VII. THE CONVERSION AND RESTORATION OF ISRAEL

We begin now to look at the blessed things which are connected with the manifestation of Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ. From the preceding chapters we have learned that His appearing will be in the day, which is called "the day of the Lord," that this day will come at the end of the great tribulation, during which the nations form ungodly alliances to oppose God and His Anointed, and that Jehovah's manifestation will bring their judgment. But while that day is a day of wrath, it is also a day in which Jehovah will show mercy and fulfil all that which He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets. A new age will begin, the age long foretold, when righteousness and peace kiss each other, when the nations learn war no more, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the deep.

We shall look first of all to the Harmony of all Prophecy in predicting the conversion and restoration of Israel. This topic is one of the most prominent in the prophetic Word. We find it quite a task in the limited space we have to condense all in such a way that the reader will get the correct, scriptural view of it, and to show at the same time how the Spirit of God bears witness to this great future of Israel.

It may not be altogether out of place to say whom we mean by Israel. There is so much wrong teaching about, that one is forced to refer almost constantly to the most simple foundation truths. The fact is that the most popular interpretation of the Bible makes Israel mean the church. Thus it has come to pass that all these wonderful prophecies which speak of a restoration of Israel and the blessings in store for them have been claimed to mean the " spiritual Israel," the church, and that this present age sees the fulfilment of these promises. This is totally wrong. This method of spiritualizing promises which relate exclusively to one people and one land has thoroughly carnalized the church. When God says Israel He means Israel and not the church. When God reveals the mystery hid in former ages, unknown in the Old Testament, the mystery of the church or assembly and His gracious purposes concerning this body, He does not mean Israel. So let us understand that Israel is Israel, namely, the descendants of Abraham, God's ancient people, the earthly people of God. When we speak therefore of the restoration of Israel, and cite from the Scriptures prophecy after prophecy, we mean that which God the Holy Spirit meant, the literal fulfilment of all these prophecies in the literal Israel to whom their own prophets transmitted these oracles of God.

It has been our privilege to witness during the past twenty years to thousands of believers concerning God's faithfulness towards Israel and their glorious future, and many have told us and more have written that the right key for the Bible was put into their hands when they saw Israel means Israel and not the church, when they understood God's loving purpose concerning that people whom He, in His sovereign mercy, chose to be His people. And so it is. If we begin to divide the Word of Truth rightly concerning the Jews, the Gentiles, and the church of God, and see that God has His plan clearly outlined in His Word for each of the three, and has fully revealed that when He began to take out of the nations a people for His name, the gathering of the church, He has not completely and finally cast away His earthly people Israel, we shall then surely have the right key which opens up all in God's Word. But this key has been lost by Christendom. If it were in the possession of the Higher Critics they could no longer sit in judgment upon the infallible Word of God, and all the present-day confusion of a professing church trying to attend to the calling and work of Israel in a future age, and worse than failing in it, dishonouring God and the Master who bought them, this confusion could no longer exist if it were understood God means Israel and that there is a restoration of Israel coming which places that people at the head of the nations, who will be brought to the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord by that restored people.

Now, perhaps the best way to approach this subject is by turning first to the Epistle to the Romans. In this Epistle the salvation in Christ is unfolded, which is for him who believes. This salvation is for the believing Jew and the believing Gentile, who are seen in the first part of the Epistle as guilty before God. With the 4th chapter the Jew, so to speak, is left out of sight, and we read only of what God has done for us in the gift of His Son and the place He gives in Him to every believing sinner. After this is fully made known, ending in the 8th chapter and before the Spirit of God speaks of the walk of the one who is in Christ, the Holy Spirit inserts three chapters, the 9th, 10th, and 11th, in which He makes dispensational facts prominent. He shows that God, in His dealings with the nations or with the Jews, is not unrighteous, and especially does He prove that the temporary rejection of Israel is not a complete rejection, nor is it final and permanent. And why this in Romans? We can well imagine the Jew stepping up after reading and hearing of a salvation in which Jews and Gentiles are treated alike, saying, " What about the promises made to my fathers? What about our peculiar place God in His sovereignty has given to us, and the hundreds of unfulfilled promises which were given to us through the prophets?" To tell the inquiring Jew that God didn't mean exactly the Jews when He gave these promises, that God had the church in mind, and that now He is through with the seed of Abraham and Abraham's land, would never satisfy him, he would and certainly could then accuse God of being unrighteous in breaking the oath-bound covenants made with the fathers. This is the reason why the Spirit of God puts into Romans this parenthesis of three chapters. And the fact that God is faithful to Israel, that He has not cast away His people Israel, that His gifts and callings are without repentance, is of great importance to us as believers of the Gentiles. Supposing it were so, as it is so generally claimed, that God is done with the seed of Abraham and that what He said through the prophets about Israel He meant for the church; what assurance could we have that God would be faithful to His promises made to us and do what He said? Who could guarantee us then against the possibility that God doesn't exactly mean what He promises about the church now and in a future age. May He not drop those He took out of the nations and saved in Christ, as He dropped Israel? How comforting, then, the fact that God's gifts and calling are without repentance. And this is shown about Israel in these chapters. In the 9th chapter of Romans we are told that to Israel belongs the adoption, the glory, the covenants and the law giving, and the service and the promises, but it is in the 11th chapter in which the Holy Spirit asks the question: " Hath God cast away His people ? " and in which so emphatically He says " Far be the thought! " and gives His own answer to that question, proving that Israel is Israel still, and what God promised to them He is going to keep. That chapter must be studied in detail to be fully understood. First, Paul is mentioned as an argument that God has not cast away His people. In him, his conversion and his life, God gave a sample and a type of what He can do and will do with Israel, as unbelieving, fanatical, and zealous without knowledge as Saul of Tarsus was. Then He refers us to the fact that there was never a time in the history of Israel when in their greatest apostasy God had not reserved a remnant for Himself. Elijah's time is used as an illustration. Though he complained of a universal apostasy, God had seven thousand and knew them who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so now God has a remnant according to the election of Grace. Answer upon answer follows in this chapter showing God's purpose towards Israel and their final conversion and restoration as a nation. There is the illustration of the good olive tree and the wild olive tree, and then the mystery is, made known so that the Gentile believer should not be wise in his own conceits. " For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that ye may not be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel shall be saved, according as it is written, The deliverer shall come out of Sion; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is the covenant from me to them, when I shall take away their sins." (Rom 11:25-26.)

