TODAY IN THE WORD

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Genesis 1:1-31; 2:9
And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground. - Genesis 2:9
TODAY IN THE WORD
In her well-known poem “Trees,” Joyce Kilmer celebrates the beauty of trees by comparing them to poetry. “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree.” After surveying the various attributes of trees, she concludes, “Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”

Kilmer’s comparison captures a fundamental difference between creature and Creator. Think about this for a moment: no one but God makes trees. (In an age of electronic reproduction, it’s worth reflecting on.) The poet uses words and images to create verbal art, but God works in sap and bark, life and leaf, to create living trees. They are only one of His many works of art.

Genesis 1 records and praises the works of God’s hands in a poetic pattern of forming and filling: God forms environments and then fills them with living creatures. On the third day He separates land from sea and then fills the land with vegetation, including fruit trees. These trees in turn will fill the land because they are created, like all of God’s living art-works, to reproduce: they are seed-bearing after their kind. God affirms the goodness of this original pattern of tree, fruit, and seed (v. 12).

But God not only makes trees, He specifically gives them as gifts to humans to enjoy and to use (v. 29). Trees are part of our human inheritance, a generous gift of shade, beauty, and fruit from our Creator. God’s art is nourishing as well as lovely, “pleasing to the eye and good for food” (2:9).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Take some time today to reflect on trees you have known during your life. Did you have a favorite climbing tree as a child? Do you have a favorite shade tree now, one by your home or in a park? A particular kind of tree you love to watch blossom in spring or turn color in the fall? Jot down a memory of an important tree, recalling your pleasure in it in as much detail as possible. Thank the Lord for this gift and for His creativity in “thinking up” and making trees. Ask Him to open your eyes to the significance of trees this month.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Psalm 96
Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees. - Isaiah 44:23
TODAY IN THE WORD
Church services historically have begun with a call to worship, an exhortation to the congregation to fix their attention and heart on God. A call to worship can be a psalm verse (“Come, let us worship the Lord”) or a song of preparation (“I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart”). A call to worship reminds us of who God is and why we come to worship Him.

For the next three days, we’ll look at trees as part of God’s creation. In Psalm 96 we see a world-wide call to worship. Through a series of exhortations, the psalmist invites all nations and creatures to rejoice in the reign of the Creator God and to focus their hope on His imminent return.

The psalmist exhorts the worshipers to sing of God’s deeds to all peoples (vv. 1–3). This requires a new song because God’s acts of salvation are continuous and daily: though we sing of God’s past saving deeds, we also must “update” our praise to include the ways He saves us “day after day” (v. 2).

The psalmist also says to ascribe to God the honor belonging to Him (vv. 7–9), that is, to give Him credit. The Lord is to be praised because He created the earth, a deed that evidences His power and splendor. His claim to authority trumps all--other “gods” are made by human hands, “but the Lord made the heavens” (v. 5).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
In what new ways has God shown His glory to you? Have you thanked Him?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Mark 11:12-25
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. - John 1:11
TODAY IN THE WORD
Odysseus has been away for twenty years. When he finally returns home to Ithaca, dressed as a beggar, no one but his dog recognizes him. Worse, he finds his house in disarray, a band of men competing for his wife, and the loyalties of some servants wandering. Little do they know that a day of judgment has arrived.

In today’s reading, the Creator of trees, the Lord of the Temple, comes to His own creatures and finds them straying. The tree is without fruit; the Temple is without reverence.

Note Jesus’ two different responses to His creatures’ unreadiness. When hungry Jesus finds the fig tree fruitless, He curses it (v. 14). It doesn’t get a second chance to bear fruit, but withers from the roots. The money changers and worshipers in the Temple, however, do get a second chance. Jesus rebukes them by throwing over their tables, but He also teaches them from the Scriptures (v. 17). His actions prune. He cuts away weeds that choke out true worship and gives those with ears to hear a second chance to bear good fruit.

Jesus’ actions elicit several responses: the religious leaders, who are afraid, plot His death; the crowds stand amazed (v. 18). The disciples, on the other hand, accept Jesus’ authority over the Temple, but they show surprise at Jesus’ authority over nature. They think He should be surprised, too: “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” (v. 21).

