June 19 Grow a Great Vineyard

June 19, 2010
Read Isaiah 5 – 9

Isaiah 5:1-2
1 I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

THE BIBLE is written in many forms. One of the forms is poetry as shown in these verses. Poetry says “the usual in unusual ways”. Here we have the image of Israel in Isaiah’s day.

Isaiah speaks of God as the “loved one” and Israel as a vineyard. Do you see what the “loved one” did? He made a vineyard on the fertile hillside (Israel is dominated by mountains.), and planted good fruit (God’s people).

But something went wrong. The good fruit produced bad fruit. In other words, God’s people had the opportunity to use his gifts to them and to enjoy his blessings, but they turned from him. All went wrong.

God’s vineyard was devastated. It yielded no good fruit. As a good vintner does, he cleaned out his vineyard to begin again.

Now I ask you this. Has God planted a vineyard in your life? In other words, has he given you his love and his truth so you can be good fruit? I believe he has. Trust his gifts to you. Use them to grow good fruit for God.