J Deering, AncitnePath.net

ISAIAH

Calling for Purity 1:1-31

Coming Peace and Penalty 2:1-4:1

Cleansing People 4:2-6

Contemplating Production 5:1-30

        Meet Divine Expectations 5:1-14

                Acknowledge the Lord's Expectations 5:1-2

                Anticipate the Lord's Response 5:3-6

                Adopt the Lord's Standards 5:7-14

Narrator: 

5:1a     "Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard." (The Vineyard – The Singer's Own Beloved)

 

5:1b-2 "My well-beloved had a vineyard

on a fertile hill. 2  And (the hill was naturally fertile) (Canaan)

He

dug (hoed) it all around, (no plow used on this hill – by hand) (the clearing of Canaan)

 

removed its stones, And (He threw out the stones – by hand) (the clearing of Canaan)

 

planted it with the choicest vine. And (sorek – a fine eastern wine-grape vine, bluish-red grapes, tiny seeds) (The Holy Priests, prophets and kings of earlier times)

 

He

built a tower in the middle of it, And (He expected watchers – those who would warn and protect the vineyard, He placed it where it would be of the most value in protecting the whole vineyard) (Jerusalem – the Royal Fortress)

 

hewed out a wine vat in it; Then (as) (He made a winepress and He excavated, dug out, and made a wine collection trough, Confident Expectation) (The winepress: Temple Ps 36:8-9, the wine – God's heavenly delights that quenches all thirst)

 

He expected it to produce good grapes,

 

But it produced only worthless ones." (Heb: be'ushiym, poison-berries, or foul smelling berries) The difference between the two vines is only qualitative – nothing wrong with the vine (not made defective), the fruit was bad (the juice of the fruit was the whole reason for planting the vine))

 

Isaiah 3:14 – Jehovah speaking: "Jehovah will proceed to judgment with the elders of His people, and its princes. And ye, ye have eaten up the vineyard; prey of the suffering is in your house. I have set you elders and princes over the keeping of my vineyard – but you have consumed it instead of keeping it. What means it to you (what indescribable wickedness) that you crush my people and grind the faces of the suffering?"

 

Their office consisted in the fact that Jehovah had committed His people to their care. The vineyard of Jehovah was His people. Jehovah appointed the elders as gardeners and keepers of this vineyard, but they themselves have become the very beasts that they ought to have warded off.

The Lord

3          "And now, O

                        inhabitants of Jerusalem and

                        men of Judah,

                                    Judge between Me and My vineyard.

 

4          "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?

            "Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?

 

5          "So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:

 

                        I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; (pull it out and let the animals eat it)

 

                        I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. 6  "And (the once protected vineyard will now be a place where animals and men walk through)

 

                        I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. (no longer a garden, no longer a vineyard, just a vacant field where weeds grow, a place where no one else would labor to farm there)

                        I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it."

Narrator

7                    For

                  the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And

                  the men of Judah His delightful plant.

 

            Thus He looked

                    for justice,

                            but behold, bloodshed; (poor rendering – should be "a sweeping away," the forcible appropriation of another man's property)

                    For righteousness,

                            but behold, a cry of distress.

 

8  Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, Until there is no more room, So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land! 9  In my ears the LORD of hosts has sworn, "Surely, many houses shall become desolate, Even great and fine ones, without occupants. 10  "For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine, And a homer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain." (covetousness and avarice – the dividing up of homeland and selling to outsiders for profit – God's law specifically provided that hereditary family property should be inalienable)

 

11  Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink; Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them! 12  And their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine; But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD, Nor do they consider the work of His hands. (to intoxicate, literally to close up by stopping up, i.e., stupefy. Secondly is the idea of using "entertainment" to drown out the calling of the Lord, or even the "handy work" of the Lord).

 

The Lord

13  Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished, And their multitude is parched with thirst. (the penalty mirrors the offense – the gluttons would starve, the drunkards would die of thirst).

 

14  Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure; And Jerusalem's splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry, and the jubilant within her, descend into it (without warning, the Babylonians will come and put Judah and Jerusalem into a living hell of suffering, abuse, sadism, devastation, and captivity).

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23_isa_5_01-14.htm
2012-11-21