GOD PROMISED TO REVIVE and RESTORE THE JEWISH NATION.
The bible speaks clearly that the Lord will bring again His special nation back to the land of Israel, and restore the vigorous, national identity of His people. Present nations demand that Jerusalem , Israel’s capital, be split, half to the Palestinian and the other to the people of Israel. Internationally, in the US presidency electioneering, candidates advocate division or preservation of the capital. What does God’s Word say? It speaks authoritatively. His word is clear.
I lived in Israel in WW11, our hospital being based in Nazareth in 1941. I saw the desert on one side and flourishing crops on the other. Israel’s potential in early days gripped me.
Let’s draw from prophet Jeremiah, ‘ I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries, where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.’ 23:3 The Lord will reverse the dispersion of Israel, which followed in 70 AD following their rejection of Messiah, our beloved Lord. They were scattered to the many nations of the world, preserving their language, their God-exalting religion, and love of the Old Testament Scriptures. The Lord calls them ’My flock’, for they are His by covenant with Abraham, David and in the New Testament rule by their Messiah is offered to them. Scripture simply records ‘They shall be fruitful and increase’, which describes the dramatic changes since regathering in 1948, when UN granted sovereign rights. Israel restored the scholastic, Hebrew language and culture, which no nation has previously achieved after thousands of years of dispersal.
In News today, Israel warns Iran to cease nuclear development, else Israel will intervene.
God predicted spiritual and intellectual restoration for Israel, claiming, ‘I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord. ’ v4 ‘Shepherd’ is a special truth in the Hebrew economy, for psalm 23 ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ is peerless, while the Lord Jesus Christ ( Messiah) claimed to be the Good Shepherd, who gives his life for the sheep‘. ( John 10 ) Intellectually, Israel is a world-leader, with one quarter of her young people at seven excellent universities, and one eighth with advanced degrees: while especially excelling in medical research. Economically, she flourishes comparably with leading nations . Our eternal God prepares her for the reign of her Messiah.
When the Father reclaims the Jewish people, he will grant them their King, for Whom they longed for past millennia. He will also release the meaning of His righteous name. Jeremiah continued, ‘Behold the days are coming ( delayed, surely, but inevitably approaching ) says the Lord.’ That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.’ ( Many Jewish people yearn in their suffering and benighted condition for this fulfilment, linked with the restoration of the people of Israel.
The Jewish nation recognizes their Christ as the Messiah, truly their Prophet, Priest and King. They aspire toward their Christ reigning Sovereign, dispensing uprightness and integrity. He will reign for 1000 years as Revelation 20 states on six occasions. God has not renounced His chosen people - and we as Christians appreciate that our beloved Saviour will honour His promises to his own.
Jeremiah continued, ‘In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; Now this is His name by which he will be called; THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Zechariah 14:9 records the impact of the Messiah , ‘The Lord shall be king over the whole earth. In that day it shall be -the Lord is one and His name one.’ He is Emperor over His entire creation, defined here as the whole earth. The Jewish people know their scriptures, and await their realization. We as believers must accept the universal reign of Christ as scriptural, including every nation.
Isaiah contributes , ‘the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Law-Giver. The Lord is our King, He will save us.’ 33:22. Please notice the accumulated titles of the Messiah: Law-Giver introducing the righteous acts, the High court judge, decreeing on keeping or violating the law; then the Kingship of our dear Lord, ruling in the nation, and finally as personal and national `Savior.
The people of Judah long to pour their devotion on their Messiah. Should not we Christians lavish our love and adoration on Him who is the altogether lovely One? Tell HIM so!
Ezekiel wrote, ‘I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them- my servant David. God does not hide the identity of his chosen One. He further promises, ’I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them‘: authoritatively, ‘I the Lord have spoken.’ I will make a covenant of peace with them , and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. His Calvary triumph and the presence of the Savior King will counteract the wild instincts that flowed from man’s disastrous fall in the garden. Untamed destructive, animal passion shall be restrained. The lion’s fangs will be softened; the reptiles’ venom shall be nullified. Unchallenged, Messiah reign s. Medically, every pathological organism will be subdued, stifled, annihilated as the King of Kings reigns on the earth. No more HIVAIDS: my stethoscope will be banished: nor will physicians prescribeantibiotics. Sin has been conquered at the cross. The Messiah of glory reigns.
