You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
2 And he
fenced [`azaq] it, and gathered out the stones [caqal] thereof, and planted [nata`]
it with the choicest vine, [soreq] and built [banah] a tower [migdal] in the
midst [tavek] of it, and also made [chatsab] a winepress [yeqeb]
therein: and he looked [qavah] that it should
bring forth [`asah] grapes, [`enab] and it brought forth [`asah]
wild grapes. [ba'ushiym] KJV-Interlinear
2 And He
dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it, And hewed out a wine vat in it; Then
He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. NASB
And God fenced the vineyard. He placed a fence or wall or hedge around the vineyard, which is for the protection of the vineyard from all outside influences and enemies. That fence is the gospel, Bible doctrine, the work of Christ on the cross. This excludes all religions, all philosophies, all opinions that would oppose Gods word.
God gathered out the stones, the philosophies, opinions, etc., of humanity as well as unbelievers.
God planted the vineyard with the choicest of vines. These are believers. These are the family of God. No other peoples are allowed in the vineyard, that are not family. Outsiders, strangers, foreigners are not family, not citizens of Gods garden.
God built a tower, doctrine, truth, for the protection of the vineyard and its contents, believers. The tower is truth, but also the functional aspects of the spiritual life, namely the work of the Holy Spirit within the soul of the believer and the function and operation of their life.
The wine press squeezes out the production of the occupant vines, the believers who apply doctrine to their daily lives, as they grow up within their spiritual lives. The wine press measures and indicates the level of quality of the grapes as to its volume and quality. Spiritual lives of advancing believers produce not only quantity but more important, the higher quality of their spiritual lives.
And then God looked. All was in place. The Gospel separated the unbelievers from the believers. Doctrine separates the immature from the mature, the productive from the unproductive, the truth from the lies.
All that the vines need do, is learn and grow and produce.
But what has happened in this verse. The vineyard produced wild grapes, worthless grapes, believers who did not pursue their spiritual lives, but pursued that which was worthless and nasty and unflavored. They ignored the content of Bible doctrine. The did not study, did not learn, did not grow and mature.
And so it is with life throughout history. God has provided all of the resources for sound and successful production in the individuals life, but when people reject doctrine, when people invent their own version of good or goodness, when people are indifferent toward truth, they become worthless historical filler.
The unfortunate part of all of this is, that people have at their fingertips all of the opportunities for phenomenal success, but indifference or better stated, arrogance prevents them from being successful. They defeat themselves through a negative attitude.
So, are you one of the wild and worthless grapes, or one of the better and higher quality grapes, or do you even know?
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