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6:3

@@@^“Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in Mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will @9gather@7 them on every side, and bring them into @9their own land@7: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My people, and I will be their God.” Ezek. 37:19-23.

4:3

@@@^@0@9Verses 8, 9 — “Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, Whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.”@7@^Because of idolatry, the Assyrian was permitted to take God’s ancient people and their pleasant land. And certain it is that the Assyrian will control the land just so long as God’s people continue in idolatry. But, just as soon as all idols are cast aside, — yes, as soon as the great revival and reformation takes place in the hearts of the people, — then the Assyrian (the power that now rules them) shall certainly fall, and God’s people shall just as certainly return. The Assyrian shall thus fall, not at the sword of a mighty man, and not of a mean man, but “through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.” Isa. 30:31.

9:3

@@@^“The gifts of Him who has all power in heaven and earth are in store for the children of God. Gifts so precious that they come to us through the costly sacrifice of the Redeemer’s blood; gifts that will satisfy the deepest craving of the heart; gifts lasting as eternity, will be received and enjoyed by all who will come to God as little children. Take God’s promises as your own, plead them before Him as His own words, and you will receive fullness of joy.”

19:2

@@@^@0@9Isa. 34:1-3 — “Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.”@7@^Why does God invite the nations of all the earth to draw near and to hear? — That they might consider His indignation against the wicked in His church and know what to expect when His Judgment spreads out among all nations; that they might know what to expect when His refining work begins among them; that they might therefore beforehand count the cost. His judgment, He declares, is already pronounced upon the armies of the world — “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”—1 Pet. 4:17.

23:4

@@@^@0@9Isa. 35:1 — “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”@7@^What a difference when God manifests His power and purifies His church! Then the lands of the Gentiles (the wilderness) and the land of the heathen (the solitary place) shall both be glad to see God’s holy people. Finally as God’s Truth for this time penetrates throughout the lands where there are no Christians at all, the desert places shall blossom as the rose, so to speak, and thus yield an abundant harvest of souls.

3:2

@@@^@0@9Verses 1, 2 — “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”@7@^Verse 2 leaves no doubt that Inspiration is speaking to a people in the latter days, — the days in which the warfare, pilgrimage, and captivity of God’s weary people are accomplished. Having received double for their sin and rebellion, their iniquity is pardoned and are now soon to be delivered. You cannot afford to overlook this comforting message. You must not neglect to make ready, for that is the reason that it is now unsealed and freely delivered to you. Prepare to meet thy God is its key note.

5:1

@@@^@0@9Verses 6-8 — “The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand for ever.”@7@^“The voice” proclaims that all are grass, that all the goodliness in men is as the flowers of the field, but the Word of God stands forever. It must be, then, that men are blind to these realities, else they would not need be reminded of them. It must be that they are depending upon flesh, instead of upon the Word of God and His Spirit.

12:1

@@@^Furthermore, though one be of Gentile blood, if he truly accepts Christ he by his spiritual birth becomes of the seed of Abraham for says Inspiration, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29. The children of Abraham here addressed, therefore, are not to be sought among the identified unbelieving Jews, but among the Christians. They are admonished to look to Abraham and Sarah, and to consider that when God called Abraham, though he was alone, he nevertheless obeyed and God blessed him; that in spite of all the apparent impossibilities with both him and Sarah, He increased him. What if you personally and alone were called by His word, as was Abraham, to stand alone for Truth and righteousness, would you be a hero for God as was Abraham, or would you do as did backsliding Judas Iscariot?

20:2

@@@^We are now asked to choose either to stand on God’s side or on the side of His adversaries (those whom we fear); those who are doing everything to close our eyes to God’s Truth for this time — either to choose God, His Spirit and His revealed Truth, or to choose men, desolation and destruction, the famine and the sword.

22:3

@@@^The sinners, we know, have always been and are still among God’s people. That the fulfillment of this Scripture, therefore, is in the very near future, is shown from the fact that the truth of this chapter is now unsealed and carried to the church, endeavoring to awaken the people of God and to impress them with the fact that soon the harvest will commence — first separating the firstfruits, the 144,000 from “the house of God,” then to be followed by the second fruits from all nations (Rev. 7:9); the scripture also shows that the sinners will no longer walk with the saints and that the harvest ends the world (Matt. 13:39). Stop, think, and read over again Isaiah fifty-one and fifty-two. Do not pass hastily over this life and death subject.

25:3

@@@^@0@9Verses 4, 5 — “For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that My people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord; and My name continually every day is blasphemed.”@7@^These verses remind Zion and Jerusalem of today that they are oppressing the laity no less than the Egyptian masters and the Assyrian lords oppressed the children of Israel. They make God’s people howl, and thus they blaspheme His name and keep His people from coming in contact with God’s Truth for this time.

