Day 189 - A Vineyard

Daily Reading:  Isaiah 4-6

I will sing for the one I love

a song about his vineyard:

My loved one had a vineyard

on a fertile hillside.

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.

Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

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?

Now I will tell you

what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge,

and it will be destroyed;

I will break down its wall,

and it will be trampled.

I will make it a wasteland,

neither pruned nor cultivated,

and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds

not to rain on it.

The vineyard of the Lord Almighty

is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

are the garden of his delight.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Isaiah 5:1-7

Footnote:

The lesson of the song of the vineyard shows that God's chosen nation was to bear fruit -- to carry out his work, to uphold justice.  It did bear fruit, but the fruit was bad.  This passage uses plays on words: the Hebrew words for justice and bloodshed sound very much alike, as do those for righteousness and distress.  Jesus said, "By their fruit you will recognize them" (Matthew 7:20).  Have you examined your own "fruit" lately?  Is it good or bad -- useful or wild?

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All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV