4. the Vine.
As it is our main object to connect the Bible trees with the dispensations of scripture, we ask you to think of a period lasting sixteen and a half centuries, during which God dealt in patient goodness with His people Israel.
It is important to bear distinctly in mind that Israel only was taken by God under His especial care. A person might take a specimen of a certain class of trees, and cultivate it, and judge of the whole class or family of trees by the result of his experiment.
Now God selected Israel out of all the nations of the earth as the vine of His choice, and set it in the most favorable circumstances. As we read, “I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed.” (Jer. 2:2121Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? (Jeremiah 2:21).)
The vines in the land of Palestine grow to a great size; we read of one the stem of which was about a foot and a half in diameter, and the height of which was about thirty feet, which, by its branches, formed a hut upwards of thirty feet broad and long. The clusters of these vines were so large that they weighed ten or twelve pounds.
When speaking of Israel by the prophet Isaiah (see chs. 5), God compared them to “a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine.” If we turn to Psalms 80, Israel is thus spoken of: “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.”
You will recollect in the parable of the trees in the Book of Judges that the vine was to bring “joy to God and man.” Such would have been the result had Israel been able to keep the law. The law said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and thy neighbor as thyself,” and what a scene of joy would have been those “holy fields” had Israel really fulfilled this. Alas! man has no love for God in his heart, and the long trial of sixteen and a half centuries only proved that man was irreclaimable; and Jehovah had to speak to Israel in these touching words, “How art thou turned into a degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?”
What was God’s answer to the Psalmist’s question. It was, “Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself.” And again, “Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty.” (Hos. 10:1, 21Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. 2Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. (Hosea 10:1‑2).) Our Lord charged them with this in His parable, in Matt. 21:34, 3534And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. 35And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. (Matthew 21:34‑35): “When the time of the fruit drew near, he” (the householder) “sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.”
You know how truly the last part was fulfilled, when, “last of all, he sent unto them his own son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.”
Yes, this was the sad, sad end to the story of God’s faithful love and tender care for Israel, and their history ought to teach us this lesson, that we can do nothing to bring forth fruit to God apart from the grace that gives us a new nature. For, as our Lord says, make the “tree good” first, then the fruit good.
What is Israel’s present condition? It is described in Ezek. 19:13,1413And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground. 14And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. (Ezekiel 19:13‑14). “Now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground. And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a scepter to rule.” Well might the prophet say, “This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation;” and the apostle, “for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.” (1 Thess. 2:1616Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. (1 Thessalonians 2:16).) H. N.