Isaiah - Verse By Verse

Isaiah - Day 82

versebyverse | August 24, 2008 14:56

Scripture:  Isaiah 5:2 (NIV):  "He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.  He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.  Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit."

Thought:  To me, God clearly longs to see us "bearing fruit" in our lives.

Question:  Am I accountable to God?

God prepared Israel, His chosen people, to receive Him and serve Him by "clearing" their way and "planting" His commandments among them.  He "built" His protection into the plan and remained watchful over them.  He does the same with us today, giving all peoples open opportunities to come to know Him.  He draws people, influences people, watches out for them and causes His Word to be available to them.  He works in hearts and lives in various ways, many of which are "painful" to us, even as "digging" and "clearing" may be harsh techniques to the earth, but always these diggings and losses are for our good.

The very best quality of planting is used by God--no shoddy vines ever come from Him.  We all have every opportunity to excel with what God gives us.  God goes further.  He erects protection over us to withstand the ever-present enemy, and He "constructs", or causes to develop in us, ways to extract the "fruit" we produce so that others' lives can be benefitted.  All of this is done as we develop and grow--long before we reach maturity.  

Finally God looks into our lives to see if any good fruit, as He reasonably expects to see, has popped out yet.  But in this case there was blighted fruit.  Oh, fruit was there; but it was not fit for consumption or use at all.  How disappointing for God!  He has put all good hard work and all good things into this project, yet it yields Him pain and tragedy.

Prayer:  Lord, because You are my Lord, make me more responsible to You!  Help me to realize I will give an accounting of myself and my "fruitfulness", or lack thereof, to You.  Amen.

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