What more could I have done for My vineyard that I did not already do in it?  Why, when I waited for it to yield good grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?

Isaiah 5:4

I read this sad word of Isaiah this morning and I found myself hoping that I do not produce sour grapes.  As I was growing up when something did not work out for one of us boys, we heard these words, “sour grapes.”  I had no idea where that phrase came from.  Here it is in Isaiah 5, where the author is greatly troubled, why after all the blessings from God, did the Children of Israel turn away from Him to follow strange deities?

I was created to bear sweet grapes to bless myself and others.  Behold, what do others get when they reach for a fruit in my tree?  Do they find a sweet, nourishing fruit there, or an attractive fruit that is in fact not sweet or nourishing at all, but bitter?  My bitterness coming through!

This breaks the heart of God. We hear God say, Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed.  Really!

Lord, purify me, make my fruit sweet and nourishing.