Israel in Prophecy — the Series

Who is Israel?

_______________

Beginning any discussion of Israel in prophecy requires identifying the biblical nation under question. The prophet Isaiah wrote,

For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them. (Isa 14:1-2)

The prophet Jeremiah wrote,

Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, “As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but “As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.” For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. (Jer 16:14-15)

The prophet Ezekiel wrote,

Therefore, prophesy to the land of Israel…Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I have spoken in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the nations…I swear that the nations all around you shall suffer reproach. But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. And I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it. (Ezek 36:6-10)

Thus, the Israel of prophecy will return to the land of the nation’s nativity, but not before suffering severely for its lawlessness. The Israel of prophecy is the holy nation of God. His eyes are continually on this nation.

The recovery of Israel from the north country and from everywhere the nation has been dispersed has not yet occurred, for Israel’s exodus from Egypt remains the remembered event. A portion of the Apostle Paul’s people returned to Judea, but this portion did not return in peace but has experienced continual war. The formation of the modern nation of Israel hasn’t caused the Exodus from Egypt to be forgotten; nor does the return of Russian Jews to Judea cause the Exodus to be forgotten. Rather, both events cause the Exodus to be better remembered.

What will cause the Israel’s exodus from Egypt to be forgotten is the recovery of the holy nation of God from Death, the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse. Sin and Death are, respectively, the kings of the South and of the North. They are the third and fourth horsemen, and Sin will make merchandise of the grain harvests of Judean hillsides, harvests that will be reaped by angels, thrashed, and gathered into the barns of God at the end of this age. But Sin when it appears as the third horseman cannot harm the oil and the wine, the already crushed and processed fruit of Judea…disciples who have mentally journeyed to Judea and live there in covenant with God are today the fruit of the mountains of Israel. They are, when processed, the oil and the wine. Even wild olives branches, bearing wild fruit, when grafted to the root of righteousness will yield oil. Likewise, the fruit of the natural vine when pruned, dug and dunged, yields its pressings that when aged is wine.

Continuing what the prophet Ezekiel wrote about the mountains of Israel, he said,

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by the ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came. [paragraph break] Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ezek 36:16-28 emphasis added)

The prophet Jeremiah wrote,

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jer 31:31-34)

The prophet Isaiah wrote,

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing…I, I am he who blots out your transgression for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling. [chapter 44] But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you; Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, “I am the Lord’s,” another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, “The Lord’s,” and name himself by the name of Israel. (Isa 43:16-19, 25-28 & 44:1-5 emphasis added)

Isaiah’s juxtaposition of water with Spirit, and dry ground with the descendants of Israel carries the same relationship that the exodus of Israel from Egypt has with the future recovery of Israel from Sin and Death. That which is physical precedes and reveals that which is spiritual. The former is the visible shadow of the latter. The covenant given at Sinai is, thus, the lifeless shadow of the everlasting covenant made with the holy nation of Israel when the laws of God are written on hearts and minds through receipt of the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion].

The central metaphor used throughout Scripture is that of night/day, or darkness/light. Darkness precedes light (2 Cor 4:6 – Paul cites Gen 1:3). Darkness is lifeless, or dead. Life comes to that which has no life as in the case of the first Adam, who was made a physical corpse complete in every way but was not alive until Elohim breathed into his nostrils. From Adam was formed Eve, the life-giver. There was not a second person created from the dust of the earth. Rather, from the first came the second, and from the first and the second when joined together to become one flesh came all flesh. And so it is with the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The first Adam and his descendants form the spiritually lifeless corpse of (until born-from-above, or born anew of Spirit) the Body of the Son of Man; the Head is Christ Jesus. As only one man was made of flesh, only one Son of Man is made of Spirit--and only when this corpse receives Breath does this corpse live. The Breath or Spirit of God descended as a dove to rest on, and remain with Jesus (Matt 3:16) following His baptism. Thus, God the Father and the Son, together, create the many sons of God that will be the younger brethren of Christ Jesus. Prior to receiving the Breath of God [Pneuma ’Agion], every person born of woman is spiritually as the first Adam was physically before Elohim breathed into his nostrils (Gen 2:7).

The first Israel, the nation made holy in the wilderness of Sinai (Exod 19:5-6), was the firstborn son of God (Exod 4:22). But this firstborn son forms the spiritually lifeless shadow of the holy nation born of Spirit (1 Pet 2:9) that is the firstborn Son of God, Head and Body. The Head has already been glorified; the Body will be glorified upon the return of the Head. Thus, in the same way that the first Adam, created from dust to receive physical breath, forms the shadow of the last Adam, born of woman [the water of the womb] and of Spirit to become a life-giving spirit, the first Israel forms the visible shadow of the last Israel. But more is at play: the first Adam became a naphesh, a breathing creature just as was every beast of the field. The difference between the man and the woman, created in the likeness and after the image of Elohim, and the beasts of the field is directly comparable to the difference between the Circumcised and Uncircumcised; between the spiritually circumcised and those who are physically circumcised; between those “chosen” and those who are “called” (from Matt 22:14). All who have been called receive spiritual circumcision; i.e., receive the Holy Spirit. But as Jesus was not recognized by the circumcised nation as the Messiah, so too will those who are chosen not be recognized by the last Israel. The chosen do not have their being chosen validated by those who are called, but by God. The many do not validate the few by their approval, but by their scorn.

The first Israel’s father was an Amorite, its mother a Hittite (Ezek 16:3); the first Israel’s parents were not God the Father and the Son, were not YHWH, but were two human beings, created of dust to return to dust. YHWH physically adopted the first Israel as a man might an abandoned infant. God the Father will spiritually adopt the last Israel because the Son has gone ahead to prepare these relationships in advance of returning (John 14:2-3). For the Father (through disciples being drawn – John 6:44) of the last Israel is God, and the life-giver is Christ Jesus, not the Church. Rather, the Church universal is the last Israel.

Therefore, the Israel of prophecy includes the portion of the circumcised nation that was broken off, but will be grafted back onto the Righteous Root, with most of this grafting to occur after the fullness of the nations has come to God (Rom 11:25-26). Most of this grafting will occur during the first 1260 days of the seven, endtime years of tribulation; will occur after the Son of Man has been revealed (Luke 17:26-30), when the garment that is Christ’s righteousness has been removed. The modern circumcised nation of Israel now appears naked before God; its only covering is its obedience to God. When the Son of Man is revealed, the Church will then be disrobed and will appear naked before God. It, though, will be empowered by the Holy Spirit, an empowerment that will be available to the circumcised nation upon acceptance of Jesus (Rom 10:9). All of Israel will live without sin during this period that is the reality of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Both the physically and the spiritually circumcised nation will be naked unless covered by their obedience by faith. Both will then be as the first and as the last Adam were.

The means by which the broken off natural branches will be grafted to the Righteous Root will be through the Sabbath commandment. Those who know God and are sanctified by God will keep the Sabbath (Exod 31:13). When saints are delivered into the hand of the man of perdition (Dan 7:25), who comes by the workings of Satan (2 Thess 2:3-10), the chosen will keep the Commandments, all of them. The great rebellion against God will be of saints attempting to enter God’s rest on the following day (Num 14:40-41), will be of the firstborn spiritual son returning to its lawlessness as did the firstborn natural son (Ezek chapter 20).

(To be continued)