It seems the theme of the previous chapters has resurfaced in chapter five. God, through Isaiah, is warning the people of Judah and Jerusalem of His impending punishment for their wickedness.
Isaiah spends the first part of the chapter explaining all that God has done for His people, the good things he's provided and the way He has cared for them. After all that, God tells of the bitter disappointment He faced when the people He tended to, grew to be violent and unjust. God lets them know what will happen to them and their land, He will remove their protection and let them be destroyed. God even says when nations come against them there will be no rescue for them. God's people had stepped outside of the protective boundaries that He had set up for them and by doing that they also stepped out from under His hand of protection. They would find that those boundaries were not kill joys but life savers. The very boarders they ran from they would find themselves running to.
However, the bulk of this chapter is spent going over the sins of the people and giving each one a consequence. The interesting thing is that the consequence was usually the sin itself. If people were stealing, their consequence would be that they would have everything stolen from them. If they were exploiting others land they would be exiled from their own land. The people's blatant sin was always the cause of their own downfall. The things they took pleasure in ultimately destroyed them.
So, what? Now the Bible is saying anything that gives us pleasure is bad? No. Target missed here, that isn't the point. God loves fun, I mean have you ever seen a platypus? Or a narwhal? The point God is making is this, there are rules in life, guidelines, if you want to live under His protection. You step out of the lines, you step out of His protection. Let me go out on a limb here and try to give you a bit of perspective on what I mean. When you were a young adult living at home, did you ever get the, as-long-as-you-live-under-my-roof-you-will-obey-my-rules speech? (Yeah? Me too.) Kind of the same concept here with God saying, my protection requires your obedience. (Turns out your parents may not have been too far off.) God wants you to enjoy life, He just wants you to make sure you aren't trying to fill the God shaped hole in your heart with something more world shaped. When we step out of God's boundaries to have our fun we are cramming world things into our heart and that pushes out all the things of God, including His protection. When we let God in and let Him fill our heart we will find that the things inside the boundaries are a lot more appealing than we first thought. A heart full of God and a life inside the guidelines, under His protection is a rich, full, joy filled life. The life outside the boundaries may hold momentary appeal and even some satisfaction, but ultimately it brings our hearts destruction. God's heart is to protect ours.
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