The fig tree had a different response altogether. Unlike humans, it wasn’t surprised at Jesus’ authority; it recognized Him as its Maker. Its roots heard His voice saying, “I came and you weren’t ready for me: bear no more fruit.” Its withering reflects not only punishment (since its purpose, as well as ours, is to bear fruit), but also unwavering obedience to its great Creator.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
This passage gives us these lessons in prayer: have faith in God; believe, do not doubt, that God will act; forgive others. This last command also appears in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus stressed the importance of forgiveness for effective prayer. As a sign of obedience, forgiveness fosters humility before God and belief in God’s authority to judge and to forgive us. As you pray today, ask God to reveal what you “hold against anyone” (v. 25) and release it to Him, forgiving the other person. Make a point to pray for the well-being of that person this week.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Psalm 104
The trees of the Lord are full of sap. - Psalm 104:16, KJV
TODAY IN THE WORD
Isle Royale has no human inhabitants, yet the remote Lake Superior island teems with life. Ferns and wild orchids cluster on the moist shores of inlets. Ground flowers of all shapes and colors tapestry the forest floor. Birch and red pine tower above rocky paths, providing welcome shade. Moose bathe in the shelter of evening fog, while morning glimpses fox and wolf tracks on the trail. They all find sufficient food and shelter on this island.

Psalm 104 celebrates the variety of living creatures God has made and His loving provision for them. All creatures, from man to goats to birds to pine trees, wait on the Lord for their food and life. All creatures, humans included, intimately depend on God’s spirit for their very existence (vv. 27–30). Jesus showed that God cares for sparrows, rebukes fig trees, and commands wind and water.

What kind of existence does dependence on God create? Verse 16 says, “The trees of the Lord are well-watered . . . ” or as the King James Versionsays more forcefully, “full of sap.” God desires abundant life for all His creatures. God’s trees are not dried-up, dead sticks. No, the trees of the Lord are pulsating with life, full of juice, creative, and reproductive.

We are the trees of God. As Psalm 1 says, we are to be like trees planted by streams of water. Who is this living water? The Spirit. Jesus said, “If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37). John added, “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:38–39).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Are you full of sap? Or do you say with the eunuch, “I am only a dry tree” (Isa. 56:3)? Perhaps you need the refreshment that only the Holy Spirit can provide.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Isaiah 1:18-20; 29-30; 61:1-3
They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. - Isaiah 61:3b
TODAY IN THE WORD
In ancient Canaanite religion, trees symbolized fertility. Fertility rituals often took place under sacred trees, symbolizing participation in the earth’s life. These rituals were believed to bring better harvests, more children, and increased vitality. But as we see from Isaiah 1 and 61, this misplaced worship brought death instead of life.

In the next four studies we’ll see that Scripture uses trees to symbolize Israel. In Isaiah 1, Israel is rebuked for putting its delight in “sacred oaks” and special gardens, places devoted to pagan sacrifices and fertility rituals. Instead of trusting its Creator for fullness of life, Israel trusted His creatures. The result? Lifelessness and spiritual drought. “You will be like an oak with fading leaves,” the Lord says, “a garden without water” (v. 30). Delight in anything apart from the Life Giver eventually leads to spiritual barrenness.

Isaiah 61 speaks of the restoration of the faithful in Israel after the Exile. In a series of opposing poetic images, this passage prophesies how the Lord will exchange Israel’s barrenness for new life. Instead of ashes, there will be beauty; instead of mourning, gladness; instead of despair, praise (v. 3). The final line of this verse, which is easy to miss, recalls the image of Isaiah 1--instead of dying idolatrous oaks, “they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

By returning to its Maker, Israel will thrive. In the same way, by recognizing that we are the work of God’s hands (Isa. 60:21) and that creating life is His work, not ours, we grow. Because we worship Him, we will image Him; we will display His splendor.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
St. Augustine once said, “What we love we shall grow to resemble.” Where is your heart directed today? Toward a “sacred oak” of your own making or toward the Maker of oaks?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Isaiah 5:1-7; Ezekiel 15:1-8
What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? - Isaiah 5:4
TODAY IN THE WORD
In his epic fantasy, The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien tells the tragic tale of the Numenoreans, a race of men highly favored by the gods, who gave them a special island, blessed with good weather and rich produce, and taught them wisdom and craft.

