Isaiah 5:4, commentary and pictures

The vineyard is Israel, Judah as His pleasant plant transplanted from Egypt and set in good soil in Canaan, and its owner who asks the question is Christ Himself to whom it belongs. He declares that He had done all that could rightly be done for it, withholding nothing needed for it to bear good fruit, above all in giving His only-begotten Son and then coming in person to cherish it with unwearied labor. He looked for grapes of justice and righteousness and a gracious character of love, joy, peace and obedience, but it brought forth wild grapes of oppression, selfishness, formalism and rejection of Him. Its failure was not from any lack in His care or instruction but from stubborn resistance to abundant light, which leaves men without excuse and at last exhausts mercy. The same warning rests on the church and on every person now, that great privileges call for corresponding fruit and what remains is the response of repentance and living faithfulness.

Vineyard Identity and Symbols

The vineyard is Israel, with Judah as His pleasant plant, also called the Jewish church and Jerusalem, which was transplanted from Egypt and planted in Canaan on the hills of Palestine in good soil on a very fruitful hill. God had provided everything needed for it to bear good fruit, yet it produced wild grapes instead, showing that its failure was not from lack of care but from the people's failure to live out the purpose for which they were chosen. He had cared for His people and looked for justice and righteousness, but found oppression and the cry of those suffering injustice.

The owner and speaker of the question is Christ Himself, the Son of God and Lord of light and glory, and the vineyard is His own planting, His people and His property. He brought Israel as a goodly vine out of Egypt, cast out the heathen before it, planted it in a very fruitful hill, hedged it about with guardian care, and sent His servants to nurture it. With still yearning hope of fruitfulness He came in person to His vineyard to save it from destruction, digging about the vine, pruning and cherishing it with unwearied effort during three years going in and out among His people. That unwearied work was healing the sick, comforting the sorrowing, raising the dead, speaking pardon and peace to the repentant, gathering the weak and weary and helpless and desponding, and extending mercy to all without respect to age or character with invitation to come for rest, steadfastly pursuing His ministry of love and scattering blessings while bearing privation and reproach, with no frown to repel the suppliant, so that mercy beaten back returned in a tide of untiring love. He did nothing to cut them off but bore long with them, waiting through a thousand years while the cloud of vengeance gathered, and when He saw it about to burst He wept in agony of tears over Jerusalem after centuries of ingratitude, formalism, hypocrisy, pride and apostasy, with grace resisted, privileges abused, opportunities slighted, warnings unheeded, prophets put to death, servants abused, and His vineyard trodden underfoot.

The Jews themselves recognized this picture and set at the entrance to the temple in Jerusalem a great vine of gold and silver with green leaves and massive clusters of grapes, made at enormous expense by the most skillful artists to represent Israel as a prosperous vine expected to bring forth grapes. The true vine is Christ, whom the men of Israel despised and finally cast over the vineyard wall, bruised and trampled underfoot hoping they had destroyed Him forever. The divine Husbandman then removed the vine, concealed it from sight, and planted it again on the other side of the wall where it is no longer visible and beyond the power of men to reach or harm, while the branches hang over the wall so that grafts may still be joined to it. The wild branch grafted into the vineyard represents false human theories that displaced the truth and brought centuries of darkness and ignorance, answering why the vineyard planted for good grapes produced wild grapes instead.

God's Complete Provision

The question itself declares that all that could rightly be done and expected for the vineyard had been done, that everything needed and every advantage for bearing good fruit had been provided, so that nothing favorable to spiritual formation was withheld and nothing was left undone. The failure to bear good fruit therefore did not lie in any lack of care, provision or instruction, but in the people's failure to live out the purpose for which they were chosen.

That care began with bringing Israel as a goodly vine out of Egypt, casting out the heathen before it, and planting it in a very fruitful hill. He hedged it about with guardian care and with His law, dug the winepress, built the tower, let it to husbandmen, gave instruction and every advantage needed to become faithful representatives of His kingdom, and sent servant after servant to nurture it and receive fruit. The hedge of law included the marriage law and the Sabbath law, which were clearly defined in Eden so that people would not be ignorant or misunderstand them.

