"New Wine is found in the Cluster!"
Alan Mc Savage
Isa 65:8 Thus says the LORD: "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it,' so will I do for My servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all.
The primary meaning of "cluster" is that of a family, togetherness, and the manifold fullness of Christ in His Body.
811 'eshkowl (esh-kole');
or 'eshkol (esh-kole'); probably prolonged from 810; a bunch of grapes or other fruit:
KJV-- cluster (of grapes).
Its root ‘eshek, means "to bunch together; a testicle (as a lump)" and is translated as "stone."
When the ten spies came back from their foraging trip to the promised land it is said that they carried a cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it strung on a pole.
Num. 13:23 Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.
Adam Clark says
Numbers 13:23
20 pounds in weight. Those who live in cold climates can scarcely have any conception to what perfection both grapes and other fruits grow in climates that are warm, and where the soil is suitable to them. (from Adam Clarke Commentary)
Oh saints can you see the relevance of what Clark is saying in light of the corporate anointing and the Apostolic Team Ministry
I have preached in groups that the spiritual climate is cold, warm and hot and I can tell you the right temperature mix produces the best wine.
Jesus said:
Matt 13:54-58 And when He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? "Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? "And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?" So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house." Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Matthew 13:57
Unbelief and contempt drive Christ out of the heart, as they did out of his own country. Faith seems to put the almighty power of God into the hands of men; whereas unbelief appears to tie up even the hands of the Almighty. A man, generally speaking, can do but little good among his relatives, because it is difficult for them to look with the eyes of faith upon one whom they have been accustomed to behold with the eyes of the flesh.-- QUESNEL. (from Adam Clarke Commentary)
It always amazed me how I have had a stranger (to the congregation) come into the church and say and do exactly the same thing I have done many times over and be received as "God's great man of faith and power for the hour."
Jesus Christ was the "Stone from Heaven (1 Peter 2:6) in whom was clustered all the fullness of the Godhead bodily!" It is He "of whom the whole family in heaven and earth are named" (Eph 3:15).
The Church, universally and locally, is a cluster of grapes (Isa. 65:8) we are many yet one (1 Cor. 12:12-27).
God sets the solitary in families (Ps. 68:6) - a broken cluster or testicle disqualified one from the priestly ministry (Lev. 21:20)
Like the boards of Moses Tabernacle and the stones of Solomon's Temple, we are framed together as the many-membered Body of Christ.
The grapes of Eshcol typify the fruit of the Spirit (Num. 13:23-24; Gal. 5:22-23).
Or the Apostolic Team Ministry of Eph.4:11-13 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
The new wine is the joy of the Holy Spirit and the real, reproductive life and strength of God is in the corporate anointing (the bunch of grapes)
The family of God is bundled together by the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:1-3). Mature faith and love, the breasts of the Shulamite Bride, are a cluster of grapes (Song 7:7-78 Gal. 5:6; 1 Thess. 5:8). Christ's life is reproduced (as seen in the word "testicle") as we leaven ("lump") the earth as living stones (1Peter 2:5)."
Each of us is a powerful grape, but the abundant fullness of the new wine is still found in the cluster.
As the end time Church moves forward into the next century, we will face many obstacles, (personal and corporate) In the next ten years, you and I will be going to confront some unprecedented challenges.
The anointing on each of us is powerful. But our greatest hope and confidence is to be a vital part of a HOLY CLUSTER, a divine "THEY".
Alan
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