The Future of Israel (Part 1)

What Are We to Make of Israel — Steve Gregg

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The Future of Israel (Part 2)

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The Future of Israel (Part 1)

What Are We to Make of IsraelSteve Gregg

Steve Gregg explores the future of Israel by examining the various covenants that define their relationship with God. By delving into both the Old and New Testaments, Gregg emphasizes the importance of understanding the extensive scriptural references made by the Apostles. He sheds light on the Jewish hopes for the coming of the Messiah and the significance of the prophecies in the Old Testament. Through his analysis, Gregg highlights the complexity of Israel's history, from the few good kings in the southern kingdom to the worrisome actions of some of their rulers, ultimately underscoring the enduring relevance of these narratives.

Transcript

We have been talking in this series about the various covenants which define Israel's status with God. There are several covenants in the Old Testament. There's the Abrahamic Covenant, there's the Sinaitic Covenant, there's the Davidic Covenant, and in the course of this evening we'll also talk about what's called the New Covenant.

Though this lecture is not strictly about the New Covenant, this lecture is about the future of the nation of Israel. Now in our previous lectures, the Abrahamic Covenant defined the origins of Israel as an ethnic phenomenon, Abraham and his seed. When we talk about the Sinaitic Covenant, we talk about the origins of Israel as a nation, where the ethnic Israel came out of Egypt where they were still simply a large family and God brought them to Sinai and made a nation out of them.

And then later, I think last time, we talked about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of David and the covenant that God made with David about how his seed would sit on David's throne and reign over his people. And we talked about, in every case, I've told you what the popular dispensational teaching is on these subjects and I've also taught you what I consider the Bible to teach. Now everybody, almost everybody, certainly has heard the dispensational ideas about these things.

Hearing what I'm sharing might sound like some kind of weird, new, offbeat theological diversion. The truth is, what I'm sharing is what the church taught until 1830, from the Apostles on. All of the church fathers, all of the medieval church, all the reformers, and a great number of evangelicals to this present day believe pretty much what I'm sharing.

You never hear of it because it's almost impossible to write a popular book or movie script about this, because all the sensational stuff is in the dispensational scene. So every time there's a popular book about Bible prophecy or end times or a movie or even when there's secular documentaries from the Discovery Channel or whatever about Revelation, they're always taking the futurist dispensational view because that is sexy, that is exciting, that is sensational. When it comes down to what the church always taught before and still teaches in large measure, that's not quite so exciting unless you really love Jesus.

Now if you love Jesus, I think it is exciting, but if you're looking for end time signs of the times and what trying to calculate just how long it is that we have left, this kind of viewpoint just doesn't really ring people's chimes. For that reason, in our modern times, it's not the popular view, not in American evangelicalism anyway. Whenever we hear about eschatology, usually we're hearing theories that are all focused on Israel.

If I would lay out for you the typical dispensational scheme of the future, it starts probably with 1948 and the founding of the Nation of Israel. And the next thing of excitement is when the church goes away. I guess the church isn't very exciting.

They got to get the church out of the way so things exciting can start happening. Then you've got seven years of tribulation where Israel is the focus of attention. And then there's an Antichrist who makes a covenant with Israel and then persecutes Israel.

Interestingly, he's called the Antichrist. It seems like he should be called the Anti-Israel or Anti-Jew. They believe that there's gonna be an Antichrist who will persecute the Jews after Christians are gone.

And there's gonna be all those amazing things, just the plagues and the earthquakes and all the terrible things that Revelation describes. And then Jesus will return to earth with the church. He'll set up a millennial kingdom.

For a thousand years, things will be very placid on earth under Christ's presence here and his reign here. And then at the end of that, Satan will be released for a little while. Go out to make trouble again, threaten another war with a great number of pagan people surrounding the beloved city.

But fire from heaven comes down and destroys Satan and the enemies. They are thrown into the lake of fire and there's a new heavens and new earth. That's the dispensational schema.

One of the things that the dispensational view holds is that there are unfulfilled promises to Israel. Judaism and dispensationalism have a lot in common. They believe that God has got to draw all the Jews from all over back to the land of Israel.

You know the reason that Orthodox Jews do not accept Christ as the Messiah, the primary reason, if you ask a rabbi, will be that the Messiah is supposed to bring all the diaspora back together into the land. That's what the Messiah will do. He'll bring all the Jews who've been scattered around the whole world and bring them back into Israel.

Jesus didn't do that so he must not be the Messiah. The dispensationalists believe almost exactly the same thing except they believe Jesus is the Messiah. They believe that he just kind of didn't do it yet.

He came and he didn't... the main order of business for the Messiah, which is to bring all the Jews back to Palestine, he kind of missed that. He didn't even work on it. He didn't do anything to try to make it happen.

He just walked around and healed people and preached the kingdom of God and then died and went to heaven again. And so they figure, well, at his second coming certainly he'll be drawing all the Israelites back to the land because this is the hope of the rabbis. This is the hope that they... this is how they understood the Old Testament prophecies, which we will look at.

