Isaiah 5:6, commentary and pictures

The vineyard is Israel, which God brought out of Egypt and planted in Canaan, hedged with His law and tended with great care to bear good fruit that would restore His image and bless the nations. He looked for justice and righteousness and the fruits of the Spirit, but found oppression and suffering, formalism and pride, ingratitude and rebellion against the light and privileges He had given. His judgment is to withdraw His protection, care and blessing, leaving the vineyard unpruned and undigged for briers and thorns to overgrow it, and commanding the clouds to withhold heaven's rain so it lies desolate and unfruitful. That laying waste began as national privileges were taken away for rejecting Christ, ending in the destruction of the temple and city and the scattering of the nation, showing that His mercy has a boundary. The same warning rests on His church today, which has received great light and blessing and must return corresponding fruit in righteousness, lest by failing to use what God has given it be left without cultivation or rain.

Vineyard Meaning and Judgment

The vineyard is Israel, the Jewish nation, brought as a vine from Egypt and planted in Canaan, nourished, tended and cared for, hedged and guarded with His law, intended to take possession of the land according to His plan. Planted and cared for with expectation of good fruit, it was meant to restore His moral image in humanity and to show the nations the blessings of His law, but it produced wild grapes and became a hindrance rather than a blessing to the world. Its failure to bear the character and spiritual fruit God intended made its destruction a judgment for failing to return fruit to God and for mistreating and killing His messengers and Son, so that the kingdom is taken from its unfaithful keepers and given to others who will bear fruit.

The great vine of gold and silver with green leaves and massive clusters of grapes set over the entrance of the temple displayed Israel in character as a prosperous vine, favored and flourishing, wrought with great cost and skill to show her standing. The golden vine at the temple represented Israel as a prosperous vine belonging to this same vineyard picture.

God looked for justice and righteousness but found oppression and suffering and heard a cry, the absence of justice and righteousness marking Israel's failure to produce the fruit He sought. The missing grapes are the absence of the fruits of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness and faith.

The wild grapes were forgetting God and going into rebellion, abusing privileges from age to age, hollow formalism, Pharisaical pride, self-exaltation and cruel, Satanic attributes, ingratitude, resisted grace and refusal of the opportunities and privileges provided by a God of compassion and love. The people were unfaithful despite great light, blessings and prosperity, failing to care for the vineyard and give God its fruits, acting as though there were no God. The priests, teachers and husbandmen were unfaithful to their trust, seeking their own honor and profit instead of teaching God's word faithfully, denying God the service He claimed, turning the people from His word and from Christ, misusing their office and spoiling the vineyard until it became fruitless. Their greed and misuse brought dishonor to God and gave the Gentiles reason to misjudge His character and kingdom, with responsibility for the nation's ruin resting on the Jewish religious leaders who withheld the fruit.

The judgment is that God withdraws His protection, care, favor and blessing, lays the vineyard waste and leaves it uncultivated, unpruned, undigged and untilled, so briers and thorns and briars come up. His commanding the clouds to rain no rain means withholding divine blessing and heaven's rain, leaving the vineyard desolate, unproductive, ruined, overgrown and without rain. When Israel broke its covenant and failed to bear the fruit required, the loss of rain as withheld blessing also cut the people off from God's life and blessing and withheld religious guidance and holy example from the world.

The laying waste is the removal of the goodly vine the divine Husbandman planted on the hills of Palestine after the men of Israel despised it, cast it over the vineyard wall, and bruised and trampled it in hope of destroying it forever. The Husbandman took the vine out of their sight and planted it again on the other side of the wall where the stock is no longer visible and beyond the power of men to reach or harm, while the branches still hang over the wall so that grafts may be joined to it.

The laying waste is the taking away of national privileges, a work already commenced in Christ's day, pointing to the end of Israel's time as a favored nation after it rejected Christ, who had patiently ministered among the people and sought to save them. Jerusalem's rejection of Christ brought this judgment of withdrawn care and blessings with the nation left to ruin, the sentence ending not only in destruction of the temple and city but in dispersion of the nation by invading armies, showing that God's mercy has a boundary. The Pharisees themselves admit the justice of the coming punishment by their answer about the wicked husbandmen, in which the past and future history of the Jews and their true religious character are set forth.

