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?
A Case Already Settled
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."
God Undoing His Own Work
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.
Briers and Thorns: The Old Curse Returning
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.
Rain Withheld — and the Land That Proved It
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.
A Warning Beyond Israel
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.
Summary
- 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.