What is the opposite of a well rooted, fruit bearing tree planted next to streams of water? The answer, to quote Bob Dylan, “is blowing in the wind.”

(10 mins. reading time)

David moved from the image of a thriving tree to the image of a dead shell or chaff. To understand what chaff is, we need to consider the grain harvesting process. The grain kernels were separated from the grain stem and leaves by crushing or tearing the plants. At harvest, farmers would beat their wheat stalks on a threshing floor, separating the heavier grains from the lighter grain coverings or chaff. The broken grain heads were thrown into the air. The heavier grain kernels fell back to the ground and the lighter shells or waste parts were blown away by the wind. The process was known as winnowing.¹

Chaff has the appearance of fruitfulness while it is covering the grain seed. But after completing the winnowing process it’s true worth is revealed as a covering that turns into waste. When the wind blows the chaff disappears. It cannot stand in the face of difficulty. The well watered tree has established roots. In strong winds, the roots will keep the tree upright. In drought, the deep roots will collect water below the surface to provide nourishment. The planted tree is strong and resilient, while the chaff is at the mercy of every wind and breeze.

While the chaff is entirely useless, the tree bears fruit and extends life beyond itself. The fruit from the tree provides life to those who eat it and the leaves from the tree provide healing. The tree planted by streams of water is the picture of reaching our full potential. Chaff, on the other hand, is a picture of wasted potential. Chaff has no roots, no connection, no nourishment, and no value. What once bloomed, bore fruit, and brightened the landscape is a dried-up shell.

The chaff is defined by what it is not. ³

Healthy trees, are always growing, converting wasted air (carbon dioxide) into oxygen released through the leaves. They take sunlight and water and produce fruit. Trees are always reaching outward, upward, while at the same time staying grounded and rooted. Chaff is dead, weightless, and useless. The contrast is stark. Fulfilling our potential or denying it. Full of life or lifeless.

The Little White House

In July 1996, there were two weeks of constant rain followed by two days of flash floods in the communities of Chicoutimi and La Baie, Québec. Portions of the area were covered in up to 2.4 metres (8 feet) of water and entire neighbourhoods were washed away. One house, however, stood firm in the storm even as its neighbours were swept away. The little white house became a symbol for survival on national television for an area that, in two days experienced an accumulated rainfall that was “equivalent to the volume of water that tumbles over Niagara Falls in four weeks.”⁴ It was the largest flood on record in Canada during the 20^th century.

Sylvain Genest, the grandson of the woman who lived in the house at the time of the flood, has since turned the house into a museum. The most frequently asked question by visitors is how did that house survive while over 2,000 homes in the area were either destroyed or damaged?

He provides two explanations: one spiritual and one scientific.

His grandmother was a strong believer and prayed that her house would be protected while she was being evacuated. The other explanation has to do with the foundations. When the house was built in the 1950s, the owner anchored the foundations right down to the rock. When the water arrived, the foundations acted as a dam and the house held up as the floods passed around. ⁵

Jesus concluded the Sermon on the Mount by saying that those who listened to and followed his words were like a house built on the rock that remains steadfast in storms. He contrasted this with those who hear God’s words but don’t obey them, and they are like the house built on sand that collapses when assailed by storms. Listening to and acting on Jesus’ words (meditation) is a solid foundation for life. Jesus was restating David’s advice. Solomon restated his father’s advice when he wrote, “Wickedness never brings stability, but the godly have deep roots.” (Proverbs 12:3, NLT) A well rooted tree planted by streams of water. A house built on rock.

The Dwelling Place

Jesus had another life-giving metaphor that he shared with his disciples in the upper room when he describes fruitfulness in the final of his seven “I am” statements,

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.” (John 15:5-6, NLT)

The Greek word used for remain is “meno,” and it means to stay, to live, to dwell, or to abide. ⁶ It is the verb form of the noun used for “dwelling place.”

The noun “dwelling place” occurs twice in the previous chapter of John. Jesus, after washing the disciples’ feet, told them that he must leave them. Jesus then spoke these words of comfort, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:1-2, NIV).

