Sermon Tone Analysis

*[Read v.1-13] **יהוה is looking for fruit [v.1]*

Who has a grape vine?

I know that Robin has several.

We have our one or two and enjoy the fruit; some like Ivan even make wine.

But it is a hobby, an interest; our livelihood doesn’t depend on it.

In recent years, with the growth of the wine industry we have seen quite a few vineyards established in Canterbury.

You go up Waipara way and see row upon row of vines - this is nearer to the place of grapes in Bible times.

Wine was a staple - the water was bad, wine is what you drank.

Grapes were vital to life.

Israel’s livelihood came from wheat, sheep, olives and grapes.

You were concerned with your vintage, with your vineyard; that was your wealth.

Here is יהוה looking for a harvest, looking to His vineyard and fig trees - and He finds nothing!

God intends for us to be fruitful [*John 15:1-16*/ //“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in Me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain/].

There is great blessing on the fruitful but judgement on those that don’t bear fruit.

What is the fruit that God is looking for?

– we saw it last time: character in action: do justly, love loving-kindness and walk humbly with your God – the fruit of the Spirit.

In Scripture Israel is pictured as God’s vineyard or as a fig tree.

Note the emphasis on "I" - this is a personal grieving over the woeful state of the nation - they are evil and godless, the whole fabric of society was coming undone - much as we see today!

It was time for harvest - for the nation to have produced fruit after all the labour יהוה had invested in her - but there was no fruit (cf.

*Jeremiah 2:21*/ “Yet I planted you a choice vine, a completely faithful seed.

How then have you turned yourself before Me into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?/ *Isaiah 5:1-7* /Let me sing now for my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.

My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.

He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine.

And He built a tower in the middle of it and also hewed out a wine vat in it; then He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones.

“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard.

“What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?

Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?

“So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.

“I will lay it waste; it will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up.

I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”

*For the vineyard of */*יהוה **/of armies is the house of Israel/*/ And the men of Judah His delightful plant.

Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress/.).

יהוה looked for the fruit of justice and righteousness.

There was nothing of substance produced to satisfy - no righteousness, no justice - no fruit of the Spirit, only deeds of the flesh.

Jesus also used the two figures of fig and vine to describe his disappointment in the nation compared with what it was intended to be (cf.

*Matthew 21:18,19* /Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry.

Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He ~*said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.”

And at once the fig tree withered./;

*Matthew 21:33-44* /Listen to another parable.

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.

When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce.

The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.

Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.

But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’

They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”

They ~*said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

Jesus ~*said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvellous in our eyes’?

Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.

/”).

God expects us to produce the fruit of the Spirit.

*Thorns instead of fruit [v.2-6]* *v.2* - The nation had become corrupt and worthless - no longer could the good and godly be found for they had been destroyed - they had perished.

The corrupt and violent had exploited them - killed the worthy from the land to obtain their wealth.

The godly do not join in the corrupt system which it is essential to participate in, in order to survive - and so they have been wiped out from the land.

There is no upright man left in the nation.

The country is truly in a sorry state - for it the presence of the righteous that withhold יהוה’s judgement - now there is no one there to spare the nation or to intercede on its behalf.

Those that remain are violent and evil - planning murder in order to advance their own cause - gain other’s wealth or position or to preserve their own skin in a "dog eat dog" society.

It is their own brothers that they pursue and lay traps for!

Violence, the law of the jungle, rules.

*v.3* - Men take advantage of their position to feather their own nests - leaders and judges ask for reward - backeesh, bribes in order to give the desired outcome, or support.

Typical Eastern corrupt politics - all is done by bribery.

God hates it!

The whole system is corrupt - evil and injustice is the norm - they are well practised at it, and in fact know of no other way.

What they want, they get.

People ruled by their selfish, soulish desires - fleshly lusts.

The "great man" is the one who gets his own way - he speaks what /his soul desires /- and plots and schemes with others in order to make it happen.

This is the assertive entrepreneur, the self-made man that our society so esteems today.

Is this not the standard and accepted behaviour of our society - you set a goal, what you want, then you strategize, plan to obtain it - *this is plain selfishness*!

- being ruled by the flesh.

"What I want, I will get" is the creed by which our society lives.

Intricate and complex schemings - all to achieve our own desire.

Do we not admire the one who has a dream, sets his heart on it and makes it come true?

This is the very activity that is utterly deplored here!

*v.4* - The best, the most upright is like a thorn bush - utterly twisted and tangled - useless - no wood of any value.

The only good a thorn bush is for, is for burning.

So was the case with Israel.

The only thing for them was judgement fire - even the best of them!

Judgement was coming.

They would post a watchman - but on that very day, punishment would come upon them - utter confusion, despite all their clever planning and scheming.

A day of consternation, as they are called to pay the consequences for all their evil which they have accumulated.

What a tragic, sorry picture is painted of a people who were intended to be a light to the Gentiles /“the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” /Their corrupt and evil behaviour caused the great name of יהוה to be brought into disrepute.

יהוה will act for the honour of His Name! *v.5* - Micah looked at his nation and saw that there was nothing left of righteousness and justice - it was utterly worthless - corrupt, ripe for יהוה’s judgement.

Loyalty and faithfulness, trust, could not be found in this "dog eat dog" society where everyone was only concerned with furthering his own ends.

Just as it is today.

In such a corrupt society you can trust no one.

Lives are ruled by suspicion, looking for ulterior motives.

Even those closest to you, you cannot trust or rely upon.

For any could betray you if the price of the bribe was right.

Any indiscrete word may be used against you if it works to another’s advantage.

A husband must even watch what he says to his wife.

What a terrible situation it is when faithfulness, loyalty and commitment have disappeared!