Isaiah 4 ends on a note of hope, but chapter 5 brings us back to the realities of Israel’s condition. Hope cannot annihilate the present fact of sin that must be dealt with.
Isaiah uses a parable to set his hearers up to judge themselves.
I will 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;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded rotten grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2)
Limestone rocks helped the field to be fertile, but they needed to be removed to grow grapevines. The stones could be used to construct a protective fence. Two wine vats were employed, one for crushing the grapes and another to collect the juice.
After the backbreaking labor of clearing the field, constructing a fence, watchtower, and vats, the gardener needed to wait two years before the grapes would be produced.
We can only imagine the dismay of the gardener, when he discovered a harvest of stinking grapes. The preferred translation of “rotten grapes” is stinking grapes. It is not that he arrived too late in the harvest and the grapes had spoiled on the vine. The grapes were a total loss from the beginning.
Parables are told to get the audience on the side of the storyteller. People familiar with the work involved in preparing a field for a harvest of grapes would have groaned to hear of this gardener’s plight.
What More Could I do?
Isaiah invites his audience to agree with his analysis of the situation.
And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people 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 expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield rotten grapes? (Isaiah 5:3-4)
Isaiah asks his audience agree with him. What more could he have done? They knew of his backbreaking labor and careful planting of the vines. They understood the patient waiting for the grapes to be produced.
The prophet has the full attention of his listeners. Each one is wondering, “What more could he have done?”
The Gardener’s Reasonable Action
Something with the vineyard has gone so wrong that it is reasonable for the gardener to devote the entire project to the junk heap.
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 wasteland;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it. (Isaiah 5:5-6)
If a field produces such an unusable product, it makes sense to destroy the entire project and move on to more fertile fields.
Hints of God’s activity in this project arrive in verse 6. A gardener can do much of the work, but only God can command the clouds and rain.
I expect Isaiah’s audience thought there was a spiritual message for them, because they were listening to the nation’s premier prophet. At this point in the story, they are ready for the proverbial “punch line.”
The Punch Line of Isaiah’s Parable
Isaiah didn’t keep his audience waiting. The stinking grapes of God’s cherished garden were the people of Judah.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry! (Isaiah 5:7)
We can imagine God’s backbreaking labor in the creation of His beloved people. He planted the garden of His love with Abraham. He dug His people out of slavery through Moses. God cultivated His people-project in the wilderness. He waited year-after-year, as judges and kings both served and abandoned faithfulness to Him.
After hundreds of years of labor, God expected His people to reflect His character. Instead, they produced the stinking grapes of bloodshed and the cry of the oppressed.
“What more can I do that I haven’t done?” asks God.
God answers his own question. If God’s people choose to abandon Him, He will let them experience the withdrawal of His protection and provision.
What right does God’s people have to expect His grace, when they spurn it day-after-day?
Reflections
Chapter 5 is not God’s final word in Isaiah. In chapter 53, we discover God’s remedy for human sin and rebellion. His self-giving love reaches out to rebels and enemies, absorbs the hurt of our sin, and makes peace with us.
That being said, we can’t presume upon God’s grace. Followers of Jesus are elected. That means, God sought us out before we ever found Him. He brought us to Himself as an act of grace.
However, election has a responsibility and not just a benefit. We are elected to serve our Lord and reflect His character to a watching world. If we become stinking grapes in God’s vineyard, we can expect His judgment as did Isaiah’s audience.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on the Bob Spradling YouTube channel today.
Real Voices 