A DEGENERATE VINE
"Israel is a luxuriant vine, that putteth forth his fruit; according to the abundance of his fruit he hath multiplied his altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly pillars. Their heart is divided."—Hosea 10:1-2a.
Again, chapter ten is a complete message. In the process of the prophecy it concludes a section in which the prophet was dealing with the pollution and the punishment of the people. When we resume at chapter eleven for the remaining chapters, we shall find another note.
The message is of the nature of recapitulation and appeal; and it opens with the words of our text, in which the whole case is stated as to national failure and its cause. The failure is stated in verse one; and the cause in that brief sentence which is the opening sentence of verse two. The failure is stated thus, "Israel is a luxuriant vine that putteth forth his fruit." That is the story of failure. And the result of the failure is this: "according to the abundance of his fruit he hath multiplied his altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly pillars." Then the prophet declares in one brief sentence, the all-inclusive cause of failure, "Their heart is divided."
Our article will follow these lines; first, considering the failure as here set forth, of God's ancient people, and the application of the principles to our own times and conditions; and secondly, considering this startling and yet remarkable revelation of the cause of the failure, "Their heart is divided."
We are immediately arrested by the figure of speech which is used. "Israel is a luxuriant vine." The King James Version rendered it, "an empty vine." That is a palpable inaccuracy. It might be rendered an emptying vine. The idea is not that of a vine barren, but of a vine bearing fruit, and that plentifully. Our Revisers have certainly caught the idea far more accurately, as they have it rendered, "Israel is a luxuriant vine."
To us the figure of the vine is familiar, but our familiarity with it is principally that of its place in the New Testament, in that marvelous final set discourse of our Lord, uttered to His own disciples immediately before His Cross, which discourse began with the words, "I am the Vine, the true," (John 15:1) or as we have rendered it, for the sake of supposed euphony, "I am the true Vine." I prefer to retain the method of the Greek idiom here, with the defining word coming last, sharply, quickly, as our Lord intended it, "I am the Vine, the true." In any case it is that discourse which makes us familiar with the figure.
But it is important to recognize that our Lord was using no new figure of speech; to the men who heard Him then it was an old and familiar figure. Let us rapidly note the places of its occurrence in the Old Testament, The figure emerges, in the history of the ancient people, in Psalm 80, a great Psalm of Asaph, the leader of the singing. Asaph was evidently mourning over some hour of catastrophe in the national life. He began:
"Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock."
At verse eight he sang:
"Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt;
Thou didst drive out the nations, and plantedst it,
Thou preparedst room before it,
And it took deep root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with the shadow of it,
And the boughs thereof were like cedars of God.
It sent out its branches unto the sea,
And its shoots unto the river."
Then immediately he said:
"Look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine."
That is the place in the literature, and probably in the history of these people, where this figure of speech emerged. Asaph wrote the music unquestionably for temple use, and probably wrote the words in this case also; and he likened the nation to a vine, the vine brought out of Egypt and planted. From that time on the vine seems to have been the national symbol. In the days of our Lord, the great gate of the Temple, the outer gate, had emblazoned upon it a golden vine. It was the symbol of the national life, a very significant fact when we listen to Jesus saying,
"I am the Vine, the true."
Then when we come to the period of the prophets, of which Hosea was one, it constantly occurs. Isaiah, the contemporary of Hosea, employed it in his song of the vineyard, in chapter five.
"Let me sing for my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill . . . and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes."
Jeremiah, a later prophet, used the same figure of speech, as he described the nation as a "degenerate vine."
Ezekiel, on four or five occasions, used the symbol of the vine, and that in most remarkable ways. Thus from the time of the kings, and the more ancient history, and through the prophetic period, it was the figure of speech employed as the symbol of national life, and when Hosea said, "Israel is a luxuriant vine," he was employing a familiar figure of speech. If this was a delivered message, when he began, I can imagine that those listening to him were not a little flattered. At first probably they did not detect the method of satire that breathed in his choosing of the figure of speech.
Let us go back for a glance at Isaiah's song. If the figure emerges in Psalm 80, and is almost constant in the prophetic writings, it is especially interpreted in Isaiah. The opening sentences refer to the vine and the one who planted it; and then follows the interpretation. I content myself with reading the final verse, verse seven:
"For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant."