The gloomy, terrible appearance of the wilderness reflected Israel's degraded condition when made desolate as the Lord's fruitful vineyard and left uncared for. The storm clouds over it were arched by the rainbow of promise: above Israel's degradation shone the promised glory of the Messiah's reign, and God's wrath was spanned by the rainbow of His covenant mercy.

The verse stands included in prophetic warning about sin and its consequences, as part of God's warning to His people that disregard of His law and rejection of His word bring judgment.

Warning to Church Today

The parable of the vineyard belongs not to the Jewish nation alone but to the church in this generation, which has received great privileges and blessings and light and is expected to return fruit corresponding to what it has received. The counsel and admonition given through the prophets concerning Israel's rejection of the Master of the vineyard has special value to the keepers of God's vineyard today.

Its destruction is judgment for failing to return fruit to God and for mistreating and killing His messengers and His Son, so that the kingdom is taken from its unfaithful keepers and given to others who will bear fruit. The vineyard left waste and uncultivated, overrun with briers and thorns and deprived of rain, is the judgment that follows failure to produce the fruit God expected, and the missing grapes are the absence of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness and faith. This warns Christ's professed followers to examine whether their lives disappoint God, the owner of the vineyard. God's people are meant to bear fruit unto righteousness, for a life unchanged by the gospel does not represent Christ, while Christian saintliness should distinguish believers from the world. Failing to use the light and advantages God has given brings the judgment of being left waste, without cultivation or rain, and those who know the truth should share it rather than reject its blessing or condemn those who have not received it.

The desolation that comes when the vineyard fails to yield the fruit the owner sought, receiving no further tending or rain while thorns take its place, warns especially religious teachers who lead people to disregard God's law. By doing so they prevent souls from bearing fruit to His glory and withhold the fruits of love, humility and self-sacrificing service. The church on earth is greatly beloved as the fold for the sheep of His pasture, yet God will not serve with the sins of His people and cannot bless and sustain those who do not walk in His ways and keep all His commandments. He willingly forgives those who repent, but from those who go on sinning, exalting self and mingling the sacred with the common, He removes His favor, suffers calamity and defeat to come upon them, and at last brings terrible judgments that destroy those who misrepresent Him while claiming His temple.

Israel's unfaithfulness cut the people off from God's life and blessing, and their failure to represent Him also withheld from the world the religious guidance, spiritual guidance and holy example it was meant to give other nations. The withholding of rain is the withholding of divine blessing, leaving the vineyard untended, ruined and made waste. A vine that once bore grapes now yielding wild grapes means people who once lived the faith but have departed from it into a sad, bitter experience, and the contrast between past fruitfulness and present apostasy brings grief and weariness of heart. The end is near when truth alone will triumph, so truth as it is in Jesus must be planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit and tended daily by the grace of God.

The vineyard image calls for working neglected parts of the Lord's vineyard, for the Southern field is a neglected part where neglect must end and duty to care for it is urgent. Neglected ground grows briers and thorns when too many people and resources are concentrated in one center such as Battle Creek instead of being spread to other fields. The Lord's vineyard is His work in the world, to be worked throughout and judged by the fruit produced, so work in one place should not be overfunded at the expense of other parts. The vineyard is waiting to be worked, with workers and resources needed for the work. The lack of rain explains ruined orchards and desolate properties, where costly places created by pleasure seekers stand empty while the Lord withholds heaven's rain.

This judgment connects with Jerusalem's long history of rejecting warnings and mistreating God's prophets and servants, over which Jesus wept as He saw the coming desolation without care, exposed to thorns, with rain withheld. God did not withdraw His love but sent prophets to warn and instituted the sacrificial system to keep before their minds the one great Sacrifice, the one efficient Offering prefigured in their typical system. Israel would not accept His invitation of mercy, and from national apostasy came cruel persecution ending in killing the very messengers sent to warn them of the result of their evil course. For a thousand years they multiplied transgression upon transgression, abusing privileges from age to age in forgetting God and rebellion, hollow formalism, Pharisaical pride, self-exaltation, ingratitude, resisted grace and refusal of the opportunities of a God of compassion and love, until the vineyard was spoiled through cruel husbandmen and made fruitless, even rejecting the Son of God and being ready to put Him to death, so that the cloud of God's retributive judgment was about to burst upon them in unrestrained fury.