You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
5 For
afore [paniym] the harvest [qatsiyr], when
the bud [perach] is perfect [tamam], and the sour grape [bocer]
is ripening [gamal] in the flower [nitstsah], he shall both cut off [karath] the sprigs [zalzal] with
pruning hooks [mazmerah], and take away [cuwr] and cut down [tazaz] the
branches [natiyshah]. KJV-Interlinear
5 For
before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms And the flower becomes a
ripening grape, Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives And remove
and cut away the spreading branches. NASB
Using the imagery of a harvest that is not quite ready, but is getting close to the time of harvest, God can step in at any time and intervene and interrupt the plans of man.
The bud and the flower are indications of a fruit that is beginning to form but still needs some time in order to come to a complete harvest ready state.
When humanity was building the Tower of Babel, God allowed the construction to continue for a time, but then intervened with language confusion in order to bring the whole project to a stop, and to otherwise scatter the people in order to promote their freedom from the slavery of the project.
The project of the tower being the symbolism of human effort to rise up to Gods level by means of mans energy, in total disregard for the promised savior, who would complete the work of salvation and thus bring man to God by means of Gods work.
Throughout history man has formed nations and empires with one purpose which was to promote themselves by means of subduing or destroying others, all of which was driven by evil.
But in every case, God intervened and destroyed the predator empire, thus extending the promise of freedom so that man could have yet another chance to pursue God and Christ and doctrine and gain the ultimate freedom and liberty and prosperity that has been intended by God from the start.
But of course history repeats itself as evil man does not learn from the mistakes and corruption of prior generations, believing that somehow this next time the new leaders will succeed with even better ideas where others have failed. Never once believing or realizing that failure is based on the negative attitude toward Christ, not mans better ideas.
Any ideas that reject Christ and truth, have but one destiny, which is failure. None of mans plans will ever succeed.
And right up to the bitter end of history, humanity will pursue idea after idea, plan after plan, regulation and law after regulation and law, and the end result will be the near extinction of the human race. That is the result of mans plans.
And so that we all have some semblance of hope and confidence, here is Gods promise that no plans of man, no nations, no empires will ever succeed, as God possesses the right and power and ability and sovereignty and authority over all things, and will terminate any and all of mans plans at the proper time, so that freedom and truth can be restored.
Granted mans plans can span across several generations, but then evil plans are only promoted and perpetuated because people promote and perpetuate them.
Nevertheless, even when there is very little on the side of truth in this world, remember that God does not rely on human means. The battle is the Lords.
To receive notice of each days Bible Study, please go to my twitter page and sign up.
