Prune that Vine: "Isaiah’s call for the church today"
Isaiah 4:4 “The Lord will wash the filth from beautiful Zion and cleanse Jerusalem of its bloodstains with the hot breath of fiery judgment.”
In Isaiah 4-5, the prophet is speaking of God’s judgment upon Israel. Isaiah uses a number of different images. The image of a vineyard is used to speak of how God will stop caring for the vine and allow it to wither, over grow, be trampled upon, go without water, etc. The Lord has had enough of Israel’s disobedience; they have forgotten they are the same people the Lord led from Egypt and made covenant with to be their God. Israel has rejected this covenant and become dirty. God announces the time for a cleansing bath that will take place through God’s judgement….exile.
As I read this text this morning I can’t help but think of the Church today and our continued rebellion and forgetfulness of the covenant God made with us through Jesus Christ. We’ve widdled down the covenant to a one sentence statement that we must make sometime in our life while we at the same time continue to pollute our lives and the Church with more and more of the world. There is all this concern and talk about why the Church isn’t growing and how we can turn that around through different areas. I can’t help but wonder if God is fed up with the Church in my culture today and that until the Church repents before God there will be no renewal. I can’t help but wonder if the reason the Church isn’t growing today, being the force it should be is because God has sent us into exile. Why would God want others to learn the faith that the modern Church of America is practicing? Why would God want this vine to continue to produce more disobedient fruit? Perhaps, we should take heed of Isaiah, fall on our faces, and ask God’s grace to bring us back to life and be the people God has called us to be in Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus, I come to you this morning begging for forgiveness of behalf of your church that has forgotten it belongs to you. I pray that you would continue to poor out your grace upon your Church that she might respond to that grace, repent of her sin, and fall back in love with you. I pray that you would give Crossroads the strength and mercy not to fall prey to the disobedient ways of the church around us but help us to be a voice in the wilderness crying out for a day of repentance that we might all experience the resurrecting power of your grace. Keep me focused upon you and protect me from evil’s attempt to get caught up in the disobedient vineyard. Thank you for Isaiah and the call to come back home. Amen.
We are a Vineyard in need of desperate pruning.
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