October 2, 2005 Isaiah 5:1-7
I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He 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. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 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? 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. 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 of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, 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.
Isaiah decided to sing a song in today’s text. I don’t know if he had a very good voice or not. I don’t know what kind of a melody it was either. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the words he chose to sing and the message that those words contained. Consider the words to “Ring around a Rosey” for instance.
Ring around a rosey,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes, ashes
We all fall down.
This nursery rhyme is about the bubonic plague known as the Black Death. Medical thought at the time was that flowers or posies would purify the air of its bad diseases. "Ring around a rosey" refers to a pinkish circle that would form on a victims body prior to turning black. "Ashes, ashes" refers to burning those things that belonged to a person that had died of the plague. "We all fall down" relates to what most folk experienced if they fell victim to the bubonic plague — death. So this song sounds kind of cheery - but it’s actually really depressing if you understand the words.
From the looks of it, I would assume that Isaiah’s song didn’t sound like “Here we go round the Roseberry Bush” or “Skip to my Lou”. (Although it might have been somewhat satirical to sing “it’s hedge will be destroyed” and “it will be trampled” to a song like “Skip to My Lou.”) What we’re here to do today is not to debate over what the style of music may have been - but to consider what the words had to say. They talk about the relationship between God and His people - the Israelites.
Listen to the Words of Isaiah’s Vineyard Song
I. The words of effort
The first part of the verse sing about the time and effort that the Lord put into planting His vineyard - the Israelites. My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. It wouldn’t hurt for us to look into the imagery of Isaiah’s song by examining for a moment the picture that he is drawing. A commentator by the name of Young said this of Palestine:
The Arabs have a proverb to the effect that when God created the world an angel flew over it carrying a bag of stones under each arm. As he flew over Palestine, one bag broke so that half of all the stones in the world are in Palestine. He who has traveled in this land will appreciate the enormity of the labor involved in clearing a field of stones. The wine vat was a lower part of the trough, often carved out of the solid stone, and served to receive the juice of the grapes which had been pressed down or trampled on in the upper trough or wine press. The grapes of Palestine are remarkable, both for their size and quality.
From this historical viewpoint of the ground of Palestine, we can perhaps more greatly appreciate the picture that Isaiah is trying to draw for us - for the work that the Loved One - the Lord - went through to plant a vineyard.
All of these terms are, of course, symbolic. The fertile hillside reminds me of the hill that Jerusalem was built on - it was a fortress of sorts - a seemingly impenetrable one. When David originally went to attack it and take it over the Jebusites taunted them by saying in 2 Samuel 5:6, “You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.” They thought, “David cannot get in here.” The fertility of the ground and the watchtower could also be interlaced. The Israelites were given fertility in their ground from the Word of God which they were given through the prophets. Isaiah 55:10-11 says, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. These prophets also served as God’s watchtower. When God talked to Ezekiel in chapter 33 he referred to him as a “watchman.” He said in verses 7-9, “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.” The watchtower warned the people and spoke to them regularly through the temple that was established in Jerusalem. The stones that were cleared would refer to the spiritually dead Canaanites who occupied the land prior to the Israelites arrival - who were taken out by the Lord. The hedge that God put around the Israelites would be referring to the special Law that served to separate the Israelites from all of their surrounding nations. The working of the ground would refer to the way that God cultivated the hearts of the Israelites through the Law and the Gospel that was dug into their hearts through the words of the prophets. On top of this, He made the Jews as the choicest vines. God made them into very talented people.
All of this gives a very GRAND picture of the planter, and a very IMPOTENT picture of the Israelites. They were nothing but passive recipients that sat there and had the planter do all of the work with them. He does the designing, planting, watering, digging, and provides all necessary to grow. God doesn’t just do SOME of the work - He does ALL the work. God made it clear throughout their history - that HE was the One who deserved the credit. Deuteronomy 9:4-5 says, “Do not say to yourself, “The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
This is what God means when He talks about GRACE. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:9-10, “(God) has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” The picture that God draws of us - is not as powerful humans who have the potential to reach into heaven with the right decisions. Not at all. God says you were dead, sinful, powerless rebels under the control of Satan. But God chose you, the Holy Spirit gave you faith, the blood of Christ was given to you, and God rescued you from the kingdom of Satan. You didn’t have any choice in this matter - not any more choice than a baby has to be born. You were by NATURE objects of wrath, Paul says. In order to change you, God had to work against your nature, take you out of your nature, and recreate a new heart and a new spirit with in you. You did nothing to end up in this worship service today, professing Jesus Christ as your Savior. He didn’t choose you because you had greater potential than others. He chose you because of His MERCY and grace. God wants the credit. To think even for a minute that you made it here because you deserved it or you chose it or you came to God - it is like taking credit for a job you didn’t do. There is no “I” in grace.