Above all, in giving His only-begotten Son He gave all heaven, and no greater gift could be given, making sufficient provision for eternal life. What He did was an infinite sacrifice to regain what was lost, in which Christ as man's substitute left His happy position in heaven, stepped down as Commander of the heavenly host, laid aside His royal robes and crown and dignity and kingly crown, clothed His divinity with humanity, and took human nature so that fallen people through Him might be elevated to a seat at His right hand. He became poor among the poor and associated with the poor to lift men from their low estate, even giving Himself in suffering and agony on Calvary's cross where He paid the infinite price to save men.

He spoke again and again by reproof and message after message, sometimes by unacknowledged mercies and oftentimes by threatened judgments, by blessings bestowed and by blessings removed. He sent prophets to warn, gave light and warnings, provided rich grace and divine power for His work, and established the sacrificial system to keep before them the promised great Sacrifice. When those warnings are not heeded His question is justified and an account of why expected fruit did not appear is called for.

With still yearning hope of fruitfulness He came in person to His vineyard to save it from destruction, during three years going in and out among His people and knocking at the gate of the impenitent city. His digging about the vine and pruning and cherishing it was unwearied effort to save the vine of His own planting: healing the sick, comforting the sorrowing, raising the dead, speaking pardon and peace to the repentant, gathering the weak and weary and helpless and desponding, and extending mercy to all without respect to age or character with invitation to come for rest. He steadfastly pursued His ministry of love and scattered blessings while bearing privation and reproach, with no frown to repel the suppliant, so that mercy beaten back by the stubborn heart returned in a tide of untiring love.

That same unwearied care continued in an added time of probation, for He served them with unwearied love and prayed for their forgiveness. After His ascension the gospel was preached first in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit was poured out, special opportunities and gifts were given to the first gospel church at Jerusalem, and Stephen testified and died. Heaven had bestowed all it could, and His care and labor for each person likewise continue, so that complete care and labor are the evidence behind the question.

The same complete provision is offered to all who have received the gospel, for God has anticipated every need and difficulty and emergency and made the way straight and smooth. He gives abundant light, the Old and New Testament witness, the revelation of Christ's death and resurrection, and the spiritual banquet of His promises, with means to be transformed into His likeness and restored to fellowship with Him. He freely offers Christ's righteousness, justification by faith, access to the Father, the Spirit's comfort, greater moral strength and deep religious experience, reconciliation through His Son, and assurance of eternal life to every soul, providing rich grace and divine power on His part for His work.

Fruit Expected and Found

He looked for grapes, for justice and righteousness, but found oppression and the cry of those suffering injustice instead of the good fruit He sought. He had given every care and advantage needed to produce good fruit, so the failure lay not in any lack of what had been done for the vineyard. The woes that follow show the consequences of greed, pleasure-seeking and disregard for God, when houses become desolate and the people go into captivity for lack of knowledge, a picture also applied to costly developments in Southern California that stood empty after their productive land was neglected.

The good fruit He claims and rightly expects is a gracious character produced by His Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness and faith. That fruit includes faith, patience, love, forbearance, unity, meekness and heavenly-mindedness, with love, humility and self-sacrificing service growing through obedience to His commandments. It is following conviction of right and obeying the truth presented in plain distinct lines. These qualities must mature even amid hardship and darkness, not only in favorable circumstances.

Rich clusters are those truly and unmistakably converted to God and sanctified through the truth, with truth producing beauty in the soul, valuing the soul Christ bought with His blood, cleaving close to Jesus for victory amid the perils of the last days, and taking earnest hold to work for the salvation of souls. Teachers who lead people to disregard God's law prevent this fruit-bearing and withhold the vineyard's fruit from its rightful owner as unfaithful husbandmen.

Instead the vineyard brought forth wild grapes, degenerate fruit from a vine turned from Him. That wild fruit is insincerity, empty formalism, pride, selfishness and self-interest, ingratitude and disobedience. It is hatred against the truth, despising and rejecting Him, living in disobedience and refusing to hear and obey, corruption from rejecting His law and using His gifts for their own glory. It is a mere profession of faith that can never save, like a poisoned fountain that should send forth sweet water, and a strange or wild vine lacking the fruit of righteousness. As the church sought the world's praise and friendship its faith and zeal weakened, devotion became formal, worldly ambition displaced the Spirit of Christ, and it turned from Him to rely on human supports. Those who labor with Christ should share His unselfish expectations and sacrifices and bear devoted service rather than self-interest, while all who receive grace, light, privileges and opportunities are accountable to return earnest, living piety rather than abusing privilege and neglecting light.

