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What did your report card look like in high school? Were you one of those hardworking and diligent students posting mostly A’s and only the occasional disappointing B? Or was your report card more like mine—good grades in the classes you liked, and not so good grades in the ones you didn’t?
Did
you ever utter these words: “Why do I have to learn this stuff? It’s not like I’m
ever going to use this.”
History
is one class that produces this attitude in students. Why do we have to learn
about what some guy did 900 years ago? How is that ever going to help me today?
But
history IS very important. When we study the struggles, and failures of the
people who came before us, we can learn how to avoid the suffering they
experienced.
The
Bible reading that we’re going to meditate on today is a bit of a history
lesson from the book of Isaiah. But before we read that, and consider what it
has to teach us, I’d like to set the stage for Isaiah.
▬
Our
Sunday morning Bible study group recently began a survey of the Old Testament.
The plan is to move quickly, to get a “big-picture” view.
When
you step back and see the history as a whole, you see a clear pattern
developing. Mankind does wicked things, and God rebukes their wickedness, but he
also responds with compassion.
▬
For
example, in the beginning of the Old Testament, God places the first two human
beings in a gorgeous garden where everything is good, and it’s all for them. But
Adam and Eve do the one thing that God tells them not to. By rebelling against
God Adam and Eve bring sin and death into the world. As a result God kicks them
out of the garden and curses the creation, BUT he also promises that one day a
Savior will be born to rescue sinners from sin, death, and hell.
There’s
the pattern. Man sins, and God rebukes, but with that rebuke comes compassion
and love.
▬
As
the Old Testament moves on, the history zooms in to view one family. The family
of Abraham is chosen to be God’s special people. From this family the promised
Savior was to be born. Judging from the stories that are recorded about
Abraham’s family, God didn’t choose them because they were better than everyone
else. Over and over Abraham and his family do foolish and wicked things. But
God graciously continues to rebuke them, rescue them, bless them, and remind
them that through their family every nation would one day be blessed.
The
pattern continues.
▬
Eventually
the descendants of Abraham find themselves enslaved in Egypt. When they cry out
for help, God hears them and sends Moses to lead them out of Egyptian slavery,
and into a good land that will become their own possession.
But
on the way to this land, the Israelites show themselves to be rebellious sinners
once again. When God has them on the edge of the promised land, they balk. When
God says, “Go up and take the land, I’ll be with you.” But they say, “Not so
fast. There’s big people there, and fortified cities. We’d better not.”
Through
their disobedience, the Israelites show that they don’t really trust Yahweh to
take care of them. As a result, God sentences them to wander around in the
desert for forty years until the faithless generation is all dead. But still,
God doesn’t abandon his promises. In due time, the descendants of Abraham move
into the promised land and settle down.
▬
But
there they show their rebellious hearts once again. On the way into the
promised land God had told them to destroy the pagan nations that were living
there. These nations had turned their backs on the living God and had begun to
worship idols in all sorts of disgusting and evil ways. They bowed down to wood
and stone. They sacrificed their children to false gods. They took part in all
sorts of superstitious and immoral practices.
Instead
of rooting these nations out like God had told them to, the Israelites allowed
some to remain. Before long, their pagan neighbors were teaching the Israelites
how to worship their gods right alongside Yahweh.
And
so God again rebukes their sin. He sends foreign nations to raid the land of
Israel and to oppress the people. But each time that happens, the people come
back to their senses and called out to God for help. In response, God would
send a hero to beat back the oppressors and restore peace to the land. But
after each rescue, the people fell back into their old ways of wickedness and
idolatry—and the pattern repeated itself.
▬
In
time, the Israelite nation was split in two, a Northern kingdom called “Israel”
and a Southern kingdom called “Judah.” Of the forty or so kings that rule over
the God’s chosen nation during this period, only eight of them followed Yahweh.
The rest of the kings sought to establish their own rule with murder and
intrigue. They also led the people to abandon the true God and indulge in wicked
idolatry once again.
It
was an ugly time in the history of Israel. False gods were worshipped by the
people. Kings set up pagan shrines in the temple of Yahweh. And Israel became
just like any other nation: a place stained with murder, thievery, and
injustice.
At
this time, God used his prophets to reveal that judgment was coming for Israel.
A harsh rebuke would fall on the people for their evil behavior. The nation of
Syria would sweep in and completely destroy the Northern Kingdom. Then Babylon would
enslave and deport the Southern Kingdom.
Yet
God’s compassion would remain. Yahweh would not abandon his promises to
Abraham. From Abraham’s family the Savior would still come. After 70 years of
exile, a remnant of the Southern Kingdom would return from Babylon to settle in
the promised land once more. And from that remnant, the Messiah would one day
be born.
The
Old Testament can be summed up in this way: mankind is wicked, but God is good.
Mankind is constantly rebelling against it’s Creator, but Yahweh is ever
faithful, rebuking man’s wickedness and holding out the promise of forgiveness
and redemption through the Savior to come.
▬
As
I said earlier, our sermon reading for today comes from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah
the prophet lived in the time of Israel’s kings, just previous to the exile to
Babylon. As God’s prophet, it was Isaiah’s job to rebuke the people for their
rebellion against God—but also to comfort those who still trusted in Yahweh.
In
our reading for today, Isaiah uses a parable to warn the nation that God’s
judgment was coming soon.
Isaiah 5:1-7 (NASB)
1 Let
me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2 He dug it all around, removed its
stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He expected it
to produce good grapes,
But it produced only
worthless ones.
