Isaiah 5:1 ¶
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: 2 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. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men
of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4 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?
Chapter 5 here can be associated with the
fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy. This chapter condemns Israel for, among
other things, not upholding God’s justice in verse 7.
Deuteronomy 16:20 That which is altogether just shalt thou
follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God
giveth thee.
It warns of a terrible judgment coming and
how God will use their enemies in this judgment. See the entire chapter,
Deuteronomy 28.
Some commentators see Isaiah 5 as a
fulfillment of the judgments pronounced in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy establishes
and underscores the covenant made between God and Israel and Isaiah 5 speaks of
the consequences of breaking that covenant.
Isaiah now tells the story of God’s people
and their relationship to God symbolically. Israel was God’s vineyard.
Verse 7 will say; For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the
house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant
Psalm 80:14
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and
behold, and visit this vine; 15 And the
vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest
strong for thyself. 16 It is burned with
fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
It was planted in a very fruitful land with
every advantage.
Deuteronomy 8:7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a
good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out
of valleys and hills; 8 A land of wheat,
and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive,
and honey; 9 A land wherein thou shalt
eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose
stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
See also Psalm 80:8 ¶ Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou
hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
Jeremiah 2:21
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art
thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
They were to shew forth good works but they,
instead, did bad things.
God through Isaiah goes on to say that they
should compare themselves to their God. We are compared to Christ not to other
people, by the way. A person who says they don’t need a Saviour because they
are of the best people must be made to realize that they are not being compared
to other people but to Christ, so they can never measure up without His
indwelling them by His Spirit.
Repeating the grapes and wild grapes metaphor
He goes on to ask, what more could He have done? He carves out a people,
nurtures the people, saves the people, delivers the people, gives the people a
wonderful land in which to dwell, teaches them His law, gives them whatever
they need, delivers them time and time again, and yet, they produce bad fruit,
so to speak. What else could He have done besides make them automatons? They
made these choices.
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