nr-e * + »*«-*♦<
►
« w-e 9 t e i M t ,4 <
N*r<
,U w V
January 22, 1992..,The Portland Observer,..Page 5
■■ m
m
h
m
m
Portland Observer ■■™" ■ ■ ■ ■ " ■ ■ ■ ■ " ■
Scripture o f the
RELIGION
Psalm 31
Isaiah’s Song Of The Vineyard: Are Those Wild Grapes I See?
BY MICHAEL LINDSEY
Dean of North Portland Bible College
d ow n-violence, greed, injustice and
dishonesty were just facts of daily life,
does any of this sound familiar to you?
The Lord gave Isaiah a message to
communicate to the people of Israel
and Judah, a message they didn’t want
to hear. So the Spirit of God (see 2 Pet
1:20-21) led Isaiah to tell them a story,
a parable in the form of a song, so they
might receive the message with both
their minds and their hearts. Like most
parables, this one used an aspect of life
everyone then was familiar w ith -th e
cultivation of a vineyard. Before we try
to apply this to ourselves, le t’s try to re
live the parable as Isaiah would have
first told it. [By the way, the Lord Jesus
also taught several parables based on
vineyard keeping and fruit b e a rin g -
skim through Matthew 20 and 21 for
several parallels to Isaiah 5.]
The song begins, "M y well-be
loved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful
hill.” W ho is Isaiah’s good Friend? He
doesn’t tell us, yet. Isaiah directs our
attention to the vineyard. The people of
Israel lived in hilly country, and many
vineyards grace the hillsides. But vine
yards were not for everyone. They took
a lot o f work to establish, and years of
waiting before the vines grew large
enough to produce a full crop. The
vineyards symbolized the fruitfulness
The text for the Sunday School
lesson (International Series) for next
Sunday is Isaiah 5:1-7. W e again want
to encourage the faithful Sunday School
teachers in our churches, by making
available to you advance copies o f these
weekly colum ns for your use in prepar
ing lessons. You may request this serv
ice by phoning NPBC at 288-2919;
leave a message if necessary.
A story about raising grapes may
seem to be a long ways removed from
our churches and our nation, but I’m
convinced that this "so n g of the vine
yard” was written to illustrate some
vital principles that are as true today as
they were in Isaiah’s day, some 700
years before C h rist
Isaiah lived in a culture that had a
heritage o f fa ith - faith in the same God
Christians worship today. Their grand
parents, by and large, had been men
and women who testified to the great
mercies o f the Lord, and had raised
their children to obey his W ord, includ
ing the Ten Commandments. The lead
ers, both in government and religion,
had becom e very corrupt, but they still
kept up a fa ade of religious piety to
keep their influence with the people.
But the society as a whole was breaking
o f Isreal itself, and they were passed on
from generation to generation. So som e
one like Isaiah's Friend had to have a
long-term com m itm ent to make that
vineyard succeed.
The land o f Palestine is so filled
with rocks that the farmer has to remove
them from the soil so it will support the
grape vines. The Arabs say that when
G od created the world, he sent an angel
out carrying two bags o f rocks for the
whole world. As the angel passed over
Palestine, one bag broke, so that half of
all the stones in the world are in Pales
tine. Farmers and their fam ilies con
tinually work to remove more stones so
the ground will be more productive.
They use these stones to build fences,
boundary markers, watchtowers, and a
winepress with a vat to save the juice.
Isaiah’s Friend did everything he
could to insure a good vineyard-he
used the best vine starts, provided the
best protection against anim als who
would steal the grapes and ruin the
vines, and constructed a full-scale win
ery (by their standards) right there in the
field. The central point is that the vine
yard had the very best character it could
have, and the fruit (grapes) should have
been the very best, too. Instead, when
the vineyard started producing, its grapes
were “ w ild,” that is, small, inedible,
worthless fruit which the Palestinians
still call “ wolf grapes."
