0120. Israel's Missionary Fruitlessness

Israel’s Missionary Fruitlessness

"My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

"And He fenced it * * planted it * * built a tower in the midst of it * * made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes" (Isa_5:1-7).

The vineyard of the Lord was the whole House of Israel. We have seen how God called Abraham, to make him a world-wide blessing. We have seen step by step how God manifested His unchanging purpose to call the earth nations unto Himself. He did this, in each case, by magnifying His Name, before the kings, the autocratic head of the nations, the key to the nations, themselves. All of these men, through whom God was working, were children of Israel, Abraham’s seed.

What God did in these special cases, He wanted to do through each and every child of Israel. He wanted the whole nation to be His channel of blessing. He called the whole House of Israel His vineyard (Isa_5:7). What more could He have done for His vineyard than that He had done? Yet, when He looked that it should bring forth grapes, why brought it forth wild grapes?

Therefore Israel was broken off. Israel rejected the Son of God, and crucified Him–but this was all because Israel had already departed from the Living God, and been unfaithful to her calling.

What God longed for was fruit, and more fruit, and much fruit. Israel was a fruitless branch, therefore God plucked her off from the vine, and she is until this day, trodden under the feet of men, and she is burned.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR