Judah Today, All Israel Tomorrow
Clarence E. Lunden
Table of Contents
Foreword
After Abram's victory at Sodom he was given a night vision of a vast, open, starry heaven to signify the tremendous dimensions of God's counsels and promises concerning the then future nation of Israel, the land of Canaan, and all nations.
He was there given, in figure, to see the mighty sacrifice of Israel's Messiah, upon which the everlasting covenant rests.
Moses, by revelation, has given an abridged preview of the fall and final restitution of all Israel to their native land, which will take place forty centuries after the memorable night when God made promise to Abram, revealing His counsels, of which the following paper treats.
What is now taking place in Judah, since the year 1948, had been previously recorded in the Word of God. How near "Jacob's Trouble" must be! It will follow close upon the present premature effort of rehabilitation of Judah.
O happy day! when Jehovah will bring back the fruits of twenty centuries past, to be lavishly poured out upon His people Israel. Then it can be said, "Thou hast performed the truth unto Jacob and the mercy to Abraham."
Repatriation
In recent years there has been a movement by a maritime nation or nations friendly to Israel, (England or the United States), to repatriate her land, causing a steady stream of Jews, some prosperous, to return to Palestine.
Isa. 18:1,2
Jehovah has had no part in this premature effort but takes His rest as an Observer, not interfering until man's plans have been consummated.
Isa. 18:4
During the present period of repatriation a prosperous civilization patterned after the nations, not after the instruction of Jehovah, is being formed and is flourishing in Judah, but all efforts will end in tragic sorrow because Jehovah is left out and forgotten. Judah is entirely indifferent to Jehovah's merciful invitation to repent and "reason together" with Him. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."
Isa. 17:1-14 Isa. 1:18
Therefore, during the period called "Jacob's Trouble",* the land will be desolated by the political power of great nations and by envious neighbors, Edom taking the lead. The prophets describe this devastation, first, "the beginning of sorrows," the second stage as "the great tribulation," and the last, "consumption," all followed by the glorious deliverance of Israel.
Jer. 30:7 Isa. 18:7
(* In the days of his wanderings Israel was known as Jacob.)
Gen. 32:27,28
Isaiah's appraisal of Judah for the present day is that, in ignoring Jehovah, she is not as intelligent as the ox who knows his owner and the ass that eats from his master's crib. He tells us that there is no soundness in Judah from the sole of the foot to the head, and the wounds have not been bound up. It is the inner man which is corrupt.
Isa. 1:1-3
The Beginning of Sorrows
During the "beginning of sorrows" the land of Judah will have no want for gold or silver, there will be no end to her people's treasures, of horses and chariots there will be plenty, yet all this pride will be abased, and the glory of civilization and prosperity will wane. Their works and inventions, commerce, pleasant pictures, synagogues, sanctuary, and institutions will come under God's judgment, and money will become worthless, as idols of gold and silver are thrown to the moles and bats.
Isa. 2:7, ff.
Troubles of every kind will add to the bitterness of Judah's trials. Earthquakes, famine, and pestilence, with nation rising against nation, will plague the land. Lack of machinery will make labor become drudgery, the army will fall into disarray, and rulers, counselors, judges, skilled artisans, and orators will all fail, while women, children, and babes rule.
Matt. 24:6,7 Isa. 7:17-25 Isa. 3:1-4
Judgment will also enter the domestic, home circle, evidenced by a breakdown in fellowship between parents and children as they betray one another to authorities.
Necessities of life, even clothing, will be scarce. Sensual, feminine apparel and ornaments will disappear, and Judah, forsaken and desolate, will be left sitting on the ground.
Isa. 3:16-26
The women who will be at ease will be told to tremble and be troubled, the careless ones to strip themselves bare and gird sackcloth upon their loins. Sackcloth will acknowledge the hand of God upon them as they mourn.
