NO BEANSTALK
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Opening Prayer
Thank you, Jesus, for your words: ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.’1 I am grateful that, because I am in you, I can bear fruit, fruit that will last.
Read EZEKIEL 15
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Jerusalem as a Useless Vine
15 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, how is the wood of a vine different from that of a branch from any of the trees in the forest? 3 Is wood ever taken from it to make anything useful? Do they make pegs from it to hang things on? 4 And after it is thrown on the fire as fuel and the fire burns both ends and chars the middle, is it then useful for anything? 5 If it was not useful for anything when it was whole, how much less can it be made into something useful when the fire has burned it and it is charred?
6 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: As I have given the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest as fuel for the fire, so will I treat the people living in Jerusalem. 7 I will set my face against them. Although they have come out of the fire, the fire will yet consume them. And when I set my face against them, you will know that I am the Lord. 8 I will make the land desolate because they have been unfaithful, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
As you consider your faith’s growth, in what ways is it encouraging that Jesus calls himself the true vine and his Father the gardener?
Comparing Israel to a vine has a long history in Hebrew tradition, going back to Genesis.2 It is an obvious image, as vines are such a key element in Palestinian agriculture. The image is also used in the New Testament.3 The psalmist compares Israel to a vine that God rescued from Egypt and planted in its own land, growing to such an extent that the mountains were in its shade and its roots reached the sea4—‘no ordinary vine, this was the Jack and the Beanstalk kind of vine.’5
Ezekiel loves metaphors; chapters 15–23 are full of them. However, Ezekiel’s metaphors are rarely pleasant. He often tends to subvert familiar positive images (for example, the bride who turns to prostitution in chapter 16, and the ship becoming a wreck in chapter 27). This subversion led to the accusation that he spoke ‘in parables.’6 Here, in chapter 15, Ezekiel turns the familiar vine metaphor on its head by diverting attention from grapes and wine to the wood. The image here is of vine wood, notoriously useless for making things and even more useless in its charred state. The application is to Jerusalem, insignificant and useless compared with the superpowers around—and of even less value after being charred—a reference to the partial destruction of Jerusalem in the invasion of 597 BC. The city is good for nothing other than being thrown back into the fire, a prophetic prediction of the destruction to come in 587 BC.
It is hard to overestimate the shock of the hearers, as this subversion of the familiar image of Israel as God’s flourishing vine shows them how God sees them—so that the total destruction of Jerusalem and its inhabitants is the inevitable outcome.
Apply
Against what kind of issues in our society would the Lord set his face?
Closing prayer
Help me, Lord God, to see the world around me with your eyes. Show me where I can be your voice for truth and take action for change that will please you.
1 John 15:1 2 Gen 49:22 3 Mark 12:1–9; John 15:1–8 4 Ps 80:8–11 5 Nancy Bowen, Ezekiel (Abingdon Press, 2010), 82. 6 Ezek 20:49
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