8 Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!
9 In my ears the Lord of hosts has sworn, “Surely, many houses shall become desolate,
Even great and fine ones, without occupants.
10 “For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one [g]bath of wine,
And a homer of seed will yield but an [h]ephah of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,
Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!
12 Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;
But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord,
Nor do they consider the work of His hands.13 Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And [i]their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its [j]throat and opened its mouth without measure;
And [k]Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
15 So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,
The eyes of the proud also will be abased.
16 But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And strangers will eat in the waste places of the [l]wealthy.
This passage begins with something that might seem a bit strange to some folks. We see those who “add house to house and join field to field”, but what’s that all about? At one level, I think it is about contentment. These folks aren’t content with their inheritance (the land was normally passed down generation to generation), and so they buy up the fields around them.
Or for those who live in more populated areas, houses often were very close, and some bought their neighbors houses, and joined them to their own to make a larger dwelling. I spoke once with someone who felt the only way to grow their business was to acquire other businesses. It never sat right with me, but I still see it all the time. Ironically, this person sold off half their business to focus back on one thing, and from what I can see, it’s been a wise move.
You may hear of big businesses and how they seem cold and impersonal, but that’s a strange thing to say when any business is made up of real people. But is it true? I think in many cases it is and it illustrates what we see in this passage, “that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!” You end up with folks that are too far removed from their neighbors, or the people they serve, that it becomes “just business”.
Isaiah follows that up with a description of God’s judgment for such unwise ventures, and lets pick back up in v. 12, “…they do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord, Nor do they consider the work of His hands.” One could easily say that this describes God’s handiwork in nature, and I think that’s a terrible thing to take for granted.
David wrote, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” However, there are greater works of God all around us, or should be. That is, unless we add house to house and join field to field and so live alone… The people around us are the work that God himself described as “very good”–vs. the rest of creation that was “good”.
God designed us to need each other, and to serve each other. When we lose sight of that, there is a “lack of knowledge” and leaders are “famished” and their followers “parched with thirst”. We will be brought low, abased, humbled, until we recognize the wisdom and glory of God. We ourselves are to show His glory, and we do it through following God’s design, and His very example as Jesus walked this earth.