Isaiah was a prophet to Judah, and here he was addressing them immediately. "And He looked for justice, but, behold, oppression." The figure says, "He looked for grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." That is figurative language. What does it mean? I am not left to speculation. Isaiah interprets. " He looked for justice, He beheld oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry." That is the interpretation of the figure of the vine. The vine was God's planting. What for? To bear fruit. What fruit? Grapes—Justice and righteousness. It brought forth wild grapes. What were they? Instead of justice, oppression; and instead of righteousness a cry; really—although the reading would not be quite euphemistic—a shriek! That was the national picture. The ideal nation was created by God to bear the fruit of justice and of righteousness for the world. When He sought for fruit He sought for justice, but found its opposite, oppression; when He sought for righteousness, as a root from which peace and joy must come, He heard a cry, the cry of its iniquity and its suffering, consequent upon its failure.
Now let us return to Hosea's words. "Israel is a luxuriant vine, that putteth forth" what? "His fruit." This pronoun is not printed with a capital H in the text, and in thinking of it we may think it refers to God. But it is not so. It refers to the nation which is bringing forth its own fruit. The whole emphasis of interpretation and understanding is there. He said Israel is a luxuriant vine that puts forth his own fruit, instead of the fruit for which God is looking. The nation was producing fruit, but its own fruit. If, following me patiently, and thoughtfully, and I hope critically examining as I go, someone is inclined to doubt this, then observe what immediately follows:
"According to the abundance of his fruit he bath multiplied his altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly pillars."
According to the fruit, the altars; according to the prosperity of the land, monuments; showing at once that the prophet was emphasizing the fact, not of success, but of failure. Israel is a luxuriant vine; the vine is here. It is bearing fruit, but look at the fruit, and its nature is revealed in the multiplied altars, and the monuments that are raised everywhere. "Israel is a luxuriant vine, that puts forth his own fruit." That is exactly what Isaiah was saying in the southern kingdom. He looked for grapes, and behold wild grapes; He looked for justice, and they had brought forth oppression, wild grapes; He looked for righteousness, and He heard the cry of the oppressed, and the cry of those in misery.
To summarize then: the charge as here declared is that the nation had failed, in that it was seeking its own interests, instead of the fulfillment of God's purposes.
The words following emphasize the resulting degeneration of religion. According to his fruit, the self-centered seeking of the nation, the altars are built, and they have become the centers of selfishness instead of the symbols and centers of sacrifice. According to the prosperity which is material, they have put up their pillars, their goodly columns; and the word "goodly" is a word referring to artistic perfection. Mark again the irony of it. According to their prosperity they had built themselves ornate idols; altars that were no longer the centers and symbols of sacrifice, but the centers of selfishness. God was lost, mislaid, and instead of Him there were ornate pillars, columns, stones. That was the degeneration of religion, the making of religion conforms to the low standard of life. The whole nation forgetting the meaning of its nationality; forgetting that it was a vine God had planted to bear fruit for all peoples; living a self-centered life, and in order that the life may be continued with placidity, religion degenerates; the altars are multiplied, and in place of God, ornate idols are erected.
That day has gone, and the existing conditions have passed. The local color has faded from the canvas. We are living in other times, and under other conditions. But the essential values abide. Let us look at these.
What does the prophet mean to teach, or shall I rather say, what does the prophet teach which is permanent? That it is possible to prostitute the resources which God confers upon His people in order that they might function in the world, for the sake of the world itself. All those resources may be taken and consumed upon selfish interests.
Underneath that lies another principle, never to be forgotten, that the resources of God are always to be placed at the disposal of men, and that not merely that men may receive them, but that they also may be channels, that they may pass on to other men, and so all men may be reached. The God of the Bible is a missionary God. All the elections of God, of men, of nations, are elections in order that through the men and through the nations so chosen, His beneficent purposes shall reach out to the world. It was because these people came to a false understanding of the doctrine of election that they perished. They came to think of themselves as elected of God—yes, let me say it—to be the pet of God, the pampered of the Most High; the people that God loved, while He left the rest of the world to drift by. That was the lie that ruined them; and has robbed them in the world even until this hour of moral and spiritual significance. That is the peril that threatens the Church of God, the forgetfulness of the fact that every benefit is a deposit for which we are responsible, not for self-consumption, but for passing it to others. A luxuriant vine; the very resources are God's resources, but the fruit is not the fruit for which He is seeking.
