Isaiah 27:3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. A vineyard will engross the whole of a man's time — perhaps the time of many men. The nourishing of the soil, the pruning of the branches, the syringing of the leaves, the thinning of the grapes, the support of the heavy clusters — all demand constant and assiduous care. There is a tendency in all cultivated things to go back to their original type. However it may be made to agree with the modern ideas of development and evolution, it is nevertheless a fact that the fairest results of human skill are not in themselves permanent; but tend ever backward to the rudest and simplest forms of their species — the apple tree to the crab, the vine of Sorek to the wild vine of the hills. Therefore the keeper of the vineyard is ever engaged in fighting every tendency towards deterioration with unwavering patience. With similar care, but with much more tenderness, God is ever watching over us. With eager eyes He marks the slightest sign of deterioration — a hardening conscience; a deadening spirituality; a waning love. Any symptom of this sort fills Him with — if I may use the words — keen anxiety; and His gentle but skilful hand is at once at work to arrest the evil, restore the soul, and force it onward to new accessions of that Divine life which is our only true bliss and rest. Let us not carry the responsibility of our nurture. It is too much for us. Better far is it to devolve the care of our keeping on our faithful Creator. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. |
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