God, Our Author and Parent...and Poet?
Paul the apostle of Jesus the Christ writes to Rome Chapter 11
13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
My friend and Pastor John Monk had a dream he told me about:
In the dream, he was standing in a line. At the front of the line was a guillotine. I was standing behind him. He told me I was very afraid, and upset. He calmed me down somewhat and then it was his turn. he was beheaded. And instantly he was in heaven and his wife Terri was walking toward him. As she greeted him, she reached down and picked some flowers and held them out to him. He asked her “Are you sure it’s ok to pick the flowers?” So she tossed the flowers to the ground whereupon they were rerooted and grew as before!
The Lord God speaks poetically to us. I write poetry, but don’t know much about the art of it. It is said there are at least 200 literary devices in the Holy Bible, and I could name two or three. I hope we have all heard of one major device, the parable. My skills are not very developed yet. But this has not stopped God from giving me understanding of His Word. I pray you also have understanding also.
In Romans 11 we have poetry. Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme, or have verses. There is what is called prose poetry without rhyming or stanzas. And unless I have misinterpreted things, God writes poetry which is prophetic, testimonial, memorial and instructive. From John 15 and out of the Old Testament we see Jesus as the Vine, the branch, the root of Jesse, from Nazareth. Nazareth is a Name which comes from a word meaning branch.
John 15
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Obviously we are not saved by a vine. From Romans 11 we see that we are called branches and obviously we are not tree or vine branches. In the most real, literal, material, elemental sense we are not made of wood, do not have leaves or grow fruit out of our bodies. Yet God calls us branches and I think we should submit to being called branches: He would not have called us branches unless there was a good and Holy purpose for doing so, can we all say “I trust You Jesus, I am a branch, and you are the Vine.” He also says we are to bear the fruit of the Spirit which is not literally apples and oranges. But there is a literal reality and Truth in God’s Word, and a literal Truth in His Ways and in His Will and purposes. Poetic and literary devices do not detract from that, they amplify it even if they do hide it from the eyes of some.
We are taught by Jesus that we must be born again! The first person He spoke that to, Nicodemus asked Him: “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” Jesus answered him more, and Nicodemus asked then: “How can these things be?” To which Jesus answered in part: “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” Jesus was sent to save, and to save not for the world or for it’s kingdoms, but to save for the Kingdom of God and heaven which is now still unseen.
John 3
26 And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.
27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
28 Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.
Can we say “I trust You Jesus, I must be born again?” Essentially to deny this is nearly to deny God above and Jesus incarnate. Being born again is a blessing the world cannot understand, a blessing the devil hates and a blessing the flesh resists and even denies. But being born again, is a true, real, necessary, essential and undeniable requirement for membership in the Messiah, and citizenship in God’s heavenly Kingdom. Being born again is unpopular and mocked. Do some say they are born again and are not really that at all? And certainly some who are born again still sin. Nevertheless “I trust You and Thank You Jesus, for I am born again, and it is You who birthed me.”
Not by my might, not by my power, but by Thy Spirit the mountain of my unbelief and Your just condemnation has been removed!
I think the poetry of it is this: When we believe, God becomes pregnant with us, He is with child, with children! We are being born again by God. Talk about twins, quints or octuplets! God is bearing children by the millions today! And God wants to bear ALL, not being willing that any perish. My poetic interpolations are not able to be so accurate as the reality that underlies the Truth of God or as accurate as the Bible. But the heart of God is that of a father, a Father such has never been seen on earth!
John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
John 1
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Colossians 1:12-14
12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
He has “delivered us from the power of darkness...” perhaps we might say the He has delivered us from the belly of the beast, from the womb of satan! We don’t yet see all the blessedness that being translated into His Kingdom guarantees, but consider:
Hebrews 11:5
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Enoch had a glorious born again experience! Elijah had one too with a chariot for a crib! Many of us believe God for the rapture that Jesus will come back and bear us up from the earth like He was taken up from the earth into the clouds after rising from the dead!
The the way God has chosen for us to become His own can be seens as the spiritual conceiving, pregnancy, and delivery of a spiritual child of God When we TRUST the Lord Jesus and rely on Him we have safe birth into everlasting Life! We rely on Him daily and are delivered from the depths of sin. And our final deliverance at the death of our body, which God calls a jar of clay, a tent, and a Temple of the Holy Spirit.
This IS exciting GOOD NEWS !!! God speaks to us in human language, so we can understand Him, yet He speaks to us spiritually in parables and poetry. And it is the MESSAGE which He wants us to hear. Poetry and parables are wonderful means and method by which He frequently speaks! OK, we are gonna shift gears a bit.
