16. Israel
ISRAEL Why did God choose Israel to be a special people unto Himself?
He says it is because He loved them, but just why He loved them He has not revealed. In Deuteronomy 7:6-8 He says: “For thou art a holy people (that is, a separate people people set apart) unto Jehovah thy God: Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. Jehovah did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because Jehovah loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had swom unto your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the handofPharaoh king of Egypt.” From this we leam that God loved them because He loved them. That is about as far as love can go in explaining itself. He loved them because He loved them; and it was because of His oath that He delivered them from slavery.
There is a most amazing passage in this connection in Deuteronomy 32:8-9, which we quote: “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For Jehovah’s portion is nis people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.”
God’s eternal purpose is to bless the world through Israel. Already He has done so in measure, for “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22), but the fullness of future blessing is indicated in the wondrous promise of Isaiah 27:6—”He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Did the Hebrew nation include all the descendants of Abraham (which would include that of the four sons by Keturah), or are the Hebrews and the descendants of Isaac, the chosen people, identical?
Only the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob, are called Hebrews in the Scriptures. Can all the promises to the Jew in the Old Testament be claimed by the Gentiles or the Church by faith?
There are many who do claim them as applying to the Gentiles and the Church, but there is no ground for such a claim. God is not through with Israel. His chosen people are at this present time in a place of rejection and darkness, but this is not to be forever. “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Romans 11:25-27). Will you please tell us how many feasts were held during one year in the Old Testament? In the calendar of feasts in Leviticus 23, seven feasts are mentioned. They were: Passover, Unleavened bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles. In the wilderness, before Israel had entered the land of promise, the order was different (see Exodus 23:16).
What did Jesus mean when He said, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34)?
He meant that the people of Israel who were the generation of Jacob, that is, his family, his descendants, should be preserved as a people until all these things should be fulfilled. The Greek word ‘genea’ is defined by the Lexicons as meaning “race, land, family, stock, breed.” Dr. Scofield points out “that the word is used in this sense here is sure because none of ‘these things,’ that is, the world-wide preaching of the Kingdom, the Great Tribulation, the return of the Lord in visible glory, and the regathering of the elect, occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, A. D. 70. The promise is, therefore, that the generation—nation, or family of Israel—will be preserved unto ‘these things’; a promise wonderfully fulfilled to this day” {Scofield Reference Bible).
1. The Church is spoken of as the Bride of Christ, to sit upon His throne and share the glorious reign of righteousness during the Millennial age. A Jewish lady remarked to a Christian: “We (the Jews) worship the FATHER,” as though that were the source for them of greater power than that of the Son. It made me think of what the prophet wrote of Israel when God said, “I have married you (Israel).” Is there any sense in which Israel, redeemed, will occupy the throne of God and supersede in power the position of the Church?
2. Then again: “Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us.” The Passover lamb and the lamb of atonement were two different things for Israel. Were the two merged in one for the Church on Calvary?
1. No. The Bride will occupy the highest possible place, on the throne with the King, ruling over the nations. Israel, however, will be exalted above the nations, “the head and not the tail.” Israel is the unfaithful wife of Jehovah, but she will be won back to her Husband. That, however, will in no wise affect the Church’s position as the Bride of the Lamb. A restored wife cannot be called either a bride or a virgin, both of which terms are applied to the Church (Ephesians 5:25-33; Revelation 21:2; Revelation 22:17; 2 Corinthians 11:2).
2. Yes; and even for Israel the Lamb of God was the Antitype of both the Old Testament types. Was there ever a lime in the history of the Israelites when they actually took possession of the entire “promised land”?
No. In the days of Solomon the land was put under tribute, perhaps in its entirety, but this by no means fulfills the promise of God with reference to Israel’s occupation of the whole land. This will be accomplished in connection with our Lord’s second advent.