That failure included the priests and teachers entrusted with guiding the people, who failed to teach God's goodness and mercy or lead in loving service and obedience. They sought their own honor, burdened people with human rules, misled the people, withheld from God the service He claimed, misused what was entrusted to them, turned the nation away from Christ, broke the covenant, selfishly claimed the fruits entrusted to them, and gave the Gentiles reason to misunderstand and misrepresent God. Israel also failed its purpose to bless the world and reveal God's character through obedience, showing only outward piety without the gracious character seen in Joseph, becoming a hindrance rather than faithfully representing God. It rejected responsibility to receive light and share it with those who did not know the truth, and departed from His plan to spread through Canaan and take possession of the land, so that had it followed His plan its history would have been different.

A vine that once bore good grapes now yielding wild grapes pictures people whose present life sadly contradicts their faithful past after departing from the faith into an evil course, like the same fountain sending forth both sweet water and bitter. This change brings weariness, pain, grief and sadness of heart to those who see it. The end when truth alone will triumph is near, so truth as it is in Jesus needs to be planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit and tended daily by the grace of God. Christian saintliness should distinguish believers from the world, placing those who receive the gospel on higher ground to live Christ's words.

Christ's Rejection and Judgment

Jerusalem's long history was one of resisted grace, abused privileges, slighted opportunities, and unheeded warnings and reproofs of the prophets, with servants abused, prophets put to death, and the vineyard trodden underfoot through centuries of ingratitude, formalism, hypocrisy, pride and apostasy. Though brought from Egypt, planted in Canaan and lovingly nourished with the sacrificial system to keep the promised great Sacrifice before them, Israel produced wild fruit by rebellion and forgetting God. Its religion became hollow formalism, resisting grace, rejecting Christ, and persecuting the messengers sent to warn it, leaving the vineyard fruitless and facing judgment.

When the Owner looked for grapes He found unfaithfulness, the beating and killing of servants and the murder of the Son. Israel turned from her best Friend and only Helper, despising the pleadings of His love, spurning His counsels and ridiculing His warnings with indifference and contempt. Stubbornly refusing the light, rejecting offered mercy, living in disobedience and refusing to hear and obey, the people were filled with hatred against the truth, mistreated His messengers, and rejected and crucified His Son. Their failure to use privileges and stewardship faithfully despite full provision makes them accountable, with Calvary standing as witness against all who receive God-given opportunities and give no return.

Jesus saw this long record of ingratitude, hypocrisy, pride and apostasy and wept over Jerusalem as judgment approached. He did nothing to cut them off but bore long with them, waiting through a thousand years while the cloud of vengeance gathered, and when He saw it about to burst He wept in agony of tears. That sorrowful question was uttered in view of the trial, humiliation and crucifixion before Him, with troubled soul complaining that for His love they are His adversaries. He knew that rejecting light would end in being let go and cast off for iniquity.

Christ used the vineyard's history to expose the Jewish rulers' breach of trust as they were preparing to reject and kill His Son. Their own answer condemns them, admitting the justice of miserably destroying the unfaithful husbandmen and letting the vineyard to others. In this past and future history is faithfully illustrated, their true religious character exposed, and the taking away of their national privileges shown to be just. The blessings meant for them became grounds for condemnation through impenitence, bringing loss of privilege, desolation, calamity, destruction of temple and city, and dispersion of the nation.

The woes that follow show the consequences of greed, pleasure-seeking and disregard for God: houses become desolate and the people go into captivity for lack of knowledge, because He looked for justice and righteousness but found oppression and the cry of those suffering injustice. The desolate houses and ruined orchards also picture costly developments in Southern California that stood empty after their productive land was neglected. Jerusalem's stubborn refusal exhausted mercy's last resource and brought judgment by encompassing armies, warning that persistent resistance to loving appeals ends in retribution.

