Notes on the International Lesson.
By C. P. B.
THE figure of a vineyard was familiar to those to whom this parable was addressed. David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah had used this figure to represent Israel. Said the psalmist: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river." BUT notwithstanding all God's care for his vineyard, the chosen vine which he had planted yielded him no fruit. "What could have been done more to my vineyard," saith the Lord (Isa. 5:4), "that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes." The same idea is presented in Jer. 2:21. THEN said the Lord: "I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; 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. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry." Isa. 5:5-7. Compare Ps. 80:12-16. THESE texts apply especially to the earlier history of the Hebrew nation, that is, prior to and including the time of the Babylonian captivity, but the parable covers the entire history of that people as a nation. It is plainly stated in one of the texts quoted (Isa. 5:7) that "the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah." In the parable the lord of the vineyard is represented as sending again and again to the husbandmen of the vineyard for the fruits that he had a right to expect in their season, but he received nothing; the husbandmen caught the messengers and used them despitefully and sent them away empty; and some they killed. Finally he sent his son, and him they killed, saying that he was the heir and that the inheritance should be theirs. THE application of the parable is simple. As already shown, the house of Israel and the men of Judah were the vineyard, God was the one who planted the vineyard, the husbandmen were the priests and rulers of the people, the servants which were sent from time to time were the prophets, the fruit which the lord of the vineyard had a right to expect was fruit of righteousness, the son was, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ. THE man who plants a vineyard has a right to expect fruit from it, and God had a right to expect fruit from the Jews. He had taken them from the land of Egypt, where they could not serve him because of their surroundings and because of the oppression of the Egyptians, and had planted them in a land of their own, where he surrounded them with the most favorable conditions, but instead of bringing forth fruit to his glory, they rebelled against him and caused his name to be blasphemed among the heathen. AND there is in this a lesson for all who have taken upon themselves the vows of the Christian. Such are branches of the true Vine, and it is their duty to bring forth fruit. Said the Saviour: "I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." John 15:5, 6. BUT again the parable teaches the great patience of the Lord; he waited long for fruit from his chosen people. "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place." "Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; he gave them all into his hand." "And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia." 2 Chron. 36:15, 17, 20. THEN he restored them to their own land, but again he sought in vain for fruit; the whole history of the children of Israel from Egypt to their utter rejection and dispersion by the Romans was little but a history of backsliding and rebellion. But in the fullness of time God sent his Son, but they utterly rejected him and put him to death. We shudder at the wickedness of the Jews in crucifying Christ, and yet on every hand are multitudes who are sinning against even greater light than did the Jews, and still we pass along comparatively careless, having very little burden for those about us, and sometimes very little for our own souls. THIS indifference would be impossible if we half realized the value of the sacrifice which God made in our behalf. The parable says: "Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son." "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. IN giving his Son, God exhausted the resources of his grace. He had nothing more to give. How then shall those escape who neglect so great salvation? Surely those who turn away from him have nothing to look forward to but wrath and indignation, for they have despised infinite wisdom, grace, and glory, for in Jesus Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells, and his is the only "name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." THE sentence against the Jews was faithfully carried out; the wicked husbandmen were destroyed, their city, Jerusalem, was also destroyed, and the vineyard has been given to the Gentiles. It is true now, as formerly, that, "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Eccl. 8:11), but it is also true that, "though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him; but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God." Eccl. 8:12, 13.