From Genesis to Revelation, God has painted a picture of His heart for Israel. They were a nation set aside. Though they often rebelled, God has sought them out – and even promised a Last Days in-gathering, a call back to the Land, a final restoration. God made a sacred covenant with Israel. And God will keep His promise!
THE PROMISE KEEPING GOD
“And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.” (Ezekiel 37:14) (ESV)
“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19) (NAS)
We have covered much territory in this short series. We’ve talked about God’s heart in creating man in His own image; about man’s fall, God’s promise of restoration, the establishment of the nation of Israel to serve as His chosen vehicle of salvation, their rejection of the Messiah – and their promised return to the Land God had given them. In the course of things we’ve quickly chronicled the rebellion of mankind, the satanically-inspired persecution of God’s people. We’ve looked at how the early Church turned away from its Jewish roots, adapted elements of Babylonian ritualism. That laid the foundation for something called Replacement Theology or Supersessionism. We saw that that mindset holds that because a majority of Jews rejected their Messiah they therefore forfeited the promises of God which were in turn, taken over by the Church. [This is a theology that is clearly refuted by the word of God. Just look at Ezekiel 37:14 quoted above. God promises both a spiritual and physical restoration of the Nation of Israel.] But Replacement Theology set the philosophical tone for centuries, leading to the demonization of Jews. It led to such atrocities as the Spanish Inquisition, the pogroms in Russia and the Holocaust. That same mind-set lies behind the movement to delegitimize Israel today.
Here is the history of the early Church. It began as a primarily Jewish institution. On Pentecost, it was 3,000 Israelites that were added to its rolls. Yet over the course of time, the Church turned Gentile and a majority of Jews rejected Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah. Paul’s message was largely dismissed by the Jews. So he took that message to the Gentiles, many of whom believed, becoming the spiritual seed of Abraham. Galatians 3:6-9 reads: “just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” But in his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul explains in more detail the relationship of the Gentiles to the Nation of Israel. Israel was the olive tree – and the Gentiles were wild olive branches grafted in. “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’ Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?” (Romans 11:19-24) The Gentiles then were grafted in and nourished by the root or the promises of Abraham. And notice that verse 24 concludes with a promise that the Jewish People will be attached once again, becoming a part of the original tree from which they had come.
Now writing in his letter to the Romans, Paul acknowledges the very real – albeit – temporary falling away of the Jewish nation. The Apostle quotes the Prophet Isaiah as he describes the future salvation of the Gentiles. “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.” (Romans 10:20 quoting Isaiah 65:1) He contrasts that response with that of Israel. “But to Israel He says: ‘All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people.” (Romans 10:21 & Isaiah 65:2) But it is in the very next verse that Paul states unconditionally that God has not rejected His chosen people. “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!” (Romans 11:1) He then goes on in that chapter reiterating that point. Romans 11:5: “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” And just a few verses down we read: “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!” (Romans 11:11-12) God’s promise regarding this was again recorded in Isaiah. “‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,’ Says the Lord. ‘As for Me,’ says the Lord, ‘this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,’ says the Lord, ‘from this time and forevermore.’” (Isaiah 59:20-21)
How will this come about? God says it will come through the repentance of His people. At the end of history they will once again turn their hearts toward the Lord and seek Him. It is true that Israel was scattered when the rejected Him. But the regathering is just as sure. This is not just a spiritual work God is talking about – but their re-establishment in the physical land granted to them by covenant. “Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it.” (Deuteronomy 30:1-5) But along with that will come a spiritual transformation. “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:8) To the love the Lord with their entire heart and soul is a clear echo of what Jesus called the greatest commandment, the Shema – the centerpiece of Judaism – found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
This promise is framed again in Deuteronomy 30:9-10. “For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
If we look for it we can see that even right now. We are at a point in history when clear eyes can see the fulfillment of these prophecies beginning to manifest. I am attached to a ministry which helps Jewish people return to Israel. In the course of our work, we receive a good deal of correspondence from Jews looking to immigrate to Israel from the United States. So many of them reference the call of God (HaShem – the Name) in making their decision to start their lives anew, there. Even many who have been planted here in the United States for generations talk about a calling to what they see as their home – given by the Lord Himself. There is a mystical call upon many of their lives. A good number reference the fact that they believe Messiah will soon come. Their rabbis are telling them it is so. One said they wanted to go because they wanted to be back in the Land when Messiah arrives.
We can see that through the witness of history and events and God’s unchanging word, there is little room for a theology that replaces Israel when it comes to the physical promises of God. And inextricably tied in with that is their promised salvation. Revelation chapter 7 is set during the coming Tribulation – referred to in the First Testament as Jacob’s Trouble. It describes a sealing of the servants of God – 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel, 144,000 in all. There are 12,000 mentioned from each tribe specifically – and it names them; Judah and Reuben and Gad etc. These are not members of the Church – but rather the sons of Israel – purposefully named by tribe. Ezekiel 37:14 sums up the duality of that promise. “‘I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,’ says the Lord.” This is God’s work which He does for His Name’s sake. The calling and the sealing are by His will. He has promised it and it WILL come to pass. Paul explains. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29)
During the course of this series, we’ve traced many of God’s promises to Israel regarding both their return to and possession of the Land – as well as their ultimate salvation. There are many more we had not the time to reference. But we’ve seen enough to see this story with a beautiful ending; the reconciliation between God and His people. The restoration of Israel – the people He set aside as a light to the nations and the vehicle of His promise. Here is His promise found in Romans 11:25-26. “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.”
This will not happen until the Time of the End, when all the surrounding nations and even the rest of the world is obsessed with the possession of Jerusalem. It will occur in the context of the final struggle between God – (only for God it won’t be a struggle) – and the human forces of Satan – for the Land of Israel and God’s beloved Jerusalem Zechariah describes the scene. “The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: ‘Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.” (Zechariah 12:3)
The prophet goes on to describe how God will fight for Israel in that day, destroying all of their enemies and establishing Israel in the Land. Then we read this: “In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:8-9) And in the midst of that struggle, God will work a work in the people of the promise that will transform them – for God promises this: “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:10) ….”And so all Israel will be saved.” (Romans 11:26)
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