“Go up among the vineyard terraces and destroy them, but do not finish them off. Prune away her shoots, for they do not belong to the LORD.”
Jeremiah 5:10
Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
“Go up among the vineyard terraces” declared The LORD to Jeremiah. The sense of foreboding has built from the moment Jeremiah was commissioned to announce to the city of Jerusalem, a word of judgement from God (Jr 1:9-10, 17-19). Things have not looked good for the descendants of Abraham for a while now. Their total renunciation (Jr 5:7-9) of God’s covenant blessing (Gen 12:1-3;15:13-16; 22:15-18; 26:4-6) with their forefathers took them down a path of all kinds of evil. The LORD describes their wicked hunger for the wrong to be like an unbroken stallion tearing up the clay, kicking up the dust and braying through bit and bridle (v. 8). The wrong itself, God understands in terms of adultery, a brazen unfaithful, lusting after another person’s spouse. In all their eager evil, they had forgotten those entrusted into their care, the fatherless and the needy.
Sounds like Jerusalem deserved chastisement. The human mind says “Okay, send Jeremiah to the palace, or to the temple. Let him shake the pillars like the doomed and mighty Samson! That will get the people’s attention!” How high are the ways of God above those of men! Yahweh, The LORD, instead sends His prophet up into the hill country, among the grapevines. It was time to do some gardening. Not quite the picture of doom we would expect from a God who parted seas and made the sun stand still. The message, however, is strikingly clear. The vines were everywhere, growing off the lattice, intertwined and unruly. Clip, snip, clip go the limb loppers. It was high time for God to get back to the basics with the people of Jerusalem, the building blocks of child-to-parent faithfulness. Now it would be obedience or correction.
In this scripture, I am reminded of an old Civil War lyric
“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.”
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, v. 1 written by Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, written in 1861 by American abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, was penned during a time when men and women were in the right to buy, sell and own other men and women as property, like a cow or horse. Talk about taking advantage of the needy and fatherless! Howe foresaw a heavenly vision of God’s glorious justice, but where? In a vat of grapes! God has the uncanny ability to take His creation and draw His truth out of it! If He can demonstrate His justice through a vineyard and a handful of grapes, think what lays in store for those who follow Him in obedience! That kind of God can use any situation for the good of those who love Him.
God’s Son, Jesus calls Himself the true vine, and all those who obey Him in faith branch out of Him (Jn 15:5). Model your life around the lessons taught by Jesus, and you will find yourself budding with life. What’s that there? Look, I think there’s a tender shoot putting out new growth! Listen to God’s righteous correction and grow in Him, the true vine! When we belong to Christ by faith and remain in Him through obedience, God’s truth is still marches around on this earth in our shoes!
“Remember, God is as Great as He is Good!”
Noah R. Hunt
POIEMA: Created for Truth 