There are many prophecies that talk about God bringing the scattered Israelites back into the land and reestablishing them as a nation. But the rabbis and what they think about the Messiah and their interpretation of the Old Testament can't necessarily be trusted simply because Paul said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 that when a Jew reads the Old Testament there's a veil over their mind and they can't see what it's saying. He said that veil is taken away in Christ.

When they turn to the Lord that veil is taken away. But until a Jew becomes a believer in Christ there's a veil over the mind when they read their scriptures, which explains why Jesus in Luke chapter 24, and I think it's verse 44 or 45 in Luke 24, it says that Jesus when he was with his disciples in the upper room after his resurrection, it says he opened their understanding so that they might understand the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures. Now apparently the rabbis didn't understand them or why would Jesus have to do that? The disciples were Jews, they could just go talk to the rabbi, ask him what it means.

Instead Jesus opened their understanding so that they can understand scriptures. He removed the veil so when they read the scriptures they recognized what they were really saying, not what the rabbis had thought they were saying, what the Jews were who were still unbelievers were thinking. It should be understood from these passages that if we're getting our ideas about the meaning of Old Testament prophecy from the common view of the Jewish people who don't believe in Christ, that we're getting our views from people who have a veil over their minds and do not understand the scriptures.

But if we are reading the New Testament, the Apostles who wrote the New Testament quoted scripture extensively and they did understand what it meant. What's interesting is they didn't understand the scriptures the same way the rabbis did. And so Christians today have got a choice to make.

Will we understand the scriptures as the unsaved, unenlightened, veiled Jewish rabbis understood it or will we understand it the way that the disciples understood it after Jesus opened their understanding to understand the scriptures. We'll see a very clear choice here. The dispensational view takes the first choice.

The dispensationalists are not ashamed to say so. They say we have to understand the way the Jews did because otherwise God deceived the Jews. If they understood a certain way and God doesn't know that way, then God fooled them.

Well he didn't fool them if he sent Jesus to tell them the truth and sent the Apostle to tell them the truth and they rejected it. That's not God fooling them, that's fooling yourself. It may be well true that people before Christ came had a certain misunderstanding of the scriptures but it didn't hurt them any because it wasn't the time of fulfillment.

It was just future for them so whether they understood them or not was not all important. When the time of fulfillment came, Jesus came and he gave an understanding to those that would listen to him and those were his disciples. His faithful remnant, the believing Jews who accepted the Messiah, he let them know what those scriptures were about and we're going to look and see what they said about them.

First of all let's look at the promise as it is stated in the Old Testament. Now frankly there are I think we could say dozens. I don't think it'd be an exaggeration to say there are dozens of passages in the Old Testament about the restoration of the Jews to their land from all the nations.

Most of these are in Jeremiah and in Ezekiel but there are some in Isaiah and there's some in some of the minor prophets. This is a very common theme of the Old Testament that God will draw his people, the Jews, back from all the lands where they've been scattered, back from their captivity and bring them back into the land and reestablish them in the land with Jerusalem as their capital. This is what the Jews hoped for when the Messiah will come.

This is what dispensationalists expect Jesus to do also. What did the Apostles expect him to do? Well let's look at the scriptures themselves first. There are as I say dozens of such scriptures but they're not much different than the few that I have I'll give you just as a sample.

In Deuteronomy 30 verses 1 through 3, this is perhaps the earliest promise of restoration to the land and Moses is speaking to Israel. In the previous two chapters he's talked about the curses that would come upon them if they violated his covenant and they'd be scattered out of their land and they'd be scattered to all lands and then he says in the opening of Deuteronomy 30, Now it shall come to pass when all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I've set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. This is a very common sounding scripture when you when you read the rest of the Old Testament.

There's a lot of repeats of this particular information in various forms. Jeremiah is one of those books that talks a lot about it. In one of those passages in Jeremiah chapter 16 verses 14 and 15 says, Therefore behold the days are coming says the Lord that it shall no more be said the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt but the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from the lands where he had driven them for I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.

We could multiply scriptures that say essentially these same words. God will bring them back to their land from all the nations where they've been driven. Although this sounds very sweeping and very universal we have to understand that promises that God made to Israel really were made to the faithful remnant of Israel not to all the nation of Israel.

Remember when Paul talks about this in Romans 9 6 he's talking about the fact that most of the Jews don't believe in Christ. Most of the Jews are not saved and yet isn't the Messiah supposed to save Israel bring them back to their land and Paul's addressing that in Romans 9 and in verse 6 he says it's not that God's Word has failed to take effect for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. In other words it may look like God's promises to Israel have not been fulfilled but it's not that way it's not as if his promises have failed to come true they have come true you have to understand that they are not all Israel who are of Israel.

