01.03.08. The Restoration of Israel
Part III. Chapter VIII. THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL
There is a fragment of Jewish legend that has floated down to us, which represents two venerable rabbis as musing among the ruins of Jerusalem after its destruction. One is giving way to unrestrained lamentation, saying: “Alas! alas! this is the end of all. Our beautiful city is no more, our Temple is laid waste, our brethren are driven away into captivity.” The other, with greater cheerfulness, replies: “True; but let us learn from the verity of God’s judgments, which we behold about us, the certainty of His mercies. He hath said, ‘I will destroy Jerusalem,’ and we see that He hath done it. But hath He not also said, ‘I will rebuild Jerusalem,’ and shall we not believe Him?” This is a correct method of reasoning, and one which we would commend to Gentile doctors as well as to Hebrew rabbis. A literal fulfillment of threatenings upon Israel argues a literal fulfillment of promises. The sorrowful and ill-starred history of the Jewish race since the dispersion has been the theme of constant reflection among thoughtful men. It is not merely the fact of their unparalleled sufferings which has arrested attention, but the evidence of a providential method, if we may say so, running through those sufferings, the appearance of their history having been woven at every point to the pattern of some hidden decree. Persecution which would have blotted out any other nation seems in their case to have been so blended and tempered with divine preservatives, that, like that symbol of their Jehovah, the burning bush, they present the astonishing spectacle of a nation always girdled about with the fires of judgment, but never consumed. Scattered like dust to the four winds, they have yet preserved their national unity as firm and compact as a rock; driven out of their land, and kept from it by an inexorable decree, they have beheld their supplanters guarding with scrupulous care their most sacred shrines, as though unconsciously waiting to surrender them back to them on the expiration of their lease; so utterly homeless that they have had no city or foot of land for centuries which they could call their own, they have, nevertheless, been the bankers of the world, as though destined always to have on deposit the wealth needful for restoring the desolations of Zion, if the hour for such restoration were to come. This mingling a mercy and misfortune in their career has constituted the Jewish race the paradox and miracle of modern history. It has awakened a constant curiosity and speculation in the minds of the thoughtful as to their future. Incomparably dark as has been their history for eighteen hundred years, men have been constrained to see in that darkness the shadow of Jehovah’s hand turned over them for their protection and preservation! And in the very sharpness of the judgments that have overtaken them, not a few have discerned the presage of a future glory far surpassing anything in the past. Have we thought what an undertone of hope there is even in the divine condemnations of the Jews? The single word “until” constitutes a kind of epitomized prophecy of Israel’s restoration. The picture which our Lord gives in the gospels of the destruction of the Holy City and the dispersion of the Jews is one of the darkest in all Scripture. What a massing of the shadows of doom; what a crowding together of successive chapters of woe! And yet, as we reach the middle of that sentence which summarizes whole centuries of divine retribution, “Jerusalem shall be trodden of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled,” we are conscious of a certain powerful relief from the strain that has been put upon us. “Until” —amid the dense surrounding darkness, this one word fairly gleams with the promise of a better future for the suffering race. It is only a hint, an intimation, that is given us; but it is so pregnant with the hidden light of hope, that it impels us instinctively to fix an end to the desolations of Zion. So in our Lord’s pathetic farewell to the Temple, after His rejection, there is the same refrain, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate;” and, “Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Until the time come, —here, certainly, is a flash of light upon the dark prediction of Israel’s desertion. It is but a word, again; but it is heavy with the burden of prophetic expectation. Next to the silence which says nothing contrary to our hope, the hint which barely breaks the silence in its favor is the most significant. And this is all we have here; but how much is in it! In St. Paul’s discourse upon the hardening and healing of his people, like phraseology occurs. “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” Thus, again and again, this word “until” is heard, like a cadence, in the solemn strain of the Divine threatening, in which Jehovah’s voice seems to drop, for a moment, from the stern tones of anger and imprecation, to those of His “old love” and tenderness. 1 But let it not be supposed that we have in the New Testament only inspired hints and implications concerning Israel’s restoration. The eleventh chapter of Romans is a compact and well-reasoned argument upon this theme, conducting us step by step from sorrowful premise to triumphant conclusion. “Hath God cast away His people!” is the question considered. “God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew,” is the conclusion reached. And this upon two grounds, —present fact and future fulfillment. Though the nation has been cut off, there is “a remnant, according to the election of grace,” who have believed on Christ to their salvation, and therefore have been preserved in the favor and fellowship of God; while, on the other hand, those remaining outside this remnant have been hardened: “the rest were blinded” But concerning this rejected majority, there is hope, because of the sure covenant of God. And though, like the branches of an olive tree, they have been broken off, we are told, first, that “God is able to graff them in again;” and, a little after, “How much