Tag: vineyard

Jacob 5: 74-75

When the final work in the vineyard begins, and the natural fruit reappears, the process of casting the bad branches producing bitter fruit accelerates. The bad is cleared away to make room for the good. (5: 74.) The remaining gentiles will be swept away and their cities will be inhabited again. This time they will be swept away by the natural fruit, to whom the land belongs. (3 Ne. 22: 3.)

Though there are two gatherings in the last days, when the natural fruit returns it will be to both. Servants will  minister to both. They will all be gathered in, and Israel will gather together in Zion and the long dispersed of Judah will also be given their land in peace. (Isa. 11: 12.) The Lord will hasten His work when the natural fruit reappears. (D&C 88: 73.) Some will say it is like before and everything continues from day to day uninterrupted and the Lord delays His coming. (Luke 12: 45.) Some will think the Lord will allow everything to be destroyed and still not return. (D&C 45: 26.)

Then will be the time when “they became like unto one body” though gathered in both Zion and Jerusalem. (5: 74.) Zion will have her kings (D&C 133: 32) and Judah will have her prophets. (See Rev. 11: 3; D&C 77: 15; Isa. 51: 19-20; Zech. 4: 11-14.)

It begins with the regrafting. Joseph Smith began that process. The purpose was to establish a relationship where it is possible for natural fruit to return. It would take generations before the natural fruit would reappear.

In the work to reestablish the natural fruit, the Lord of the vineyard would send both servants, like Joseph Smith, and He would work alongside them. In other words He would appear to them. (See JS-H 1: 17-19; D&C 84: 35; D&C 93: 1.) The Lord will be present for the work of producing natural fruit in the last days. He will appear to them, and both He and the Father will take up their abode with them. (John 14: 23.) These will be those who are the natural branches, capable of producing the fruit for the final harvest. (John 15: 4-5.) This is the culmination of the final chapter in the vineyard. His work and glory is to bring this about. He knows the end from the beginning. His work has always pointed to this great, final labor.

Those who will be gathered will not need to tell one another to “know ye the Lord” for those who remain will all know Him, from the least to the greatest. (Jer. 31: 34; D&C 84: 98.) These are those who have been redeemed from the fall, for they have been back into His presence. (Ether 3: 13.) These are those who receive a testimony from Christ that they are saved. (D&C 76: 51.) Those who claim to follow prophets, but have not received the testimony of Christ that they have part with Him will be burned at His coming and appointed their place in sorrow and suffering. (D&C 76: 98-106.)

There will be no lukewarm saints allowed to stand in that day. If they have received and followed the truth, they will be saved. If they have not, they will be gathered in bundles and burned. The result will be an era of peace in which the entire vineyard, as if one body, produces again natural fruit. (5: 75.) There will be joy at that day. The Lord and His servants will rejoice, and the Lord will give praise to those servants who labored with Him. (Id.) When He could take credit, instead He shares it. And He promises to those servants: “behold ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard.”

Jacob 5: 14-18

When the Lord scattered Israel, He “hid” them “in the nethermost parts of the vineyard.” (5: 14.) The word “hid” suggests the deliberate concealment of the people, their true origin, their blood relation to Jacob, their destiny to become part of the covenant Family of Israel, and their loss from the record of history and even their own memory of the earlier connections. The Lord of the vineyard intended for this part of His plan to remain concealed. He knew what He was doing. He was acting on a plan designed to produce preservable fruit, but mankind would be oblivious to His methods. His ways are not always shared or understood by man. (Isa. 55: 8-9.)

The places are not numbered, but described as “nethermost.” Nor is the design identified other than “some in one and some in another, according to his will and pleasure.” This is an order which He keeps to Himself, but we are told it reflects His “will” and His “pleasure.”

The Lord left the vineyard to continue in the ordinary course “that a long time passed away.” (5: 15.) There is no haste involved. Men come and go across generations while the design of God unfolds. We are impatient and want to see God’s plan unfold completely within our lifetime here, but His work is ageless and spans generations. Rarely does He promise a single generation will witness promised events. (See, e.g., JS-M 1: 32-34.)

When a “long time” had passed away, the Lord no longer stood watch, but took His servant and “went down” to “labor in the vineyard.” (5: 15.) His presence and ministry among men took a more direct effort. He “went down into the vineyard to labor” for the souls of men. Behold the condescension of God, indeed!

The underlying “root” was able to give “nourishment” to the hybrid people living when the Lord came. The surviving prophetic warnings and limited practices supported this new Dispensation, making it a field white, already to harvest. (5: 17-18.)

There He found among those grafted into the natural root disciples willing to follow Him. Among them were those who were “good” and “like unto the natural fruit”– which would make them candidates to be adopted as sons and daughters of God, as the Family of Israel. The Lord rejoiced because He realized He could “lay up much fruit, which the tree thereof hath brought forth; and the fruit thereof I shall lay up against the season, unto mine own self.” (5: 18.)

The Lord’s personal ministry resulted in a great harvest of souls. There were many willing to accept His mission, respond to Him, and go through the process of changing into covenant Israel again. Sons and daughters of God returned to the earth by adoption into the Family of God. (See, e.g., Rom. 8: 16-17; Eph. 1: 5; 2: 19, 1 John 3: 2; among many others.)

Jacob 5: 10-13

The Lord caused his “servant” to perform all He determined to do for the vineyard. (5: 10.) The wild branches were grafted in and the covenant was suspended. The lines were broken. It would require a restoration of the covenant and adoption for the “natural fruit” to reappear. (5: 10.)

