Isaiah 5:2, commentary and pictures

The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel, planted in the fruitful hill of Canaan with every temporal and spiritual advantage and with nothing left undone to make it flourish to His honor. Its fence is His law, especially the Ten Commandments to guard and bless the obedient, its tower is the temple where His glory dwelt, and its choicest vine is Christ Himself planted among the people. God rightly looked for good grapes of obedience, righteousness, faith, love and self-sacrificing service, but it brought forth wild grapes of formalism, unrighteousness and misrepresentation of Him before the nations. After long care through servants and prophets and Christ's own ministry of healing, pardon and invitation, Israel beat and killed the messengers and at last cast out and slew the Son, so unfaithfulness brought desolation, the destruction of city and temple, and the taking of the kingdom to a people bringing forth its fruits. The same charge rests now on God's church and on every family and person, who have received every provision to bear fruit to His glory and whose mere profession without conversion and obedience is only wild fruit that He cannot bless.

Careful Vineyard Preparation

The verse describes a work left nothing undone, fencing the vineyard, gathering out its stones, planting it with the choicest vine, building a tower in its midst and making a winepress therein, so that it had everything needed to flourish and bring honor to its owner. That protection and clearing, planting and equipping express the special blessings, opportunities and religious and national advantages given to Israel, with the expectation of a fruitful harvest of good fruit. The planting was in a fruitful place on a very fruitful hill, which is Canaan, with its temporal and spiritual prosperity, its oracles and commandments given through Moses, and its appointed guides and ministers. God brought the vine from Egypt, drove out its enemies, transplanted it into good soil, and continued to tend it, placing it where nothing need hinder it.

The fence or hedge around the vineyard is the law, especially the Ten Commandments, which fenced Israel off as distinct from other nations. It was given for the people's good and protection, to guard those who obey from evil and from self-destruction through sin, and obedience brings true happiness, life, abundant blessing and great reward on condition of obedience, for the commandments are not grievous. That guarding hedge began in Eden, where the marriage law and the Sabbath law were plainly and distinctly defined so there would be no ignorance or misunderstanding. When creation was finished God rested on the seventh day and blessed the day of His rest, while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

The tower in the midst of the vineyard is the holy temple in the midst of the land at its center in Canaan, where God's glory dwelt above the mercy seat. The choicest vine planted on the hills of Palestine inside the fenced vineyard is Christ Himself, planted among Israel. The men of Israel despised Him and finally cast Him over the vineyard wall, bruising Him and trampling Him underfoot in hope of destroying Him forever. Then the Husbandman removed the vine and hid it from their sight and planted it again on the other side of the wall, where its stock is no longer visible and is placed beyond the power of men to reach or harm, while its branches hang over the wall so that grafts can still be joined to it.

Israel's standing as the planted and prosperous vine was publicly represented by the great vine at the entrance to the temple in Jerusalem. It was made of gold and silver with green leaves and massive clusters of grapes, wrought at enormous expense by the most skillful artists, twined about white glistening pillars and shining in the sun as a thing of beauty and pride. That golden vine displayed Israel as prosperous and honored, even as the vineyard song's expectation of good fruit stood in contrast to the wild grapes produced.

Vineyard Identity and Purpose

The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, the Jewish nation and church, Jerusalem and the once-chosen people, very dear to His heart. It was planted in a fruitful place on a very fruitful hill, fenced and cleared, planted with the choicest vine, and furnished with a tower and a winepress, so that nothing was left undone that could make it fruitful and an honor to its owner. That preparation gave Israel every advantage and opportunity, His oracles and commandments through Moses, appointed guides and ministers, and temporal and spiritual prosperity, with the law of the Ten Commandments fencing it off as distinct from other nations. Christ Himself brought it out of Egypt, drove out its enemies, guarded and cared for it, tended it through His servants, and at last came in person to plead with it, still expecting good fruit but finding wild grapes. The same care reaches His saints who gather year by year to worship Him, from whom He desires the fruits of obedience and faithful worship, for the verse is part of the song of the wellbeloved about His vineyard, to be sung with the heart and with the understanding by lips touched with the live coal from the altar, and the obedience Christ wants makes souls precious in His sight.

God chose and trained Israel and richly blessed it with privileges so that it would represent Him in the world, honor Him by steadfast obedience, preserve practical godliness kept from idolatry, and represent heaven in a sinful world. Its calling was to display His kingdom's principles and His character and glory among the nations, to restore His moral image in humanity, to preserve His truth and justice and purity, to spread His light, to extend His kingdom over the earth, to reach the perfection of righteousness, and to bring blessing to all mankind. That high purpose depended on obedience, for its prosperity, strength and growth were to follow from obedience to God's law, and the fruitfulness and honor of the vineyard rested on that obedience.

The vineyard was let out to keepers occupying it as husbandmen, especially the priests and teachers, to render Him the fruits in their seasons. Their charge was faithfully to teach His goodness and mercy and His claim to the people's love and service, and to lead the nation to return what He claimed. That same charge to keep His vineyard as faithful husbandmen belongs now to His church on earth, entrusted with the vineyard and its fruit.

