Today, read Hosea 10.
The chapter begins with the description of Israel as a 'luxuriant vine'. That imagery is very familiar to the Israelite people. Let's just look at a couple of other references to the metaphor.
Isaiah 5: 1 - 2, 7 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a wine press as well. The he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. ... The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
Jeremiah 2: 21 I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?
Israel was the vine of God ... and was to be beautiful and fruitful. Fruit in the eyes of God is always related to His character. It always refers to bringing His very presence into the life of a person. Israel, with all her advantages, all her protection and provision, had failed ... she had become a wild, useless vine.
As we have read this third message from Hosea, there are three primary sins that are repeated over and over. There is the unfaithfulness ... which is a lack of love for God. There is the falsehood, the believing and living in lies ... which is a denial of the truth revealed by God. There is the unrighteousness, the sin ... which is rebellion against God.
Is that not the same scenario that played out in the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve did not love their creator enough to stay faithful to Him ... they were intrigued with what 'other' was offered. God was not enough for them. They wanted more, they thought. Israel did as well. Do you and I?
Adam and Eve believed the lie of Satan. They believed that God was holding out on them, keeping them from something splendid. So they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Israel has done the same thing - believing that other gods would somehow add to their religious experience, make them wiser, more god-like. Do you and I?
Adam and Eve chose unrighteousness. They decided to do the thing that God had forbidden. Why? Because they believed a lie. Because they loved something more than they loved God. And so sin enters. Rebellion. Disobedience. Israel has followed the same path. Do you and I?
We began today with the vine imagery - imagery which was very familiar to Jewish people. After all, they WERE the vine of God! When Jesus enters time and space history centuries after Hosea's time, he uses the same imagery. However, as he so often did, he takes the Old Testament imagery and brings it full circle to the revelation of what the image was to portray.
Go to John 15 and here Jesus say to these Jewish followers, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ... I am the vine; you are the branches." (John 15: 1, 5) He wants us all to know that belonging to Israel does not make you belong to God. It's being in the true vine that connects you to God. It is being 'in Him'. He goes on in this passage to let us know how to stay away from the sin, the rebellion, the fate of the Israel in Hosea's day ... "REMAIN IN ME", He says. "REMAIN IN THE VINE", He says.
Remain ... abide ... live in ... make your home in ... nest in ... stay in ... never leave ... Me. Jesus is our hope - our only hope - to live free from fear of failure, free from anxiety over sin. Remember, He paid the penalty for your sin. He carried it so you would not have to. Why in the world would we want to live anywhere else! Which idol that this world offers is more desirable than that security?
Israel WAS a luxuriant vine ...
Jesus IS a luxuriant vine ...
And He invites you to be "in Him" and live a life of fruitfulness to the glory of God. Have you "chosen"?! Are you "remaining"?
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