Isaiah chapter 5 contains a song about a landowner who made every effort to cultivate a flourishing vineyard: “My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.” The owner eagerly anticipated an abundant harvest, but alas, he was bitterly disappointed: “he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.”
In sorrow, the owner decided that nothing more could be done: “Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”
Isaiah makes the interpretation of the song quite clear: “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”
The God of Israel had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. He had given Israel his law, so that they might know his requirements. They were called to worship the one true God alone and to obey his commandments. For 40 years, the presence of God led them through the wilderness of Sinai as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. When the they were parched with thirst, he brought forth water from a rock; when they hungered, he gave them manna and quail to eat. Finally, God brought the people of Israel into the promised land, driving out their enemies before them.
Why did God do all this? Why did he call Israel as his special people? Isaiah 5 gives us a concise answer: God was looking for justice and righteousness.
Let’s expand on that thought a bit. The book of Genesis describes the fundamental purpose of humankind: God created human beings in his very own image so that they might exercise dominion over the world. In other words, God delegated his authority to humans, giving them the awesome privilege and responsibility of governing the world according to his wisdom. If humans fulfilled this sacred vocation as image-bearers, then the creation would flourish in the way that God intended. The earth would be a wondrous place of prosperity, peace, joy and life.
Of course, Genesis 3 recounts how humans turned away from God & rejected his wisdom. They sought to become gods themselves, defining right & wrong according to their own desires. Humanity’s rebellion was an unmitigated catastrophe, unleashing upon the world a hellish torrent of violence, immorality, misery, injustice and death.
How could God redeem this disaster? God had committed to governing his world through human beings who reflected his image – people who offered him genuine worship and obedience. That is precisely why God called Abraham and established his covenant with Abraham’s descendants, the people of Israel. Israel was called to fulfill the crucial role marked out for humanity at creation.
In Genesis 18, the LORD visited Abraham in the form of three divine visitors who arrived at his tent. The visitors first made the crucial announcement that within the span of a year, God would fulfill his promise by giving a son to Abraham & his wife Sarah. But the three messengers had another order of business too. They were to investigate the wicked cities of Sodom & Gomorrah.
As they prepare to depart, the LORD makes this declaration: “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
This little passage receives very little attention in the evangelical community. We know all about God’s promise to Abraham & Sarah regarding the birth of Isaac. And we’re well acquainted with the fiery judgment God unleashed upon Sodom & Gomorrah. But here is explicitly stated the fundamental purpose of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants, the children of Israel. They were called “to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.”
God promised faithful Abraham that he would be blessed. Moreover, all nations on earth would be blessed through him. But these promises came with a condition: this blessing comes to those who (like Abraham) are faithful to God by doing what is right and just.
The prophet Isaiah saw clearly that Israel had been given a sacred vocation. Through faithfulness to the covenant, they could enjoy God’s blessing. But just as importantly, Israel was meant to be a light to the nations. Through his covenant people, the God of Israel would reveal himself to the entire world. People of every nation would be able to look to Israel so that they might learn what life was all about. Then they too might worship the one true God, obey his commands and enjoy his blessing. In this way, God’s salvation would come to the whole world.
Isaiah also saw all too clearly that Israel had tragically failed to fulfill her vocation. Despite ephemeral times of covenant faithfulness, the long story of Israel was ultimately one of failure. God’s vineyard hadn’t produced the good fruit of righteousness & justice. On the contrary, Israel’s disobedience had resulted in the rotten fruit of bloodshed & injustice. Instead of being a light to the nations and bringing glory to God, Israel had besmirched God’s reputation: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Isaiah 52:5)
The terms of the covenant clearly stated that unfaithfulness would bring curses rather than blessing upon Israel. (Deuteronomy 28) The song of the vineyard metaphorically reiterates these solemn warnings. If Israel’s did not produce good fruit, God would allow his vineyard to be destroyed. Isaiah repeatedly prophesied that God would judge his people by giving them into the hands of their enemies. Israel would be conquered and the survivors would go into exile.
To many Christians, these reflections might seem somewhat obscure or even irrelevant. Can’t we just skip right to the New Testament and talk about Jesus? But it would be a disastrous mistake to try and detach the New Testament from the Old. We must never forget that Jesus was a Jew. The Jewish scriptures (our Old Testament) were his Bible. And the foundational concepts which we’ve discussed here are crucial for understanding Jesus’ worldview.
Despite their previous failures, Jesus firmly believed that God had called Israel to fulfill the vocation given to mankind from the very beginning. They were to be the genuine human beings who would reflect God’s image and govern the world according to the divine wisdom. In the past, they had yielded the rotten fruit of wickedness and rebellion. But one day, the vineyard of Israel would flourish, producing the fruit of righteousness & justice. Israel would then not only be showered by God’s blessings, but also serve as a shining light to the nations.
Far, far too many Christians think that this framework can now be safely discarded. The only importance they assign to Israel is that they’re the physical ancestors of Jesus. (Couldn’t Jesus have come from anywhere?) But for Jesus, God’s covenant with Israel remained the vital mechanism by which the world would be rescued from sin and death. In the next blog, we shall see how this unfolds.
Isaiah held this same vision. He prophesied that one day, God would send forth a servant who would not only redeem wayward Israel but also shine God’s light into the whole world. “And now the Lord says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength—he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
