Scripture Daily

Context No. 1436 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 15:1-8: in context

1The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? 3Will wood be taken of it to make anything? Will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel on it? 4Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and the middle of it is burned. Is it profitable for any work? 5Behold, when it was whole, it was suitable for no work. How much less, when the fire has devoured it, and it has been burned, will it yet be suitable for any work?” 6Therefore the Lord GOD says: “As the vine wood among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 7I will set my face against them. They will go out from the fire, but the fire will still devour them. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them. 8I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,” says the Lord GOD.

God gives Ezekiel a short, pointed parable about a vine. What is the wood of the vine, God asks, more than any other tree, the vine branch among the trees of the forest? Can you make anything useful from it? Can you even make a peg to hang a vessel on? No; it is thrown into the fire for fuel, and once the fire has charred both ends and the middle, it is good for even less. So, God says, will he give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a vine that has borne no fruit; the fire will devour them, and they will know that he is the LORD.

The parable turns on a simple truth about a vine: its only value is its fruit. Unlike other trees, vine wood is useless as timber; you cannot build with it or carve it or even make a peg from it. A vine exists for one thing, to bear grapes, and a vine that does not bear fruit has no other use to fall back on. God applies this to his people, who were often called his vine: they were planted for fruit, and a fruitless vine has forfeited its one reason for being. It is a sobering image, and meant to be. We are, in the language scripture uses, God's vine, planted and tended for the purpose of bearing fruit, the fruit of righteousness, of love, of a life that gives back to God and nourishes others. And the parable presses the uncomfortable question: if the vine is made for fruit alone, what is a fruitless life good for? This is not said to drive us to despair but to wake us to our purpose. We were not made to be merely decorative, or to take up space, or to be useful for some other end; we were made to bear fruit, and a life that bears none has missed the one thing it was for. Jesus would take up the same image and press it further: I am the vine, you are the branches; apart from me you can do nothing, but the branch that abides in me bears much fruit. The vine's purpose is fruit; the question this parable puts to us is whether we are bearing it.

Am I bearing the fruit I was made for, the fruit of a life that gives back to God and nourishes others, or have I become a fruitless vine, forgetting that fruit is the one thing I was planted for?

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