Isaiah 5:1-7 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/…
Have you ever worked really hard at something, passionately, fervently, creatively, something you cared about greatly, but no matter what you did, it didn’t work? Maybe you were trying to woo a fair maiden! But the fair maiden was not to be wooed? Did you ever think, “What’s a guy got to do?”
In these verses from Isaiah, God sings a song about His vineyard, the thing He poured Himself into – passionately, creatively, lovingly – and it was the biggest of disappointments. He looked for it to yield fruit but it gave only sour grapes! As He explains in verse 7, the vineyard was His people Israel. What more could God have done? He brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, He delivered them, fed them, blessed them with a beautiful and good land, He gave them His law, His Promises, His Word, the temple, the sacrifices, the priesthood, kings and prophets and priests! He was patient, He waited, and waited and waited. Certainly all along there was a remnant, there were always believers who bore fruits of faith but by and large His people acted just like the wild, sour nations all around. What’s a God got to do anyway?
Send His Son…to die. And that’s what He did. For that failure of a vineyard, for you, and for me, to forgive us, redeem us, to bring forth the fruits that we did not. What this song emphasizes more than anything is God’s grace and man’s stubborn unbelief. Judge between God and his vineyard – with all that God has done, whose fault is it when people don’t believe? No one’s but their own. God did everything. They refused. What about when people do believe? Then God gets all the credit. That’s what the scriptures testify. When people believe, it’s only because of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9) and when people don’t, it’s only because they refused. There is no arminianism or calvinism in the bible only this narrow middle – God gets the credit and man the blame. That’s grace. Believe in it.
In Christ
Pastor Ude