Here is an acid test of all life; an acid test for the individual; an acid test for the Church; an acid test for the nation. When in national affairs we make our boast that we are the people of God as amid all people, when we think of the Church as elect of God, when we consider ourselves individually as the recipients of God's favor, let us never forget the reason of the choice, the election, the favor. If God has created us a nation, it is in order that through us the breadth and beauty and beneficence of the Divine government may be revealed and administered to all peoples. If God has created the nation, the fruits He desires, what are they? Justice and righteousness. If He finds oppression, and if He hears a cry, then the nation may be a luxuriant vine, but it is bringing forth its own fruit, and so is a disastrous failure.
The same is true in application to the Church. What are we after? What is our purpose? What is our passion? What do we want? What are we absolutely trying to do? What is our goal, our aim, our objective? Should anyone say, "we are seeking the crowds," the numbers, the next question is, what for? Why do we want to see our congregations increase in our Churches, and the people flocking to our doors?
In that is involved yet another question. How are we seeking to attract them? Our passion to-day is for efficiency. Splendid. But still we ask, efficient for what?
Let us yet ask another question. What is the result of all our activity, of the multiplication of agencies and associations and committees and Synods and Sessions and groups, and whatnots? What is the issue? I am not answering my question. I am asking it. Is it justice? Is the result of our toil and our activity justice? Or are we still condoning oppression? Is the result of all our service righteousness? Or does God hear a cry?
I said that the word may be rendered "a shriek." The word is very remarkable. Let me give you two illustrations of its use. It occurs first in Genesis eighteen, when it is said that God heard the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is the same word in Exodus, when God heard the cry of the oppressed people coming up from Egypt. So the word may be used to mark a condition of sin or of suffering; but wherever, listening, one hears the howling of the sinner, or the wailing of sorrow, we know conditions contrary to His mind, contrary to His will.
The question is vital, is the Church in her activity today bearing the fruit for which God is seeking? The acid test of any Church's life is that of her passion, that of her purpose; and ultimately, that of her results. If the passion be merely for a crowd or the numbers, if the passion be merely for organic efficiency, then all sorts of things fasten on to the life of the Church, parasitic growths, para-church organizations, sapping energy, contributing nothing to her value in the world. The Church is cursed today with fungus growths, all sorts of institutions, until one hears constantly the click of machinery; and then we look for fruit, and the ultimate question is what the fruit is, that of the Divine intention, or that of our selfishness. A people God-made may be a luxuriant vine, may be spreading forth their branches, and yet failing to function according to the Divine purpose.
Now consider what the prophet says happens. This again is a startling thing. He does not say these things result from altars and columns. He says altars and columns result from these things. "Israel is a luxuriant vine, that putteth forth his fruit; according to the abundance of his fruit he hath multiplied his altars." The deficiency in the religious life of the nation resulted in the multiplication of altars, because the nation had to adapt its religion to conform to its failure. The altars were ornate and artistic; but no sacrifice was inspired by them. They put up columns, as I have said, ornate altars instead of God; stone, passivity instead of passion, for passivity and passion mean the exact opposite. We see the columns all through the land, highly carved and beautiful, and aesthetic pillars, rising in their stately glory, shall I say splendor? Yes, if I may, but another word is needed—impotence; stone instead of bread; passivity instead of passion; human artistry instead of Divine beauty. What is the difference between the beauty of God and human artistry? Where do we see the beauty of God most perfectly? Do we see it in the star-bespangled heavens? No. In the wonders of Nature, as we observe them in the infinitely small and the great? No. Where do we see it most perfectly? In the wounded and mutilated Man of the Cross. That is beauty. To the Greek with his passion for so-called culture and refinement, and everything that is aesthetic, it was ugliness. A mutilated man is an offence to beauty, says the Greek. But we know full well that all Heaven's beauty shines in the way of the Cross. Every man or woman who is twisted and maimed and disfigured for life, through sacrifice and service, has a beauty not to be found in the Art which despises disfiguration. In the Song of Solomon, the Shulammite says at one point,
"They made me keeper of the vineyards;
But mine own vineyard have I not kept."
