WHAT DOES THE FATHER EXPECT? ~ A Study in Jeremiah

The sin and shame of Israel was blatantly in God's face. Yesterday, we saw Israel depicted as a harlot. God saw her prostituting herself on every high hill and under every green tree lain down as a harlot committing spiritual adultery before His very eyes. Today, we will see her depicted as a weed…a degenerate plant of an alien vine or a harlot vine. She is so dirty that no lye or soap could make her clean again.

 

Yet I planted you a choice vine, a completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine? (Jeremiah 2:21)

 

A choice vine is the word soreq. It is a choice species of vine that produces choice grapes. It was a vine stock that yielded purple grapes, the richest variety for choice or noble wine. Shoots of a foreign can mean strange woman or harlot. Israel 5:1-7 also speaks of this vine.

 

Isaiah 5:1-7—"Let me sing now for my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it and also hewed out a wine vat in it; then He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard. What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. I will lay it waste; it will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.” For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus, He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. (Also see Ezekiel 15:1-8.)

 

Jesus talks about this vineyard in Matthew 21:33-41 in a parable. A landowner planted a vineyard and put a wall around it of protection, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. He rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. The vineyard is the Jewish nation. The landowner is God who leased His precious vineyard to “vine-growers” (representing the Jewish leaders.) When it was time for harvest, the landowner sent his slaves (the Old Testament prophets) to receive his produce. With each slave who came, however, the vine-growers beat, killed, and stoned them. So, he sent a larger group of slaves, but they did the same thing. The landowner determines to send his son, whom they surely will respect. What happened next? “When the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So, they likewise killed the son. The question is this: When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers? As Jesus tells this parable and asks this question, ironically, the Jewish leaders answer: “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” They were pronouncing their own judgment as those who would kill the son. John MacArthur says in his commentary on verse 41: “The kingdom and all the spiritual advantages given to Israel would now be given to “other vine-growers,” symbolizing the church, which consists primarily of Gentiles” (cf.11:11).

 

God expected His choice vine to produce good grapes (good fruit), but it only produced worthless ones.

 

Although you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your iniquity is before Me,” declares the Lord God. (Jeremiah 2:22)

 

Israel could scrub herself in an attempt to get clean until she bled. The stain of their iniquity was not going to come out. There was nothing she could do to cleanse herself. Washing ceremonies and sacrificing the blood of animals would never do what was required for her to be clean before God. She needed a cleansing from within—a cleansed heart. Israel had no heart to follow after her Husband. Her actions proved as much.

 

Jeremiah 4:14 says: Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts lodge within you? Matthew 15:18-20—But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. The leaders of the Jews in Jesus day still could not get it. Much like many in the church today, they were walking around still saying, “But we’re God’s chosen vine!” Professing believers say, “I made a profession of faith back in 1979. I’m a Christian, and I’ve never questioned my salvation,” —all the while they are walking just like the world. Their hearts have not been cleansed by the blood of Christ. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. (Matthew 23:25-26) They keep up appearances on the outside, looking good to the world. Jesus could see them for the hypocrites they were, full of robbery and self-indulgence.

 

Like Cain who killed his brother, the Jewish leaders said in their hearts, “God, You want a blood sacrifice? We’ll give you one!” When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.”(Matthew 27:24) But was he innocent, or was he just like the Jewish leaders who were trying to look good in the eyes of the people? No amount of soap and water were going to make him any less guilty of the blood of Christ.

 

Preparing for His upcoming death, Jesus comforts His disciples. This group of men are what we would call Jewish converts. In reality, they were the first Christians whom God would use to birth His church—a remnant from the choice vine. In John 15, we see Jesus, once again, talking about the vine, the vinedresser, and every branch of the vine. Does the vinedresser expect anything different of the vine? Notice the identity of the vine.

 

Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:1-5) Jesus is the true vine, and God is the vinedresser. What is expected from the branches? That we would bear fruit as we abide in Him.  John 8:31-32—So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Continue means to abide, remain, dwell, endure, to stay (in a given place, state, relation, or expectancy).

 

Ephesians 5:25-27—Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. Titus 3:4-7—But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

Those whom God has chosen in Christ, the true vine, have been washed and will bear fruit because they abide in Him.

 

“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:6) The ‘green tree’ is not going to burn again. Only the dried-up, dead branches will burn in judgment of hell fires for all eternity.

 

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. (John 15:7-11)

 

What is His commandment? That we love one another just as He has loved us. He said, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain...” (John 15:16) Later in the chapter, Jesus talks about how the world will treat His own. False professors love the world and follow hard after it. “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I choses you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19) They hated Jesus without a cause, because He loved them enough to tell them the truth, and because they loved their sin.

 

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:18-20) Israel would not consent nor obey her Husband.

 

For those who profess Christ in name only, but who live like the world—just like rebellious Israel prostituting herself on every high hill and under every green tree—know the Bible says: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (Practice can mean to abide, bear, or bring forth.) …but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:6-9)

 

Much like the days of Jeremiah, we live in a world of empty professors—people close to us whom we love with all our hearts. I do not believe our current state of affairs is judgment directed toward our nation as a whole, but at the Church. Yes, our nation is under judgment, but it is judgment that will necessarily weed out the wheat from the tares inside the church. Too many are sitting in sound churches week after week hearing messages that will heap judgment upon their hearts because they heard but walked away and did not bear the fruit of repentance. Right now, for the most part, the churches are closed. Does that grieve your heart? If you love Him, it should. 1 Peter 4:17—For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?