Wood of the Vine

The Lord has had me reading in Ezekiel. Today I was reading chapter 15, which talks about the wood of the vine. This chapter says it is not good for anything other than firewood. Interestingly, it is the 15th chapter of John in which Jesus also talks about the vine. He declares that He is "the true vine" and says we are the branches attached to the vine. The vine gives life to the branches from which fruit comes. If we are not connected, we will not have life. Even if we are connected and do not bear fruit, we will be cut off and burned like the vine of Ezekiel. Jesus declares, "He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)

In Ezekiel God says He will give up to fire the inhabitants of His beloved Jerusalem "because they have persisted in unfaithfulness." (15:8) The result is desolation of the land, economic destruction. It is not unlike what we see happening in the USA where every day's headline is about another financial bailout that is unproductive. In the 16th chapter of Ezekiel God says, "...cause Jerusalem to know her abominations," and I pray that the desolation we are seeing in our world will cause us to see our abominations represented in greed, racism, murder, violence, hedonism, and on and on and on.