Epaenetus; meaning praised, (A Christian acquaintance of Paul. [Strong’s 1866.]Achaia; Roman province in Greece.)

 

3 John 1:1: The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

 

Christ is that ‘fruitful hill’ that the ‘vineyard’, His people, ‘spring’ from. It is interesting to note that this phrase, ‘fruitful hill’, is made up of two words in the Hebrew; ‘ben’ in the Hebrew (Strong's 1121), meaning ‘son’, and ‘shemen’, which is ‘oil’, or ‘olive oil’ (Strong's 8081), which is also the oil of God’s people. Put all of this together, and it means the Son of Oil Jesus Christ, The Anointed Messiah. (Does that give us greater meaning to the 'Oil' which the ten virgins of Matthew 25 had in their lamps? It should. If you'll recall there in Matthew 25, five virgins were foolish, and lacking in That Oil. Stay in God's Word for you to get That Oil.)

Isa 5:2   And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

     God is using the analogy of a husbandman who cares for his vineyard. He starts off by describing how He set the ‘vineyard’ up by clearing away the stones, and then planting It, making a ‘winepress’, or vat, and He put a ‘tower’ or watchtower in the middle, which stands for Judah, because they were especially to keep Holy unto God, receiving the promise as the Royal bloodline to rule over the rest of Israel. This well cared for ‘vineyard’ should have produced good ‘fruit’, or ‘choice grapes’, being from the ‘choicest Vine’, in essence, an excellent vintage of wine, that is to say, Christ. Instead, what kind of fruit was produced? Wild grapes, or ‘sour grapes’, fit for nothing. Why? As we’ll find out later in this chapter, many of His ‘vineyard’, or children during Isaiah’s time, and yet to this day, are rebellious against Him and turn away from that ‘Choice Vine’ which is Christ, and through their ignorance of His Word, worship something else.
     Let’s break the ‘key words’ down now. ‘Stones’ refer to many things in God’s Word. They can refer to the ‘stones’ of the priest’s breastplate, which are beautiful jewels. Jesus Christ is the ‘cornerstone’ that the builders (His apostate children) rejected.

Matt.21:42: Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, The same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing and it is marvellous in our eyes.

 Ps. 118:22: The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

In other passages, these ‘stones’ represent the foundations of the wicked, as representative of Satan’s little empire, and children, etc. That is how ‘stones’ apply in this verse of Isaiah 5:2. God clears away these bad ‘stones’ from His people, and He set up a ‘fence’ to keep out these ‘stones’, in a spiritual sense. As long as these ‘stones’ are in the way of the ‘vine’, the vineyard can’t produce good ‘fruit’.

Matthew 13; with the parable of the sower:

God gives those that believe and trust in Him power over Satan and his host to help us keep our ‘vineyard’ cleared of ‘stones’.

 Luke 10:19: Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing by any means shall hurt you .Eph. 6

     The word ‘tower’ means a ‘watchtower’ or ‘castle’ in the Hebrew. This ‘watchtower’ is to keep watch over the ‘vineyard’ or children of God. In the spiritual sense, it means to teach God’s people His Word and not man’s babbling, i.e., the duty is to protect the Word of The True Vine among His people. If this is done, then there would be no room for false worship of idols, ‘stone’ images, oak grove worship, etc., and the ‘vineyard’ would produce ‘choice fruit’ or vintage grapes, instead of ‘sour grapes’.