What do vineyards represent in the bible

I was unable to post this answer till Thursday morning and had not seen the other answers. EDIT Regarding the quote from Psalm , this snippet of information landed in my in-box this morning. It's about people who don't believe Jesus is the Messiah:. As he preached, he became convicted that he was just as hypocritical as those Pharisees, because he did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God.

He broke down and wept, and was converted to Christ. After the commotion died down, others testified that they, too, had been converted, such was the convicting power of the Holy Spirit during that half-finished sermon. Excellent question? In fact I was thinking about this parable today and then I spotted your question. One of the main points of the parable is the fact that The Son Jesus Christ preexisted His incarnation.

I looked through some of my papers from 12 years ago and found a detailed explanation by a man named James Montgomery Boice. Under the title of his paper he wrote,. The explanation of all these points is rather lengthy and after some research I found the following site by Mr.

Like I said at the start, one of the main points is the preexistence of the Son. Notice from the Mark account that at verse 6, "He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, "They will respect my son.

It should not surprise anyone that an agrarian society and economy used the idea of "fruit" widely as a metaphor as well as literally.

Here is a sample:. When discussing a parable, the details are less important than the conclusion. In the parable of Mark , the vineyard represents the Jewish nation whose probation was drawing to a close. Jesus made this explicit in His pronouncement of Matt , O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

Look, your house is left to you desolate. Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. The Jews had not been the people that God hoped for John , see Ex , 6 so the promises Gal were transferred to the Christian church as per 1 Peter which quotes Ex Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father. The new children for Abraham become the new tenants of the vineyard as alluded to near the end of the parable in Mark He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

John but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. What does the produce of the vineyard represent in the Parable of the Vine-growers? He kept hoping for justice, but look! He waited for justice, but look what he got—disobedience!

He waited for fairness, but look what he got—cries for help! A few parables might have two major points or possibly even three, but we do not treat them as true allegories, finding hidden significance for every single element. First edition, Vol. One needs to ask if the produce or grapes differ significantly from the vineyard symbolizing Israel. Could the produce be the people of Israel? What's difficult about seeing the produce as something symbolic is the produce apparently is something good and achieved, but not given to God.

In a parable all the symbolic needs to joint together to make a point together. That brings into question that the produce of the vineyard represents something other than a way of showing the tenants did not recognize the prophets and Christ. Examples include:. The produce in this parable could mean one or more of these things. But perhaps the symbolism is not made clear for a reason. Compare with the parable of the laborers in the vineyard Mt , where the focus is also not on the produce of the vineyard.

In my opinion, the ambiguity of the produce allows the focus to fall on the other parts of the story, namely the characters and their relationships to one another. First is the landowner. In contrast, the tenants completely disregarded the landowner and what they owed to him. Blinded by their greed and self-interest, the tenants would come to kill the son as well, after reaching the illogical conclusion that they could thereby take his inheritance Mt Besides the relationship of the landowner and the tenants, there is also an interesting sequence in the words that describe those sent by the landowner: first were the slaves , then came the son , who is then identified as the heir.

The alternative path to inheritance, as is hinted in this parable and more clearly laid out in Galatians, is through adoption and sonship. Sign up to join this community. In other words, the idea of vine would not bring positive images to your mind. You would be reminded of vine twigs that are good for nothing but as firewood. For this reason, the Gospel of John refers to Jesus not simply as the vine but more specifically as the true vine.

The implication is that in contrast to Israel, which became unfaithful and incurred the judgment of God, Jesus remains faithful and thus fulfills Israel's calling to be the vine of God. It is noteworthy that the contrast is between Israel and Jesus, not between Israel and the Church. The Church is not the true vine; Jesus is. Furthermore, Jesus is not the trunk or the root; he is the vine.

He is the true vine who fulfilled the destiny to which Israel was called. The Church can be a part of that destiny only as branches in the vine. The Church cannot fulfill Israel's destiny without Christ. Apart from Christ the Church is nothing but dead twigs. For commentary on Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard see Isaiah Top of page Send mail to?

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