Isaiah sang about Israel, the vineyard seven hundred years before Jesus walked the earth. This is the passage Jesus referenced as He told the Parable of the Tenants.
Isaiah 5: 1Now I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a rich and fertile hill. 2 He plowed the land, cleared its stones, and planted it with the best vines. In the middle he built a watchtower and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks. Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were bitter…
4 What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done? When I expected sweet grapes, why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes? 5 Now let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will tear down its hedges and let it be destroyed…
7 The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. The people of Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence.[1]
Israel Walked Away from God
Isaiah had preached repentance to the people, but they had not listened. God had done everything for the nation, but they had gone their own way. God eventually gave them a seventy-year time-out in exile for their disobedience.
The people listening to Jesus’ teaching in the Temple would have been familiar with this story. The Jewish leaders had most of what we consider the Old Testament memorized. Jesus was telling this parable against the leaders. But, the leaders were so engrossed and horrified by the story they didn’t recognize themselves in it until the end.
They had anticipated Messiah coming, but Jesus didn’t come as they thought. They considered Jesus a heretic who was intruding on their world. They assumed things would be better if they could rid themselves of Jesus. As a result, they would send Him to the cross in just a few short days.
God Still Tends His Vineyard
Jesus began the Parable of the Tenants this way: Matthew 21: 33 Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then, he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country.[2]
God invites all, Jew and Gentile, to trust in Jesus, but not all will. Through the work of Jesus, what were bitter grapes can turn sweet again. Will you allow Jesus to tend to the vineyard of your soul to change you?
To learn about Israel the vineyard, listen here:
https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/parable-of-the-tenants
[1-2] Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.