That is to say there's a smaller remnant within the nation of Israel and they are the Israel that the promises apply to. In all of Israel's history throughout the Old Testament to the present the majority of Jewish people have not been followers of God either under the Old Covenant or under the present covenant. The vast majority of Jews have rejected God's ways from the days of Moses the days of the judges if you read the book of Judges they kept going away from God over and over again.

If you read the book of Kings after the kingdom was divided into the northern and southern kingdom the northern kingdom had you know 19 kings and not one of them was good they all worshiped Baal they all worshipped other gods than God and God finally destroyed the nation sent them into Assyria. The southern kingdom they had a few good kings maybe a handful out of 20 at least three-quarters of their kings also worshipped false gods some of them worse than the northern kings like Manasseh the very worst of all the kings and the son of Hezekiah he even burned his own babies to Moloch the Bible says and he encouraged others to do so. This is the this is the Jews this is God's chosen people well they were apostate for hundreds of years most of their history if you read the Old Testament Jews as a nation were apostate but not all of them.

Elijah lived at a time when Israel was quite apostate and he complained to God he says they've all there I'm the only one left who's worshipping you and God correct him no I have reserved 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal besides you 7,000 still a pretty small minority in a country of millions but nonetheless 7,000 a remnant who are faithful they were the true Israel the others were just worshippers of Baal and Moloch and false gods and as Hosea made very clear Hosea also wrote to the northern kingdom when they're apostate God says you're not my people if you're not a believer if you're not following God if you're rebelling as God you're not his people doesn't matter who your parents or ancestors were God's not a racist he doesn't give special privileges to certain races if they rebel against him they're out and that's clear in the Old Testament and in the New Testament but God did make promises to the faithful there was always a faithful remnant when Elijah was here there was when Isaiah was here when Jeremiah was here there's a faithful at least one guy Baruch was faithful I don't know how many others there were but very small remnant but in Jesus day there was a remnant to faithful to God in Israel and they came to Jesus just like the remnant in the Old Testament followed the prophets that God sent the remnant in the first century followed the Messiah when he came they became what are called disciples they became what later became called Christians and on the day of Pentecost their numbers swelled to 3,000 in one day and then shortly after that 5,000 and then more and more and then eventually Gentiles started joining them too and so this group of the remnant of Israel that came to the Messiah became a multi-ethnic order because all the faithful remnant of the Jews came to Christ but then faithful Gentiles did too and they were made into one body in Christ one olive tree branches that were natural branches that believed and branches that were grafted in because they believed and so this is the history Israel as a nation primarily has been disobedient but the promises God made are for the faithful remnant let me read you a number of Old Testament prophecies that will make that very clear to you just in case you wonder in Isaiah 10 22 you may not be able to look all these up because I'm gonna read them rather quickly I have a lot to go through but they are in your notes I believe in Isaiah 10 22 it says for though your people Oh Israel be as the sand of the sea a remnant of them will return return that's our motif isn't it gathering the people from all lands into the land of Israel a remnant of them will return actually Paul quotes this verse in Romans 9 he quotes it from the Septuagint which reads though the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea meaning very numerous only a remnant will be saved and Paul quotes it that way because he's trying to point out that the remnant in fact is saved in Christ the Jews who believe in Christ have in fact come to salvation and they are the fulfillment Paul says of this prediction of Isaiah 10 22 which he quotes a remnant will return in Jeremiah 23 3 says but I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I've driven them and bring them back to their folds and they shall be fruitful and increased knows who's he's gonna draw back from the far countries who the remnant of his people in Jeremiah 31 7 he says for thus says the Lord sing with gladness for Jacob and shout among the chief of the nations proclaim give praise and say O Lord save your people the remnant of Israel God's people are the remnant of you're not the whole nation the remnant the faithful part of Israel are his people in Joel chapter 2 in verse 32 which is quoted twice once by Peter and once by Paul in the New Testament says it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance as the Lord has said among the remnant whom the Lord calls the remnant of Israel will be saved Micah 212 says I will surely assemble all of you Oh Jacob I will surely gather the remnant of Israel notice all of you Oh Jacob sounds like the whole nation then it clarifies the remnant of Israel all of you who are in the remnant you see when the Bible says you're gonna gather all the Jews back to their land he means all the remnant and this this passage uses both phrases he says surely I will assemble all of you Oh Jacob I will surely gather the remnant of Israel I will put them together like sheep of the fold like the flock in the midst of their pasture Micah 5 3 which is right after the verse about the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem Micah 5 2 is the famous verse about Bethlehem being the birthplace of the Messiah the next verse says therefore he shall give them up until the time that she who is in labor has given birth then the remnant of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel in Micah 7 18 it says who is a God like you pardoning the iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy Zephaniah 3 13 says the remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth for they shall feed their flocks and lie down and no one shall make them afraid interestingly other talks about the the remnant of Israel says they will speak no lies and no deceitful tongue will be found in their mouth do you remember what Jesus said when he saw Nathanael coming to him in John