What is meant by the tabernacle of David (Acts 15:16)? I read in the Old Testament about the tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon, but where is there such a thing as the tabernacle of David? The tabernacle of David is the same thing as the house of David, meaning his dynasty as king over Israel. The words of James in Acts 15:13-18 constitute one of the dispensational mountain peaks of Scripture. His comments were delivered at a meeting in Jerusalem, called for the purpose of deciding the relation of the Christian to the law of Moses. There it was decided that the Christian is free from the law. This speech of James cleared the atmosphere for those who were perplexed about the new thing which had come in, called the Church of God, and they wondered what had become of the promises of God concerning the Kingdom, which promises are so often found in the Old Testament Scriptures.
James showed that everything was proceeding according to the word of prophecy. God is now visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name, and after this the Lord “will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” James was quoting a passage from Amos 9:11-15 as an epitome or summary of “the words of the prophets” generally. As soon as the Church of God is completed the Lord will return, and He will set His hand again to the establishment of the throne of David and the fulfillment of all the prophecies concerning that throne.
Turning now to the Old Testament Scriptures you will find in Psalms 78:60-72 a most significant passage referring to our question. In verses 60 to 64 the sufferings of Israel under the chastening hand of God are recounted. And in verses 65 to 70 we read: ‘Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever. He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: from following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfullness of His hands.”
Then in Isaiah 16 the promise is written that “In mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and, seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness” (verse 5). In Isaiah 33:20-24 it is written: “Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes therefore shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick-the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” And finally there is the passage in Amos already referred to, chapter 9, verses 11-15: “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breeches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the nations, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the trader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.”
What is the significance of the fact that at each end of their wilderness experience the children of Israel passed through a body of water, first the Red Sea and afterward the Jordan river? Your question is new to me, and interesting. It may be that the passage through the Red Sea speaks of the death and burial and resurrection of Christ, and the believer’s death and burial and resurrection in Christ, delivering him from the penalty of sin; and that the passage through Jordan typifies the believer’s death to the world and his resurrection to a separated and fruitful life. It is a mistake to think of Canaan as a type of heaven. There was fighting in the promised land as well as in the wilderness, but the difference was that in the land there was generally triumph over the enemy instead of defeat as in the wilderness.
What is meant by “Salvation is of the Jews”? The words were spoken by our Lord as He taught the woman of Samaria, as related in the 4th chapter of John. The woman had raised a question touching the rival claims of Jews and Samaritans. “Our fathers,” said she, “worshiped in this mountain (Gerizim, Deuteronomy 27:12); and ye (Jews) say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Our Lord’s reply was: “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:20-24). The declaration that “salvation is of the Jews” suggests our immeasurable debt to Israel. All that we have worth having has come to us through the Jews. Our Bible is a Jewish Book, and our Savior is a Jewish Savior. Let us never forget it, nor let us forget to pray for God’s chosen people. It is true that for the present they are, as a nation, in the place of rejection; but “even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5), and some Jews are getting saved. As for the nation as such, “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25). The blindness is neither complete (it is only “in part”), nor is it final (it is only “until” the Church is completed). In due time, we know, God will again reveal Himself to His ancient covenant people. Already He has brought them back to their own land. He is now in the process of turning them unto Himself. Then shall come the universal blessing for which the world waits. “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (Isaiah 27:6; compare Jeremiah 31:31-34; Jeremiah 32:37-41). Scriptures on this point might be multiplied almost indefinitely.
What is meant by “the fullness of the Gentiles” inRomans 11:25?
It is an expression referring to the people to be gathered out from the Gentiles for the Lord’s name in this present dispensation (Acts 15:14). This people from among the Gentiles, being united with the remnant according to the election of grace gathered out from Israel, constitute the Church of God which is the body of Christ, “the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 4:13).
