Grain, Vines, and Olives: Becoming Part of God’s Fruitful People

29 May, 202125 June, 2021Marissa

The Bible uses a lot of agricultural imagery. You’re probably most familiar with this from Jesus’s parables about sowers and fields, or His statement “I am the vine.” These sorts of analogies are rooted both in the culture of Jesus’s day and in the Old Testament writings, and they focus on three types of plants: grain, vines, and olive trees. Those plants are also the three main agricultural products of Palestinian farming: “grain, new wine, and oil” (Theological Wordbook: Old Testament, entry 1040a). These three things figured prominently in scripture, mostly in tithes and offerings (Lev. 23:13; Deut. 14:23; 18:4; 2 Chr. 31:5; Neh. 10:39; 13-12) and promised blessings (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 31:12; Hos. 2:8, 22; Joel 2:19, 24).

Grain, vines, and olive trees were a key part of culture in Bible times and they’re used in teachings that are a key part of our faith. The study I’m sharing today started out with the question, “How can we bear fruit for God?” and the more I looked into it the more fascinated I became with the way God and the writers He inspired use these three plants to tell us about His plan, kingdom, and relationship with people. At first, I planned to divide this up into three posts (one for each type of plant), but the way the Bible talks about them is so intertwined I don’t think that would be useful. That means today’s post is a little on the long side, but I hope you’ll find this study as interesting as I do 🙂

A Brief History of God’s Vineyard

Obviously, grain, vines, and olives are useful for physical things. They were key to food production, they were used extensively for tithes and offerings, and olive wood played an important role in construction. In addition to these uses (and perhaps because these plants were so well-known and widely used), the Bible also talks about metaphors and spiritual parallels for us using these three types of plants and their produce. Hosea offers a great example of this.

Near the beginning of Hosea’s book, God brings a complaint against Israel, His unfaithful wife who “has refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil” (2:8, NET). God’s punishment for her idolatry was to “take back my grain … and my new wine,” turning the cultivated land for food production into an “uncultivated thicket” (2:12, 15). That’s not the end of the story, though.

I will commit myself to you in faithfulness;
then you will acknowledge the Lord.
“At that time, I will willingly respond,” declares the Lord.
“I will respond to the sky,
and the sky will respond to the ground;
then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;
and they will respond to ‘God Plants’ (Jezreel)!
Then I will plant her as my own in the land.
Hosea 2:20-23, NET

When a new covenant is restored with God’s people Israel, the agricultural blessings return. God’s people are compared to “a fertile vine that yielded fruit” (Hos. 10:1, NET). In this passage, Israel is also counseled to plow up the ground of their lives and bear new crop–righteousness and love rather than wickedness and injustice (10:11-13). Here in Hosea, we see the fruit of grain, grape, and olive plants used to speak of blessings, punishment, and (most relevant to today’s topic) the state of human hearts. Are we planted by God, or growing wild? Are we sowing with a good harvest in mind, or investing in bearing bad fruit?

Cultivating a Faithful People

In the Old Testament, Israel is often compared to a vine. Typically, it’s in a negative context. Israel was a vine that betrayed God and so He withdrew His protection from them (Psalm 80:8-16). It was a vineyard where the grapes went sour, rotten, and foul (Is. 5:1-7; Jer. 2:21). It was a fruitful vine that used its fruit to worship a false god (Hos. 10:1). The consequences of all this unfaithfulness was to be punished, burned like a dried-out vine cut away from a plant (Ezk. 15:1-7; 19:10-14). There is, however, a promise of restoration. The Lord will protect and water His vineyard, and Israel will blossom and thrive (Is. 27:1-6; Hos. 14:4-8).

The way the prophets talked about Israel as a vine would have been very familiar to the Jewish people of Jesus’s day. When He taught parables which compared the kingdom of God to a vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16; 21:33-46), His listeners would have connected it to what they heard read in the temple about Israel as God’s vineyard. And when Jesus spoke of a vineyard where the people tending it betrayed the owner, the “chief priests and the Pharisees … realized that he was speaking about them” when Jesus said, “for this reason I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce it’s fruit” (Matt. 21:43-46, NET).

