Reading Isaiah 5 - The Song of the Vineyard

"My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside...cleared it of stones...planted it...built a watchtower...cut out a winepress...Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit." (v.1-2)

God's chosen nation was to bear fruit. As Ezekiel points out a vine is good for nothing else!

In Isaiah's song, the vineyard is planted with the choicest vines. Everything is taken care of and made ready in anticipation of a good crop...yet bad fruit are the only result. What went wrong?
As the song asks,
"What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?" (v.4)
You can sense the owner's sadness and disappointment as he asks "why?" (v.4)

God's intention for Israel was to be a witness to the nations of the world, (Isaiah 43:10) He wanted them to display wisdom and understanding (Deuteronomy 4:6-8 ) yet it was failing dismally in its role. As Isaiah has already mentioned, they have become "a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers" (1:4) and "They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines" (2:6) - so much for being a witness!

A vineyard which does not produce good grapes is no good to anyone, so the owner declares his intention to abandon it by breaking down its hedge and wall and leaving it a wasteland (v.6).
In v.7, the last of the song, the owner is revealed as Yahweh and "the men of Judah... the garden of his delight." The fruit he was looking for was justice and righteousness - but he saw only bloodshed and cries of distress (v.7)

Jesus uses a similar picture of vineyard and owner in his parable of the Wicked Tenants (Mark 12:1-9, also in Luke 20 and Matthew 21). In this allegory, the owner sends servants (the prophets) to collect the fruit, but the tenants (Israel's religious leaders?) kill them, until finally he sends his son (Jesus, obviously!). But the tenants also kill the son, (so Jesus again foretells his death). Even the pharisees understand that Jesus is speaking against them, (v.12).
In John, Jesus also reveals the secret to bearing good fruit, referring to himself as the vine, and his Father as the gardener, cutting off every branch that bears no fruit, (John 15:1-8). "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (v.8)