This Article: (7 Pages)
- 1. The Grape Vine & Prosperity
- 2. Israel's symbol is a Grape Vine
- 3. The support structure?
- 4. Yeshua and the image of the vine
- 5. Of Wine, War and Judgement
- 6. Analogy
- 7. Israel and the grape vine leaf.
4) Yeshua and the image of the vine
Yeshua, therefore, delves deep into Israel's historical association when he talks to his disciples. He says
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. (Joh 15:1-8 KJV)
Yeshua was not using a new analogy, rather he was using one that was close to the hearts of his audience. For us there is a legacy of Israel's past, in that we, as the disciples of Yeshua, must see ourselves as branches of the vine. When we see how the vine has been used to refer to Israel there is an enormous scale to Yeshua's claim that he is the “true vine”. But there is something also to consider. Yeshua, just as the prophets of old, does not mention the support structure. Why did he not mention it? He was talking to people who lived within the structure of the law. He had no need to mention the structure. He had already said his coming did not destroy the Law.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. (Mat 5:17)
However, the people subsequently gathered from the nations also become supported on this structure. Paul writes to the Romans to establish this point.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Rom 3:31 ).
So Yeshua in choosing to call himself the 'true vine' firmly equated his role with that of Israel. He was the law fulfilled. In him were all of the promises to Israel made manifest and through him was now to come the 'fruit' Yahweh desired. The fruit of righteousness.
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