Tuesday, May 4: God waters the vineyard all the time!

When we are walking in sin, it is overwhelmingly sad and scary to know that God is watching us all the time. Yet on the other side, it sure is comforting that God watches us all the time when we are hurting, in need, or walking strongly with Him. He waters His vineyard all the time!


2 In that day sing to her,
“A vineyard of red wine!
3 I, the LORD, keep it,
I water it every moment;
Lest any hurt it,
I keep it night and day.
4 Fury is not in Me.
Who would set briers and thorns
Against Me in battle?
I would go through them,
I would burn them together.
 Isaiah 27:2-4


I like the picture that He washes us in His Word and that we once were scarlet, but now are white as snow! When a bachelor like me does a load of laundry, there are many stains that never come out. There is just too much dirt in the cloth for that launderer’s soap to completely win the battle! It doesn’t matter how badly stained we are when we come to Jesus. He is able to remove the stains made from our past, along with those of our present and our future! Sometimes, we continue to walk in that stained and soiled feeling of our broken past. But the Lord tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. If it doesn’t seem easy, if we are heavily burdened, it is because we are not allowing Him to shoulder the burden for us!


While I am applying the verses in Isaiah 27 in a very personal way, let us not lose sight of the bigger picture here. This verse is specifically speaking of Israel, the nation of His chosen people. Why is Israel such a special place? I cannot answer that, but the Lord surely can. He loves that land so much that He cannot take His eyes off of it. He prepared it for the Jews before they ever entered, and made it a land flowing with milk and honey. Though the Jews through disobedience had been removed from the land, at no time did the Lord remove the land deed He had given them. Even in the 1,878 years when the Jews were spread to the four corners of the earth, the land was theirs. Though the Arabs surrounding the Jews on all sides desire that land, it is a gift given to the Jews by God. We know that when God called the Jews to remove the existing people from the land initially, the failure of the Jews to do so continues to have an impact to this very day with the descendants of those people still causing trouble to the Jews. But if you ever get confused which group to side with, rather than consulting the world newspapers, consult God!


I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them,” Says the LORD your God. 
Amos 9:15


If anyone hurts the land of Israel, they will have to answer to God, for He keeps it night and day. Sounds like that land is pretty secure to me!