“Every man under his vine…” | Ferrell's Travel Blog

“Every man under his vine…” | Ferrell's Travel Blog:

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“Every man under his vine…”

Posted on January 20, 2013 | 2 Comments

A biblical way of describing a time of peace and prosperity is expressed in the following passage describing the time of King Solomon.

And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba,every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon. (1 Kings 4:25 ESV)

It is not uncommon in the middle east to see vines used as a shade. Sometime the vine runs up the side of a house and covers a porch on the roof. When I saw this single vine by itself in front of the theater at Miletus I could not help but think of the biblical saying. I asked my traveling buddy, Leon Mauldin, to make a picture of me sitting under my vine.

I can imagine a person sitting under the vine in the late summer and enjoying the fresh grapes from the vine.

Sitting under the vine at the theater of Miletus. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

Miletus is the city where the Apostle Paul met with the elders from the church at Ephesus as he returned to Jerusalem at the end of his third journey (Acts 20).

The prophet Micah used the same illustration to describe the nature of the Messiah’s kingdom.

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, 2 and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 3 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; 4 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. (Micah 4:1-4 ESV)