Alas! Christendom has been and is wise in their own conceits and is boasting against the broken-off branches. Christendom heeds not the warning "Be not highminded but fear: if God, indeed, spared not the natural branches, lest it might be He spared not thee either." Even these most simple statements about Israel and their final conversion in Romans 11 have been taken to mean the church. This is as bad as a person who came to us last year after having spoken on the verse "Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." After showing Jerusalem's future the person said, "But God can't mean the Jerusalem in Palestine; He means the Jerusalem above." This is a fair example of what some of the commentators have done and what some of the modern preachers do with the declarations of God's holy prophets. If they read of Jerusalem trodden down by the Gentiles—the Jews punished for their sins and unbelief, their land taken from them, and they scattered among the nations—of course it must mean Jerusalem and the Jews. But when the same verse says Jerusalem shall not be trodden down by the Gentiles forever, Jerusalem shall become the city of a great King, the dispersed of Israel shall be gathered and brought back, etc., then we are told " it can't mean this same Jerusalem, we must apply this to the church, there is nothing left for the Jew." Oh, the blindness, unbelief, and arrogant pride of professing Christendom in rejecting God's purposes. We have thus briefly indicated that the subject before us, which is so fully revealed in the prophetic Word, the conversion and restoration of Israel, is a very pronounced New Testament doctrine and is a part of the faith once and for all delivered to the Saints.

We shall now turn our attention to the Old Testament Scriptures.

In the prophecy of Noah, Shem stands out prominently, and his supremacy is there indicated. (Gen 9:25-27.) Later God called out of Shem one man, Abraham, and He made to him unconditional and absolute promises. " The God of Glory appeared unto our father Abraham " (Act 7:2), said Stephen in beginning his testimony to the national leaders.

"And Jehovah said to Abram, Go out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, to the land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great: and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." (Gen 12:1-3.)

" And Jehovah appeared to Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land" (Gen 12:7).

"And Jehovah said to Abram, after that Lot hath separated himself from him, Lift up thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land that thou seest will I give to thee and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if any one can number the dust of the earth, thy seed also will be numbered. Arise, walk through the land, according to the length of it and according to the breadth of it; for I will give it to thee" (Gen 13:14-17).

" On the same day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto they seed I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates" (Gen 15:18).

These and similar promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the germs of all which the prophetic Word has to say of Israel's future restoration. A very little of what God promised unconditionally to Abraham has been fulfilled. He never possessed the land, nor did his seed possess it in the dimensions as promised to Abraham in the above passage. God came to Jacob and in the vision at night He said to him:

" I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land on which thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold I am with thee and will keep thee in all places to which thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for / will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of." (Gen 28:13-15.)

The wanderer proceeded, and away from the land which was his by God's free gift, he suffers and sees evil days, yet God keeps what He said, never leaves him, and brings him back to the land. As He did to Jacob so does He to Jacob's seed. He will surely do all He has promised them and bring them back to their land. The fact that Jehovah does it, that it is His hand that accomplishes it all, is seen everywhere in the prophetic Word. "I will" is the word of Hope for Israel.

It would take many, many pages to follow all which is revealed in the Word concerning Israel's future and to trace the ever-increasing expansion of the promises made to the fathers of the nation. So we have to pass by much and cannot take up prophecies such as Jacob's in Genesis 49, in which the events are predicted which will befall the sons of Jacob in the last days. We confine ourselves to only a few of the large numbers of prophecies. If we turn once more to the utterances of Balaam, the man who came to curse Israel and was used by the Spirit of God to declare the blessedness of God's people, we shall find much which relates to this topic:

"Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel?" (Num 23:9-10.)

Israel is a separated people. The separation took place from the side of Jehovah. " I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people." " I have severed you that you should be mine." They are still a people dwelling alone and not reckoned among the nations. All the fires of persecution, inquisition, and tortures could not wipe them out, nor force them to abandon their peculiar and separated position. Assimilation with other nations, which is so much advanced by some of their own leaders, has failed likewise. Their separation and miraculous increase vouchsafe a future distinct work for them. Their separation and preservation is a Divine miracle. Again, Balaam said:

"He hath not seen iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen wrong in Israel" (Num 23:21).

