And now, let me tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trodden under foot;
The song has turned into a courtroom scene. God has shown what He did for His vineyard, asked Judah for the verdict, and now He passes sentence: He will take away the protections He Himself put there.
One writer sets God's care for Israel beside the nation's answer to it.
This was God's tender care of Israel. He blessed them with every earthly blessing in a pleasant land. The Lord set them apart for Himself, surrounded them with His favours, and gave them His law... Nothing was lacking on God's part. But the nation, as a whole, had turned away from Him, broken the covenant, and completely corrupted their ways... Under the law there was no fruit fit for God. With man on the ground of responsibility there is nothing but failure, and since law must take its course, judgment follows.
The hedge, the tower and the winepress each stood for something. One writer reads them back to their meaning for Israel.
Isaiah 5:1-7 gives a clear explanation of the vineyard a man planted: "the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the whole house of Israel" (v.7). The hedge speaks of her separation from the nations. The place for the winepress tells of the provision God had made, so that Israel might give Him back some return for His great goodness. The tower shows watchfulness against evil getting in.
So removing the hedge ends Israel's separation from the nations. God lifts what kept them out, and the vineyard lies open.
The most striking thing in the verse is who does the demolishing. The One who planted, fenced and built the tower is the One who breaks the fence.
But man always fails in what God expects from him, and He would have it seen what man is. God does all that man could ask, and this only shows man's ill will. Sacrifices, temple, service — God had arranged all. The people fail in all; and God destroys what He had Himself made. He breaks the fence... God entrusted man with true privileges; but man fails: God takes all away, and the result is a judgment.
The same writer adds that when people are far from God, "they cling to religious forms; it is the sign that all is going to ruin." Forms matter more to people as God matters less to the conscience.
The threat was not poetry only. Once the fence was down, real invaders came in, and one writer follows the fulfilment step by step.
And so the Lord permitted the "wild boar out of the wood" to waste it. He also says, "I will take away the hedge of it"; "I will lay it waste"; and "I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." It bore fruit only in sin and was false to the Lord... So the Lord gave him up to the Gentile king Nebuchadnezzar, to rule over him. He commanded him to accept this punishment as coming from the Lord.
Setting a nation aside is not the same as abandoning it. One writer separates Israel's public role from the question of whether people are saved.
Israel, as a vessel to bear God's name to the world, was set aside; but this did not touch the question of God's faithfulness. He will restore Israel in the last days... The question here is not the certainty of individual salvation, but about the vessel God is using to bear His name before the world. People who believe will go to heaven, but the vessel of testimony, having failed, must be broken.
The verse is not locked in the past. The same principle reaches those who now hold the privileges Judah once held.
Judah was the plant of Jehovah's pleasure, but it brought forth wild grapes. God judges the vineyard, and Christendom as well. We have enjoyed greater advantages. Our Christian responsibility is greater, so our judgment will be greater too. God enters into details to show the righteousness of His judgments.
- Planted — God gave Israel a fenced place, choice vines, a tower and a winepress. The hedge marked her off from the nations; the tower watched against evil.
- Provoked — nothing was lacking on God's side. The nation failed, as man under responsibility always does.
- Pulled down — the Planter Himself breaks the fence. He takes away what He had given, and the loss of protection is the judgment.
- Plundered — with the hedge gone, the wild boar came in, and God handed Judah over to Nebuchadnezzar.
- Preserved — the vessel of testimony breaks, but God's faithfulness holds. He will restore Israel in the last days, and He warns those who now hold her privileges: greater advantage means greater judgment.
and I will make it a waste -- it shall not be pruned nor cultivated, but there shall come up briars and thorns; and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
The song about the vineyard ends with the owner's decision: He will stop working it. The threat is not a storm or an invading army. It is withdrawal — no pruning, no hoeing, no rain. What happens when God stops tending what He planted?
The sentence in verse 6 follows a case God has already made.
There was no failure on God's part. He had established Israel in the most favourable position. He separated them to Himself, removed obstacles, and crowned them with favours. He granted not only protection but every means of blessing... Yet it was all in vain. The result was only bad fruit... They, like Adam, transgressed the covenant. It was the old story over again. Human responsibility ends in total ruin.
What fruit had He looked for, and why did heaven close? Commentators answer from Judah's own record:
The wild grapes were the product of their corrupt nature. They were the oppression and unrighteousness that raised a cry to God, instead of the praise, thanksgiving and worship the Lord looked for. Moreover, the history of Judah, like the history of the ten tribes, was one of idolatry... No wonder God threatened to leave the land to "briers and thorns," and to "command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it."
The one who ruins the vineyard is its owner. Everything He set up for His people, He takes down Himself.
But man always fails in what God expects from him, and God wants it seen what man is. God does all that man could ask, and this only shows the ill-will of man. Sacrifices, temple, service — God had arranged it all. The people fail in all of it; and God destroys what He had Himself made. He breaks the fence... God entrusted true privileges to man; but man fails: God takes it all away, and the result is judgment.
Left alone, the ground does not stay neutral. What grows there points back to Eden, and forward to the day the curse ends.
It shows how many the fruits are of the curse pronounced in Eden because of the sin of man. But that curse will be removed in the millennium, when the myrtle and such trees will take their place.
The ruin has two sides: the ground runs wild, and the sky shuts. No farmer can order the clouds; only God can. Commentators trace how that rain later failed:
First the land had to lose its people, and second it had to become barren and sterile. Titus scattered the Jews, and that brought the first. God withheld the latter rain, and that brought the second. The rain failed in May, when the land needed it most. The effects were so serious that the country turned sterile and barren, and became overrun with thorns.
The same principle reaches past Judah. Where God gives more, He asks more:
Judah was the plant of Jehovah's pleasure, but it brought forth wild grapes. God judges the vineyard, and He also judges Christendom. We have enjoyed greater advantages. Our responsibility as Christians is greater, so the judgment will be greater too. God enters into details to show the righteousness of His judgments.
The same closed heaven can settle over one life, not just a nation:
Can we not see a fitting and striking picture here? The barren land and the desolate wilderness show a soul out of communion, a soul that has disobeyed the precious commandments of Christ. Such a person has no refreshing communications with heaven. No showers come down. There are no unfoldings of the preciousness of Christ to the heart, and no sweet ministry from an ungrieved Spirit to the soul. The Bible seems a sealed book. All is dark, dreary and desolate.
- Planted — God gave the vineyard every advantage He could give; the failure was never on His side.
- Barren — He looked for praise, thanksgiving and worship; what came up was oppression, unrighteousness and idolatry.
- Dismantled — the fence, the temple, the service were all His work. God gave real privileges, and God took them all away.
- Overgrown — left alone, the ground yields the thorns of Eden's curse. In the millennium the myrtle will take their place.
- Dry — a shut heaven left the land barren. It leaves a soul out of communion just as barren, with the Bible a sealed book.