Jeremiah 2:21
I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine?
I had planted you
The imagery of planting is deeply rooted in the agricultural context of ancient Israel, where vineyards were a common sight. The Hebrew word for "planted" (נָטַע, nata) conveys intentionality and care. God, as the divine gardener, deliberately chose and nurtured Israel, symbolizing His covenant relationship with them. This act of planting signifies God's sovereign choice and His desire for Israel to flourish under His guidance.

like a choice vine
The phrase "choice vine" (שֹׂרֵק, soreq) refers to a high-quality vine known for producing excellent fruit. In the ancient Near East, a choice vine was a symbol of prosperity and blessing. By comparing Israel to a choice vine, God emphasizes the potential and value He saw in His people. This metaphor underscores the expectation that Israel would yield good fruit, reflecting God's holiness and righteousness.

from the very best seed
The "very best seed" (זֶרַע אֱמֶת, zera emet) indicates purity and truth. The seed represents the foundational truths and promises given to Israel through the patriarchs and the Law. This seed was intended to produce a nation that embodied God's truth and justice. The use of "best" highlights the divine origin and the perfect nature of what God had sown into Israel's identity and mission.

How then could you turn yourself
The phrase "turn yourself" (תִּהְפְכִי, tihapki) suggests a deliberate action of change or transformation. This turning away is not a passive occurrence but an active choice by Israel to deviate from their intended purpose. It reflects a moral and spiritual decline, a conscious decision to abandon the path set by God. This turning is a betrayal of the covenant relationship, highlighting human agency and responsibility.

before Me
The presence of "before Me" (לְפָנַי, lefanai) indicates that Israel's actions were done in the sight of God, who is omnipresent and omniscient. This phrase underscores the personal nature of the offense, as it is not merely a violation of law but a direct affront to God Himself. It serves as a reminder of God's intimate involvement in the lives of His people and His awareness of their actions.

into a corrupt, wild vine
The transformation into a "corrupt, wild vine" (סוּרֵי גֶפֶן נָכְרִיָּה, surei gefen nokhriyah) signifies a degeneration from the intended state of holiness and purity. A wild vine, in contrast to a cultivated one, produces inferior fruit and is often associated with chaos and disorder. The term "corrupt" (סוּרֵי, surei) implies moral decay and unfaithfulness. This imagery starkly contrasts with the initial planting of a choice vine, illustrating the tragic fall from grace and the consequences of forsaking God's ways.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jeremiah
A prophet called by God to deliver messages of warning and hope to the people of Judah. His ministry spanned the reigns of several kings and was marked by his deep emotional connection to his people and his unwavering commitment to God's truth.

2. Judah
The southern kingdom of Israel, which was often warned by prophets like Jeremiah about their unfaithfulness to God. Judah's spiritual decline is a central theme in Jeremiah's prophecies.

3. God's Vineyard
A metaphor used by God to describe His people, Israel. The vineyard represents God's care and cultivation, expecting them to produce good fruit, symbolizing righteousness and faithfulness.

4. Choice Vine
Represents Israel's initial purity and potential when God first established them as His people. The "choice vine" signifies the best possible start given by God.

5. Wild Vine
Symbolizes Israel's corruption and deviation from God's intended path. The transformation from a "choice vine" to a "wild vine" illustrates Israel's spiritual decline and unfaithfulness.
Teaching Points
God's Intentions and Our Response
God plants us with purpose and potential, much like He did with Israel. We must examine how we respond to His cultivation in our lives.

The Danger of Spiritual Drift
Just as Israel turned from a choice vine to a wild vine, we must be vigilant against spiritual drift and ensure we remain rooted in God's Word and truth.

The Call to Faithfulness
Our lives should reflect the fruit of righteousness. We are called to remain faithful to God, producing good fruit through our actions and character.

The Role of Repentance
When we recognize areas of unfaithfulness, repentance is crucial. God is always ready to restore us when we turn back to Him.