chapter 1 he said behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile that means no deceitful tongue a true Israelite part of the remnant behold an Israel indeed in whom is no God you know when you read about the hundred forty four thousand in Revelation 14 in the first three verses or five verses it's describing the hundred forty four thousand says in their mouth there is no guile what's that mean they're the remnants we're talking about the remnant here because Zephaniah said the remnant of Israel there'll be no deceitful tongue that's guile in their mouth they shall feed their flocks etc Zechariah 14 2 says for I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem by the way this is often referred in dispensational teaching to Armageddon I believe it's about 80 70 but anyway it says I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem the city shall be taken the house is rifled and the women ravished half of the city shall go into captivity but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city the true Israel the true Jerusalem will will survive this Holocaust and they will be the new Jerusalem they will be the heavenly Jerusalem the church of the firstborn as it says in Hebrews chapter 12 which we'll look at later today one other verse about the remnants here this doesn't use the word remnant but I've shown you this in an earlier lecture in Psalm 50 in verse 5 God says gather my saints that's holy ones together to me those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice but then down a few verses later in verses 16 and 17 of the same Psalm he says but to the wicked God says what right do you have to declare my statutes or to take my covenant in your mouth seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you now what's interesting here is he calls his faithful saints the faithful remnant are the ones who are in a covenant relationship with them those who've made a covenant by sacrifice he says but then he contrasts them with the wicked who also take God's covenant on their mouth certainly they're Jewish no no Gentiles ever took Yahweh's covenant on their mouth he's talking to Jewish people but they're wicked people like most of them were and he's saying to the wicked says what right do you have to claim my covenant what right do you have to name my name on your lips what you hate me in other words you're not my people you may be Jewish but you hate me you're wicked you put my words behind your back you have no right he says to take my covenant on your lips in other words the promises God made our covenant promises to Israel but they apply to the covenant faithful of Israel the remnant they do not apply to the wicked the rebellious the apostate and we ought to know that because frankly think of how many generations since Christ of human beings not including Jews have lived and died and lived and died and what happened to the apostate Jews they lived they died they died apostate they're lost right I mean so obviously the promises of salvation are to the faithful remnant what has happened in all those generations to the Jews who believed in Christ they've died too but they're saved see the promises are fulfilled to the faithful remnant not to the ethnic Israel as a whole and that's why Paul says they are not all Israel who are of Israel those who are of Israel would mean the whole nation the Israel that not all of them are is the faithful remnant and so the Bible teaches that these promises even about the regathering of his people are fulfilled to a remnant one thing that many people don't tell you when they're teaching the Old Testament prophecies about the regathering of the people of Israel to the land is that all those prophecies were uttered before the Jews returned from Babylon does that seem significant at all in the interpretation of prophecy Isaiah and Jeremiah wrote before the Babylonian exile Ezekiel and Daniel wrote in the middle of that exile nine of the minor prophets wrote before the exile to none of the prophets wrote after the exile except for Zechariah Haggai Malachi and they do not make predictions about return of the exiles except Zechariah makes one prediction but he wrote while they were still coming back you see there was a season after the 70 years of captivity when the Jews have been taken out of the land Jerusalem been burned down the temple had been burned down the Jews have been banished from the land by the Babylonians by Nebuchadnezzar they were in 70 years in Babylon in captivity and then in three waves they came back the remnant did not all of them most the Jews still stayed in Babylon and they and their descendants are still out there in Gentile lands they've never returned to Israel that's what the rabbis are waiting for for all those people to come back to Israel they don't realize they're not the remnant the promise is about the remnant they came back with Zerubbabel around 538 BC and more of them came back later with Ezra and more of them came back with Nehemiah but it was during the time of Zerubbabel in the first group that Zechariah prophesied and he also predicted God bringing the Jews back but there were still two more waves of them to come back after that was Ezra and Nehemiah so after those waves happened there were no more prophecies about anyone bringing the Jews back to Israel including in the New Testament the New Testament has not one reference to the Jews coming back to Israel not a reference of any kind I know some people use you know Romans 11 26 all Israel will be saved which we'll look at tonight but it doesn't say that begin the land of Israel I'm saved and I'm not in the land of Israel to say all Israel be saved tells you nothing about where they will be on the planet when they're saved being saved means coming to Christ and you can do that anywhere so you'll find not one hint in the New Testament that Jesus or the Apostles believed that the Jews who are still scattered abroad even when they were here on the earth will ever come back to Israel you know ever since 722 BC when the Assyrians drove the northern kingdom out of their land and 586 when Nebuchadnezzar took Judah out of their land that's like 500 years before Christ ever since then there has never been a moment in history that the majority of Jews have been in Israel the vast majority have lived throughout the lands of the Gentiles still is true there's about 14 million Jews in the world today about 6 million live in Israel not even half there's almost as many living in America and there's Jews living in all nations still so if all Jews would be gathered back it's still future sometimes you say we're seeing history fulfilled the Jews are all pouring back to Israel well not all of them