Limitless Word

The Vine and the Vineyard

WEBKJVBSBESVNKJVNASBNLT

Israel the vineyard that disappoints — and Jesus the true vine that bears fruit.

God plants a vine — Israel — and tends it with care, but again and again it yields wild or bitter grapes; the prophets sing of a vineyard that breaks its owner's heart. Then Jesus says, quietly and astonishingly, "I am the true vine." Where the nation failed to bear fruit, he succeeds — and those who abide in him share his life. The trail runs from the songs of a failing vineyard to the abundance of the vine who never fails.
  1. 1

    A vine out of Egypt

    Psalms 80:8

    Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.

    Psalm 80 remembers Israel as a vine God planted and asks why its walls are broken down.
  2. 2

    The song of the vineyard

    Isaiah 5:7

    For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

    Isaiah's vineyard yields wild grapes — injustice instead of righteousness.
  3. 3

    A choice vine gone wild

    Jeremiah 2:21

    Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

    Jeremiah: planted as a pure vine, the people became a corrupt, wild one.
  4. 4

    "I am the true vine"

    John 15:1

    I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

    Jesus is the vine that bears the fruit Israel could not; his people abide in him.