The Vineyard Metaphor

 

The scriptures contain figures of speech in which God seeks to illustrate the point He is making. In Galatians 4:24, for example, Paul uses an allegory to describe Ishmael’s mother Hagar as representing the flesh, the Old Covenant and Mt. Sinai, and Sarah as representing the promise, the New Covenant and the heavenly Jerusalem.

But, in contrast to the occasional use of these devices, the use of the vineyard as a metaphor for God’s people is consistent and repeated throughout the scriptures of both Old and New Testaments.

 

In the Old Testament

It is first used in the Psalms;

“You have brought a vine out of Egypt: you have cast out the heathen, and planted it. You prepared room before it, and did cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river” (Psalm 80:9-11).

So this passage describes God’s bringing Israel out of Egypt, leading to the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel under David. God brought the vine out of Egypt and planted it in Israel; it flourished in the good soil of the Land and eventually covered the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. It is a story of God’s benevolent care of His people.

This care was illustrated in Isaiah 5:1-7;

“Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard. My well beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and He looked that it should bring forth grapes…”.

God takes special care of this vineyard, clearing the site, turning over the soil and surrounding it with a fence to keep animals from it.

“,,,But it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?”

God’s expectation is not realised; His vine has not responded to His loving attention.

“And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it”.

God is turning His back on the vineyard and leaving it to its own destruction.

“For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry” (Isaiah 5:1-7).

A bleak future faces Israel because it has turned its back upon the One who brought them out of Egypt and gave them the Land. And, of course, not long after this prophecy, Israel fell to the Assyrians and Judah to Babylon.

 

Other prophets also used the vineyard metaphor; here is Jeremiah, writing just before the Babylonian captivity;

“Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?” (Jeremiah 2:21-22).

Here again is the disappointment at the failure of His people to bring forth the fruit that was expected from such tender care. Their degeneration is the result of “a strange vine”; that is, turning away from Jehovah, their covenant God, to the god of this world.

 

Then Hosea said;

“Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit to himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: He shall break down their altars, He shall spoil their images. (Hosea 10:1-3).

A fruitless vine is of no worth to God, but worse is that the Land has been used to satisfy the desires of the people who are drifting into apostasy and idolatry.

 

Jeremiah points the finger to those responsible;

“Many pastors have destroyed My vineyard, they have trodden My portion under foot, they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns unto Me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart” (Jeremiah 12:10-11).

No-one cares that the land has been lost, Jeremiah says, least of all those pastors whose responsibility it was to guide the people in the true faith. Israel is now a desolate wilderness and God mourns its fallen state.

 

This is a record of God’s dealings with His people. He rescued them from captivity, brought them safely and miraculously through the Red Sea and brought them through the wilderness to the abundance of the Promised Land. Rather than bringing forth the fruit of faithfulness, that is, adherence to God’s word and ways, they followed after their religious flesh, led by corrupt leaders, and eventually went into the captivity of an alien nation.

There was worse to come after God mercifully restored them to the Land and gave them another chance, as yet once more they were led by their leaders into false, fruitless and Godless religion. This time, they were banished from the Land and dispersed throughout all the nations of the earth, to be oppressed and afflicted and to suffer as slaves.

Now, however, they have returned to the Land for the final act in the great drama of God’s people. Although still apostate, God has gathered them together as He promised He would, and the stage is set for the end times.

“In that day sing you unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. (Isaiah 27:2-6).

The term, “in that day”, refers to the prophesied national regeneration of Israel, for which the stage has been set by Israel’s return to the Land. Then we will see God’s tender regard for His people; He will water it and watch over it and keep it night and day. God abandoned fruitless Israel to its destiny; now, in contrast, at the end of the age, her fruit will fill the face of the world.

 

In the New Testament

“Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country”. Jesus reproduces the same scene that Isaiah had set down in Chapter 5.

“And when the time of the fruit drew near, He sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took His servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, He sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all He sent unto them His Son, saying, ‘they will reverence My Son’. But when the husbandmen saw the Son, they said among themselves, ‘this is the heir; come, let us kill Him, and let us seize on His inheritance’” (Matthew 21:33-39).

Jesus is rephrasing the Old Testament prophecies concerning the leaders of God’s people leading them into apostasy and disaster, but He updates these prophecies by bringing them into line with more recent events and one that is to take place in the immediate future, that is, His forthcoming death at the hands of the leaders of Israel. They had already “killed the prophets and stoned those that were sent to them” (Matthew 23:37); Now they were to kill the heir, their Messiah, so that they would be able to continue to rule His inheritance, God’s chosen people.

