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Overview

Humans are created to sing. To enjoy music. Much of Isaiah 5 is the vision put into a song. A love song. And what is the name of the song? The Vineyard of the Lord. 

Isaiah 5:1-2

Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

Music brings out such emotion. The laments, the longings, the desires, the heartbreak. It is all here in Isaiah’s song. He begins by calling God—his beloved. Isaiah deeply loves His Creator. He continues by describing a vineyard. This vineyard had everything. It was on fertile land. It was protected. From every agrarian metric, this vineyard should have thrived. 

But it did not. Instead of yielding grapes, it yielded wild or “worthless” (many argue “worthless” is more accurate) grapes. The meaning of the song/parable is clear: God made a vineyard. Judah (and maybe the northern kingdom) represent the vineyard. God set His love on Judah. He chose her, cultivated her, revealed His law and His presence to her. Judah was set up for an incredible harvest. But sadly, the vines produced worthless grapes. What is God going to do now? 

Isaiah 5:5-6

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

God made the vineyard. God loves the vineyard. God is now going to dismantle the vineyard. How sad? Was this necessary? 

Obviously, this song is just another way for God to warn His people that judgment is coming. But to answer the above questions, yes, this is sad and yes, the judgment is necessary. God always disciplines those He loves. All good fathers do that. God certainly loved Judah. Is God disciplining you? If so, please don’t forget the words of Hebrews 12:11, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” 

Isaiah 5:20-21

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

A woe is not a good thing. Woe means “grief, anguish, affliction, wretchedness, calamity, or trouble”. Basically, Isaiah is saying those who call evil—good and good—evil are bringing trouble on themselves. 

I will admit watching the last four years and really ever since the sexual revolution of the 1960’s—and I guess really from the Garden of Eden, it is clear that things go sideways when we start calling evil behavior—good. Deviant sexual behavior is deemed good. Current gender ideology is deemed good. There is not much left that is “taboo”. Judah was getting close to the point of no return. God was being removed from every area of society. 

Things are not much different in 2025. I know—-there seems to be a current resurgence of traditional values with this administration, which is good to be clear, but that is not the same thing as a spiritual revival. A nation looking to Jesus to save us is our only hope. If that doesn’t occur, this song, these woes will be (in a sense) for us, our children and our children’s children.