THE TEREBINTH TREE
THE TEREBINTH TREE
(Isaiah 6:13)
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, February 24, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
On April 20, 2001, I was attending a conference of a large Para-church ministry. This is a Charismatic assembly that has been greatly used by the Lord since the time of the Charismatic renewal. This date would have been a few days after Easter 2001. I believe the vision may have followed the three-month teaching I did on Isaiah 6: 9-10.
During worship at that assembly, I saw in the Spirit a hollowed out stump—burned in the center. The Lord said, “Terebinth tree”.
Isaiah 6:13: “”But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten; as a teil (Terebinth) tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.”
Since that time, this organization, as well as most of the Charismatic movement, has been judged by God and the Holy Seed of that movement is now producing the fruit of the Kingdom of God.
Job 14:7: “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, then it will sprout again, its tender shoots will not cease though its root may grow old in the earth and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant.”
In 2001, I preached a message as a result of the vision on the Terebinth Tree, “The Tenth”. The Holy Seed (the elect remnant) is the stump and substance of Israel and the Church which is Spiritual Israel.
The remnant in Isaiah 6:13 is noted to be a tithe. Tithing is in three dimensions: Body, Soul, and Spirit:
- The natural realm is the tithe of our finances.
- The soul realm has to do with the giving of Faith, Love, Joy, Kindness, Goodness, long-suffering, Mercy, Grace, Peace and self to the Lord and each other.
- The Spirit realm has to do with a people who are becoming the tithe of the Lord (Lev. 27:32). This is the Holy Remnant.
In them is the Holy Seed! These are the Bread of God eaten by Him! These will pass through the fire!
The prophet was told that despite all of the earnestness of his prayers, prophecies and sermons, which he had delivered from his lips (which had just been touched by a live coal from the altar); still the people of Israel would persevere in their sins, and therefore would certainly be destroyed.
Isa. 6: 8-10: “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, who will go for Us? Then said I, her am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, hear you indeed, but understand not; and see you indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes less they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord how long? And He answered, “Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate.”
Then Isaiah was told that a tenth, a small remnant of people, would be saved but by fire. A remnant would return and a holy posterity (the Seed of God---the royal Seed – Gen. 3:15) would survive in Whom the ultimate hope of God’s people would rest and in Whom the Covenants and promises would be realized. Jesus was the SEED of Abraham and David.
History and the Holy Bible confirm that Nebuchadnezzar (the Assyrian from Babylon) carried away all Jerusalem. Within a year, North Israel was carried away by the Assyrians, within 14 years all the rest of the Northern Kingdom had fallen. Judah (roughly, “a tenth”, one tribe out of twelve) alone was left. Another 145 years, and Judah, too, would be carried away by the Babylonians.
The Terebinth or turpentine tree---here translated the teil tree is an evergreen with the exception that in very severe and inclement weather it loses its leaves; but even then the Terebinth tree is not dead. And so of the Palestinian oak, it loses its leaves every winter, standing naked and bare, without any sign of life, its roots buried in the hard and frozen soil, and its naked branches exposed without a bloom or a bud; yet the substance is in the tree when the leaves are gone.
“Nebuchadnezzar shall cut off all the leaves of the tree of Israel---take away the inhabitants, only a tenth shall be left, and they shall almost be eaten up.
The church of God and the Israel of God shall never be destroyed; they shall be like the Terebinth tree and the oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.”
It was made clear to Isaiah that his ministry would be remarkably unsuccessful in his own generation, but the very failure was ordained by God. Indeed in God’s eyes, it would be no failure. Paradoxically, his failure to persuade his audience would prove him to be a true prophet.
The effect of truth according to God, who is truth, is to often irritate people and make them wicked; yet the truth must continue to be proclaimed by the Lord’s servants in love and mercy.
I happened upon this prophecy from 2001 this week while cleaning out a closet. The paper it was written on almost ended in the trash with other books and papers, but surely it was the Holy Spirit who stayed my hand and I saved it, filing it in a drawer.
When I was praying over today’s message, the Holy Spirit reminded me of this sermon.
I want to believe since the Lord brought this to my remembrance that the “How Long” Oh Lord will you make the ears heavy and shut their eyes so they cannot hear or see” is over and through the Holy Remnant of the Church we will again experience a great out-pouring of the prosperity of the Holy Seed in turning the heart of this nation and the Church back to God.