Isa. 32:11
The prince of the Roman people will have made a seven-year protective covenant with Judah, but he will break it in the middle of the seven years, just before the beginning of the great tribulation.
Dan. 9:27
The Great Tribulation
During this great tribulation seven woes will close in upon beleaguered Judah, but some of the Jews will mock at these judgments. The expression, "His hand is stretched out still," in judgment, is repeated from time to time during the woes, for "iniquity will abound."
Isa. 5,9,10:1
A great apostasy will develop both among the Jews and the Gentiles which will be responsible for the formal setting up of idolatry, referred to as the abomination of desolation. Abomination will mean idolatry, and desolation will be from a desolator (the Assyrian), appointed by God. The setting up of idolatry by the apostates will cause the people of Judah to flee to the mountains to escape the impending attacks on the land from the armies of Assyria and her confederates who will be the surrounding nations.
Dan. 9:27 1260 days Matt. 24:16,17
The gospel of the kingdom will be preached by the believing Jewish remnant to all nations of the prophetic earth for a witness to them, also false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and miracles so that, if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived.
Rev. 14:6 Matt. 24:14 Matt. 24:24
As Zion is under extreme judgment, she will be plowed like a field, suggesting the inner turmoil of the soul. The Plowman will not plow continually, but His purpose is to prepare the ground, the heart, for the seed of repentance which is necessary if there is to be any blessing in the coming kingdom.
Rev. 9:5-10 Mic. 3:12 Isa. 28:23-29
There will be a humbling of position and pride at this time, with no distinctions between people and priest, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, taker of usury and giver of usury.
Isa. 24:2
Famine will necessitate primitive farming, as the people of Judah resort to digging a garden with a mattock and to raising a cow or sheep in order to survive. Most difficult conditions will force man to flee from one crisis to another. It will be as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned on the wall and a serpent bit him.
Isa. 4:21-25 Amos. 5:19
Throughout the whole earth a moral and physical defilement will prevail under the inhabitants, without hope or rest in unstable private family life as well as national public life.
Isa. 24:3-12
From Psa. 83 we see that Edom, the Ishmaelites, Moab, the Hagarenes, Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, the Philistines, and Tire will be the nations who will join with Asshur (Assyria), the king of the north, as the confederacy which will be Jehovah's army against His people in judgment. We notice that Edom (Esau) is at the head of this list of ten nations and will promote an attack upon Judah, his brother, because of perpetual, unjudged hatred, but the great Assyrian, Gog, will be the leader behind the confederacy. There will be two major attacks upon Judah, the last one on the ten tribes also.
Ps. 83 Ezek. 38:17 Zech. 14:1
Meanwhile the rulers of Judah will have hidden under falsehood and will have taken refuge in the lies of their king, the antichrist. He will have set aside all principles of law and order to make wickedness a law of the land. He will speak against God and set himself up as God. He will worship a strange god with gold and silver, selling the land for gain.
Isa. 28:14,15 Dan. 11:39
But the rulers will be warned and told to hear the word of God.
The Lord will remind them that He lays in Zion a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, who is their Messiah. He that believes will not make haste, nor will he be troubled.
Isa. 28:16
The imminent overflowing scourge of the Assyrian cannot be stopped by lies nor by the covenant made with the prince of Rome, the beast. It will be called a covenant with death, with hell, perhaps because it will be one of idolatry, the worship of the beast and the antichrist to take the place of God.
Isa. 28:16
Isaiah and other prophets describe impossible conditions as the people of Judah will experience the scourge or attack on their land. "Morning by morning...it shall be a vexation only to understand the report." "The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it."
Isa. 28:19-22
The prophet Hosea cries out, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. I will be thy king."
Hos. 13:9,10
"And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far?"
Isa. 10:3
The Consumption
"Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel."
Amos. 4:12
"O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation."
