The Vine

From: Christian Treasury: Volume 1

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Vine, The

From: Bible Treasury: Volume 6

Vine, The

From: Christian Truth: Volume 7

Vine, The

From: Collected Writings

• 4 min. read • grade level: 9

The vine, as the symbol of a fruit-bearing system on the earth, is used in a remarkable manner, and runs through a large part of Scripture. We read in Psa. 80:8⁸Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. (Psalm 80:8), that the nation of Israel is likened to a vine which the Lord brought out of Egypt, casting out the heathen from Canaan and planting it there to bring forth fruit. Then in Isa. 5:1-7¹Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: ²And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. ³And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. ⁴What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? ⁵And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: ⁶And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. ⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. (Isaiah 5:1‑7), we learn all the care and culture He bestowed on His vine that it might bring forth grapes, "fruit meet for Him by whom it was dressed." The result was that, instead of good fruit answering His culture, it brought forth "wild grapes." And He says in 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), "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?" And so the Lord permitted the "wild boar out of the wood" to waste it. He also says, "I will take away the hedge thereof;" "I will lay it waste," and "I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." It was only fruitful in iniquity and false to Jehovah. "Israel," He says, "is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself." Hos. 10:1¹Israel 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. (Hosea 10:1). So the Lord gave him up to the Gentile king, Nebuchadnezzar, to rule over him, commanding him to submit to this punishment, as of the Lord. (Read Jer. 27:1-12¹In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ²Thus saith the Lord to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, ³And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; ⁴And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters; ⁵I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. ⁶And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. ⁷And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. ⁸And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. ⁹Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: ¹⁰For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. ¹¹But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein. ¹²I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. (Jeremiah 27:1‑12), especially verse 12.) Under their last king, Zedekiah, they might have remained tributary, as we read in Ezek. 17. The kingdom might have remained "a spreading vine of low stature" under the Gentile king, who took an oath from Zedekiah, and allowed him to remain in his land. But this "vine of low stature," instead of observing the oath which Nebuchadnezzar accepted of Zedekiah, and remaining tributary, sent his ambassadors to Egypt. Or, as the parable in Ezek. 17 says, “this vine did bend her roots toward him," and so the King of Babylon took him captive, and broke down his city and laid it waste. Thus it ceased to be the "vine" of God in the earth; it ceased to be fit for anything but fuel for the fire. (See Ezek. 15.)

Into this vineyard which had been laid waste, at last came the Lord Jesus. Israel, as Jehovah's vine, had been brought out of Egypt. So Jesus replaces and recommences morally the history of that people, and we read, "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." Hos. 11:1¹When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. (Hosea 11:1); Matt. 2:15¹⁵And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. (Matthew 2:15). The Lord then replaces Israel, which had been set aside as a fruit-bearing system on the earth. He presents Himself not as the best branch of that vine, but, "I am the true vine." He is the root of the new fruit-bearing system on the earth, and the disciples then become the branches. Abiding in Christ, and Christ in them, they would be fruit-bearing branches-the Father glorified in them-and so they would, in a practical sense, be Jesus' disciples. This lasts in principle all through the time of the calling out of the Church, but the point is fruit-bearing on the earth, not as raised and seated together in Christ in heaven, where there is no purging, pruning, or fruit-bearing.