Husbandman and Vine

In the previous post, I began examining a series of pictures that illustrate God's love for His children. I was introduced to the idea through a sermon; the discussion below originates in that sermon. The nature of God's love is displayed through the picture of a husbandman caring for his vineyard.

The picture was first used of God's loving relationship with Israel in Psalm 80:8-11. The psalmist recounts, "You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground before it, and it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shadow, and the cedars of God with its boughs. It was sending out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River."

Much of what God did for Israel is like what He does for all of His children. He rescued them from a desperate situation and established them in a land of blessing. He prepared the land for them, removing obstacles that might hinder their growth. In Israel's case, He gave them deep roots that established them very firmly in that land. He then caused them to prosper to the extent that they overshadowed everything else in the vast region controlled by their nation.

The extensive nature of God's loving care is further described in Isaiah 5:1-2. "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."

God gave the very best. He chose a fertile setting, prepared it thoroughly, removed obstacles, and then planted the choicest vine. He built a tower for watching over the vineyard, and verse 5 reveals that He also surrounded that vineyard with the protection of a hedge and a wall. If any vine were to prosper and thrive, it would be this vine, which was given every opportunity. God Himself asks this question in verse 4: "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?"

God did not stop there. He also made a wine vat to process the grapes after they were produced. Verse 2 reveals that "He expected it to produce good grapes." Considering all the loving care and preparation, the expectation was quite reasonable. This particular aspect reveals the love of God on an entirely new level. God's love did not stop with simply giving thorough care or providing the best; He ascribed worth and value to the vine by setting forth a purpose of fruitfulness for it. He wanted the vine to be able to accomplish something worthwhile.

I have gone through an extended time of unemployment, and it is not easy to have nothing significant to do. I have transitioned from Christian service to secular employment, and at times I have struggled with the seemingly reduced value of my labors. Even as a single person, I have noted the emptiness of working only for my own welfare. While I understand that God's perspective gives those situations purpose, I am nevertheless able to grasp the need of the human spirit to have something profitable to do. People need to sense their value and need to believe they are doing something that matters. In His love, God provides for those longings to be attained.

Sadly, in spite of all that God had done for Israel, they failed to meet His expectations. Isaiah reveals that they produced only worthless grapes. Jeremiah 2:21 describes it this way: “Yet I planted you a choice vine, a completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?" This failure on Israel's part brings the illustration into the New Testament. Romans 11:17-24, although speaking of an olive tree instead of a vine, declares that God grafted the Gentile nations into the trees under His care.

In a parable found in Matthew 21, Jesus tells a similar story: "There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower" (v. 33). When the landowner (God) sent for the harvest of that vineyard, the vine-keepers (Israel) rejected and killed those sent to them (prophets and Messiah). Jesus asked His listeners what the owner's response should be. They answered, "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons” (v. 41). Jesus agreed with their assessment, saying, "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it" (v. 43).

God's love illustrated through the husbandman's care of his vineyard thus extends to believers of all times. Wonderfully, His care (though it may seem impossible) even increases in the New Testament. John 15 again describes a vine: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit" (vs. 1-2,5).

Christ Himself is now the vine, and the believers are branches joined to that vine. This organic union gives incredible and indispensible productivity to the branches. With Christ's vitality flowing through them, they are certainly able to produce fruit. Conversely, without connection to the Vine, the branches are just as certainly unable to produce any fruit (vs. 4b, 5b). Not only does union with Christ assure productivity, the Vinedresser also works to increase fruitfulness. He continually prunes the fruit-producing branches so that they will produce even more fruit. Beyond producing simply good fruit, the Vinedresser now also has the expectation of much fruit.

What a loving husbandman to provide for such a level of value, worth, and productivity! God provides the best conditions and care to make the vine grow and produce fruit. He wants His children to be productive, and the grafting into Christ as the vine grants that capacity.

There is a caution in this relationship. The fruitfulness is intended to be for the benefit of the husbandman. Isaiah's account expects that. Matthew's parable echoes that expectation. I Corinthians 9:7 asks the rhetorical question, "Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it?" The harvest is for Him. Hosea describes what happened when Israel forgot God in their fruitfulness. "Israel is a luxuriant vine; He produces fruit for himself. The more his fruit, the more altars he made; the richer his land, the better he made the sacred pillars. Their heart is faithless; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars" (10:1-2). Israel's blatant words of rebellion and disrespect toward God resulted in judgment "like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field" (v. 4). Essentially, they brought about their own destruction when they rejected God instead of producing on His behalf.

Psalm 80 also describes that judgment, in which the protective hedges were broken down and any fruit was plundered by man and beasts. The vineyard was burned, cut down, and left desolate (vs. 13-16). In this broken condition, Israel cried out for help from the One who could restore them and could renew their productivity. Even when a believer forgets God and serves himself, he still has the hope that he can call out to God and ask for His renewed cultivating and care - and when his heart is right, he still needs God's help.

"O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech You; look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine." Psalm 80:14 (NASB)

The sermon referenced was the final one in a series about knowing God that can be ordered here.