Expected and Wild Fruit

The grapes the owner looked for and had every right to expect were good fruit, obedience to His commandments that makes souls precious in His sight. That expected fruit is the fruits of righteousness, faith, patience, love, forbearance, heavenly unity, and meekness, with love, humility, and self-sacrificing service required of His vineyard. Such fruit must ripen even amid hardship and darkness, and it is the obedience and faithful worship He desires from His church and people, who have received every provision needed to bear it. The verse stands as the song of the wellbeloved about His vineyard, very dear to His heart, reaching His saints who gather year by year to worship Him, to be sung with the heart and with the understanding by lips touched with the live coal from the altar.

Instead the vineyard brought forth wild grapes, degenerate like a wild vine, unrighteous and fruitless despite all care and every advantage. In Christ's day especially there was greater outward piety and outward show, yet the people lacked godly character, the graces of God's Spirit, and the beautiful character seen in Joseph. God sought fruit through His Son and found none, for the generation of Christ's day bore no good fruit despite profession. The failure was not mere fruitlessness but hindrance, withholding from the world the blessings God intended to give, misrepresenting Him among the nations and giving the Gentiles a false picture of Him and His kingdom. Its religion misled people and brought ruin rather than salvation.

Wild fruit proves the vine has no living attachment to the true and living Vine. Mere profession of faith will never save, for without being truly converted to God and sanctified through the truth there is no beauty in the soul, only deception and a fruitless life contrary to what was planted. One who lets the heart be hardened and natural inclinations prevail fails to receive heaven's impress and becomes spiritually sapless and impoverished, bearing only wild fruit and failing the purpose of planting, which true Christian life fulfills by bearing righteousness in conduct that distinguishes believers from the world. Such a condition reveals a hidden wisdom from below that is earthly, sensual, and devilish, like a fountain that should send forth sweet water but is poisoned. Obedience to God's law is the condition of bearing fruit to His glory, and teachers who lead people to disregard that law withhold the vineyard's fruit from God and are unfaithful servants.

Persistent Care and Rejection

Christ Himself brought Israel out of Egypt and transplanted the vine into good soil in Canaan, driving out its enemies and nourishing and caring for it there, and He continued to tend it through His servants with a continuing hope of saving it from destruction even after it failed to bear the fruit He sought. The digging and pruning and cherishing of the vineyard was His own unwearied three-year ministry in Jerusalem seeking fruit from His own planting. Going in and out among the people, He healed the sick, comforted the sorrowing, raised the dead, spoke pardon and peace to the repentant, and invited the weak and weary and helpless and desponding without respect to age or character to come for rest.

That continued care also included sending prophets to warn and to receive fruit, and establishing sacrifices that pointed to the one great Sacrifice. When the time of fruit drew near He sent His servants the prophets to receive the fruits in their seasons, but the husbandmen beat one and killed another and stoned another, and did likewise to others sent afterward. Last of all He sent His Son, whom they cast out of the vineyard and slew in order to seize the inheritance.

Israel's history became one of rebellion and forgetfulness of God, resisted grace, abused privileges, ignored warnings and national apostasy. Religion was reduced to hollow formalism while grace was resisted and God's messengers were persecuted and killed. Steadfast love and mercy beaten back and returning in untiring love were answered with indifference and contempt, with pleadings of love despised, counsel spurned and warning ridiculed, as an impenitent city turned from her best friend and only helper. Yet Jesus bore long with offenders and grieved over them, and came in person pleading with the people despite their failure.

The unfaithful keepers entrusted with the vineyard were the priests and teachers, who sought their own glory and the vineyard's benefits instead of faithfully teaching God's goodness and mercy and His claim to love and service. They distorted Scripture, burdened the people with human requirements, misused the resources entrusted for God's work, and withheld from God the service He claimed. By misleading the people they turned the nation away from Christ and led them from God's commandments, giving the Gentiles a false picture of God and His kingdom.

Israel also failed to take possession of the land as intended, crowding into Jerusalem instead of spreading by faith through the territory provided. That failure to occupy the vineyard marked a departure from God, and following His plan would have led to a very different future history. Through ingratitude and refusal of God's opportunities the vineyard became fruitless.

Judgment and Transfer Foretold

The fruitful vineyard became a desolate waste, picturing Israel in its degraded condition after rich care failed to yield the fruit sought. Great light, blessing and prosperity had been given, yet unfaithfulness and failure to render the Lord the fruits due to Him brought desolation. The vineyard stands for Jerusalem and the people Christ came to redeem, who received light and offers of mercy and rejected them, so that stubbornness and iniquity led to their being cast off and to the destruction of Jerusalem.

God does not bless and sustain His people when they abandon His commandments, for while He forgives those who repent He withdraws His favor from those who persist in sin, exalt themselves and treat the sacred as common. The vineyard was the once-chosen people entrusted with sacred responsibility and guilty of breaking that trust. The question of what more could have been done for the vineyard measures the full light, care and mercy already bestowed on the people Christ came to redeem.