Believing Jews and Gentiles are thus united by the blood of Christ, “who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinance; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace” (Ephesians 2:14-15). When this body of Christ shall have been completed, then the fullness of the Gentiles will have come in. After this, God will take up Israel again, the Redeemer will return in His second coming, and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is His covenant unto them, when He shall take away their sins (Romans 11:25-27). And then will come the universal blessing for which the world waits. “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (Isaiah 27:6). When it is convenient I would like you to explainMark 7:27-28. The Syro-Phoenician woman was a Gentile, and the Lord Jesus had come to minister to Israel, and His rejection by Israel was not yet complete. The Jews were the “children” and the Gentiles had no more claim upon Him than the dogs of the street had upon the home of one who did not own them. See the fuller and parallel account of the incident in Matthew 15:21-28, and Dr. Scofield’s footnote, saying: “For the first time the rejected Son of David ministers to a Gentile. It is a precursive fulfillment of Matthew 12:18. Addressed by a Gentile as Son of David, He makes no reply, for a Gentile has no claim upon Him in that character (Matthew 2:2; Ephesians 2:12). Addressing Him as ‘Lord,’ she obtained an immediate answer. See Romans 10:12-13.” Will you kindly explain the meaning ofMatthew 15:26-27, where it speaks of the children’s bread. I heard it explained that wherever “the children’s bread” was mentioned in the Bible it meant healing. Is that true? Also, kindly state your views on divine healing and the anointing with oil. Is it for us Gentiles of today? The Canaanitish woman of Matthew 15:21-28 is a type of the Church of God. In response to her heart’s desire this woman is richly blessed with more than she asks or thinks, and by her example she teaches us a great lesson of humble faith. It will not be forgotten that this woman was a Gentile, and not only a Gentile, but a Canaanite, a representative of that race which was under God’s peculiar curse. ‘Thou shalt drive out the Canaanites”—this was the word to Israel upon their entering the land of Canaan. The promise of Zechariah 14:21, looking forward to the restored land and restored Temple worship, says, “In that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of hosts.” But grace is without any limit and overleaps all obstacles. Through Israel’s failure, this despised outcast received the blessing of the Lord that made her rich.
It is at first a most astonishing thing to see the Lord Jesus refusing to respond to this woman’s cry of need. It is so unlike Him, whose ears are always open to the slightest call upon His name. But He cannot answer her. She is calling upon Him as the Son of David; and so He is, but as such—as Son of David—He has nothing to do with a Canaanite.
‘Then came she and worshiped him saying, Lord, help me,” eta (verses 25-28).
She had now dropped the Jewish title, “Son of David”—this was His name as Israel’s King. “Lord, help me!” was her cry, and it is not in His heart to resist that call. The Bread of Life belonged first to the children of the household, that is, to the Jews. If it has come to the Gentiles, it is still true that “salvation is of the Jews,” and it is still for the Jews—”to the Jew first.” What we have received is just that which was first offered to the children and rejected by them, and it has fallen to us from the Master’s table. And even these crumbs are for those only who are willing to stoop down to take them—for those only who are ready to humble themselves and take the place of the dogs, deserving nothing, earning nothing, meriting nothing (see Romans 11:11-27).
Divine healing is of course always possible to God. Whenever He desires to heal, He is perfectly able to do so. And sometimes it is His plan to do so. The anointing with oil of James 5 is a symbolic picture of the work of the Holy Spirit. Whether it be direcdy applicable to present day Christians or not is a question upon which there is much difference of opinion among enlightened teachers. But it is always true that “the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” And wherever the prayer of faith is found God will surely answer it, and “raise him up.” But it ought to be said that the prayer of faith is a gift from God, and it cannot be prayed except He inspire it. When it is His will to heal He will give the prayer of faith, and when it is not His will to heal He will withhold it. The proper attitude of the believer is to desire the will of God above healing and above everything else. That is why our Lord Himself prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.” Is it actually stated in the Word of God that every Jew living at our Lord’s return will be converted and become a missionary like Paul?
It is not stated in the Word of God that every Jew living at the time of our Lord’s return will be converted and become a missionary like Paul. Before the Kingdom is actually set up there is to be a judgment of Israel, in which the rebels will be sifted out and prevented from entering into the land of Israel. The Scripture regarding this judgment is in Ezekiel 20:33-38, which reads:
“As I live, saidi the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”
It is true that in the Kingdom at the beginning of the millennial reign of our Lord all the Israelites included therein will be saved.
DoesRomans 11:25-26teach that every Jew will be saved?
