An Odd Time to Prune
Isaiah 18, “Woe to the land shadowed with buzzing wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (Marner’s people),
2 Which sends ambassadors by sea,
Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying,
“Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin (Gene’s people),
To a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide.”
3 All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:
When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;
And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.
4 For so Yahweh said to me,
“I will take My rest,
And I will look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
And take away and cut down the branches.
6 They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey
And for the beasts of the earth;
The birds of prey will summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.
7 In that time a present will be brought to Yahweh of hosts
From a people tall and smooth of skin,
And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide (America)—
To the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts,
To Mount Zion.”
In verses 4 and 5 of Isaiah 18 above, Yahweh sets a time frame for a very peculiar act of pruning, DURING THE HEAT OF SUMMER, BEFORE THE FALL HARVEST OF CROPS!!! Why on earth, or in heaven above, would any farmer, rancher, or vinedresser PRUNE his vineyard in the heat of summer, while fruit is just beginning to grow on the vine??? When Yahweh gave us this verse a couple days ago, I was simply stumped. Why would any vinedresser in his right mind do such a thing? Has Yahweh lost His mind? Why would He do this? No human vinedresser in his right mind would do such a thing, unless he likes losing money, or UNLESS, he knew the future!! Of course, Yahweh has not lost His mind, but He is the ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS THE FUTURE OF HIS CROP AT HARVEST TIME!!! I just did not understand what Yahweh was up to in these verses, until He gave us Isaiah 5 to go along with chapter 18. Keep in mind, YOU AND I ARE YAHWEH’S VINEYARD!!
Isaiah 5:1-6, “Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also made a winepress in it;
So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.
3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
4 What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in it?
Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
Did it bring forth wild grapes?
5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will lay it waste;
It shall not be pruned (at the right time, in the right season) or dug,
But there shall come up briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain on it.””
I’ll quote the rest of Isaiah 5 at the end of this post, just in case you don’t have your Bible handy. But look at the reason Yahweh takes out His pruning hook in the heat of summer, because He knows the vine is about to produce wild, or bad, grapes!!! In Yahweh’s infinite wisdom and foreknowledge, He wisely prunes His vineyard when it needs to be done!! Yahweh’s kingdom will not have any wild grapes in it. In these Scriptures, we see that Yahweh will not wait for the final end-time harvest for this procedure to be accomplished. Yahweh is about to prune back the whole house of Israel, the modern state of Israel, comprising Judah, and America and Great Britain, comprising the house of Joseph, meaning Ephraim and Manasseh.
Friends, for us to receive a message like this today, this can only mean one final spanking for the children of Yahweh, before the end-time harvest begins. Yahweh’s people must be prepared for what is coming upon the face of the whole earth. The two witnesses must get their acts together. For a great recap of the two witnesses, read Dr. Gavin Finley’s article here: http://endtimepilgrim.org/twowit.htm Yahweh sees His people on earth today, about to produce wild grapes instead of good grapes, and He knows it’s time for a great spiritual awakening. Jews cannot forever reject their Messiah Yeshua. The church cannot forever reject their roots of the faith. Replacement Theology must be replaced with truth. Ephraim and Judah must come together for the great end-time work ahead. Ezekiel foresaw it happening in Ezekiel 37. I believe the spanking for the Western world began on September 11, 2001 CE. Judah’s spanking may be about to happen, as foreseen by Zechariah in 14:1-2, “Behold, the day of Yahweh is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. 2For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.” Jerusalem has wholly been taken into captivity before, Jerusalem has wholly been destroyed before, but NEVER in history has HALF THE CITY GONE INTO CAPTIVITY, DIVIDED SAY, BETWEEN ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS!!! That day is upon us.
Yahweh will perform this odd-timed pruning, in the heat of the harvest, before the harvest, by His Spirit, as Zechariah prophesied in 4:6b, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says Yahweh of hosts.” I am stunned. I am humbled and blessed by Yahweh’s great love for us, his vineyard, his body, his church, his congregation. His kingdom will be holy, filled with holy people, a royal priesthood and holy nation. No unclean or wild grape will enter His kingdom. He knows how to make us holy. He knows how to bring us into royalty. For some reason I believe pain and persecution is involved in Yahweh’s pruning.
Here’s the rest of Isaiah 5, Yahweh said it, not me, “For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
8 Woe to those who join house to house;
They add field to field,
Till there is no place
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
9 In my hearing Yahweh of hosts said,
“Truly, many houses shall be desolate,
Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,
And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
That they may follow intoxicating drink;
Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
12 The harp and the strings,
The tambourine and flute,
And wine are in their feasts;
But they do not regard the work of Yahweh,
Nor consider the operation of His hands.
13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity,
Because they have no knowledge;
Their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself
And opened its mouth beyond measure;
Their glory and their multitude and their pomp,
And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.
15 People shall be brought down,
Each man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
16 But Yahweh of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,
And Yahweh who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
17 Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,
And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity,
And sin as if with a cart rope;
19 That say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work,
That we may see it;
And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
That we may know it.”
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,
Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!
24 Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble,
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So their root will be as rottenness,
And their blossom will ascend like dust;
Because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of hosts,
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of Yahweh is aroused against His people;
He has stretched out His hand against them
And stricken them,
And the hills trembled.
Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.
26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,
And will whistle to them from the end of the earth;
Surely they shall come with speed, swiftly.
27 No one will be weary or stumble among them,
No one will slumber or sleep;
Nor will the belt on their loins be loosed,
Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;
28 Whose arrows are sharp,
And all their bows bent;
Their horses’ hooves will seem like flint,
And their wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring will be like a lion,
They will roar like young lions;
Yes, they will roar
And lay hold of the prey;
They will carry it away safely,
And no one will deliver.
30 In that day they will roar against them
Like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
Behold, darkness and sorrow;
And the light is darkened by the clouds.”
Behold, His pruning shears are gleaming in the sun, take heed and hear the words of Ezekiel 18:30-32, “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says Sovereign Yahweh. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. 31Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? 32For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says Sovereign Yahweh. “Therefore turn and live!”
Gene Benjamin II
April 11, 2012 CE
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