Suddenly, the song changes key,
and the Friend him self speaks (vv. 3-6
in our text). He asks the audience, the
people o f Jerusalem, to give him ad
vice. W hat has he failed to do, to pro
duce a good vineyard? No one ans w e rs-
it's certainly not his fault the way the
grapes have turned out. So the Friend of
Isaiah is fully justified to destroy the
vineyard; if the vines could talk, what
excuse could they give? The Vinekeepcr
tells how he will remove all protection
from the vineyard, and allow its ene
mies to totally devastate it, and then let
it grow wild, like its fruit
As a final blow, Isaiah’s Friend
“ will also command the clouds that
they rain no rain upon it” (v.6). Now
this is no ordinary vineyard owner, for
he can com m and the elements o f na
ture. At this point (v.7) Isaiah explained
his parable, and probably surprised many
of his audience. The nation Israel is the
vineyard and its vines; the Lord of hosts
(Yahweh Sabaoth) is Isaiah’s beloved
Friend. And the fruit of the nation Israel
is wild grapes, ripe for judgment.
W hat were these grapes? Isaiah
explains that the grapes are phony sub
stitutes for godliness. He uses a play on
words (a pun) in his Hebrew language,
Interested in Community Development in Northeast Portland? The
Northeast Genesis Project needs your help!
We need volunteers interested in:
2. Fundraising
3. Community News Letter
5. Board Participation
then in turn the Persians, the Greeks, and
the Romans tread through the land and
ruled it (recall v.5 in our text).
The same principles do apply to our
nation today. The United States is cer
tainly not G od’s "chosen people,” but
it has a heritage o f Biblical values and an
awareness o f the L ord’s blessing both
materially and spiritually. If our nation
continues to subvert its justice system,
devalue human life, encourage violence
in both the media and real life, idolize
the rich who gel richer by exploiting the
poor and devastating the environment,
and deny the value o f honest work, then
G od’s judgm ent will surely fall on this
nation, for we have produced "w ild
grapes” despite his attention and care
for us.
•
And the same principle applies to
the Christian people of America as well,
all the more because we are G od’s cho
sen people of (1 Pet 2:9-10), blessed
with every spiritual blessing from him
(Eph 1:3;). If we don’t take a stand
against social evils like those mentioned
above, we have only ourselves to blame
as the society declines and falls. I per
sonally don’t think w e’ve reached that
point yet; if the Lord can look at our
lives and see fruit of justice and right
eousness, he may yet bring a revival e f
faith that will save our land.
January 30th Thru February 1st, 1992
A Group Of Ministers Here In Portland Are
Getting Together To Put On a Revival. •
Volunteers Needed
1. Community Service
to show how phony their lives were. The
Lord was looking for mishpat, "Ju d g
m ent” [or belter, “ Justice” (NIV)], the
fruit o f a culture that respects human
rights and divine law. But he found
mispach, "bloodshed” (NIV), a total
disregard for humanity. W ild grapes
indeed!
Then the Lord looked into the hearts
of his people. He wanted to see the fruit
o f tsedaqah, * ‘righteousness,” hearts set
on doing right by one’s fellow human
being, no matter what the consequences.
Instead, he found tse'aqah, " a cry of
distress” (NIV), as the poor and pow er
less called on the Lord to save them
from the oppressors. These grapes are
enough to make you sick!
Outwardly, Israel was the chosen
people o f God. Inwardly, they had re
jected that provilege, and the responsi
bility o f being a blessing to other na
tions. They had chosen to worship other
gods, to parctice immoral behavior, and
to exploit the weak and poor among
them. In our text, the Lord em phasizes
the last of these sins. It was impossible
for Israel as a society to continue to live
lives o f greed, pleasure and indifference
to others’ needs, without falling under
the judgm ent of Almighty GOD. And
this judgm ent did come, as the Babylo
nian armies devastated the land, and
Theme: Jesus: “Righteousness For All”
Sing And Preaching Revival Featuring A Dynamic, Aannointed Man Of
God, Elder Jack Carter Of Chicago, Illinois Along With Some Of
Portland’s Finest Ministers And Choirs.
