125 - You Are Useless Wood

So You Think You Are Better

The people of the Jews are often compared to a vine, who, while they brought forth good fruit, were in esteem; but, when they became like an empty and fruitless vine, were rejected as good for nothing. Gil  You have led a vine (Israel) out of Egypt; You have cast out (of Canaan) the nations, and have planted it (Israel). Psalm 80:8  

Egotism; super high opinion of one's religion; an unfounded positive bias because of background, culture or race are things which Jehovah hates.  Ezekiel 15 is a short chapter but in it, Ezekiel tells his listeners exactly what is wrong with them.

how is the vine tree more than any other tree, or than a branch that is among the trees of the forest? 15:2.  Many translations, including the Hebrew text, leave off the word "tree" in "vine tree" and it is certainly easier to read without it.   Ezekiel asks, in what way is the vine better wood than any other tree branch in the forest?  According to the Jewish scholar, Jarchi, Ezekiel is not comparing the Israelites to the vine in the vineyards, which bears fruit, ... but of the branch of the vine which grows in the forests (totally useless). Gill 

Shall wood be taken from it to do work? Or will men take from it for a peg to hang every vessel on it? 15:3.  Can you saw boards from a grapevine with which to build a house, or, for that matter, would you use a grapevine to make pegs on which to hang your pots and pans?

  

Behold, it is put in the fire for fuel.   A fruitless vine is good for nothing except to be burned.  Christ, speaking of loving one another, said,  Unless one remains in Me, he is cast out as the branch and is dried up; and they gather and throw them into a fire, and they are burned. John 15:6.

The fire devours both its ends, and its middle is charred. Will it prosper for work?  Behold, when it was whole it was not made for work. How much less when the fire has devoured it, and it is charred! Shall it yet be made to work?  Ezekiel continues, If you were useless before you were thrown into the fire how much less value have you now that only the charred centre of the vine remains? 

Therefore, so says the Lord Jehovah: As the vine tree (Israel) among the trees of the forest (the surrounding nations), which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give those living in Jerusalem (to the fire).  And I will set my face against them (in judgment). They shall go out from the fire (some may escape the calamity inside the city), and the fire (a different ordeal) shall devour them. 

And you, Ezekiel, The CEV is the only translation I found that inserted the word, Ezekiel.  Other translations do not specify, thereby indicating that this refers to all Israel.  However, in the next phrase, Israel is referred to in the third person indicating that the name, Ezekiel, should be in the text.

you shall know that I am Jehovah when I set My face against them. And I will give the land to be desolate because they have done treachery, (because they have wrought unfaithfulness, Darby translation) (broken the covenant which I made with them, the covenant they agreed to, at Mt. Sinai) declares the Lord Jehovah. 15:2-8.

Hastening Your Own Destruction

And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? 22:2.   We call it "the Holy City", Jehovah called it "the bloody city".   

Christ was well aware of the city's reputation, He said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses to yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets. Mat. 23:29-31 

So says the Lord Jehovah: The city sheds blood in her midst that her time may come. Ezekiel 22:3.  Is it spoken in irony?  Why do you kill your prophets and the righteous?  Surely it must be because you want to hasten the coming destruction of Jerusalem!  But we, callous North Americans, better not point any fingers at ancient "bloody Jerusalem".  Our own cities are full of violence and bloodshed and it even spills over into the countryside.

The rest of Ezekiel chapter 22 could have been copied from any modern tabloid and it will be the body of our next post.  Are we also hoping, by our lifestyles, to hasten the destruction of our beloved countries?