Serving Jesus in Our Community

Bible Notes

Isaiah 5:1-2 (08.07.21)

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Isaiahwindow.jpg, Cadetgray, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Isaiah 5:1-2
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.

We have rhubarb growing in the manse garden, and when it produces a good crop is great news as I love rhubarb crumble! Unfortunately, this year it has been quite disappointing, although the stalks have been thick and magnificent, sadly there has been only a few of them. As God looks at his people at the start of Isaiah, he compares them not to rhubarb, but a vineyard, a vineyard he has poured much time and effort into, that he has tended and cared for. A vineyard that he loves. But when he comes to harvest it, like my rhubarb, he is left disappointed. There is only bad fruit. What is it that God looks for from his people, what is the fruit he desires to harvest and taste? A fruitfulness of godly character expressed in service towards others. Galatians 5:22-23 describes it: ‘…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control….

Father, forgive me for those times when my life is found wanting. Spirit, grow an abundant crop of good fruit in me.

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