After the calling of the Gentiles, when Christ, the sovereign ruler, reigns in righteousness, His disciples the apostles will lead the faithful with justice. This prophetic message addresses the wealthy women, likely signifying either the cities of the Jews, the congregations of that era, or more probably the affluent matronage of the Jews, to whom the command “Arise” is offered as they lay prostrate after their fall. They are often seen as presumptuous or overly hopeful and instructed to be attentive to the Lord’s words, recalling the days and year of which we will discuss further. The Saviour Himself proclaimed: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18-19). This remembrance serves to bring them both sorrow and hope; they will grieve for having forsaken God while hoping for salvation through repentance.
It is declared that the gathering of grapes has ceased, and after the last devastation under Vespasian, Titus, and Hadrian, there will be no further captivity, leaving the nations without fruit to harvest. Thus, they are called to mourn, to bare their chests, and gird their loins, for the land once sought after, the fruitful vine mentioned in Scripture: “I will plant you, O ye fruitful vine, all true; you have become a sorrow, you are a stranger to the grapes” (Jeremiah 2:21), has been devastated by the Romans. The message, “In the land of My people, thorns and thistles shall grow,” indicates that if the Promised Land is filled with such weeds, how much worse will it be for other cities. The words of the Gospel will be fulfilled: “Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall weep” (Luke 6:20). The temple of the Lord is forsaken, as I told the apostles: “Arise, let us go hence” (John 14:31), and to the unbelievers: “Your house is left unto you desolate” (Luke 13:35). A thick darkness covered the temple sanctuaries, transforming them into eternal caves instead of places to house the Holy vessels, for they had heard from the Saviour: “My Father's house is a house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Luke 19:46).
Thus, he states, joy is allocated to wild donkeys, and pasture to flocks, which could be interpreted literally, highlighting the state of abandonment, or spiritually, indicating that after Israel’s exile, uncivilized men dwell in Judah. This condition will persist until the Spirit from above is poured out upon us, which the Saviour promised His followers upon ascending to the Father: “Behold, I send unto you the Comforter, the Spirit of truth” (John 16), and again, “until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The earlier proclamation, that soon Lebanon will be considered Carmel, and Carmel will become a forest, reiterates that the deaf will hear in that day, the book's words, and the eyes of the blind will see from out of darkness and gloom (Isaiah 29:17). The wilderness of the Gentiles shall transform into the abundance of Israel, and Israel shall be viewed as Gentiles, at which point judgment will be established in the wilderness with the Lord and Saviour, to whom the Father has delegated all judgment (John 5:22).
Truth shall rest upon Carmel, which is referenced as a wilderness, as judgment and truth are found in the desert and upon Carmel, once considered a barren land. The outcome of righteousness is peace, which the apostle describes as surpassing all understanding (Philippians 4:7). The fruit of righteousness shall be silence, allowing them to worship God not with endless words but in sincere faith, finding eternal peace, and sharing in the blessings that the apostle expressed: “I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in every thing ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge” (1 Corinthians 1:4-5).
When the people of the church dwell in beauty, or as the Septuagint translates, in the city of peace, then surely, the wrath of the Lord shall descend upon the forest, which is spoken of as Carmel. The city of Jerusalem will be humbled, referred to in another scripture simply as the earth. Recognizing the multitude of blessings the church will receive alongside the calamities Jerusalem will endure, blessed are you, apostles, and other teachers, who sow across the living waters of the Holy Scriptures, where the ox and the donkey tread. The ox, a clean animal due to the heritage of the fathers, stands in contrast to the donkey, seen as unclean due to the idolatry once practiced by the Gentiles, thus indicating that the Lord's Church comprises both the circumcised and uncircumcised. The statement regarding thorns and thistles growing in the land of My people can be applied to heretics as well as to unlearned believers who grasp the Holy Scriptures inadequately. Consequently, we have aligned the meanings accordingly, so that the ground of God's people yields thorns for heretics, while for those within the church, the uninformed results in grass.
THEOSIS