272. God’s Vineyard

“Now let me sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: my Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it; so He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.” Isa. 5:1-2.

After planting a vineyard, God builds a tower in its midst. From this tower He has a view of the whole garden. Then He places a prophet (preacher of the Word) in the tower. His task is to reprove anything that needs correcting in His vineyard. From this tower a person can see light in God’s light. Doctrine, exhortation, chastisement, and encouragement stream out from it into the whole garden, and as a result everything is fertilized and watered. God gives growth. Every garden that does not have such a tower in its midst is no garden of God’s.

A winepress was hewn out in it. All the good grapes were to be pressed and crushed there so the juice would run out as wine. Only the good grapes were to go into the winepress, and this is what happens to the fruits of the Spirit. They are crushed in the winepress so we do not get to enjoy them here, but on the other side we will enjoy them as new wine in our Father’s kingdom. On that day we will be unaware of our fruits and will truthfully be able to say, “When did we see you naked and clothe you, in prison and visit you, hungry and feed you, etc.?” These good fruits will have been crushed in the winepress, so we will not know the good we have done. The wild grapes, on the other hand, were not crushed. These were people who had visited Jesus in prison and in the hospital, who cared for Him when He was naked, etc. But Jesus answered them: “Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.” They had already received their reward because they did not bear fruit for God but for themselves. This was their iniquity. As a result, they would not get to taste the new wine in the kingdom of God the Father, because on earth they had not carried good fruit to the winepress.

“And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.” Verses 5-6.

When the Word seems hard to us, this is when our good fruits must go into the winepress. The evidence that we bear good fruits is that these are taken from us and placed into the winepress. We also experience this when the Word of God is preached powerfully from the tower in the midst of the vineyard.

But if the garden bears wild fruit, then the hedge will be removed, and the little foxes will be able to come into the vineyard. Evil pushes its way in, gnaws away, and devours in every direction. God breaks down the wall, so wild animals and evil people trample everything down. Then there is no longer a need for the tower or the winepress, for the garden is no more. “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.” Verse 7.