PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS

A teaching that has had strong emphasis among Premillennial Bible students for many years—namely that the Jews are yet to be regathered and re-established in their land according to covenant—is today being challenged by some Premillennial teachers.

The present challenge on the Jewish question is being based upon the view that the Old Testament, embracing all the promises of national existence for Israel, is entirely set aside by the terms of the New Covenant —forever cancelled. The promised blessings of the Old Testament, spiritually interpreted, we are told, immediately become the inheritance of all believers, Jew or Gentile, composing the true seed of Abraham. Because of the disobedience of that generation of Jews living at the time of our Lord's first advent, it is said that all promises as to the restoration of the Jews to the land, are swept away, meaning that a large part of our Old Testament is filled with detailed prophecies concerning the last days, which have no practical use and will never be fulfilled.

A six-fold consideration prevents the writer from embracing this position.

1. The Old Testament is Not Completely Set Aside.

The Old Testament stands as the expression of the will of God forever, except in particulars wherein Christ by His teaching, death and resurrection, has modified it. The Epistle to the Hebrews, in informing us of the “better covenant” which now supercedes the old, tells us specifically the features that are modified by the finished work of Jesus Christ—the ordinances relating to forms of worship, duties of the tabernacle or temple, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the feasts, Sabbaths, etc. We do not take this to mean the setting aside of ALL the unfulfilled covenant promises and prophecies of the Old Testament. We must have specific warrant from the New Testament before teaching that the work of the cross affects the prophecies concerning the latter-day fruitfulness of Canaan and the regathering of the Jews from among the nations.

But, if according to plain statement, the Old Covenant is done away, by what method shall we divide it so as to find portions that yet may be fulfilled?

2. Large Portion of the Old Testament Carried Forward.

Not only do we have specific instructions in the New Testament as to how the Old is affected by the redemptive work, but we have evidence that many of the Old Testament promises and prophecies do stand, for they are carried forward in the New Testament and placed in the future. There is, it is said, eight times more in the Old Testament about the second advent than there is about the first.

Among the events associated with the King's coming in glory is the calling out of the children of Israel from the nations and the reestablishment of them in Palestine. We have New Testament warrant, both in plain statement and in symbolic language for saying that the budding again of Israel is carried over to the time of Christ's return. The remarkable thing is that there could be a possibility of regathering a people so long and so far scattered, yet after nearly two thousand years, we have abundant evidence that the Jews are being preserved as a distinct people for some mysterious purpose.

3. Terms of Conditional Promises May Yet Be Met.

Does the disobedience of one generation of Jews render FOREVER null and void the great mass of detailed promises concerning their future national existence? That “blindness in part” happened to Israel as a result of the actions of that generation is evident, but suppose a future generation of Jews should repent and receive Him? Might not the terms concerning their national existence then be carried out? If not, to what purpose has Providence maintained their nationality and fired the people to this hour with the hope of restoration to the land?

Gen. 22 informs us with what care Abraham provided himself with a burial plot for his family in Macpelah. He was a sojourner in the land and only wanted a spot in which, as a dead man, he might await Gods' time for putting his seed in possession of Canaan. Is it not passing strange that this very site should remain clearly identified to this day, marked with a jealously-guarded mosque, venerated alike by Jews, Moslems and Christians? Age after age it has been a means of keeping alive in every successive generation of Jews, the hope of eventually possessing the land. Is that hope to be forever disappointed?

4. Promised Blessings Apply to the Literal Nation of Israel.

A distinction should be made between the spiritual “seed of Abraham” and the “children of Israel” or the “twelve tribes” or “Israel and Judah”. There is indeed at the present time an “Israel of God”, a believing remnant of Jews, but this can hardly mean that the church is identical with the tribes of Israel or realizes the specific promises to the twelve tribes.

