The vineyard should grow good grapes but instead grows wild grapes.

Isaiah 5:1-7

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
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“Now let me sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard…” Isaiah 5:1a

Isaiah is expressing His love for God by calling Him his Well-beloved. That expression of love is regarding the Lord’s vineyard, which is a parable speaking of Israel as the vineyard, “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel…” Isaiah 5:7a Our Lord Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” John 15:1 Jesus is the Vine from where the vineyard grows and His Father is the Vinedresser of the vineyard.

A vineyard is a place where grapes are grown. Wine is made from the grapes of the vineyard and the New Wine is Jesus Christ. This refers to Jesus being the New Testament to replace the Old Testament, “In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.” Hebrews 8:13 Today, the vineyard of God grows by faith in Jesus Christ not through the laws of Judaism.

“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.” Isaiah 5:1b-2

Isaiah was referring to Israel as being the Lord’s very fruitful hill. They had everything necessary to grow the grapes leading to the production of the New Wine. They had the prophets, valiant men of faith, the Ten Commandments, practices to atone for sin, prophecies of the coming of their Christ, etc. Through everything that was given to the Israelites, God was clearing out the stones and planting the choicest and most fertile vine. Within the cultivated Jewish culture was planted the Vine, who is Jesus Christ. Jesus was Jewish from the Tribe of Judah. As Jesus says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4

The Lord built a tower in the middle of the fruitful hill, Israel. Towers were used to keep an eye over the city, and the Jewish people were to watch for the arrival of the Christ. When Jesus did arrive, they did not recognize Him as their Christ because they did not understand the scriptures that clearly portrayed an image of what He would be like when He came. Isaiah 53 is an excellent example of that. Jesus is coming again, and we need to watch and be ready by believing in Him.

God made a winepress within the Jewish culture, meaning they had everything they needed to make the New Wine and to see the New Covenant that God sent through Jesus Christ. That New Wine is this, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Wild grapes are basically useless for making wine because they are not planted in good soil and not properly cultivated. That is what Israel began to produce…wild grapes! When they rejected Jesus Christ, they were no longer useful to produce the fruit of the New Wine. Jesus expresses that when He says to the Pharisees and scribes, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” Matthew 23:15 They were, and now are, producing wild grapes!

“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?” Isaiah 5:3-4

The Lord is saying to Israel to judge between Him and His vineyard. He gave them everything necessary to grow as a beautiful vineyard. To grow in the Lord and in the knowledge of Jesus as being the Christ and Son of God. There is nothing more that God could have done for Israel. The vineyard was prepared to blossom with good grapes so why did Israel end-up bringing forth wild grapes? The answer is because they turned away from God, rejected Jesus as Christ and Lord, and grieved the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Jewish people chose their culture, and the State of Israel, over the Lord.

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

What the Lord promises to do to Israel in that verse is the same as what our Lord Jesus says to the Jewish people, “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” Matthew 21:40-41

As we see in the State of Israel today, the hedge/walls around her are being broken down and they are, and will be, burned and trampled on. Israel has been in 19 wars since being established as the State of Israel in 1948. Click here for a list of those wars. God has gathered the Jewish people to Israel as the place where He unleashes His judgment on them, “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted in its midst.” Ezekiel 22:19-21

Israel will be left desolate, “See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you will see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ” Matthew 23:38-39

Israel will not be pruned to allow the productive branches of Jesus Christ to grow. They are left with wild grapes. Israel will not be dug to turn hardened soil into good soil. They have become a nation of briers and thorns. That is the result of being stubborn to the Holy Spirit over and over again. In that hardness and stubbornness , no rain from the Spirit of God will come upon her.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” John 15:5-6

Click here for the parable of wicked vinedressers from Matthew 21:33-41

“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” Isaiah 5:7

Where there should be justice and righteousness flowing from Israel, there is, and will be, oppression and cries for help.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11