“I will sing for the one I love, a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.  He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.”  Isaiah 5:1, 2  We see Jesus here.

“Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. the mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.  Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.  He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.”  Isaiah 5:25, 26

The dilemma facing God as he reviews his relationship with his chosen Israel is all too familiar. “He planted it with choicest vines… It yielded only bad fruit.” I can relate to that.  It seems so contrary to what should be, certainly with all those blessings and under the tender care of God himself. How is it that their restless hearts were not satisfied, always seeking something tantalizing outside of the will of God?

We should not wonder that “his anger burns against his people.” Not for a moment. That his strong arm should come down and destroy them without mercy is what we expect to happen next. But, my soul, read this again.  “Yet for all this…his hand is still upraised,” as in supplication and welcome, the gesture of forgiveness.  Is this not the message of grace, amazing grace?

Then, as we read a bit further we see another level of God’s heart concern. “He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.”  Like a shepherd whistles his familiar whistling to call his sheep to himself, so the Good Shepherd keeps whistling, not only for the Jews to return but it is an invitation for all who will, no matter what their background, to be with Him forever and ever.

Grace floods Isaiah’s vision and it certainly should ours, in as much as we know and experience God’s marvelous salvation, we who are not Jews by birth.  Praise his Holy Name!