When Terri Monk picked the flowers and then dropped them, they rooted right into heavens soil and lived. When God picked you and me out of the kingdom of darkness, He “tossed” us up into heaven into the wounds of Jesus and we lived!
Huh? “Bear with me, or if you will, be born with me!” (not by me.)
Romans 11: 24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree:
As I understand grafting, and opening is cut into a tree or vine. Then a branch is cut off from its source, cut out of its place, and inserted into the opening cut into the tree (vine). It is detached from its present environment taken away from that environment, introduced to a new environment which becomes its new home.
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
When a branch is grafted into tree, the sap of that tree begins to flow into that branch. If it didn’t the branch would wither and die. The gardener would then remove the wither branch and die! The church in Sardis comes to mind here. And John Ch.15!
Can we see something of the magnificence of what God has done yet? How all that He has done and will yet do was as one great and TRUE prophetic poem that He wrote before the words “Let there be light” passed His lips? That He has communicated to us His will, His Life giving Life Changing will to us in an elegant Holy Love poem? It is a love letter called the Holy Bible.
Oh that I would have dropped all that I was doing in 1980 and followed hard after the Lord and the Spirit. If I had dropped my expectations of myself and other people, and my disappointments in myself and others,- what might have happened sooner... Yet now it the accepted time, now is the day of salvation, this IS the day that the Lord has made, I WILL BE GLAD AND REJOICE IN IT! God is able to used failed expectations and disappointments for good. Paul Billheimer wrote a book, “Don’t Waste Your Sorrows.” Which I haven’t even read yet! But in conjunction with Romans 8:28 the title’s suggestion expands wonderfully. I don’t have to be disappointed now, for God is able, so very able to lead me with Him to Heaven where my Gardener, who is my Father, lives!
More poetry from the Spirit of God: Adam was placed into, GRAFTED into Eden, the Garden of God. Satan came and by deceit and evil craft had Adam “cut off” (like the branch) from Eden. Satan has tried for centuries to graft all men and women into his evil tree. And I have in this moment the thought now “blooming:” that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the only place in the Garden satan could have been found, because only there was the knowledge of evil! Yes? No? God forbade them the fruit of that tree, for it was only there that evil could have been tasted. Yes? When God drew Adam and Adam drew Eve’s attention to this forbidden tree, He already knew their future. His plan was that after 4000 years, and all the the prophetic poetry of life given to us in the Old Testament, in the fullness of time, when the time was RIPE (get it? ripe!) He would then send the branch, The Messiah also very much the Vine, the Tree itself, Himself, the Tree of Life. And then and NOW those who in trust, in faith, receive Him, did and does the Gardener, our Father take and graft in to the tree, the Vine, Jesus!
This is not the entire story. It IS a very real and Holy Poem God has written. The word poem cannot capture all the truth of the Bible, which is the most exact written revelation of the Mind of Christ we will ever have this side of heaven. What the books in heaven are I know only a little. But there is also the truth that the Bible is a written record of the law suit Yahweh Elohim vs. lucifer. In that suit God in Christ stood as plaintiff for the faithful: for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for the land of Israel, and for the souls of us ALL. Satan knows something of the result prophesied, the true end coming, when all Israel receives the Messiah Yeshua in living God ordained faith. In that regard much of christendom has failed and still does fail to understand the place of the partially blinded Jewish family from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Romans is essentially a book written to gentiles to explain the whole controversy and the place, the role the purpose will and plan of God in His choosing of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The blessing that has been missed by our ignorance and our being deceived is inestimable.
Notwithstanding in any way:
“This is the word of Adonai to Z’rubavel: ‘Not by force, and not by power, but by my Spirit,’ says Adonai-Tzva’ot. 7 ‘What are you, you big mountain? Before Z’rubavel you will become a plain; and he will put the capstone in place, as everyone shouts, “It’s beautiful! Beautiful!”‘ Zechariah 4:6-7 Complete Jewish Bible
God doesn’t doll up the truth in poetry just to satisfy our need for entertainment. I believe He does do it to keep our interest, to stimulate us to learn the truth and depths of His most wonderful, BEAUTIFUL and Holy Words which belong to Him and which He gives to us also! It is strange to this human soul that this beauty of parable and poetry also seems to repel unbelievers! Yet God is not unwise in anything He does or how He has chosen to speak to us!
My prayer is that those who should be saved would hear the Word of God, for faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by hearing the Word of God, plain or poetic! The Word of God I think really heals our ears in the way they really must be healed, so that they can hear God in faith, knowing it is really God who is speaking... I am now remembering the poetry of Keith Green whose song said: “Like waking up from the longest dream...” Oh but it is GOOD to be awake! TY Lord God, TY Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit!
Dave Severy Dec. 7th, 2012
