12/8/12. Isaiah 27:2-13. SING ABOUT A FRUITFUL VINEYARD- my devotional

Key Verse: 27:6                                                                                       Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF

“In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.”

     Dear Lord heavenly Father, thank you for this Christmas where we can think about the Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, please help us to understand all that was accomplished through Jesus’ coming into this world. Lord, fill our hearts with the joy of salvation. Fill our hearts with love for God and love for one another. May our hearts be moved by your grace. Please help me to accept one word of God in my hearts to day. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1: Fill All The World With Fruit (2-6).

Verses 2-6, “In that day—“Sing about a fruitful vineyard: ³ I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. ⁴ I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire. ⁵ Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.” ⁶ In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.”

Isaiah spoke a parable about God’s vineyard in chapter 5. That vineyard yielded only bad fruit. Now God speaks of a new vineyard-a fruitful one. This vineyard is watered and watched over by the Lord. This vineyard is free from briers and thorns. It is a place of refuge and peace.

I can see here that this is a refuge kept by God. It can never be a refuge kept by people. Any refuge that people try to protect and maintain will eventually be overcome by briars and thorns. This is a refuge maintained by God. To me it is thekingdomofGod. It is Jesus himself. This vineyard looks forward to Jesus. He accomplished God’s will. He bore the sins of humanity upon himself and reconciled this world to God. Through the gospel, he bore the fruit of salvation in Jacob and all the world.

Jesus and thekingdomofGodis a refuge for me. In Christ I find rest. I find peace. I find a place of refuge from this world. I have peace and comfort and security. My kids can find peace and a secure place to study and rest and sort out their thoughts. We have a stable and faithful church family. We have a steady source of Biblical teachings and shepherds who pray for us and love us. Our kids have opportunities for education. The only thing holding them back is themselves. There are so many opportunities. God grace is a refuge to me from the guilt of sin, for he forgives my sins and when the devil wants to remind me of things in the past, God forgives me once again. I can find the joy of fulfilling my purpose in life that God has bestowed upon me. I have hope in eternal life in theKingdomofGod. This hope helps me to rise above the storms of life and ride those waves. With Christ I can bear the fruit of life. Without Jesus I would simply be working and working to pay off bills and hoping not to get debilitated or sick so that I wouldn’t be able to work. I wouldn’t know the fruitful way to think and apply myself. I would be seeking the path that brings life and fruit and joy and not find it. But in my refuge Jesus I know the way and God helps me to follow the way. He keeps me on the straight and narrow. I don’t know what I could do without my refuge Jesus Christ.

The blessings of dwelling in the refuge, Jesus Christ are being extended to the whole world. Verses 6 reads, “⁶ In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.” The gospel is going out and doing its life changing work world wide. Lives are being changed. The course of nation’s histories are being charted. The security of many nations are being maintained because of the influence of the Gospel. The hope peace in theMiddle East is found in Jesus Christ. The hope of peace in the midst of crime infested areas is found in Jesus. Indeed the gospel is budding and blossoming and spreading. One day, God will fill all the world with it’s fruit. When Jesus comes again the New Jerusalem will come to earth. There will be a new heavens and a new earth the home of righteousness. This is our blessed hope.
Part 2: They Will Come And Worship the Lord (7-13).

God’s own people abused their blessings of having God as their refuge. Look at verses 7-11, “⁷ Has the Lord struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her? ⁸ By warfareand exile you contend with her— with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows. ⁹ By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like limestone crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing. ¹⁰ The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare. ¹¹ When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.”

God struck his people, for they did not show any understanding of the mind of their Maker. They should have responded to the blessings of God’s vineyard with thanksgiving and praise and devotion. But they drifted away to the world and to false religion. God punished them by bringing war and exile to them. He removed their worthless idols. He did this so they could repent and turn to him. This too was the grace of God.

God would not strike his people down completely. Look at verses 12-13 which read, “¹² In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. ¹³ And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.”  The Lord promised to gather them fromEgypt andAssyria, the places where they were sent into exile. He promised to restore them to the worship of God on his holy mountain.

When God allows suffering and hardship to occur in our lives, the hardship is always redemptive. As I was growing up I was blessed by God so much. I had money, “toys” to play with, total freedom in the great Canadian outdoors, opportunities for education and employment. And what did I do with the vineyard that God provided? I spent my life on hedonistic pleasure seeking. God allow me to go my own way. The results were loneliness, emptiness, meaninglessness, boredom and lots of habits that were ruining my heath and my mind. I was on the road to eternal condemnation.

But all of this was redemptive in my life. Through all my suffering I was brought near to God. I could surrender my life to Jesus when I was 22 years old. With God’s help I could come out of my folly and into the refuge of Christ, the Kingdomof God. I thank God for his redemptive love. May the people of Americarespond to their personal suffering by coming to Jesus and taking refuge in him and begin to bear fruit while living in the refuge called Christ.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for Jesus and his gospel. Help me to worship you and bear the fruit of faith.

One Word: God is filling the world with his fruit