“The Lord did this to purge Israel’s wickedness, to take away all her sin. As a result, all the pagan altars will be crushed to dust. No Asherah pole or pagan shrine will be left standing. The fortified towns will be silent and empty, the houses abandoned, the streets overgrown with weeds. Calves will graze there, chewing on twigs and branches. The people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots. Israel is a foolish and stupid nation, for its people have turned away from God. Therefore, the one who made them will show them no pity or mercy.”
Isaiah 27:9-11 NLT
The picture Isaiah painted from his thoughts was one of future desolation, an apocryphal scene of towns intact but with all inhabitants gone. Signs of neglect would be everywhere. There would be no people, only a few calves left wandering. They would have no proper food, so they would fare the best they could on what they could find, mainly twigs and branches. Their future would be uncertain. The Asherah poles and pagan shrines would all be demolished, a fitting end to the idolatry that brought Israel down. As he mused on the picture before him, Isaiah compared the people to branches found on a forest floor, branches that had died and, after falling off the tree, were left mouldering until they eventually disappeared, absorbed into the vegetable detritus below the trees. And all because they had “turned away from God“. God would have no pity or mercy for them because He would honour the choices they had made. He had to, because that was how He created them. In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, we read, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. That same principle applies to all human beings who have the capacity to make the choices to which God referred.
As we read yesterday, Jesus is the true Vine, and He said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). He then said, “Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.” It’s obvious, really. Any branch that loses the life-giving sap that runs through a tree will inevitably die and fall off, no longer useful for bearing fruit. It might be useful for heating cooking pots or fertilising the ground for future growth, but nothing else. In the same way, any Christian who ceases to be connected to Jesus by following His ways will end up in the same place as a useless branch, “gathered into a pile to be burned”.
Jesus’ analogy of His disciples as branches growing from a grapevine was one they would immediately relate to. Any gardener today will understand this analogy as well, because there are many bushes that consist of a decorative variety grafted onto a wild root and trunk. My wife and I had a cherry tree planted in our front garden, with the wild part so vigorous that it started to take over, and the impressive display of grafted blossom became smaller and smaller each year. Isaiah’s picture of desolated towns, empty of the people he described as dead branches, fits well with what Paul wrote in Romans 11:17: “But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree“. As with my cherry tree, we pilgrims are new branches grafted into the original rootstock, Jesus Himself.
The question for us pilgrims is about the fruit we are producing, if any. Jesus said, “[His Father] cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more” (John 15:2). The danger for disciples everywhere, even us pilgrims, is that we stop producing fruit. But what fruit are we supposed to be producing? We find a list in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” How can we test ourselves objectively to assess our fruit-bearing? As the Psalmist David wrote, we need to bear our souls before God and pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23-24). What is God saying to us today about the condition of our hearts?
But back to the question about the fruit we are producing. Here are some signs of slowly growing spiritual fruit in our lives: are we noticing that we react more calmly than we used to when facing times of stress and anxiety? Do we care deeply about the well-being of others, even when it requires sacrifice or the forgiveness of wrongs? Do we refuse to respond to harsh words, instead letting the Holy Spirit help us to hold our tongues? Are we consistently faithful to God rather than just visiting Him from time to time? Many more examples show the Holy Spirit producing the kinds of fruit God desires in our lives, and we don’t have to strive to produce them. Living a life pliable in God’s hand is all that is required.
Many questions remain for us pilgrims today, but no matter how difficult the answers may be, we need to reflect on them. Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). We need to trust Jesus in all that we do, not just in times of difficulty. We need to listen constantly to the voice of the Holy Spirit within us, allowing Him to guide us into all truth and help us produce the fruit that God desires. Paul wrote, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). God never intended us to become useless branches. Thankfully, God is in the recycling business. He takes the useless and transforms them into the useful through the blood of Jesus. A miracle, if there ever was one.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for Your grace and love, and for Jesus, who came at just the right time so that we might be restored and justified, no longer useless. We declare our faith and trust in You, and we invest our lives deeply in Your life-giving Spirit, so that we can produce the fruit You require. We ask this in Your precious name. Amen.