The Numenoreans grew in power and splendor, but eventually they became proud. They made war on the men they once helped and ultimately challenged the gods. Their haughty acts led to the destruction of their land and people. Only a scattered remnant survived.

In Isaiah 5 and Ezekiel 15, we find a similar account of God’s experience with Israel. Israel is likened to a vineyard; the Lord is the gardener and caretaker. Look at the care God lavished on His vineyard, “His delight.” He chose a fertile hillside, rich in good soil; He cleared away stones and planted the best vines. Anticipating a good crop, He built a winepress to catch the grape juice and a watchtower to guard the harvest. But what was the harvest He gained? “Only bad fruit” (Isa. 5:2).

What fruit was the Lord expecting from Israel? The NIV Study Biblesuggests that a wordplay in Hebrew answers this question: “He looked for justice [mishpat],but saw bloodshed [mispah];for righteousness [sedaqah],but heard cries of distress [se’aqah]”(5:7). In other words, Israel had been equipped to produce justice and righteousness: it had been chosen by God, delivered from oppression by His hand, given the law, and blessed with the tabernacle of God’s presence. Instead, Israel produced fruit that defied its careful cultivation.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Scripture tells us, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Luke 12:48).

List some of the recent ways in which the Lord has cared for you and “cultivated” you. Has He planted you in a fertile place? Sent good rain your way? Provided protection and safety? Pruned your branches?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Amos 9:11-15; Psalm 80:8-16
I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted. - Amos 9:15
TODAY IN THE WORD
“The Lord hears the cry of the poor, blessed be the Lord.” The lyrics to a recent worship song point to a prominent biblical theme: the Lord’s compassion on the poor. He often stirred His prophets--Amos, for example--to denounce injustices against the poor.

In fact, Amos is known as the prophet who defends the poor. In nine vivid chapters, Amos predicts Israel’s punishment for treating the poor unjustly, for selling “the needy for a pair of sandals” (2:6). Yet Amos is also a prophet who speaks of renewal. His conclusion offers hopeful images of Israel’s restoration after ruin: a mended tent, productive land, rebuilt cities, abundant food.

The prophecy moves from images of transient things to images of permanence. Israel will be restored from tents to cities, from planting vineyards to being planted themselves. God’s restoration is often gradual, like the growth of a garden, but the result is long-lasting (v. 15). These images also recall Israel’s golden age, the reigns of David and Solomon, as well as the abundance of Eden. God’s restoration, always plentiful, brings the good of the past into the future.

The final verse of Amos recalls the prayer for restoration in Psalm 80. Israel is described as a vine, cut-down and burned. The psalmist reminds God that He brought this vine “out of Egypt” and “planted it” (v. , and it flourished. He prays that the Lord would “watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted” (vv. 14–15). He asks for restoration, using imagery similar to Amos 9.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Amos presents God as tent-mender, planter, and restorer.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Romans 11:11-24
If the root is holy, so are the branches. - Romans 11:16
TODAY IN THE WORD
In horticulture, successfully grafting, cutting, and securing the branch of one plant into a different type of plant results in several advantages. Most significantly, the new plant can adopt a root system to survive in otherwise threatening soil.

But the differences between plants is also the largest obstacle to a successful graft. Plants that aren’t closely related can seldom form a successful union.

Paul uses the idea of grafting to describe the relationship of Jews and Gentiles, a combination his readers might have considered destined to fail. The Jews are a cultivated olive tree, carefully tended and pruned for centuries; the Gentiles are wild olive branches, grafted in to this older tree and sharing its root, trunk, and sap. The holy roots symbolize the promises God made to the Jewish patriarchs, the founders of the faith; the branches symbolize the Jewish people. Thus, from the Jews, Gentiles gain stability, nourishment, and a religious heritage (v. 17). The whole tree, wild and cultivated, represents the unified people of God growing through history.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul uses this image to rebuke Christians for their arrogance in regarding themselves as more privileged than the Jews in God’s eyes (v. 19). While it’s true that individual Jews have been cut off, it’s not by virtue of being Jewish, but because of “unbelief.” Faith in Christ is the criterion for inclusion in the tree. Reminding the Romans of God’s impartial mercy and judgment, Paul exhorts them to “continue in his kindness,” lest they too be cut off. Moreover, believing Jews will be grafted on more easily, since they properly belong to the tree (v. 24).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). Today, let us remember the Jewish people. Pray for the in-grafting of the Jews into the tree of God’s people. Pray that God would show mercy in awakening them to faith in Jesus the Messiah. Ask God to continually empower the work of such Jewish-Christian organizations as Jews for Jesus or the Messianic Jews, and give thanks for His merciful inclusion of the Gentiles in His work of redemption.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Judges 9:1-25
One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. - Judges 9:8
TODAY IN THE WORD
In medieval thought, each order of living creatures had an imagined king. Every “king” possessed an innate majesty, authority, and power qualifying him to rule. The king of the four-footed creatures, for example, was the lion; the king of the birds, the eagle; the king of the planets, Jupiter. These majestic creatures were often used to represent human royalty, as with the English king, Richard, the Lion Heart.