The question is counsel making plain God's eternal purpose, His love for the lost race and His plan for salvation, telling Israel's call, successes and failures, restoration to favor, and rejection of the Master of the vineyard. The plan of the ages is then carried out by a goodly remnant to whom all the covenant promises are to be fulfilled, who today occupy His vineyard as faithful husbandmen and keepers. Though Israel became desolate and its wilderness landscape pictured its degraded condition, above that desolation shone the promised glory of the Messiah's reign as hope, with the rainbow picturing God's covenant mercy spanning the clouds of wrath.

Accountability Under Light

The failure of the vineyard cannot be blamed on any lack in care, provision, or instruction, for everything needed for it to bear good fruit had been provided and all that could rightly be expected had been done, yet it produced wild grapes instead of good fruit because the people failed to live out the purpose for which they were chosen. Their corruption came not from what was withheld but from refusing to apply the instruction, admonitions, and remedy they had been shown, turning from the sacrifice given to save and cleanse them from sin and unrighteousness when what remained was their own response whether to serve God or Baal. No lack remained in the divine work, for heaven had bestowed all it could through unwearied love, forgiveness sought, the gospel preached first at Jerusalem, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and faithful witness even unto death, and that same care and labor continue for each person.

The Jewish people had been given abundant light and evidence, including evidence of Christ's divinity in His resurrection and ascension, and their rejection was not caused by anything left undone but by stubbornly resisting the Holy Spirit's clear appeal, making them accountable for their choice. Accountability is measured by light received, so that the greater the light and privileges the greater the responsibility, and condemnation matches those privileges when they are not improved. Neglected or refused light condemns those who received it, while those who never had light to reject are not condemned for that lack, for light does not save by itself but must be accepted, lived by, and passed on to others. Every need, difficulty, and emergency had been anticipated and the way made straight and smooth, yet cherishing unbelief and resisting the Holy Spirit leave men without excuse in the day of judgment, and if heaven's provision does not change the attitude toward God He will have to let men go, so the call is to walk in the light as He is in the light.

There is a boundary to mercy, for God does not always strive with men, but a record is kept of blessings offered and how they are treated. Persistent resistance exhausts mercy's last resource, and continued neglect leaves anger no longer withheld, with sinners given over to the power of Satan and judgment ending in retribution. Persistent departure from justice and righteousness can make wrongdoing part of nature until men no longer discern light, truth, justice, or mercy, as seen when Jerusalem rejected light, warnings, mercy, and the things belonging to its peace and was let go, cast off for iniquity, and destroyed by encompassing armies amid anguish and tears from the Son of God. The same casting off that fell on Jerusalem will fall on all who now refuse the light for this time, warning that persistent resistance to loving appeals ends in retribution and applying also to churches that reject given light and to all who reject the light given in their own time.

Rejecting the mercy offered through Jesus is a grave rejection of His sacrifice, and those who persist in slighting it will lose eternal life and their immortal inheritance. God greatly loves His church on earth as the fold for the sheep of His pasture, yet He cannot bless and sustain those who do not walk in His ways and keep all His commandments, but suffers calamity and defeat to come upon them when they glorify themselves and weave false principles into practice. He willingly forgives those who repent, but He will remove His favor from those who go on sinning, exalting self and mingling the sacred with the common, and terrible judgments will destroy those who misrepresent Him while claiming His name. The same question applies to God's Sabbath, given as a sign of creation and of God sanctifying His people, so that replacing the holy seventh day with a humanly appointed sabbath rejects God's sign and allegiance to Him, while keeping the Sabbath and obedience to the truth belong to sanctification which forms loyal followers in Christ's likeness.

Call to Present Faithfulness

Beyond Israel the parable warns the church in every generation that great privileges and blessings call for corresponding returns, for God has given His church tender care and everything needed to bear the fruits of righteousness, yet it has turned from Him, relied on human supports, and produced degenerate fruit instead of the good grapes He rightly expected. That decline is seen as faith and zeal weakened while seeking the world's praise and friendship, devotion become formal, and worldly ambition displacing the Spirit of Christ. Idolatry and absorption in selfish pursuits instead of the work of saving souls fail that expectation and offend God.

Teachers who lead people to disregard God's law prevent this fruit-bearing, for the fruit He claims is love, humility and self-sacrificing service growing through obedience to His commandments, and those who withhold it from its rightful Owner act as unfaithful husbandmen. God provides rich grace and divine power for His work and has done all needed on His part, so when indifference and withholding of effort and means leave people without opportunity to hear and be saved, the responsibility rests with human agents and not with God.

