PRINCIPLES AND VALUES
“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?» (Isaiah 5:4)
Whoever wants to grow a vineyard must admit that it requires a great deal of work and care to be able to have the best harvest. Each season of the year is associated with specific tasks. Several times a year, for example, it is necessary to plow or turn the soil to aerate it; in winter, the labor of removing the vine shoots from the previous year and keeping a certain amount of buds per vine makes the task of pruning very difficult; in summertime, the plants should be protected against various plagues and weeds; and in autumn, the harvest period will drain the energy of even the most experienced vinedresser. In the southern hemisphere, Chile has more than fifty-three thousand hectares of vineyard with a total production of eight hundred thousand tons of fruit each season.
The Word of God compares the care of the vineyard to the care God shows to His people. «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» (Isa. 5: 1, 2). Then, He asks Himself, as the verse today states, «What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? What then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?» Isa. 5:4).
Can you imagine the great disappointment of finding rotten fruits after having done everything needed to produce an excellent harvest? The vineyard is God’s people. Have you ever wondered what kind of fruit God expects from it? Will there be the fruit of the Spirit such as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Gal. 5:22, 23). Of course! However, there are also other fruits that sometimes are overlooked and they are precisely the ones that are mentioned in the vineyard parable.
They are fair judgment and justice. God expects just and fair judgment, but He finds servility, murder, and evil instead; He expects justice and finds cries of anguish and pain Isa. 5:7). Justice and righteousness are principles that sustain the throne of God, along with love and mercy.
He expects these fruits in your life and in mine. Will He find them there?
#DailyDevotionsforAdults
#RadioJovenAdventista
#MeditacionesDiarias
Taken from: Daily Devotions for Adults 2020
“A Cheerful Heart Is Good Medicine”
From: Julian Melgoza-Laura Fidanza
Colaboradores:Ricardo Vela & Emmanuel Tapia
