WILD GRAPES
Isaiah 5:8-23. Woe unto them that join house to house, &c.
It is important to remember that this whole chapter constitutes one prophecy. Much of the power of its teaching will be lost, if this fact be overlooked. In Isaiah 5:1-7, we have the astonishing declaration that in “the vineyard of the Lord of hosts” He has discovered, not the excellent fruit He had a right to expect, but “wild grapes.” In Isaiah 5:8-23; some of these “wild grapes” are specified and denounced. Surveying His vineyard the Husbandman beheld—
I. Not the gracious fruit of generosity, but the evil fruits of GREED and PRIDE. He saw men, not content with the possessions which Providence had conferred upon them, nor those which honest industry would enable them to secure, but coveting their neighbour’s possessions, and hesitating at no means that would enable them to gratify their desires (Micah 2:1-2); beating down their equals, that they themselves might dwell in solitary grandeur (Isaiah 5:8). Note, 1, that the aggregation of landed property here denounced was directly contrary to most explicit Divine ordinances (Numbers 36:7; Leviticus 25:23-24) [592]
2. The conduct here denounced has its counterparts to-day—in the matter of land, great landowners buying up all the little farms adjoining their estates, and turning fruitful valleys into deer-runs; in trade, great capitalists subjecting their less wealthy rivals to ruinous competition, &c., &c., [595]
3. That it is not merely particular manifestations of the spirit of greed and pride, but the spirit itself, that provokes the indignation of the bountiful Giver of all good. Covetousness and arrogance are not confined to any particular class. The tenth commandment exists for the poor as well as for the rich.
[592] Political philosophy has much to say in favour of laws and institutions, at certain periods of a nation’s growth, for encouraging, or at least permitting, the disposition of its members to found families, to be maintained by hereditary possessions in land. Yet, if this disposition be not kept within bounds, those who are influenced by it will “join house to house, and field to field, till there be no place;” till the race of small landholders, yeomen, and partly independent tenants, is swallowed up by a few rich despots. To prevent this evil among the Hebrews, Moses directed as equal a division of the land as possible in the first instance, among the 600,000 families who originally formed the nation; and provided against the permanent alienation of any estate, by giving a right of repurchase to the seller and his relations, and of repossession without purchase at the Jubilee. The story of Naboth illustrates the effect of these laws in forming an order of sturdy, independent yeomen; but it must also be taken as an instance of the habitual breach of the same laws by the rich and powerful (cf. Micah 2; Nehemiah 5:1-13; 2 Chronicles 36:21); as they in like manner disobeyed that respecting the liberation of slaves at the Jubilee (Jeremiah 34:8-16). In England, where the Norman conquest accumulated all the land in the hands of a few nobles, the like accumulation has been opposed—however imperfectly—by laws in their form exactly opposite to those of Moses; by the permission to cut off old entails, and the prohibition to make new ones except for one generation, and by allowing land to be bought and sold like other commodities.—Strachey, pp. 65, 66.
[595] The covetous man is like a spider. As in this, that he does nothing but lay his nets to catch every fly, gaping only for a booty of gain. So yet more, in that while he makes nets for these flies, he consumes his own bowels; so that which is his life is his death. If there be any creature miserable, it is he; and yet he is least to be pitied, because he makes himself miserable. Such as he is I will account him; and will therefore sweep down his webs, and hate his poison.—Hall, 1574–1656.
Covetous worldlings will hardly spare the poor some of their fire to warm them, some of their water to drink, some of their ground to lodge on, though it were no more hurt to them than the lighting of a candle at their torch.—Adams, 1653.
II. Not the excellent fruit of temperance, but the evil fruit of SENSUAL INDULGENCE (Isaiah 5:11-12). He saw men living for mere pleasure, without any recognition of the “work” which He had wrought for them as a nation, without any acknowledgment of His goodness to them as individuals, without any remembrance of the purpose of their being [598]
[598] Let us remember that it will be to small purpose to enjoy these worldly pleasures of sin for a season, and in the end plunge ourselves into everlasting death;—that the world’s music is but the syren’s song, which allures us to make shipwreck of our souls on the rocks of sin, and while it tickles the ear it wounds us to the very heart;—that though the cup which it offers be of gold, and the drink sweet in taste, yet it is deadly poison in operation; for they that drink thereof are so lulled asleep in pleasures and security, that they never awaken out of their spiritual lethargy; or if they do, yet like Sampson, without strength to resist the spiritual Philistines, after the world (like Delilah) has lulled them awhile in her lap of carnal pleasures.—Downame, 1642.
III. Not the excellent fruit of reverence for God’s Word, but the evil fruit of SCOFFING. The messengers whom He sent to recall them to duty, they scorned; the warnings which He mercifully sent to them of the judgments impending over them, they turned into merriment. Instead of forsaking their sins, they yoked themselves to them with renewed determination (Isaiah 5:18-19).
IV. Not the noble fruit of a recognition of the truth, but the evil fruit of INFIDELITY—that intellectual scepticism which seeks to destroy the very foundations of morality, and which prepares men for vice of all kinds, and hardens them therein, by confounding vice with virtue, and denying man’s moral accountability.
V. Not the befitting fruit of humility and desire for Divine guidance, but the evil fruit of SELF-SUFFICIENCY (Isaiah 5:21). Clever and successful “men of the world,” they resented the idea of their needing counsel and help as an insult. They were their own gods. Trusting in themselves with unfaltering confidence, they excluded from their minds all thought of Him in whom they lived and moved and had their being. Conceiving that they owed all their prosperity to their own wisdom and prudence, how could they give Him thanks? Confident that they would be equal to every emergency of life, how could they lift up to Him one real prayer?
VI. Not the indispensable fruit of righteousness in those who are called to rule, but that evil fruit which always excites His hottest indignation, DENIAL OF JUSTICE TO THE POOR. He saw the judges taking their seats on the judicial bench, not with clear intellects and the love of righteousness enthroned in their hearts, but besotted and brutalised by strong drink; not dispensing justice, but selling their verdict to those who could furnish them most amply with the means of gratifying their sensual lusts (Isaiah 5:22-23). Than the denial of justice there is no more cruel wrong.
These were the “wild grapes” which God saw when He looked down upon His ancient vineyard. Was it any vonder that He brake down the wall thereof, and gave it over to destruction? These are the “wild grapes” which He sees brought forth only too abundantly when He looks down upon this land. Is it not a wonder that He spares the nation to which we belong?
1. Let us beseech Him still to spare as, for the sake of the “ten righteous” who dwell among us.
2. Let us recognise that the most urgent duty to which we are called as patriots is the abatement of those iniquities which justly kindle God’s indignation against us.
3. Let us as individuals search and see what fruits are being brought forth in the vineyard of our own souls, lest while we are deploring the iniquities of our land and time, and, it may be, are labouring to lessen them, there grow up within us “wild grapes” which will bring down upon us the Divine condemnation.