Ezekiel 34:29 And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land… The symbolism of the Bible forms one of its most interesting and conspicuous features. As children are oft-times taught the alphabet by the assistance of pictures, so ancient Israel, living amid the dim shadows of patriarchal and mosaic times, were instructed in the A B C and rudimental principles of religious worship and godly knowledge and obedience by the help of types, prefigurements, symbols. Ezekiel every now and then swells out in organ strains of grand poetic utterance, calling into use the wealth of nature's imagery to embody and symbol forth the wonderful creations of his inspired and sanctified genius. And strange, yet glorious to say, all this wealth of biblical imagery, either directly or indirectly, points to and finds its higher actualisation in "the Christ," who is the "Alpha and Omega" of Scripture. We speak not here of Jesus the "Rose" or Jesus the "Lily"; of Jesus the "Star" or Jesus the "Sun"; of Jesus the "King" or Jesus the "Servant"; of Jesus the "Foundation" or of Jesus the "Stone of Stumbling"; of Jesus the "Branch" or of Jesus the "Tree of Life"; but of Jesus the "Plant" — the Eternal "Plant," the "Plant of Renown" — of renown among men, angels, seraphs, God! In thought, memory, and love, let us gather around this "Plant" to meditate, admire, adore. I. JESUS IS AN AROMATIC "PLANT." He outbreathes an aroma which fills heaven with ecstasy, and saves earth with its teeming population from moral putrefaction and death. Christ is an eternal perfume. Angels and archangelic ones drink it in as flowers drink in the solar ray. And whenever on human soil He is scented for the first time, it creates an insatiable desire in the soul to daily and hourly drink at this fountain of sweetest odours. 1. The Bible would have no fragrance were it not for Christ. It would be mouldy and mildewed, antiquated and repulsive, without the aroma of this Plant. 2. Preaching would have no refreshing and soul-saving odour without this Plant. It might have persuasive rhetoric, and convincing logic, and charming elocution, and faultless learning, and elegant diction — yea, all the graces and glories of finished composition; nevertheless, devoid of the aromatic odours of the "Lamb of God" — the one Mediator for and only Saviour of a fallen world — it would be nothing more than "a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal," or a message surcharged with the "savour of death unto death"! 3. Prayer, too, would have no effect without the perfume of this Plant. There might be fluency of utterance, beauty of sentence, multiplicity of words, glowing creations of thought, minute descriptions of want, and oratorical outbursts of desire and request; but unless fragrant with the incense of Jesu's blood, and death, and intercession, it will be but a bundle of "vain repetitions," or a jingle of unmeaning terms, unacceptable to God, and unbenefiting to us. 4. Heaven would have no fragrance but for Christ. Fie is the all of heaven! The music of its songs, the brightness of its skies, the health of its atmosphere, the splendour of its sceneries, the vitality, and glory, and wonder of its inhabitants — ay, the nectar of its unwithering flowers, the eternal perfume of its homage, worship, service, adoration! II. CHRIST IS A MEDICINAL PLANT. His "leaves are for the healing of the nations." He is the "balm of Gilead," the "balm for every wound," the "cordial for every fear." A wonderful variety of medicinal virtues is characteristic of this unique Plant. While as a grand specific for the world's sin it is one; yet, for the Church's manifold ailments it is a repository of all that is needed, suited, effectual. If you suffer morally from had appetite and "indigestion," so that you do not relish the means of grace or the ordinances of the Church, and loathe the food with which God's servants try to feed you, through its not being dainty enough, or too much spiced, or not cooked to your taste — make application to Christ and He will speedily effect a cure. Or if you suffer from soul "dyspepsia," which makes you peevish, discontented, morose, and querulous in the church and in the family and in the business, so that you are an unwholesome sample to the world of our glorious Christianity — come to Christ and tell Him all. and He will send you healthy and happy away. III. JESUS IS AN UNWITHERING PLANT. Not only evergreen, ever-verdant, ever-fresh, but eternally enduring. The frosts of time cannot nip it; the roll of centuries cannot fade it; the heat of a myriad persecution — suns cannot scorch it; the blasts of all storms, and the blights of all winters, and the changes of all seasons, and the sweep and swing of all eternities, cannot sear, shrivel, wither it! In two of its ingredients — qualities — it stands in sublime and unapproachable isolation, namely, immutability and eternity. It is immutable, because eternal from necessity, and eternal from necessity because uncaused and infinite. IV. JESUS CHRIST IS A UNIVERSAL PLANT. In other words, a Plant in every place, being omnipresent; and a Plant for every sinner's appropriation, being suitable and sufficient. None can monopolise it, any more than they can monopolise the sunlight, the rain, the dew. It is the property of all in general, but of everyone who believes in particular. He is "the Saviour of the world." He is for "the healing of the nations." "All men are to be blessed in Him." As the old sun shines on every shore, so this Plant shall cast its healing shadow over every land, and drop its "sovereign balm" in every receptive heart, and be renowned by all languages and peoples. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. |
    |