No; but rather that the whole nation—all the Jews then living—will be turned to the Lord when the Kingdom is set up. It has no reference to Israelites who live in the meantime and reject the way of salvation, (read Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 9:6; Ezekiel 20:33-38).
You say of our Lord that “Israel should have known Him, for He fulfilled their Scriptures.” Is there not some confusion here? You certainly mean Judah when you say Israel, which the Bible does not. Israel never rejected the Savior, while Judah did.
It is true that the Bible sometimes makes a distinction between Judah and Israel. Indeed it very often does so. But it is not true that it always does so. It frequently uses the term “Israel” in a generic sense as including the whole nation—Judah, Benjamin, Levi and all the other tribes. Please note the following instances among others which you no doubt will find: In Matthew 8:10 our Lord said He had not found so great faith, “no, not in Israel.” In view of this, it would be difficult to substantiate your proposition that “Israel never rejected the Savior, while Judah did.” In Matthew 10:6 He sends His messengers only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Now, since their ministry was confined to the land of Palestine, it is evident that these lost sheep of the house of Israel were the people then residing in the land and known as Jews. You certainly would not contend that the messengers were to hunt out those who had joined Judah from the lost ten tribes. Their ministry was to all the Israelites then in the land, and certainly a Jew is an Israelite. In Luke 1:80 we read of John the Baptist that “the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.” According to your contention this should read “Judah” instead of “Israel,” since John the Baptist also confined his ministry to those who were then in the land. In John 1:31 the Baptist says of his Lord that he “knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.” But our Lord was made manifest only to the Israelites then in the land, whom you would insist upon calling Jews, and to whom you would deny this term “Israel.” In John 3:10 our Lord calls Nicodemus “a master of Israel,” though in verse 1 the record calls him “a ruler of the Jews.”
It is true that Judas Iscariot was the only representative of the tribe of Judah among the apostles, and it is significant that it was he who sold his Master (also of the tribe of Judah) to His enemies, and it is also probably true that we ought to be more careful in making the distinction to which you refer. And yet I think you will agree that the distinction is not always made even in the Scriptures.
What do you think about the Jews’ salvation (a)—as individuals; (b)—as a people? The Scriptures teach that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. As individuals, Jews are to be saved through the Gospel the same as Gentiles; as a nation, the people of Israel are set aside for the time being, “until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” This is the same as saying, until the Church, which is the body of Christ, is completed. When that will be, no man can tell. It may be at any moment that the Church will be completed and be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
What is the significance of the “woman in travail” inMicah 4:10?
It is Israel, the “daughter of Zion,” as the verse says. The people of Israel are today “like a woman in travail,” and because of their rejection of their Messiah nearly 2,000 years ago they are now given up to this suffering “until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth” (Micah 5:3). “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25-27). The full number of Gentiles to make the church complete must be saved before this blindness is removed. In due time this will be accomplished, as is shown in Revelation 12:1-6, where the woman “travailing in birth” is Israel, and the “man child” is Christ, including “the church which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). All this means that there is a real and intimate relation between Israel’s present sufferings and the building up of the church. It is a mystery, but it is no less real for that.
Some time, if convenient, will you please state when you think the “saved of Israel” arise from the dead? Would that be at the Rapture along with “the dead in Christ” or could it be inDaniel 12:1-2? I have never found any statement concerning it.
Whether Daniel 12:1-2 refers to a separate resurrection for Israel is a question often discussed, but never yet fully settled. But that every saved Israelite, dead and living, will participate in the Rapture is beyond reasonable question. The Rapture includes all those who “sleep in Jesus” or “the dead in Christ” along with all living believers. Is it true that there is a future separate judgment for the people of Israel?
Yes. This judgment is described in Ezekiel 20:33-38. We quote from the American Standard Revised Version: As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with wrath poured out, will I be king over you: and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with wrath poured out: and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face. Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, saith the Lord Jehovah. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. In your book,Israel—-Jehovah’s Covenant People,page 69, you state, “The Church can never be caught up to her Lord until this elect Jewish Remnant is brought in.” Several of us are mystified as to that statement. We had thought the Bible teaches that this Remnant shall be saved when our Lord delivers them at Armageddon. Of course Jewish believers entering the Church will be in the “Rapture.” Why then do you indicate that this event will be dependent on, or rather, delayed by, them?
