June 21, 2011 What Kind of Grape Are You?

What Kind of Grape Are You?
Read Isaiah 5 – 9

Isaiah 5:1-2 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 grapes (God’s people).
But something went wrong. The good grapes produced bad grapes. In other words, God’s people had the opportunity to use his gifts to enjoy his blessing. But the people rejected the blessing and “soured” when they left God’s vineyard. All went wrong. God’s vineyard was devastated. It yielded no good grapes.
As a good vintner does, God cleaned his vineyard of useless grapes to begin again.
Now I ask you this. Has God planted a vineyard into your life? In other words, has he given you his love and his truth so you can be a “good grape”? I believe he has. Trust his gifts to you. Use them to grow and be a “good grape” for God.


Pause and Consider: how precious God’s blessings are and use them to grow well in him.