Each person must examine whether his life disappoints its Owner, for the absence of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness and faith in professed followers is the wild grapes in place of good fruit. Like a loving father with a wayward child, God gives grace, light, privileges and opportunities and rightly expects earnest, living piety, yet people may resist grace, abuse privileges, neglect light, and yield insincerity, empty formalism and pride, an ingratitude under great light that is accountable and brings judgment. That failure is not from lack in His care but a call to turn from sin, humble self, and rely on Christ. Therefore His people have no grounds to resist His call to renounce sin, humble themselves and follow Him even through trials and reproach for the truth, for Christ gave Himself to cleanse from unrighteousness and each must accept that sacrifice and choose whether to serve God or Baal, since what remains after all He has done is their response. The question presses this personally, that Heaven had provided needed help and light, yet the stubborn person rejected them and followed his own judgment.

Those who labor with Christ are to share His unselfish expectations and sacrifices and bear devoted service rather than the wild fruit of self-interest. Walking in the light as it is unfolded and as He is in the light is what is required, because heaven has done everything possible, crowned by the infinite sacrifice in which He left His happy position, laid aside royal robes, crown and dignity, became poor among the poor to lift men from their low estate, took human nature that fallen people through Him might be elevated to a seat at His right hand, and paid the infinite price in suffering and agony on Calvary's cross. This leaves no ground to doubt His help or demand greater proof, but calls each sinner to repent, give self to Him just as a poor miserable sinner, trust Him for strength to live right one day at a time, and render love and obedience in return. There is reason to dwell on His mercy and love rather than on discouragement. His completeness of care and grief over centuries of ingratitude, formalism, hypocrisy, pride and apostasy — with grace resisted, privileges abused, opportunities slighted, prophets' warnings unheeded, servants abused, the vineyard trodden underfoot, yet long forbearance through a thousand years until He wept in agony of tears as vengeance gathered — teaches followers to value souls for whom He died, bear long under provocation, and return kindness for abuse, with peace, hope and joy through living by faith.

The verse expresses God's sorrow that people equipped to attain moral excellence through cooperation with divine help waste their God-given powers and turn from Him. Temptation leads them to prize earthly wealth, pursue worldly riches until God's promises seem worthless, let love of the world displace love for God, and so be led into sin.

The husbandman's question expresses abundant mercy and grief at ingratitude and disobedience after light and warnings given that people might turn from sin. Applied to America, its blessings and liberty make it accountable for honoring God and His law, while pride, covetousness, oppression of the poor and injustice show failure to return the fruit He sought. Jerusalem's rejection is repeated when churches reject given light, and persistent departure from justice and righteousness can become part of nature until light, truth, justice and mercy are no longer discerned.

Applied to the Sanitarium's managers, God had done everything possible to bring needed change of action, speaking again and again by reproof and message after message, sometimes by unacknowledged mercies and oftentimes by threatened judgments, by blessings bestowed and by blessings removed, so that when warnings are not heeded His question is justified. After such care producing wild grapes, an account is required of why expected fruit did not appear, for repeated reproofs, messages, mercies and removed blessings aimed at change were not heeded. They had been shown sins and wrong ways, given admonitions and a remedy, and may repent and receive saving grace, but the danger is refusing to apply instruction to themselves.

The Lord's vineyard is the world, and every part is to be worked to elevate the standard of truth and establish memorials that make a proper impression. The Southern field is a neglected portion of that vineyard to be redeemed by action. God is no partial judge but looks at the character of the fruit borne and then judges the tree, and He is misrepresented when work in different parts is hindered; no portion is to be robbed to absorb money and labor in one location while workers elsewhere are hindered, and overdoing in some places such as America is not to be the pattern. Concentrating people and effort in Battle Creek leaves other parts uncultivated, while moving some plants to other places brings more ground under cultivation. Places ready for harvest still wait for workers, and God's people should keep means available to support that work. Those entrusted with resources who fail to use them faithfully disappoint Him, and workers are to bring their needs to the Master of the vineyard as they carry out entrusted work.