more shall these which be natural branches be graffed into their own olive tree.” Not only possibility, but certainty, of Israel’s restoration is thus predicated. And the argument culminates in the grand conclusion, “And so all Israel shall be saved” —an elect and individual redemption at last succeeded by a national and complete redemption. And this full recovery, it will be observed, is in connection with the second coming of Christ in glory. As it is written: “There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” 2 A typical man is often set before us in Scripture for our clearer instruction in regard to great events. And such was Paul in relation to the final redemption of Israel. He says of himself, the “blasphemer and persecutor” of Christ: “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in Me first Christ Jesus might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern of those who should hereafter believe on Him unto eternal life,” —upotupwsin twn mellontwn pisteuein, —not an ensample to, but a sample of those who should afterwards believe unto salvation. By the manner of his conversion he was constituted a kind of first-fruits, or prototype, of the Jewish harvest. Whether or not in this passage he refers explicitly to his kinsmen according to the flesh, we find, at least, that the circumstances of his own new birth were so unique as to constitute a special type. For, enumerating those by whom the Lord was seen after His resurrection, he says: “And last of all, as unto one born out of due time, He appeared to me also.” By the visible, glorious manifestation of Christ to his eyes, was this Hebrew of the Hebrews smitten with conviction; by the indictment of the Redeemer’s personal wounds— “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutes” —was he brought to repentance and confession. When he “could not see for the glory of that light,” then was the veil taken away from his heart, so that he turned to the Lord in the profoundest penitence.
“Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him,” (Revelation 1:7, R.V.). If, with most expositors, we must understand “the tribes:” in this instance to mean the kindreds and peoples of the world, we cannot so interpret the Old Testament prophecy of which this is a quotation. In the profound mourning, so graphically pictured by Zechariah, in which “every family apart” is seen sobbing out an uncontrollable grief, the scene is, by general consent, in the Holy Land, and the subjects the house of Israel. And what has come to pass? The bounds of another prophetic “until” have been attained for Jerusalem. “Upon the land of my people” God threatened thorns and briers, forsaken palaces, and deserted towers, “until the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high,” (Isaiah 32:15). That time has now been reached, and the word which God spoke by the mouth of Zechariah is fulfilled: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me, whom they have pierced, and mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one is in bitterness for his firstborn,” (Zechariah 12:10). The point of departure at last becomes the point of return. The wounds of Jesus were the death sentence upon national Israel; and now they become the source of life to that long-rejected people. For immediately upon the prediction of their mourning for Him whom they pierced, it is added: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.”
Nationally or individually, there is but one way of salvation for Israel, —the way of the Cross; and one way of repentance, —a total reversal of attitude towards the Nazarene. The Jews cried out: “His blood be upon us and upon our children;” and for this whole age that blood has been crying out for vengeance against them. By their own repentance and faith must that precious offering be turned from the blood of imprecation to the blood of cleansing. “Not this man, but Barabbas,” they said, when the awful alternative was offered them; and Barabbas, the murderer and robber, has swayed them with his dagger, and pillaged them of their wealth, even unto this day. “Not Barabbas, but this man,” must be their penitent confession before this spoiling shall cease. “We have no king but Cæsar,” was their answer when the appeal was made to them, “Will you crucify your King?” And Cæsar after Cæsar has crucified, enslaved, and outraged them till, as no other, they have become a nation of sorrows and acquainted with grief. This fatal choice must also be reversed, and instead of it the acclamation be raised: “Hosanna to the Son of David! blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!” Indeed, recalling Christ’s prediction, — “Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” (Matthew 23:39), we must remember that He gives us the key-note of Israel’s repentance in these words. They are part of the Jewish “Hallel,” sung at the Passover. The strain which immediately precedes this benediction is: “The stone which the builders refused is become the Headstone of the corner. This is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it,” (Psalms 118:22-25). How glorious this song of Israel’s consummated restoration! And what a heightening of the dramatic effect of that lurid picture of the overthrow of mystical Babylon, that, amid the rejoicing of the Church over the downfall of her great enemy, this “Hallel” is heard four times breaking in, as though Israel, too, were joining to celebrate the fall of the last and bloodiest form of Cæsar’s kingdom, that from which both Christian and Jew have received their bitterest persecution! (Revelation 19:1, Revelation 19:3-4, Revelation 19:6) As to the exact order of events connected with Israel’s conversion and restoration, we must not speak too confidently. Some passages seem to make the Jews’ repentance the occasion of the Lord’s return, and others would appear to make the Lord’s return the occasion of their repentance. Of the first kind is Peter’s declaration to the crucifiers of Jesus: “Repent ye, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus, whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things,” (Acts 3:19-21, R.V.). Here the