Isaiah 56:9 - Meaning and Application

From words of comfort, the prophet suddenly turns to words of rebuke and warning. He keeps that tone through most of the next three chapters, and many think this begins a new sermon. He had just promised that God would one day bring the captives home, which would comfort those who lived to see it. Now he explains the sins that would bring the nation into captivity, to warn the people of his own day, nearly a hundred years earlier, as they were filling up the nation’s guilt and proving that God was just in the judgment he would bring.

God would lay the land waste through the cruelty of its enemies and the faithlessness of its own leaders. He calls the destroying powers into action. The sheep of God’s pasture would become sheep for slaughter, handed over to his justice, and the beasts of the field and forest are summoned to devour them (Isaiah 56:9). These beasts act from their own violent nature, yet God allows it and uses them as servants in carrying out his judgment, even though they do not understand his purpose.

If this first points to the Babylonians who would invade and consume the nation, it may also look ahead to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the Romans, after those exiles named earlier had been gathered into the Christian church (Isaiah 56:8). The Roman armies came like wild beasts from the forest, and they completely took away the nation’s land and standing. When God has destructive work to do, he has such instruments ready to carry it out.

The reason for these judgments is then given. The shepherds, who should have watched over the flock and warned of danger, were false and careless. They did not do their duty, nor did they take seriously the trust placed in them, so the sheep became easy prey to wild beasts. This may refer to the false prophets in Isaiah’s, Jeremiah’s, and Ezekiel’s days, who encouraged the people in their sin and promised peace while they kept doing evil. It may also refer to the wicked princes, including the sons of Josiah, who did evil in the Lord’s sight, along with other corrupt rulers under them.

These leaders should have upheld justice and righteousness (verse 1), but they abandoned both (Jeremiah 5:1). Or the words may point to the leaders in our Savior’s time, the chief priests and scribes, who should have recognized the signs of the times and told the people that the Messiah was near. Instead, they opposed him and did all they could to keep people from knowing him and to turn them against him. It is a very sad picture of leaders who fail in their calling. Woe to a land when its guides are like this.

They had no sense of what their work required. They were terribly ignorant and unfit to teach because they had learned so little themselves. “His watchmen are blind,” and blind watchmen are useless. If the seers cannot see, who will see for us? If the light within us is darkness, how deep that darkness is! Christ called the Pharisees blind leaders of the blind (Matthew 15:14). The beasts come to devour, and the watchmen do not even notice them. They are ignorant, shepherds who do not understand what to do about the sheep, nor can they feed them wisely (Jeremiah 3:15).

What little knowledge they had, they did not use well. No one was helped by it. They were blind watchmen who could not see the danger, and dumb dogs who would not give warning. Why are dogs set to guard sheep if they cannot bark to wake the shepherd and scare off the wolf? These men never corrected people for their sins, nor warned them what would come at the end. They never told the people about the judgments of God that were already closing in. They barked at God’s prophets, and even bit them, and troubled the sheep, but they made no stand against the wolf or the thief.

They were also lazy and unwilling to work. They loved ease and hated effort. They were always sleeping, lying down, and eager to slumber. They were not overcome by sleep through grief or exhaustion, like the disciples, but chose it on purpose and said to themselves, “Take your ease, soul. A little more sleep.” It is bad for a people when their shepherds are asleep (Nahum 3:18), but God’s people are safe because their Shepherd, the keeper of Israel, never sleeps or grows tired.

They were also greedy and wanted more and more of the world. They were like dogs that never have enough. No matter how much they had, they wanted more. They loved money and were never satisfied with it (Ecclesiastes 5:10). They cared more about what they could get than what they should do. Give them their pay, and they did not care whether the work was done. They did not feed the flock, they stripped it. Each one looked after his own advantage and had no concern for the public good. Paul said the same of the leaders in his day, “All seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2:21). Each one pushed his own opinion, his own group, or his own family, while the common needs of the people were neglected.

They looked only to their own gain, from their own side of the work. They wanted money by fair means or foul, from every direction, but especially from their own quarter, where they were sure to protect their profits and miss nothing they could take. If someone did not put something in their mouths, they would not serve him. In fact, they would turn against him and prepare for war (Micah 3:5).

They were also ruled by pleasure. They were devoted to drinking and never felt more at home than at a drunken feast (Isaiah 56:12). “Come,” they said, “I will get wine. We have it ready, and our cellars are better stocked than our study rooms. Let us fill ourselves, or get drunk, with strong drink.” They were often drunk, and not by accident or because they were overcome, but by deliberate choice.

The watchmen did this by inviting one another to drink too much, or by urging the people to sit and drink with them. In that way, they confirmed people in their wicked habits and hardened hearts they should have corrected. How could anyone think drunkenness was wrong when the watchmen themselves joined in and led them there?

These people were also very sure their comfort and prosperity would continue. They said, “Tomorrow will be like today, and even better. We will have just as much tomorrow to spend on our pleasures as we have now.” They gave no thought to their own weakness and the fact that they were cutting their lives short by their excesses. They did not fear God’s judgments, even though they kept provoking him and storing up his anger and curse.

They also never considered how uncertain all the pleasures of this life are. Those pleasures wear out as they are used and pass away with the desires that chase them. They planned to keep living this wicked way no matter what their consciences said. They meant to be just as cheerful tomorrow as they were today. But do not brag about tomorrow, since your life could be demanded from you tonight.