Good grapes

10/18/20
Today’s devotion for today is based on Isaiah 5:1-4, “I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?”

God compared his Old Testament people of Israel to a vineyard. He did everything possible to make them produce excellent spiritual grapes. Here’s what he found: “When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?” God looked for justice but saw bloodshed. He looked for righteousness but heard cries of distress.

God saw that nation the way he sees humanity today; people in whom he has invested his greatest care, but they keep producing sinful deeds contrary to his holy will. How much Israel and we today need the Master Gardener, Jesus Christ! He alone produced the good deeds acceptable to God.
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Please pray with me the prayer for today:  Heavenly Father, creator, and sustainer of all things, seen and unseen, make a good harvest of good deeds from the good vineyard you have planted. Through the love of Jesus my Savior, produce in me the excellence that gives glory to you. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.