The vine and the branches. Israel is a picture of the believer’s soul. John 15:1

Title: The vine and the branches. Israel is a picture of the believer’s soul. John 15:1.

 

Gethsemanemeans “oil-press” and it rightly becomes the place of Christ’s greatest pressure, but that will not come until He has completed His discourse which is recorded in John 15 - 16.

 

Nature is a parable of God. These are some of the shadowing in the natural world of spiritual qualities in the nature of God. The vine was made the clinging, needful, and helpless plant it is, that it might for ever remind men of certain deep characteristics of the divine nature.

 

First we noted that the vine represented Israel as God transplanted her from Egypt into the Promised Land.

 

/Ps 80:8

Thou didst remove a vine from Egypt;

Thou didst drive out the nations, and didst plant it. \

 

Israel’s history in this land is fascinating. We are going to look at it in pieces since its 1400 years of history. It is necessary to see how Israel was removed from client nation status because it gives us insight into our own individual spiritual lives.

 

/Israel is a picture of the Church-age believer’s soul, and as such, her history becomes necessary wisdom to the Church. \

 

1 Cor 10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

 

/None of us can afford to be ignorant of doctrine which reveals God’s grace provisions to Israel and the Church.\

 

1 Cor 10:2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud [leading of Jesus Christ] and in the sea [walking across the dry sea-bed];

 

/ “baptized” = identification with Moses as they changed from freaking out to a calm and orderly column following Moses, who followed Christ through the dry sea-bed.\

 

1 Cor 10:3and all ate the same spiritual food;

 

/ “spiritual food” = manna which is a type of Jesus Christ. Now we feed on His word for He is the “bread of life,” John 6:48.\

 

1 Cor 10:4and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.

 

They had a too much water problem (Red Sea), wrong kind of water problem (Meribah), and a no water problem in the desert which God solved with water from a rock. The Rock was again a type of Christ and the water that flowed again represents His word. In all three cases the Jew had to trust God’s promises; operating in the FRD.

 

1 Cor 10:5Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.

 

/Most of the first generation, except for Caleb and Joshua, failed the faith rest technique and they fell under divine discipline.\

 

Faith means that you cannot do it on your own and that God will do it, whatever “it” is because of who God is. This is why without faith it is impossible to please God.

 

“laid low” means that all the adults except for 2 ended up as corpses in the wilderness. They were believers, but they rejected the promises of God for 40 years, which culminated in the sin unto death.

 

1 Cor 10:6Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved.

 

/Craving is the pursuit of lust in all its forms; wealth, power, fame, sex, chemicals, relationships, approbation, etc. \

 

1 Cor 10:7And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, " The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play."

 

The quote is from Exodus 32:6 when Israel made the golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Mosaic Law, the source of God’s prosperity for Israel. The word “play” is misleading. What did they play? Twister? Hopscotch? It refers to a sexual orgy under the worship of the phallic cult as they had learned in Egypt.

 

/Idolatry is a blanket term for religion, including the phallic cult, and is the devil’s ace trump against God’s grace and truth.\

 

/The golden calf incident took place in the first year of the Exodus. After recovery the 12 spies were sent to spy out the land. Then 39 years they wandered around Kadesh-barnea in the wilderness south of the Promised Land.\

 

When the 39 years were up it was time to move out. They were attacked by Canaanites as they headed south-east to go around the Dead Sea and defeated them after praying to God.

 

But it didn’t take long for them to start complaining again. As they journeyed the people got restless and presumed that God took them out to this place to kill them and that Moses was in on it.

 

What they didn’t know is that God was going to kill them several times but Moses prayed and God delayed judgment.

 

The following incidents are in reverse chronological order.

 

1 Cor 10:8Nor let us act immorally [this term refers to acts of fornication], as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.

 

When Israel camped in Moab on the east of the Jordan they played the harlot with the Moabites and worshipped Baal and took Midianite women. Numbers 25.

 

1 Cor 10:9Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.

 

/ “try the Lord” = test or tease the Lord that He will not provide for you.\

 

As Israel approached Moab they complained and presumed God was out to kill them. God sent fiery serpents and they changed their tune quickly. Numbers 21.

 

1 Cor 10:10Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

 

While still in the wilderness early in the first 40 years there were three men, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram who convinced 250 of the leading men to attempt a coup-de-tat against Moses and Aaron. The ground opened and swallowed up the three ring leaders along with their families and fire reigned down on the 250 and destroyed them. Numbers 16.

 

/Grumble = rejection of God’s system of authority.\

 

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1 Cor 10:11Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

 

/The Church-age is the summing up of all things in Christ. Their example is our warning. They were once the vine and now you are a branch in the True Vine.\

 

We are not waiting for any prophecy to be fulfilled before our age ends, and when our age does end the hundreds of prophecies concerning the Tribulation and the Millennium will begin. The scripture is complete and we complete the body of Christ and when our age ends, all that is written in the scripture will begin like a prophetic clock ticking away until the last.

 

1 Cor 10:12Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

 

/When ego lust combines with religion and legalism you become the biggest dope in the world.\

 

 

 

1 Cor 10:13No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

 

/Your testing is human and comes upon all humans. With doctrine applied [the way of escape] these tests become a source of accelerated spiritual growth.\

 

John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

   

John 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.

 

/ “He takes away” does not refer to loss of salvation but to severance from the source of blessing, which is loss of communion with Christ.\