Jan 04 – Vineyard !

“My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.” (Isaiah 5:1)

Imagine a beautiful vineyard.  When a gardener plants a vineyard, he does so with an expectation. He waits for it to bear sweet fruit.

More than any other garden, a vineyard requires more hard work and special attention. It must be tended, fertilized, weeded, and watered just at the right time and in right measure.  All the unnecessary vines must also be pruned and removed.

Our heart is also like that vineyard.  It must not be left as a fallow ground.  It must be given into the hand of the Lord, and the thorns and bushes there must be uprooted and the ground cultivated. If we think we can live any way that we want, our life will be ruined. But if we live at the foot of Lord Jesus Christ, our life will be a cultivated and fruitful.

The gardener also has the duty to protect the vineyard. The little foxes and the jackals should not dig holes, destroy the roots, and waste away the vineyard. In the lives of some people, relationships that are like little foxes creep in, to destroy them.  Television and pornographic books enter the homes of some people like jackals. Some people let politics into their homes and talk about unnecessary things. The garden of such people becomes a thorn bush.

What does the vineyard of the Lord represent? Isaiah 5:7 says, “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant”.  Today we are the spiritual Israelites.

If you go to the land of Israel, you will see a beautiful vine in front of every house today, to show that they are the chosen by the Lord; and called to bear fruit.

In the New Testament, we are spiritual Israelites. Jesus Christ is the vine. We are the branches. The Lord has loved us and established us in His vineyard. Do we bear fruit for Him? Even if we do, are the fruits pleasant and delicious for the Lord?  Many plants have become wild vines and unwanted vines. They only have the leaves of tradition and rituals; but no spiritual or delicious fruit in them.

Children of God, you who are established in the Lord’s vineyard, should bear fruits that are pleasing to the Lord.

Verse for further meditation: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)