Daily. Bible. Reading.

Isaiah composed the vineyard song to reflect the failure of the people of Judah. This week we study it, and how Jesus put a narrative twist into it.

Monday – Isaiah 5:1-4

Asking and answering some basic questions helps us understand Isaiah’s point. Who is the beloved? What is the vineyard? How could wild grapes be the result? How would you answer the two questions from The Beloved in verse 4?

Talk to the Lord about unfruitful things you have engaged in, with a good heart and pure intent, and ask him why it didn’t work out. 

Tuesday – Isaiah 5:1-6

The Lord now tips his hand that he is the Beloved, and Isaiah seems to have gotten out of the way as the composer of the song. It seems there are four things God promises to take away – the hedge, the wall, pruning, and rain. What are the results of each of these punishments? Compare the idea of pruning here to Jesus in John 15:6.

Pray for the Lord to continue his work of protecting, his wall of security, his pruning care, and the rainfall of blessing; then ask the Holy Spirit to show you that wall, that hedge, his pruning, and the rainfall and what it looks like in your life.

Wednesday – Isaiah 5:1-7

The last verse here gives us the summary, or the synopsis, just in case someone didn’t understand the song and its allegorical meaning. In the end, the fruit the Lord was looking for was not grapes – not worship, not praise, not even serious Bible study, but it was justice and righteousness. Is that what you saw coming? If the Lord came to your vineyard, would he find violence, anger, oppression, and coercion? What about our nation?

Ask the Lord to show you places in your life where righteousness and justice are quietly absent. 

Thursday – Mark 12:1

We will read the rest of the parable tomorrow, but today, as we come fresh from The Song of the Vineyard, do you see how this parable’s opening instantly tells us it is about Isaiah 5? What are the clues? There is a way in which it is different from the outset as Jesus throws in a homiletical surprise. What is the twist? 

Pray to the Lord about the vineyard you are in – the work, ministry, and people – and ask him to help you be a good tenant, or laborer, in this beautiful planting. 

Friday – Mark 12:1-12

In Isaiah, the problem was the vineyard’s failure to produce good fruit. Now the problem is different. The fruit is fine, but the problem is what? How do you understand ‘the son’ in this story? Who are the others, do you think, who might be given the vineyard? Read the original citation of the quote in 12:10-11, then consider 1 Peter 2:7, Ephesians 2:20, and Acts 4:11. Why might this passage have been so popular among early preachers?

The wicked tenants did great violence to the people sent – prophets, preachers, and Jesus himself. Pray to the Lord about people you have not treated well, and consider whether or not they were sent from God for a purpose into the vineyard he put you in. Then, open the church prayer list email and pray through it.