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The Vine and the Vineyard

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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

    You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, 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 Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

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

    A choice vine gone wild

    Jeremiah 2:21

    Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to 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 farmer.

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