A VINEYARD … THE CHOICEST VINE … GRAPES

A Jewish commentator aptly sums up the parable of the vine­yard, writing, ‘By means of its imagery the prophet subtly and effectively brings home to the people God’s mercy and kindness towards them, which they repaid by ingratitude and disobedi­ence. Dire retribution is threatened’, Dr Slotki.

The vineyard is Israel, and how kind and attentive Jehovah had been to the nation. it was located in a fruitful hill with the stones gathered out of it, planted with the choicest vine, pro­tected by a hedge and a fence, a watchtower in the midst of it and a winepress waiting for the expected grapes. Well does the Lord ask, ‘What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?’

What disappointment that such a well cared for vineyard should produce wild grapes, inedible, corrupt, offensive, if not indeed poisonous. Such has Israel’s response been to the kind­ness lavished upon it and such ingratitude has been, and will yet be, severely judged. The vineyard would be laid waste, unpro­tected, unpruned, and choked by briers and thorns. So it has been through the nation’s two millennia of dispersion, persecu­tion and pogroms, but it is Jehovah’s vineyard and He will yet see it prosper in better, brighter days that lie ahead when the Well-beloved returns to reign in the midst of her.

The serious student of this passage will be interested in the play upon Hebrew words in verse 7, known as ‘paronomasia’. Jehovah looked for judgment, or justice, but found violence, or oppression. He looked for righteousness, but behold a cry. ‘Judg­ment’ is Hebrew mishpat and ‘oppression’ is Hebrew mispach’. ‘Righteousness’ is Hebrew tsedakah and ‘cry’ is Hebrew tse’akah. He looked for mishpat but found mispach. He looked for tsedakah but found tse’akah. How such a play upon words should have brought home to these early Hebrew readers the grievous disap­pointment that their ingratitude must have brought to Him who had cared so much for them.

For believers today the lesson is clear. The God who so cared for Israel similarly cares for us; do we appreciate this? Do we bring to Him some pleasure by our grateful response?