The Vineyard

Isa 5:1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
God sings to his beloved, a song and a parable. The vineyard planted in a very fruitful Hill. God's people planted in Jerusalem, were his beloved.
Isa 5:2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

God protected Jerusalem and it's people, the place was given the choicest word of God; the law and the prophets. The people were to share the word of God and bring forth fruit. There should have been an abundance of good fruit, but instead they brought forth wild grapes. They went to a different seed, the seed of false gods and false beliefs. We have wild grapes in our park. They are small with one big seed very little juice. The birds love them, but they are not the quality of the grapes in a vineyard.

Isa 5:3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
Isa 5:4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

God provided the seed of his word, His presence was in the temple and yet the people willfully disobeyed him. God does not force people to serve him. What more could he do? The fruit was wild, inferior, as if God had not planted his seed on fertile ground. The people behaved like pagans in the midst of Gods blessings and provision for them. America fits this description; we are ripe for judgment.

Protection removed

Isa 5:5 And now go to; 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:
Isa 5:6 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.

Psa 80:15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
Psa 80:16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
Psa 80:17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
Psa 80:18 So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
Psa 80:19 Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Woe to a people who have rejected the covering of God! He will remove the hedge, his protection, the forces of evil will intrude it's borders. The vineyard shall be eaten up, the people pillaged and destroyed. The wall of protection, the defenses of the country shall be compromised, the enemy will come and destroy.

The people of God in a sinful nation.

Mat 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Psa 25:20 O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

Many discouraged children of God wish the LORD would stop pruning, stop digging, stop watering. Those things may be hard, but it is even worse when the LORD stops doing them. (Guzik)

Isa 5:7 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.

Justice and righteousness had left the city of Jerusalem. God was forced to withdraw from them. They would not repent, so they must reap the fruit of their doings. They did not want God in their lives, so God removes his protection from them.

1 Pet 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

When we leave God, the lion comes to devour. If we draw close to God and resist the lion, he will flee.

Woe Unto Them

Isa 5:18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

Dragging sin along with them, burdened by it but not wanting to let go in repentance. Often those who are full of iniquity and fear, resort to alcohol or other things and reject the counsel of God's word.

Psa 94:4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
Psa 94:5 They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.
Psa 94:6 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
Psa 94:7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
Psa 94:8 Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
Psa 94:9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?
Psa 94:10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?
Psa 94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

Isa 5:19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!

Where is God? Make speed to judge us, if there is a God? In defiance they call upon God...If I have sinned strike me dead? See, I am still standing, where is this God?

2 Pet 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2 Pet 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2 Pet 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2 Pet 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2 Pet 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

As in our land, evil is being called good and good evil. They have lost God's holy judgment. They call darkness good: sorcery and witchcraft is accepted and good is called evil. The Bible is outlawed and not taught in schools. Perversion is being taught along with tolerance of sinful ways. The way of the Lord is spoken of as evil. Wicked means good and bad means they like it. It was not that way in the beginning, even in our own nation.

Education in early America was for the purpose of making a literate people who would be able to read their Bibles. Harvard was the first American college founded in 1636 ..."To advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches." The Reason for Teaching (go to this web page)

Prov 17:15 He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.

Mat 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Luke 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Isa 5:21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Prov 26:12 Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Woe to those who are wiser in their own eyes than God. Who put their own words as being more important than the word of God. God is not mocked, their judgment will come. Pray for our people who are in this condition today.