This shows how God looks upon that people. They were sinful and are so now in their apostasy and unbelief. Yet God looks upon them in the light of His own marvellous Grace. They are a nation to be fully justified of all things—by God's sovereign Grace, as we as individuals are justified. Oh, let us not forget that important Word in the Gospel of John spoken by another one like Balaam, who had to declare a truth he did not know himself. Caiaphas, the high priest, prophesied and said that one man (our Lord) should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself, but being a high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should 'die for that nation. (Joh 11:49-52.) Our Lord died for the nation, and on account of that precious blood that nation will be justified, and the day will come when it shall be true as God beholds them " no iniquity in Jacob, no wrong in Israel."

And once more we listen to Balaam's prophecy:

"How goodly are thy tents, Jacob; and thy tabernacles, Israel! like valleys are they spread forth, like gardens by the river side, like aloe trees which Jehovah has planted, like cedars beside the waters. Water shall flow out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in great waters." (Num 24:5-7)

Here is a description of a future blessedness which is still to come and of which prophet after prophet speaks as moved by the Holy Spirit.

At the end of the book of Deuteronomy we read of the blessings and the curses which are in store for that people. The curses as they are enumerated in the 28th chapter have been literally fulfilled and are still being fulfilled in that nation. Centuries before it ever came to pass the Spirit of God outlines through Moses the history of the people whom he had led forth out of Egypt. Here is a fact which silences infidelity. As it has often been said, the Jew and his history of blood and tears and his miraculous preservation is the most powerful argument for the Divinity of the Bible. In the 30th chapter in Deuteronomy we read something still more startling than the curses in the preceding chapters. Here we have a prophecy which foretells the future of Israel. It is still waiting for its fulfilment:

"And it shall come to pass when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt take them to heart among all the nations whither Jehovah thy God has driven thee, and shalt return to Jehovah thy God, and shalt hearken to His voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy sons, with all thy heart and all thy soul; that then Jehovah thy God will turn thy captivity and have compassion on thee, and will return and will gather thee from all the nations whither Jehovah thy God has scattered thee. Though there were of you driven out unto the ends of the heavens, from thence will Jehovah thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee; and Jehovah thy God will bring thee into the land that thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers. And Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And Jehovah thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, who have persecuted thee. But thou shalt return and hearken unto the voice of Jehovah, and do all His commandments, which I command thee this day" (Deu 30:1-8).

Let us briefly notice the predictions and promises which are given in this passage.

First we notice the sentence, "Thou shalt take them to heart among all the nations whither Jehovah thy God has driven thee." This is a prophecy relating to the present dispersion of the Jews among all the nations. Some have said that this prophecy found its fulfilment when God sent the Jews into the Babylonian captivity and in the return of a small remnant. It will be seen by the first glance that it relates to another dispersion and to greater blessings than those which followed the restoration of the remnant of Jews who returned from Babylon. In the second place, the promise declares that their captivity among all the nations shall be turned and Jehovah Himself will return. This return of Jehovah means, as we find later in prophecy, the Second Coming of Christ, the glorious manifestation of Jehovah, as we described it in the preceding chapter. Thirdly, the passage predicts that after Jehovah returns they will be gathered from all the nations and be brought back to the land of their fathers, and there He will do them good. The circumcision of the heart is their conversion. Of all this, only their scattering among all the nations is accomplished, and all the rest is not yet. But He who scattered them will surely gather them. His Word is forever settled in the heavens.

We cannot very well pass by the 32nd and 33rd chapters of the same book. The 32d has been before us a number of times. While Moses here, through the Spirit of God, predicts the great apostasy of the people and the results " scattered into the corners of the earth," he also predicts the end and the blessings for poor Israel. It is Jehovah who says in this song of Moses, " I kill and I make alive. I wound and I kill " (verse 39). It is His solemn pledge to Israel. He has slain them on account of their disobedience. Their death is spiritual and national. He will make them alive. They have been wounded, they shall be healed by Him. The last stanza of this song declares the happy future of the nations and of Israel in the coming age, which will be ushered in with the manifestation of Jehovah.

"Rejoice, oh ye nations, with his people [Israel] ; for He will avenge the blood of His servants and render vengeance to His adversaries, and will be merciful to His land and to His people " (verse 43). The 33d chapter gives the glorious state of all Israel in the coming age when they are converted and restored. Then it shall all be true what we read here:

"There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, Who rideth upon the heavens to thy help, And in His majesty upon the clouds. Thy refuge is the God of old, And underneath are the eternal arms; And He shall drive out the enemy from before thee, And shall say: Destroy them! And Israel shall dwell in safety alone, The fountain of Jacob, in a land of corn and new wine, Also His heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, Israel! Who is like unto thee, a people saved by Jehovah, The shield of thy help, And the sword of thine excellency! And thine enemies shall come cringing to thee; And thou shalt tread upon their high places." (Deu 33:26-29.)

