“Let me sing now for my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it and also hewed out a wine vat in it; then He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones” (Isa. 5:1-2).
I know that you probably don’t go around singing songs about agriculture, unless you are from the country and you like it that way. The Bible uses a lot of examples from agriculture to explain Biblical truths. This example from Isaiah is explained in verse 7, “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.” God said through the mouth of the prophet, “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones” (Isa.5:4)?
There are three basic things that we can learn from this agricultural example. First, God has worked to prepare the way for His faithful people. In the case of the Jewish nation, it is clear that from the beginning God had been working to bring about the circumstances of their growth and future blessing for all of mankind (Eph. 1:4). “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:29). God has worked towards our faith becoming a reality.
Second, there is an expectation that there will be results for His work. With the people in the time of Isaiah, God had been working with them, and it was time to receive good fruit from them, but they had not produced. The expectation that God had was reasonable, but they did not deliver anything but sour grapes. This was something that had been communicated to the people. They knew what God wanted and did not do what pleased Him. God’s expectation of His church has been clearly communicated to us. There is an expectation.
Third, with an expectation, there will be an evaluation of the validity of the expectation. There will be a judgment (Heb. 9:27). Matthew 7 speaks of judging people by the fruit of their labors. It is logical that with all the work that God has done, He would check on His work to make sure that it was not in vain and not worthless.
We need to understand that God has done His part. We must do all we can to meet the expectations that He has laid out for us. We know that what He is asking of us in nothing in comparison to eternity. We must make sure that we continue with the same diligence and efforts to please God.