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Christ’s Object Lessons
of heaven. He desires that the families below shall be a symbol of the
great family above.
But Israel did not fulfill God’s purpose. The Lord declared, “I
had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou
turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?”
Jeremiah
2:21
. “Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself.”
Hosea 10:1
. “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah,
judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. What could have
been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore
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when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild
grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break
down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will lay
it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up
briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no
rain upon it. For ... He looked for judgment, but behold oppression;
for righteousness, but behold a cry.”
Isaiah 5:3-7
.
The Lord had through Moses set before His people the result of
unfaithfulness. By refusing to keep His covenant, they would cut
themselves off from the life of God, and His blessing could not come
upon them. “Beware,” said Moses, “that thou forget not the Lord thy
God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His
statutes, which I command thee this day: lest when thou hast eaten and
art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy
herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied,
and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and
thou forget the Lord thy God.... And thou say in thine heart, My power
and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.... And it shall
be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods,
and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that
ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before
your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto
the voice of the Lord your God.”
Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17, 19, 20
.
The warning was not heeded by the Jewish people. They forgot
God, and lost sight of their high privilege as His representatives. The
blessings they had received brought no blessing to the world. All their
advantages were appropriated for their own glorification. They robbed
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God of the service He required of them, and they robbed their fellow