p. 6 | THE LORD’S VINEYARD by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 5, 1902

THE LORD’S VINEYARD.

By G.

On two different occasions the Lord has used a parable of a vineyard in reproving His people Israel, and foretold the doom that awaited them on account of apostasy. About one hundred fifty years before the captivity in Babylon, the warning was given through the prophet Isaiah. Under the figure of a vineyard (chapter 5) he showed what had been done for Israel. The vineyard was in “a very fruitful hill;” the Lord had “fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.”

The prophet applies the parable to the whole house of Israel, but emphasizes Judah, saying, “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant.” Then He tells what is meant by looking for grapes and finding wild grapes. The explanation is, that “He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” Jerusalem is especially addressed, it being the holy city, the seat of the kingdom. There was the wall, and the tower (or temple); there the vine was planted, and the winepress digged. Note, the prophet does not say the choicest vines, but “vine,” singular. The Word of the Lord was planted in Jerusalem, and priests and people had extraordinary opportunity to appropriate it to their lives, and to work out the pure fruit for the refreshment of themselves and others. But through their apostasy and perversion of the Word, they brought forth the very unsavory wild grape, in which was no nutriment for themselves nor attraction for others.

The Lord calls them to be judges themselves

between Him and His vineyard, and asks, “What more could have been done 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?” Then He tells them what He will do: “I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” The taking away of the “hedge” was the removal of God’s protection against their enemies. When Satan referred to the protective providence that kept Job from falling, he said that God had “made a hedge about him.” Israel was always a prey to their enemies when God did not specially intervene to protect them.

The second parable of the vineyard was spoken by Christ in person, to the Jews of the time when He was on earth. It was the repetition of that spoken by Isaiah: “There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country; and when the time of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.” He had done all that he could for the vineyard, and would reasonably expect an ample supply of fruit.

In the former parable it is said that instead of grapes of the kind that had been planted, the vineyard brought forth wild grapes. In this instance we have a wild spirit, foreign to the spirit of the householder, and foreign to what he had reason to expect. So, being actuated by this wild spirit, the husbandmen beat the servants and killed some of them. Again other servants were sent, and these were treated likewise. The Lord desired mercy and right judgment, and did all He could to have this spirit cultivated in His vineyard by His husbandmen: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8. He sent His servants to look for these fruits: “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth.” Jer. 5:1.

The earnest desire of the Lord to have His vineyard produce good fruit, and to have His husbandmen return to Him the fruit in its season, is also shown by His Word. Referring to the transgression of the priests and the people before the Babylonian captivity, the record says: “The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes [margin, “continually and carefully”] and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place; but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.” 2 Chron. 36:15, 16.

The treatment that these messengers received is comprehended in the Lord’s words as He wept over Jerusalem: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” And the generation to which Christ was then ministering had gone so far as to bring upon themselves the blood of all the prophets, from Abel to Zachariah. See Matt. 23:34-38. Moreover, they were then plotting to kill the Son, who, as a last resort, had been sent to get the fruit from the vineyard; and in a short time afterward they actually accomplished that part of their wicked purpose.

That the judgments pronounced in the former parable were just, is shown in the fact that transgression had gone on “till there was no remedy.” In the latter case, those to whom the parable was spoken passed judgment themselves, that husbandmen who would act in the manner described should be miserably destroyed. Still, when they perceived that the parable was spoken to describe their own condition, they did not repent.

But the lesson of this parable did not stop there. It is still true that the vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel (the spiritual seed), and He is seeking the fruit which He has a right to expect. When the Lord went away into a far country to prepare mansions for His people, He planted in His vineyard the Holy Spirit, as a permanent Comforter and Guide to truth. The fruit that He looks for and expects to receive, and of right should receive, is the fruit of the Spirit—“love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” But it is still possible to become partakers with Israel of old in the blood of the prophets by grieving the Spirit that actuated them, and by neglecting the lessons given through them for our learning. By such a course there will surely be failure to bring forth the required fruit. It is still possible for those who “have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away,” to “crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.” Heb. 6:6. The lesson of both the parables of the vineyard are for us of to-day, as well as for those to whom they were first spoken. G.