VI: The Prophets' Visions

Vine of the Earth and the Winepress

a corrupt vine pressed in judgment

Root
Isa 5:1-7 · gath (H1660)
Old Testament chain
  1. Deut 32:32-33
  2. Ps 80:8-16
  3. Isa 5:1-7
  4. Jer 2:21
  5. Ezek 15
  6. Lam 1:15
  7. Isa 63:3
  8. Joel 3:13
  9. Rev 14:19-20
New Testament
Rev 14:14-20; Rev 14:18-19; Rev 14:19-20; Rev 19:15; Matt 21:43

Israel is the vine brought out of Egypt (Ps 80:8), planted "a noble vine, wholly a right seed" yet turned "into the degenerate plant of a strange vine" (Jer 2:21). The vineyard song closes with the verdict: "he looked for judgment, but behold oppression" (Isa 5:7). Isaiah then sees the One who has "trodden the winepress alone" (Isa 63:3). In Revelation the grapes stand for pressing and judgment, the fruit of a system that looked devoted to Yahuah but bore corrupt fruit. The winepress is the Court's sentence made visible: what should have produced covenant joy produces blood, trodden by the One Yahuah authorized to complete it.

From The Courtroom of Heaven, pp. 188, 221, 232–234, 325