This Article: (7 Pages)
1) The Grape Vine & Prosperity
Recently the family has grown a vine, specifically, a grape vine. The vine was planted to replace a palm tree. Two aspects of the grape vine became immediately obvious. Unlike some plants such as the palm, the initial growth was rapid, also it very soon needed support. As the years passed another two aspects became evident. The grape vine in winter was dormant and leafless, as if dead, but, in summer it produced a beautiful show of leaves with abundant and fast growth. During each summer there was the expectation of fruit but for a few years there was no fruit and the fruit that was finally produced was small in quantity and bitter. It also became clear that to produce fruit the grape vine required active pruning and tending.
Israel as a nation on a number of occasions is associated with the vine in the scriptures. This should not be regarded specifically as remarkable. If we were to stand and look at the Israeli landscape in the ancient kingdom we would see, beside the suburbs, herb gardens, orchards and olive plants, then further out, fields of grain and vineyards, and beyond that sheep and goats grazing. The fields of grain and the vineyards have a large area to yield ratio. A single olive tree would feed a family, whereas, a number of vines are required to produce one bottle of wine. The vineyard would be a dominant part of the landscape.
The presence of high yielding grape vines indicates a prosperous and happy land, and the converse is also true:
The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. (Joel 1:10-12 KJV).
There is a link between the appearance of the landscape and the happiness and prosperity of the people. A prosperous land is summarised as one flowing with milk and honey. But the sign of that prosperity was a large cluster of grapes.
And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes And they returned ... and shewed them the fruit of the land. And they said, We came unto the land whither thou sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. (Num. 13:23-27 KJV)
Milk came from sheep and goats which required significant areas of green grass, or in other words consistent rainfall. The by-product of honey is the pollination of grain crops and fruit trees. The grape vine may not be reliant on pollination by bees. A single vine may be planted without concern for pollination because grapes may be self-fruitful. However, in ancient times the bee may have been more essential as the modern grape vine has been inter-crossed and selected for self-fertility. If bees are nearby they will visit grape flowers between 9:30 and 11:30. Bees rather like grape flowers, as they prefer white flowers as they see UV not colour. Even with a self-fertile crop there seems evidence that honey bees increase the yield and weight of grape clusters and improve the quality of grapes. Also production decreases with increasing distance from a bee hive. Such a large cluster of grapes as the spies brought back could only be due to pollination by bees.
It is an aside that perhaps science is now discovering what was well known in ancient Egypt, for the spies as evidence that the land flowed with honey did not bring back any honey, but rather they brought back fruit, something pollinated by bees in the process of making honey. Not only fruit, but, specifically a very large cluster of grapes.
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