©Laura Haverkamp
Chapter 2:20-25 (ESV) - “For long ago I broke your yoke
and burst your bonds;
but you said, ‘I will not serve.’
Yes, on every high hill
and under every green tree
you bowed down like a whore.
Yet I planted you a choice vine,
wholly of pure seed.
How then have you turned degenerate
and become a wild vine?
Though you wash yourself with lye
and use much soap,
the stain of your guilt is still before me,
declares the LORD God.
How can you say, ‘I am not unclean,
I have not gone after the Baals’?
Look at your way in the valley;
know what you have done—
a restless young camel running here and there,
a wild donkey used to the wilderness,
in her heat sniffing the wind!
Who can restrain her lust?
None who seek her need weary themselves;
in her month they will find her.
Keep your feet from going unshod
and your throat from thirst.
But you said, ‘It is hopeless,
for I have loved foreigners,
and after them I will go.’
Question to consider: What is meant by "choice vine planted by a pure seed"?
The land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was delayed for more than ten generations because Israel overstayed their welcome in Egypt and fell prey to a Pharaoh who forgot about the promises made to Joseph. The LORD broke their bonds of slavery and led them through the wilderness where they were delayed for another generation due to their disobedience to the Law of God they swore to uphold. This group who did not experience the yoke or bonds of slavery inherited the land by faith, and yet they used their freedom to refuse to serve the LORD.
Just like a cheating spouse who broke the wedding covenant, Israel broke the covenant the LORD had made with them and worshiped foreign gods. The LORD’s command to keep their bloodline pure was about worship. Readers today get hung up on skin color, but ones like Rahab and Ruth were all of darker skin color and still regarded as Israelites in the line of Christ. The choice vine of pure seed was a reference all the way back to God’s curse against the serpent and promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. At this time, the world was divided into two kinds of people: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. If you went through my study of Genesis, you may remember that the purity of the seed of the woman was based on the righteousness counted to them by faith, and the corruption of the seed of the serpent was someone who rejected the LORD and was at enmity with Him.
So when the LORD provided the “faith” generation the land, it was a choice vine from a pure seed. However, in their abundance, they forgot about God and became wild. The stain of their guilt was ever before God because of their uncontrolled lust toward the gods of the nations. In taking foreign wives, Israel had succumbed to their gods, and the LORD compared their uncontrollable lust with that of a donkey in heat or young camel.
As the apostle Paul described in his letter to the Romans, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Romans 1:28-32)
No matter how hard they may have tried to clean themselves and restore their own righteousness, they would be unable to do so. They would now need a Redeemer to give them living water, for they had forsaken that which God had given them to make their own broken cisterns that could not hold water and quench their thirsty throats.
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for setting us free from sin and death. May we not use our freedom as a cover-up for evil or submit ourselves once again to a yoke of slavery. We look forward to the day when there is no more sin and death, and we can experience freedom in all its fullness. Amen.