His Grapes Become Good Wine

"italian varietals" Courtesy of redeyrose79
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Meditation from previous Lord's Supper...


Isaiah 27 NASB

 ¹ In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea. ² In that day,
“A vineyard of wine, sing of it!
³ “I, the LORD, am its keeper;
I water it every moment.
So that no one will damage it,
I guard it night and day.
⁴ “I have no wrath.
Should someone give Me briars and thorns in battle,
Then I would step on them, I would burn them completely.
⁵ “Or let him rely on My protection,
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him make peace with Me.”
⁶ In the days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the whole world with fruit.
 ⁷ Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?
⁸ You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away.
With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind. 

The first thing that I noticed in this passage was the Edenic allusions that were drawn. These instances are as follows:

1. Future (ultimate) punishment for the serpent
2. A cultivated garden, in this case a vineyard
3. The phrase "Night & Day" mirror the "Evening and Morning" of Genesis
4. No wrath, God did not have wrath toward man before mankind sinned.
5. Briars and thorns are the result of enmity with God (Farming picture)
6. The story ends with banishment, to be driven away from God's garden

A Few Other Thoughts

I considered studying horticulture for a short while in High School. I was intrigued by landscapes and the money that could be made by working in that field. But that did not work out too well as I found the boring parts to be way too boring. One thing that I know for a fact, however, is that there is no vineyard in the world that grows wine trees. Bottles of wine are not picked off of a vine and served at the table. Wine is the result of a process. God sees man in the same way. When He looks at the vineyard of His people, those branches which are rooted in the True Vine, He sees an amazing bottle of wine. We may not be developed yet. We may not have flowers or fruit yet. But God sees the end product in His Son, and He is excited about it.

While this poetic prophecy seems very gloomy with briars, thorns and banishment, we can see some encouraging words as well. Namely, we can see the plan that God has implemented for reversing the curse. This plan is in verse seven. "The striking of Him who has struck them" - we are stricken with the curse, and the only way out was for Christ to take our beating. "The slaughter of His slain" - the moment we ate of the fruit, we surely died. The only reversal is for that mortal punishment to be carried out in the person of Christ. 

And so, God makes sure that His grapes become good wine.