And what shall we select from scores of prophecies found in the Book of Psalms? Here, indeed, the blessedness which awaits God's ancient people after the long night of their suffering is fully described, and all in fullest harmony with the testimony of the prophets. We can take but a little from the rich revelation of this theme in the Psalms. " Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When Jehovah turneth again the captivity of His people, Jacob shall be glad, Israel shall rejoice." (Psa 14:7.) This is one of the first passages in the Psalms relating to Israel's salvation. It is to come out of Zion, and the assurance is given that the captivity of His people is to be turned. Precisely that which God's Spirit declared through Moses. In our last chapter we quoted from the 29th Psalm, a judgment Psalm. If we turn to the last verse, we read what will happen after the voice of Jehovah has been heard upon the waters.

"Jehovah giveth strength to His people, Jehovah blesseth His people with peace."

It is after the manifestation of Himself that He blesses His people. The next Psalm, the 30th, continues this revelation, and in it we hear Israel's voice, restored and delivered, praising her Lord:

"Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness; that my glory may sing psalms of thee, and not be silent. Jehovah my God, I will praise thee forever."

Even so it shall be with God's people beloved for the Father's sake. Their weeping endureth for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. After the 45th Psalm, which shows the coming of the King, we find the next three Psalms revealing what will be the result of this coming for the people who rejected Him once. Israel knows Him now and breaks forth in singing:

"He subdueth the nations under us and the peoples under our feet. He hath chosen an inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom He loved." (Psa 47:3-4.)

Or if we turn to the 80th and 81st Psalms, we find another prophecy.

In the 80th Psalm, Israel pleads for deliverance.

It is that turning with the heart unto Jehovah of which Moses speaks in Deuteronomy 30.

The remnant of Israel says here: " How long shall thine anger smoke against the prayers of Thy people ? " Three times they plead, "Turn us again, O God! let thy face shine upon us and we shall be saved." The ending of this Psalm is the most significant.

"Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of man whom thou hast made strong for Thyself. So will we not go back from Thee. Revive us, and we will call upon Thy name. Restore us, O Jehovah, God of Hosts; cause Thy face to shine and we shall be saved."

The Son of Man, the Man at the right hand of God, the Man raised from the dead and made strong, is our Lord Jesus Christ, and He at last will be the restorer of Israel. So, then, in harmony with this we read in the next Psalm:

"Sing ye joyously unto God our strength, shout aloud unto the God of Jacob. Raise a song and sound the tambour, the pleasant harp with the lute."

The entire 103d Psalm stands dispensationally for the praise of restored Israel. So the 118th Psalm. It is the language of the converted nation:

"I will give thanks unto thee, for thou didst answer me. Thou art become my salvation. The Stone which the builders rejected hath become the head of the corner. This is of Jehovah, it is wonderful in our eyes. Blessed be He that cometh in the name of Jehovah." (Psa 118:22-26.)

Read Mat 21:42-45 and Mat 23:39. Here we have a chain of predictions which can only be literally fulfilled. He, our Lord, was the stone, and they rejected Him. His last word to them was that He would be hid from their eyes till they would say that word, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of Jehovah." The 118th Psalm tells us that it will be so. What a harmony! How dare men reject the book of Psalms and declare that there is nothing about Christ in that book!

But we have to leave this wonderful collection of inspired songs, the last of which are rising higher and higher in praise and worship of Jehovah for what He has done in earthly deliverances for His people Israel.

From Joel, the seer of Jehovah's day, we quote the following unfulfilled prophecies:

"Then Jehovah will be jealous for His land and will have pity on His people. And Jehovah will answer and say unto His people, Behold, I send you corn, and new wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations" (Joe 2:18-19).

The spiritual blessings are also promised to the restored people in that day.

"And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams; your young men shall see visions. Yea, even upon the bondmen and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit" (Joe 2:28-29).

It will be seen from this prophecy that the fulfilment of this passage falls into the time of Israel's restoration. Persons who apply it to the present age make havoc of God's purposes and often drift into fanciful teachings or even delusions.

At the close of the prophet Amos we have a very simple prophecy, one which has special interest because the Holy Spirit quotes it in the beginning of the Christian age:

"In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations upon whom my name is called, saith Jehovah who doeth this" (Amo 9:11-12).

It is in Act 15:13-18, where the Holy Spirit lifts this, His own prediction, into prominence. There He unfolds the divine programme of the ages.

1. He takes out a people for His name; which is the formation of the body, the church, still going on.

2. He returns. His coming again.

3. He rebuilds the tabernacle of David, etc. The restoration of Israel.

4. The residue of men, after Israel's restoration seek the Lord, which is world conversion.

How simple it is to comprehend and understand it!

But the last verse of Amos has a still greater significance. Will not our brethren who spiritualize all these predictions or who put their fulfilment in the past event of a returning remnant of Jews from the Babylonian captivity look carefully at this verse?

"And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God" (Amo 9:15).

Now, it is evident God speaks here concerning the people who were plucked up out of their land. The "church" was never plucked out of a land. It is Israel. He promises to plant them into their land again, and assures them that they shall NO MORE be plucked out of that land. There is then a double possibility: either this Word was fulfilled (as it is claimed) in the return of a Jewish remnant from Babylon, or it was not, and then it must be fulfilled in the future. It was not fulfilled in the return of the remnant, because that remnant was plucked out of the land. Therefore, every believer who believeth that God spake all these words must believe in a future restoration of Israel.