If you will read again the statement on page 69 of Israel—Jehovah’s Covenant People you will see that the remnant referred to is the present remnant: “at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5). This present time remnant is being added to the people being gathered out from the Gentiles for His name, and these will become one new man in Christ, constituting the Church, which is His body. This remnant must be gathered out, and the Church must be completed before the Rapture can take place. It seems to me that the statement is perfectly clear.
DoesRevelation 7:4-8mean that only 144,000 people will go to Heaven?
It doesn’t say anything about going to Heaven. This Scripture describes certain ones who are sealed out of the tribes of Israel and certainly they are saved, but whether they themselves will go to Heaven is a question, for the future home of the people of Israel is, as I believe, the restored earth. To what extent does the tribe of Simeon figure in the kingdom of Israel as divided? Geographically they were located south of the kingdom of Judah, and they do not seem to be mentioned in the history if they belonged with the ten tribes of Israel. The matter is in doubt. Smith’s Bible Dictionary says: “What part Simeon took at the time of the division of the kingdom we are not told. The only thing which can be interpreted into a trace of its having taken any part with the northern kingdom are the two casual notices of 2 Chronicles 15:9; 2 Chronicles 34:6, which appear to imply the presence of Simeonites there in the reigns of Asa and Josiah. On the other hand the definite statement of 1 Chronicles 4:41-43 proves that at that time there were still some of them remaining in the original seat of the tribe, and actuated by all the warlike lawless spirit of their progenitor. Simeon is named by Ezekiel (48:25), and the author of the Book of the Revelation (7:7) in their catalogues of the restoration of Israel.”
In1 Kings 12:20we read, “There was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.” Now, Benjamin followed the house of David. How is that explained? In 1 Kings 11:29-32 the prophet Ahijah rends Jeroboam’s new garment, and instructs him to take ten of the pieces, signifying by this (verse 31) that God would give ten tribes to him. Judah and Benjamin answer to the two remaining pieces of the rent garment. That Benjamin remained with Judah is shown by such passages as 1 Kings 12:21-23 and 2 Chronicles 11:12. These two tribes were so closely united that in the passage you mention they are regarded as one. The tribe of Levi adhered to the house of David (2 Chronicles 11:13-14), and many from other tribes were also included in Judah (1 Kings 12:17; 2 Chronicles 15:9), but it was a matter of choice with these.
I know that the history of Joseph is a wonderful prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ; but I do not understand Genesis 45. What is its prophetic meaning, especially verses 1-4? This is the point of transition between Joseph and Benjamin as a double or joint type of Christ. I again quote Dr. Scofield: “It is important to observe that Benjamin now becomes prominent. Joseph is peculiarly the type of Christ in His first advent, rejection, death, resurrection, and present exaltation among the Gentiles, but unrecognized of Israel. As the greater Benjamin, ‘Son of sorrow,’ but also ‘Son of my right hand’ (Genesis 35:18), He is to be revealed in power in the Kingdom. It is then, and not till then, that Israel is to be restored and converted. Typically, Genesis 45:1-2 anticipates the revelation prophetically described, Ezekiel 20:33-36; Hosea 2:14-23, at which time the Benjamin type of Christ will be fulfilled.” Are the Jews who will be living at the time of the Great Tribulation to be the lost tribes of Israel? The “lost tribes of Israel” are the ten tribes taken away in the Assyrian captivity in the days of King Hoshea of Samaria. These ten tribes have never returned and we do not know where they are. It is certain, however, that there is a remnant of them living somewhere, and they are, of course, known to God, and they are to be brought back and located as tribes in the land during the Millennium. See Ezekiel, chapters 37,47 and 48. Are the words “Israel” and “Jew” used interchangeably in Scripture? I have recently read that the ten tribes have completely lost their identity in the nations, and that the only Jews known today are from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Is this correct?