28:2

@@@^@0@9Verses 13, 14 — “Behold, My servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.”@7@^These verses, as you know, have long been applied to the Lord. He nevertheless, does not do all these things personally, but He does them through His messengers. Now note, in verse 13 we are told that the Lord is greatly exalted, whereas in verse 14 we are told His visage was marred and His form more than the sons of men. “He hath no form nor comeliness;...no beauty that we should desire Him.” Isa. 53:2. Why? — The only answer that can be given to the question, is this: God knows that the people’s sinful nature urges them to make idols of men. They easily fall for men who can put forth a good front. They act as though they were baptized in the names of these modern Pauls and Apolloes. They are followers of pride and pomp rather than followers of God and His progressive Truth. To break them away from this folly, God sends His Truth through unsuspected ones. Thus contrary to their liking and expectation it is written that the Lord had no form nor comeliness; but in spite of it, He shall “be exalted and extolled, and be very high.”

7:1

@@@^So far, the weapons that were formed against the church have prospered, but the church here in prophecy is to be protected. And being completely in God’s hand, everyone that rises against her in judgment she will condemn by Truth and righteousness. Our existence and success in the work of God, therefore, is no longer a mystery: Prophecy plainly points out that many are rising against us, but none have and none will ever prosper. God Who created the smith and the waster to destroy, is just as well able to create peace and security. The Spirit of Prophecy reiterates thus:

20:1

@@@^@0@9Verse 10 — “And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in My wrath I smote thee, but in My favour have I had mercy on thee.”@7 In Ezra and Nehemiah’s time the people of God, the Jews, themselves had to build against great odds, but for the church purified, the Gentiles shall gladly build. Not only the common people but even their kings are to minister to the servants of God. Kings are now the bosses, but the day is almost here in which God’s servants shall boss the kings, and the kings shall be glad to be bossed by them.

23:3

@@@^What are we to pray for this evening? — Let us remember that self is the only barrier between us and God, and that God will never force us to come to Him. Let us ask Him for power to use the grace He so freely provides. He would not have made us free moral agents if He did not expect us to use our wills. We should ask Him to help us to be “willing to be made willing,” and then join our wills to His, and so “work out our own salvation.” We need the strength of God to resist all evil, to overcome the world as Jesus overcame.

4:4

@@@^As you know, there are now hundreds of church names in the world, — as many names as there are isms, all of which are named by the mouth of men, although God recognizes but one church. Many of the names even suggest Divine competition. For instance, do not the names, “Church of Christ,” and “Church of God,” make Christ and God competitors?

9:4

@@@^And now to summarize: The study opens with the words, “Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed to the end of the world,” to the church of today. She is to be the Lord’s “crown of glory” and His “royal diadem.” No longer will she be called “Forsaken,” nor will her land be called “Desolate”; that these titles are to be changed respectively to Hephzibah and Beulah, meaning God will delight in His people and their land; that God is to rejoice over His church as a bridegroom rejoices over His bride; that He has now set watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem, who shall never neglect their duty; that they shall not keep silence, but they shall praise the Lord, and be zealous to do whatever they can in the furtherance of His Kingdom; that He has sworn by His right hand, and by the arm of His strength, that He will no longer give His children’s meat to the enemy, that strangers will no more rob them of that which they worked for, that what they produce will indeed be their own; that His people have again and again been robbed of their spiritual light; that when the light of God came to them, the enemies barred the light away from them at least for a time; that we are now admonished to “hear the Word of the Lord,” for which cause the brethren (fellow church members) hate us so that they cast us out from among them. This they do in the name of the Lord, but they shall be “ashamed” when He appears to our joy and to their shame; that we are commanded to go through the gates of Laodicea and to prepare the way for the people; to cast up the highway, to remove the barriers, to raise a standard for the people, to show to them that the Lord has “proclaimed unto the end of the world,” to tell the “daughter of Zion” that her salvation is coming, that His reward is with Him, and His work before Him; that those who escape the slaying of the Lord will be sent to all nations and to the isles of the sea, to the people who have not heard of the Saviour; that they shall bring all their brethren to the house of the Lord.

16:3

@@@^And the apostle Peter adds: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1 Pet. 4:17, 18.

20:2

@@@^@0@9Verse 17 — “O Lord, why hast Thou made us to err from Thy ways, and hardened our heart from Thy fear? Return for Thy servants’ sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance.”@7@^Here is one who recognizes that the people of God are in error — not following God’s ways and that they do not fear Him. The messenger’s plea is, therefore, for God to return to them, not to forsake them forever.

19:3

@@@^@0@9Verses 20, 21 — “And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord.”@7@^Now, in view of the fact that those who escape the slaughter of the Lord are sent as missionaries, preachers, and ministers to all the nations and peoples who as yet know not God and His gospel, there is but this conclusion: that the slaughter takes place only among God’s people; that it is the Judgment for the Living in the “house of God” (1 Pet. 4:17); that shepherds are slain because they have kept the sheep away from the Lord’s green pasture (present Truth); that the faithful laity take their places; that then the church, “bright as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners,” “goes forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.” Thus is the gospel work finished and the wicked world brought to an end.