David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Isaiah 3-5, Psalm 18.

Isaiah 7:1-7

Let me sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.
² 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.

³ And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ What more was there to do for my vineyard,
    that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield wild grapes?

⁵ 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.
⁶ 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.

⁷ For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
    are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
    but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
    but behold, an outcry!

Well that didn’t last long. Yesterday we read about the grace and kindness of God, his rescue of those in distress, and the message of his righteousness going out to all nations. But that was yesterday. Today is today. And today we read of God’s great disappointment in Israel – his vineyard.

God had done everything for his people. He had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. He had brought them into the Promised Land. He had led them by Moses, Joshua, Judges, and Kings. But the nation had abandoned God’s ways, wandered from true worship, and righteous living. God cares about those things.

God cares about true worship because of his love for us – not because of his love for himself, or a need for his ego to be bolstered. Think of it: his name is “I AM.” He is the one who is and who needs no permission or acknowledgement of his being. Our worship of him is a matter of acknowledging the truth of this. But it is more, for the Bible also says, “God is love.” Jesus speaks of worship with the woman at the well in John 4. “God is Spirit,” he says, “And those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth.” Worship is not some contrived exercise of religious fanaticism. It is the expression of praise to God for all he is and has done for us.

And because God loves us all, he cares about how we treat one another. Righteous living flows from faith — from the righteousness that comes from him. We express our love for one another by obeying God’s commandments and by living together in peace and grace. God does not need our good works; they could never avail before him. But our neighbor does. Having received God’s mercy, we are freed to show mercy. Having been loved, we are free to love. Righteous living is a matter of serving our neighbors with kindness, respect, and care.

But there is yet more to Israel’s fruit-bearing as God’s vineyard. The fruit God desires is that the whole world would know his majesty, glory, and grace. It is not enough that we are kind to one another within the fellowship of the redeemed. God’s love for us is to be reflected toward those outside the vineyard as well. Israel had lost sight of that calling. So God would remove the hedge, break down the wall, and scatter his people among the nations. Yet even in judgment, God’s purpose was not only to punish, but to proclaim. Scattered far and wide, his people would carry the knowledge of the true God to the nations.

We who are reading this today are among the fruit of that vineyard. The message has gone out into all the world. God’s Son has come and redeemed us so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And now the Lord seeks fruit from us as well—not fruit that earns his favor, but fruit that grows from his grace: faith in Christ, love for our neighbor, and witness to the world. The vineyard still belongs to him, and his desire remains the same—that all people would know his saving love.