The Branch

 

This is you. And this is me. Without Christ in us, we are all dead branches.  

A couple years ago I was weeping and praying on the barn steps and the Spirit told me to open my eyes, and asked “What do you see?” And I said, “A branch.” Each day after that, when I would sit on the hay loft steps and look out the barn window, this branch was always dead-center in my vision. One day after a storm, it broke off and I picked it up off the ground and brought it inside my barn, and to this day it sits on the dusty work counter right in front of me whenever I come out here to pray as a reminder. 

It reminds me of when God told Moses to have each tribe of Israel to place a wooden rod, which is essentially a dead branch, “in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony, where I meet with you.” God was tired of their grumbling and bickering and He sought to resolve it by showing the people that it was He and He alone Who chose His servants and caused them to bear fruit. On that day, every tribe of Israel was symbolized by a dead branch, and the only one that had life in it, didn’t come from itself but from God’s own hand. 

It reminds me of when God told Ezekiel to get two sticks and bind them together, to show the Israelites that it is He who unites us, it is He Who gathers us together and makes us one in His hand. It is He Who establishes us and Who makes us His holy eternal dwelling place. It is He who will do what no human can do: make us all one mind and one heart in Jesus Christ, our King and Lord forever. 

It reminds me of the day that the Lord asked Jeremiah, “What do you see?” And Jeremiah responded, “I see a branch.” And it reminds me of the next thing that God told Jeremiah after he saw the branch, “You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching over My word to accomplish it.” 

And I think that is a very good reminder to us all. 

(Zech 6:12,13) And you are to tell him that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Here is a man whose name is the Branch, and He will branch out from His place and build the temple of the LORD. It is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on His throne. And He will be a priest on His throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’

(Num 17:7-10) And Moses placed the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness. The next day, Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds…And the LORD said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.”

(Ezekiel 37:20-23) Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. Then they will no longer be two nations and will never again be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

(Jer 1:11,12) And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.” “You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching over My word to accomplish it.”

(John 15:5) I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.