Familiarity Breeds… Confusion?
Since we are on the topic of fruit trees now, I think this is the time to share my latest exciting discoveries with you. And if you are expecting some academic presentation on the vine, let me quickly disabuse you of that thought. Please note, as I made clear in the title, that I share from the point of view of an amateur, even if an enthusiastic one. Some may question: Well, if you are an amateur, should you be sharing this with us at all? My response would be. Well, I read up, observed, learnt a lot, was blessed and I’ll just take a chance that what I share will not completely go to waste on those who choose to read it! And if you are one of the latter, then I sure do hope that you enjoy roller-coaster rides because that is what it’s going to be like!
When I started probing into this topic, little did I expect where it would take me. I had clear questions in my mind and I expected my research to provide the usual straightforward answers. And if they did not, I would simply modify my questions until I got the answers to the questions that puzzled me. But I couldn’t be more wrong!
As I started digging, some answers seemed so obvious that I wondered why I asked them in the first place. When I modified them, I would be forced to read the new responses with great care from beginning to the end in the hope that they would offer something new but many times, nothing new came up. Only the wordings and presentation changed. You can imagine how tiring this was for me.
I lived a topsy-turvy reality during this phase, my emotions vacillating between discouragement, impatience, irritation and excitement. Sometimes I would feel overwhelmed by the new information I found. When mental fatigue set in, I would take a long break, during which an ongoing debate would invade my mind as to whether to continue or not. But I kept at it, unable to let it go for reasons that were not very clear in my mind at the time, but which, thank God, I believe I now understand. You see, God wanted to teach me a precious lesson about the danger of getting too familiar with His Word! To help you understand better, here is some more background to this topic on the vine.
If you think my Lemon Tree article started it all, you may be right, but it may very well have been the other way round. I suspect that my article about my lemon tree (Check my blog on What My Lemon Tree taught me), which was based on firsthand, hands-on experience, and thus much easier to share about, was in fact my feeble attempt to side-step my nagging need for clarity about Jesus as the Vine. How, you may wonder, is this business? And you would be right. But I hope you will understand better as you read on.
You see, the hymn, I am the Vine and you are the branches has always carried an in-depth message for me. First, it reassures me of the unchanging Grace, Mercy and Power of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Second, it serves as a regular reminder that I can only bear fruit if He remains the Peak and Core of all my relationships. Third, it warns me that if I slide into legalistic hypocrisy, where appearances override faithfulness, He would be me cut off. And finally, it is a constant reminder that my walk with Christ will not be a bed of roses, as God will regularly prune me so that I can bear even more fruit. For some years now, this hymn had become a regular part of my prayer for the Church. Only, I would affirm our Lord’s declaration in the third person, singing it as You are the Vine and we are the branches…
I cannot recall exactly when, but much more recently, another Bible text from the Song of Songs, also became part of my prayer for the Church, but it took a while before I became troubled about Jesus’ identification with the vine! You see, from memory, I recalled, (as I then thought) that the verse of Song of songs talked about little foxes spoiling the vine! My concerns thus increased astronomically. If, in the New Covenant, Jesus is the Vine that Christians are attached to, how can little foxes spoil it?
This was the point at which I started wondering why Jesus did not use another tree (as I had always assumed the vine to be). After all, it was the same relationship between any tree and its branches and fruits. Why not, I reflected, any of the other trees mentioned positively in the Bible. The olive tree for example, which my research tells me is the most mentioned tree in the Bible. Or the fig tree, or even the oak tree, which many people know is one of the strongest trees in the world. I soon came to the conclusion, and rightly so as it turned out, that there had to be something special about the vine. And thus started my research … and the Lord’s pruning of me, praise His Name.
You see, I had become so familiar with those two Bible texts that now troubled me, that I did not once entertain the possibility that I might have missed something. Therefore, in my self-confidence, I did not bother to open my Bible to read the passages with a humble and teachable heart. Instead, I figured there must be a hidden significance in what appeared to be a troubling contradiction to me. However, it turns out that there was no contradiction at all. The only problem was me and my presumptuousness. But I was almost at the end of my tether before I finally realized this. God have mercy on us for becoming too familiar with you Word and spare us the frustration! Amen!
