A Nation of Neros

Read Isaiah 5:11–17

It is common among preachers and interpreters to assume that the prophets who pronounce doom on the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the Hebrew Scriptures are talking to the people as a whole. Everyone has fallen into apostasy and idolatry, and everyone must pay the price for these sins. But a closer examination of prophetic writings such as those of Amos or this oracle from Isaiah 5, for example, paints a different picture. In such instances, it is only some members of Israelite and Judean society who come in for criticism. Their culpability is compounded because, unfortunately, the negative results of their sin fall on the innocent as well as the guilty.

Consider the opening lines of the passage in question, Isaiah 5:11–17: “Ah, you who rise early in the morning / in pursuit of strong drink, / who linger in the evening / to be inflamed by wine, / whose feasts consist of lyre and harp, / tambourine and flute and wine, / but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord, / or see the work of his hands!” (vv. 11–12). This is not an indictment of all the people, but of a specific set of miscreants. But the consequences of this small group’s bad behavior fall on all: “Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge; / their nobles are dying of hunger, / and their multitude is parched with thirst” (v. 13).

A small group of relatively wealthy people—those with the leisure time and ready money to spend on wine, liquor, and frivolous entertainment—behave in such a way that all of society, the innocent along with the culpable, must pay the price for their sins. Does this sound familiar at all?

I read an article recently that said a mere twelve families own nearly two percent of our nation’s wealth. That’s obscene. The top 1% of earners now control more wealth than the entire middle class combined, the top 10% hold 70% of the nation’s wealth, and the gap between these economic elites and the rest of us continues to grow wider. The situation is even more dire when you take into account racial and ethnic differences. Black and Latinx households in the US earn about half as much as the average White household, and they own about 15–20% as much net wealth.

It is easy to rail against the Jeff Bezoses and Elon Musks of the world as they sail around in their super-yachts and take joyrides into the outer atmosphere in their rocket ships, but it is less easy to look at ourselves in the same mirror. Did you know that if you own one automobile, you immediately vault into the top 20% of wealthy people in the world? A house and a second or third car ensconces you firmly in the top 5%. When you consider the hundreds of billions of dollars Americans spend every year on movies, concerts, video games, sporting events, vacations, and other recreational or leisure activities, and when you take into account the vast amount of resources we consume and food we waste, it is hard not to see us as a nation of Neros fiddling while the world burns.

What would Isaiah have to say about us? Would the heavenly indictment ring down upon us through his words? Would he blame us for creating the conditions in which the multitudes are parched with thirst and the people go into exile without knowledge? Would he offer this prediction about us: “People are bowed down, everyone is brought low, / and the eyes of the haughty are humbled” (v. 15)?

It’s not all bad news, however. The thing about warnings is that there is no point in them if we are already beyond hope. We can begin to make changes now—as individuals; as congregations; and, through our combined voices and wills, as cities, counties, states, and a nation—that will benefit our local and global neighbors. We can commit to reducing or eliminating carbon emissions. We can commit to a more equitable distribution of resources in this country and around the world. We can commit to racial and economic justice, even when it costs us. And we can express these commitments by what we say, what we do, and how we vote.

There are many good reasons to do these things, but the greatest can be found in Isaiah 5:16: “The Lord of hosts is exalted by justice, / and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.” Let us be imitators of this holy God.

Grace and peace,
bob