Hosea gives us additional proofs. Read Hos 2:14-23, and find there one of the many striking and plain predictions of the restoration of that people who for a time were " Lo Ammi," not my people. In the 3d chapter we read the passage which hardly can be spiritualized:

"For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod and teraphim. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days" (Hos 3:4-5).

They are now in the condition as described in the 4th verse, and they shall by-and-bye return and be converted as a nation.

Still other passages are in chapter Hos 6:1-3, the confession of the nation in turning to Jehovah. Notice how they plead. It is in the language of Moses' prophetic Song (Deu 32:39.) Wonderful, is it not? And they tell us there is nothing in prophecy, no harmony, and no intelligence!

The entire 14th chapter of Hosea shows the coming conversion and restoration of Israel.

To quote all which the Spirit of God reveals in the prophet Isaiah about Israel's conversion and future restoration, as well as the glory promised to them, would take many pages. Isaiah has been called " the Evangelical Prophet"; he might be called also " the Prophet of Israel's deliverance and glory." The scope of the book shows the aim of the Holy Spirit to reveal through past events and past deliverances of the nation the still greater events connected with Israel's restoration. If we turn to the 11th chapter we find there one of the most simple and unanswerable predictions of the restoration of Israel. The 10th chapter describes the advance of the Assyrian and his downfall, typical as we have seen before of the final Assyrian. The coming of Jehovah is seen in the beginning of the 11th. He comes to judge in righteousness, and with the breath of His mouth He slays the wicked. Then follow the blessed results, such as Deliverance of groaning creation, Peace on earth, and the restoration of Israel,

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall he left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall lift up a banner to the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth" (Isa 11:11-12).

It is strange that even such a plain prediction has been spiritualized or explained that it all happened long ago by the return of some 45,000 Jews from Babylon. This latter statement is easily disproved. The passage declares that " it shall come to pass in that day "—which is the day of Jehovah's visible manifestation. Furthermore, it is said that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people. It is then clearly stated that it is a second recovering. Besides this, we read that the recovery takes place of those who are in Assyria, and also from the islands of the sea. Now, in the Babylonian captivity none were brought back from the distant islands of the sea. Let us also notice that the outcasts of Israel will be assembled then, and the dispersed of Judah gathered. Those who returned from the Babylonian captivity were only Jews. Israel and Judah will be regathered and reunited in that day. It is a vain speculation to try and find the so-called ten lost tribes now. The Anglo-Israel theory is unscriptural and a delusion. The Lord knows where the whole house of Israel and the house of Judah is, and He will bring them all back.

The 12th chapter of Isaiah is the record of the song of praise which God's restored earthly people will sing. The 13th chapter predicts the downfall and judgment of Babylon, and in the beginning of the 14th we read what is closely connected with the judgment which falls at last upon the enemies of God's people.

"For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in rest in their own land; and the stranger shall be united to them and they shall be joined to the house of Jacob. And the peoples shall take them and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and handmaids, and they shall take them captive whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors" (Isa 14:1-2).

In the midst of the chapters to which we referred before, Isaiah's little Apocalypse, we read the' following:

"In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city: salvation does He appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates and the righteous nation which keepeth faithfulness shall enter in. Thou wilt keep in perfect peace the mind stayed on thee, for He confideth in thee. Confide ye in Jehovah for ever, for in Jah, Jehovah, is the rock of ages. For He bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city He layeth low, He layeth it low to the ground, He bringeth it even to the dust" (Isa 26:1-5).

This is the song which the redeemed seed of Abraham will sing in the land of Judah when once more Jehovah dwells with them.

In the 32nd chapter we read another very striking prediction:

"Upon the land of my people shall come up thistles and briars, yea, upon all the houses of joy of the joyous city. For the palace shall be deserted, the multitude of the city shall be forsaken, hill and watch-towers shall be caves for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks" (Isa 32:13-14).

This, then, is judgment. It has been literally fulfilled. The land which flowed once with milk and honey has become one of thistles and briars. The joyous city is a joyless place now, and the palace of the king is deserted. But this is not all. We stopped in the middle of a sentence and we must read on and see what is said of the same land, city, and people who are in judgment now.

"Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. And judgment shall inhabit the wilderness and the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places" (Isa 32:15-18).

The present desolation of the land and Jerusalem will have an end. The Spirit from on high will be poured upon them, and with this great coming event the changes promised in the above passage will take place. Let none say the Spirit from on high has been poured out upon the land. The condition of the land of Israel and the palace proves that the Spirit has not been poured out in the full sense of the word. It is a promise in harmony with the one in Joel 2.

In the 33d chapter there is another comfortable word spoken, which will be realized in the future.

"Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that shall not be removed, the stakes whereof shall never be pulled up, neither shall any of its cords be broken; but there Jehovah is unto us glorious, a place of rivers, of broad streams, no galley with oars shall go there, nor shall gallant ships pass thereby" (Isa 33:20-21).

But what shall we quote from the second large section of Isaiah? Here indeed is prophecy upon prophecy which relates to Israel's conversion and restoration. The 1st chapter of the second part begins with the sublime assurance of the comfort of God for His people Israel.

