Isaiah 5 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it; so He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. 3 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? 5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it." 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. (NKJV)
THE VINEYARD WENT WILD
Text: Isaiah 5:1 – 7
“A Sunday school teacher was asking her students some questions after a series of lessons on God's omnipotence. She asked, "Is there anything God can't do?" All was silent. Finally, one boy held up his hand. The teacher, on seeing this, was disappointed that they had missed the point of the lesson. She sighed and asked, "Well, what is it you think God can't do?" The boy replied, "He can't please everybody." (Steve May. The Story File. [“One Thing God Can’t Do”.] Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000, p. 73). We might find humor in that child’s assessment, but we must also admit that the child is right when he said that God cannot please everybody.
Isaiah gives us a picture that at first seems to appear one way but proves to be the opposite of what the audience might have expected. Isaiah points out how God became disappointed with those to whom He gave a great privilege. God gave them all that they would ever need so that they could take it, invest it, cultivate it and make it prosperous in a way that God had intended. However, their privilege proved to be abused and their opportunity proved to be misspent---wasted and fruitless.
What is unique about this passage of scripture is that it is the only parable that I have read being described as being put in the form of a song. As someone (Geoffrey W. Grogan) has said, Isaiah assumes the guise of a folk singer. (Kenneth L. Barker & John Kohlenberger III. consulting eds. Zondervan NIV Commentary. Grtand Rapids: Zondervan Publishng House, 1994, p. 1049). The song resembles the emotion of joy as it engages the attentiveness of the audience that it will later condemn. How do God’s people incriminate themselves? It seems that is what this passage of scripture attempts to clarify.
EXPECTATION AND OPPORTUNITY
We have to remember that they (God’s chosen people) were a peculiar people. Consider Exodus 19:3 -5:
3 And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure [peculiar people] to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." (NKJV).
From this passage of scripture in Exodus, we can see that God had great expectations for them as a nation. What’s more is that God had destined them not only to be a great people but a privileged people with a great opportunity. What the New King James Versions calls “a special treasure” the King James Version calls a “peculiar people” which in the Hebrew context meant “property, wealth, private property, which is laid up or reserved … precious … prized … preserved”. (William Wilson. Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, n. d., p. 305). There can be no doubt that God had destined them for great things.
They had been given an opportunity to be God’s chosen people to make a difference. Though they had been called by God to be His people and make a difference, they proved to be a people who were indifferent, ungrateful and rebellious. Someone once said, “Man is responsible to God for becoming what God has made possible for him to become”. (E. C. McKenzie. 14,000 Quips & Quotes. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990, p. 448). How are we handling the possibilities and opportunities that God has given us to become what God wills for us to become? What difference are we making?
As someone has said “No individual raindrop ever considered itself responsible for the flood”. (E. C. McKenzie. 14,000 Quips & Quotes. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990, p. 448). How many floods have we been a part of because we were avoiding what God willed for us to be doing as well as the difference that He wants us to make?
DISAPPOINTING DISOBEDIENCE
They were called to be God’s treasure but they rebelled against their call. “A farmer once related growing corn to the many stages of life. You plant the seed and nurture it like a child. As the corn grows, the farmer takes care of the stocks applying proper amounts of fertilizer to each. Eventually the plants mature and bear fruit as a child who grows to parent their offspring.” (David N. Mosser. ed. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2004 Edition. John Mathis. “The Wild Vineyard”. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003, p. 277). Corn does not have a will so it cannot rebel. We have a will and we can be rebellious. Our rebellion could later prove to be incriminating as it had been for our ancestors who neglected God’s call on their lives to make a difference. After all, there is the old Biblical principle that reminds us that we reap what we sow.
To rebel against God is to rebel against His love.
1) God gave them a special position as His people. They did not earn that place. God gave them that place. We call that grace.
2) God delivered them from having no future and no purpose to having potential, privilege and opportunity. We call that providence and salvation. As someone (Richard Carl Hoefler) has said, “Salvation is not a product we possess but a process in which we participate.” (Richard Carl Hoefler. The Divine Trap. Lima: C. S. S. Publishing Co., 1980, p. 120).
3) God not only provided for their deliverance and salvation, but God also provided them with a place that Isaiah refers to in this parable as a vineyard in which to develop their unlocked potential. God gave them---His beloved
A) a vineyard on a
B) fruitful hill and
C) dug up and cleared out stones and
D) planted the choicest vine,
E) built them a tower and
F) a wine press. God wanted His people to “participate in this process of their salvation” and be fruitful (Isaiah 5:1 -2).
The removal of these stones from the vineyard symbolizes how God how “… expelled the idolatrous nations of Canaan”. (Herbert Lockyer. All The Parables Of The Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1963, p. 50). God removed them so that they could not be a bad influence and cause God’s people to be lured away by mingling with them and adopting their crooked and corrupt ways. God’s people incriminated themselves by refusing to be fruitful. We call that foolish. They rebelled against God’s love in the worst way.