II. The words of expectation
There is a difference between an inventor and a painter. A painter uses his brain and hand and paints a beautiful picture for one purpose - for people to look at. An inventor uses his brain and hand to make something for people to USE. Which would you say God is? Wouldn’t you say that He is more inventor than painter? Everything that He seems to make has a purpose. Even though we just stare at the stars in the sky which would seem like the work of a painter, the stars are still used to determine the days and the years and for positioning of a ship out on the open sea. The same thing goes with His vineyard. He didn’t plant this beautiful vineyard just to look at. Isaiah song goes on to talk about the expectation that the Lord had of the Israelites. What were they? He sings, Then he looked for a crop of good grapes. It was only natural for the Lord to expect good and lusciously huge grapes. After all, He had provided everything necessary for those grapes to grow. He expected the Israelites to act like the cream of the crop of mankind. They had everything provided for them to be an exemplary race in love, charity, and life.
God expects the same of you. As Christians, we tend to forget the wonderful benefits and advantages that we have as Christians. Paul said of himself in 1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” Think about the grace of God that has been given to you. You were baptized! This was no mere rite that you went through - like a symbol of your belief. God’s Word says in 1 Peter 3:21 that “baptism now saves you - not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Because you were given the Holy Spirit in your baptism, the devil is not able to play with your emotions of love and anger and jealousy. The angels are on guard in your life. Your sinful nature has been drowned. You also have the Word of God to listen to every day. You have confirmation lessons. Most of you have had Christian parents. You know what God expects of you.
What does this mean in black and white? Out of all of your classmates in school, you should be the best behaved. You should not be the one who keeps getting in trouble. Out of all the children in the world, you should be the most respectful of your parents. You should be the hardest workers at work - with the best attitude. When people look at you, they should say, “I wish I worked as hard as he did. I wish I had her attitude.” When your friends talk to you they should say, “I wish I had his control. I wish I was as moral as him.” You should be the most generous person and most caring and open person in comparison to anyone in your class or work. Why? You have the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus living in you through faith. God has chosen you and redeemed you from this fallen world. He’s put your sinful nature to death. God died for you, and you believe that. This is God Almighty we’re talking about here. You have God’s grace through faith.
But what happened when God looked at the Israelites with all of their benefits? Isaiah said, “it yielded only bad fruit. . . . He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. Against all reason, against the very nature of what God had done with the Israelites, these home grown and pampered vines were still producing wildly bad fruit. They were shedding innocent blood and being violent with one another. In the same way, as God looks at His baptized people in the New Testament - there is still a ton of bad fruit being produced. Our children are not acting as examples of morality in their classrooms. They are giving their teachers headaches. Our parents are not acting like prime parents. They are putting sports and entertainment as a priority over God’s Word. We are not willing to work as hard as the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses. We are not giving as much as those who are forced to give by their churches. As employees we prove ourselves to have just as bad of attitudes as the next person. We cut people off in traffic just as badly as the next guy. Instead of sticking out as examples of morality, somehow we end up being worse than the heathens.
Why is this? Isaiah asks, “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 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? He leaves it open and says, “YOU BE THE JUDGE.” If God did all these things for the Israelites - and God has done all these things for YOU, then He CANNOT get the blame. Even the Israelites recognized this, because they offer NO excuse in this text. They remain silent. The sad matter of it is that as Christians we still OFFER excuses as to WHY we’re so lazy or why we’re so selfish. We actually have the nerve to complain that God somehow hasn’t done enough with us. I hear things like, “he’s just got a real bad temper. She’s always been emotional. I’ve never been able to manage my money well.” Is that really an excuse? Does that really fly in light of the fact that you’ve been baptized and redeemed? Isn’t that like saying, “it’s just the way God made me.” That’s like saying, “it’s your fault God, I can’t help it.” How can you honestly use that as an excuse when you’ve been baptized and been given the Word of God and the Holy Spirit as your companion? Who are you trying to fool? Don’t do it. It’s better just to keep your mouth shut.
III. The words of condemnation
The Israelites in Isaiah’s time had become so blatantly evil that God could no longer bear it. Their actions weren’t just a matter of weakness - they were pure signs of unbelief. 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. 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.” In specific terms, God was going to bring the Assyrians down onto the Israelites and punish them for their behavior. Worse than that, he was going to command the clouds not to rain. If this is symbolic of the Word of God - this is the worst judgment of all. God said He would give them a drought of His Word. He was going to SHUT HIS MOUTH - send no more prophets to them. Isaiah’s call was actually to now harden the hearts of these Israelites. Their time was up. God decided enough was enough.