It was an agonizing experience for me to discover how little foxes, as distinct from adult foxes, ‘spoilt’ the vine. It was bad enough to find out that adult foxes could get at the grapes on the vine (which was their main target), relatively easily by leaping high enough to pull them to the ground. I tried to wrap my mind around that picture without success. In the first place, I had always thought that foxes were carnivorous but apparently that was not the case. And secondly, I could not understand why they had to leap to get at the grapes, nor could I imagine how that worked. In my mind, if the vine was a tree like any other, couldn’t the adult foxes simply climb the trees to get at the grapes instead of leaping? I checked and foxes can indeed climb trees!
As how for little foxes accessed the grapes, that got me really upset. Because they could not leap high enough to get at the grapes, the little, meaning baby foxes, would gnaw at the roots of the vines to make them collapse with their fruits. Then they would feast on the grapes that came down with them! What a horrible thought especially since I loved so much to see crops grow! My desperate need to know why on earth Jesus used that metaphor remained unanswered and was gradually becoming an obsession. I simply had to pursue my search.
My next port of call was some relevant verses in the Old Testament. Since Israel as a nation was sometimes referred to as the vine that God planted, I decided to check out some of the relevant verses. Psalm 80: 8-11, among others (Ezekiel 16: 1-6; 17: 6-8: Hosea 10:1), states:
You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. 9 You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. 11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.
If you already know what the vine is like, you’d think these verses would have made me pause to review the image of the vine in my mind. But to the contrary, I figured that if it filled the land, and mountains were covered with its shade, and the mighty cedars with its branches, and that its branches spread so wide, the vine had to be even bigger than I ever imagined! This only left me more confused. However, I did learn that vineyards often represent abundance, blessing, and fruitfulness of a relationship or spiritual life but Israel only enjoyed this state briefly under kings David and Solomon. Jeremiah 2:21 actually records the reason for this when it quotes God reprimanding Israel by saying: I planted you a choice vine, a vine of the finest seed; why have you turned into the bitter fruit of wild grapes for me?”.
So these verses merely buttressed what I already knew about the nation of Israel from the Old Testament. God’s desire was to make Israel an exclusive nation completely dedicated to Him. He wanted to make Israel a showpiece among the nations so that other nations would come under His Sovereignty. But Israel failed woefully. The lust of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life (1John 2:16), made the systems of the world appear more attractive. The result was that Israel chose to abandon God’s Way in preference for the idolatry of the nations around it, and suffered dearly for it.
Interestingly enough, this was the relationship God had always wanted with man from the beginning. In a similar manner that He ‘planted’ Israel among the nations, He provided everything to bless the first human beings in the Garden of Eden. He gave them dominion over all living things, and urged them to be fruitful and multiply. And just like Adam and Eve, Israel also failed.
Now Jesus claiming to be a vine was beginning make sense to me. I already knew that He came as the second Adam to restore everything Adam had lost. There was no doubt in my mind that Jesus was also God the Creator of the world . The first verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of John declare: In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God…. 10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.
1 Corinthians 15: 45-47 further buttresses this Eternal Truth: 45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
However, my complicated mind still needed to know why Jesus chose to that particular plant. And it was finally at this point that I decided to read that verses that I thought I had retained perfectly in my memory from the Bible. And how great was my shock – and relief – to discover that the hymn I so loved used the second mention of vine in the Bible text, and not the second!! What our Lord Jesus Christ first said in the first verse of John 15 was actually: I am the TRUE Vine!!! In other words, while little foxes might be able to ‘spoil’ the ‘false’ vine, it certainly could not touch the True Vine, which, by the way, was being watched over by God the Father!! No way!