Jesus–as the Word who delivered God’s message to the prophets–knew exactly what He was doing when He compared the kingdom of God to a vineyard, showed that the Lord is the only one with the right to decide how that vineyard is managed, and warned that the unfaithful would not be allowed to grow in the kingdom/vineyard forever (Matt. 15:12-13). Much like the parables where Jesus compares His people and people’s reactions to His word to grain (Matt. 13:18-30), the way Jesus talks about vines shows that the kingdom’s inhabitants are not a group which automatically includes any one type of people based on their background. He’s specifically cultivating a field/vineyard full of faithful people, regardless of where they started out “growing.”

All Nations Grafted In

We’ll come back to the idea of fruitfulness, but this last point about a change in the composition of the field/vineyard also connects to an olive tree analogy that Paul uses in Romans. Like vines and grain, olives figure prominently in scripture. Olive oil was used to anoint kings and priests, and as part of the offerings. Olive wood was used to build sukkas (Neh. 8:15) and in the temple construction (1 Kings 6:23, 31-33). Someone who trusts “in God’s loyal love” is “like a flourishing olive tree” (Ps. 52:8, NET). Much like the vine imagery, Israel was also called a once fruitful and “thriving olive tree” that became “good for nothing” through unfaithfulness and was set on fire (Jer. 11:16, NET).

It’s with that background that Paul uses olive trees imagery to show his gentile readers how they relate to the Jews (which represented one tribe of Israel, Judah, though Paul uses them to stand-in for all of physical Israel). Even in the Old Testament, the name “Israel” referred to both a physical nation and to a smaller group of spiritual, faithful believers (Rom. 11:1-4). A similar thing is happening today, only now this faithful remnant doesn’t just include descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It includes those who were once outside Israel as well and who’ve responded to God’s call (Rom. 11:5-16).

To illustrate this, Paul compares Israel to a cultivated olive tree and the Gentiles (ethnos in Greek; tribes, peoples, nations) to a wild olive tree. Both groups are olives–people made in the image of God–but one has a longer history of being chosen, tended, and cultivated by God for a specific purpose. Now, the Master Gardener is expanding His cultivation project. He’s pruning out those who do not believe and grafting in those who have faith. Which olive tree you came from doesn’t matter; only the state of your heart (Rom. 11:17-24). In other words, God is still working in the same vineyard/field/orchard that He has always had, cultivating a kingdom people, but He is bringing new vines and branches in and grafting them all onto one Root.

How to Bear Fruit for God

Jesus is the holy root which makes the branches grafted into Him holy (Is. 11:1-10; 53:1-5; Rom. 11:16; 15:8-13; Eph. 3:16-19; Col. 2:6-7; Rev. 5:5; 22:16). Remember all those verses about Israel as an unfaithful, fruitless vineyard and the prophecy about future growth? Jesus is how that prophecy is fulfilled.

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.”
John 15:1-8, NET

See how this echoes so many of the prophecies we’ve looked at? Jesus reveals that He is the one we need to have a relationship with in order to be fruitful. Without Him, we wither away like ancient Israel so often did as they strayed into unbelief. The emphasis on being rooted also echoes other prophresies that talk of God’s people being rooted (Is. 27:6; 37:31-21; Jer. 17:7-8). The closer we are to God, the more firmly we’re rooted and the more we thrive. And the more we study what the whole Bible says about the way God’s people are like grain, vines, and olives the better we understand what Jesus is teaching us in passages like this one where He says, “I am the vine.”

God is looking for fruit from the people growing in His vineyard. He exercises patience, encouraging us to grow, but if we refuse to keep abiding in Him, He won’t force us to stay and bear fruit (Luke 13:6-9). We can’t grow and fruit without Him (1 Cor. 3:6-9), but we are also active participants in this fruitfulness and we are free to disconnect from the root and be unfruitful if we choose (as so many Jewish people of Jesus’s day chose to do when they rejected Him as the Messiah). When we choose to abide in Jesus, though, we will abound in the fruits of His spirit (Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:8-11; 2 Pet. 1:5-8). In His grace, goodness, and love, God has opened the way through Jesus’s sacrifice for all people everywhere to become part of His kingdom-garden. Let’s stay close to Him, rooted with faith and trusting Him to supply all we need to grow and thrive and bear fruit that glorifies our Father.

