Isaiah 5:5, commentary and pictures

The vineyard is Israel, God's greatly beloved church and flock, which He transplanted from Egypt and planted in the fruitful soil of Canaan with every spiritual advantage. The hedge and wall around it are His protection, blessing and favor, kept by His law and commandments that guard the obedient from evil. To take them away is for God to withdraw that protection and leave the vineyard exposed to be eaten up and trodden down into desolate ruin by invading armies and terrible judgments. He does this because though richly blessed it yielded only wild grapes of oppression, formalism and pride instead of the justice, righteousness and godly character He rightly expected, and His blessing cannot continue where trust is broken by persistent disobedience. The same warning belongs to the church in every generation, which is now entrusted with great privileges and must bear corresponding fruit of love, humility and self-sacrificing service.

Vineyard, Hedge, and Judgment

The vineyard is Israel, Jerusalem, and God's people, His greatly beloved church on earth and the fold for the sheep of His pasture. He transplanted it as a vine out of Egypt and planted it in Canaan in a fruitful and genial soil, fencing it, clearing it, nourishing and caring for it, and giving it every spiritual advantage. He placed it there expecting good grapes, the fruit He rightly sought.

The hedge and wall around the vineyard are God's protection, blessing and favor, removed when protection is withdrawn. They are fenced about by His commandments, identified with His law that guards those who obey from evil, including marriage and Sabbath laws defined from creation, and with Israel's national privileges as God's people. That protection and blessing were conditional on obedience, so the vineyard would be preserved and prosper if Israel obeyed and kept the covenant.

To take away the hedge and break down the wall is for God to withdraw that protection, leaving the vineyard exposed to be eaten up and trodden down. It becomes a desolate waste that suffers ruin, calamity, defeat and terrible judgments, with Jerusalem overrun by invading armies and with temple and city destroyed. The loss of protection is the consequence of unfaithfulness to God's covenant and failure to bear the justice and righteousness He sought.

The goodly vine God planted in Palestine is Christ, despised by Israel and finally cast over the vineyard wall, bruised and trampled underfoot in hope of destroying Him forever. God then removed the vine and hid it from sight and planted it again on the other side of the wall, where the stock is no longer visible and is beyond human power to reach or harm, while the branches still hang over the wall so grafts can be joined to it. As Lord of the vineyard He came seeking fruit for three years going in and out among His people, digging about, pruning and cherishing the vine with unwearied efforts to save it. That care was healing the sick, comforting the sorrowing, raising the dead, speaking pardon and peace to the repentant, and gathering and extending mercy to the weak, weary, helpless and desponding without respect to age or character. The golden vine on the temple represented Israel as a flourishing vine, but outward splendor could not prevent judgment for rejecting the Redeemer. Though the wilderness landscape reflects Israel's degraded, desolate condition, above it shines the promised glory of the Messiah's reign, with God's wrath spanned by the rainbow of covenant mercy.

Why Protection Was Withdrawn

Protection was withdrawn because the vineyard failed to yield the good grapes God rightly sought and expected though richly blessed, justice and righteousness, the fruits of the Spirit, godly character and fruit unto righteousness, bringing forth instead wild grapes, oppression instead of justice and a cry instead of righteousness. God had planted and fenced and cleared it and set it in a fruitful place expecting good fruit, yet in Christ's generation the people lacked the fruits of godly character. The failure to keep covenant and produce the fruits of faithful stewardship cut the vineyard off from divine life, hindered the blessings intended for the world, and left other peoples deprived of religious guidance and a holy example because Israel failed to serve as God's representative.

The wild grapes were hollow formalism, Pharisaical pride, self-exaltation and cruel attributes, with absence of the fruits of the Spirit and presence of oppression and outcry. The people acted as though there were no God, failed to take possession of the land as designed and to care for the vineyard and render its fruits, though given great light, blessings and prosperity, so desolation followed. This came after a long history of resisted grace, abused privileges, ignored prophetic warnings and national apostasy, for God continued in love despite rebellion and forgetting of Him, sending prophets to warn, instituting the sacrificial system to keep the one great Sacrifice before them, and granting opportunities and privileges from compassion and love. Israel abused those privileges from age to age for a thousand years, refusing mercy, resisting grace with ingratitude, persecuting and killing the messengers sent to warn, multiplying transgression and persistently rejecting light and mercy until rejecting the Son of God and seeking to put Him to death, leaving the vineyard spoiled by cruel husbandmen, fruitless and ripe for retributive judgment to burst in unrestrained fury with its accumulated consequences in Jerusalem's trampling.