3 “And
now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 “What more was there to do for My
vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it
to produce good grapes did it produce
worthless ones?
5 “So now let Me tell you what I am
going to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
I will break down its wall and it will become trampled
ground.
6 “I will lay it waste;
It will not be pruned or hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”
7 For
the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
▬
Isaiah’s song
is a parable designed to turn one’s thoughts inward. A parable to encourage
self-evaluation and introspection.
The people of
Israel knew all about vineyards. They would hear Isaiah’s description and
agree. Wow, this man did everything right. And yet his vineyard failed. He was
right to give up on the vineyard. If after all this work it only produced bad
grapes, there really wasn’t anything left to do but give up.
But the parable
was about them.
Yahweh had
brought the descendants of Abraham out of Egypt. Israel was his precious vine (Psalm
80:8). He dug out the stones of the pagan nations and planted Israel in the
promised land—a fertile hill (Psalm 80:9). Yahweh himself had been it’s
mighty tower. Standing there in the middle of Israel was the Temple of the
LORD. There his Word could be heard. There his promises could be praised. In
Yahweh there was protection that no nation could penetrate.
Yahweh had
every reason to expect this chosen nation to produce good fruit—good words and
actions. Kindness. Compassion. Love. Faithfulness. Diligence. Peace. Justice.
Righteousness.
But instead, Israel
produced fruits like “bloodshed” and “cries of distress.” What more could have
been done by the LORD? Nothing. Why did it produce worthless fruit? They
had no satisfactory excuse.
And so judgment
would fall on Israel.
Syria would
sweep into the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC. They would enslave the people, and
the tribes of that kingdom would disappear forever. Those not killed would be
absorbed into the nations where they were deported, never to return.
And then the
Babylonian nation would flood into the Southern Kingdom. Jerusalem would fall
in 522 BC. In successive waves of deportation nearly all the people would be
removed from the land. Only a tiny population of farmers and tenants would tend
the land.
They would look
on actual vineyards abandoned and overgrown with briars and thorns. And each
overgrown vineyard would serve as a reminder of God’s judgment on faithless
Israel.
▬
And yet, Yahweh
had not abandoned his promise to Adam and Eve. Nor had he abandoned his promise
to Abraham. Through the prophet Jeremiah, the LORD proclaimed…
“15 Then it shall be, after I have
plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them
back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land” (Jeremiah 12:15 NKJV).
The pattern
would continue.
After seventy
years of exile in Babylon, Yahweh, the God who always keeps his promises,
brought a remnant back to the land. They settled in the desolate and overgrown
country once again. And in time they rebuilt the temple of the LORD—though it
was only a shadow of the glorious temple it had once been.
And in time, a
young virgin by the name of Mary made her way to Bethlehem to take part in a
census. And the long promised Savior of sinners was born. The descendant of
Abraham came, at long last, to bless all the nations of the world—through the
forgiveness and salvation won for them through his cross.
Though man is
wicked, the LORD remains good. And he has kept his promise to bring us
forgiveness and salvation. In Christ Jesus that is what we have, forgiveness
and salvation for all our rebellious sins.
▬
A
philosopher and author by the name of George Santayana once said…
“Those who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it” (George Santayana).
The
Bible says something very similar in the book of Romans. In Romans it
says…
“4 For whatever
things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the
patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4 NKJV).
History
is important, but Bible history is crucial. For it is in the Scriptures that we
learn about sin, and what our great God has done about it. When we are weighed
down with sin and guilt, it is the history of the Bible that brings us comfort.
Even though mankind is totally sinful, and untrustworthy, our Creator is holy,
and faithful, and through his compassion he has provided forgiveness and eternal
life through the cross of Christ.
▬
People, we are not ancient Israel. But we can take warning from their
history. We are not ancient Israel. But we have been planted on a
fertile hill. We are not ancient Israel. But the God of the Bible stands
as our mighty tower, our only refuge and protection from the world around us,
and from ourselves. We are not ancient Israel. But the Master of the
vineyard has hewn out a wine press here at Redemption. He expects good fruit.
If
we are to produce that fruit, we cannot rely on our own vine—that is destined
to fail. If we learn anything from the history of ancient Israel, we must not
fail to learn that. If we depend on our own vine, and follow our own hearts, we
will stray from the true God. We must be grafted into a better vine—through
faith.
Jesus
once told his disciples,
“15 “I am the true
vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every
branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does
bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I
have spoken to you. 4 Abide
in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you
are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much
fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:1-5 ESV).
Let
us learn from the history of Israel. It was preserved for our learning, that
through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.
The Gospel of Christ is ours, people. We know what he did for us on that
cross 2,000 years ago. We believe in him. He suffered our hell. He took our
sins away. In Christ all our rebellious sins stand forgiven. Connected to him
we can produce good fruit in the Father’s vineyard. Fruit like a humble
attitude of repentance. Fruit like a strong faith in his sure promises. Fruit
like justice, and righteous lives. But only if we remain in the vine. Apart
from Christ, we can only fail.
The
lessons we learn from history are sometimes sobering ones. Like the lesson we’ve
pondered today. let us take warning from Israel’s history so that we don’t face
the same fate. Let us forever cling to the cross of Christ, the source of our
cleansing. The beginning and end of our faith. And may the Holy Spirit cause
good fruits to grow in our lives, to the praise of our gracious and powerful
God.
Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your hearts, and your minds, in Christ Jesus.
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