vinedresser

Fruit and fruitfulness are common themes in the Bible. And, in His Word, God repeatedly uses imagery of the vine to describe His chosen people, Israel. Today’s passage, Isaiah 5:1-7, is a case in point. God often refers to Himself as the vinedresser and Israel as the vine. He planted them with the intention that they bear fruit. But God is rather particular about the kind of fruit they produce. They were to be fruitful, spreading through the land like a well-manicured vine planted in well-tended soil. But in this passage, God is going to reveal that His vine was producing unacceptable fruit – wild grapes that were not what He had expected and were absolutely good for nothing. He had created a vineyard with all the right ingredients to produce high-quality grapes that would result in sweet-tasting wine. But instead, Israel was guilty of producing unacceptable fruit. And that’s an important key to understanding what is going on here. They were producing fruit, but it was the wrong kind. It wasn’t what God intended and, therefore, it disqualified them as His vineyard.