The furnace

As to the furnace in which this intense and glowing wrath of Deity is to glow, we may state it in the words of Ezekiel as "the Wilderness of the Peoples." This is the "furnace" both for Israel and their enemies. In relation to Israel in this furnace, it is written, "As I live, saith ADONAI YAHWEH, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith ADONAI YAHWEH. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant. And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am YAHWEH" (Ezek. 20:33-38).

When thus purified from dross in this glowing furnace, the Jewish nation will be brass and silver well refined (Mal. 3:2). The rebellious dross will have been cleaned out, and Anti-Mosaic Judaism, by which they are now caused to wander out of the way, will have been destroyed from the earth. This refining in the furnace is in "the time of Jacob's trouble," out of which he is to be delivered (Jer. 30:7); and though they are now "prostrate among the cattle pens," they will be "the wings of the Dove covered with silver, and her feathers with the brightness of fine gold" (Ps. 68:13; John. 1:32).

But the nations are to become molten brass, as well as Israel. Their brass, therefore, is also to be gathered into the furnace, that it may be melted and refined under the intense fire of divine wrath. Israel, commanded by the Son of Man, is a torch of fire in the wilderness, which not only purges them, but serves to consume its peoples. The wilderness thus converted into a smelting furnace, is that which John saw when he was carried away in spirit into the wilderness, where he saw "the Great Harlot sitting upon many waters;" which are interpreted to signify "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (Apoc. 17:1,15). ...

Thus, while Israel is passing through the furnace, under the conduct of the Saints, and are themselves being purged from dross, they are also made use of by their commanders, as a torch of fire among the sheaves, or a lion among flocks of goats (Mic. 5:8; Zech. 12:6) to destroy the power and kingdoms of the world, after the allegorical example of their transit out of Egypt into the land of the inheritance; for though passing under the rod themselves, they become also "a rod of iron" in the hand of YAHWEH, for the destruction of the nations when their iniquity is full (Apoc. 2:26,27).