The Importance of Community
Like a vineyard, our spiritual growth is often nurtured in community. We should seek fellowship and accountability to help us remain faithful.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the metaphor of the vineyard in Jeremiah 2:21 help us understand God's expectations for His people?

2. In what ways can we identify if we are becoming like a "wild vine" in our spiritual lives, and what steps can we take to return to being a "choice vine"?

3. How do the teachings in John 15:1-8 about abiding in Christ relate to the message in Jeremiah 2:21?

4. Reflect on a time when you experienced spiritual drift. What helped you return to a closer relationship with God?

5. How can we, as a community of believers, support each other in remaining faithful and producing good fruit?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Isaiah 5:1-7
This passage also uses the vineyard metaphor to describe Israel's failure to produce good fruit despite God's careful cultivation.

John 15:1-8
Jesus speaks of Himself as the true vine and His followers as branches, emphasizing the importance of remaining in Him to bear fruit.

Psalm 80:8-16
A plea for God to restore His vineyard, Israel, which has been ravaged due to their unfaithfulness.
Spiritual DeteriorationJ. Parker, D. D.Jeremiah 2:21
Jehovah's Indictment Against IsraelS. Conway Jeremiah 2:20-37
People
Gad, Jacob, Jeremiah, Kedar, Kittim, Kittites
Places
Assyria, Cyprus, Egypt, Euphrates River, Jerusalem, Kedar, Memphis, Nile River, Tahpanhes
Topics
Branches, Branching, Changed, Choice, Completely, Corrupt, Degenerate, Faithful, Foreign, Hast, Noble, Plant, Planted, Pure, Reliable, Seed, Shoots, Stock, Strange, Turn, Vine, Wholly, Wild, Yet
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 2:21

     4510   sowing and reaping
     4534   vine
     5973   unreliability
     6200   imperfection, influence
     6232   rejection of God, results
     7021   church, OT anticipations
     8331   reliability

Jeremiah 2:19-25

     8705   apostasy, in OT

Library
Stiff-Necked Idolaters and Pliable Christians
'Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.'--JER. ii. 11. The obstinacy of the adherents of idolatry is in striking contrast with Israel's continual tendency to forsake Jehovah. It reads a scarcely less forcible lesson to many nominal and even to some real Christians. I. That contrast carries with it a disclosure of the respective origins of the two kinds of Religion. The strangeness of the contrasted conduct is
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Forsaking Jehovah
'Know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts.'--JER. ii. 19. Of course the original reference is to national apostasy, which was aggravated by the national covenant, and avenged by national disasters, which are interpreted and urged by the prophet as God's merciful pleading with men. But the text is true in reference to individuals. I. The universal indictment. This is not so
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Balak's Inquiries Relative to the Service of God, and Balaam's Answer, Briefly Considered.
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with, thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression; the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?--He hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good: And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" As mankind are
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

"He is the Rock, his Work is Perfect, for all his Ways are Judgment, a God of Truth, and Without Iniquity, Just and Right is He.
Deut. xxxii. 4, 5.--"He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children," &c. There are none can behold their own vileness as it is, but in the sight of God's glorious holiness. Sin is darkness, and neither sees itself, nor any thing else, therefore must his light shine to discover this darkness. If we abide within ourselves, and men like ourselves,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

That it is not Lawful for the Well Affected Subjects to Concur in Such an Engagement in War, and Associate with the Malignant Party.
That It Is Not Lawful For The Well Affected Subjects To Concur In Such An Engagement In War, And Associate With The Malignant Party. Some convinced of the unlawfulness of the public resolutions and proceedings, in reference to the employing of the malignant party, yet do not find such clearness and satisfaction in their own consciences as to forbid the subjects to concur in this war, and associate with the army so constituted. Therefore it is needful to speak something to this point, That it is
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