most of Jews I know here in America that I've talked to don't have plans to move some do but not many what I'm saying to you is that from about 586 BC to the present day there's never been one moment where the majority of Jews lived in the land that means when Jesus was here and the apostle here most the Jews were scattered in the Diaspora and yet Jesus never uttered a word about bringing them back the Apostles never uttered a word about having an expectation that they'd come back why because the prophecies about the return of the exiles the land were fulfilled five centuries before Christ when Zerubbabel and Ezra Nehemiah brought the exiles from Babylon back that's the fulfillment I mean naturally speaking you think it was if you have Micah predicting that the Messiah be born in Bethlehem and then about 4 BC Jesus is born in Bethlehem we say oh that's the fulfillment why because it's predicted beforehand and it happened later but nobody is saying but Jesus has to be born of Bethlehem again in the last days why no need for it he was born there once you don't need to it doesn't have to happen again there's after Jesus was born in Bethlehem there were no later predictions that the Messiah be born in Bethlehem you know why because it happened it'd been fulfilled the prophets including Deuteronomy Moses they predicted a return of the people to the promised land and it happened 500 years before Jesus was ever born since that time not one prediction has been made by any inspired prophet about a return of the exiles one gets the impression that it was fulfilled the remnant did return to Babylon by the way if you look back at the verses we talked about first notice they talk about God bringing Israel back from their captivity the Jews throughout the world aren't in captivity right now I don't think the you know the five million Jews in America are in captivity anywhere I didn't go wherever they want to go they're not in captivity they're not like the Babylonian captivity you know I mean Jews in most countries can go wherever they want to go there's no captivity I mean there may be you know Jews in communist lands that can't leave at will but neither can the Gentiles this is not a Jewish captivity there's just a slave state that doesn't let anyone move freely about but the Jews as a people have not been in captivity since they came back from Babylon therefore all these prophecies which all speak of God bringing back from their captivity and all the nations and bringing back land well he did bring them back from their captivity they haven't been in captivity since so where is the basis in any of these prophecies to think of something happening in the last days now people sometimes ask me someone asked me just the other day and I get asked it many times well could there be double fulfillment well if the Jews go into captivity again I guess there could be if they go into captivity again in the future and he could get them out of captivity but they haven't been in captivity for thousands of years and I don't think they're going into captivity again and therefore there won't be any need for a second deliverance from captivity for them the dispensationalists say that the return of the exiles from Babylon were not the ultimate return obviously they know that the remnant returned from Babylon but dispensationalists say but there's got to be much more of a large-scale return to the land than that although even dispensational authors will say really they only expect a remnant they don't expect every last Jew on the planet to go to Israel some might but not this not dispensational scholars so that's it is not the view of the dispensational position that every last Jew will return to Israel just most of them just a huge number of them well that hasn't happened yet either but the point is they're still only looking for a remnant only a portion of the nation to come back and like I said that's what happened in 539 BC a remnant came back and there were no predictions about it again after that so on what basis would anyone who's a sensible Bible scholar say that there's still unfulfilled promises here well the truth is there are some things in some of those prophecies about the return that did not happen in the days of Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah and because those things didn't happen dispensationalists will say well these prophecies have a future fulfillment because those things didn't happen let's see what things those were first of all if you look at Isaiah chapter 11 verses 11 and 12 it says it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people who are left from Assyria and Egypt, Pathros and Cush, Elam and Shinar from Hamath and the islands of the sea he will set up a banner for the nations and will assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth now of course in general this sounds very much like all the other predictions about God bringing back his remnant even use the word remnant here it even identifies it as the remnant but the issue here was the Lord will do it again a second time okay we recognize that God did bring them back from Babylon true but this specifically says there be another time a second time he'll again set forth and to bring the remnant back so there is a second fulfillment but is there what is this actually talking about first of all Isaiah 11 what is it talking about if you look at verse 1 it says there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots this is a this is Jesus his birth it's not a second coming by the way Jesus isn't going to come back out of the root of Jesse he came the first time through the root of Jesse he's not going to come back out of Jesse's line again he's coming out of heaven next time this is the first coming of Christ let's talk about in fact verse 10 is quoted by Paul as being fulfilled already in Isaiah 11 10 says and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner to the people for the Gentiles shall seek him and his resting place shall be glorious now this verse verse 10 is quoted by Paul in Romans 15 12 Paul gives a string of several verses in a row in Romans 15 about how that his ministry to the Gentiles was predicted in the Old Testament this is one of the verses he quotes a banner the Lord will raise up a banner and all the nations will come to him he sees Jesus as the banner and the evangelism of the Gentiles and them coming to Jesus is the fulfillment Paul an inspired writer said that this verse is about his ministry and no doubt the continuing ministry of the Gentiles forever after he doesn't put it off to the end times it was in his times that was being fulfilled as a result of first coming of Christ now furthermore when he says in