Why does God like the Vine

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Israel was a vine, planted by God, for choice stock, but produced wild grapes.

Jesus had come with a new way to God, outside of the temple, fulfilling God’s Law on our behalf, allowing us to enter in.

Warning and encouragement to trust and live in Him, to abide.

In the Vine.

All of the analogies that use farm and plant metaphor are about distinguishing true from false salvation.

This was a main theme of Jesus teaching.

Matthew 7 had a large section warning us to beware of false teachers.

Christ, John, and James all point explicitly to fruit as the important sign.

1 John looks for and identifies the fruit that we will see, from obedience, righteousness, to love for God and Other, hatred of sin and the world…

Why the Vine

Vine

No value in the wood.

You can’t use it for building, you can’t use it for fires. You can’t even use it to weave with. It has no redeeming qualities in and of itself.

Figs and Olives are similar.

Figs are a porous wood with no internal strength.

Olives are incredibly strong, but grow so slow as to be impossible to cultivate for wood. Twisted, knotted, ...

What value is there in the vine?

All three are grown primarily for fruit. It is the fruit. This is the only true value of the these trees.

Olives grow forever, but take a life time to get big enough for shade.

Figs grow huge, but need to be pruned to grow straight.

Vines need a trestles to grow on.

Deuteronomy 8:8 “8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey;”

Each one needs work and time. It isn’t a rough country plant, but a mature stable farm plant.

You don’t plant it if you need food.

You don’t plant it if you need more space.

You don’t plant it if you need to follow the flocks and herds.

You plant when you plan to live in that place for a long time.

1 Kings 4:25 “25 And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, each man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.”

2 Kings 18:31 “31 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern;”

Christians need time to develop. They need to be planted, watered and cultivated. Church.

All three are extremely hard to kill plants.

Figs will sprout from a cut branch.

Grape Vines can be pruned back to the nothing multiple times without harm.

Olives never die of drought as their roots are so large.

John 6:37–40 “37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.””

Difference between the OT and NT

OT Israel was the vine.

NT Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.

We have an internal support, an internal life force working on us.

In this illustration, the vine bears the branches, the father prunes and cultivates the shape… It is external to us.

Internally, we are fed through the vine with all that we need.

What is the results, what should this cause us to know?

The answer is given in John 15.

John 15:4 “4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

John 15:5 “5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

John 15:7–8 “7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”