We have gone through Isaiah in 2 series before this current one. Isaiah 1-12 covered the divided Kingdom of Israel and Judah in their search for security in other worldly powers: namely Israel and Syria as they contended with Judah. Isaiah 13-23 covered the judgments God declares over the nations around the divide kingdom. He is sovereign over the whole world and no one is an independent actor in control of their own fate. It also spoke of the emergence of Assyria and Babylon on the world stage.
In our current series, we learnt to look towards that day of God’s judgement over the whole world in Isaiah 24, God’s promise of hope and salvation amidst a world condemned in Isaiah 25. God’s people, though disciplined, dependent on God, preserved to sing about their salvation in Isaiah 26. In the last study, we spent our time in Isaiah 27:1 looking forward to the day when God will slay Leviathan, and put to death once and for all sin. Where is human history moving towards?
(A) The vigilant vinedresser: Protection & nourishment that produces fruitfulness (Isa 27:2-6)
In Isaiah 27:2, we learn of this vineyard song that is being sung. Isaiah 27:2 makes is clear who is singing this song. God is the vinekeeper and we can see His heart. It is also helpful for us to compare and contrast the earlier vineyard song Isaiah 5 with the current one in Isaiah 27. Here, God is referring to His people when HE is talking about this vineyard.
In Isaiah 5:5a, we read of how God is removing the hedge and not actively destroying. The vinedresser is simply not acting and keeping it, and neither is He actively protecting. Isaiah 5:5b gives us a picture of destruction and invasion, and it is also spoken of in a matter-of-fact way. God is also actively withholding rain to prevent it from growing (Isa 5:6b). Nature is allowed to take its own course and the gardener is not going to take care (Isa 5:6a). Specifically, He is not going to prune or hoe the land and briers and thorns will take over and even choke out growth. Pruning removes fruit and leaves for growth. It may be painful but it is good.
In contrast, in Isaiah 27:3b, God says He is keeping it “night and day”. God is tending to it and helping it to grow (Isa 27:3a). Israel appears to be bearing fruit and growing in fruitfulness in Isaiah 27:6 — “Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.” This is also spoken of in a matter of fact way — it will just happen as the Lord says! In this vineyard, there are no thorns and briers to battle (Isa 27:4). He wants a way to show love and protection for the vineyard, but there is no way to! God is committed to fight against that which will choke out.
If we could summarise, we see how the songs show us God moving from removing His protection (Isa 5:5a) to vigilant watchfulness against external threats (Isa 27:3b). The people were a vineyard invaded by the world (Isa 5:5b) but became a vineyard expanding to fill the world (Isa 27:6b). From turning his face away from his vineyard (Isa 5:6a), God expresses commitment to fight against what chokes out its fruit (Isa 27:4). God also moves from holding back rain (Isa 5:6b) to personally watering it whenever there is need (Isa 27:3a).
We are told directly that the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah in Isaiah 27:7. What prompted the first song in Isaiah 5? There was an expectation that it would yield grapes but it yielded bad fruit instead (Isa 5:2). In contrast, we see great flourishing in Isaiah 27 here. There is an explosion of fruit!
It is important to see that in Isaiah 5, all the necessary conditions were present. God was not negligent. It was not because God did not tend to it, and therefore there was no fruit. Isaiah 5 tell us that God did all that was needed to ensure growth and He provided the best conditions. The rest of Isaiah 5 describes in detail what God meant by wild grapes — Israel and Judah were greedy and took advantage of the needy (Isa 5:8-10), self indulgent seeking their own pleasure (Isa 5:11-13), cynical of God’s warnings (Isa 5:18-19), morally distorted, mixing evil with good ((Isa 5:20), arrogant and unteachable (Isa 5:21), corrupted and drunkards (Isa 5:22-23). Isaiah 5:4 also show us His frustration and in the rest of Isaiah 5, we see the people’s rebellion, disobedience, cynicism at His warnings.
But in Isaiah 27, we see God’s joy at toiling and working in this vineyard. He vocalises His pleasure and He sings as He works. Vine work is not easy by any means, it is physical, hard labour often under the beating sun. What are we to do with this? We are to cherish this image of God toiling joyously among His people. He desires to tend to His garden and for fruit to abound in it.
Isaiah 27 is a picture of that day when God is personally back in His vineyard. In that day, there will be no thorns and briers. It is also important for us to have Isaiah 5 first before we can appreciate Isaiah 27.
Isaiah was not the first place where the vine imagery was used. Let us now turn to Psalm 80. Psalm 80 is a testimony of Asaph. It was probably written in David’s time, and it is a different period from Isaiah. But Psalm 80 is a song, and it is likely to have been sung by the people in Isaiah’s day. It gives us a picture of what it looks like to cry out to Him, using this vineyard picture (c.f. Ps 80:8,14,19).
In Psalm 80:8, the psalmist speaks of God bringing His people out of Egypt in the Exodus. He brought Israel out of slavery. God brought them out and also settled them. He cleared the land and prepared a good foundation for them to bear fruit (Ps 80:9). We will likely not see a grapevine grow taller than a mountain or a cedar tree but Psalm 80:10 gives us this unlikely picture, to show us how God’s people flourish and grow under their king. It doesn’t just talk about height (mountain) but also speaks of the breadth of coverage, from sea to river (Ps 80:11).
However, its walls have broken. They have been brought low and nations have no regard for their sovereignty. Even the animals don’t care and ravage their vineyard (Ps 80:12-13). Their defences have crumbled. This forms the corporate song of restoration. They acknowledge God’s faithfulness and how He has upheld His end of the promise. He led them out and prepared a place for them. They trust His character and therefore, they can now turn to Him to cry out to ask Him to restore their relationship. They acknowledge that they need restoration because they have sinned against Him.
