Do Justly Part 2.

God, What Do You Want From Me? Do Justly Part 2.

(NKJV)

God’s Disappointing Vineyard

1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.

3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? 5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

Good morning- I hope and pray that you wrestled THE WILD CAT this last week. I pray you cracked open the door to The Holy Spirit kicked in it in and moved you this last week.

As I told you last week in my wrastle-in’ with the WILD CAT I threw up my hands and asked, “God what do you want from me?” The answer that came was what I called a foundational verse of scripture… a verse that when you are shaken to the core and the world is a tempest around you, when you have hit rock bottom the bottom that you find is a foundation. That scripture was . “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Ladies and gentlemen when I submitted to the Spirit- there was nothing left but clarity and peace. Life came back into focus.

We looked at “Do Justly” last week. In light of the mass shootings and the ICE raids how do we “Do Justly”? We talked how most of the time when we as God’s people are reacting to situations we want to take a proactive stance when the situation calls for us to be reactive. I said that we have a tendency to get caught up in the issues and miss the people in the issues. When a situation occurs as heinous as it might be we need to step back and examine our motives and ask ourselves. “Am I reacting to what happened or what I think justice for the issue should be”? Today we will finish the conversation from last week.

I want to point out that the Holy Spirit is always on time. In 1994 the new revised common lectionary was put into use by protestant churches. So I want to point out that this text was one of four that was picked out for today… 25 years ago. So keep that in mind when your feathers get rankled. How do I know they will cause my did… Once again I am preaching to the Choir and I am up for a Solo…

On June 6, 2015 a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Malaysia’s Mount Kinabalu, killing 18 people, is not being blamed on seismic shift, plate tectonics, nor volcanic activity. No, interestingly enough, it is being blamed on … four nude young people! Four foreigners were detained and charged with public obscenity for taking their clothes off atop the sacred peak.

It started with a challenge to see who could best withstand the wind and cold temperatures at the top of the mountain. Against the vehement complaint of their tour guide, two young men and two young women removed some or all of their clothing. This, according to locals, was a personal offense against the tribal spirits believed to dwell on the mountain.

The pictures, taken a week prior to the earthquake went viral on the internet, causing widespread anger throughout the region. Government officials even weighed in on the incident. "This is very offensive behavior and showed disrespect to the sacred mountain? This will certainly bring misfortune," said Sabah's deputy chief minister, speaking for himself as well as other local officials.

The four plead guilty, showed genuine remorse, and begged the COURT’s lenience. In a country rife with tribal superstition, as well as fundamentalist Islamic values, they were very lucky to get off with time served, a $1330 fine, and deportation.

In the courtroom of God’s divine justice, our sins have placed us all on God's Most Wanted list. Eventually, we will all have to face His judgment. Many will run, "on the lamb" so to speak, until the final judgment, then they go kicking and screaming all the way. But God longs for us all to be confronted with our own sinfulness and exercise the "good judgment" to simply admit our guilt and turn ourselves into his merciful hands. There we will find forgiveness and freedom in exchange for our humility and repentance. "As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one'" ().

It is human nature to see ourselves as basically good, with only a limited little bitty sins, or in the least not a bad as “Those people”. We are surprised when someone points out our sins and we instinctively act out. God, however, is not surprised. “He peers into the heart of fallen man and sees us for who we are—sinners at our core” ().

Yet God is not conflicted about how to deal with our sin. If we are going to assign labels to it, He is both liberal and conservative, compassionate and exacting, committed to both impunity and penalty. How can He do that? Well here is the answer; He is God. The more vital question is, not how can… but how did He do that? The answer- In Jesus Christ. In Christ God has married His demand for justice with his heart for mercy. And because we are “IN CHRIST” we too can develop better skills in the way we react.

Because of the the cross it can be said that, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (). and “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you” ().

We see this in our text this morning- frankly we see this through out the Bible- God’s love story for His people. Isaiah gives us a parable… Turn with me to starting in verse 1.

Setting- A courtroom. Plaintiff- The vineyard owner (God) Defendant- The vineyard and grapes themselves (Judah- God’s people)

Parable of the Vineyard

Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.

Isaiah begins as though he were a troubadour singing to a crowd, but without identifying the hearers. The parable itself is sung in the first two verses, in words that are designed to attract the attention of those he will condemn, whether they are friendly to him or not.

The point of the parable is that God has carefully tended to the needs of the nation, and has done all He could to see that they would live just and righteous lives, but they have not done so. He watched eagerly for good fruit, but they brought forth only evil fruit. God, therefore, will turn them over to their enemies.

It is wise to treat this as a true parable [ a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, like the ones told by Jesus in the Gospels], rather than as an allegory [a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one], so that we do not seek to find a specific application for each detail because Isaiah tells us the meaning in verse 7. “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help”.

The parable should be compared with the one told by Jesus and recorded in ; it’s also found in ; and . Turn with me to .

Jesus said, “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” 41 They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”

So what is God trying to tell us here? Well lets go back to Isaiah…

Verse 3- Isaiah engages the hearers and invited them to judge for themselves the situation. and I likewise invite you to judge for yourselves.

“3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard”. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

Then Isaiah tells how God’s justice will be fulfilled 5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”

If they are listening to Isaiah they find themselves judged and found lacking. Then to make his point he spells it out for them in verse 7. Isaiah says, “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help”.

Lacking how? God is looking at His people and seeing the injustice shown by His people. It comes down to Injustice- power and greed of God’s people. Look at verse 8- “Woe to those who join house to house; they add field to field, Till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!”

The insatiable greed is reflected in the “joining house to house; adding field to field”. At this time is History there a war is going on. The Syro-Ephraimite War [not going to get into it but if you are interested you can read about the war in 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings].The point is that Judah/ Israel lost a lot of people. 2 Chronicles says in one day Judah lost 120,000 troops, also many significant officials were killed, including the king's son. Many others were taken away as slaves. So while people were absent from their homes and land, others were forming what is called latifundium's, which are very extensive parcels of privately owned land.

This is not the first time that God’s people have been called on the carpet for this. says “They covet fields and take them by violence, Also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, A man and his inheritance.” You’ll find a similar story in .

By doing this there is no place for the displaced common people and in this judicial system they have no legal recourse because bribes. We that in find in verse 23 “Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away justice from the righteous man!”

Bottom line- The point of the parable is that God has carefully tended to the needs of His people, and He has done all He could to see that they would live just and righteous lives, but they have not done so. He watched eagerly for good fruit, but they brought forth only evil fruit by not extending justice.

So God what do you want from me? “Do Justly”

Brothers and sisters in light of God’s divine provision- the great length that God has gone- Don't you think He has every right to expect a response of Love. But most of the time the response He gets is a response of contempt. This contempt Isaiah tells us comes in the form of injustice. The love of God and the Love of neighbor are intertwined so like wise contempt for one issue is a contempt for all.

“He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help”.

God looked for justice, but behold, oppression; God looked for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. God’s reasonable expectation for His Provision is that of seeing justice for the oppressed and seeing righteousness for the marginalized.

For the people in the parable judgement and punishment does come. But there is HOPE yet. Our parable today from Isaiah can also be compared a parable of Jesus found in . “He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?” Here is where our hope comes verse 8 and 9, “But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”

We have Hope in Jesus Christ we have some precious time- we must let Jesus fertilize us and not waste our time. We must be able to see what Jesus sees, like bloodshed where justice is supposed to be. We must hear the terrible things that He hears- like cries of hunger pain, cries of the veterans who suffer from PSD, the orphan longing for a parent. The widow who is lonely. The person wanting a place to belong and to call home. The teen who is thinking about suicide…