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her time of suffering is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of Jehovah's hand double for all her sins" (Isa 40:1-2).

All through the chapters which follow there is a golden thread of comforting predictions relating to the topic before us. Israel restored and converted is seen as the servant of Jehovah, while in the 53d chapter the Messiah, the suffering One, is revealed. That chapter is much quoted and enjoyed by all believers, because it speaks of the blessed fact of the atonement made, the peace which was made in the blood of the cross; but we should not forget it has a deeper meaning. It is the repenting nation in the great national mourning to come, when Jehovah comes from Heaven, which will believingly say:

"Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and we, we did not regard Him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa 53:4-6).

The 54th chapter is one which is all occupied with the blessed results for Israel, after such a confession has come from their hearts and lips. What gracious promises! What assurances for their final blessings in the earth through the Mercy of God!

Then it will be that another gracious word given through Isaiah will be fulfilled. A word which will surely be fulfilled, when Israel looks upon Him whom they rejected.

"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee. Sing, ye heavens, for Jehovah has done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, the forest and every tree therein! For Jehovah has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel" (Isa 44:22-23).

It is the actual manifestation of Israel's justification, as we heard it from Balaam's utterance. He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob. That which with the second coming of Christ, Israel's conversion, will take place is seen also from the 59th chapter.

"And the Redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith Jehovah. And as for me this is my covenant with Him, saith Jehovah: My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for ever" (Isa 59:20-21).

Romans 11, as we have seen, quotes the passage, and there the Spirit of God reveals the mystery that when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in all Israel shall be saved.

The three chapters which follow the 59th in Isaiah are chapters which acquaint us with the results of Jehovah's manifestation for the deliverance and salvation of Israel. What chapters these are, the 60th, 61st, and 62nd! The spiritualizing of these chapters is the almost universal way in which they have been treated. We must leave this prophet and see how the Spirit of God speaks of the same event in the prophet Jeremiah.

Here we have numerous prophecies which, if closely examined, can mean nothing else but a literal restoration of Israel. Jer 3:12-19, is one of the first predictions in that prophet.

In the 16th chapter we find the following interesting passage:

"Therefore, behold the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but as Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them. For I will bring them again into their land, which I gave to their fathers" (Jer 16:14-15).

The great deed of Jehovah in taking His people out of Egypt is not only a type of the spiritual salvation which it so completely foreshadows, but it is also typical of the great coming, national conversion and restoration of Israel. The former shall be forgotten because Jehovah has stretched out His arm and brought His children back from the land of the north and from all the lands whither He had driven them. The Jew in dispersion now still looks back to the deliverance out of Egypt. He keeps the memorial of that great event, the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread. Longingly he prays every year, " This year here, next year in Jerusalem; this year servants, next year free." He will not be disappointed in his hope and expectation, and when at last he is brought back he shall substitute the phrase, " as Jehovah liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north," for the phrase, " as Jehovah liveth, who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt."

In the 23d chapter 5-8 is another prophecy which plainly foretells their literal restoration and the establishment of the theocracy in their midst. As we consider the theocratic kingdom in our next chapter, we shall pass this passage by.

But there are other prophecies in Jeremiah which relate to Israel's conversion and return to the land.

"Thus speaketh Jehovah the God of Israel, saying, Write thee in a book all the words that I have spoken unto thee. For behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, when I will turn the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith Jehovah; and I will cause thee to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it" (Jer 30:2-3).

That this word refers to the coming restoration is seen by the context which predicts in connection with it the time of Jacob's trouble. The same chapter contains other revelations of Israel's hope.

"And thou, my servant Jacob, fear not, saith Jehovah; neither be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return and be in rest, and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to save thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee; yet of thee will I not make a full end, but I will correct thee with judgment, and will not hold thee altogether guiltless" (Jer 30:10-12).

The whole 31st chapter is one continued message of comfort and peace for Jerusalem. Their return and joyous singing is vividly described. The Word of Jehovah is also addressed to the nations. " Hear the Word of Jehovah, ye nations, and declare it to the isles afar off and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd his flock" (verse 10). This is followed in the chapter by the prophecy that a new covenant shall be established, and what blessing will be theirs as a nation in that covenant.

"I will put my law in their inward parts, and will write it in their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more any man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of these unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah; for I will pardon their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (verses 33, 34).

This is their national conversion. It is ridiculous to claim a past fulfilment of this prediction. Still it has been done, and it has been said that the remnant of Jews returning from Babylon had forgiveness of sin, and now the Jews have ceased to be a nation forever. The Holy Spirit evidently anticipated such a denial as well as the almost universal teaching of Christendom that the seed of Abraham is no longer a nation and has no national hope and national future. Therefore He adds the following:

"Thus saith Jehovah, who giveth the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirreth up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar, Jehovah of Hosts is His name; if those ordinances depart from before me, saith Jehovah, the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation from before me for ever. Thus saith Jehovah: If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth be searched out beneath, I will also cast off the whole seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith Jehovah" (verses 35-37).

The sun still shines and the moon still sends forth her given light, the waves still roar, the heights of the heavens and the foundations of the earth are still unmeasured and unsearched, therefore Israel's end as a nation has not yet come. And all this is not the word of man; it is the Word of Jehovah, for we read twenty times in this chapter, " Thus saith Jehovah."

