Isaias’ Prophecy of the Wasted Latter-Day Vineyard

David Martin | The Daily Knight

While many of the Old Testament prophecies refer to events to occur before the birth of Christ, several of these prophecies point to the latter days just before Christ’s Second Coming. During those Apocalyptic times, Satan would wage his final battle against the Church during which time the vineyard of the Lord would be reduced to a spiritual wasteland that bore no fruit, save a remnant.

The fifth chapter of Isaias speaks of this fruitless vineyard of the last times that will have abandoned the Faith because of rebellious keepers who would do things their own way without divine guidance. The chapter opens thus:

“I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard.”

Note that “my beloved” and “my cousin” are one and the same personage, namely Christ, the Lord of the vineyard. The prophet calls him his cousin, being of his kindred by his descent from the House of David.

Continuing he says:

“My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place. And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.” (Isaias 1, 2)

The vineyard is Christ’s Church under Peter, which is situated on a hill to set it above the worldly plane, and it is fenced in, with impurities picked out of it, to further separate it from the world. Christ has planted it with the choicest vines to superbly nourish its laborers and has built a tower in the midst thereof, i.e. the institution of the Papacy, that the faithful might look to it for guidance and direction.

And Christ looked that his vineyard should bring forth the good fruit of grapes [sanctified children of God] and instead it brought forth wild grapes [rebels, heretics] because the keepers of the vineyard implemented poor teachings and procedures in defiance of his original plan.

Isaias continues:

“And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard (i.e. judge between me and your new church that you have turned my vineyard into). What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it hath brought forth wild grapes?” (3, 4)

Here Christ rebukes his priests by charging them with their blasphemy and infidelity, as if to say:

What is there more that I ought to have done in establishing my Church? Was it not perfect from the beginning? Has it not stood the test of time? Was there something lacking in it that you needed to supply? Was there some imperfection that you needed to “reform?” Did I ordain that it should bring forth saints so that it could instead bring forth rebels, heretics, and homosexuals? You who cry, “a renewal,” what are you renewing? What is your renewal? Have you found fault with my way?

The prophet continues:

“And now I will shew you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.” (5, 6)

God will remove his protection and allow the enemy to tread his vineyard underfoot (Apoc. 11:2) and will withdraw his grace so that the dew of heaven no longer descends upon the vineyard for its refreshment and health – a blight that has characterized the Church since Vatican Council II. Only isolated pockets of tradition within the Church would continue to receive the blessing of Heaven while modernists rotted on the vine.

“For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of (1) Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry…. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little measure, and thirty bushels of seed shall yield three bushels.” (7, 10)

The men of Juda are the priests, whose negligence and injustice would render Christ’s vineyard virtually fruitless. Isaias decries this dereliction, saying:

Clerical Merrymaking

“Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be inflamed with wine. The harp, and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and wine are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you consider the works of his hands.” (11, 12)

Herein is prophesized the irresponsible merry-making of the priests who cast aside the work of God (i.e. fasting, celibacy, adherence to rules and the reverent offering of the Holy Sacrifice ad orientum) for their scandalous mirth and lives of insobriety.

“Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their multitude were dried up with thirst. Therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their high and glorious ones shall go down into it.” (13, 14)

The faithful are led into the captivity of error by their spiritually famished bishops who obstinately refuse to be nourished with the truth. Satan’s hold on the Church is strengthened thereby as the powers of darkness lead the wide body of the Church down the path of perdition. Under the illusion of divine guidance clergy and laity are seduced into denying holy tradition and adopting a new modernist religion that is guided by Satan.

Continuing:

“Woe to you…that say: Let him make haste, and let his work come quickly, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” (18-20)

The prophet charges those clerical hypocrites who pretend to await Christ’s light and direction when in their hearts they reject him. They feign allegiance to Apostolic truth when in fact they are bent on rejecting it. This prophecy indeed points to today’s modernist bishops who put sodomy for light and purity for darkness, who applaud U.N. population-control experts (abortionists) and criticize tradition-minded pro-life Catholics.

Isaias continues:

“Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits. Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness. That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him.” (21-23)

The prophet calls out those latter-day Pharisees who pompously glut themselves with worldly pleasure and error and who are seduced with bribes to reward the wicked and detract from the just. (Have we not seen the head Pontifical Pharisee himself deriding traditional Catholic nuns and priests while publicly lauding the Church’s enemies – the U.N. globalists?)

Divine Retribution

“Therefore as the tongue of the fire devours the stubble, and the heat of the flame consumeth it: so shall their root be as ashes, and their bud shall go up as dust: for they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people.” (24, 25)

This punitive theme is also echoed in Isaias 24 where it says: “Behold, the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it, and shall afflict the face thereof, and shall scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof.” (Isaias 24: 1)

As to why God will unleash his wrath in the end times is answered in this same chapter:

“Because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant.” (Isaias 24: 5)

Yea, the leaders of the Holy Catholic Church have foolishly changed the everlasting ordinance to offer the One True Sacrifice to God through the Traditional Mass of the Ages and instead have adopted post-conciliar modernism and made a spiritual wasteland of the Church, even incorporating into it heretics, schismatics, communists, and homosexuals. Therefore the purification must come and is coming.

The coming chastisement is prophesied throughout the Bible. For instance, the prophet Joel speaks of “A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds…. Before the face thereof (comet) a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is there anyone that can escape it.” (Joel 2:3)

The Apostle Peter also prophesizes this chastisement that Christ will send to the world just before his Second Coming. “The day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up.” (2 Peter 3:10)

Note that the end-day chastisement prophesied throughout the Old and New Testaments has never occurred but is still pending. God will soon visit the world at which time our small-minded issues of “women’s rights,” “climate-change,” and “coronavirus” will suddenly melt in the face of the real issue – that man has profaned the Church and made an utter waste of it.

Therefore the Apostle Peter exhorts us to be ready for that day.

“Seeing then that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness? Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat? But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, in which justice dwelleth. Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace.” (2 Peter 3:11-14)

1. Throughout the Old Testament prophecies, reference to the Church that Christ would institute is always done under the figure of “Israel,” “Juda,” or “my holy mountain” while its priests are referred to figuratively as “nobles” or “men of Juda.”