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The Bridegroom’s Pledge

19 May, 201818 May, 2018Marissa

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably know my favorite way of looking at the Lord’s relationship with His people is as a love story. This seems to be one of God’s favorite analogies as well, since He weaves betrothal and marriage imagery throughout His word.

Pentecost, which takes place tomorrow, isn’t often talked about in the context of God’s love story. It’s best known among Christians as the day when the disciples received the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 and as a harvest festival from the Old Testament. But just a little digging into this day’s context within a Hebrew mindset and Jewish tradition reveals how strongly it’s connected with the love story God is writing between Him and His people.

A Promise To Come Back

The Bridegroom's Pledge | marissabaker.wordpress.com — Photo by Brooke Cagle on StockSnap

The Jewish name for Pentecost is Shavuot, which means “sevens” in reference to counting seven weeks of seven days from the Sabbath after Passover. Pentecost is then kept on the Sunday after the seventh Sabbath (hence the name “Pentecost,” which means count fifty). The root word for Shavuot is shaba, which means the number seven as well as an oath or pledge (TWOT entry 2318 and 2319).

In Jewish wedding traditions, brides are chosen by the groom’s father just as God the Father chooses whom to call into relationship with His Son. The groom pays a bride price for her, just as Jesus (or Yeshua, to use His Hebrew name) bought us with His own blood (1 Cor. 6:15-20). The betrothal agreement was a covenant, the same type of relationship that God has made with His people at least as far back as Noah. Once the bride consents to this arrangement the marriage covenant was sealed with a cup of wine, as Yeshua sealed His covenant with us at Passover (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25).

Then the bridegroom went away to prepare a home for His bride, which is what Yeshua told His disciples He’d be doing while He was gone (John 14:1-3). A Jewish bridegroom would be gone for about one to two years before returning to claim his bride. He didn’t just drop off the face of the earth, though. He left a gift with her and made an oath or pledge to come back.

To learn more about these wedding traditions, click here to read “The Ancient Jewish Wedding” by Jamie Lash

A Gift For The Bride

When Abraham’s servant found a wife for Isaac, he “brought out jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah” (Gen. 24:53, WEB). Similarly, Yahweh talks about the lavish gifts of clothing and jewelry He gave Israel when He entered into covenant with them (Ezk. 16:8-14). Our bridegroom, Yeshua, did something similar for us on the day of Pentecost. Read more →

Gleaning Firstfruits

7 June, 20147 June, 2014Marissa

Before getting to today’s topic, I just wanted to mention how much I’ve enjoyed doing an actual count-down this year instead of just putting Pentecost on the calendar. It’s helped me focus my Bible study and kept me in mind of the timing for God’s calender rather than feeling like Pentecost sneaked up on me. Today is the 7th Sabbath in our count, which means Pentecost is tomorrow!

And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. (Lev. 23:15-16)

Though this is one of the easiest Holy Days to see evidence of in the New Testament (largely due to the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts), I think we’ll spend most of our time today in the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Ruth.

Lawns of Gleaning

Pentecost, also called the Feast of the Firstfruits/Harvest/Ingathering, is a harvest-time festival. The count to this day begins with a wave-sheaf “of the firstfruits of your harvest,” and the offerings on the day of Pentecost include “two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah” of “fine flour” “baked with leaven” that are described as “the firstfruits to the Lord” (Lev. 23:10, 17). After a lengthy passage of instructions for Pentecost, there is a verse that does not quite seem to fit.

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God. (Lev. 23:22)

This is a repetition of a command also recorded in Leviticus 19:9-10, a command so important to God that He not only gave it twice, but He put one of those commands in the passage describing His most Holy Days. We can get some idea of how this practice works, and perhaps why it is so important, by looking at the book of Ruth.

‘Ruth Gleaning’ watercolor by James Tissot (1896)

There’s a note in my study Bible that says, “by New Testament times” the book of Ruth was being “read at the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost) because much of the story is set in the harvest fields.” It was one of five books “read publicly at the Feasts of Israel.”

