Has GOD finished with ISRAEL?
What Does the Bible say?
CERTAINLY NOT!!
says the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:1
He went on to say:
“Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision (i.e. the Jews) for the truth of God, TO CONFIRM THE PROMISES MADE TO THE FATHERS (i.e. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy...
Romans 15: 8,9
What were these promises made to the fathers?
ABRAHAM
Genesis 12:1-7; Genesis 13: 14-17; Genesis 15:18
Genesis 17:1 onwards: God's covenant with Abraham was confirmed by the act of circumcision which necessitated the shedding of blood, the sign of a covenant being made.
ISAAC
God confirmed His promise to Isaac: “I will give to your descendants all these lands” in Genesis 26:2-5
NB — God did not forget Ishmael (Genesis 17: 18-21) for his descendants, the Arab nations, inhabit a vast area of land over North Africa and the Middle East.
JACOB
God confirmed His promise to Jacob:
“The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land”.
Genesis 35:10-12
The Apostle Paul confirms these promises in the New Testament: Romans 9: 1-13
"For the Lord will not cast off His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance". Psalm 94 : 14
The Permanence of God's Covenant with Israel
God has remembered His covenant FOR EVER, the word which He commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel for an EVERLASTING COVENANT, saying,"To you I will give the Land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance,” when they were but few in number, indeed very few, and strangers in it. - Psalm 105 : 8-12
If God has broken His covenant with the Jewish people, then Christians have no guarantee that He will not break His covenant with them. Many times the Bible states that God’s Covenant with the Jewish people is FOREVER.
Jeremiah chapters 31 and 33 clearly state the permanence of God's covenant with Israel: day and night have not ceased.
We cannot change that fact, and God says that His Covenant with Israel is as permanent as day and night:
“And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Have you not considered what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD has chosen, he has even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.’”
(This is the teaching of Replacement Theology!)
Thus says the LORD, ‘If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.’ Jeremiah 33:19-26 (KJV)
RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND
God confirms in His Word many times that HE will bring His people, the Jews, back to the Land of Israel (see Psalm 53:6).
There will be physical restoration before spiritual restoration – Jeremiah 32:37-39; Ezekiel 36:24-27
This is God’s work; there are many references to their return in various books of the Bible, which say that God will:
- bring them back from captivity – Psalm 53:6
- choose Israel and settle them in their own land – Isaiah 14:1, Jeremiah 50:19
- deal with them and regather them – Ezekiel 39:25-28
- cause them to return – Jeremiah 30:3; 33:7
- bring, gather, assemble – Ezekiel 11:17; 20:34; 28:25; 34:13; 36:24; 37:21
- accept them when He brings them out - Ezekiel 20:41
- leave none behind – Ezekiel 39:28
- bring them from the land of the north – Zechariah 2:6; Jeremiah 3:18; 16:14-15; 23:7-8; 31:8
- bring them from the east and the west – Zechariah 8:7-8
- from Egypt and Assyria – Zechariah 10:10
- recover from the islands of the sea – Isaiah 11:11
- gather from the four corners of the earth – Isaiah 11:12
- gather and bring out of all countries – Jeremiah 23:3; 29:14; 32:37
- whistle to them from the end of the earth – Isaiah 5:26
- bring them back and judge them – Jeremiah 30:11; 46:28; Ezekiel 39:25-29
- bring them, plant them in the land – Jeremiah 24:6; Amos 9:14-15
- plant them that they will never be uprooted again – Amos 9:15
"I will acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah…..
I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart."
Jeremiah 24:5-7
ISRAEL HAS BEEN EXILED TWICE
- In 586 BC to Babylon (+ some to Egypt but not worldwide), returning 70 years later
- In 70 AD throughout the world, returning today.
In chapter 11, Isaiah prophesied before the first exile that God would set His hand the SECOND TIME to recover the remnant of His people from the four corners of the earth.
FISHERS AND HUNTERS
Jeremiah 16 :14-18 says that God will send the fishers and the hunters to bring His people back to the Land He had given them.
God has put it on the hearts of people to encourage and help them return to the Land of their Fathers. These are the fishers. The hunters are the anti-Semites, rising up to drive the Jews out of their place in the nations.
IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL
There has been so much anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews by "Christians" down through the centuries. We cannot undo what has already been done, but we can respond to God’s call to minister unconditional love in a practical way to the Jewish people. In fact, Paul told us it is our DUTY to do so:
“But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors.
DOES PAUL GIVE US A CHOICE?
For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.” - Romans 15:25-27
DO YOU KNOW THAT GOD WILL HOLD US TO ACCOUNT FOR THE WAY WE TREAT ISRAEL?
It is a sobering fact that the prophets Joel, Zechariah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah all report that God will judge the nations regarding their treatment of Israel.
Joel chapter 2 is quoted by Paul in Acts 2:17-21, when God pours out His Spirit on all flesh. Read on into Joel chapter 3, where the Lord says:
“For, behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgement with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up MY land. They have cast lots for MY people…..”
The Apostle Paul says:
“ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work”.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)
NB Paul did not have the “New Testament”, and therefore he was referring to the Hebrew Scriptures.
Interesting fact:
In the 17th century AD, once the Bible was available in the English language, the Puritans read and believed the Bible as the Word of God and eagerly anticipated the restoration of Israel.
(see ‘The Last Word on the Middle East‘ by Derek Prince)