I want you to think about this a little bit more with an illustration. In my back yard I tried to build a little fort over the old sand pit that the Dobbersteins had left behind, but I didn’t put a whole lot of time and effort into it. I used cheap press wood and leftover lumber. I slapped together some two by fours, and the fort is now falling apart. I wouldn’t trust my cat in it. So I’m going to tear it down. It’s no big deal to me because I didn’t put a lot of time or put forth a whole lot of effort into it. I didn’t expect it to be much. But think about what God did with the Israelites - the time and effort He made into turning this garbage race into His chosen people - the prophets He sent - the laws He gave - the protection He provided throughout the trip in the wilderness. He provided for them with the CHOICEST of product. What did He get in return? A group of people who were in many regards WORSE than their own heathen neighbors! These people had to TRY to be evil - take some extra EFFORT to ignore God and ruin what they had - and they DID. He wanted to DELIGHT in them, but He just couldn’t. So now He decided to TEAR DOWN this country - to have the Assyrians and Babylonians come in and destroy the temple and the country which HE HIMSELF had designed and built. Why? Not because the building was bad, but because the people CHOSE TO REBEL. What a sad thing! The saddest thing in this whole picture is that even as Isaiah predicted this whole thing, the Israelites were past the point of returning. He was now there to harden them in their sins. The only hope would be for the descendants who would come after them to repent.
As we sit here and examine the fruit that we are producing as God’s vineyard, we can’t help but be embarrassed at the lack of clusters we have produced. What are we to do in the face of this? We know we really can’t make excuses. Is it too late for us as then also? If you feel like you’ve let God down, like you’ve been wasting space in His garden, if you feel bad about this, then you know it’s not too late for you. Isaiah wants you to take your eyes off of your vine - and look somewhere else. He says later on in Isaiah 11:1, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” Isaiah directs our sorrowful eyes to only one Branch that would bear fruit in the middle of the vineyard - from the stump of Jesse. At the beginning, this Branch would seem rather ordinary, as it would grow up in very humble beginnings under a carpenter and a virgin. Yet as the Branch continued to grow, it’s fruit would be amazing - raising the dead, walking on water, healing the blind were just a few. The greatest fruit however was not in his miracle healings or wonderful words, but in the way He was cut off from His very life. The Branch that gave so much promise was chopped off by His own Father on the tree of death - a cross. Instead of chopping down all the vines that weren’t producing - God chopped down the best one! Yet it was in this death that the Branch produced His greatest fruit - the fruit of forgiveness and righteousness for an entire world. Miracle of all miracles, the Branch then reattached itself to the stump - and lived again. In an arid and dying world, this Branch stood out as the one source of Life. So Isaiah says, look to that fruit.
When we look to that vine, a truly miraculous thing happens. Paul says in Romans 11:17, “you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.” Instead of throwing away our dead and withered vine, the LORD grafts us all into the one HUGE Vine that grows in the middle - which has the power to nourish all of us and keep us alive. Through faith, God grafts you INTO CHRIST and treats you as if you belonged there the whole time. Then Jesus says to us in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Through faith, God wants you to look at yourself NOT as an individual vine growing in the garden, but as an individual BRANCH grafted into the VINE. You cannot have life or produce fruit apart from Him - but THROUGH Him - in faith - relying on Him - God can do great things. The taking care of the kids, the doing of homework, the offerings that we make - paltry as they may be in our own eyes or the eyes of the world - are accepted by God and actually commended by God as acceptable fruit. Unbelievable! We who had to repent that our vines were rotten and our fruit was lousy and rotten, are told by God that we are the apple of His eye - so that even the weakest of works that we produce are acceptable when done through faith in Jesus.
One of the most popular songs that people like to sing at sports games is an old song written in the 1970’s by Queen. It’s called “we are the champions.” It’s a gloating and proud song, made to rub it in to the losers about how we won and you lost. Nobody likes it when that song is sung to them. In today’s song, Isaiah sings about how the Israelites were the losers and how they would be chopped off for abusing their gifts. It isn’t fun to hear this song sung to us. It isn’t sung by Isaiah to gloat, but to bring people to repentance. God grant that our reflection on this song has led you to repent of your unfruitfulness, and turn to the only source of life we’ve been promised - the Vine of Life - Jesus Christ. If you do not trust in Him, and try to produce your own vine, you will be lopped off and thrown in the fire. God doesn’t want that for you. Trust in Jesus Christ. He was already thrown in the fire for you. He is the only Way to eternity in heaven. Amen.