But we have to see what other prophets declare. From Ezekiel we take but a few of the many passages. The 16th chapter is one of the largest in that prophet. It begins with relating what Jehovah had done for Jerusalem, how His mercy had lifted her up, and it shows the fall of the nation, their terrible apostasy, but at the close of the long rehearsal of his misery Jehovah assures her of His mercies towards her. He is the God who changeth not. " And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah; that thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and no more open thy mouth because of thy confusion when I forgive thee all thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah."

In the 34th chapter Jehovah reveals Himself as the Shepherd of Israel. He Himself will gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel and bring them back to their land.

"And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the beasts of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell in safety and none shall make them afraid" (Eze 34:28).

The entire 36th chapter is Israel's comfort. It is in the closest connection with the 30th chapter of Deuteronomy. There the Lord said what He will do, and here His Spirit repeats this assurance.

"Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye went. And I will hallow my great name, which was profaned among the nations, which have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, saith the Lord Jehovah, when I shall be hallowed in you before their eyes. And I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your uncleanness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances, and ye shall do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people and I will be your God" (Eze 36:24-31, and to the end of the chapter).

All this has been and is spiritually applied, and Israel has been robbed of her comfort and coming glory. The same has been done with the vision of the dry bones, which follows in the 37th chapter. The 11th verse makes clear what the Lord means with the vision:

"And he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold they say our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off! Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people, and bring you into the land of Israel." (Eze 37:11-12)

In the same chapter we read the prophecy of the coming union of both houses, the house of Judah and the house of Israel. Till then the ten tribes are hid, but in that day the children of Israel will be brought together out of the nations.

Another passage we quote from the 30th chapter:

"And they shall know that I am Jehovah, their God, in that I caused them to be led into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them unto their own land, and I leave none of them any more there. And I will not hide my face any more from them, for I shall have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah" (verses 28, 29).

These verses cannot be fulfilled because they are not yet in the land. Therefore they must be brought there in the future never to be under the displeasure of God again. The Spirit of Jehovah will then be poured out upon them. This is in perfect agreement with what we learned from Joel 2 and Isaiah 32. In Joel the Spirit is seen poured out after the Northern army is removed. In Ezekiel the same statement is made after the invasion of Gog and Magog from the north. Such is the harmony of God's prophets.

The end of Ezekiel describes the wonderful temple which will stand once more in Jerusalem, and that the very name of the city shall be changed to " Jehovah Shammah," Jehovah is there. Of this more in the chapters which follow. Daniel's prophecy concerns mostly the Gentile nations, yet he also indicates the fact of Israel's restoration and their final deliverance.

The whole episode from the life of the prophet Jonah as contained in the book which he wrote typifies Israel's disobedience, Israel's temporary rejection, and Israel's restoration. Jonah is a type of Israel, besides being a type of Christ. The whole history of the seed of Abraham, past, present, and future, is contained in a nutshell in that book.

Jonah's call. He is sent by Jehovah to preach to Nineveh. He knows God while Nineveh is in darkness. So God prepared Himself Israel a nation to show forth His praises. Salvation is of the Jews. Through them He desires to make known His loving kindness and His redemption. In the seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth are to receive blessing. These are God's gifts and calling. They are without repentance (Rom 11:29).

Jonah is disobedient. He turns his back upon God and flees from His face. He goes on board of a merchantman. He goes in the opposite direction. So Israel became an apostate people, and the Jew turns merchant. They forsook God and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. Like Jonah, disobedient to the heavenly vision, instead of being a blessing they became a curse among the nations.

Trouble soon comes upon Jonah, the disobedient servant of God. The storm of disaster tosses his ship upon the wild waves of the angry sea. Everything is against him because he rebelled against God. Thus with the Jews. Misfortune after misfortune, storm after storm, has broken over them since they rejected God and their King Messiah. They are tossed about by the nations. The sea always represents nations in the Word.

Jonah does not deny his God and his nationality. He said, " I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven, which has made the sea and the dry land." So the Jew in his apostasy still professes to be a believer in God, fears His name, and does not deny that he is a Jew.

Jonah is cast overboard. He is given up to the angry waves. He is seen struggling in the waves. Typical of the Jew being cast away, though not forever.

The men in Jonah's ship when they saw that as soon as Jonah was in the water the waters calmed down, these men, who were all heathen, feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. What a wonderful illustration of the very statement in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter Rom 11:11 " By their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles." The Gentiles have received salvation when the Jew was set aside nationally.

Jonah is miraculously preserved in the belly of a sea monster. (There is nothing in the Hebrew to show that it was a whale.) He is to have his abode there for three days and three nights. He does not lose his life and existence, but he is put into a grave and is there wonderfully preserved. The Jew is likewise in his grave among the nations, nationally dead, but still God keeps the Jew as He did Jonah. The Jew is God's standing miracle. No infidel can explain away the Jew and his miraculous existence.

Jonah was not digested by the fish. He remained there undigested. The nations have not digested the Jews. This people shall dwell alone and not be reckoned among the nations. The Jew is still a Jew. Assimilation has failed.

