Isaiah Week 2, Day 1: Isaiah 5:1-7

The vineyard metaphor continues from the perspective of the vineyard owner who has done all he can to care for it, "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?" Isaiah 5:4


1. The vineyard represents Israel: "For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting." Isaiah 5:7.

Psalm 80:8-9: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land."

Jeremiah 2:21: "Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?"

There is this overarching sense that God was faithful to his side of things and Israel was not.

2. What had the Lord done for his vineyard?  Everything He could---he brought it out of Egypt, cleared the land before it, planted it, "didst cause it to take deep root, " and "fill the land."

Exodus 13:21-22 describes how God went before them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Exodus 15:1-18 describes how the Lord allowed them to escape Pharoah and Israel's enemies, the deliverance through the Red Sea, and the way that the Lord caused the other nations to fear Israel.  The picture is again of Israel being given choice conditions,   "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established" (v. 17).

Deuteronomy 32:3-12 recounts how the Lord brought Israel up as a lost nation in the desert,
as "the apple of my eye," protecting them.  They were found in a desert

Joshua 23:23-5 tells how the Lord has pushed back nations and given them to Israel so they may possess the land.

2 Chronicles 36:15  God sent messengers to them (prophets) but they consistently mocked them.

3. Because of Israel's choices, the Lord says "I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured.  I  will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down." Isaiah 5 (v.5)

Luke 3:8-9  Vine and branches passage.  Every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.

John 15:1-8  "Every branch in me [Jesus] that does not bear fruit he takes away." Branches that do bear fruit are pruned.  If anyone does not abide in Christ, he is thrown away like a branch and withers (v 5) These branches are gathered together and burned.

Galatians 5:22-23  "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy..."

"If we be fruitful, bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, there is no law against us." -BI, N Rogers

4.  In John 15, Jesus describes himself as the "True Vine" and the Father as the "vine dresser."

"The fruit for which the culture is bestowed is moral. God looked for judgement and for righteousness."   Joseph Parker