“Israel” and “Jew” are sometimes used interchangeably in the Scripture and sometimes there is a distinction. Strictly speaking, “Jew” is a religious word, having to do with Judaism as a religious system. But the word is not always used, even in Scripture, in that strict sense. In 1 Corinthians 10:32 the whole human race is divided into three classes, Jews, Gentiles and Christians, in which case the Jews certainly include all of Israel who have not become Christians. For certainly no Israelite is a Gentile. But the teaching of Scripture is perfectly clear that the twelve tribes of Israel as such are to be gathered back to their own land, which is to be allocated among them, as tribes, in the Millennial Kingdom. See Ezekiel 48:1-7; Ezekiel 48:23-29. Also Jeremiah 23:5-8; Isaiah 11:12-13. Indeed there are many Scriptures on this subject which will leave no doubt in the minds of those who esteem the Word of God as the court of final appeal. Who constitute the Israel of God mentioned inGalatians 6:16? The answer is found in Romans 4:12. The Israel of God consists of those Israelites “who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham.” Again, in Romans 9:6-8 it is written that “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” Then, too, there is the statement of Romans 2:28-29 : “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” To speak of the Church as “the Israel of God” or as “Spiritual Israel” is an error. The “Spiritual Israel” is an Israel within Israel, just as in our day there is a true Church within the professing Church; but Israel and the Church should never be thought of as identical.
Please explainMatthew 24:32andEzekiel 36:34.
It is agreed among enlightened Bible scholars that the fig tree is a symbol of the nation of Israel. In Luke 21:24, the Gentile rule over Jerusalem is set forth as a sign of “the times of the Gentiles.” So in Matthew 24:32, in the parable of the fig tree, it is pointed out by our Lord that when the fig tree puts forth its leaves, that is, when Israel is aroused from her age-long slumber and begins to show signs of national reawakening and restoration, that will indicate that the end of the age is very near. The promise of Matthew 24:34 is that “this generation” (meaning the nation of Israel) “shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” That is, God will not suffer the nation to be destroyed or to cease to exist as a nation until all these promises be accomplished. The words of Ezekiel 36:34 refer to the time when the land of Palestine, which so long lay desolate, will again be made fruitful, for a testimony unto the Gentile nations “round about” (verses 35,36). Was not the return from the Babylonian captivity the fulfillment of the promises of Israel’s restoration?
No. Please read Ezekiel 39:25-28; Amos 9:13-15; Zechariah 8:20-23; Zechariah 14:1-9; Zechariah 14:16; Romans 2:1-6; Romans 2:13-15; Romans 2:25-27.
Why did Jesus curse the fig tree, or expect to find fruit on it, when we are told, “the time of figs was not yet” (Mark 11:12-14)? Is this the same incident that is recorded inMatthew 21:19?
I understand that the two accounts are parallel and record the same event. Dr. Scofield says that “fig trees which have retained their leaves through the winter usually have figs also. It was still too early for new leaves or fruit.” He also says that “the withered fig tree is a parabolic miracle concerning Israel (Luke 13:6-9). Compare Matthew 24:32-33, a prophecy that Israel shall again bud” (Scofield Reference Bible).
DoesActs 10:44-48mean that henceforth the Gentiles were to have the same blessings as the Jews?
Certainly. “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both (that is, Jew and Gentile) unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to you that were afar off (that is, the Gentiles), and to them that were nigh (that is, the Jews). For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:14-18; compare also Romans 4:9-12). Did the Jewish sacrifice of the lamb cease at the crucifixion in A.D. 30, or at the destruction of the temple by Titus in A.D. 70? Some teach that after Jesus, the Lamb of God, was slain, the sacrifice of the Passover lamb ceased at once.
