Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 “Son
of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any other wood, the vine branch
which is among the trees of the forest?
3 Is wood
taken from it to make any object? Or can men make a peg from it to hang any
vessel on?
4 Instead,
it is thrown into the fire for fuel; the fire devours both ends of it, and its
middle is burned. Is it useful for any work?
5 Indeed,
when it was whole, no object could be made from it. How much less will it be
useful for any work when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned?
6 “Therefore
thus says the Lord God: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the
forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the
inhabitants of Jerusalem; 7 and I will set My face against them.
They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I set My face against them.
8 Thus I
will make the land desolate, because they have persisted in unfaithfulness,’
says the Lord God.”
In all sorts of ways
from about 592 – 586 BC, the Lord warned through Ezekiel: Repent! Judgement is
coming, is coming!
Jeremiah and Daniel
were warning as well.
Over a century before
Isaiah was sounding the same alarm.
God does
nothing without first revealing His plans to His prophets. Amos 3:7.
For six years Ezekiel
warned.
For six years they
rejected.
They thought they
were chosen, above correction.
So, once again, the
Lord stopped by, to talk to Ezekiel.
This time there are
no visions to see, or drama to act, or commands to complete.
Just a simple conversation
between Ezekiel and his Lord.
You know what it’s
like. That simple yet profound, priceless, powerful, personal, private time, each
of us intentionally, purposefully, sets aside, every day, to invest with the
Lord.
Like Jesus told us in
Matthew 6:6: when we pray (not if), get alone, in secret, and pray to God who
sees in secret, and He will reward you openly.
Even if we don’t know
what to say, we just do like Dottie Rambo:
Maybe tomorrow there'll
be trouble and sorrow
Okay, so, here we
are, listening in on a 2,600 year old conversation that’s just as timely and
relevant as the day it was spoken.
In a nutshell, the
Lord just compared Jerusalem to a fruitless grapevine destined for fire.
Israel in Scripture
is referred to as a grapevine.
Psalm 80:8. You
have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out
the nations, and planted it. (God brought Israel out of Egypt and planted them in the
Promise Land).
Jeremiah 2:21 Yet
I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How
then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?
Have you ever met anyone with great potential, going
to waste?
Countless people packed full of potential, sit in
prisons, back alleys, on barstools, recliners, couches, even Church pews, killing
time, wasting away, breathing in, breathing out, waiting to die.
Potential unused becomes impotent.
Worse, it becomes sin.
To him who knows to do good and does not
do it, to him it is sin. James 4:17.
Be doers of the Word not hearers only.
James 1:22.
Faith without works is dead. James 2:14-26.
We were created by God, in the image of God, with a
mandate from God.
Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth,
have dominion and subdue it. Genesis 1:28.
God created us with Divine Eternal Purpose and
Potential and Calling.
He demands faithfulness that leads
to fruitfulness.
Israel the nation, born of God, packed plumb full of potential to be the nation to bless all nations.
Israel’s potential came not from their own power or prowess,
but from God’s promise.
God saw before time began, a man who would willingly, faithfully,
obediently, offer his son, believing the Lord would raise him back to life.
God called that man, Abraham, and made an everlasting,
unbreakable covenant promise with him, because of his faith, his Seed would
bless all nations of the earth.
And so, along came Isaac, then Jacob, whose name God
changed to Israel.
And Israel, became the nation chosen by God to give
birth to the Savior of the world.
In Israel is JerUSAlem, the city destined by God for
greatness.
The shining city on a hill.
Where the glory of God dwelt in the temple.
Where king David, a man after God’s own heart, penned beautiful
Psalms we read to this day.
Where Solomon ruled with wisdom from above.
The place where the King of kings will return to rule
and reign for 1,000 years.
They were blessed by God from sea to shining sea...
As long as they remained faithful to their Founding
Father, the Almighty Creator.
But like many, their blessing, became their idol.
They worshipped their leisure, their pleasure, their
gold and silver.
They bowed to what they’d been given rather than the Giver.
To
whom you yield yourself servant to obey, his servant you are. Rom. 6:16.
Thus, they became barren, fruitless, a worthless vine
destined for destruction and fire.
The
value of the vine is in its fruitfulness.
Jesus cursed the fig tree that looked fruitful
but had none, immediately the tree withered. Matthew 21:19.
As the Lord was speaking about the vine being cast
into the fire Ezekiel might’ve remembered these words from Isaiah:
Isaiah 5:4-7. What more could have been
done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to
bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? 5 And
now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down
its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will lay
it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers
and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. For
the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and
the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
There it is.
That sums it up.
That’s the verdict.
I’ve done all I could, but you refuse to
bear good fruit, so I will cast you into the fire.
Now if we stopped the story right here with Israel as
the vine, and failing miserably, all we’d have is a great big hopeless ash
heap.
But God made a promise.
God is a promise keeper.
So, He did what He’s always done throughout HIStory.
He found a Way to weave His scarlet thread of redemption through the wicked
ways of man and...
Jesus
became the Vine.
Even though chapters and verses were not necessarily Divinely inspired, perhaps Ezekiel 15:1-8 and John 15:1-8, had a bit of Divine orchestration. The same chapters and verses both talking about the vine. Ezekiel exposes the problem; John reveals the Answer.
John
15:1-8
The
True Vine
“I
am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch
in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit
He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean
because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for
without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as
a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire,
and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it
shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you
bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Israel, JerUSAlem, you and I, as the vine, have a
destiny of fire.
But God made a promise.
Seven times He repeats, if you “abide” in Me, the
True Vine, you will bear much fruit, and thus, rather than being thrown into
the fire, we will be gathered to His Home.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, thank You for showing us the
hard parts, like Ezekiel 15, and giving us the Good parts, like John 15:1-8.
Help us to abide in You. We invite You to abide in us. We ask You to prune us,
whatever it takes, so we glorify You by bearing much fruit. So, of all those
You’ve given us, none are lost.
Thank You.
We love You, forever.
Amen.
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15
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Ezekiel 15
This was feed for you to read. Now it’s
Seed for you to sow.
Thank you for sharing.
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