Isaiah 5, Verses 1-7
FAMILIAR to every Israelite were the hillside vineyards of the fertile land God had given his forefathers. They yielded their fruit in season every year for the enjoyment of the owner of the vineyard, generally paying him back bountifully.
Isaiah, led by the Spirit of God to consider Israel as God’s vine, in this chapter brings before His people what God had done for them, and the shameful return they had made for all His care.
The 80th Psalm completes the picture of Israel as the vine, first as the work of God, and then in the desolation which was the fruit of their sins.
In Matthew 21:3333Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: (Matthew 21:33); Mark 12:11And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. (Mark 12:1) and Luke 20:99Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time. (Luke 20:9) and following verses, the Lord convicted the Jews of their crowning sin: their land was the vineyard; God was the husbandman. He had sent messenger after messenger to them, seeking fruit, and these servants were cruelly treated; He at last sends His Son, and they become His murderers. He was, as come into the world, the true vine (John 15:11I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. (John 15:1)), taking the rejected Israel’s place and bearing fruit for God. Afterward, in Revelation 14:18, 1918And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. 19And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. (Revelation 14:18‑19), we read of the vine of the earth—a corrupt thing of religious profession, to be swept away in judgment. Then Israel will be restored, and there will be fruit for God from that reborn nation.
Israel was favored and blessed as no other nation had been, having every advantage that could be given by a benefit cent and wise Creator; redeemed from Egypt’s slavery, and given to know the true God, while the world in general was sunk in the darkness of idolatry and immorality; brought by His power into possession of the richest land on earth, and there set apart with Him as their Head and Protector, from all around that would have defiled and corrupted; His word in the 5 books of the Pentateuch given through Moses, with an admirable religious system provided by God for their case. Such and more was Israel’s place as set up in the land. But this favored vine, which should have brought forth in abundance the choicest grapes, produced wild (or bad) grapes.
What will the owner of this vineyard do? He will take away its hedge and break down its wall, that enemies may come in; the vineyard shall be trodden under foot; He will make it a waste, neither pruned nor hoed; briers and thorns shall come up, and He will command the clouds that they shower no rain upon it.
This accounts for the present condition of the Holy Land; some small patches have been put under cultivation by returned Jews from other lands, but the country as a whole waits for Israel’s change of heart in the days to come, when judgment shall have accomplished what the gospel has not.
ML 04/09/1933