Page 13 - Isaiah Student Worktext

V. 5-6 every dwelling place be filled with the glory of God. Peace will finally come to the earth.

Chapter 5 - Main Idea: God exposes the many sins of His richly blessed people in a parable of
a failed vineyard, and He predicts the coming judgment on these sins by His righteous wrath.

There are many things that get lost in the translation. I’m sure there are many things that make sense
to me that you don’t understand, and there are things you say that I don’t understand.

I preached a message from Matthew 21: 28-32 and built a theme on the how my translation used the
word ‘nets’ in one place and ‘net’ in the other. When I presented the message, I found that most
translations didn’t even make a difference, and that caused some confusion.

Those who can read and speak Hebrew say that the first 7 verses of Chapter 5 are among the most
beautiful songs ever written…the words, not the tune. In some translations, it is called ‘The Song of the
Vineyard’.

It doesn’t surprise me that one of the references in the commentaries was Matthew 21. The passage
that we used is followed up the parable of the wicked vinedressers, which closely parallels tonight’s
opening verses.

In 2 Corinthians 6: 1, the apostle Paul said ‘Don’t receive the grace of God in vain’. There is such a thing
as ‘common grace’…undeserved gifts that God grants to ALL mankind. Sunshine, rain, food, family,
friends, etc. But this grace is received in vain if we don’t acknowledge the giver and then proceed to
accept the grace of salvation.

The people of Israel who were contemporaries of Isaiah had received much common grace. After being
led into the Promised Land, they were told that they would live in houses they did not build, eat from
vineyards that they did not plant. Everything was handed to them…and they didn’t appreciate it. At
least future generations did not.

V. 1-2 My well-beloved refers to Israel. The vineyard refers to all the blessings they have received as the
chosen people. The Lord Himself dug it up, cleared it and planted it in preparation for a bountiful
harvest…not of grapes, but of souls.

V. 3-4 God asks His people this difficult question: What more could have done to My vineyard? I set it
all up for you to have a bountiful harvest of good grapes. Instead, you are producing wild grapes.

We have wild grapes in my home area. They are tiny and bitter, and if you want to make jelly with
them, you must harvest so many more than domestic grapes, and you must add SO much more sugar to
them to make them edible. Why go to all that trouble when there are perfectly good grapes that God
has already granted to us?

Now come the consequences:
V. 5-6 God will take away its hedge, the protection He has given it. He will lay the vineyard waste. He
will command the clouds that they no longer rain on the vineyard. Throughout this passage, the
vineyard is God’s people, Israel. Because they have produced wild grapes, He will remove His protection
of them.

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