It has been fun to watch our twin grandsons, who received some age-appropriate jigsaw puzzles for Christmas...learn how to put them together, then immediately dismantle them before putting all the pieces back together again. They even take those to bed with them at night and repeat the process over and over until they fall asleep. I only mention this because I have referred to this Bible of ours as having many ‘pieces’ of scripture that when put together, with the leading of God’s Spirit...allows a clear picture to emerge that reveals what we are seeing happen in the land today. And it's really not the 'same picture' that so many others seem to see.

Yesterday, I touched on this idea of ‘walls’ being erected to provide protection for the land. God does that with His ‘vineyard’, as well. (Matt. 21:33). These walls, or ‘hedges’ are designed to keep ‘unwanted creatures’ out so that the growing fruit within its borders are allowed to thrive and reproduce. It is good fruit, after all...that God has been looking for since...well, ever since He first put man on the earth. (Gen. 1:28). That message or objective has never changed and Jesus Himself reminds us that is how the Father is glorified...when we ...‘bear much fruit’. (John 15:8)

Something else we probably need to be reminded of frequently is that ‘apart from Him, we can do nothing’. (John 15:5). In fact the ONLY way in which this good fruit is produced in us...is when we ‘abide in Him’. (4-5). And I hate to bring this up again, but given the fact many might be asking...”how can I know if I am truly abiding in Jesus?”...all I can do is point you back to scripture that says IF...we are ‘in Him’ or ‘abiding in Him’...we will be walking as He walked, keeping the commandments of God...and no longer sinning. (1 John 2:3-6, & 3:6). That is what a 'New, Born-Again Creation'...does (2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 6:4; 1 John 3:9). I realize that does not fit in with the popular narrative we hear taught today that suggests we are ‘all sinners who continue to sin and fail God’. But John would suggest otherwise, as would Peter. (1 John 5:18; 1 Pet. 4:1-2)

So when both John the Baptist and Jesus warn us as to what happens to ‘trees that fail to bring forth good fruit’, (Matt. 3:8-10; 7:19; 13:30,41-43; Luke 13:6-9;John 15:6), it can lead to a fair question of: ‘how...are these fruitless or bad-yielding fruit trees going to be dealt with?’ And we got a glimpse of that yesterday when we looked through Isaiah 5. God Himself...’lowered the hedge’...and all hell was permitted to break loose. When that happens, God’s people...end up ‘going into captivity’. (Isa. 5:13). Do you know what usually precedes this, God’s people going into captivity? Pride does. (Jer. 13:15-17). And how much time have you given to pondering what it means to ‘go into captivity’...and ‘who or what’ is the one taking us ...captive?

Take a look at Isaiah 5:24-25 and note the illustrations of ‘fire and flames’ that ‘devour and consume’. If the first thing that comes to your mind is ‘natural fires’ like the ones we’ve seen causing much damage in California, then you need to step back and ask God to give you ‘spiritual understanding and insight’ here.

If you recall from my previous post, Paul talked about how we are living in a time where God is ‘revealing’ to us how and why His ‘wrath’ is being poured out on ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of men’, (Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6). That is not... ‘going to be revealed’ ...but ‘IS...being revealed’. (And it is not revealed to everyone either- Luke 10:21)  Isaiah 42:23-25 points out, once again...how God deals with His people when they refuse to walk in obedience to Him. He ‘pours out His fury of anger’...like ‘fire all around’...and yet... God’s people are oblivious to it. They just don’t ‘take it to heart’.

Jeremiah chimes in, speaking on behalf of God when he writes: “My people do not know the judgement of the Lord.” (Jer. 8:7). So when Jesus likens the last days as being similar to the ‘days of Noah’...and how the ‘floods came and took them all way’...they did not even know what was happening to them until it was too late. (Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:27)

Oh...this idea of God ‘lowering a hedge’... did He not do this which then gave Satan access to come in and greatly afflict Job? In this case, I make the point to consider that it was for our benefit we were given this insight into how this all works. Job did nothing...to incite God to this action. (Job 1:10; 2:3). We know for a fact that Job was ‘blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil’. (1:1-2). This is why I suggest the idea that Job was a ‘type of Christ’ in that he suffered without cause...so many could benefit and be enlightened.

John, writing in his first letter addressed to like minded believers, speaks in a matter-of-fact tone saying: “We know...whoever is born of God does not sin...and the wicked one does not touch him.” (5:18).

When Jesus healed a man who had been afflicted for 38 years, an ‘immediate’ healing I might add, He sees him later in the temple, offering up a helpful piece of advice: “I see you are well. Go...and sin no more or something worse might happen to you.” (John 5:14). You know, Jesus did not have to use that wording -‘sin no more’. He could have watered it down, like we hear in most churches today and cautioned him how it would be better to ‘sin less because we all know we are sinners who continue to sin’. But that is not what Jesus said at all. Why did He come across sounding so ...unreasonable? Who can go and actually ‘sin no more’? Well...those who have surrendered to Jesus and learn to abide in Him do.

Tomorrow, Lord willing, we'll begin to look at those ‘foreigners’ who come in to ‘steal, kill, and destroy’ when the hedge comes down.