Examining The Scripture CI: A Bait-And-Switch In The Vineyard

A reader when reading Isaiah 5:1-7 will recognize that they are reading the “Song of the Vineyard”. What many first-time readers will not notice in the process of reading this portion of Scripture is that they are being led into a theological trap. By the time the reader reaches verse 7 the trap is sprung and the reader is rereading the first seven verses to figure out where they got sucked into the trap.

It is the old adage, how do you insult someone so that they will actually stand there and listen to you without walking away? Isaiah realizes that a speaker must first compliment his listener before hammering them with a truth they are not readily inclined to accept. As the reciever of the information is basking in the glow of being "built up" and/or complimented, the underhanded punch connects with the gut and knocks the wind out of the person. They have no chance to recover and stand dazed. The same methodology applies to Isaiah 5. It is a form of bait-and-switch.

Isaiah 5 sings/speaks this out as a psalm. Everybody loves a song. It begins as a love song singing to God his “beloved” about His vineyard on “fertile” ground. A vineyard planted in the best place in the choicest circumstances. The stones have been removed from the field and a watch tower has been placed in the middle. There is also a wine vat. Everything is perfect. This vineyard should yield abundantly. But like the Pied Piper, Isaiah lulls listeners and his readers into a false sense of security and marches us to a cliff for dramatic purposes. At the very end of verse 2 the tone changes from that of praise to God to a biting rebuke of Israel’s spiritual condition “but it yielded only bad fruit”.

As a keeper of the vineyard (figuratively)/Israel (literally) the prophet Isaiah then basically asks if he is responsible for the poor spiritual yield of the field that he is watching over. He realizes as God’s prophet that it is his imperative to go out and warn the people of their failed state just as it is the vine-keeper/vintner's responsibility to assure the most productive growing environment for grapes. Having done this, the rhetorical question is raised “Have I not done everything possible to assure a plentiful yield?”

In the remaining verse we see the threat of imminent judgment. The hedge which keeps wild foragers from invading the vineyard and taking the “wild” grapes away will be removed and they will pluck the wild grapes. In the literal sense this means political and geo-political buffers will be removed and Israel will be invaded from a foreign power and taken away because the hedge that God has maintained will be removed. Those that are not removed/exiled will be destroyed outright. Verse 6 goes as far to paint a picture of a vineyard/Israel that will be unmaintained or desolate with no rain, a virtual wasteland. Instead of wine for a winepress there will be grapes crushed on the ground. Instead of abundant fruit and spiritual abundance there will be death and bloodshed on the ground. Peoples heads and bodies will be crushed and smashed like grapes in a wine vat. The Assyrians were infamous for their brutality. They were even known for skinning captives while they were alive as I have ssen archeological remains from the area showing exactly that, people being skinned.

We see similarities to the story of Jesus and the fig tree in Luke 13, the barren fig-tree and the vines are intended to enforce the warning given that if the barren tree does not brings forth fruit, will be cut down. Both this psalm/song and the parable in the first place refers to the nation and people of the Jews (IVP Commentary, Bible Gateway [Online]). The psalm starts as a psalm of praise and ends as a psalm of lament.

We must understand what fruit is in a plant. It is an abundance of life. If a plant cannot produce fruit it is either because it is barely getting by or it is dying, so it reserves its “life” for “selfish” needs (living). It puts the nutrients and water it does have to self-sustaining uses. Israel was dying spiritually and God and Isaiah knew it. They best thing to do to them was to either prune them back to a stump and allow them to go dormant until the survival period had passed (remnant) or mercy kill the ones that were beyond the point of no return (invasion and exile).

Another interesting feature of Isaiah 5 is the use of assonance or a repeating word sound to create a rhyme in the last two lines of verse 7. It stresses the contrast between what God expected of His people as opposed to what actually happened to them (Martin 1042).

•Thus He looked for justice (mispat), but behold, bloodshed (mispoh)
•For righteousness (sedaqah) , but behold, a cry of distress (seaquah)

Martin, John., John Walvoord. "Isaiah." Bible Knowledge Commentary Old Testament: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Bible Knowledge). Acambaro: Victor, 1985. 1042. Print.