Episode 2331 - Lesson 11 - Tuesday March 11 - The Song of my Beloved

In amazing ways, God has manifested His love and righteousness amid the cosmic conflict. Yet, some might ask, Should God have done more than He has done to prevent and/or remove evil? We have seen a cosmic conflict framework that indicates that God has acted in order to respect the free will necessary for the maximal flourishing of love relationships between Him and humanity. Further, He has apparently acted within moral constraints, or rules of engagement, within the context of a cosmic dispute over His character, which can be settled only by the demonstration of His love.Read Isaiah 5:1–4. Who is speaking in these verses? Whom is Isaiah speaking about? Whom do the vineyard and vineyard owner represent? What is the significance of the actions of the vineyard owner on behalf of the vineyard? What is the result?In these verses, Isaiah sings a song of his beloved, a vineyard. The vineyard owner is God Himself, and the vineyard represents God’s people (see, for example, Isa. 1:8, Jer. 2:21). But the implications here can also be expanded relative to God’s broader work in this world. According to these verses, the vineyard owner (God) did everything that reasonably could be expected to ensure the flourishing of His vineyard. The vineyard should have produced good grapes, but it produced only “wild grapes,” which other translations refer to as “worthless.” Indeed, the Hebrew wording here literally could be translated stink-fruit. God’s vineyard brings forth rotten grapes.Isaiah 5:3 shifts to God Himself speaking, inviting people to “judge” between Him and His vineyard. And, in Isaiah 5:4, God Himself sets forth the all-important question: “ ‘What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?’ ” (NKJV). What more could He do? How fascinating that He even asks others to judge what He has done.When you look at the cross, where God offered Himself as a sacrifice for all our sin, how do His words—“ ‘What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it?’ ”—take on an utterly amazing significance?