When the Messiah reigns on this earth, showers of blessing will come down. God has promised , and centuries of prayers will be answered. ‘I will make them, and the places all around My hill a blessing. I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. Our eternal Lord longs to enrich the lives of His chosen ones. He enlarges on the practical evidence of such an assurance; ’The trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know I Am the Lord.’ when I have broken the bands of their yolk and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. God will bless the agriculture and floriculture of His beloved nation. They will recognize their Creator and Redeemer, as their incomparable Lord. For He has released them from all the enslaving forces, conspired by the devil and ungodly nations.
‘They shall no longer be a prey for the nations., nor shall the beasts of the land devour them, but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. United Nations has inequitably legislated against the nation of Israel proportionately with their population of seven millions, contrasted with the 6 billion other world inhabitants. Their Messiah will supremely rule over the entire world, not as a dictator, but supremely in charge as Son of God. Their Messiah asserts that he had brought up , directed them, from all the countries where he had moved them- and now restores them in their own land. Jeremiah continued, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up, and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country, an d from all the countries where I had driven them. Then the strong statement, ‘They shall dwell in their own land.’ 23:8
Ezekiel stoutly confirms the re-emergence of the Hebrew people under their Messiah Lord Jesus, the Christ. ‘Thus says the Lord God ( that rules out human fancy) surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land.’ 37:21 Let no one object to the similarity with Jeremiah or Isaiah who prophesied hundreds of years previously. The Spirit of God confirmed His intended regathering of His own beloved nation to Himself.
For thousands of years the nation was split into Judah and Israel. The Messiah will unify His people, healing the centuries-old breach. Ezekiel did not know thousands of years would pass before God’s Word would become actual. Bible prophecy is the insignia of an eternal God.
‘I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again‘. V22 God’s authoritative word delights His people, while it irks those out of His family. God is not arrogant, but precise in His foretelling. ‘What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder’ is exceptionally apt with the joining of these 2 kingdoms.
The Lord will appropriate His people as His own exclusive property, and He will show He is the living Lord . They shall decry the detractions of passing God-defying nations. Ezekiel continued, ‘They shall not defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling-places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them.’ How our Lord delights to cleanse His chosen people. Then the powerful appropriation, ‘Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.’
Every living being will acknowledge that the Messiah has chosen and delighted in His appointed nation of Israel.
I will cleanse them. In the superb husband and wife oneness, Paul writes of the cleansing of God’s people. ‘Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. He splendidly purposes , ‘That he might present it to Himself a glorious church , not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:26
Such purity of heart tallies with Jehoshaphat’s search for his nation.
John’s letter has imperishable truth concerning cleansing of the heart. Namely, ‘If we walk in the Light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another , and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. V7 He also wrote, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. V9
This silver stream of heart cleansing flows through Holy Scripture, in Old and New Testaments.
God will confirm the covenant of David, made 1000 years before Christ came, saying, ‘David my servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them‘. v24 This covenant has not been abrogated, nor ever shall be, and shows how the Lord honors faithful servants of former generations. The Lord insists that David will rule unchallenged as King ( no Saul to contend the throne with him and Satan bound for one thousand years )- all under the protection of his Messiah, our beloved Lord and Savior. As the privileged bride of Christ, we shall reign with Him in his 1000 year reign. We rejoice with our dear Hebrew friends in the breath-taking promise in holy Scripture.
Ezekiel prophesied that the land given to God’s servant, Jacob, shall be designated for the Lord as Messiah,’ My servant David shall be their prince for ever‘. V25 God treasures his covenant, twice reminding us that David will be the prince of this territory.
His blood-bought church is distinctive, so that we dare not confuse gospel assurances with the enduring covenant for the people of Israel , which Ezekiel accurately recorded in the Old Testament.