The Outcast Vine
September 12, 2020
Commentary
The prophet perhaps anticipates the arguments of the wicked people in Jerusalem. They reason that God has chosen them and blessed them in an unusual way? Surely he cannot cast them as “rubbish.”
Ezekiel, however, says he can, and will. He goes to compare them to a vine. Even when complete, it was virtually worthless for any constructive building. When damaged by fire, it was absolutely worthless. The teaching is clear. Even at its best, Jerusalem was not much. Now that she has become infected by sin, Jerusalem is really without value. God must act in accordance with his true character. The guilty must be punished. The figure of comparing God’s people to a vine was a favorite one in the Old Testament (Isa. 5; Hos. 10; Jer. 2:21).
The particular tree Ezekiel mentioned is not fruit but a wild vine that grows in the forest. It is inferior because it does not bear any fruit and produces no wood which can be used as timber. Man is very much like a vine. He is capable of producing fruit. He may become like the God in whose image he is made. If he fails, however, he is completely worthless. When one possesses a moral nature and fails to develop it or perverts it, he becomes inferior to the animals who do not have a moral nature at all. Man is completely dependent upon God. When he neglects the help that can be supplied through fellowship with his creator he fails to realize his possibility. A collective number of men cannot be independent of God any more than a single individual without suffering dire consequences.
Application
Without the Lord I am of no value. I read some place that the chemical makeup of our body is worth less than one dollar.
Ezekiel 15:1– 8 (NET)
1 The Lord’s message came to me: 2 “Son of man, of all the woody branches among the trees of the forest, what happens to the wood of the vine? 3 Can wood be taken from it to make anything useful? Or can anyone make a peg from it to hang things on? 4 No! It is thrown in the fire for fuel; when the fire has burned up both ends of it and it is charred in the middle, will it be useful for anything? 5 Indeed! If it was not made into anything useful when it was whole, how much less can it be made into anything when the fire has burned it up and it is charred?
6 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Like the wood of the vine is among the trees of the forest that I have provided as fuel for the fire—so I will provide the residents of Jerusalem as fuel. 7 I will set my face against them—although they have escaped from the fire, the fire will still consume them! Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them. 8 I will make the land desolate because they have acted unfaithfully, declares the Sovereign Lord.”