Friday, April 29, 2016

song of the vineyard

I will sing for the one I love
    a song about his 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.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
    but it yielded only bad fruit.
Isaiah 5:1-2

This is called the Song of the Vineyard. Isaiah is a book I enjoy reading. It is full of poetry, songs and interesting prophecies. I do hope someday, I can sit in heaven with Isaiah and have a great conversation. I would love to hear his stories and what he saw when God spoke to him. He was privileged to visibly see the Lord fill the temple. He cried out, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” The seraphim touched his lips with the hot coal from the alter. He was commissioned directly by God. He heard God speak. Can you even imagine such a scene. I am trying to imagine and I am filled with awe and wonder. I feel so small and definitely unworthy.  Isaiah was immediately humbled and awed.

This Song of the Vineyard really struck me.  God gave him this beautiful poem or song. about a lovely scene of building and planning. It was full of expectation and hope. Everything was prepared and placed.  God was planting a beautiful vineyard and had everything ready for the wonderful, bountiful harvest. Yet, when he looked for the good crop, all he found was bad fruit.  It ends with great disappointment and sadness in this chapter.
We can read that this was describing the a nation of Israel. It was the people of Judah.  They were given great favor and blessings. They were chosen by God, yet were unable to bear the good fruit that God so desperately wanted to find in them.

Verses 3-7 show is God's response to finding bad fruit.

“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
    judge between me and my vineyard.
What more could have been done for my vineyard
    than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
    why did it yield only bad?
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.”
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.
 
I realize this frustration over finding bad fruit.  I have planted gardens in the past and sometimes, weeds are very abundant.  It makes it very difficult to find the good fruit.  Little critters have eaten my fruit before I can get it out of the garden. It can be frustrating.  God was disappointed and frustrated. He had so much hope for His people.  Is it the same today for the church?
Does God find good fruit in His people today or is He disappointed by bad fruit?
 
Galatians 5:22-23 lists the fruit GOd is expecting from His people. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
Galatians 5:19-21 lists the fruit of the flesh God calls bad fruit. "19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."
 
His people should not be bearing this bad fruit. God is looking for good fruit in His people.  We are so quick to look at the obvious sins, but forget to realize this list also holds less noticeable sins such as hatred, discord, selfish, jealousy, disssensions etc. How many times have I been guilty of this bad fruit?  More than I care to admit. 
God is wanting good fruit.  We need to examine our fruit, individually and as the body of Christ and really be honest.  What fruit are we really bringing forth? 
 
Galatians 5:24-25  also says "24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."
and Galatians 5:13-14 says  "13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
 
We have commands that are there to protect us and help us bear the good fruit God is looking for.  We need to walk in the Spirit and crucify the flesh.  God is calling us to bear the good fruit.
Let us all be found worthy as those few in Sardis were (Revelations 3:4) Maybe then, God can send His words that instead of finding bad fruit, He is pleased to find good fruit in His people. 
 
 

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