Israel turned from her best friend and only helper, meeting steadfast love with indifference and contempt, despising pleadings, spurning counsels and ridiculing warnings, while mercy beaten back by the stubborn heart returned in a tide of untiring love. Entrusted leaders and caretakers were unfaithful, seeking their own honor and gain instead of serving God and guiding the people faithfully. Jewish priests, teachers, rulers and religious teachers turned the nation away from Christ, withheld from God the love, humility, self-sacrificing service and obedience to His law He required, led people to disregard His commandments, and by rejecting and mistreating His messengers culminating in His Son withheld what was due Him and pronounced judgment on themselves, so the kingdom was taken from them and given to others who will bear fruit and they were left responsible for the vineyard yielding no fruit and the ruin that followed.

God's protection and blessing were conditional on obedience, for the vineyard set apart with every spiritual advantage to produce righteousness would be preserved and prosper if Israel obeyed and walked in the Lord's ways keeping all His commandments. He cannot bless and sustain those who break trust and go on sinning, glorifying and exalting self, weaving false principles into practice and mingling the sacred with the common while misrepresenting Him, and He will not stay with their sins though He willingly forgives those who repent. The taking away of hedge and wall was the taking away of national privileges and of favor and protection from those persisting in iniquity, a punishment condemned by their own mouths that had already begun, ending in being cast off, overrun by invading armies, destruction of temple and city, dispersion of the nation, and terrible judgments bringing calamity and defeat to those left to be eaten up and trodden down.

Warning for the Church Today

The vineyard parable is not confined to the Jewish nation but reaches to the church in every generation, which has received great privileges and blessings and is therefore expected to bear corresponding fruit. The vineyard is God's church on earth, now entrusted to keepers to occupy as faithful husbandmen. Its story contains Israel's call, successes and failures, restoration to divine favor, rejection of the Master of the vineyard, and the carrying out of the plan of the ages by a goodly remnant to whom all covenant promises will be fulfilled. In that counsel and admonition are made plain God's eternal purpose, His love for the lost race, and His plan for their salvation, and that same message belongs to His church today.

The fruit required is love, humility, and self-sacrificing service, with rejection of His law preventing that fruit and withholding what is due to Him. A life that does not distinguish God's people from the world is like a strange vine failing its purpose, for they bear fruit unto righteousness only by receiving the gospel, living Christ's words, and truly representing Him. Those who depart from the faith are like a vineyard that once bore grapes and now yields wild grapes, like the same fountain sending forth sweet water and bitter, and their present history in sad contrast to their past brings weariness and sorrow of heart. Only truth as it is in Jesus, planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit and daily tended there by the grace of God, keeps from bringing forth that bitter fruit, and the end is near when truth alone will triumph.

Unless His people walk in the ways of the Lord and keep all His commandments He cannot bless and sustain them, for He will not stay with their sins though He willingly forgives those who repent. He takes away His hedge and breaks down His wall, removing favor and protection from those who go on sinning, glorify and exalt self, weave false principles into practice, and mingle the sacred with the common while misrepresenting Him. Left to be eaten up and trodden down, they suffer calamity and defeat, and terrible judgments destroy them. Religious teachers who lead people to disregard the commandments are unfaithful caretakers like the leaders who rejected Christ and are responsible for the vineyard's failure to yield fruit. Those entrusted with light are warned against rejecting it, and instead of condemning those who never received it or making it harder for them to hear truth, they are to impart the light and blessing given them.

The Lord's vineyard is also the world, to be worked in all its different parts without partiality toward any part. The work required is elevating the standard of truth and establishing memorials of truth to make a proper impression on the world, and God judges the tree by looking at the character of the fruit borne. The vineyard requires careful labor, for leaving parts unattended allows thorns and briers to grow. Workers and plants are therefore to be spread into other parts of the vineyard so more ground can be cultivated and the work extended, rather than concentrating in one place. No portion is to be robbed of means so that money is absorbed in one location or large center, but workers in every part are to be enabled to move forward without hindrance.

The vineyard as a field waiting to be cultivated calls for workers, and resources should remain available to support that work. When hedge and wall are removed the vineyard lies exposed to ruin, and the Southern field is a neglected portion of that vineyard needing renewed attention and missionary work. God's work in the South, with God as Master of the vineyard, needs sustained care and support.