Will We Thrive?

 

        My husband and I took a short vacation to northern Michigan and stayed at a resort called Boyne Highlands.  It is under new management, and many renovations were taking place. The lodge had been covered with useless vines for decades.  As we lounged poolside, we could see one of the buildings was covered entirely with a thick gray plastic wrap.  We believed it was in an attempt to kill the vines attached to the building.  If not, possibly it was covering the damage caused by the previous removal of dead vines to prevent interior damage while renovations were taking place.  Either way, it was unsightly.  We talked about coming back at a later date and seeing how the restoration project was going.  It was very easy to see that it was a costly endeavor.  Just last evening, we walked along a bike path near our home.  We noticed how wild grapevines were covering the trees of the forest next to the trail.  We called them an evasive species.  We noted how easy it is for this type of vine to grow out of control.  In our opinion, they held very little aesthetic value. 

     In today's Bible reading, God poses a question to Ezekiel, comparing the wood of the vine to the chosen children of God.  He asks, "Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood, the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest?" (See Ezekiel 15:2 ESV).  The vine God used as a metaphor was much like the vine we had observed on our walk.  It is crooked, clings to things, and when dried up, it becomes very brittle.  This Bible passage even concludes that it cannot bear the weight of a pot that would be hung on a peg made of such wood.  It says that it can be used as fuel for a fire, but even as ash, its uses are diminished even further.  This illustration revealed the fate of God's chosen people.  The vine was worthless because the people to which it spoke lacked faith.  Some commentaries even mention that within this passage, the vine is fruitless.  God had decreed that He would turn His face against His people. 

     In many other places in Scripture, we find the vine is used to represent the Israelites.  In Psalm 80:8-19 ESV, the psalmist tells of how God brought the vine out of Egypt and that he had cleared the land for planting.  God intended the Israelites to be deeply rooted in the ground that the Canaanites had inhabited.  This passage shows that the Israelites allowed other things to evade the vineyard, "to pluck its fruit" and "ravage it." In this Psalm is a plea for restoration.  In Isaiah 5:1-7, there is a repeating theme of God planting a vineyard, removing rocks, building a watchtower and a wine vat, hoping to harvest exceptional grapes; however, instead of producing good grapes, it yielded wild grapes.  This prophesy speaks of tearing down the protective hedges, preventing rain from watering, refusing to prune or hoe the vineyard so that briers and thorns would choke out the plants.  Ultimately God would devour the vines making them worthless to produce good fruit.  In Jeremiah 2:21, God asks another question. "I planted a choice vine, wholly of pure seed.  How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?" 

    Then in Ezekiel 17:5-6,9-10, God asks a critical question, "Will it thrive?" This passage shows how carefully God planted and cared for the vine.  Then he took of the seed of the land and planted it in fertile soil. He placed it beside abundant waters. He set it like a willow twig, and it sprouted and became a low spreading vine, and its branches turned toward him, and its roots remained where it stood. So it became a vine and produced branches and put out boughs.

"Say, Thus says the Lord God: Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots and cut off its fruit, so that it withers, so that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither? It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it from its roots.   Behold, it is planted; will it thrive? Will it not utterly wither when the east wind strikes it—wither away on the bed where it sprouted?"

 

     Only a few paragraphs later, we learn the fate of Israel, the noble vine.  In Ezekiel 19:12-14, we read, "But the vine was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground; the east wind dried up its fruit; they were stripped off and withered.  As for its strong stem, fire consumed it.  Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.  And fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots, has consumed its fruit, so that there remains in it no strong stem, no scepter for ruling.  

 

     In the New Testament, Jesus again uses the illustration of a vine recorded in the parable of the tenants found in Luke 20:9-19.  How much Jesus desired to restore His people?  He wanted us to produce a lot of fruit.  Jesus calls himself the True Vine in John 15 and His Father the Vinedresser.  Scriptures tell us, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." (see John 15:2 ESV) 

 

     God calls His chosen people 'the noble vine.' We see above that God planted 'a choice vine' from 'wholly pure seed.' God cleared the ground before planting and made sure the soil was fertile.  Then He placed it beside an abundant source of water.  How carefully God has cared and tended to His vineyards.  He even pruned the branches so that they would produce much fruit. Thus, God enabled us to flourish. 

     The parable of the soils reminds us that where we are planted matters.  Three of the four soils mentioned reject the seed refusing to grow.  Do we carefully consider our surroundings?  Jesus said he was the living water.  For a vine to produce, it must receive an abundance of water. God's Word is the water for our souls.  John 4:14 says, "But whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  Are we drinking from the well?  Are we accepting that God knows what He is doing through pruning us so that we produce more fruit?  Or are we unwilling to face a little suffering that allows growth to take place?  Is there evidence of fruit?  Or are we living in fear, wondering if we will be cast into the fire and destroyed?  As a vine, we can either flourish or wither.  The eternal question remains, "Will we Thrive?"