“IN that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: in the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow." (Isa. 17:9, 119In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation. (Isaiah 17:9)
11In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. (Isaiah 17:11)) This is one of the many passages which describe a time of sorrow and trouble such as this world has never seen.
You will recollect that in our last paper we looked at the Mustard Tree, as well as the Wild Olive Graft, and from them learned lessons referring to the present period of God's dealings with men: that is, the period beginning with the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, and ending—how soon we know not—when all believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and to be forever with Him.
This period is a time of pure grace. God is now making known His kindness and love in saving the lost and undone. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." It is the day when He makes good the tree, and then looks for good fruit.
Nevertheless, God warns that, if His goodness is not continued in, judgment must fall. Alas! we have only to look around us to see that the world still refuses to receive the testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus. This period of grace will not always last: Jesus, who now sits on His Father's throne, will rise up and shut to the door, and there will be found inside all His saved ones—outside, all neglectors, refusers, despisers!
But will that be the end of the world? Oh no; another period, which we have termed that of “THE FORSAKEN BOUGH," will then commence. For when all true Christians have been taken away from the world, and the Holy Spirit of God no longer works as He does now; the " Man of Sin" will arise, and the period of " Thorns " will be reproduced, but in a far worse way than formerly.
Israel will then be indeed a forsaken bough.
No one can rightly imagine what an awful time that will be. The exact length of its duration we cannot say with absolute certainty, but we gather from certain passages in the Book of Revelation that the severest part of it will probably last about seven years.
That harvest will indeed be “in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow." The united voice of all the Scriptures is—WRATH IS COMING UPON THE EARTH. Flee from the wrath to come is God's warning word. The true believer, however, can now say, “I am delivered from the wrath to come." Can you?
Joseph, a type of Jesus, is called a "fruitful bough," and you may now pluck the fair fruits which hang within the reach of all. Soon it will be in vain to look for pardon, peace, forgiveness, joy, heaven.
Do you ask, Will there afterward be no hope? None whatever for those who, having heard the gospel, believed it not in the day of grace. They will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power. The end of the period will be the manifest appearing of the Lord Jesus, accompanied with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all that are ungodly and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then shall the men of Belial be, all of them, as thorns thrust under the pot. Full, sweeping, unsparing judgment will end that period. This will be a day of thick darkness, but even in the midst of it God will begin to work again, for we are told that He will set His hand a second time to recover the outcasts of Israel. He will remember His promises to them, and the good Olive Tree will again be brought under cultivation, for St. Paul tells us that God is able to graft them in again.
God will then send the Jews as His missionaries to the far-off nations who have not heard His name, and the result of their mission is briefly summed up in the end of Matt. 28 Those who have believed God's servants will inherit an eternal blessing, and then will commence the period known as the millennium, or a thousand years' blessedness with Christ. H. N.