were governed. But according to Isaiah’s vision, they weren’t doing what they were supposed to do very well at all. In fact, it was worse than that because the vision continued with a reference to plunder. Instead of protecting God’s people from harm, these leaders had become the harm. They were the ones who had devoured the people’s resources. This could mean that they had taken the food from the people as a tax. The shocking statement regarding the “plunder from the poor” meant that the leaders had taken what little the poor people had into their own homes. Instead of protecting the poor, they were using their power to take from those who already had so little to provide for their own households.
The next part of the vision was perhaps inspired by the picture of a mill, grinding grain into flour. The kernels of wheat or some other cereal would have been crushed and ground between large and heavy millstones, and the Lord became indignant, angry even, with His charge that the elders and leaders were doing exactly the same to the people of Judah. We can imagine that Isaiah’s vision would not have been very popular with the higher echelons in Jerusalem!
So what do we pilgrims make of all this? Here in Western societies, there is not the same theocratic or authoritarian form of government that was present in Judah, Israel or most other nations at that time. Even today, there are authoritarian governments subjugating their people, such as in China or North Korea, Iran and elsewhere. Although some limited attempts at democracy emerged early in the 6th Century BC in Greece, modern democracies didn’t appear until the 18th Century. So there is not the same opportunity to suppress people as in the way they were treated in Isaiah’s vision, at least in nations such as the US and UK. But having said that, people in the West are arguably treated unfairly in more subtle ways, through unfair laws and taxation systems. Mostly, these are meant to ensure social cohesion, but they can be applied excessively.
But the Lord gets angry if a country’s leaders treat their ordinary citizens unfairly. In Romans 13, Paul exhorted the Roman Christians to fully obey the authorities. He wrote, “For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4). But does that include the same level of obedience to a corrupt leader or government? Are they God’s servants as well?
As we can see from the courtroom example in our verses today, there will come a day when bad leaders will have to face God’s judgement, and it will be a time of terror that precedes eternal punishment. But that doesn’t let the people off the hook, because they, too, can behave badly and will end up facing God’s judgement. We pilgrims are responsible for the way we treat others, so we put love at the forefront in our interactions with others. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” … And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37, 39). Who is my neighbour? Well, Jesus answered that question in the parable of the Good Samaritan, as being the person who showed mercy to the man mugged and injured by thieves. Everyone we meet in our daily lives comes into the category of “neighbour”, and we treat everyone with respect and love in a way that shows how God would treat them. Yes, they may look different, dress differently, behave in a different way, and so on, but how does God see them? With love and compassion, and so must we. After all, He sees something that we don’t – what is in people’s hearts.
Dear Heavenly Father. We know that there will be a day of judgement for bad leaders, but we do not concern ourselves with that for now. Please help us to behave in ways in our societies that show Your love and compassion to everyone we meet. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 