Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
One of my hobbies is gardening – specifically tomatoes. I enjoy fresh tomatoes on a summer day! That said, did you know that if you want more tomato plants, you can clip off a branch, stick it in the ground, tend it carefully, and – BOOM! – you’ll have another plant with more tomatoes to eat? I didn’t – but it’s true!
Gardening helps me more closely experience God’s amazing creation. And my newfound knowledge about propagating new life with clippings helps me understand God’s word in Ezekiel 17:22-24. By Ezekiel’s time, God’s children of Israel had fallen away from Him. Though God had given them everything they had, they mostly turned away from Him. Like a tall, strong tree, they grew proud of their own accomplishments and achievements … forgetting God’s saving grace and crediting themselves for all they had. Yet God never grew apart or turned away from His people.
God used the parable of a tall proud tree to illustrate His constant love for Israel. God would bring that proud tree low by clipping off it’s top. Then, from this clipping, He propagated new life saying, “I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar.” (Ezekiel 17:22-23).
From this clipping, the small number of faithful children who hadn’t turned away from Him, God propagated new life in His kingdom. This “clipping” grew into the noble cedar of Jesus Christ, who died on a tree – the cross of Calvary – planted outside Jerusalem. And under Jesus, all nations, including you and me, are offered safety and rest, “And under (this tree) will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest” (Ezekiel 17:23). May God bless us and all who believe in Him as we find rest in His holy presence in our lives.
In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Jim