Scripture uses trees to symbolize kings. In today’s reading, for example, Jotham uses symbolism in his parable, but his tree imagery is designed to undercut Abimelech’s rule, not to support it. After Abimelech conspires with the citizens of Shechem (his mother’s relatives) he murders his seventy brothers, who were all sons of Gideon; only Jotham, the youngest, escapes.

It happened during the time of the judges. Abimelech crowned himself king. His ambition defied God; he not only murdered his brothers, but he instituted a form of government not yet ordained by God, Israel’s true king (Judg. 8:23). Even worse, he relied on Baal and his worshipers (v. 4), the very forces his father Gideon had rightly sought to destroy. Abimelech was the very opposite of what God’s judge had to be.

Jotham’s prophetic parable of the four trees highlights this fact. The olive, fig, and vine, all producing important fruit, refuse to be king, though they are kingly trees. They recognize that their function is to grow fruit, not to rule. Only the scraggly, unfruitful thornbush, an irritant to farmers and a cause of brush-fires, agrees to be king. Given Abimelech’s destructive reign, the thornbush appropriately symbolizes his kingship.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
This tree was a benchmark for gauging Israel’s relationship with God. Is there a similar benchmark in your spiritual pilgrimage? Perhaps a place, symbol, or verse that you have returned to, imaginatively or literally, in your journey with the Lord? Return there today and ask God to show you if you have been faithful like Joshua or if you have lapsed like Abimelech. Renew your commitment with Joshua’s words: “Throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel” (Josh. 24:23).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Daniel 4:1-37
Those who walk in pride he is able to humble. - Daniel 4:37
TODAY IN THE WORD
The proverb “pride goes before the fall” (cf. Prov. 16:18) rings true in many cultures and times. When a person grows overly arrogant, it usually signals impending discipline. Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar certainly learned the truth of this proverb through hard experience.

In today’s passage, the chastened Nebuchadnezzar testifies to the power of Israel’s God and the supremacy of His kingdom. He does that by recounting his dream, its correct interpretation by Daniel, and its fulfillment. Looking back, Nebuchadnezzar sees God’s hand in his being humbled. Often this is similar to our own testimonies--when we come out of a difficult time, we look back and see how God has been at work.

The description of the tree in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream hearkens back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Both the Tower of Babel and this tree spread across the land and reach to the high heavens. Both are symbols of human arrogance which defies God. Just as God brought down the tower and confused the builders’ languages, so He cut down the flourishing tree that was King Nebuchadnezzar and confused his mind until he recognized the power of the Most High. Yet God left the stump intact and raised him up again.

The description of this tree also hearkens ahead to Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed. In this parable, the kingdom of heaven is imagined as a spreading tree in which the birds of the air find rest and shelter. This parable helps us see why the tree image was used as a symbol of Nebuchadnezzar’s usurpation of the rightful place of God’s kingdom. Only one tree, the Kingdom of God, is to be exalted. All others will be cut down.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Perhaps you are going through a difficult time at the moment, and its purpose is not clear. “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Ps. 27:14). Trust that at the appropriate time He will restore you and your perspective, and that you will be able to see and to praise Him again. Or perhaps you have just come through some hard circumstance--look back over it, asking God to show you how He was present with you in it. Praise God for the assurance of His presence at all times.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Isaiah 4:2-3; 6:8-13; 11:1-5
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. - Isaiah 11:1
TODAY IN THE WORD
In the children’s story, The Giving Tree,a young boy receives gifts from a tree-friend. First the tree gives him branches to climb; later in life it gives him fruit. Eventually the tree offers its wood for building, until only a stump is left. The story closes with the old man, sitting sadly on the stump that once was his friend.

