Chapter 15

vss 1-6 are about "the vine".  I believe about grapes.  It makes the point that the wood of the vine is, itself, useless.  Not even good for making a peg to hang clothes on.  The vine's wood is good only for burning.  God says He has given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem as fuel for the fire.  This verse gives the simple, unadorned reason for God's actions against Judah:

8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 15:8 ESV]

I believe also that this means a vine of itself is not much.  It is in the bearing of fruit that a vine is worthwhile.  If no fruit, it is just firewood.

2020-If we see God's chosen people Israel as the vine, we need to see that they aren't "equal" to other nations.  They are even less.  They aren't use for much of anything as they grow anyway, and when burned at "both ends" and charred in "the middle", they are worth even less than that.  Is this saying that it was God's purpose to choose deliberately a nation of people that "only a truly merciful God could ever even tolerate" much less bless, in order to show his infinite boundless love and mercy?  Did He pick out the most obstinate, hard headed, never will learn kind of nation that the planet has ever or will ever see and choose them out to be His for the sole purpose of showing how much mercy He is, how much love He is, and so on?  Is this why you just shake your head when you read the Bible and see that every time He rescued them they turned their backs on Him again the next generation?  They seem to have no memory of history at all.  And yet...they are God's holy people, and He will ultimately turn them into a faithful people who know Him and all that He stands for without having to be told.  He will ultimately be in their hearts.