I will read the latter part of the 32nd chapter of Isaiah, commencing at the 13th verse. [The speaker read from the 13th to the 20th verse inclusive.]
It is very evident from these predictions of the Prophet Isaiah, that he, by that spirit which opens the future, was able to see the calamities that would come upon the house of Israel, and not only upon the people, but also upon the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, now called Palestine. A curse was predicted upon that land, that instead of bringing forth those things that were necessary to sustain a people, it should bring forth briars and thorns. We are also told that this desolation should remain for a long period, until the Spirit should be poured out from on high, until, in the purposes of the Most High, he should pour out his Spirit, and that would produce a great change upon that land, but until that time it was to be desolate. All the houses of joy in the Jewish city were to be desolate, and, as it is recorded in other passages in Isaiah, they were to be the desolations of many generations. Not the desolation of seventy years, as happened to Israel in their Babylonish captivity, which only comprised about one generation, but the desolations were to be for many generations, during which that land was to lie uncultivated. The latter rains were to be withheld, and the land was to become dry and parched up, bringing forth thorns and briars, and this was to continue until the Lord poured out his Spirit from on high.
It seems, then, that the Lord had a particular set time in his own mind, when he would again pour out his Spirit from on high upon his people, and more especially upon the house of Israel; and when that time arrives, there will not only be a great moral reformation among the people, but we are told that the revolution will extend to the land also, for the Prophet says here, that when the Spirit is poured out from on high, the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be centered for a forest. What are we to understand by the prediction that the wilderness shall be a fruitful field when the Spirit is poured out from on high? We are to understand the same as is recorded in the thirty-fifth chapter of this prophecy, a small portion of which I will read. Speaking of the gathering of the Israelites in the latter times, he says—"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God."
Now, to comprehend that this is to be a latter-day work, and not a work that was to take place soon after the prediction was uttered, we will read the following verses—"Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong and fear not; behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you."
That has never been fulfilled; but preparatory to the time when God will come with vengeance to sweep away wickedness from the face of the earth, the house of Israel will be gathered back to their own lands, and the people of God will be permitted to dwell in the wilderness, and that wilderness will become a fruitful field. It is even said that the desert should rejoice because of those who are gathered, and should blossom as the rose.