verse 11 the Lord will do it a second time what was the first time he's talking about look at the last verse in this chapter verse 16 there will be a highway for the remnant of his people who will be left from Assyria as it was for Israel in the day that he came up from the land of Egypt isn't that the first time this second time when God draws him it'll be like the first time when he brought them out of Egypt in other words this is not suggesting that the return of the exiles from Babylon was the first time and the second time will be in the end times at the end of the world no the first time God gathered his people out of foreign lands to the problem it was when he brought him out of Egypt the second time was out of Babylon okay so this reference to a second time doesn't refer to the end times if anything the Babylonian return of the Babylonian exiles is the second time the first time was the Exodus and by the way it's very important that we note this at this point we'll see it in many passages in the Old Testament the Exodus from Egypt and the return of the exiles from Babylon are treated almost as if they're the same kind of thing there are the two times in Israel's history that the whole nation was essentially out of their land in bondage to a pagan power but in both cases God freed them from those pagan powers and brought them into the promised land the Exodus was almost like a foreshadowing of the return of the exiles from Babylon but the Egyptian captivity in the Babylonian captivity now both of these are taken up in the New Testament as a type of salvation in Christ the Exodus motif and the return of the exiles motif referring to these two historic things where God saved his people Israel from pagan lands the New Testament takes those motifs up and applies them to what Jesus accomplished in salvation as it gives a spiritual cast to them the real salvation of Israel is not getting out of Germany and going to the Middle East the real salvation of Israel is being saved forever being have an eternal life that's the real salvation the Jews expected the Messiah to come to gather the exiles into Jerusalem or into Israel and to drive out the pagans that's exactly what the Jews of Jesus time expected the Messiah to do that's what Joseph and Mary probably expected the Messiah to do before they knew better but the angel came to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1 and told him that Mary's gonna have a child by the Holy Spirit and the angel said to Joseph you'll call his name Jesus because he will save his people not from the Romans not from the exile he'll save them from their sins the salvation the Messiah is bringing to his people is not geographical it's spiritual he's gonna save them from their sins now at the Mount of Transfiguration Moses and Elijah talked to Jesus and if you read a Luke's version of it because it's found in Matthew Mark and Luke in Luke's version in Luke chapter 9 it says that they were talking to Jesus about the Exodus that Jesus was going to accomplish in Jerusalem meaning through his death and resurrection Jesus is going to accomplish a second Exodus or what did Jesus accomplish interest we didn't bring people out of Egypt to another place he saved people out of sin salvation from sin is what the Exodus from Egypt is a foreshadowing of and the return of the exiles from Babylon is a foreshadowing of when God saved his people from captivity that foreshadowed in historic events a spiritual phenomenon that the Messiah was going to do he's gonna save them from their real captivity remember Jesus said to the Jews if you continue in my words is John 8 31 and following if you continue in my words you're my disciples indeed and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free what they say wherever I'm seed we've never been in captivity we've never been in bondage to anyone it's a strange assessment of their history since they've been in bondage more often than not still they understood him to be talking about being set free from captivity and Jesus said he that commits sin is a slave of sin therefore if the Sun shall set you free you'll be free indeed the Messiah did not come to set the people free politically geographically that was the carnal understanding the rabbis had and still have and that dispensations I'm afraid still have to because they under they take their cues from the Jewish way of understanding these scriptures I'll take mine from Jesus and from the disciples so Jesus said he's gonna set people free from sin the angel said he'll save them from their sins so also with the return from exile remember we saw in Isaiah chapter 10 I read earlier this one verse I want to read a few more besides but in verse 22 it says for though your people Oh Israel be as the sand of the sea meaning innumerable a huge number even if the Israelites number in the millions and billions yet a remnant of them will return remember I said that Paul quoted this verse in Romans 9 from the Septuagint where it says a remnant will be saved Paul understood the return to be a picture of being saved now and even Isaiah does if you read him carefully if you look verse 21 the verse before it says the remnant will return the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God now the term the mighty God is a phrase that's not only one other place in the Bible and that's in the chapter before this one in Isaiah 9 7 his name should be called wonderful counselor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace the mighty God is the Messiah one chapter later Isaiah says the remnants gonna return to the mighty God this Messiah it's coming to Christ not coming to the promised land it's not coming from nations into Palestine it's coming from sin into the Messiah that's what salvation is even Isaiah's own words give that away and Paul takes it for granted that it means that the remnant shall be saved he said only a remnant of Israel be saved not all of them and he says that's already happening that's not something for the last days that's been happening ever since Jesus was here when Jesus arrived here he started calling the remnant to himself and the remnants have been in the process of being saved ever since so although this calling of the people a second time is sometimes thought of in Isaiah 11 to be a reference to the end times it's not Exodus was the first time the return of the Exodus from Babylon was the second time and both times were a type and a shadow of the actual deliverance that the Messiah bring which is spiritual let me show you something in Hebrews chapter 11 let's talk about Abraham Isaac and Jacob and it says after it talks about Abraham Isaac and Jacob it says in verse 12 Hebrews 11 12 therefore