In the opening chapter of Isaiah, God describes the state of His people, and it isn’t flattering. They’re seen as a sick man with wounds all over his body who has less sense than a donkey. In chapter five, God describes them as His vineyard:
Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2 ESV)
Wild grapes is a nice way of saying, “worthless”. The tenants, those responsible for the bad fruit, are later revealed, “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting” (Isaiah 5:7 ESV).
When Jesus came to earth, His people were in their worst state yet. Jesus called them, “an evil generation” (Acts 2:40 ESV). Peter said, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation” (Acts 2:40 ESV). God had already determined to bring justice upon those who were killing the prophets and abusing His sheep. Jesus told them there would be new tenants in His vineyard:
“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants[c] to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” (Matthew 21:33-41 ESV)
Those wretches were put to an end in AD 70 and the new tenants moved in. In a section of Isaiah that prophesies about this transitional period, God tells us about His new tenants:
In that day,
“A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
I have no wrath.
Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would march against them,
I would burn them up together.
Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.” (Isaiah 27:2-5 ESV)
God has no wrath with His new tenants. We, the new tenants, put our faith in Jesus who died to take away God’s wrath. In the past, all ethnic Israel was in God’s vineyard. Now, only believers are allowed in. Those who (although not perfect) bear the fruits of the Spirit.