Isaiah 5: 1-7
Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!
God expected grapes, and He got wild ones, instead. And not in the isn’t-that-fun Grapes Gone Wild® California Red Blend that would be “so cute” for Girl’s Night, but you’d pour into a decanter for any real company- type of way. These grapes are wild, worthless, rotten, bitter, or sour, depending on the translation. And here’s where God and his parables differ from Aesop and his fables: when God encounters sour grapes, he doesn’t just stalk away haughtily, caught up in the cognitive dissonance of his impotence like the fox… he pulls up hedges and breaks down walls and tells the clouds not to rain. God is omnipotent – and these sour grapes are well within his reach.
They are within his reach, but they continue to duck out of his embrace. He’s tried – multiple times – clearing the stones and keeping watch. But the grapes refused the simple command to stick to the trellises (for their own good) and crept around untethered instead. God even lets Isaiah break the Fourth Wall on this one, so the grapes don’t even have to do a ton of interpretation, but they still don’t listen.
Fast-forward a half a testament to a different parable: we’re grapes, too… or at least grapevines. We’re supposed to bear fruit. If we don’t, we get removed and burnt up; if we do, we get pruned to bear even more. We don’t have to worry about briers and thorns or trampling or drought. All we have to do is abide.
Well, actually, abide and bear fruit. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples (John 15:8). Whether that fruit is full-bodied and tart and can stand on its own, or whether it’s one harmonic tone in an earthy red blend, what matters is it isn’t sour.
— MeganPrestonMeyer
Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!
God expected grapes, and He got wild ones, instead. And not in the isn’t-that-fun Grapes Gone Wild® California Red Blend that would be “so cute” for Girl’s Night, but you’d pour into a decanter for any real company- type of way. These grapes are wild, worthless, rotten, bitter, or sour, depending on the translation. And here’s where God and his parables differ from Aesop and his fables: when God encounters sour grapes, he doesn’t just stalk away haughtily, caught up in the cognitive dissonance of his impotence like the fox… he pulls up hedges and breaks down walls and tells the clouds not to rain. God is omnipotent – and these sour grapes are well within his reach.
They are within his reach, but they continue to duck out of his embrace. He’s tried – multiple times – clearing the stones and keeping watch. But the grapes refused the simple command to stick to the trellises (for their own good) and crept around untethered instead. God even lets Isaiah break the Fourth Wall on this one, so the grapes don’t even have to do a ton of interpretation, but they still don’t listen.
Fast-forward a half a testament to a different parable: we’re grapes, too… or at least grapevines. We’re supposed to bear fruit. If we don’t, we get removed and burnt up; if we do, we get pruned to bear even more. We don’t have to worry about briers and thorns or trampling or drought. All we have to do is abide.
Well, actually, abide and bear fruit. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples (John 15:8). Whether that fruit is full-bodied and tart and can stand on its own, or whether it’s one harmonic tone in an earthy red blend, what matters is it isn’t sour.
— MeganPrestonMeyer
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