Isaiah 5:4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? why, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes… The passage connected with this verse is conceived quite in the spirit of our Lord's parables. In a picture taken from familiar scenes of nature, the relations between God and his people are shown. As in the parable spoken by Nathan, a definite judgment is asked. That judgment, whether given audibly or only felt, is made an earnest appeal of God to their own conscience and their own hearts. Three things are set forth prominently in this parable. I. THE GRACIOUS ATTENTIONS. The picture of a vineyard was especially interesting to Isaiah's audience, because Canaan was a land of vines, which grew freely along the terraced hillsides. The prophet observes that the vineyard of which he speaks had every advantage of situation and soil; it was properly protected, well cleared, planted with vines of the choicest quality, and fitted with everything necessary to the securing of abundant fruitage. Everything was done, according to the description, that good judgment, large ability, and careful consideration could suggest. It was not a nacre vineyard planted for gain; it was a garden of delights; the pleasure as well as the interest of the owner were bound up in it. Such was the land of Canaan, as prepared by God for his people; and such was Israel, as God's vine planted in it. What nation ever was like Israel, in the special choice, and call, and settling, and tending, and pruning, and nourishing, and loving interest of God? The deep feelings of God towards them find very tender expression in the books of the prophets (see Jeremiah 2:2, 21; Hosea 2; Hosea 6:4; Hosea 11, etc.). We may well think that no other nation except England has ever been so favored of God. He has chosen her, fenced her round, "encompassed her with the inviolate sea," enriched her with food growing out of her soil, and with wealth stored in almost inexhaustible heaps beneath it. He has lit, even in her martyrs' fires, a candle of truth which neither the dogmatism of science nor the extravagances of priests, will ever blow out. He has planted her with noble elements of character, given fruitful soil for their growth, watched against evil influences, scat forth right, wise, faithful husbandmen in every age to prune and tend and clear out the stones of obstruction. Surely God rightly looks for fruit - for full, rich, ripe clusters of the "vine of Sorek" hanging on the branches of England. But we may take the description home to ourselves. What gracious attentions have we received! Sometimes, looking over oar lives, it seems to us that if we had been his sole favorites in the world, he could not have been more kind, more constant, more gracious, more unsparing in his dealings with us. We think of the godly families into which we entered as members; of our saintly "forbears;" of the trust of health, and mental power; of the place where we are set, and the successes we have won. Surely we are just a vineyard of delights to our God, and we ought to respond to hint with abundant fruitfulness. II. THE REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS. "I looked that it should bring forth grapes." He who plants and tends flowers does so expecting to gain beautiful blossoms; and he is cheered all through the long waiting time by the pleasant expectation. He who casts corn-seeds into the ploughed earth buries them with visions of the waving harvest and the loaded barns. He has long patience because of right and reasonable expectations, he who prepares a vineyard waits while the rough branches cover with leaves, and the clusters hang down, growing bigger every day. He too expects the riches and the joy of the ingathering. And God planted those Jews in fertile Canaan, expecting from them the fruitage of a clear witness for him to all the nations around. He looked for fruits of judgment. He looked for righteousness. He expected that they would be a "holy people, zealous of good works." What, then, does God now expect of his English vineyard? What does he expect of us? We may remind of some of the good fruit God expects to find on our tree. 1. He expects us to reach a very high standard of Christian intelligence. Not merely believing what we are told, but finding out for ourselves what, upon reasonable grounds, seems to be true. Able to give good reasons for the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear. 2. He expects an unmistakable witness for himself, and for his truth. There should be no hiding our light under a bushel, life hesitating to confess whose we are, and whom we serve. No acting inconsistently with the Christ-name which we bear. 3. He expects abundant fruit of charitable deeds and devoted labors. The branches on the vine which will most glorify God are those that hang down low enough for men to pick. His law is, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me." 4. He looks for holy and beautiful character. These are the grapes that ought to grow on Christian trees: "Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." "If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ;" "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." III. THE PAINFUL DISAPPOINTMENT. Nothing but hedgerow dog-roses blossoming on the budded tree. Nothing but sour, useless, wild grapes hanging on the grafted stock. Grapes like crab-apples, or apples of Sodom, good-looking, but tasteless. The Hebrew word, indeed, is a very vigorous one, and expresses even the offensive putrefaction of these grapes. All the loving care, the laboring, and the tending seem to have been in vain. Brought out from idolatry, the Jews sought and served idols. Separated from temptations to moral evils, they became utterly depraved. Fenced in to righteousness, over the wall they went, in the dreadful license of iniquity. Sometimes there was a fair show of leaf, but it was "nothing but leaves." Sometimes there seemed a show of fruit. The heavenly husbandman tried it, and it crushed into foul ashes in the mouth. We may well sympathize with God in his sore disappointment at the result of all his care of his ancient people. Illustrate by the scene of our Lord's weeping over Jerusalem. Does England disappoint God, too? At first it seems as if we could say - Surely not! Think of her spires and lowers dotting every landscape; her hospitals in every town; her thousands of godly homes. But what shall we say of the awful procession of her drunkards; the vision of her drunkards' homes; her outcast children; her overcrowded dwellings, where decency cannot find a place; her gin-palaces; her gaols; her madhouses; her workhouses; her soldiers' barracks, and sailors' tempters; her "city snares and town traps?" Do we disappoint our gracious God? What is the fruitage of our characters, our homes, our places of prayer, our business, our Church life and relations? Must he say, "Wild grapes, only wild grapes; cut it down?" - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? |
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