 

While all of this pertains to the Jews, God does not change and His ways are set down forever. For God’s people of the gentile nations, the lesson to be learnt is that we should never blindly follow “leaders” or “movements” or Churches. Jesus said;

“Behold, I come quickly: hold fast that which you have, that no man take your crown” (Revelation 3:11).

What each true believer has is the crown of a royal priest unto God, under the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ. We have scriptural authority to be priests in the priesthood of all believers and Jesus is warning us against yielding up that status to anyone or letting anyone take that authority from us. The Judaistic system provided for a religious structure of scribes and Pharisees and Law and sacrifices and feasts, but all of this was meant to demonstrate that it could not produce what God wanted His people to be. As Paul wrote:

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:24-26).

The system of religious leadership in Judaism is redundant for those in Christ; there is no scriptural authority for it. In fact, Jesus said; “

‘But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Instructor, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ” (Matthew 23:8-11).

So it is quite clear that the Old Covenant system of religious leadership has no application in New Covenant faith, yet there are Churches where the priest is called “Father”, and there are many who claim the title of “leader” and many who call themselves “teachers”. They find justification for their claims to such status in scripture, and there are verses, I know, that “leaders” use to support the authority they have usurped.

Hebrews 13:17, for example, says, “Obey your leaders”, but the Greek word used is hegeomai, meaning one who has hegemony, whereas the word used in Matthew is kathagetes. Hegeomai is more consistent with what Paul wrote to the Romans; “Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities” (Romans 13:1).

This refers to the Roman rulers who had hegemony over Israel and Judah at the time.

Many lay claim to religious status relying on the writing of Paul to the Ephesians, referring to the fact that God gave gifts to men; “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). This is so, but these were gifts, not offices, or occupations, or career paths, and they were given for a designated purpose;

“….for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).

It is the saints who are to do the work of service, which is to build up the Body of Christ. We don’t need business plans, commercial hype, promotional gimmicks and catchy slogans on Church notice boards. We need saints!

Church history is full of men who claimed to be “anointed” for a special role in the Church or amongst God’s people, and who led them to despair and destruction. Even in recent decades, who can forget the Branch Davidians, or the Jonestown cult, over 900 of whom committed suicide together? All of these deceptions were the result of following men, rather than God. That was the Old Covenant way and it proved to be disastrous for Israel who wandered the world for two thousand years.

Jesus said the He hated the work of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:6). Now the word Nicolaitan is made up of two Greek words, nike, meaning “victory” and laos, meaning “people”. Thus, a Nicolaitan is one who has victory over God’s people; one to whom they have surrendered their crowns.

The important thing to learn from this history is that to surrender your crown is to outsource your duty and responsibility. And it will make no difference; God will still hold you responsible. The people of Judah all suffered, the innocent and guilty alike, because they followed their leaders, not God.

 

Finally, we come to the words of the Lord of Glory to each believer.

I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. If a man abides not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned” (Matthew 15:1-7).

 

Modern Christianity in the Western world is in much the same state as Israel before their banishment from the Land. Isaiah wrote; “Your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is made desolate, overthrown by strange nations” (Isaiah 1:7). We see much the same beginning to happen in Australia today. Certainly our land is being devoured by strangers and it is being overthrown by foreign nations. That this is happening is the consequence of God’s people failing to be light and salt to the nation. It is the Church that God holds responsible for the desecration of our culture and society.

 

Our Constitution begins with the words; “WE, the people, …………., relying on the blessings of Almighty God………”. Alas, that is true no longer. A nation that relies on the blessing of Almighty God doesn’t contradict God’s Word in Parliamentary legislation, but that is what Australia has done.

A nation that relies on the blessings of Almighty God doesn’t demand that the Churches be closed or that worshippers should not sing aloud, but that is what Australia has done.

And the Church has gone along with it!

The Church has long abandoned its role as salt and light to the world and become a mirror of the world. It is a fulfillment of the type set down by Israel. The vineyard has been overturned and Jeremiah’s prophecy applies today, just as much as it did in the days of Jeremiah.

“Many pastors have destroyed My vineyard, they have trodden My portion under foot, they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns unto Me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart” (Jeremiah 12:10-11).