The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 98

HOMil,ETlCS, Vers. 1-7.-Gnt!'a crrre for man, and m'l,11'1 ingratieud~. Three timea ha11 God made himself I\ vineyard upon earth, planted a plantation of choice vines, endued by him with .the capacity of br.inging forlh excellent fruit, fenced his vineyard round with care, cleared its soil of stones, pruned its superfluous shoots, hoed out the weeds from between the vine-stocks, bestowed on it all possible tendaoct>, and looked to see a snitable result; ai1d three times has the result, for which he had every right to look, not followed. I. TrrE FIRST VINEYARD-THE W.:>RJ,D BEFORE THE FLOOD. Man was placed in a world which God saw to be '' very good" (Gen. i. 31); he was endued with excellent powers; •he was given dominion over the beasts; he was bid<len to "increase and multiply, and repleni8h the earth, and subdue it" (Gen. i. 28); he was gnardcrl from a thousand dangers; he was fenced ronnd by the Almighty arms; God's Spirit "strove with him" (Gen. vi. 3), chastened him, warned him, spoke through his conscience, and showed -him the right path to walk in. What more could he have done to his first vineyard, that he did not do to it? Yet the time came when he" looked upon the earth " (Gen. vi. 12) ; looked for the fruits of what he had done; looked for "judg• ment and righteousness." And what did he find when he looked? "Tbe wickedness of man was great in the earth; every imagination of the thonghts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. vi. 5). "The earth was corrupt beiore God;" "all flesh had cor- rupted his way upon the earth;" "the earth was full of violence" (Gen. vi. 11, 12). The vineyard that should have brought forth grapes had brought forth wild grapes. God's care-for man had been met by man with ingratitude towards God; and it only remained that God should take vengeance, and lay his vineyard waste, and so vindicate his justice. II. THE SECOND VINEYARD-TIIE PEOPLE OF IsRAEL. This is the vinernr,l whereof Isaiah especially speaks. God planted his second vineyard, Israel, on the "very fruitful" upland of Palestine-" a land of corn and wine, of bread and vineyards, of oil olive and of honey" (2 Kings xviii. 32); "a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein they might eat bread without scarceness, and needed not to lack any- thing; a land whose stones were iron, and out of whose hills they might dig brass" (Deut. v_iii. 7-9). He fenced his vineyard round with !awe and orclinances morally, as with mountains and deserts topographically; he cleared out from it the stones that marred its soil, the wicked nations-" stones of offence "-that once dwelt amid his people; he planted it with choice vine-stocks, the children of" faithful Abraham;" he built a tower-Jerusalem-in the midst of it, and made therein a wine-press-the temple-where he would have the gifts and offerings of the people, their g:ood works, laid up in store; and he then" looked that his vineyard should bring forth r;rap~s, and it brought forth wild grapes." Oppression, wrong, robbery, murder, the form of religion without the power, covetousness, drunkenness, vanity, impnrity,-thcse were what his eyes beheld when he cast them on his chosen people, who were "a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that were corrupters" (eh. i. 4). Greater benefits than those bestowed on the first vineyard had been met by a deeper ingratitude; and now the time was coming when the second ,·incyard woul<l be laid waste, withered np, and utterly "ruined" (eh. iii. 8). III. TnE THmD VINEYARD-THE CrrmsTIAN Cnuncrr. God has yet planted a thlrd vineyard, which he calls" his Church" (Matt. xvi. 18), the assembly of his "selected ones." He hns not fixed it in any particular land, but bns given it the whole fruitful rarth. for its habitation; Yet has he fenced it round, aud separated it 0ff from the rest 0f man- kind by laws and rites and ordinance~, which are peculiar, and ma,le it a world within a world, o. society within a society. He has gathered out from it the stones of mnny horesies; ho hae planted it with choice vines, the" chosen vessels" whom his grace has from time to time converted from unbelief to the true faith; he has given it for its "tower" of strenath himself, nnd for its" win&-press" the book of life, in which he records its good d~ds. And now, what is the result? Has his constant, tender car11  THE BOOK OF THE PROPHffiT ISAIAII. [OH, V0 1---30.