The threats of God had a literal fulfillment in the literal nation of Israel. Along with these are promises that a day is coming when, as a result of national repentance, there will be a national regathering and restoration to the land. Will they not have a literal fulfillment in the same literal nation of Israel, preserved through the centuries for that very purpose?

5. Prophecies Already Partly Fulfilled.

Scores of Old Testament promises affecting the JEWS have been in process of fulfillment throughout the present age and some are being realized before our very eyes. It was predicted of the nation that they should be given over to blindness and hardness of heart. (Isa. 6:9-10). They were to be made subject to enemies, their cities beseiged. (Lev. 26:15-17, 25-26). They were to be taken out of their land, removed to all countries. (Deut. 28:25,63,64). Everywhere they would be oppressed. (Deut. 28: 29, 43, 48). Everywhere they should be restless, trembling, sorrowful, without assurance of life. (Deut. 28:65-67). They should be without national government until He whose right it is should come to reign. (Ezek. 21:25-27; Hos. 3:4). These things have been true of the JEWS for centuries. They are today an astonishment and a byword among the nations. (Deut. 28:37).

We have also many predictions concerning their land. It should lie unfruitful and desolate during the long period of their dispersion and until the latter days. (Lev. 26:31; Isa. 61:4; Lev. 26:22; Isa. 6:12; Jer. 18: 16). These have been fulfilled in the land of Palestine.

But there are just as explicit predictions concerning a restoration of the people and the land in the latter days. The very people who were to be scattered among the nations (Lev. 26:33) were as plainly told that they should again be brought out and put back into their own land. The very land that was to be made desolate has the promise of fruitfulness in the latter days and that its wastes shall be rebuilt and its cities inhabited. (Ezek. 36:10).

We were told of a day when God will forgive the sins of the nation of Israel. (Jer. 31:34). The fear of God will be put in their hearts. (Jer. 32:39–40). Upon the house of David, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, God declares a spirit of grace shall be poured out so that they shall look upon the very One pierced by their forefathers and be in bitterness. (Zech. 12:10). While this had a partial fulfillment in those Jews who received the crucified Christ (Jn. 19:37) the Revelation carries this prophecy on to the second coming. (Rev. 1:7).

Blindness in part happened to Israel. It is not total and forever—only until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. (Rom. 11: 2, 25). Jerusalem shall be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Lk. 21:24). Jerusalem is still under Gentile domination, overrun with hellish religions. But what comes after the UNTIL? There will be a regathering of Israel and a simultaneous outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon a whole nation. The effect upon the Gentile nations of seeing a whole nation converted to God is described in Isa. 60: 1-5. By national conversion, we mean that every individual will confess Christ as Lord and King. (See Jer. 30:3; Ezek. 37:21; Jer. 30:24; Amos 9:15; Isa. 27:12; Jer. 30:18).

6. Reestablishment Suggested in Type and Shadow.

We have indications of this order of events in type and shadow. For instance: In the story of Jacob (father of the twelve tribes) we read in Gen. 35 of his final return to Bethel after his years of exile. There are remarkable parallels. As Jacob left the house of God for the land of exile, so have the people descended from him. As God said to Jacob: “Arise and go up to Bethel”, so He will yet call Israel to the place of divine privilege. As the immediate effect upon Jacob was to purge his house from idolatry and to issue in a change of his ways, so the nation will yet be purged from their final idolatry under anti-christ. As the terror of God fell upon the Schechemites, so will terror fall upon the enemies of the Jews when God resumes His dealings with them. As Jacob, when returned, built another altar, so will Israel once more worship God acceptably. As national prosperity was here assured to Jacob, so shall the prosperity and blessings promised through the prophets come to Israel. As God said unto Jacob, “the land will I give to thee and thy seed” so will He say to the restored nation. As Jacob poured oil on the pillar erected at Bethel, so will God pour out the Spirit upon Israel and upon all flesh.

CONCLUSION

Is it not for Christians today to heed the words of Isaiah (62:6-7) “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth”?