epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Ezekiel 15

Israel is likened to a vine, a vineyard, or a fig tree in many passages in the Bible. Israel was to be a fruitful plant. This is something that the Lord demanded. The people of Israel were to be God’s spiritual family, and they should have had spiritual fruit befitting a nation that had heard the Law of God and had been rescued out of bondage. Their freedom should have been used to worship and serve their Redeemer. They should have loved His Law, and produced the fruit of godly attributes, like those the listed in Galatians 6: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If the Israelites had served God in this way of fruitfulness, they would have been a shining light to the nations around them of what happens to a people who love and follow the living God.

But Israel had cut herself off from her root through idolatry and rebellion. Like the branch of a grape vine that has been cut away from the source of everything necessary for life, of what use was she now? God did not start with a mighty oak or a redwood tree. He did not look for the tree of the forest that would have been of some obvious use for building or for making beautiful and useful objects by the hand of a skilled carpenter. He picked a vine, a plant capable of bearing grapes, but when compared with the great hardwood trees of the forest, a very weak plant, a plant that would be of no use except if it could yield fruit. What then if the vine yielded no useful grapes? Of what use would such a plant be to the owner of the vineyard?

When the Lord returns in judgment He comes with fire. The scraps of wood from the vine that the prophet speaks of in this chapter do have a use if you want to start a fire. Before you can get the large logs burning well, smaller pieces like these are helpful to use as kindling. If judgment of the world begins with the household of God, it is appropriate that His own nation would be the kindling in a larger blaze that will surely come. How sad it is that the Lord’s vine, a vine that should have been very fruitful, now finds its purpose as an object that is easily ignited in order to aid in the coming of a greater judgment. When it has served its purpose as kindling, can a few charred pieces be retrieved from the fire and be used for some more noble use? It was useless before it was burned. Of what use will the Lord’s rebellious house be when it has faced exile and crippling discipline? The Lord’s own nation bears the marks of His righteous anger.

If a few embers somehow are removed from the fire, what can anyone do with them? The only thing to do is to throw them back in and let the fire catch them again until they are consumed. God has set His face against them, and for very good reason. He will make his land desolate, because they have not believed in His Word and have disregarded His Law.

It would be easy to imagine that this would be the very end of the story for the Lord’s vineyard. They are branches that have been pruned from the vine. They faced the onslaught of the Assyrians. Then came the Babylonian exile. Why would we suppose any future beyond this punishment? Yet we remember God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We remember that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. There must be some plan yet remaining for the descendants of the patriarchs.

Some six centuries from the days of Ezekiel, a new Branch would come from the old stump of Israel. He would form a new Vine, in a sense. Many Jews and a host of Gentiles would find their life by abiding in this Vine. This most holy Branch was actually cut off the older vine of Israel and was thrown away as a useless branch by those who were the leaders and rulers of the Old Covenant people. He was despised and rejected by men more generally, and no one considered Him to be anything other than a cursed man, fit only to die on a tree. Once again, it would appear that there was no hope for Israel.

Yet this new Vine would be planted in the soil of that cursed death for sinners on a Roman cross. From that place of sadness, the fruit of resurrection life would spring up in those who still gather to remember the one who died for us, the one who now lives forever as our Savior. There is a way of life for both Jew and Gentile in Him. He is a most fruitful vine, and in Him we are a new Israel. He is a child of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He came from the tribe of Judah, from the line of David. He is the King of the Jews, and the Redeemer of God’s chosen people who were slaves of sin. He is Jesus the Messiah, and He lives.

The Babylonian exile was not the end of the story, because God had made ancient promises that He had no intention of breaking. One day we will see the fulfillment of all of His promises in the New Jerusalem. We eagerly await that day, with confidence that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Abide in Him. He is the vine. We are the branches. Apart from Him we can do nothing, but in Him we will have the fullness of the fruit of the promised Holy Spirit.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home