Once a Choice Vine, Now a Wild Vine, Jer 2:21

Jer. 2:21 Yet I planted you a choice vine wholly of pure seed How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?

Jeremiah, the prophet continues to speak out to the people. Up to this point God lists intolerable grievances. But this admonition is more personal. You have turned degenerate and are a wild vine. What is their response? “It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners and after them I will go” (2:25). No shame.

When Israel entered the Promised Land, the land was rich, a beautiful land of milk and honey. This land was to always be their land. This land is where God Himself would dwell and where He would establish His sanctuary. The land was holy and the inheritance which was entrusted to Israel. After many years the sanctuary was still attended but the temple was a place they practiced rituals without heart. The people had adopted new gods that influenced their methods of living. These new ways replaced God’s ways.   

What does it mean that God planted a choice vine wholly of pure seeds? This vine is firm and steadfast- it is true.  The wild vine is foreign; not steady or lawful. It doesn’t belong in the beautiful land. Yet the people cling to it.

Apply: A citizen of a nation is entrusted to keep the land and good stewards of all the God gives us. Are we handing God-given land to strangers? Do we lose something if we do– become someone else in the process? Why would this offense matter so much to God?

Background references:   

Ex. 15:17-18 You will bring them in and plant them in your own mountain, the place O Lord, which you have made for your own abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord will reign forever and ever. (After the exodus, in the wilderness, God promised the land)

Isaiah 5:1-2 Let me sing for my beloved, my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it and he looked for it to yield grapes but it yielded wild grapes. (This passage is addressed to Israel when they began to follow other gods during Isaiah’s time.)

Also look at these relevant passages: Parable of the eagles and vine (Ezekiel 15) and Parable of the Vine (John 15)