Section 17
can do has all been embodied in the vine tree. The Son as the vine is the center of God's econ omy and the embodiment of all the riches of the Father. The Father, by cultivating the Son, works Himself with all of His riches into this vine, and eventually the vine expresses the Father through its branches in a corporate way. This is the Father's economy in the universe.
In the Old Testament, the children of Israel were a vine in the eyes of God (Psa. 80:8; cf. Isa. 5:2; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 19:10; 15:2). But Israel failed God as the vine, for they did not give God the opportunity to express Himself through them. Although God tried to express Himself through them, they failed Him. Finally, in the New Tes tament the real Israel came. The Lord Jesus as the true Israel is the true vine who can fully ex press God. This true vine is the very embodi ment of God and the full manifestation of God. What God is and what God has have been em bodied in this true vine and fully manifested through this true vine.
THE BRANCHES, THE BELIEVERS IN THE SON
No plant other than the vine tree can illus trate adequately the living relationship between