The word for “rooms” in his father’s house is the same word as the noun “dwelling place.” Jesus assured the disciples that one day they will go to a heavenly “dwelling place” to be with Jesus and his father. They would be reunited in God’s presence.

Tents and Temples

In the Old Testament the presence of God was associated with a place. While the Israelites wandered the desert, living in tents, God desired a place with them. The Israelites set up a tabernacle or tent of meeting. “Then the cloud covered the meeting tent. The shining-greatness of the Lord filled the holy tent.” (Exodus 40:34, NLT).

Later when the Israelites conquered and settled the promised land, and lived in permanent homes, Solomon built the temple that became a permanent “dwelling place” for God’s presence among his people. “For the shining-greatness of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.” (1 Kings 8:11, NLT). ⁷

These “dwelling places” did not contain God. They were a tangible place to help the people recognize the presence of God among them. This was what the disciples pictured when Jesus promised that they would be in God’s heavenly “dwelling place.” David echoed this when he proclaimed, “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I will look for: that I may live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to look upon the beauty of the Lord, and to worship in His holy house.” (Psalm 27:4, NLT)

Later that night as Jesus prepared the disciples for the coming Holy Spirit, he flipped the concept of God’s presence or “dwelling place” from a physical location to the presence of God residing in them. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23, NIV). The noun used for “home” is the same word as “dwelling place” to describe the father’s house in John 14:2.

In the Old Testament God’s presence was in the temple among the people but Jesus said that God would make his temple or “dwelling place” inside of us. The Jewish teachers in Jesus’ time would have considered God’s presence as residing in the temple. “Jesus speaks of God’s presence as residing in each believer like an individual temple for his presence.” ⁸ This is abiding and remaining. The connection is internal not external. It’s not doing things for God or going to church that leads to fruitfulness but walking with God.⁹

“And fruit can’t be faked. It can only be grown. Cultivated. Waited for.” ¹⁰

Life Support

Our connection to the vine is essential for life and fruitfulness. In his book, The Last Supper on the Moon, Levi Lusko describes in detail the preparation for astronauts completing a spacewalk from the international space station. He compared our connection to the vine with the life-supporting tether that connected the astronaut to the space station. “Like an astronaut with a life-sustaining tether, so we must never become complacent in our connection to the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 2:1 reminds us, ‘We must give the most earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.’ He is the tether; we are the astronaut. If we are disconnected from him, we will drift off into the blackness of space.” ¹¹

The image of the astronaut drifting in space without life support is like the chaff blowing in the wind or the house built on the sand or the branch disconnected from the vine. It is a picture showing that without a connection to a nourishing source we cannot produce anything of lasting value. When we choose to go our own way instead of putting ourselves in the direct path of God’s words, eventually we become lifeless like an empty shell instead of a well rooted, life-giving tree. Let’s look at the verses again.

³ They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
    bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
    and they prosper in all they do.

⁴ But not the wicked!
    They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.

The psalmist compared the results of hearing and obeying God’s words (meditation) to going our own way and choosing to ignore God’s words. The two images are quite stark – a fruitful, stream-fed tree or windblown shells. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus repeated the same sentiment about listening to and obeying his words comparing a foundation built on rock to one built on sand. At the end of his life on earth Jesus reminded his disciples that fruitfulness would not be achieved apart from him. Like a branch needs the vine to flourish we need Jesus’ “dwelling place” to be inside of us to enable us to live a life of lasting value.

Up Next

Why do the two paths not arrive at the same destination? What are the unique destinations for two paths?

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Notes

1. NKJV Chronological Study Bible Notes (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008)
2. Eugene Peterson, As Kingfishers Catch Fire: A Conversation on the Ways of God Formed by the Words of God (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2017), 110.
3. Peterson, 110.
4. http://canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/ma97/feature_saguenay_floods.asp
5. https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/07/10/did-house-that-survived-saguenay-flood-get-divine-help.html
6. John R. Kohlenberger III, NIV Exhaustive Concordance Dictionary, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015)
7. https://www.gotquestions.org/temple-of-God.html
8. Clinton E. Arnold ed., Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,2002).
9. Levi Lusko, The Last Supper on the Moon, (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2022), 322.
10. Lusko, 322.
11. Lusko, 321.