from one man and him as good as dead Abraham were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore these Abraham Isaac and Jacob he means all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off that is God had given the sort of a prophetic vision of the ultimate fulfillment of his promises he they'd saw them afar off they were assured of them embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for those who say such things declare plainly that they're seeking a homeland well they were already in Palestine when they went when Abram said I'm a stranger in pilgrim the earth is when he's negotiating with the the the Hittites for to buy the cave Mac Pala to bury his wife he said I'm a stranger at a pilgrim among you that's what he's quoting here he was in the land he's even buying his first piece of actual you know own property there he called himself a stranger to pilgrim but the writer Peeper says but they're looking for a homeland who talked like that even though Abraham was in the land of Palestine he was still a stranger and a pilgrim he wasn't settled in his homeland he's still looking for a homeland he's still moving toward what what says in verse 15 and truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out they would have had opportunity to return but now they who's they Abraham Isaac and Jacob or the subject of these sentences these are the guys that God promised the promised land to it says but now they desire a better that is a heavenly country therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them they were seeking a heavenly country now we might mistakenly think that heavenly means in heaven if you look up all the places in the Bible that the word heavenly is used as I did not too long ago because I was curious about this you'll find that every time the word heavenly use it means from heaven not in heaven something that is heavenly is some that has its origins in heaven it's on earth but it's from heaven they were looking for a country that is from heaven and apparently this is being contrasted with the country they were already in because they're still looking for this other one what was Abraham ultimately seeking not the promised land yes the promised land was a token was a type in a shadow of the ultimate heavenly country is looking for what is the heavenly country well it's identified with the city that God has prepared for in verse 16 we don't know what that city is look over at chapter 12 Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22 the writer says to his readers but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem to it that's again the truth from that is from heaven to an innumerable company of angels to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven who is this Mount Zion this heavenly Jerusalem this city of God that we have already come to it's the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn the body of Christ the community of Christ on earth his body that is the heavenly country you might say but the church isn't a country well Peter says it is in first Peter chapter 2 and verse 9 he says but you are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people he's talking to church we're a holy nation not a not a political nation certainly we're a spiritual nation a heavenly nation we have a heavenly King we have a it's it's there's a heavenly political system here with a king and his subjects were his kingdom that's the heavenly country that's the heavenly nation that we are it's the city the New Jerusalem the heavenly Jerusalem which is from heaven and it is the church not the institutional church the body of Christ the true fellowship of the Saints who are really the disciples of Jesus that's the spiritual land that Abraham was seeking that's the city that God has prepared for remember Jesus in the sermon on the mount said to his disciples you are the light of the world a city set on a hill that cannot be hit the disciples the church is the city and it says there in Hebrews 11 16 Abraham wasn't looking for an earthly country that is one that was just a mere earthly kingdom he was looking for a country whose origins were in heaven and God has has now provided that in the city that he's prepared which is the church the body of Christ the true kingdom of God now this is what the church believed forever until the 1800s till dispensationalism came along the Apostles understood the fulfillment of these promises to be in Jesus not 2,000 years from their time but in their lifetime they had lived to see it the Messiah had come he had brought salvation he had done all these things now one of the reasons that sometimes dispensationalists say that the return of the exiles to Babylon did not fulfill all the promises was because in addition to bringing them back to their land these promises in the Old Testament say that God will give them a spiritual renewal as well let me show you some of these important passages Ezekiel chapter 36 is key among them Ezekiel 36 verses 22 through 30 some of these verses are probably familiar to you because they're often quoted verse 22 says therefore say to the house of Israel thus says the Lord God I do not do this for your sake O house of Israel but for my holy name's sake which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went and I will sanctify my great name which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in the midst in their midst and the nation shall know that I am Yahweh says Yahweh God when I am hallowed in you before their eyes for I will take you from among the nations gather you out of all the countries and bring you into your own land okay so far that that can be fulfilled in the Babylonian return people return from Babylon but it goes on then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you should be clean I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers you shall be my people and I will be your God now this talks about God bringing them back to their land and cleansing them giving them a new heart a new spirit taking out the heart of stone and putting in a heart of flesh putting his spirit within them now that means there's two aspects of what he's promising one is a physical regathering of the remnant to the land secondly his pouring out his spirit upon them as you get to the next chapter I'll just summarize it's familiar to most you probably Ezekiel in the next chapter saw a valley of dry bones they're just disjointed human bones strewn out dry says they were very very dry and he said as he watched the Lord said prophesy to these bones and he prophesied to them and they all began to rattle and move and reassemble and they stood up and they became human skeletons standing up then