Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

THE GARDENER

This entry was posted on 09-26-2008 and is filed under uncategorized.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener" (John 15:1 NIV).

God, a gardener? Of course! He was the gardener in the Garden of Eden. I like this thought. Just as He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening, He walks through His divine vineyard today, caring for you and me, the branches who are connected to the Vine. Other translations and translators use "vinedresser" (NKJV) "cultivator" (Charles B. Williams) or "owner of the vineyard" (William E. Paul).

The vineyard belongs to the Father (Isa. 5:4; Matt. 21:33ff). We are His people, the sheep of His pasture (Psa. 100:3). We are the branches in His vineyard. We are the fruit of His garden. He has the perfect right, as owner of the vineyard, to prune or graft as He sees fit. We will get into the dynamics of this next week, but right now we need to establish the fact that the Sovereign God is the gardener. Just as the clay has no right to talk back to the potter (Jer. 18:6; Rom. 9:20,21), the branches should never question or challenge the right of the Gardner to take care of His garden as He sees fit. We sing, "This is my Father's world." Well, we could also sing, "This is my Father's garden" or "This is my Father's vineyard." We exist to bear fruit for the Father...Juice for Jesus!

Hymn: "I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses; and the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known" (C. Austin Miles).