Jeremiah 31:27-31 NASB
[27] “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. [28] As I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD. [29] “In those days they will not say again, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ [30] But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. [31] “ Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, …
Ezekiel 18:1-3 NASB
[1] … Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, [2] “What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children’s teeth are set on edge’? [3] As I live,” declares the Lord God b, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. …
The context of those verses in Jeremiah is the fulfillment of the promised move of God for the people of Israel. That promise was fulfilled in the manifestation of the Messiah, and the making new of all things that Jesus accomplished in his death and resurrection. When Jesus came announcing the kingdom of God he was fulfilling God’s promise of The Great Revival that Israel had been longing for, and praying into for centuries. It is important that we never forget, that Jesus came and released the revival that we are all looking for as Christians. The Big One that we are all praying into and longing for, came 2000 years ago through the finished work of Christ. A people “in Christ” is the great revival that we are all hoping for. It happened already, and every time a person is born again, they are born again because they are placed into Christ, and therefore they have been placed into The Big One. When you become a Christian you are born into revival. The problem is, most Christians don’t get that, but are still longing for something that Jesus has already accomplished. I understand that, and I believe that we should pray for revival, but what we are actually praying for is a fresh manifestation of the revival that all Christians have already been born into. True revival is just the release and manifestation of the fullness of Jesus, which always results in extraordinary harvest.
I give all that as a context of what these passages in the Old Testament are actually talking about, and the fact that we as New Testament believers, have been placed into that new covenant, which is the great revival. What I wanted you to notice today is something very simple; that if you are someone who “eats sour grapes,” then that is one of the great dispositions that rob us from experiencing the revival that we were born into. “Sour grapes” steal from the experience of enjoying, amd manifesting the fullness of Jesus. It says in that Jeremiah passage, as well as the Ezekiel passage, that when you eat sour grapes, the teeth of your children are set on edge. The term “sour grapes” is a familiar one even in our generation. It is simply the attitude of resentment and bitterness, because you somehow feel that you missed out on something you really wanted. It is the spirit of “comparing, and complaining,” and it causes us to live our lives with our “teeth set on edge.” When we entertain bitterness, jealousy, resentment, and display that with a complaining heart then emotionally we will live our lives in anger and anxiousness. That’s what it means to have our children, or the fruit of our lives, to be “set on edge.”
The context in these verses is an attitude of complaining toward God. In Jeremiah 31:30, the Lord says “But everyone will die for his own iniquity.” All that he saying there is that everyone has to own their own stuff, and that is not God’s fault, or someone else’s fault for our misery. He’s telling them that they have to stop blaming him or blaming others for their unhappy condition. Throughout the chapter in Jeremiah God reminds them of his goodness, and anytime we live eating sour grapes, we are questioning his goodness in our lives. That in the end is what “eating sour grapes is all about.” It’s about complaining, with the element of resentment, because we have questioned the goodness of God. May the Holy Spirit uproot, and pull down, overthrow, and destroy any spirit of “sour grapes” in us, that he might once again build and plant holy dispositions in us that releases us into the revival that’s ours by our union with Christ.