Jonah at the end of the appointed time commenced to repent in his grave. He cried to God. He wished himself back to His holy temple, and he finished his prayer with the believing shout, " Salvation is of the Lord." The Jews will also repent. There are unmistakable signs of a changed attitude of the Jew noticeable. Still, before that great national repentance comes, there will be likewise first a great tribulation. Like Jonah, many are today desiring for His holy temple, and they are getting ready to return to the land. At last they will acknowledge that salvation is of the Lord, and welcome their King with the shout, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord."

God made the fish vomit out Jonah. He that scattered Israel will gather them again. They will be brought back to the land and restored. They will build the waste places, the desolations of many generations.

Jonah is sent the second time, and he follows the command. So Israel is yet to fulfil its grandest mission. Their King, our coming Lord, will commission them again and send them forth to proclaim His salvation. Israel will then follow obediently.

The whole city of Nineveh repented after hearing the apostate, the punished, and the restored Jew preach. A whole city was swept by a revival. The masses were saved. Now is the time for the salvation of individuals. There is no such thing at this present time as saving the masses or converting the world. The masses will be saved and the world converted through the preaching of the Jews when they are converted and restored in the land and Jesus is crowned as their King and sits upon the throne of His Father David.

This, then, illustrates, at least in part and in a faint way, what their reception is and means, " Life from the dead" (Rom 11:15).

From the rest of the prophets we give but a few quotations, in which the Holy Spirit gives the same witness concerning the future of Israel.

"I will surely assemble, O Jacob, the whole of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of pasture; they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. One that breaketh through is gone up before them; they have broken forth, and have passed on to the gate, and are gone out of it; and their king passeth on before them, and Jehovah at the head of them" (Mic 2:12-13).

The 4th chapter in Micah also speaks of the restoration of Israel in the coming age, their blessedness and the kingdom established in their land. The 5th chapter continues this theme, and at the end of the prophet stands that sublime Word, which the orthodox Jew remembers from time to time and which shall find its fulfilment when at last the wanderings of the nation are over.

"Who is a God like unto thee, that forgiveth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of the heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in loving kindness. He will yet again have compassion upon us, He will tread under foot our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform truth to Jacob, loving kindness to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old" (Mic 7:18-20).

Surely Israel will not be disappointed in her hope and expectation that the oath-bound promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will ever fail.

Zephaniah 3 shows the restoration and conversion of Israel after the day of Jehovah, which is predicted and described in the 1st chapter.

"Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel; rejoice and be glad with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem: Jehovah has taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: the King of Israel, Jehovah, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more. ... At that time will I bring you, yea, at the time that I gather you; for I will make you a name and a praise, among the peoples of the earth, when I shall turn again your captivity before your eyes, saith Jehovah" (Zep 3:14-20).

In Zechariah's night visions and prophecies nearly all relates to the future of Israel. The first two night visions show what Jehovah will do to the Gentiles, and the third contains the vision of the restoration of Israel, the gathering of His people, and the manifestation of His glory (Zech. 2). The fourth night vision typifies under the cleansing of the high priest the cleansing of the nation, the high priest among the nations of the earth; and the fifth, the vision of the candlestick, is Israel cleansed and restored, the light for the Gentiles. The 8th chapter predicts directly the restoration of Jerusalem and her glory.

The conversion of the nation is vividly described in the 12th chapter.

"And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; and they shall look at me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for an only son, and it shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for His first-born ... In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness" (Zec 12:10-14; Zec 13:1) .

This passage, besides being a confirmation of the witness contained in the other prophets of a coming outpouring of the Spirit, brings another interesting fact before us. It is Jehovah who speaks, and He speaks of Himself as pierced. What else does it mean than that He who comes and who appears before them is the One whom they rejected and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, the One who speaks in the 22d Psalm, " They have pierced my hands and feet." When He comes the nail-prints in His hands and His feet will be visible to Israel. They were visible in His glorified body, and unbelieving Thomas, who put his fingers into them and cried out, " My Lord and my God," is a type of Israel. Unbelieving still, they will see Him at last as He is, and mourn for Him in a great national mourning. In the last chapter of Zechariah we see the nation delivered and restored.

The prophet Malachi closes this wonderful and harmonious testimony of Israel's restoration and conversion in that he says through the Spirit of God that " the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, and ye shall go forth and leap like fatted calves" (Mal 4:2). The Sun of Righteousness is Jehovah in His visible manifestation.

Though we have devoted considerable space to this chapter, we have quoted only a few passages of the many which relate to Israel's future. However, enough has been given to show how great the harmony is which exists throughout the Word in the revelation of Israel's restoration and conversion. It has also been shown when this will take place. It is closely connected with the manifestation of Jehovah. To deny this great core doctrine of the Old Testament is to reject the very Word of Jehovah.

In the beginning of this chapter we showed how prominent the future of Israel is made in the New Testament. There is absolutely nothing in the New Testament, no word from our Lord, nor in the witness of the Holy Spirit in the Epistles, which would authorize us to say this great theme of the Old Testament prophetic Word meant events in connection with a spiritual Israel.

In the next chapters we shall show restored Israel, her glory and work in the theocratic kingdom and throughout the coming age.