How relieved and overjoyed I became to be able to contemplate, after my exhausting perambulation, the amazing Love of God for man. The Only Begotten Son of God, conceived by God the Holy Spirit, came miraculously from heaven into the world in human flesh, to redeem the world by dying for the sin that had compromised God’s original loving Plan and Purpose for man! This concept is so clearly stated in John 3: 16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him may not perish, but have everlasting life. Which is why today, anyone, regardless of nationality, may come to the Only True God, only through Jesus, the Son of God. Alleluia!
But my story did not end there… Would you believe that it was only after months of research, confusion, exhilaration, and procrastination, that I finally realized yet again that the reason for all my hard work lay in the fact that that I missed one single alphabet in a Bible verse I was so familiar with and thought I knew so well!! Yes. I missed the letter ‘s’ in the Song of songs text ( which is actually ‘little foxes that spoil the vineS!! Yes! That verse in the old Testament referred to vines in the plural!!
This verse is in the Song of Songs, a Book in which Solomon described the passionate romantic love relationship between the ‘Beloved’, supposedly Solomon himself, and a Shunamite (Egyptian) woman. To date, nobody has been able to confirm that this truly happened. Other scholars also find in this song, a description of the kind of love that God, the Beloved, had for His people, and the reciprocal loving response that God’s people should have towards Him. But whatever the case may be, all scholars agree that it is a beautiful illustration of the loving relationship that should exist between God and man, Jesus and the Church, husband and wife, within families, and among believers.
Therefore, if taken as an allegory and applied to the above contexts, the little foxes that must be taken away represent all the small but destructive external and internal pressures, habits and distractions that can imperceptibly gnaw away at the foundation of passionate love (Agape), that should exist between God and man, Jesus and the Church, a married couple, or among the brethren to destroy it. Viewed from this angle, the plural word ‘vines’ that could be spoilt by ‘little foxes’ in the Old Testament, applies to a more generic and imperfect love relationships among men.
What relief! What joy! That the mystery that I created as a result of my own negligence has finally been unraveled! And now that I have a clearer idea of what a Vine is (read Part 2 if you wish to know more), I can comfortably surmise that, by referring to Himself as the True Vine to which all those who truly trust Him must remain attached, Jesus was saying that He is Source of True Love that never fails (1 Corinthians 13). 1 John chapter 4, verse 8 says unequivocally that God is Love. If we truly believe that Jesus the Son of God, the True Vine, has a Perfect undying Love for us, our desire will be to obey His commandments, because we trust that they are for our own good, and in so doing, glorify Him, and most especially please Him (Hebrews 11:6): For without faith, it is impossible to please God.
The first 3 verses of 1 John 5 also capture this beautifully: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. Loving God means keeping his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. And by extension, He is also pointing out that only by remaining attached to Him in a loving relationship, will any believer be and to produce the fruit (grapes) of the Spirit which the letter to the Galatians lists our in chapter 5, verses 22 -23 as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control… and I am always delighted to see the way ver 23 ends… There is no law against these things!
This Agape kind of Love that can only be accessed through Christ does not merely pay lip. It is not pretentious or hypocritical. In Romans 12: 9, Apostle Paul urges us: Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. 1 Peter 1: 22 exhorts us in similar words: 22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.
However, I feel I must quickly point out here that the Agape kind of Love we are talking about here is certainly not the kind of superficial, unrealistic, sentimental, lustful, mamby-pampy, indulgent and self-centred love we see all around us today. Agape will especially warn a fellow believer falling into sin and any other person living in sin about the inherent danger in the direction he or she is heading towards. Agape will correct a fellow believer that is bringing shame to the Name of the Lord. Agape will not lie, exploit, or use anyone, talk much less of a fellow-believer, as a crotch for idleness or laziness, nor allow himself or herself to be used as one. Rather Agape will encourage, seek to empower a discouraged person to get up and move forward in faith. Agape will tell the truth regardless of the cost to his image or reputation.
1 Corinthians 13: 1-8 breaks this down for us: If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
May we all continuously desire more and more of God’s kind of Love, and May God continuously God grant us all more and more of it,, in Jesus’ mighty and precious Name. Amen!
Here ends the first part. The next part (or parts?) will focus on my exciting discoveries about the vine. See you there!