First to the Jew
Second to the church
Third to each believer
“What a history is the history of the Jew! He has the seal of God stamped upon his forehead. His is a lineage nobler than any knights or kings. He can trace his pedigree back to the very loins of Abraham and through him to Noah and then to Adam himself. Their history may be read from the first moment even down until now. The Lord has used and continues to use this nation as a stage to play out in the world what He is doing in the affairs of men.
Huge have been the waves that have rushed over the Jewish race! The Roman emperor changed the name of Jerusalem into that of Eliah, and forbade a Jew to go within miles of it. Jerusalem was plowed and left desolate.
Is the Jew conquered? Is he a subjugated man? Is his country seized? No; he is still one of earth’s nobles---distressed, insulted, spit upon; still it is written, “to the Jew first, and afterward to the Gentile.”
They shall be gathered in: Messiah shall come, the Messiah they are looking for---the same Messiah who came once shall come again---when he comes, Jew and Gentile will have equal privileges.
“You chosen seed of Israel’s race,
A remnant weak and small,
You may indeed,
Hail him, who saves you by his grace,
And crown him Lord of all;”
The church will never die,
The gates of Hell will not prevail against it,
Your race shall never become extinct,
The Lord has said it,
The race of Abraham shall endure forever,
And his seed as many generations.
Why is the Jewish race preserved? We have our answer in the text; “The holy seed is the substance thereof.”
Secondly, THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, of which the Jewish people are but a dim shadow, and an emblem.
The Church has had its trials and failures. It had days of persecution and fiery trials of our faith. It has had times of sad apostasy, with an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God.
Yet, blessed be God, through all the winters of the church, she still lives and is marching forward into Kingdom dominion and authority with the vision of ruling and reigning with Christ.
Why is it the church is still preserved when there is so much apostasy and dis-obedience? In the midst of her there is a “chosen seed – a Holy remnant”, “who are the substance thereof.”
In my life time, we have seen many times the Holy Spirit moving and hovering over His people. Yet, the corruption, abuse, hypocrisy, politics, religious pride and apostasy is rampant. More and more we are seeing the government of our nation usurping power over the church attempting to impose on us doctrines of demons concerning homosexuality, same-sex marriage, Islam, abortion, etc. etc. We have seen large ministries succumb to these demands in order to receive money for their programs.
The life of a tree Is not determined by the shape of the branches, nor the way it grows, but by the substance. If there is but one holy seed in the church, the church will live. No church can die while it has a holy seed in it, and no church can live that does not have the holy seed, for the holy seed is the substance thereof.
Third is the individual believer. Have you received Christ as your Lord and Savior? If you do not have Christ, then you are not the holy seed; but a dead tree.
The Holy Spirit within the Sons of God is the substance thereof.
This vision given to Isaiah was full of grace and glory. He was blessed with a vision of the throne. The majesty of the Most High was manifest in the uplifted and occupied throne, in the solemn chanting of the seraphim, and by the earthquake which made the very foundations of the threshold tremble. The revelation of Grace is as remarkable as that of Glory. In answer to the prophet’s cry of need, one of the seraphim bears to him a live coal from the altar, and his sin is expiated. It is a wonderful unveiling of truth about God. As the Center of all adoring worship, he nevertheless hears the sigh of the sinner in his need. The song of a seraph’s worship ceases in order that the sigh of the sinner may be answered!
I watched a video this week of the life of Derick Prince. When he received his call, he heard and read this scripture. He said he was a man of unclean lips. He repented, received His Lord and Savior and did mighty exploits for the Kingdom.
Our national past time of watching television makes us a people of unclean lips, eyes and ears. Where is the voice of one crying out to the Lord to cleanse this nation from the sin of blasphemy, homosexuality, perversion, intoxication, same-sex marriage, adultery, fornication, lying spirits and abortion? Death and Hell are riding on their pale horse openly on our television screens. We watch naked people having sex in our living rooms and call it entertainment.
Professing Christians continue to watch unclean spirits on television without any conviction.
Isaiah 6:13: “But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten; as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.”
Isaiah 6:5: “Then said I, woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V- I entered into the laborers of a sermon preached by: Carolyn Sissom on April 22, 2001, the Year of our Lord; Principles of Present Truth from Isaiah by: Kelly Varner; C. H. Spurgeon, The Leafless Tree, 3/8/1857.