{"id":5719,"date":"2014-08-23T00:05:35","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T07:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5719"},"modified":"2014-08-22T11:54:39","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T18:54:39","slug":"love-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/08\/23\/love-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll sing a ballad to the one I love,
\na love ballad about his vineyard:
\nThe one I love had a vineyard,
\na fine, well-placed vineyard.
\nHe hoed the soil and pulled the weeds,
\nand planted the very best vines.
\nHe built a lookout, built a winepress,
\na vineyard to be proud of.
\nHe looked for a vintage yield of grapes,
\nbut for all his pains he got junk grapes.
\n\u201cNow listen to what I\u2019m telling you,
\nyou who live in Jerusalem and Judah.
\nWhat do you think is going on
\nbetween me and my vineyard?
\nCan you think of anything I could have done
\nto my vineyard that I didn\u2019t do?
\nWhen I expected good grapes,
\nwhy did I get bitter grapes?\u201d (Isaiah 5:1-5)<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unrequited love is unfulfilling. It is more painful than simply being lonely. But unrequited love is the love that God has more familiarity with than any other kind. God pictured Israel as a carefully tended and protected vineyard. But despite all the efforts of the farmer, the vineyard was completely unproductive, giving grapes that were good for nothing. <\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t the farmer\u2019s fault that the vineyard was so bad. There was nothing more that the famer could have done. He did everything right; everything perfectly. There was nothing he could have done better.<\/p>\n

The point of the parable was simple: Israel was without excuse. God was not demanding from them that they love him in the face of unrelenting misery. He did not ask them to return good for the evil being heaped upon them. He made it easy: he gave them everything, made them prosper, gave them anything they needed or asked for. And what did God get back? <\/p>\n

Most people respond to good gifts with at least a thank you. They feel obligated to the person who has treated them well. But not God\u2019s people. The nicer he was to them, the worse they treated him. Like a bad vineyard, they gave him stuff that wouldn\u2019t even make good vinegar.<\/p>\n

Despite the misery and evil they gave God, he always and forever did\u2014and continued to do\u2014what was good for them. God\u2019s love is not dependent upon the actions of those he loves. God\u2019s love comes from who he is.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ll sing a ballad to the one I love, a love ballad about his vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard, a fine, well-placed vineyard. He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds, and planted the very best vines. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5719"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5720,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5719\/revisions\/5720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}