This certainly was not the first time that God’s people rebelled against Him. Adam and Eve, created in God’s image had the Garden of Eden which God created to be a perfect place. As we know, their rebellion proved to be costly. Compare that with what is being described in Isaiah 5:1 – 7, and again we see that their rebellion will prove to be costly. We see this same kind of rebellion over and over throughout the Old Testament between the time of Adam and Eve and the generations that followed them. There are always consequences for our actions. None of us like negative consequences especially when we have sown the seeds the reaped the negative consequences that we brought on ourselves. They failed to participate and be fruitful by failing to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength as well as loving their neighbors as themselves (Luke 10:27). Isaiah 5:7 in the NRSV compares the behavior of God’s chosen people to His expectation of them: God “ … expected justice but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry.” God found the injustice of the oppressors who lacked righteousness as well as the cry of those who were being oppressed. There is a similarity between this expectation and God’s expectation of His people then as well as now to love both God and neighbors. How we love our neighbors or fail to love them says something about ho well or how poorly we love God and reflect His love. As Jesus said, “ if we have done it unto the least of these, then we have done it unto Him (Matthew 25:40 in the affirmative and 25:46 in the negative).
Let’s talk about fruit and consequences. We know from what Jesus tells that good trees cannot produce bad fruit and that bad trees cannot produces good fruit. It is obvious that wild grapes are grapes that are bad fruit because they are fruits of a bad and ungodly nature. As someone (Matthew Henry) once noted “Where grace does not work, corruption will. Wild grapes are hypocritical performances in religion, that look like grapes, but are sour or bitter”. (Matthew Henry. A Commentary On The Whole Bible. Volume 4. Iowa Falls: World Bible Publishers, n.d. p. 30). Their hypocritical performance brought on the consequence of God’s punishment. As someone succinctly put it, “Unfruitfulness was the nation’s transgression and barrenness became its punishment”. (Herbert Lockyer. All The Parables Of The Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1963, p. 50). What kind of fruit would we like to produce? The obvious answer is that we want to produce fruit that is pleasing to God.
What happens when the rain stops falling on a crop? Obviously, the crop will die. God can withhold the rain and remove his blessing from the vineyard which is what Isaiah 5:5 – 6 is about: “I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it." (NKJV). To someone who does not believe the message of Isaiah 5:1 -7, it might not be anything more than a silly love song. Just as a branch cannot survive apart from a vine, we cannot be fruitful and successful without God.
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
It seems that there is a hint of God’s sadness for them because of how things turned out compared to how they could have been. I am reminded of an episode from my own life. When I was in the sixth grade, I disobeyed my father on Halloween. He punished me by not by restricting me from going trick or treating. No, he punished me by allowing me to go trick or treating minus my costume. I never forgot that. As I trick or treated that night, I thought about how much more fun it would have been had I gotten to wear my costume. In much the same way, God wanted to discipline His wayward people. He wanted His people to remember what could have been and what might have been when they had to face the consequences of their waywardness.
It is sad when we as God’s people do not take potential consequences very seriously. God warns His people for a reason. God’s warnings are not petty and unimportant. God warns His people to keep them from causing themselves unnecessary pain. What is than looking at what might have been? It is just this---having to deal with the consequences of what could have been avoided if only we had done things God’s way.
How often do we hear about a tragedy that could have been avoided? “Three young people in Florida, barely out of their teens, have just been sentenced to fifteen years each for removing a stop sign from an intersection. The defendants cried, and even the judge expressed regret, but everyone seems to agree that stealing stop signs is a particularly heinous prank. In this case, three other young people were killed when they drove through the sign-less intersection into an eight-ton Mack truck.” (Steve May. The Story File. [“Three Guilty Fifteen Year olds”.] Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000, p. 276). Those young people did not anticipate that their prank would cause the death of three other young people. Even though they regretted what they had done, they still had to face the consequences of their prank---fifteen year sentences.
GOD’S LOVE NEVER STOPS
God did not stop loving His chosen people. Though His people failed to meet God’s expectation of them, He let them face the consequences of their actions. Even though God was angry with them, He did not quit loving them. How it must break God’s heart that they missed their calling as His people and rebelled against His love. To prove how great God’s love for His people is in all generations past, present and future, we have to remember that God proves His love for us in Jesus Christ. While we were sinners, Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son died for us so that we could be justified through His blood and saved from wrath through what He did for us on the cross (Romans 5:8,9 paraphrased).
We are the people of God’s Vineyard today! Just as younger siblings can learn from the mistakes of the older siblings, we can learn from the previous generations who did not meet God’s expectation of them in the Vineyard. If there is anything that this song/ parable tells us, it is that God wants us to be faithful and fruitful in our duty and loving service. Like we mentioned at the beginning, we must remember that it is not God’s duty to please us, but rather our duty in His Vineyard is to live lives that are pleasing to Him! What kind of song will be sung about our work in God’s Vineyard?
