1635. The Song of the Vineyard
The Song of the Vineyard
"Now will I sing to my Wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard. My Wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
"And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard.
"What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
"And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
"I will take away the hedge therefore, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
"And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: 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 His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry" (Isa_5:1-7).
Isaiah the Prophet, tells us about Israel as God's vineyard, and in his song, he gives us a bird's-eye view of Israel's whole history. We have before us,
1. The Fruitful Hill
"Now will I sing to my Wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My Wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill" (Isa_5:1).
The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts was the House of Israel, and the men of Judah were His pleasant plant. This is clearly taught in verse 7.
This vineyard was planted in a very fruitful hill, in Canaan, the land of pomegranates and oil and olives and wine, the land of marvelous fertility.
2. God's Care of His Vineyard
"And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein" (Isa_5:2).
What more could have been done to God's vineyard than that which He did for Israel.
God left nothing which He could do, undone. He took away everything that would hinder Israel's fruitfulness; He did everything that would assist its fruitfulness. He gave it every protection from the enemy; He blessed it with every favor He could grant.
3. The Fruitage–Wild Grapes
"And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes" (Isa_5:2).
"Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." When God planted Israel, His vine, He made it possible for her to bring forth fullness of fruit. He built a winepress in anticipation of the day of harvest. When He looked that it should bring forth grapes, He found nothing but worthless, wild grapes.
Israel had been untrue to her trust. God had blessed her that she might prove a blessing. God had planted her that He might rejoice in her, but she disappointed Him. Israel let the vineyard go uncared for. No weeding was done, no pruning was wrought.
4. The Husbandman's Decree
"I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it" (Isa_5:5-6).
It is very striking when we note that immediately following the song of the vineyard, and God's curse upon it, there follow in the chapter, six woes which God pronounces against His people.
The fruitless branches must be cut down, taken by men and burned with fire.
In the next chapter of Isaiah, the Prophet seeing Israel's devastation cries, "Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land" (Isa_6:11-12).
In the seventh chapter, the promise of the restoration is given: "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."
Before this Son was born, the land of Israel was to be forsaken by both of her kings, but after the Son came back to reign, He should restore His people Israel and, "of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of. David, and upon His kingdom, to order it and to establish it" (Isa_9:7).
The eleventh chapter tells more of the fruitfulness of Israel under her king, in the age to come.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR