BE THE JUDGE: Devotion for Thursday May 12, 2016
Text: Isaiah 5: 1 – 7 Memory verse: v 3
Our bible passage for today is an imagery used by God to teach the nation of Israel and by extension we the present readers about our unfaithfulness despite the enormous grace and mercies we have received from Him. God used the imagery of a vineyard at a very good place, fertile enough to produce good fruits (5:1, 2). All that was needed to make the vineyard productive were provided (5:2). Unfortunately and regrettably too, the vineyard produce the opposite of what God expected. Instead of good grapes, it produced wild grapes that are not useful.
The lesson of the song of the vineyard shows that God’s chosen nation was to bear fruit—to carry out His work, to uphold justice. It did bear fruit, but the fruit was bad. This passage uses plays on words: the Hebrew words for justice and bloodshed sound very much alike, as do those for righteousness and oppression. The hurt friend (God) now directs rhetorical questions to the people of Judah, asking them to judge whether He is guilty of neglecting them. God often condemns sinners “out of their own mouth” (Deut 32:6; 2 Sam. 12:1-6; Job 15:6; Lk. 19:22; Rom. 3:4). Jesus gave us insight on how to identify someone by his or her fruit in Matt 7:20. Have you examined your own ‘fruit’ lately? Is it good or bad, useful or wild?
Food for Thought: Are the fruits mentioned in Galatians 5:22 and 23 the kind you bear as a Christian?
Prayer: Almighty God, as you have invested so much on me, help me to make returns equal to what you have invested in me in Jesus name.