In Psalm 80:7 and Psalm 80:14-19, we see how God’s people cry out to Him before the day of the pleasant vineyard. In Psalm 80:7 and Psalm 80:19, the cry was for God to Restore them as God’s chosen people. Implying that they have not been living as his people. They cry for his face to shine upon them, for his presence to be with them and for his pleasure to be upon them. As God had turned aside and gave them up in their sinfulness, the cry was for God to turn again to have regard for them as his people (Ps 80:14). Their complaint is that their opponents have burned Israel with fire (Ps 80:15-16). Their opponents have disregarded the planting of God’s own right hand. And because of this, God has been dishonoured. They look forward to a day when they will live faithful lives under his nurture and care (Ps 80:18). They look to receive life from him and respond by turning back to him and calling upon his name.
In this corporate cry for help, God’s people know what they have lost their way. They understand that they can cry out to God about their suffering. In their sin, God has turned his face away from them and his presence is no longer with them. So on a deeper level, the restoration they seek is of their broken relationship with their God. In this psalm, God's people firmly see their future wellbeing in the fulfilling of God’s will and his glorification. This is expressed through asking God to fulfill his promises through his promised son. God's people dig into God's promise of old, and they call to him to fulfill his promises through his promised son.
This song shows a knowledge of their past and also their future. See how God’s people prays God’s word back to Him — anchored in history, and also shapes their longing for Him. They sing with a knowledge of their past and covenant, and allows that to shape their hopes for the future. And notice how it seeped into their songs. Their worship is not separate from their history. Do we do that? Are we comfortable to do that?
The sincere cry for restoration moves from a circumstantial alleviation to the deeper reality that only God can restore them back to their intended purpose through his son. And it is in God’s will that they will find fruitfulness again. Psalm 80 provides an important backdrop to understand the passages in Isaiah. In Isaiah 5, this vineyard is wrecked. Psalm 80 shows us how God’s people can turn to Him in prayer, to pray and ask for restoration in a wrecked state.
This vineyard imagery is also picked up by Jesus in the New Testament in John 15. John 15 shows us Jesus’ own words to HIs disciples. At this point, Jesus speaks to His disciples before He goes to the cross. Earlier, we read of how God’s people yearn for the Messiah. In John 15:1, Jesus declares that He is the true vine, and His Father is the vinedresser. This is in contrast with Israel in the past, who was the choice vine but was not the true vine, and was unable to bear lasting and good fruit.
How is true fruitfulness produced? John 15 gives us the answer to how to prevent an Isaiah 5 situation, but yield an Isaiah 27 one. Look at John 15:4-5 and John 15:7. The recurrent principle is that all that God commands, He supplies. He commands us to bear fruit, and here, we see that He has given us Himself. This is similar to Psalm 80, where even their turning to Him is from Him. These passages show us that true fruitfulness cannot be achieved apart from Christ. We are told that we cannot do anything of eternal good apart from Christ.
John 15 also speaks of abiding in Christ, but what does it Christ look like? It looks like resting in the work of Christ on the cross, as we trust that He died in our place for our sins. It looks like life of continual trust, reliance, obedience and joy in Him. His words also continue to abide in us (John 15:7). His Scripture lives in us as we read and meditate on it day and night, and as we allow it to shape our lives.
How is the Father glorified? John 15:8 tells us that it happens when we bear fruit. When we bear fruit, we prove that Christ is the true vine.
Together, these passages teach us taht as God’s people come to a realisation of how far they have fallen from God, they cry out to Him and He does not let their song go unanswered. He promises the True Vine, and He establishes His Son, to allow His people to grow. In that day, the vineyard can finally bear lasting fruit! Now, we can abide in Him and bear fruit that blesses nations.
How do we participate? We recognise that we are God’s vineyard and Christ is our true vine. We have been grafted in! Do we continue to abide in Him each day? What are we abiding in and what are we allowing to abide in us? May no life goal, person, mantra, distract us from abiding in Christ. Will you abide in Christ the true vine? There is no other way to bear good fruit.
If you are in opposition to God today, will you hear his words in Isaiah 27:5 — “Let the thorns and briers lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, God sings let them make peace with me.” 2 Peter 3:9 also says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” If you do not know God today, know that he has sent his son Jesus Christ as the ransom for those who would repent of their sins and put their trust in him. He is patient and extends forgiveness and acceptance through his son. Will you repent and believe in Christ the true vine? For God has revealed his plan for his vineyard in the last days. Will you be part of his planting?
(B) The measured pruner: Discipline that furthers fruitfulness, Judgement that leads to desolation (Isa 27:7-11)
Isaiah 27:7 has a series rhetorical questions and we are to see that God did not slay His sinful people though they rejected Him (Isa 27:7). God’s people received discipline, and this is different from the way God judges those that are not His. His discipline is measured and intentional and He disciplines them by sending them out in exile (Isa 27:8). God is working through this to generate full fruit (Isa 27:9). Full fruit looks like a complete destruction of idols, such that there is nothing left that contends with His people’s hearts.
(C) The meticulous harvester: God’s people, gathered in God’s place, under God’s rule (Isa 27:12-13)
We read of threshing and gleaning in Isaiah 27:12. The promised land (from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt) will be God’s threshing floor and God will separate His people from those that are not His. Gleaning is a picture of picking up the grains that have been left in the field. We see a God who knows the people!
We do not need to fear the day of the great trumpet. God will separate those who are HIs from those that are not His. No piece of grain is too small for Him. He gathers His people to be under His rule in the Promised Land, to worship Him.
What does this mean for us? We have Psalm 80 as our model and we seek to pray that God will do this for us. He has given us His Son, the true Vine. Abiding in Him is the only way we bear fruit.