Isaiah 5:1-7
“Let
me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a
vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug
it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a
watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked
for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of
Jerusalem and men of Judah judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did
it yield wild grapes? And now I will
tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall
be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will
make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall
grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the
house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked
for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!”
What a profound question God is asking of His people, it is
clear the Lord has blessed them, and yet they have rejected his precepts and
commandments. We who live in the West,
we have been blessed by our heavenly Father, has He not poured out His blessings
on us, and if we are His vineyard what kind of grapes have we become? The song
is to the men of Judah, but God’s question to Israel takes on much deeper and
prophetic meaning. What more was there
to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
Gene A. Getz of Life Essentials Study Bible shares these
insights: “In Jesus parable, the landowner “planted a
vineyard” and built a hedge around it.
He leased it to tenants, but when the landowner sent some of his
servants to harvest the fruit, they were horribly mistreated. The landowner’s final step was to send his
own son. Sadly, they took his life (Mt
21:33-46). Clearly, the “landowner”
represents God the Father and the “vineyard” is Israel. Those the tenants rejected were the prophets
- certainly including Isaiah, who allegedly was “sawed in two” (Heb
11:37). The landowner’s son is Jesus
Christ, and those that will bear fruit in Israel’s place are the church.
The point of Jesus’ parable was so clear that
the Jewish leaders knew He was referring to them. Had the Pharisees been serious in their
search for truth, they could have studied the parable of the vineyard recorded
by Isaiah and discerned their hypocrisy.
However, in their pride they rejected the Messiah’s messages and
continued in their unbelief. At the root
of all unbelief is pride and arrogance, as Paul made clear in his metaphor
about the vine and the branches (Romans 11:17-21) Gene
ask this question: “In what ways can the church avoid the same sins of pride
and unbelief that plagued the nation of Israel?” (page 914, footnote #5)
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
No comments:
Post a Comment