I think it is clear from the Epistle to the Hebrews that the sacrifices in the Temple continued until the destruction of Jerusalem, which was only about six years afterthat Epistle was written See, for example, Hebrews 8:4-5; Hebrews 10:1-3; Hebrews 10:11. The Jewish sacrifice of the lamb in the celebration of the Passover had to cease when the Temple was destroyed, for that was the only place it could be offered under the Law. The Passover which is now celebrated every year by them is without any lamb, and this in itself is a graphic fulfillment of the prophecy in Hosea 3:4-5. Here it is declared that for many days the children of Israel would be “without a sacrifice.”
We hear much of the Jews these days going to rebuild and inhabit Jerusalem and set up a national government and rule their own land. Can we expect anything like this after readingLuke 21:24? Our Lord said, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Can Jerusalem prosper under the Jews before the Lord comes to reign over her?
Israel will never be sovereign in Jerusalem before Messiah’s return to reign. But the Scriptures teach that Antichrist will enter into covenant with the Jews for seven years—Daniel’s seventieth week—and that during the first half of that period they will build a temple in Jerusalem. Doubtless they will enjoy a period of prosperity under Antichrist’s rule until he breaks his covenant “in the midst of the week” and brings upon them the horrors of the Great Tribulation.
I will be very grateful if you will take the trouble to explain the need for Solomon to employ so many thousands of men for so long a time to complete two comparatively small houses—the temple and his own palace.
It is difficult for us in these days of modem machinery and high-priced labor to appreciate the circumstances under which Solomon’s building was done. There was no lack of labor, and he had many slaves. It was a gigantic task to hew the cedar and fir trees in the Lebanon mountains, bring them down to the sea, convey them in boats to Joppa, and then carry them up to Jerusalem. See 1 Kings 5:8-9; 2 Chronicles 3:16. Then let us remember that “the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building” (1 Kings 6:7). This means that there was much greater care taken with these stones and other parts of the building than is taken in these latter days of rush and turmoil. When and how was the temple of Zerubbabel destroyed, and when was Herod’s temple erected?
It was in Passover time in B.C. 21 or 20 that Herod announced his intention of restoring the temple. There is no record that the temple had been utterly destroyed, but it had grown old, and Herod’s plan was to rebuild it According to Josephus the whole edifice was pulled down to its foundation and the new building erected on an enlarged scale. But the ruins still exhibit in some parts what seem to be the foundations laid by Zerubbabel and beneath them the more massive substructions of Solomon. Herod’s temple itself was completed in about a year and a half, and the courts in about eight years, but further operations were carried on so slowly that the Jews reckoned forty-six years as the whole time consumed (John 2:20). Where do you find in the Bible that the temple used in Christ’s time was Herod’s temple?
There is no mention in the Bible of Herod’s temple under that name, but it is a matter of historic fact, which no one denies or doubts, that the temple standing during Christ’s time was actually built by Herod the Great, and not by the returned remnant. There was a temple built by the returned remnant. This was begun under Zerubbabel in 534 B.C., and after a long intermission was resumed in 520 B.C. and completed in 516 B.C. under Darius Hystaspes. This second temple was gradually removed by Herod as he proceeded with the building or rebuilding of a temple designed to rival the first rather than the second. This work was commenced in B.C. 21 or 20. The temple itself was finished in about a year and a half and the courts in 8 years, but the subsequent operations were carried on so dilatorily that the Jews reckoned 46 years as the whole time consumed (John 2:20). It was in the courts of this temple that Jesus preached and healed the sick. It caught fire during the siege of Jerusalem under Titus A.D. 70 and was burned to the ground.
Please explain why the Jews celebrate their New Year in September instead of January 1; also why they place the creation 243 years nearer than our calendar makes it.
We pass on the statement of The Encyclopedia Britannica that according to the Jewish Calendar the creation of man ...