A Book for Boys and Girls Or, Temporal Things Spritualized.
by John Bunyan, Licensed and entered according to order. London: Printed for, and sold by, R. Tookey, at his Printing House in St. Christopher's Court, in Threadneedle Street, behind the Royal Exchange, 1701. Advertisement by the Editor. Some degree of mystery hangs over these Divine Emblems for children, and many years' diligent researches have not enabled me completely to solve it. That they were written by Bunyan, there cannot be the slightest doubt. 'Manner and matter, too, are all his own.'[1]
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

'The God of the Amen'
'He who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth.'--ISAIAH lxv. 16. The full beauty and significance of these remarkable words are only reached when we attend to the literal rendering of a part of them which is obscured in our version. As they stand in the original they have, in both cases, instead of the vague expression, 'The God of truth,' the singularly picturesque one, 'The God of the Amen.' I. Note
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Harbinger
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD , make straight in the desert a high-way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. T he general style of the prophecies is poetical. The inimitable simplicity which characterizes every
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

"All Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags, and we all do Fade as a Leaf, and Our Iniquities, Like the Wind, have Taken us Away. "
Isaiah lxiv. 6, 7.--"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Not only are the direct breaches of the command uncleanness, and men originally and actually unclean, but even our holy actions, our commanded duties. Take a man's civility, religion, and all his universal inherent righteousness,--all are filthy rags. And here the church confesseth nothing but what God accuseth her of, Isa. lxvi. 8, and chap. i. ver.
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. "
We come now to speak more particularly to the words; and, first, Of his being a way. Our design being to point at the way of use-making of Christ in all our necessities, straits, and difficulties which are in our way to heaven; and particularly to point out the way how believers should make use of Christ in all their particular exigencies; and so live by faith in him, walk in him, grow up in him, advance and march forward toward glory in him. It will not be amiss to speak of this fulness of Christ
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

All Mankind Guilty; Or, Every Man Knows More than He Practises.
ROMANS i. 24.--"When they knew God, they glorified him not as God." The idea of God is the most important and comprehensive of all the ideas of which the human mind is possessed. It is the foundation of religion; of all right doctrine, and all right conduct. A correct intuition of it leads to correct religious theories and practice; while any erroneous or defective view of the Supreme Being will pervade the whole province of religion, and exert a most pernicious influence upon the entire character
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

A Short and Easy Method of Prayer
CHAPTER I The Universal Call to Prayer What a dreadful delusion hath prevailed over the greater part of mankind, in supposing that they are not called to a state of prayer! whereas all are capable of prayer, and are called thereto, as all are called to and are capable of salvation. Prayer is the application of the heart to God, and the internal exercise of love. S. Paul hath enjoined us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. v 17), and our Lord saith, "I say unto you all, watch and pray" (Mark xiii.
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

All are Commanded to Pray --Prayer the Great Means of Salvation
CHAPTER I. ALL ARE COMMANDED TO PRAY--PRAYER THE GREAT MEANS OF SALVATION, AND POSSIBLE AT ALL TIMES BY THE MOST SIMPLE. Prayer is nothing else but the application of the heart to God, and the interior exercise of love. St Paul commands us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. v. 17). Our Lord says: "Take ye heed, watch and pray." "And what I say unto you, I say unto all" (Mark xiii. 33, 37). All, then, are capable of prayer, and it is the duty of all to engage in it. But I do not think that all are
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

What are Consequences of Backsliding in Heart.
The text says, that "the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." 1. He shall be filled with his own works. But these are dead works, they are not works of faith and love, which are acceptable to God, but are the filthy rags of his own righteousness. If they are performed as religious services, they are but loathsome hypocrisy, and an abomination to God; there is no heart in them. To such a person God says: "Who hath required this at your hand?" (Isaiah 1:12). "Ye are they which justify
Charles G. Finney—The Backslider in Heart

Backsliding.
"I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away."--Hosea xiv. 4. There are two kinds of backsliders. Some have never been converted: they have gone through the form of joining a Christian community and claim to be backsliders; but they never have, if I may use the expression, "slid forward." They may talk of backsliding; but they have never really been born again. They need to be treated differently from real back-sliders--those who have been born of the incorruptible
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

