Todays Message from Lay Leader R.W. Rounds
Today’s first scripture comes to
us from the book of Isaiah. Now we have come to understand that Israel, if you
have been paying attention the last few Sundays, had sinned and fallen out of
favor with God. The Isaiah scripture today continues to follow the same
condemnation that preceded it. Today’s scripture is actually a song written in
poetic verse form. Like many country songs today, it tells of heartbreak and
unrequited love. The song is based on Jewish teaching and is believed by Bible
scholars to the basis for the Vineyard parable found in Matt. 21:33-44, Mark
12:1-11 and Luke 20:9-18. Let’s look at
the song again. Isaiah 5
5:1Let me sing for my beloved my love-song
concerning his vineyard: Who is the beloved
mentioned here and what kind of love are we talking about? The beloved mention
is God; the love mention is the Agape love that God has for Israel, also known
as the vine. My beloved had a
vineyard on a very fertile hill.2 He dug it and cleared
it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; Now being in an agricultural area, we know about rock picking,
don’t we? It is not a pleasant task. From hearing Lynn speak of it, I know she
has many fond memories of the activity. But all kidding aside, it is hard
arduous work. It takes effort to clear the ground to prepare it for planting.
But this is what God did. Then he planted or started the vine or Israel. He
built a watch-tower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; again the we read of hard work, building a
watchtower, which in those days was not a wooden platform on a wood frame. It
was built up of earth and stone, which involved labor and sweat to move the
earth and stones. Plus there is the vat he hewed. Have you ever hewed anything?
It’s hard work. You can hew or hollow out a tree trunk or you can hew or hollow
out a stone to make a basin for liquids, and this is what happened here. The
owner of the vineyard, God, in anticipation of the upcoming harvest, knew he would
need a wine vat so he hewed one to be ready. He expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. So God, the owner, makes this wonderful
vineyard and plants his vines, Israel hoping for a harvest of love from his
chosen people, or parabably speaking, hoping for a harvest of grapes, full of
sweet juice to make into wine. But Israel is a rebellious lot and their
behavior is like wild grapes to the lord. Their behavior is bitter and not
sweet. 3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people
of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more was there
to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? God had provided everything Israel needed to
flourish and provide good fruit, but instead repaid God with sin and
rebelliousness as we read. When
I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? Good question, why did the vine produce wild
bitter grapes? Because it chose to do so. Every time we sin we chose to do it.
No one makes us. Remember a popular phrase from the 70’s saying “the devil made
me do it?” The devil didn’t make you do anything, you chose to do whatever you
did or do. One thing that God has never taken away from man is free will or
freedom of choice. We all have our innate sinful nature. We either choose to
fight against it and through faith attain righteousness or we chose to accept
it and be sinners. We all have that choice. But to choose to take the latter
path, to just go with our sinful nature has consequences. The song continues
much like many songs do when written about unreturned love. 5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will
remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; many gardens in those days had thorny hedges planted around them
to keep the animals that would eat the plants, out. I will break down its wall, and it shall be
trampled down. Again another fencing
analogy, the wall built around the vineyard to keep people and animals from
trampling the vine is torn down exposing the vine to danger. 6 I will make it a
waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers
and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. What happens to a grape vine or other plant
that needs pruning if you don’t prune them? They send out what we call sucker
shoots, unproductive branches that take the needed resources for fruit or
flower production. Then the main plant or vine can’t produce fruit because it
doesn’t have the necessary resources to do so. The same thing with hoeing, by
not digging out the weeds, they rob the plants of the precious moisture they
need, thus again no growth or production.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and
the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; here we again see the condemnation of Israel by God, naming them
as the sour grape producing vineyard. Continuing on, he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness,
but heard a cry! Now this last part is
somewhat confusing if you don’t know your Bible. It is one of those places
where the Old Testament is linked to the New Testament illustrated through the
teachings of Paul to the Hebrews. This brings us to our next scripture.
Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2 11:29 By faith the people
passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians
attempted to do so they were drowned.30By faith the walls of
Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.31By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were
disobedient,* because she had received the spies in peace. 32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice,
obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won
strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.35Women received their dead by resurrection. Here again we see God taking care of Israel
his vineyard. Taking them out of Egypt, causing the fall of Jericho to secured
the promised land, saving Rahab, and Paul goes on to mention other examples of
God providing for his people. Now, look
back to that last part of our first scripture. God expected justice, i.e. the
love of a grateful faith people, parabably speaking good grapes, but the Israel was producing wild or sour
grapes, Others were tortured,
refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and
imprisonment.37They were stoned to death, they were sawn in
two,* they were killed by the sword; they went
about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented—38of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and
mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Israel had turned her back on God and treated anyone who was
righteous horribly. Remember the bloodshed mentioned in the first scripture?
Let’s tie this back to Isaiah himself. There is Jewish teaching that Isaiah was
killed for his prophetic preaching by being sawn in two. It is not in the
Torah, but is mentioned several times in what we would call apocryphal texts.
Just as there are apocryphal texts associated with our Bible, the Torah also
has them. It is in these that the legend of Isaiah’s death comes to us. So
there is the condemnation. The owner planted the vineyard expecting good grapes
for making wine and got sour, wild grapes. God raised up Israel expecting a
faithful and righteous people and got a bunch of rebellious sinners. Expecting
justice and got bloodshed, Righteousness and got crying. So what does any of this have to do with us,
you may ask? Let’s look at our next verse. 39 Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did
not receive what was promised,40since God had provided
something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect. Now what does that mean? I can see some
confused faces out there. What this means is that all these people suffering
are to be commended for their sufferings for the Lord, but their actions, their
faith would not be fulfilled without Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary AND us doing
our part. Actually Paul was speaking of the part that he and his fellow Christians
needed to do by spreading the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection. But
that charge carries on through ages up to us today. We as Christians need to
keep spreading the Good News message 12:1Therefore,
since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside
every weight and the sin that clings so closely,*
and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,2looking
to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of*
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and
has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Can
we, therefore do any less?
Our Luke passage, speaks directly
to us in these coming times. Luke 12:49-5649 ‘I came to bring fire
to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!50I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am
under until it is completed! Here
we have Jesus telling his disciples of his coming persecution and death. 51Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I
tell you, but rather division!52From now on, five in
one household will be divided, three against two and two against three;53they will be divided: father against son and son against father,
mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her
daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’ The time of this statement is at hand. Those
that claim to be followers of Christ ARE being separated for their belief. Houses
are being separated father against son and son against father, mother against
daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law, neighbor against neighbor. We see it
in the Middle East; we’re even staring to see it here in the US.
54 He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a
cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it
happens.55And when you see the south wind blowing, you
say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens.56You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of
earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Pastor Cleve believes and will tell you the
end times are drawing near. I too, believe this. How do I know this? Not by
some divine revelation. Not by prophetic dream. I read my Bible, I look to the
Holy Spirit for discernment and with those I look at the world and see the
event unfolding around us. Five years ago I stood up here in this very pulpit
and predicted how in ten years the Mark of the Beast would be revealed to the
world through the technology of RF chipping for humans. As I see current events
in technology, it is progressing the way they, the people who make the
technology, want it to go. We who call ourselves Christians are rapidly coming to the
point where we must choose to follow Christ or go and join the world. We need
to decide if we will just carry on with our existence or if we will fulfill the
efforts of those who went before us, if we will spread the News of Jesus Christ
crucified, dead, buried and raised from the dead. Thus making their efforts and
our efforts perfect, and bearing good grapes for the vineyard owner, our
Heavenly Father.
