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True Vine by Heidi As I was reading chapters 4-9 of Isaiah, I began to see what God was talking about more clearly than I'd ever seen it before. When I remembered John 15 it all came into focus. The bold sections are what the scripture says (not always direct quotes), and the other sections are my workings out of the scripture. It will make the most sense to you if you go ahead and read Isaiah 4-9 and John 15 first.
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.....Remain in me and I will remain in you....I am the vine, you are the branches...," Jesus, in John 15. Based on Isaiah 4 - 9 This is a picture of the cutting and pruning of God's vineyard.
Israel was in a time of
rebellion against God. They
were being judged for their sin. In
the day of judgment the Branch of the Lord, who is Jesus, will be glorious.
God is pruning. He is cutting off every branch that does not produce fruit. There are some who remain in Him, the vine, Jesus. They are the living. They are the remnant. Those who are left in Zion, who stay in Jerusalem will be called Holy. They will be recorded among the living. God cuts off dead branches and prunes the living ones using the spirit of judgment and the spirit of fire. God is the righteous judge. The Spirit is the refining fire. The judge sees who is a lamb and who is a goat, no one can deceive Him. The Spirit burns away impurities. The refining fire, like that used for purifying gold, is applied to us, his branches. We are pruned. Those that remain in Him are covered by a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing fire by night. This is the Holy Spirit, the fire that purifies us also covers us, like a canopy. It is our shelter, shade, refuge, and hiding place.
"Now I will tell you what
I am going to do to my vineyard: I
will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed."-God. How did this happen? Why must God cut so many off? He gives us everything we need to grow. He gives us fertile soil, a watchtower so that someone can warn of evil approaching, and a winepress so that we can be transformed as He desires us to be. But, practically no one produces good fruit. Because of this God takes away our protection; our wall. When this happens he stops pruning us and cultivating us. We no longer have the fire of the Holy Spirit to purify us and to protect us. We are trampled on and destroyed. We become a wasteland. The briers and thorns grow, which are the lies and influence of Satan. God even tells the clouds not to rain on us. We have no spiritual truth to nourish us. All of this happens because God can find no justice and no righteousness, and the people continue to live and work and get drunk. They have no regard for the deeds of the Lord; no respect for the work of His hands. So He lets them go into exile, because they refuse to understand. He lets them die of hunger, and He is the Bread of life. He lets them be parched with thirst, and He is the living water. The grave's appetite grows and it is well fed. Man is brought low; the arrogant are humbled. God is exalted. They knew that He was just
and right. And the sheep, the remnant. Those who remain in Him, in the vine, in the cloud, in Jerusalem, and in Zion; the sheep graze as in their own pasture. They feed among the ruins of the rich. They are still protected. They have plenty to eat. They have the true riches of Christ. The wealth of the world is like garbage. They have no need for it. It has nothing to offer them. They eat and drink what God provides. He feeds them, He gives them water. He is their grass, their bread. He is their running water.
God
says, woe to you that call evil good and good evil.
You put darkness for light and light for darkness.
You put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
You don't understand. You're
wise in your own eyes, so good at drinking wine and mixing drinks.
Your justice is tainted with bribes, and you deny justice to the
innocent. Just like fire licks up straw and dry grass sinks into the flames, your roots will decay. Your beauty will blow away like dust, because you have rejected the law of the LORD. You've spurned the word of God. Jesus is the word of God. Everyone else he destroys. He's angry, and He calls the distant nations after them. Like calling a dog and saying, "kill". And they do. The whole land is darkness and distress. Even the light is darkened by the clouds.
Isaiah
saw a vision of God, high and lifted up. He saw the seraphs worshipping.
And he cried, "Woe to me! I
am ruined! For I am a man of
unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have
seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
Then, a seraph flew to him. He
touched a live coal to Isaiah's lips. "See, this has touched your lips;
your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
Isaiah then heard the voice of God saying, "Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?" And
Isaiah said, "Here am I. Send
me!"
God told him,
"Go, and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving'.
He told them to make the people's hearts hard.
Isaiah said, "For how long, O LORD?" And God said, "until the cities lie ruined and...forsaken." Because just like when an oak tree is cut down and it leaves a stump that will sprout and grow, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land; the remnant, the sheep, those who remain in Him. Everyone who is spiritually dead is cut off, and everyone who is alive, in Him, remains. There was a battle against
the house of David. Jesus is
later born of the house of David. God
told Isaiah to tell them that they would be delivered if they would stand
firm in their faith. "If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will
not stand at all." Then God told Ahaz, the
king of Judah, to ask for a sign. He
refused. So God gave him a sign
of His own choosing. "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a
son, and will call him Immanuel. But
before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the
land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste." God tells us, "do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. the LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary...a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall....many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured." I will wait on the LORD. I will put my trust in Him. "When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged, and looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness. "Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress...The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. You have enlarged the
nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at
the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.
For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke
that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their
oppressor. Every warrior's boot
used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for
burning, will be fuel for the fire. For
to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on
his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of
the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David' throne and over his kingdom, establishing and
upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this." The
nation is God's people. The oppressor is Satan.
God has delivered us. He
has given us freedom. We cannot
produce fruit when we are separated from God.
There were only a few that were saved when God had to cut off those
who didn't produce fruit. Jesus is the true vine.
If we remain in Him, we will produce fruit.
We will have the fire and the cloud, the Spirit, to purify and prune
us. God gave us Jesus. He is the light that we now walk in. Hear Him.
Isaiah 6 by Heidi Llewellyn In
majesty. Such awesome glory There
from breath to breath With
wings three pairs in beauty Suddenly
the ground is shaken I cry
from depths of me Standing
trembling in my fear Clean. | space |
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