She was not complaining. She was glorying in the fact that she had lost her complexion in service. Talking to the women of the court in the marvelous idyllic poetry, she said in effect: It is quite true, I have been out in the fields, and I have lost my complexion. That is what she meant by "I am black, but I am comely." There is beauty in a marred face when it is marred in the service of others. Things of artistic refinement, goodly columns; things of aesthetic beauty, instead of the God of the Cross; things of human artistry instead of Divine beauty; and the inevitable result, a degraded people.
Gather it all up and express it in a sentence or two. A people God-created, God-planted; a people intended to function for God in the interests of humanity at large; a vine planted by God to bring forth the fruit of justice and righteousness; the vine is still existing, the branches are spreading; and the statistics seem to be satisfactory, and yet, there may be no fruit that satisfies the passion of God. If that is so, religion degenerates, altars record no sacrifice; the symbols of selfishness replace God. The worship of the artistic according to human thinking, and the relegation of the religion of the Cross into the background as something vulgar, is always the degeneration of religion.
Then in a short, sharp, arresting sentence Hosea reveals the reason for the failure; "Their heart is divided." The word rendered "heart," and so constantly used in the Old Testament, means something which is enclosed. Physically it refers to the innermost organ of the body, which is the center of action and life. Figuratively it is employed sometimes as referring to feelings, sometimes as referring to the intellect, and sometimes as referring to the will. It is most often used as referring to the sum totality of personality. In this case it is used without any question as referring to the central realm of personality, the realm of desire. The heart divided!
We are arrested, and at first almost startled by this word "divided." Not the English word, but the Hebrew word Chalaq. It means smooth. In what sense, or how can that mean "divided "? They came to use that word for divided, because it applied to the smooth stones with which they cast lots. Sometimes we say in America, a man is dicing his inheritance away. We have taken the word dicing from the instrument of gambling. They used smooth stones, with which they cast lots in dividing. Divided, smooth, casting lots.
In the central realm of personality, the realm of desire, they were casting lots, gambling with God, playing God off against something else, playing something else off against God, flinging dice in the center of personality. Their heart was a gambling-house.
Or to return to our common use of the word divided. One of the ancient psalmists prayed a prayer, and what a prayer it was. He said, "Unite my heart to fear Thy name." (Psa. 86:11) Jeremiah uttering the word of God said to the people, "I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them." (Jer. 32:39) It is the divided heart which causes the trouble. When into the realm of desire we allow God and something else to enter and compete for mastery that is the story of all failure. We begin by wanting God and something else, and now we want something else and God; and God will not be there on those terms. Consequently we eliminate Him, we mislay Him; and when He is mislaid the vine remains, but the fruit changes. Instead of the grapes, wild grapes, acrid, acid, poisonous, destructive; instead of justice, oppression; instead of righteousness, a cry; and all because the heart is divided.
Let us end the article by grouping some words scattered across the Bible. Again a psalmist is speaking: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever." (Psa. 27:4) One thing. Jesus is speaking to a rich young ruler, "One thing thou lackest." (Luke 18:22) Jesus is speaking to a woman cumbered with caring about things, "One thing is needful." (Luke 10:42) A little way on, a great soul says, "One thing I do, forgetting the things behind, I press towards the mark." (Phil. 3:13) One thing, one thing, one thing! Someone says, "I should not like to be a man of one idea." Why not? It depends upon your idea. If your idea is big enough you have not room for more than one. If the one idea be to dwell in the house of the Lord; if the one idea be to render absolute allegiance to Him and follow His Christ; if the one idea is to be so completely under His domination to fulfill His purpose; if the one idea is to reach the goal, to fulfill His purpose, and to be His instrument of blessing; you do not want two ideas. The trouble with us is that the passion for variety puts God in a list with other things. That is the divided heart. We need to pray in our own hearts, "Unite my heart to serve Thee, O God." Deut. 10:12) Focused.
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