His beloved vineyard that turned to sour grapes

Article for October 4, 2026

Isaiah 5:1–2 1Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

God could have chosen any people, and the outcome would have been the same.  God tried to select a people that might follow Him rather than some false idol that could do nothing.  But this is mankind, always searching for something greater than themselves. Yet, always searching to blame their catastrophes on something even if they have to make it up.  False gods are a dime a dozen, but the real God costs nothing.

God chose a people that He might teach them good ways that would prosper them.  But all is foiled in the inpatients of mankind’s flesh.  Like a teenager we think we know it all and can make our own path.  Yet the path we make is full of hills, valleys, pits, weeds, and stones that show us we carve out paths that go nowhere but give us trouble on our blind way.

God gave His people everything though they did not see it because they could not see past the flesh of their nose.  The flesh is and always has been a stumbling block for all of mankind and it always will be.  The real problem is we know this to be true, and we do nothing to make it otherwise.  We are doomed as much as those who God planted and groomed to be His beloved vineyard that turned to sour grapes.  God used the words wild grapes, but the taste is still the same.

Isaiah 5:3–4 3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

When you put the work into something, being careful to do everything right for an outcome expected, you would think that your work would produce the best of its fruitfulness.  But even we see that is not always the case.  Why?  We were cursed by the actions, inactions, and disobedience of Adam and Eve. 

This curse from Adam and Eve’s disobedience gave us weeds, thistles, and thorns, and a promise that nothing would be easy.  A promise kept.  What started as something so simple as disobedience turned quickly in the blood line of man and brother killed brother.  From murder to extortion, and from extortion to man made gods, and men claiming to be gods.

According to science the strongest will survive, unless sin begets sin, then the cleverest will survive, at least for a while.  But what the strongest and cleverest fail to remember is that they are not the ones in control.  Only God is in control and what will be in time will be God’s final say.

Isaiah 5:5-6 5And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

So, mankind turns its back on God like a teenager rebelling against their parents.  The teenager thinks they can do better than their parents and mankind thinks it can do better than God.  The teenager sometimes learns that their parents were correct and sometimes mankind learns that God is correct.  In both cases what one has learned is forgotten as soon as the flesh speaks its loud and boisterous haggle that we think we must please first rather than please our creator.

God’s people lost everything that God gave them, everything that God taught them and their special status with God.  Know that we have little to nothing to boast about ourselves.  We too, have turned our back on God to please whatever whim comes our way.  We too, are losing our special status with God.  If it weren’t for the grace of God, we, both Jew and Christian, would be lost in our misery forever.

Isaiah 5:7 7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!

And that is what we do.  We plunder, deface, rebel, and try to make it on our own using the world’s rule book.  And when it doesn’t work, we cry unfair, blame others, and blame God.  And God looks down on us with pity and sorrow, and for some unknown reason, God looks down on us with love.

Knowing we have been cured with a sinful nature God finds the means to make a new fertile ground.  It is called everlasting life on a new earth under a new heaven.  We absolutely cannot get to this new life on our own.  God knows this and God knows that some will unwittingly refuse this gift.

The gift is Jesus Christ who lived, walked, shared, taught with us to show us the way we cannot find ourselves.  Jesus took His teaching, to the extreme as He willingly suffered pain, humility, and the anger of those who despised Him.  Jesus did this for us and still took His teaching further as He allowed Himself to be brutely nailed to a criminal’s cross.

What was the teaching?  That Jesus not once cursed or retaliated while all this was being done to Him.  Instead, Jesus forgave everyone from the cross while He was painfully dying in humble humility for our sins.  And His teaching continued even after He died.  But Christ’s latest teaching was through His resurrection that showed us beyond a doubt He is God and He is in control, and He is the truth the life and way to God’s eternal love for all who follow Him.  Amen.

Written by Paster Curtis A. May