Second Sunday of Advent

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7

Key Verse: What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done for it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? ~Isaiah 5:4

This passage from Isaiah reads something like an off-key love song. The first lines of the song are sung from the perspective of Israel, declaring the good things the Lord had done. It refers to God intimately as “my beloved” (Isa 5:1). Then it’s as if suddenly a terribly wrong note was hit as God interrupts to challenge his people. God is the owner of the vineyard (Israel) and he has indeed looked after it, but he comes with the question “When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” (Isa 5:2,4). Wild grapes are often sour and not good for very much. They do not have the sweetness and smoothness that grapes from a well tended vine have. Comparing a glass of wine made from wild grapes to a wine made from say, grapes grown in a Napa Valley vineyard it is clear: there is no contest, the grapes from the vineyard make a superior wine. The point God is making is this: I cared for you, tended you, built protective walls around you and have blessed you in such a way as to enable you to become the people I desire you to be, people who yield righteousness and justice and truth and mercy. Why then, when I look upon you do I see a wild, unruly, rebellious people? Why are you like wild grapes that are sour and good for little? Wild grapes get cut down and thrown away with all sorts of other wild brush and debris. God speaks a word of judgment that he will remove the protective barriers and will take away his blessing from his people as a result of their rebellious ways. Israel (and by extension all of God’s people) are to be “his pleasant planting” (Isa 5:7), which bear good fruit and are a delight to the Lord. God is broken hearted when he looks upon his people to see justice and instead sees bloodshed, when he seeks righteousness and instead is met with the sound of an outcry of distress.

For Further Reading: 2 Peter 3:11-18 Luke 7:28-35 Psalm 148