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THE WEAPON OF THE LORD'S INDIGNATION

IS DESTROYED WHEN THE WORK IS PERFORMED.

[Isa. xiii. 5. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even The Lord, and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole Land.]

Isa. x. 12, 15-17 (comp. Dan. viii. 23-25, xi. 36-45; 2 Thes. ii. 8-10). Wherefore, it shall come to pass, that when The Lord hath performed His whole work [xxviii. 21, iv. 4] upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish [visit upon] the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. . . Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if a rod should shake them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up that which is not wood. Therefore shall The Lord, The Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory He shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And The Light of Israel shall be for a Fire, and his Holy One for a Flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day [Ex. xiv. 24].

THE DAY OF VENGEANCE,

AND THE YEAR OF RECOMPENCES FOR THE CONTROVERSY OF ZION.

[Ps. ix. 1-6-20. . . . The destructions of the enemy are come to a perpetual end and their cities hast Thou destroyed; their memorial is perished with them.

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Isa. xxxiii. 1-13. Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.

O Lord! be gracious unto us; we have waited for Thee: be Thou their Arm every morning, our Salvation also in the Time of Trouble!

At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of Thyself the nations were scattered.

And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them. The Lord is exalted; for He dwelleth on high: He hath filled Zion with Judgment and Righteousness. And Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of Salvations: the fear of The Lord is His treasure.

Behold! their messengers shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant [Dan. ix. 27], he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man. The earth mourneth and languisheth Lebanon is ashamed and withered away: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits [Rev. xi. 6].

Now will I rise, saith The Lord; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up Myself. Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. And the people shall be as the burnings of lime as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

Hear! ye that are far off! what I have done: and, ye that are near, acknowledge My might!

Isa. xxxiv. 1-11, 16, 17. 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 he cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved [Jer. xix. 13; Rev. vi. 12-14], and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree. For My sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold! it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of My curse, to Judgment. The

sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams for The Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah [lxiii. 1-6], and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. And the unicorns [rhinocerots] shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls [Ps. xxii. 12]; and their land shall be soaked [drunken] with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

For it is the Day of The Lord's Vengeance, and the Year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch [Deut. xxix. 14-23-29]. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the cormorant [pelican] and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness [xiv. 4-23; Gen. xix. 22-29].

Seek ye out of the Book of The Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for My mouth it hath commanded, and His Spirit it hath gathered them. And He hath cast the lot for them, and His Hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

Ezek. xxxv. 14, 15. Thus saith The Lord God; "When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir! and all Idumæa, even all of it: and they shall know that I am The Lord."

THE SUMMONS AND REVEALING VISION.

(Acts xxvi. 6-18; 1 Cor. ix. 1, xv. 8; John xx. 29; Zech. xiv. 4, 5; Rev. i. 7.)

Ps. xi. 4-6.

The Lord is in His holy Temple, The Lord's Throne is in heaven : His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men.

The Lord trieth the righteous:

But the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth.

Upon the wicked He shall rain quick burning coals,

Fire and brimstone, and a burning tempest:

This shall be the portion of their cup.

Ps. 1.

The Mighty God, even The Lord, hath spoken,

And called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence:

A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.

He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth,
That He may Judge His people.

SUMMONS TO THE SAINTS:

Gather My saints together unto Me!

Those that have made a Covenant with Me by Sacrifice.
And the heavens shall declare His Righteousness:
For God is Judge Himself. Selah!

[Signifying emphasis,-as "The Righteous and Only Judge."]

SUMMONS TO ISRAEL UNDER THE TRIBULATION:

(Jer. xxx. 6, 7.)

Hear, O My people! and I will speak;

O Israel! and I will testify against thee:
I am God, even thy God.

I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices,

Or thy burnt-offerings, to have been continually before Me.

I will take no bullock out of thy house,-nor he-goats out of thy folds.

For every beast of the forest is Mine,-and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

I know all the fowls of the mountains :-and the wild beasts of the the field are Mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell thee:

For the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof.

Will I eat the flesh of bulls,—or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice unto God thanksgiving;-and pay thy vows unto The

Most High:

And call upon me in The Day of Trouble!

I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.

SUMMONS TO THE APOSTATES:

But unto the wicked God saith,

What hast thou to do to declare My statutes,

Or that thou shouldst take My Covenant in thy mouth?

Seeing thou hatest instruction,-and castest My words behind thee.

When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him,

And hast been partaker with adulterers.

Thou givest thy mouth to evil,-and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother;

Thou slanderest thine own mother's son.

These things hast thou done, and I kept silence;