Stumps generally are images of destruction. They are the sad remains of lives that once flourished but do so no longer. In Isaiah’s prophecy of rebellious Israel’s destruction, tree stumps form part of the landscape of ruin, along with empty cities and ravaged fields--the work of invading armies (6:11).

Surprisingly, the stump here becomes an image of hope, since it will develop into the “holy seed” (v. 13). This is one of three images of trees symbolizing Christ that we will examine. The remnant of the faithful, “the tenth,” though “laid waste,” will remain with their roots in the land. God judges, but does not utterly destroy His people.

Isaiah 11 shows the transformation of a ruined land into a land of peace through these very roots. Israel will be restored by “a shoot.” This shoot, the “holy seed,” is from David’s line; from Jesse’s roots “a Branch will bear fruit” (v. 1), a branch which Isaiah 4:2 describes as “beautiful and glorious.” Instead of a dead stump, new life will spring forth.

But will new life spring from the rebellious, cut-down Israel? What will mark this shoot as different? The fruitful, peaceful reign of the Branch, beautifully depicted in Isaiah 11, stems from two characteristics: “the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him,” and “he will delight in the fear of the Lord” (v. 2). The Messianic Branch will do what Israel did not: delight fully in the Lord and fear Him.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
God delights to bring forth shoots from stumps. Scripture reveals that His pattern is to bring water to deserts, a path in the wilderness, shoots from stumps.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: John 15:1-8
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. - John 15:1
TODAY IN THE WORD
Grocery store shoppers have many ways to test a piece of fruit for freshness. Some smell the fruit, others tap the fruit and listen for the right hollow sound, while some shoppers squeeze the fruit for firmness. But some fruit is marked with a seal bearing the name of the orchard or farm where the food was grown. Because it’s not just important how the fruit looks, we want to know where it came from. We probably wouldn’t pick out Saharan mangoes or peaches from Northern Siberia. We put our trust in proven sources of quality fruit.

Last week (September 6) we read how the prophets declared Israel to be a poor vineyard, a useless vine, because it did not produce good fruit. Jesus adopts this imagery in John 15 to teach about the relationship between Himself, His Father, and His disciples.

Jesus claims to be the “true vine” (v. 1); by doing so, He claims to be the true Israel, the one of whom it was said, “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (Isa. 60:3). The dead vine (Israel) is replaced by the True Vine (Jesus Christ) who fulfills Israel’s mission in the world and who produces much fruit.

How will this fruitfulness come about? In two ways: the Father must prune, and branches must remain in the vine. Verses 1–4 focus on the gardener/vine relationship. God the Father here, as in Isaiah 5, is the Gardener who lovingly tends His vine. He cuts away dead wood and prunes the fruitful branches so that they will produce more fruit (v. 2). As we cut back rose bushes so that they will thrive, so God prunes the deadening tangles, habits, and schedules that we produce so that we will bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matt. 3:.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Imagine a branch or a vine. Perhaps even look out your window or go outside and note how a branch joins the trunk of a tree or how a vine connects with its base.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Galatians 3:1-14
Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. - Deuteronomy 21:23
TODAY IN THE WORD
In 1941, more than one thousand men died aboard the U.S.S. Arizonafrom the attack on Pearl Harbor. All but 75 of them remain buried within the walls of that ship, which is now the site of a poignant memorial in their honor. This place will always be saturated with the memory of the people who died, and no visitor will ever overlook the horror that took place there. Indeed, such burial shows respect for the sanctity of life and depicts the harrowing nature of death.

As Deuteronomy 21 shows, burial was also a meaningful ritual in ancient Israel. Executed criminals could be impaled on a pole (here called a “tree”) for public viewing, perhaps to deter others from committing their crimes. But no one “hung on a tree” in this manner was to be left unburied over-night, or the land would be polluted (v. 23). The flourishing of the land and moral life are linked in the Scriptures. The person under God’s curse, that is, the condemned criminal, represents God’s rejection of evil-doers, who need to be removed from the community. This picture of the tree as a curse ought to trigger an emotional reaction in us as we think of our Savior.

