John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 5:2

"and he digged it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." — Isaiah 5:2 (ASV)

And he fenced it. The Prophet asserts God's incessant care and watchfulness in tending His vine, as if he had said that God neglected nothing that could be expected from the best and most careful householder. And yet, we do not choose to attempt, as some commentators have done, an ingenious exposition of every clause, such as that the Church is fenced by the protection of the Holy Spirit, so that it is safe against the attacks of the devil; that the wine-press is doctrine; and that by the stones are meant the hindrances of errors.

The Prophet's purpose, as I have mentioned, was more obvious: namely, that by incessant care and large expenditure, God performed the part of an excellent vinedresser. Yet it was the duty of the Jews to consider how numerous and varied the blessings were that God had conferred on them. At the present day, when the Church is represented under the metaphor of a vineyard, we should view those figures as denoting God’s blessings, by which He makes known not only His love toward us but also His concern for our salvation.

In the verb planted, the order appears to be reversed, for one should begin with planting rather than with the fence. However, my explanation is that after having planted, He did everything else that was necessary. Justly, therefore, He charges them with ingratitude and treachery when the fruits that should have followed such laborious cultivation were not produced.

We have reason to fear that the Lord will bring the same accusation against us, for the greater the benefits we have received from God, the more disgraceful our ingratitude will be if we abuse them. It is not without good reason, or to enable them to make any idle display, that the Lord blesses His people; it is so that they may yield grapes—that is, the best fruit. If He is disappointed in His expectation, the punishment that the Prophet here describes will follow. The mention of His benefits should, therefore, produce a powerful impression on our minds and excite us to gratitude.

Besides, the word vineyard, and a vineyard so carefully cultivated, suggests an implied contrast. We should value God’s acts of kindness all the more highly when they are not of an ordinary description but are tokens of His peculiar regard. Other blessings are indiscriminately bestowed; for example, He makes the sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good (Matthew 5:45) and supplies them with what is necessary for food and clothing. But how much more highly should we esteem that covenant of grace into which He has entered with us, by which He makes the light of the Gospel shine on us! For His own people are its special objects. That care and diligence, therefore, which the Lord continually manifests in cultivating our minds deserves our most earnest consideration.

Therefore he hoped that it would bring forth grapes. He now complains that the nation, which had enjoyed such high advantages, had basely and shamefully degenerated. He accuses them of undervaluing the kindness of God, for He says that instead of pleasant grapes, they yielded only wild and bitter fruits.

It is undoubtedly true that God—to whose eyes all things are naked and opened (Hebrews 4:13)—is not deceived by His expectation like a mortal man. In the Song of Moses, He plainly declares that He well knew from the beginning what the wickedness of His people would be.

My beloved, He says, when she fares well and becomes fat,
will kick (Deuteronomy 32:15).

It is therefore no more possible that God should be mistaken in His expectations than that He should repent. Isaiah does not here enter into subtle reasonings about the expectations God had formed, but describes how the people should have acted so that they might not lose the benefit of such excellent advantages.

Thus, God commands that the Gospel be proclaimed for the obedience of faith (Romans 16:26), not that He expects all to be obedient, but because, by the mere hearing of it, unbelievers are rendered inexcusable. Moreover, there is nothing that should excite us more powerfully to lead a devout and holy life than to find that those duties we perform toward God are compared by the Holy Spirit to fruits of exquisite flavour.