The Lord and His Vineyard: A Meditation on Isaiah 5

The image of God and His vineyard is repeated several times between the Old and New Testaments.  In these opening chapters of the prophet Isaiah, the image is presented as an image of judgment against His unfruitful people.

The Lord begins by telling Isaiah how much He loves His people; how He put them in the most fertile of places, nourished them, set a guard over them, and hemmed them in with a stout wall against the attacks of their enemies.  Having given His people everything they needed, and every advantage over the wicked one, He looked upon His people to see the fruit they would bear.  As He looked, rather than producing the good fruit of faith fit for consumption, they produced a wild and bitter fruit of unbelief unfit for anyone.  This people of His, given every advantage of His Word and His mercy, still returned to their evil ways, polluting the good ground He had given them to live in.

And to His unfaithful people, God declares judgment.  He will remove the guard He has set over them, and tear down the wall that protects them; He will usher in the enemy to destroy and enslave them, so that His people no longer pollute the earth with their hypocrisy and wickedness; for “He looked for judgment, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry.”  This particular judgment was accomplished in the irresistible onslaught of the Babylonians, who decimated God’s people in their own land, and carried away a remnant into enslaved captivity in Babylon.  God was true to His Word:  what He had spoken, He accomplished.

These are words worth hearing in the Church of our day and place, too:

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I

pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.  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?

What more, indeed, beloved of the Lord?  Out of darkness He called you into His marvelous light; out of your death and despair, He grafted you into His life; out of sin, death, hell, and the power of the evil one, He called you to forgiveness, life, salvation and victory; out of a dying and corrupt land, He called you to be citizens of heaven and His own dear children; out of the passing vanities and riches of this world, He called you to an eternal inheritance that cannot be taken from you.  To you, lost in a world of ridiculous opinions and endless sophistries, He gave His steadfast Word that will endure forever.  To you, awash in anxious grief and misery, He gave peace with love and compassion.  What more could He do for you, O House of Israel, than He has already done?  He has forgiven your sins of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  He has promised you an eternal fellowship with Him, restored through the bloody sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son.  He has given to you His Holy Law that you might know what is truly holy, and given you His Holy Gospel that you might believe and live.

Whether the ground you stand on is silted sand, or rugged mountain—it is fertile and blessed by the Word of God poured over you.  And as the Lord of Hosts looks down from heaven upon His people, what does He see?  Having done everything for His people, including the sacrifice of Jesus His Son, what does He see at work among His Holy Church?

Apostasy.  Heresy.  Wickedness in high and low places.  Parents who have discarded the Word of the Lord, raise their children to despise it as well.  Pious leaders in all their fine religious garb, exchange the truth of God for the lie of their own construction.  People come to churches so that they may be entertained, and go back out to live lives of moral debauchery.  Ancient and historic churches, and churches of the Reformation, deny fundamental confessions of the Word of God, from Creation to Redemption to the Resurrection.  The holiness of marriage is trampled upon by homosexuality, adultery, fornication, and divorce.  The sacredness of family, motherhood and children is perverted by infanticide, abuse, and abandonment.  People begin to think and act like animals, driven by lust, and passion, and desire, while reason and faith are disposed.  Our sour and bitter fruit, unfit for consumption, is murder, oppression, lust, greed, theft, abuse, debauchery, lies, and corruption.  We have befouled our schools, our communities, our nation, and the very Church of God.  We have turned the grace of God into licentiousness, forgetting that God is not mocked… we shall reap what we sow.

Hear and believe, O beloved of the Lord!  Why would you perish in your sins, when the Lord of Life gives all to save you?  Why would you cling to the gaudy baubles of the evil one, when your Savior Jesus Christ offers you the true riches?  Turn from your evil, and return to the saving Word of your God.  Behold, if you will not repent, if you will not turn and be healed by His grace through faith in His Beloved Son, He will remove the guard He has placed over you; He will remove the wall of protection He build around you; He will withdraw His grace and mercy, so that the evil master you have chosen may ride in freely to destroy and enslave you.  And while there is always another Babylon poised to come and destroy in an earthly manner, it is the devil with his legions that lurk at the door, awaiting the moment they may pounce destroy the soul.

Do not be fooled, O beloved of the Lord:  He has crossed all eternity to save you, but He will not force you into His embrace.  He calls to you as the lover of your soul, your Creator and Redeemer, to leave the ways of death and destruction, and cling to Him alone.  Hear the pleas for mercy that cry out for you from the Cross of Jesus Christ, that you may be forgiven your innumerable sins, and the bitter fruit of your past be put away.  Believe the Word of the Lord, and the Spirit who comes to give you life from above, that your fellowship may be with all the faithful of every time and place, with the blessed Prophets and Apostles—whose fellowship is with the Most Holy Trinity, now and forevermore.  Believe, repent, and live.  Amen.