In Galatians Paul links Jesus’ death by crucifixion (a Roman form of execution) with the earlier Old Testament practices of displaying executed criminals on poles or trees. Jesus in His death became the accursed one, removed from community and rejected by God (Heb. 13:12–23). In becoming accursed for us, Jesus absorbed the full force of God’s judgment and freed us to be justified by faith. His death on a tree gives us access to the Tree of Life; His death enables our blessed life.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
How do Paul’s questions to the Galatians apply to you today? Having begun with the Spirit, are you “now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (v. 3).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Ezekiel 17:1-24
I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. - Ezekiel 17:24
TODAY IN THE WORD
The apostle Paul offers his fellow worker Timothy the following “trustworthy saying,” likely an early Christian hymn: “If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Tim. 2:11–13). One fascinating feature of this hymn is its final asymmetry: even if we are faithless, God remains faithful.

Ezekiel’s two parables address faithfulness and faithlessness: one speaks of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God and one illustrates God’s faithfulness to Israel. In this, we see a tree as a symbol of the kingdom of God.

The first parable, in images of eagles and vines, rebukes exiled Israel for breaking its oath to the king of Babylon. Although carried off into exile by the conquering eagle (Baby-lon), the vine (Israel) was well planted there because it kept the oath it had sworn. But when Israel proved disloyal to its oath, God declared Israel unfaithful to Him, not just to the Babylonian king (v. 20). When we are faithful to God, we will also be loyal to our words--even promises given to unbelievers.

The second parable (vv. 22–24) uses the same imagery, but within a Messianic context. Here God, not Nebuchadnezzar, is the eagle that plucks the shoot Israel from the cedar. And instead of planting it in a “land of merchants” (v. 4), He plants it on a high mountain, an exalted and visible place. Here it grows, not into a low vine, but a “splendid cedar” (v. 23) in which other birds, symbolizing many other nations, rest.

From the tree of Israel will spring God’s kingdom on earth through Jesus Christ. The point of the image in this context is that God is able to make Israel either a cedar that houses other nations or a low vine that is at the mercy of her captors. He exalts or makes low; He dries up or flourishes (v. 24). The power is His alone.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Today’s reading concerns keeping promises, even promises made to those who have wronged us. Do you have any promises made but not kept today? Resolve to fulfill your promise this week, or as soon as possible. Write a note to remind yourself. If you have broken a promise, repent and ask the Lord to forgive you for being unfaithful to Him. Ask for another opportunity to show faithfulness in keeping your word this week. Also take this time to praise God for His unwavering faithfulness, even when we are less than faithful.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Matthew 13:24-34
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. - Matthew 13:31
TODAY IN THE WORD
When Laura Price, a roaring twenties flapper, converted to Christianity at a Keswick Conference one summer, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. She simply gave herself to Jesus, and her lifestyle turned around. A few years later she was married to Carl Woll and en route to Kenya as one of the first Gospel Furthering Fellowship missionaries. She spent the bulk of her adult life living in Kenya, singing, ministering, and sharing the love of Jesus for African people in Swahili. Big things have small beginnings.

The parable of the mustard seed is a parable of big things with small beginnings. What the seed is and what it becomes do not resemble each other. The seed is buried, hidden, and apparently inconsequential; but it grows into a tree. As in the parallel parable of the yeast, nothing appears to be happening, but in hidden places roots delve and bread expands. These parables illustrate the spiritual principle of slow and hidden growth.

Jesus said this is like God’s kingdom. And it is: Jesus planted kingdom seeds two thousand years ago in Palestine, and see what a mustard tree of a kingdom (which is seen presently in and through the church) has grown today. Its growth has been a blessing to millions. Like the tree in which birds rest, the evidence of the kingdom in the church provides shelter, spiritual and literal; like the yeast that expands, the church acts as a leavening agent in the larger culture. This is the Messianic promise of Ezekiel 17--what started as a shoot has become a towering cedar; what started with twelve Jewish disciples in Israel has become a world-wide movement.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Matthew 17:20 says, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed . . . nothing will be impossible for you.” If you have opportunity this day to be outside and to look at trees, meditate on the mystery of acorns turning to oak trees.

Then ask God to grow similar seeds of faith that are already planted in you into trees of blessing. Ask Him to grow the seed of your church in your community, that it might become a shelter and a resting place for many. See how you can actively carry out the growing faith inside you so that God can turn your faith into substantial ministry in His name.