- 15After I had been carried away in the Spirit and seen all these things, I returned to my father’s tent. 2I saw my brothers, and they were arguing with each other about what my father told them. 3He had told them many great things that were hard to understand unless a person asked the Lord. Because they were hard-hearted, they didn’t look to the Lord as they should have. 4I was troubled because of their stubbornness and because of the things I had seen, and I knew that it was inevitable that the things would happen because of the great wickedness of mankind. 5Since I had seen their fall, I was overwhelmed by my troubles, thinking my sorrow was more than anyone else because of the destruction of my people.
- 6After my strength had returned, I talked to my brothers, asking to know why they argued. 7They said: We can’t understand what our father has said about the olive tree’s natural branches and about the Gentiles. 8I said to them: Have you asked the Lord? 9They replied: We haven’t — the Lord doesn’t reveal any such thing to us. 10Then I asked them: Why don’t you keep the Lord’s commandments? Why are you determined to damn yourselves because of the hardness of your hearts? 11Don’t you remember what the Lord has said? — if you choose not to harden your hearts and ask Me in faith, believing you will receive, consistently keeping My commandments, these things will certainly be revealed to you.
- 12Now, I tell you that the Spirit of the Lord within our father compared the house of Israel to an olive tree. Are we not broken off from the house of Israel? Are we not a branch of the house of Israel? 13The thing our father means about the natural branches being grafted in through the fullness of the Gentiles is that in the last days, when our descendants have fallen away in unbelief for many years over generations, and after the Messiah will have appeared in person to mankind, then the fullness of the gospel of the Messiah will come to the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles it will go to our descendants. 14At that time, they’ll learn that they’re from the house of Israel and are the Lord’s covenant people. Then our descendants will learn about their forefathers and learn about the gospel of their Redeemer, which He taught their ancestors. So they’ll come to know about their Redeemer and the correct details of His doctrine, so they can know how to come to Him and be saved. 15At that time, won’t they be glad and give praise to their everlasting God, their rock and their salvation? Won’t they receive strength and nourishment from the true vine at that day? Won’t they come to God’s true fold? 16Yes. They’ll be included with the house of Israel again; they’ll be grafted into the true olive tree, being a natural branch of it. 17This is what our father means. He also means that it won’t happen until they’ve been scattered by the Gentiles. And he means that it will come through the Gentiles, so the Lord can show His power to the Gentiles, specifically because He’ll be rejected by the Jews or by the house of Israel. 18Therefore our father hasn’t just spoken about our descendants, but also about all the house of Israel, pointing to the covenant to be fulfilled in the last days; the covenant the Lord made with our father Abraham, having said to him, All the families of the earth will be blessed through your descendants.
- 19I spoke to them extensively about these things and about the restoration of the Jews in the last days. 20I recounted Isaiah’s words to them, which told of the restoration of the Jews or the house of Israel — that after being restored they weren’t to be lost anymore or scattered again. I told my brothers so many things that they were satisfied, persuaded, and humbled themselves before the Lord.
- 21Then they spoke to me again, asking: What do these things mean, which our father saw in a dream? What’s the meaning of the tree that he saw? 22I replied: It represented the tree of life. 23Then they asked me: What’s the meaning of the iron railing that our father saw leading to the tree? 24I told them it was the word of God and that those who were willing to obey and hold firmly to the word of God would never perish, nor would the adversary’s temptations and fiery darts be able to overpower them so as to blind them and lead them away to destruction. 25Therefore I urged them to pay careful attention to the Lord’s word. Indeed, I urged them — with all the energy of my soul and all my ability — to pay careful attention to the word of God and to always remember to keep His commandments in all things. 26Then they asked me: What did the river that our father saw mean? 27I told them the water our father saw was filthiness, but that his mind was so occupied with other things he didn’t notice the water was filthy. 28I told them it was a terrible divide that separated the wicked from the tree of life and from the holy ones of God. 29I said to them it represented the awful hell the angel told me was prepared for the wicked. 30I then told them our father also saw that God’s justice also divided the wicked from the righteous, and its glare was like a blinding fire ascending to God from eternity to eternity that never ends.
- 31They also asked me: Does this mean the body’s torment in the days of mortality, or does it mean the spirit’s final state following the death of the earthly body, or does it speak of physical things? 32I told them it represented both physical and spiritual things; that the time would come when they would be judged for what they did, for the things they did while on earth during their days of mortal life. 33Therefore if they were to die in their wickedness, they would have to be outcast from spiritual things involving righteousness. They would certainly be brought to stand before God to be judged for what they did, and if the things they did involved filthy thoughts and behavior, they’ll certainly be filthy. And if they’re filthy, it’s impossible for them to live in God’s kingdom; if they did, God’s kingdom would have to be filthy as well. 34But I tell you God’s kingdom isn’t filthy, and no unclean thing can enter God’s kingdom. So there has to be a place of filthiness prepared for the filthy. 35There is such a place prepared — that awful hell I’ve spoken about — and the accuser is at the foundation of it. So the final state of a person’s soul is to live in God’s kingdom or to be thrown out because of the justice I’ve explained to you. 36So the wicked are separated from the righteous and from the tree of life, whose fruit is the most valuable and desirable of any fruit and the greatest of all God’s gifts. This is how I spoke to my brothers. Amen.
Chapter 4