flesh and skin and hair came upon them and he says but there's no breath in them they came fully assembled back to full human shape but lifeless and then God said to him now prophesy to the wind which can also be translated spirit Ruach in the Hebrew spirit and wind prophesy to the wind or to the spirit and he prophesied and this and the spirit came upon them and God said this is the whole house of Israel they are in Babylon they've lost hope they say our hope is gone our bones are dry but he says I look the Lord says I guarantee you I'm gonna reassemble you like these bones are reason I'm gonna bring you back to your land and I'm gonna pour my spirit out upon you now we see then that part of the promise was not just returning them to the land that's like the physical reassembly of the bones into bodies but there's no life there they need a spiritual renewal they need to have spiritual life given they need to have the spirit poured out upon them and many of the prophets spoke of God's doing this to them for example in Isaiah chapter 32 where actually an image is that Isaiah uses a lot of a barren land becoming fruitful Isaiah uses his image many times it's spiritual in meaning but here we can see that it is because in Isaiah 32 verse 15 it says until the spirit is poured upon us from on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field and the fruitful field counted as a forest now God's gonna pour his spirit out on Israel that's what Isaiah is anticipating from God in Zechariah 12 10 Zechariah 12 10 often quoted by dispensationalists about some future thing in Zechariah 12 10 it says and I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication then they'll look on me whom they have pierced and they'll mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for his firstborn he's gonna pour his spirit out upon them and bring repentance they'll look upon Jesus just like you and I have remember what it says in in Hebrews says you know we do not yet see all things under but we see Jesus and in Hebrews 11 12 it says we need to run that race looking unto Jesus we look unto Jesus because we recognize him and believe in him they're gonna look unto Jesus too it says because he's gonna pour his spirit out upon them and of course these prophecies about the spirit being poured out and such are by dispensationalists interpreted as having a future fulfillment but one of those classic scriptures that everybody knows but they often don't associate with the same thing but it is is Joel chapter 2 it's very famous Joel 2 28 and following it shall come to pass afterward that I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons and your daughters will prophesy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions also on my men servants and on my maids servants I'll pour out my spirit in those days okay that's one of the many passages where God promises to brought his spirit on his people that's one that we have no doubt about its fulfillment however because in Acts chapter 2 when the day of Pentecost came and the people wonder what was going on Peter said this is that which was spoken of by the Prophet Joel and he quoted this passage in other words Peter said the day of Pentecost is the fulfillment of the promise God made to Israel that he would pour his spirit upon them after they had been returned to their land they did return to their land the nation was reorganized in 538 BC and then in 30 AD he did the other part he poured his spirit out upon them as he said he would do gave them new heart and new spirit in them this is the two phases of Messianic salvation well actually the second one is Messianic the first was just the return of the exiles from Babylon the second was the spirit being put out which is what the Messiah would do the Messiah brought the age of the Spirit Jesus stood up at the Feast of Tabernacles in John chapter 7 and verse 37 he says if anyone thirsts let him come unto me and drink and whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his bowels shall flow rivers of living water and verse 39 says and this he spoke concerning the Holy Spirit who is not yet given because Jesus is not yet glorified John 7 39 notice Jesus said anyone who believes in me will see the fulfillment of what the scriptures say about the Holy Spirit being poured out like living water you see John tells us that's about the Holy Spirit and it wasn't fulfilled when Jesus speaking because he hadn't been glorified yet but it was of course at Pentecost those promises in the Old Testament the outpouring of the Spirit are fulfilled in the outpouring of the Spirit lo and behold what a surprise and it happened at Pentecost now what's interesting is just sensationalist thing no all this is future there's gonna be a regathering of the Jews the promise I'm in the future and then he's gonna prod his spirit upon them Zechariah 12 10 they take to be about a future time after the church has been removed and near the end of the tribulation and and the and there's the spirit report on on Israel they're gonna come to Christ well I guess my question is if you have the prophecy in the Old Testament that God's gonna pour out his spirit on the inhabitants of Jerusalem then you have an axe chapter 2 a record of God pouring out his spirit on the inhabitants Jerusalem what warrant is there to say it hasn't been fulfilled what warrant is there to say and I'm gonna make it happen later in the future too well if God wants to he can more power to it I hope he does but he's given no biblical warrant for saying so he made the prophecy he fulfilled the prophecy a long time ago there are no promises after Pentecost that God's gonna prod his spirit on the Jews again the promises were made before Pentecost and they were fulfilled in Pentecost what I've tried to show you is that the promises about the restoration of Israel which so many people today are hanging their hats on with the expectation of Jesus is going to bring the Jews back to their land he's gonna pour out his spirit upon them we're gonna see a great revival among the Jews and in the tribulation or whatever in Israel in the last days well I guarantee you the verses we looked at are characteristic of all the verses on that subject you can look them all I encourage you to read the whole Testament you'll see these things are said more than the times we've looked at but they're not said differently than the way we've looked at it these promises are made they were made and they were fulfilled the first phase of bringing the Exiles back to the land was in 538 BC the second phase the point I was it was at Pentecost that was when the Messiah came and he again and he brought them into his kingdom through giving the spirit