Class Notes on Isaiah 5:1-2, The Vineyard

Isa 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.  NIV

 

• The imagery of a vine and vineyard is repeated many times through scripture.  Jesus specifically uses it in a number of parables and observations
• Jer 2:21 I had planted you like a choice vine // of sound and reliable stock.

How then did you turn against me // into a corrupt, wild vine?  NIV

• Ps 80:8-9 You brought a vine out of Egypt; // you drove out the nations and planted it.

9 You cleared the ground for it,  // and it took root and filled the land.  NIV

• John 15:1-2 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. NIV
• In the OT, the vine refers to Israel (chosen by God to believe and represent faith to the world around them), and the gardener is God.  Jesus says he is the true vine, and he does represent a better vine.  The church is his body, and they represent true faith in God to the world today.  That doesn't invalidate Israel as the vine, although scripture indicates that it is but an original branch off the true vine
• Rom 11:17-24 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

     22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

• A point of fact is that "all Israel will be saved" as Paul relates in the next few verses
• Rom 11:25-27  I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

"The deliverer will come from Zion; // he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

27 And this is my covenant with them // when I take away their sins." NIV

• This is actually an important distinction between some forms of reformed theology and dispensationalism.  The church does not replace Israel.  The original branch will be grafted back into the true vine

• Matt 21:33-46 "Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

     35 "The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said.

     38 "But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

     40 "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"

     41 "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, "and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time."

     42 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:

     "'The stone the builders rejected // has become the capstone;

the Lord has done this, // and it is marvelous in our eyes'?

     43 "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."

     45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. NIV

• In this parable, Jesus seems to be alluding to Isaiah 5, but definitely to the imagery of Israel as a vineyard.  What are some similar aspects and what are different?
• Similar: vineyard, owner (I/my and Landowner), planted, watchtower, no return
• Different: cleared (Isa), wall (Matt), rented (Matt), went away on a journey (Matt), sent messengers (Matt), sent his son (Matt)
• It would seem hard to believe that the people would not realize that the vineyard was Israel.  Verse 45-46 show that the Pharisees understood

• APPLICATION: Even though Israel rejected the Messiah, and was cut off from the vine (for a time), that didn't prevent individuals from coming to faith in Christ.  The initial church was primarily Jewish and over time became more and more Gentile.  So, the warning is not about individual salvation but falls into two areas, one a group sense, and two, an individual physical sense.  The group sense is that Gentiles could be cut off for unbelief and that appears to have happen in many nation groups.  Secondly, like Israel, there is physical punishment to those who are cutoff that affects individuals (believers and non-believers).  One could argue that believers were not affected (killed) by the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, but that ignores the loss of property and relatives that occurred because of national disbelief.  Is America at that point?  It sure seems like it