"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:11-12) "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, And should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how." (Mark 4:26-27) "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; The grass withers, the flower fades; because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God shall stand for ever." (Isaiah 40:6-8) "I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. ... Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in me. I am the Vine; you are the branches; He that abides in me, and Iin him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing." (John 15:1-2,4-5) "In that day sing unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." (Isaiah 27:2-3) "He that keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." (Psalm 121:3-4) "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" (Matthew 6:28-30) "I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon." (Hosea 14:5) "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing." (Psalm 92:12-14) "Who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground." (Isaiah 53:1-2) "Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation; I the Lord will hasten it in his time." (Isaiah 9:21-22) "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. ... To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. ... For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." (Isaiah 61:1,3,11) "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him: Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." (Colossians 2:6-7)
The statement that "all flesh is grass," is absolute and unqualified. It is true that in 1 Peter 1:24 we read that "All flesh is as grass;" (1 Peter 1:24) but that does not in the least destroy the force of the statement in Isaiah. The Scriptures do not contradict themselves. All flesh is as grass, because all flesh is grass. We may contradict the statement, and say that we cannot see how we are grass, and that we do not think it means just that; but in so doing we shall never find out what it does mean, and shall deprive ourselves of all the comfort that there is in it.
There is comfort in the knowledge of the fact that all flesh is grass. The 40th chapter of Isaiah, in which the statement occurs, is a message of comfort. The special message of comfort which God sends to His people, is that: "All flesh is grass" (Isaiah 40:6)
This is a part of the message that is sent to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord. The other part is, "the Word of our God shall stand for ever." (Isaiah 40:8)
We can never realize the full strength of the Word of God until we realize that we are but grass, as helpless as is the grass of the field; for as long as we imagine that we have any strength in ourselves, we cannot rest wholly on the strength of the Lord, on the Word that upholds all things; and to the extent that we depend on our own fancied strength, are we useless. This message, "All flesh is grass," (Isaiah 40:6) "but the Word of our God shall stand for ever," (Isaiah 40:8) is only another statement of the message of: "Fear God, and give glory to Him,...and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." (Revelation 14:7)
We give glory to God only when we acknowledge that He alone has the power, and that we are helpless; that in Him alone is life and righteousness; that in Him is everything, while in us is nothing. He is light, while we are in ourselves but darkness.
When we hold fast this confession, and allow Him to work in us and to clothe us even as He does the grass of the field, men see our good works and glorify Him, because He does the works. Then we may be "filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:11)
To have the perfect righteousness of God, by the faith of Jesus Christ, is all that is needed to meet the Lord. So we see that the message which leads men to confess themselves to be as weak and worthless as the grass of the field, and God and His Word to be everlasting strength and righteousness, must be the preparatory message for the Lord's coming.
Note that in the Saviour's words in Matthew 6:28-30 the lilies of the field are counted as grass. There are many different kinds of grass that grow out of the ground, so that we have a large range of objects in nature to study in order to find out what we are, and how God would deal with us. Corn, as well as everything else from which bread is made, is simply grass. Let this be remembered, for it has a practical bearing on our study of the life of faith.
Do not fail to note the fine recognition of the fact that all flesh is grass, in the words of the Saviour. After calling our attention to the lilies of the field, He says, "If God so clothe the grass of the field." (Matthew 6:30)
That which is ordinarily called simply grass, is grass of the field; men are a higher order of grass, destined for infinitely higher purposes, but grass nevertheless.
Not only are we grass, but we are designed to be trees,--trees of righteousness. Let the student recall the lesson on "The Fruit of the Light," and he will see some of the lessons to be learned from the fact that we are called "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." (Isaiah 61:3)
If we constantly keep in mind the scriptures which tell us that we stand in close relationship with the grass of the field and the trees of the wood, and that the kingdom of God is like the seed that is cast into the earth, and grows to perfection, we shall be continually learning Gospel lessons; for we are seldom out of sight of something that is growing.--Present Truth, October 6, 1898.