Judges 4-5. Deborah, and Barak, part 9: Israel is the Lord's vineyard; Isa 5.Title: Judges 4-5. Deborah, and Barak, part 9: Israel is the Lord's vineyard; Isa 5.
Announcementsopening prayer:
Leading up to the ninth century BC, after Israel had been in the land for about 550 years, the general trend of their nation had been one of idolatry mixed in with worship of Jehovah, which made for the true worship of no one. There was always some believers in Israel who loved the Lord and the same has been true for the church, but nationally, as a collective body, they were far more often than not, faithless and apostate, which in fact can describe the collective body of the church from very early on.
Israel held on to a false glory and that had to be overthrown so that true glory would be established. This could only be accomplished through judgment.
The basis of the address in chapter 5 is a parable representing Israel as the vineyard of Jehovah, which, contrary to all expectation, had produced bad fruit, and therefore was given up to devastation. What kind of bad fruit it produced is described in a six-fold "woe;" and what kind of devastation was to follow is indicated in the dark nocturnal conclusion to the whole address. We will only look at the first two woes leading to the phrase, “my people go into exile for lack of knowledge.”
Isa 5:1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
Isa 5:2 And He dug it all around, removed its stones [Canaanites], And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it, And hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.
God sings a love song concerning Himself which finds its projection through the mouth and pen of the prophet. Only God is able to sing of His beloved self where it does not have to be qualified as conceit. Isaiah also loves God as God loves His own righteousness and so he speaks as if he were the angel of Jehovah Himself.
We see in this immediately that there is only One to love and only one way to love and one truth to love. All other loves are false, temporary, and unfulfilling. God alone is life and goodness and truth. To love anything else, even for God to love anything else, is falsehood.
The very short song is of the Beloved, God, concerning His vineyard. The well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
The vineyard was situated upon a keren, i.e., upon a prominent mountain peak projecting like a horn, and therefore open to the sun on all sides. This mountain horn was very fruitful or a child of fatness and prosperity, ben-shemen is the Hebrew, shemen denoting the fertility of a nutritive loamy soil.
Situated on a prominent mountain peak, sun on all sides, a child of fatness (nutritive loamy soil). Every Christian should be able to personally relate.
Keep the eyes of your heart on our main passage. Israel must face a far superior force on the battlefield, not knowing how God is going to deliver, but with the promise that He will. Why will He deliver? Why will He deliver Israel and not Canaan? It is because of who God has made them to be, and their faith in that very thing. Think of who God has made you to be in Christ and why it is necessary for you to put your faith completely in that so that you may walk in the manner of Christ in the victory of that which is life indeed.
The owner of the vineyard spared no attention or trouble. It was planted with sorek, the finest kind of eastern vine, bearing small grapes of a bluish-red. How could it have produced worthless fruit?
The fruit of the vine is an image that God uses all throughout His word. Living in Oregon we understand at the least that a lot of work goes into maintaining a vineyard and we also know that wine can vary quite a bit in quality. God has made Vitis vinifera, the common grape vine, a plant assigned to the care of man, under which it improves, whereas in its wild state it remains behind its true intention.
The grape vine is assigned by God to the care of man. The word of God is the same. Not that it is improved by man, but its effectiveness on the heart of man improves with his care.
A wild vine produces few, small, harsh grapes.
Joh 15:1-2 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.”
If a believer does not care for the word of God or care for the way, truth, and life of Christ, if he does not hunger and thirst for righteousness, will he still produce good fruit? He will not. He is wild and the only fruit he produces are few, small, and harsh.
We were once wild vines:
Rom 11:17-18 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.
There are many interpretations of this passage, but I believe it is simply stating that a Christian should never be anti-Semitic. The rich root of the olive tree is Christ, the Son of David and King of the Jews.
"Do not be arrogant" - don't think as they did that there is something in you deserving blessing, like being born into a certain family. We are blessed through faith in Christ due to His merit.
We are not longer wild vines due to the work of Christ and our faith in it. He is the cornerstone who brought both Jew and Gentile together in faith, for there is no longer a distinction in this age.
Isa 5:3 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard.
Isa 5:4 "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
Isa 5:5 "So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.
The vineyard had been surrounded by the hedge of thorn-bushes to make a better defense, as well as for the protection of the wall itself so that it would not be undermined. This is all metaphorical representing the protection that Jehovah had always surrounded the land. He had brought victory to Joshua. He had raised up judge after judge to deliver Israel from outside oppressors strengthened by her apostasy. He had raised up David as a model of faith and leadership, and when she rejected that, He continued to defend her in spite of what she always deserved, but now it was plain that apostasy would simply go on forever and that Israel would always cling to a false glory. Jehovah could only install the true glory through the medium of judgment.
The vineyard would be given up to grazing and treading down. It would become an open way and gathering-place for man and beast.
Man’s obstinate will and stubborn heart must eventually meet judgment or it would only go on forever.
God's timing is not our timing. How long should he let man resist His will? How long should God be patient and withhold the final judgment of man? Only God knows the answer. He is patient and longsuffering. He desires all men to be saved. He is calling many sons to glory. But just like Israel's stubborn heart must eventually be judged, all nations and men must be judged.
2Pe 3:9-10 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
1Co 15:25-28 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all.
Being all in all will no longer be a promise, but a reality, and only God can make that happen through judgment. Man cannot do it, though in arrogance some believe that they can. |