Isaiah 5-6; Mark 2

Isaiah 5 is the song of the vineyard. His loved one cleared it of stones, planted it with choicest vines, built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. He had deeply invested in this vineyard and it did not yield good fruit. 4 "What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? 5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it."
The vineyard "is the house of Israel and the and the men of Judah are the garden of His delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress."
God had invested deeply into them and they only turned to their own way. Many times we are guilty of their sin and want to turn away from where and how God wants us to serve. He is God and He does have the right to make that choice. He sets the standard, and the details, not us. He guides our life and places us where He wants. We end up walking away from the Lord and the work He was doing in us remains undone. Does the Lord have the right to make decisions in the vineyard of our lives? Many times the struggles we have are a necessary part of God's plan to strengthen us and develop us for effective service. The easy part is to walk away and say I can't do this. You're right, but God can. When we walk away from His plan, He does have a right to cut the vineyard down.

In chapter 6 we see Isaiah's commission. When he saw the presence of the Lord he was in awe and confessed He was a man of unclean lips because lived among a people of unclean lips. Then God sent a messenger to cleanse him and make him ready for his assignment. God always equips us for the assignment. 8 "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" It was a tough assignment to go to a people who had rejected God and deliver a message of God's judgment and discipline for their leaders and on their land. God had closed their understanding: 'You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' 10 This people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Isaiah's only question was "For how long, O Lord?"

In Mark 2 When Jesus re-entered Capernaum after preaching to the nearby villages, so many gathered at Simon Peter's house that there was no room left. The paralytic had to be lowered through the roof. That is radical church growth. That is what should happen when believers see God at work. When we see God caring and changing lives while working through other believers, we will be drawn to him. That's what he created us for, and all believers long for that. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus forgave the paralytics sins based on faith, and that angered the Pharisees. Was Jesus forgiving sins blasphemy? It had to be if Jesus was not God's son. They sinned if Jesus was God's son. Many times being on assignment is not popular.

The fasting will take place when Bridegroom is taken away, vs 18-22.
Fasting was associated with sorrow. John's disciples fasted as an expression of repentance, intended to hasten the coming of redemption taught by John. The Pharisees disciples fasted as instructed by scripture to observe certain fasting days, and at the direction of the Rabbi.
Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
They did not recognize the Lordship of Jesus. Lordship is a product of obedience. If there is something the Lord has commanded or told us to do, then we will not be able to be trusted with the next thing until we obey the first thing. If you are having trouble getting a clear picture of his will for your life, it might be worth your time to check things out.
Is it:#1 Baptism, unhurried time with the master, priorities: do I have things right side up, or upside down? Who is in control? Go ahead and get yes out of the way. God will not take a back seat to other things in our lives. To our: spouse, our children, or our possessions.