Ezekiel 15:1-8 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,… These fallen branches form the fuel which the woodman gathers for his fire. They are at once fit for the burning, for there is no sap, no resisting element of life in them; the burning fitly consummates the process of oxidation long ago begun and carried on in them. In a similar way there are in the True Vine dry and withered branches, having no share in His vitality — whose connection with Him is a purely mechanical one. They are deformities upon Him. The dispensations of God's Providence that help to develop the growth and fruitfulness of Christ's true disciples only wither them into greater deadness, and blanch them into greater deformity, and cause to grow upon them the noxious parasitic growths of worldly lusts. The flame of Tophet is the fit consummation of the spiritual oxidation and decay that has been going on for years. (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, |
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