Scripture Passage
…he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes,
but the grapes that grew were bitter.
(Isaiah 5:2 NLT)
Observation
You know how it feels when you have to hit the brakes hard and make a sudden, jolting turn because you realize at the last second that you’ve just about missed your exit? That’s what the opening verses of Isaiah 5 feel like to me. The chapter begins as God’s beautiful love song about Israel. (The birds sing, the mild breezes blow…)
Now I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a rich and fertile hill…
(…the sun gently warms the earth, music plays softly in the background…)
He plowed the land, cleared its stones,
and planted it with the best vines.
In the middle he built a watchtower
and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks…
(Are you getting the picture?)
Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes…
but the grapes that grew were bitter.
(Isaiah 5:1-2 NLT)
(Errrrrrrrr! Crash!)
God set everything up perfectly for Israel to blossom…to succeed…to grow as a living testimony to the whole world regarding how awesome and holy and loving and generous and gracious He was. And Israel messed it up—hugely. And not just in things we think of as “religious”—in their worship of false gods—but also in matters we don’t often enough think of as related to our living testimony of God—matters of social justice…of doing right towards others and seeing that right is done! (In 1:26, Jerusalem is called the “Home of Justice”—I’d never noticed that before!)
I don’t want to do that—I don’t want to fail to provide a “sweet” return on the investment the Lord has made in me. I don’t want to produce bitter grapes when what obviously ought to come forth are sweet ones! To return to a Biblical phrase we focused on a few days ago, in and through my life…
“…let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
(Amos 5:24 NIV)
***
2 comments:
After reading the Scripture in Isaiah today, I can’t help but feel remorse for our nation, let alone the times that I have failed the Lord. Tagging on what you were saying Pastor, the Lord says in Isaiah 6:4 “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?” Jesus, today, may You have that sweet return on my life….
Jesus is the True Vine. When we are abiding, having a living union with him we will bear "sweet" fruit. It is when we (I) choose our own ways rather than His, when we are wise and clever in our own sight and disconnect from Him that the flow of sugar to the fruit does not happen. Yesterday we had a bunch of grapes on our table, and from the same vine were some sweet and the rest mostly sour. I can't imagine how our Wonderful Father feels when we are that sour/bitter taste in His mouth. Lord help me to abide in You.
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