God's Plan

Isaiah 5:1-4

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?

Isaiah is known for the vivid judgment of the sins of God’s people as well as the prophetic picture of redemption. The opening chapters provide an understanding of sin in relational terms. God describes the rebellion of His children, the provocation of a nation and the unfaithfulness of his beloved. After the opening descriptions, there is a beautiful song. It is a song that describes God’s people as a vineyard. Of all the descriptions in the song, two “building projects” capture my attention. First of all, God “built a watchtower” in the midst of the vineyard. It is a reminder that God’s plan for us includes His presence in our midst. The watchtower is a symbol of God’s plan to watch over our lives and His ability to protect us. It is a 24/7 plan. The watchtower is a permanent structure. Equally significant to me, is the description of the “winepress”. This is a reminder of God’s plan for us to be fruitful. God’s expectation for the vineyard was that it would produce good grapes that would yield good wine. Ephesians 2:10 describes us as “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”. Our lives are described as a masterpiece in the hands of a creative and powerful God. If we are unfruitful, it is not because God has failed to provide what we need to be fruitful. Thus, God asked the rhetorical question: “What more could have been done for My vineyard than what I have done for it?” (Isaiah 5:4)