... is considered to have taken place 3760 years and 3 months before the commencement of the Christian era. The year is lunisolar, and, according as it is ordinary or embolismic, consists of 12 or 13 lunar months, each of which has 29 or 30 days. Thus the duration of the ordinary year is 354 days, and that of the embolismic is 384 days. In either case, it is sometimes made a day more, and sometimes a day less, in order that certain festivals may fall on proper days of the week, for their due observance.... As the Greek and Roman methods of computing time were connected with certain pagan rites and observances which the Christians held in abhorrence, the latter began at an early period to imitate the Jews in reckoning their years from the supposed period of the creation of the world. The chronological elements on which both Jews and Christians founded their computations for determining this period were derived from the Old Testament narratives, which have been transmitted to us through three distinct channels. These are the Hebrew text of the Scriptures, the Samaritan text, and the Greek version known as the Septuagint. In respect of chronology, the three accounts are totally irreconcilable with each other, and no conclusive reason can be given for preferring any one of them to another....
Des Vignoles, in the preface to his Chronology of Sacred History, asserts that he collected upwards of200 different calculations, the shortest of which reckons only 3483 years between the creation of the world and the commencement of the vulgar era, and the longest 6984. The difference amounts to 35 centuries. It suffices, therefore, to point out that the so-called era of the creation of the world is a purely conventional and arbitrary epoch that, practically, it means the year 4004 B.C.—this being the date which, under the sanction of Archbishop Ussner’s opinion, has won its way, among its hundreds of competitors, into most general acceptance....
Before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt their year commenced at the autumnal equinox; but in order to solemnize the memory of their deliverance, the month of Nisan or Abib, in which that event took place, and which falls about the time of the vernal equinox, was afterwards regarded as the beginning of the ecclesiastical or legal year. In civil affairs, and in the regulation of the jubilees and sabbatical years, the Jews still adhere to the ancient year, which begins with the month Tisri, about the time of the autumnal equinox.”
What significance do you attach to the presence in Palestine today of millions of Jews? The return within the twentieth century of millions of Jews to Palestine is one of the most momentous of the signs of the times. God’s promise is written large in the Scriptures that one day the whole nation will return and will occupy all the land bounded by five great inland seas, the Mediterranean on the west, the Black Sea on the northwest, the Caspian Sea on the northeast, the Persian Gulf on the southeast and the Red Sea on the southwest. The land to be given to Israel reaches all the way back to the Euphrates River, and the people located in that land will be the most strategically located nation in the world. But the gift of the land, as set forth in an Abrahamic covenant in the twelfth, thirteenth, fifteenth and seventeenth chapters of Genesis, is modified by predictions of three dispossessions and restorations. Genesis 15:13-16; Jeremiah 25:11-12; Deuteronomy 28:62-65; Deuteronomy 30:1-3. Two of these dispossessions and restoration have already taken place. The nation is now in its third dispersion, from which it will be restore at the second coming of Christ to reign as King, according to God’s covenant to David (Deuteronomy 30:1-3; Jeremiah 23:5-8; Ezekiel 37:21-25; Luke 1:31-33; Acts 1:11; Acts 15:14-17; Revelation 22:20.) Who are the “Bene Israel”?
There is a tribe of approximately 15,000 people located in India called ‘The Bene Israel.” They claim to be descended from Jacob. They have in their language certain words and phrases of Hebrew origin, and they have many Jewish customs and manners, though they do not practice “Yibom”; that is, they do not marry the widow of a deceased brother to raise up seed unto him. The Jews generally do not recognize their claim as Jews. It is believed by some that “Bene Israel” belongs to some Indian tribe converted to Judaism in early times. Who or what is meant, inZephaniah 3:19, by “that which is lame, and, that which was driven away”?
Israel is meant, and the whole paragraph, beginning with the verse 14, is a picture of her future glory. I quote from the Revision:
“Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Jehovah hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy, the King of Israel, even Jehovah, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not fear evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not; O Zion, let not thy hands be slack. Jehovah thy God is in the midst of thee, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing. I will gather them that sorrow for the solemn assembly, who were of thee; to whom the burden upon her was a reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all them that afflict thee; and I will save that which is lame, and gather that which was driven away; and I will make them a praise and a name, whose shame hath been in all the earth. At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you; for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I bring back your captivity before your eyes, saith Jehovah.”
There are many similar promises in Scripture for the future glory of Israel. See, for example, Isaiah 62; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Zechariah 8:13-23; and Romans 11:25-27.