Isaiah 5

“Now let me sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: 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 the midst, and also made a winepress in it; so He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.  And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.”  Isaiah 5:1-3 (NKJV)

Isaiah’s prophetic words were echoed by Jesus many generations later:

"Listen to another parable: There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it to tenant farmers and went away.” Matthew 21:33 (HCSB)

What are Isaiah and Jesus talking about, and why was God so disappointed with His vineyard?

“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 (NKJV)

“When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.  Again he sent other servants, more than the first.  And they did the same to them.  Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’  But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’  And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?  They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.’”  Matthew 21:34-41 (ESV)

In the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, Israel’s religious leaders held to a belief that Messiah would soon deliver them.  They believed that Messiah would levy justice upon Israel’s oppressors (Rome) and reward Israel’s faithfulness.  So, when Jesus quoted Isaiah in such a direct way, He knew that the religious leaders would recognize the parallel stories.  He was making the statement that Israel’s religious leaders were not to expect Messiah to reward their perceived good deeds.  Rather, they should expect justice and harsh rebuke against themselves for having turned from His Word and oppressing the people.  The “cry for help” the Lord answered was not to deliver His people from Roman oppression but from Jewish religious oppression.  This was not Judaism as He prescribed.  It was what Judaism had become by following the vain interpretations and traditions of men, traditions that held a form of Godliness but ultimately blocked the path of true worship.