Saviour’s coming back is made contingent on the conversion of the Israelites; while, in the prophecy of Zechariah, that appearing in glory seems to be the producing cause of the Jews’ repentance. From all that we gather, we judge that both conclusions are true, —that Israel will regather in their land in unbelief, as they are now beginning to do; that they will be brought into great tribulation through the assaults of enemies coming against them in siege; that in their utmost extremity they will cry out for their Messiah; and “then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations.” His coming, however, will bring sorrow, as well as succor. “His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is over against Jerusalem on the east.” But those feet that bring deliverance will bring overwhelming conviction, as it is seen that they are the same that they once nailed to the cross. As He lifts up His hands for their help, “one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thy hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends,” (Zechariah 13:6; Zechariah 14:4). Thus while He comes to bring salvation to a repenting people, His coming will add repentance to repentance, as it brings home their terrible crime against their Messiah, so that “all the tribes of the land shall wail because of Him.” But what joy shall give place to that lamentation, after their sin is purged! Now shall long-prostrate Jerusalem hear the summons: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” The twin fact of Israel’s restoration to God’s favor is this of their restoration to their own land. To cite passages in proof of such restoration would be to quote whole chapters and entire books from the prophets, of whose writings this is the constant glowing burden. This great consummation seems destined to occur in two principal stages, elective and national. First, a few are represented as being brought upon ships from their scattered habitations (Isaiah 18:1-7:; Isaiah 60:9) “I will take you one of a city, and two of a family; and I will bring you to Zion,” (Jeremiah 3:14). These would appear to be a kind of first-fruits of the final restoration. And as sober judges of events see this gathering-out and gathering-home already taking place, it should be to us a sign and an earnest of the speedy realization of Israel’s complete hope. After this partial restoration, we are led to expect the final and full regathering, a national movement, like the Exodus from Egypt, only far surpassing that in glory and power, (Jeremiah 23:3-5; Jeremiah 31:8-9). This great restoration constitutes the true hope of the Israelite, as the return of the Lord does of the Christian. And it is very interesting to read, in the light of this fact, the closing chapters of the Old and of the New Testaments. In the one the promise is, “Behold, I will send you Elijah;” in the other, “Behold, I come quickly.” To the prepared people of His Church He comes, that He may receive them into the place which He has gone to prepare; to His long-disobedient people, Israel, He sends the prophet, that He may “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.” Accordingly, as for the Christian the communion is commemorative and anticipative, so is the Passover for the Jew. The Lord’s Supper, by its solemn formula, is ever repeating, “Till He come;” and the Passover, with its vacant seat for Elijah, is ever saying, “Till Israel return.” As the sprinkled blood and bitter herbs remind children and children’s children of the Hebrew household how the Lord brought their fathers out of Egypt, they also recall evermore Jehovah’s promises: “Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them; and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers,” (Jeremiah 16:14-15). Nothing that has yet occurred can be said to have fulfilled this prediction of “bringing them again into their own land.” If the contrary be affirmed, how can we explain the finality and perpetuity of this restoration as affirmed in several parallel texts? “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,” (Amos 9:15; Jeremiah 31:8-9; Ezekiel 34:1-31; Ezekiel 35:1-15; Ezekiel 36:1-38; Ezekiel 37:1-28). And if any ask, “How can this be, considering the wide apostasy and practical surrender of these promises by such vast numbers of Israelites?” we must answer: How can it fail to be, since Jehovah, who made this promise, cannot lie? As though anticipating this incredulity of men, He has said, concerning the time when He makes a new covenant with His people, “to forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more:” “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of Hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever. Thus saith the Lord: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord,” (Jeremiah 31:31-37). So great will be the glory of Israel’s recovery that the sorrow of His long rejection will seem as nought in comparison. Now will God comfort His people, saying: “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee,” (Isaiah 54:7). Instead of the sentence: “I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hands of her enemies,” to His people, resisting no longer, He will say: “For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord, that they might be unto Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory,” (Jeremiah 13:11). Not only shall their sun no more go down, but because the Lord is their sun, “the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound,” (Isaiah 30:26).
Endnotes:
1 “O then that I Might live, and see the olive bear Her proper branches, which now lie Scattered each where, And without root and sap decay, Cast by the husbandman away, And sure it is not far!
“For surely He Who loved the world so as to give His only Sonne to make us free, Whose Spirit, too, doth mourn and grieve To see man lost, will, for old love, From your dark hearts this veil remove.”
Henry Vaughan, 1654.
2 “The passage cannot be understood merely to denote the first appearance of Messiah as Isaiah 11:1-16; but, in any case, the eschatological appearance of Jehovah is also conjoined in the Messiah.” — Lange.