I dare say we all know the story. Naomi and her family moved to Moab during a famine in Israel. There, her two sons married. About 10 years later, Naomi’s husband and sons were dead and she returned home to Israel accompanied by her daughter in law, Ruth. We jump into the story as Ruth and Naomi arrive in “Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest” (Ruth 1:22).

So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. (Ruth 2:2-3)

As we read further, we see Boaz went above and beyond what God’s law strictly required a landowner to leave for the poor. He offers Ruth protection and water, and asks her not to glean in any other field where he could not guarantee her safety (Ruth 2:8-9). Behind-the-scenes, he told his reapers to let grain fall for her on purpose and not to stop her if she wanted to glean even among the sheaves of grain (Ruth 2:15-16).

Unmerited Favor

There is much of Christ’s character visible in how Boaz treats Ruth when she first arrives in his field. Like Boaz did for Ruth, Jesus offers us His personal protection. He asks us not to stray from His laws because they are designed to keep us safe from the consequences of sin. He says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). Our response to this unearned favor ought to be much the same as Ruth’s.

So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” (Ruth 2:10)

This is much the same question David asked God in Psalms 8:4 and 144:3 — “What is man that You are mindful of him?” Every human is small and insignificant compared to God, and those of us who God has chosen for His particular attention are unimportant even by human standards.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption — that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:27-31)

God is gleaning His firstfruits from the world’s rejects. He is taking people who are nothing and turning us into something glorious. He is taking strangers — like the Moabite Ruth — and adopting them into His family through Christ’s sacrifice.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. …Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (Eph. 2:13, 19)

Our Redeemer

The adoption process by which we become God’s children is, as we discussed last week, linked inseprably to Christ’s redeeming work (Eph. 1:5-7; Rom. 8:23; Gal. 4:3-7). There is a parallel for this as well in the story of Ruth, in the role Boaz plays as a kinsman redeemer.

And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!” And Naomi said to her, “This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.” (Ruth 2:19-20)

My study Bible says this last phrase could be translated “one that hath right to redeem.” We find the basis for the practice of a kinsman redeeming land in Leviticus 25: 25, 48-49. To prevent an inheritance from leaving the family, someone who was closely related, financially able, and willing to fill this role could redeem land that was sold. In some cases, as here in Ruth, when the man who the land originally belonged to had left a childless widow, the redeemer was expected to marry her per the command in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.

We see all this played out in Ruth 4:4-10 where Boaz must offer a more closely related kinsman the opportunity to redeem Naomi’s family’s land and marry Ruth. This man refuses (which, being the hopeless romantic I am, I suspect was Boaz’s plan all along).

Stepping back a chapter and looking at Ruth’s request that Boaz play the part of a redeemer, we read about a practice that seems rather unusual. Since Naomi counsels this action and Boaz knew how to respond, I assume Ruth asking him to be her family’s redeemer (perhaps even this method of asking) was not considered unusual in their culture. Per Naomi’s instructions, Ruth lies down at Boaz’s feet when he is asleep and waits for him to notice her.

And he said, “Who are you?” So she answered, “I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a close relative.” (Ruth 3:9)

Looking at the Hebrew for “wing”, The Complete WordStudy Dictionary for the Old Testament says “the idiom to spread (one’s) wings over means to take to wife.” This same word is used in Ruth 2:12 when Boaz tells Ruth, “The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” Ruth is asking Boaz for a type of protection that mirrors the relationship between God and Israel. The comparison is drawn even more strongly reading God’s words to Israel in Ezekiel 16.

“When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God. (Ezk. 16:8)

In the same way, we who are part of the church have been “betrothed you to one husband” — Jesus Christ — and will be married “to Him who was raised from the dead” after He died in order to redeem us (2 Cor. 11:2; Rom. 7:4).

Taken together, the book of Ruth and the Feast of Pentecost teach us about the glorious unmerited favor that God pours out on us. We were strangers like Ruth and were not only invited to partake in what God provides, but cared for deeply and betrothed to His own Son, who gave His life to redeem His firstfruit Bride.