Please call Rose Marie Davis @ 281 -8976 any time.
6:30-9:30 Nightly Starting With Prayer At 6:30.
&
FUNERAL
Church Of The Living God
6401 NE 10th
Portland, Oregon 97211
Host Pastor
Rev T. N. Noffa
D IR E C T O R S
I
’ y
For futher information, please feel free to call Rev. Joseph Reid at ,
(206) 260-1503 or Sister Normal J. Williams at 287-0624.
«
nt
Family Owned and Operated
Since 1954
Serving the City of Portland
for over 37 years
In your hour of need
Vann &Vann are there to serve
M allory
C hurch
3908
Union Avenue Baptist Church
Jesus Loves You!
CME CL urch
He that is too good to realize that he need to be saved, cannot be
helped. But he that recognize he has a need, can be helped.
Bible Study
9:30 am .
Morning Worship
10:45 am .
Men's Training Leadership
What A Friend We Have In Jesus
Women’s Bible Class
5:00 pm.
Are you a friend of Jesus?
Do you want Jesus to be your friend?
We want to be your friend and would love to have you as our
friend.
6:00 pm.
Attended nursery for all
services
W ednesday prayer meeting
Psalm 34:3
4236 NE Eighth Avenue
(corner of 8th i Skidmore)
Portland, Oregon 97211
Evening Worship
■
Minister Gregory Fobbs
288-1092
Rev. A. G. May, Pastor
RESTORING
NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY
ftili&sianatir
t j L I k p t n
i t l s t C t f u r d f
M ollory Avenue
Christion Church
Sunday Service
10:45
Sunday School
9:30
Bible Study
6:00
Evening Service
7 :0 0 P.M.
D
Study Phon«: 2 8 9 -1 9 , 1
i s c i p
l e
s
o f
C
h
r is t
i
God’s Presence promises
Power through Jesus Christ In
Good Times and Bad Times
Them e: W h atever you're going to do
fo r th e Lord, do it now
I Peter lv .1 1
. ' í ' í T . ’ V ” ’ ;. «>♦**,♦ *,*.M •• i * /-
•
and A-3O n m
Radio Ministry each Sunday, 8:00 a.m. on KBMS
A Teaching Church With A Reaching Ministry
Dr. James E. Martin, Senior Pastor
Denise FI. Bell, Pastor
126 N.6. Alberto t Portland, OR 97211 + (503) 288-5173
1
• 4
1 0 -3 0 a m
Sunday School
Morning Worship
Tuesday Bible
Study and Prayer
Inter-racial Congregation
Has moved Sunday services to
Worship Services 8:00 a.m. & 11:00 a.m.
Church School 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Bible Study, Wednesdays, 116 N.E. Schuyler
"Come to me all you who ore
weary and heavy laden and I
will give you rest"
9:45am
11:00am
7:30pm
MT OLIVET
B aptist C hurch
Stone Tower Church,
N.E. Sandy Blvd. & 30th
Motttreiu f 7:28
E v fo r Rev Jam es CE. Faulkner
and bible study
7:30 pm.
Radio Ministry Each Sunday, 11:00 AM ■ KBMS
Phillip S. Nekon Pastor
8101 N. Fiske Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97203
£2
ti
Everyone is welcome to this church (the body of Christ).
There is a place and a work here for you.
(503) 287-0261
Church Phon«: 2 8 9 -0 1 4 7
AVENUE
SUNDAY SCHEDULE
5029 N. E. MLK Jr. Blvd.
Portland, OR 97211
Telephone Number - 287-8344
5211 N. W illia m s P o rtla n d , Or. 97217
S
NE M A L L O R Y
Jesus Christ Is Salvation
503/281-2836
A ll en Temple
C hrist
of
Church Office 116 N.E. Schuyler St.
(503) 284-1954