God planted Israel as a fenced vineyard with a hedge round about, a winepress and a tower, set it with the choicest vine, and let it out to husbandmen to render Him the fruits in their seasons. The vineyard is the Jewish nation and its national privileges, the husbandmen are its leaders, and the grapes looked for are the fruits of righteousness. When the time of fruit drew near He sent His servants the prophets to receive the fruits, but the husbandmen beat one and killed another and stoned another, and did likewise to others sent afterward, and last of all He sent His Son, whom they cast out of the vineyard and slew in order to seize the inheritance. By this the past and the future history of the Jews is faithfully illustrated and their true religious character exposed, and their own answer condemns them and admits the justice of the punishment soon to fall, that the lord of the vineyard will miserably destroy those wicked men. The kingdom of God and national privileges shall be taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth its fruits, a taking away already commenced that will end in the destruction of their temple and city and the dispersion of the nation.

The Master of the vineyard planted, tended and looked for fruit, but Israel failed and rejected Him, and that same charge to keep His vineyard as faithful husbandmen now belongs to His church on earth. Yet His love for the lost race and His plan for their salvation and His eternal purpose are revealed in Israel's call, successes and failures, restoration to divine favor, rejection of the Master, and carrying out of the plan of the ages by a goodly remnant to whom all the covenant promises will be fulfilled.

Application to Church Today

The parable of the vineyard belongs not to the Jewish nation alone but to the church in the present generation, even now to God's church on earth. That church has received great privileges and blessings, with every provision needed to bear good fruit, and God expects corresponding returns from it. The same charge to keep His vineyard as faithful husbandmen that once belonged to Israel belongs today to its keepers. His love for the lost race, His plan for salvation, and His eternal purpose are seen in Israel's call, successes and failures, restoration to favor, rejection of the Master, and the carrying out of the plan of the ages by a goodly remnant to whom all covenant promises will be fulfilled.

The Lord's church is a vine planted in a fruitful field and in a fruitful place, tended with tender care so that it would bear good fruit, even the fruits of righteousness. Yet it can become like a degenerate vine and produce wild grapes despite God's care and blessings. Its branches spread widely but come to depend on earthly human supports rather than remaining fruitful under God's care. God's expectation to bring forth fruit applies to His people now, for their lives should show the results of His care. Selfish pursuits and strife fail that expectation and offend Him.

The world is the Lord's vineyard, belonging to Him and to be worked in all its parts without partiality to elevate the standard of truth everywhere. No portion is to be robbed to absorb means in one location while other places are hindered. He does not judge as man judges by finite judgment, but looks at the character of the fruit borne and by that judges the tree. The vineyard image therefore calls for missionary advance, for the Southern field is a neglected part of the Lord's work that has received only minimal attention despite duty clearly laid out for years. Other places stand ready and waiting to be worked, needing workers and freely given means, while the prepared vineyard waits for labor. God's work as a field requires spreading workers and people across the ground to bring more under cultivation, extend the work, and bring in new elements, rather than concentrating people and effort in one part and leaving other parts unworked.

God as Master of the vineyard is the one to whom workers should bring their needs. The warning of the cultivated plant expected to bear good grapes but producing wild fruit reaches individuals, families, and institutions. It pictures godless families and corrupted institutions in danger of becoming nurseries of folly and ungodliness that God cannot bless. It pictures a home where criticism and censure damage patience and sweet disposition so that the household yields harmful rather than loving results. It pictures a person whose hardened heart and prevailing natural inclinations keep heaven's impress away, leaving the life spiritually sapless and impoverished, and a person whose mere profession lacks genuine conversion and sanctification.

Wild fruit proves no living attachment to the true and living Vine, revealing a hidden wisdom from below that is earthly, sensual, and devilish, like a fountain that should send forth sweet water but is poisoned. A vine that once bore grapes now yielding wild grapes means people who once lived the faith and bore good fruit can depart into a sad experience, with present history contrasting painfully with the past. It is like the same fountain sending forth sweet water and bitter, bringing grief, weariness, pain of heart, and sadness of soul. Since the end is near when truth alone will triumph, truth as it is in Jesus must be planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit and tended daily there by grace.

The wild grapes also represent truth displaced by error, as when a wild branch is grafted in producing a corrupt result and bringing centuries of darkness and ignorance. Human theories are like the forbidden fruit Satan offered the first parents, false and ruinous, disordering the imagination unlike God's Word. The verse is part of the song of the wellbeloved about His vineyard, very dear to God's heart, reaching His saints who gather year by year to worship Him. It is to be sung with the heart and with the understanding by lips touched with the live coal from the altar, and the fruit Christ wants is obedience to God's commandments, which makes souls precious in His sight. God expects His people to bear fruit, for Christianity that does not produce righteousness in conduct is a strange vine failing its planting purpose and failing to distinguish believers from the world, while true Christian life bears fruit.

The people who received great light and every advantage are responsible to share that light with those who lack it rather than reject the blessing.