Do You Yield Sour Grapes? (Isaiah 5:1-7)

Isaiah 5:1-7 begins with a sove song that ends on a note of disappointment — He looked for His vineyard to yield grapes but it yielded wild grapes.  We discover in the interpretation of the parable that the vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel or Judah and that God looked for it to yield justice  but instead saw bloodshed and looked for it to yield righteousness but heard an outcry.  This is a parable that would have led the vineyard keepers hearing it to pronounce judgment upon themselves just as Nathan’s parable had done to King David.  God was good to His vineyard and did everything right.  But the vineyard did not yield edible grapes and so God tears down the hedge and wall so that the cattle (representing Gentiles) can come and trample down the vineyard.  This calls for self-examination.  Are we producing edible grapes or sour grapes?  I use the illustration of politicians accused of sour grapes upon losing close elections (one for each major party).  I am not passing judgment upon these situations but simply using them to explain how the phrase “sour grapes” is often used and how it is an appropriate measure for our self-examination due to this passage.  Jesus is the Branch, are we in Him?

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