Grapes of Wrath

Isaiah 5:1-23

Mankind has produced many love songs of great beauty throughout time. In Isaiah five is recorded just one of many songs in the Bible. This starts out like a love song however in the end turns from divine love to the wrath of God for the rotten grapes produced in His vineyard, Israel

Song of the Vineyard, 5:1-7

Privileged Position

This “Well-beloved” is Isaiah’s reference t o God but is found twenty-three times in the Song of Solomon with a different application. He has a vineyard which is on a hillside and most likely facing south so as to be in the best possible position. “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” (Keil and Delitzsh 160). The selection for the position of a vineyard is very important for productivity and the quality of grapes. God’s vineyard no doubt will be in a privileged position. There is no reason for it not to produce the most and the best.

Profuse Preparation

The vineyard needed to be protected from animals, such as, wild boars, jackals, and foxes. It would need to be protected from the obstacles like rocks. In clearing the rocks the husbandman builds a wall for protection. A tower for a watchman would be made to watch over the field and the vine-dressers. A winepress and vat would be hewn out of the rock. Everything is prepared for His “choicest vine” which is Israel or the children of Abraham.

Produce

With all the preparation and protection put into His vineyard, God expected to have the best grapes. However, all He harvested where “wild grapes.”

Pondering the Problem

Like Nathan called upon David to judge himself unwittingly in the parable of the stolen lamb, God calls upon Judah to judge whether God should have expected more from His vineyard. Is there anything He did not do that He should have done? Why did He not get good grapes? God is obviously not at fault. God gives us so much and we give back so little. God expects us to be fruitful.

Punishment

What can be done with a vineyard full of rotten fruit? It has to be destroyed. If it continues to exist, it will waste time, effort, and valuable resources. The continued production of worthless fruit merits disposal of the vineyard. It was Judah’s unfruitfulness in good service to God and her production of wickedness that has left God no other choice but punishment.

Protection Withdrawn

God will remove the protection of the hedge and wall. Without this protection a vineyard would be invaded by sheep and cattle. They would make quick work of the vines and fruit. When God removed His protection from Judah, the Assyrians and Babylonians invaded and quickly destroy the nation. If the vineyard is going to respond like a piece of wild countryside through which the animals prowl and thoughtless people tramp, then He would treat it as a piece of open countryside. He would withdraw His protection.

Prep Work Suspended

Once a vineyard is planted, a great deal of labor is involved in pruning and weeding. Water is essential for the fruit. When cultivation is neglected, only briers and thorns grow.

Parable Explained

Just as Jesus explained the parable of the Sower to His disciples and Nathan explained his parable of the little lamb to David, so Isaiah explains the meaning of this parable. The vineyard is the Kingdom of Judah and its citizens are the plants. The good fruit God had expected of them are: justice and righteousness. The wicked fruit He harvested from them was: oppression and weeping. They were guilty of unjust and cruel treatment of the poor and the weak. These in turn cried out to God.

 

Woes of Rotten Grapes 5:8-23

Isaiah goes on to give us a few specimens of “wild grapes.” “Woe” is not the opposite of “Giddy UP!” Perhaps “Woe to….” is the negative form of “happy is the man who…”

❧ Covetousness, 5:9,10

When the economy is booming the houses are expanded, so is coveting and greediness. Isaiah’s contemporary, Micah wrote, “they covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance” (Micah 2:2).

The punishment of this attitude toward material blessings has always reaped fruitlessness and resulted in dispossession. Adam and Eve coveted the forbidden fruit and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Cain killed his brother, Abel, and was left to wander away from his land. Both the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah would experience the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. The land will not produce as much as hoped. Only a little more than eight gallons of grape juice per acre are produced. It could have produced as much as four thousand gallons. The Law of Moses had warned that sin would bring a curse upon the land (Lev. 25:20; Duet. 28:16-19).

❧ Carnal Lifestyle, 5:11-17

Next they are warned about their party lifestyle. Fun and luxury are the focus of their life. They were having a good time getting drunk with their music playing in the background while surrounded b y their equally carnal minded friends. Drinking has been warned about in the Proverbs. “Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper” (Prov. 23:31,32). The rich find alcohol glamourous while many are made poor through addiction. Many Christians are made worldly and godless by its consumption while recovering addicts abstain and become Christians.

These party animals will be brought low. One day the music will stop and they will suffer great thirst and hunger. Death (Sheol) will come and crash their party.

❧ Confidence in Corruption, 5:18,19

Some, however, will be so brazen in their sinful attitude that they will even mock the coming judgments of God. In effect they are saying in their hearts: “Okay, God, just bring it on. The sooner the better.” The same cords by which they pull their sins ever before God’s face, flaunting them as they go, will become the cords which will bind them in the future.

❧ Compromised Morality, 5:20

So corrupted and entrenched in their own wicked ways they have turned their view of morality upside down. Changing the definitions or names of sin will not make them righteous before God. Calling pornography “art” will not make it beautiful in the eyes of God. Ann Tucker of Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts wrote, “if it’s art, it’s not obscene” (Houston Chronicle, 6 Oct. 1990, 18A). Remove an unwanted foreign growth from a woman’s womb, and presto, suddenly abortion is no longer murder of an innocent unborn child.

❧ Conceited Self-Assurance

Take God and sin out of the picture and man becomes his own spiritual leader and makes his own moral laws. No one can judge his behavior. Nothing he does is foolish because he has become wise in his own eyes. You cannot tell the self-conceited know-it-all anything.

❧ Corrupt Justice of the Drunk, 5:22,23

The second woe focused on the partying and drinking. This final woe deals with the need for a clear sober-minded head on the shoulders of those who are in a position of authority. Judges and leaders of the people have always been warned about the special dangers of drinking. The judicial system must be run by men of sound mind and judgment. Those who are intoxicated cannot render just judgments. “Lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted” (Prov. 31:5).