Labor was required from the Lord’s servant as well as the Lord Himself. The vineyard required “digging about” and “pruning” and “nourishing” in an attempt to preserve the “root” to which it would be possible to one day to return. (5: 11.) These words tell us how constant the care has been, while scattered and wild remnants have apparently lay fallow without any fruit. Though the people have fallen, the Lord labors on.

Even when the digging, pruning and nourishing have been finished, and while the results are unknown, the Lord of the vineyard directs His servants to “watch” carefully, and to provide yet further “nourishment” when the damaged tree requires it. (5: 12.) Throughout, it is all done by the Lord’s “words.” He is not absent. He is diligent; ever watchful. He owns the vineyard and everything that is located there. Because it is His, He wants the best for it.

As to the young branches He wants to preserve, so it may be possible at last to return to producing good fruit, He decided to move them “to the nethermost part of my vineyard.” (5: 13.) This allegory contradicts the idea of Jehovah as Lord of Israel alone. The Lord claims the entire vineyard, the world itself, as His. The notion of Jehovah being only a local Diety, as is thought by many scholars to be the prevalent idea at the time of Zenos’ prophecy, is destroyed by this assertion of ownership over the entire vineyard. Even “the nethermost part” of the world belongs to the Lord of the vineyard.

Even as He relocates His people throughout the vineyard, He continues to view the scattered branches as part of the same, single “tree” He hoped to preserve. He explains: “[I]t grieveth me that I should lose this tree and the fruit thereof.” (5: 13.) His intent is to continue to have covenant people, part of His Family, His own sons and daughters. Even though they are unable to continue in that relationship during the scattering, it is hoped ultimately it will allow Him to yet “lay up fruit thereof against the season.” (Id.)

This purposeful and attentive effort was reassuring to Jacob’s people. Though they were long separated from Jerusalem, and although the rising generation had never been there, this allegory assures them of God’s watchful eye. The covenant of Jehovah with Israel continued to be with the scattered branches though they had been transplanted across an ocean and were living in an island of the sea. (See 2 Ne. 10: 20.)

The history of the world is the history of Israel. The events are supervised by a Lord whose purpose is to lay up fruit against the season of the harvest. As we grow ever closer to the season of harvest, the plan will need to result in the appearance of natural fruit again. Otherwise, the entire vineyard will be gathered in bundles and burned.

3 Nephi 21: 27-28

 
“Yea, the work shall commence among all the dispersed of my people, with the Father to prepare the way whereby they may come unto me, that they may call on the Father in my name.  Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance.”
When it begins in earnest and for the last time, it will be universal. There won’t be an effort among one part of the vineyard which isn’t mirrored by similar efforts in other parts of the vineyard. All the natural branches will be returned and reunited with the natural roots, as all are gathered again into one.
The Father will determine the timing. The Son will implement the plan. The process will require everyone, in every scattered part of the vineyard, to “come unto Christ.” Unless they “come unto Christ,” they will not be gathered and cannot be saved.
 
When they are brought again into their original state and begin to bear fruit, “they may call on the Father in [Christ’s] name”  with His approval and blessing. Without that, the “gathering home” cannot become a reality.
 
The Father’s work will be “among all nations” because it will involve the judgment and destruction of all nations. (D&C 87: 6.)
 
This will “prepare the way.” Why does the work need to happen “among all nations” for the way to be prepared?

What does it mean to now call all those who are to be included in this final gathering “his people” meaning the Father’s people? Why would they end their long sojourn by becoming the “Father’s people?” Christ has spoken of them being “His people” (meaning Christ’s) but now the culmination will result in them becoming the “Father’s people” as well. (D&C 76: 92-95.)

 
Notice that part of the final covenant being fulfilled involves re-gathering into the lands promised as their inheritance. This does not mean a single step. It means that the great work of the Father in destroying the nations, eliminating the wicked, and returning knowledge and a connection to Him through His Son, will prepare the way for the final step of gathering the chosen people into the lands of their inheritance.
There will be gatherings, and a great gathering, and at last a distribution of the survivors into their respective promised lands. Between the time of the great upheavals, and the time of the final distribution, there will be a season in which there will a great gathering in the “Mountains” (2 Ne. 12: 2) where it will be a fearsome, even terrible thing for the wicked to contemplate. (D&C 45: 68-70.) This will be in “the tops of the mountains.” (Micah 4: 1; 2 Ne. 12: 2; Isa. 2: 2.) This will be where the New Jerusalem will exist. This will be before the final distribution into the various places of inheritance of the Lord’s people.
 
Before the return to the lands of inheritance, however, there will be terrible days, the likes of which have only been seen in the final pages of the Nephite record. (Mormon 6: 6-22.)

The choice is between the Lord, His offered redemption and protection, and destruction. The gentiles are now offered a choice while reenacting the same poor judgment that led to their own loss of opportunity. That needn’t be true of individuals. It seems apparent that the prophetic message of the Book of Mormon foretells gentile arrogance and pride, collectively claiming they are on the road to Zion, while they are instead doomed to repeating the errors of prior civilizations of this continent. We will get to that in the coming days, but for now we remain interested in the definition and destiny of the “remnant” of the prior occupants.

(What an interesting text this Book of Mormon proves to be. It makes one wonder why it would ever suffer from neglect.)