That the Unskilful Venture not to Approach an Office of Authority.
No one presumes to teach an art till he has first, with intent meditation, learnt it. What rashness is it, then, for the unskilful to assume pastoral authority, since the government of souls is the art of arts! For who can be ignorant that the sores of the thoughts of men are more occult than the sores of the bowels? And yet how often do men who have no knowledge whatever of spiritual precepts fearlessly profess themselves physicians of the heart, though those who are ignorant of the effect of
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

"So Then they that are in the Flesh Cannot Please God. "
Rom. viii. 8.--"So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." It is a kind of happiness to men, to please them upon whom they depend, and upon whose favour their well-being hangs. It is the servant's happiness to please his master, the courtier's to please his prince; and so generally, whosoever they be that are joined in mutual relations, and depend one upon another; that which makes all pleasant, is this, to please one another. Now, certainly, all the dependencies of creatures one upon
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Section Chap. I. -iii.
The question which here above all engages our attention, and requires to be answered, is this: Whether that which is reported in these chapters did, or did not, actually and outwardly take place. The history of the inquiries connected with this question is found most fully in Marckius's "Diatribe de uxore fornicationum," Leyden, 1696, reprinted in the Commentary on the Minor Prophets by the same author. The various views may be divided into three classes. 1. It is maintained by very many interpreters,
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners Or, a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ, to his Poor Servant, John Bunyan
In this my relation of the merciful working of God upon my soul, it will not be amiss, if in the first place, I do in a few words give you a hint of my pedigree, and manner of bringing up; that thereby the goodness and bounty of God towards me, may be the more advanced and magnified before the sons of men. 2. For my descent then, it was, as is well known by many, of a low and inconsiderable generation; my father's house being of that rank that is meanest, and most despised of all the families in
John Bunyan—Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

"He is the Rock, his Work is Perfect. For all his Ways are Judgment. A God of Truth, and Without Iniquity, Just and Right is He.
Deut. xxxii. 4, 5.--"He is the rock, his work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment. A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children. They are a perverse and crooked generation." "All his ways are judgment," both the ways of his commandments and the ways of his providence, both his word which he hath given as a lantern to men's paths, and his works among men. And this were the blessedness of men, to be found
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

1 to Pray Does not Imply that Without Prayer God Would not Give us Anything...
1. To pray does not imply that without prayer God would not give us anything or that He would be unaware of our needs, but it has this great advantage, that in the attitude of prayer the soul is best fitted to receive the Giver of blessing as well as those blessings He desires to bestow. Thus it was that the fullness of the Spirit was not poured out upon the Apostles on the first day, but after ten days of special preparation. If a blessing were conferred upon one without a special readiness for
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

John Bunyan on the Terms of Communion and Fellowship of Christians at the Table of the Lord;
COMPRISING I. HIS CONFESSION OF FAITH, AND REASON OF HIS PRACTICE; II. DIFFERENCES ABOUT WATER BAPTISM NO BAR TO COMMUNION; AND III. PEACEABLE PRINCIPLES AND TRUE[1] ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Reader, these are extraordinary productions that will well repay an attentive perusal. It is the confession of faith of a Christian who had suffered nearly twelve years' imprisonment, under persecution for conscience sake. Shut up with his Bible, you have here the result of a prayerful study of those holy
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The River of Egypt, Rhinocorura. The Lake of Sirbon.
Pliny writes, "From Pelusium are the intrenchments of Chabrias: mount Casius: the temple of Jupiter Casius: the tomb of Pompey the Great: Ostracine: Arabia is bounded sixty-five miles from Pelusium: soon after begins Idumea and Palestine from the rising up of the Sirbon lake." Either my eyes deceive me, while I read these things,--or mount Casius lies nearer Pelusium, than the lake of Sirbon. The maps have ill placed the Sirbon between mount Casius and Pelusium. Sirbon implies burning; the name of
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

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