Isa. 10:5
This indignation, the Assyrian, will be God's judgment, or His rod, upon Judah, both in the first and last attack, until the whole work is performed in Zion. He will be sent against an hypocritical nation, the people of His wrath, to take the spoil and the prey while treading them in the mire of the streets.
Isa. 10:5 Isa. 10:12 Isa. 10:6
The prophets speak thus:
"You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
Amos 3:2,3
"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?"
"The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah."
Psa. 9:16
"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation...: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."
Dan. 12:1
"Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?"
Psa. 94:20
The king of the south, Egypt, and the king of the north, Assyria, shall attack Judah and her king, the antichrist, coming like a whirlwind. There will be chariots, horsemen, and many ships, as the Assyrian desolates Judah. He will continue to the south and will conquer his old enemy, Egypt, but tidings from the east and north will cause him to return with great fury. Having pitched his tents near Jerusalem, he shall come to his end and none shall come to help him.
Dan. 11:40-45
The Lord "will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city." Two-thirds of the inhabitants in all of the land shall be cut off; one-third shall remain.
Zech. 14:1,2 Matt. 24:40,41
"Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle."
Zech. 14:3
"Lord, how long?" "Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man,...,and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land."
Isa. 6:11,12
"Yet in it shall be a tenth,...: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." "Concerning the tithe...of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD."
Isa. 6:13 Lev. 27:32
"The LORD's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who bath appointed it."
Mic. 6:9
"I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early."
Hos. 5:15
Deliverance
Jerusalem will be full of stirs, all rulers having fled together. Instead of weeping, mourning, baldness, and girding with sackcloth, there will have been feasting and drinking of wine, saying, "Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die," and the Lord will call for death upon these apostates.
Isa. 22:2-14
The Lord will call again for the people to turn to Him with all their heart, because He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. He will turn back the evil that He purposed to do, and He will leave a blessing.
Joel 2:12-14
"Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."
Matt. 24:22
In response to the Lord's plea for their repentance, the silver trumpet of the congregation to summon them for mourning will be blown, and the priests and ministers of the Lord will weep between the porch and the altar saying, "Spare thy people, O LORD."
Num. 10:1-10 Joel 2:17
The Lord will send corn and wine and oil with which they shall be satisfied. No more will they be a reproach among the heathen.
Joel 2:19
The northern army will be driven off toward the East Sea. "He hath done great things."
Joel 2:20
Judah will be told to rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Besides providing the wheat, wine, and oil, He will restore to them the years that the locust had eaten, the locust meaning the great army sent among them, also the Lord will restore the fruits of all the years of captivity, since they left the land until their deliverance. When the people ask for rain, He will give them showers, with grass in the fields.
Joel 2:21 Zech. 10:1
As to the wicked prince of Israel, "And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it (the kingdom): and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him."
Ezek. 21:25-27
Shebna, antichrist, or the wicked prince, removed, the son of Hilkiah, Eliakim, will be Ruler instead. Jehovah shall lay upon Eliakim, Christ, the key of the house of David. He shall open, and no man shall shut.
Isa. 22:20-22
"There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots." "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David...,and I will build it as in the days of old."
Isa. 11:1 Amos 9:11
Leviathan, the beast, will have been destroyed, and Satan bound.
Rev. 19:11-21 Rev. 20:3
The times of the Gentiles will be ended, and a new age will begin.
Luke 21:24
Primary Restoration
In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah there was a restoration of Judah in rebuilding the temple and walls of Jerusalem, but the subject at hand, the primary restoration, refers to the future day, after the desolation of Judah by the Assyrian, when both the two and the ten tribes which have been separated for centuries will return and be established in their land, over two thousand years since they were taken captive. "Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel." They will again be one nation. This will be effected by the Lord Jesus as He plants His feet upon the Mount of Olives in that day.
Mic. 5:3
The Mount of Olives
The outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah shall be gathered from the far corners of the earth. The seven streams of Egypt will be dry so that men can go over dryshod, and a highway shall be there from Assyria for the return of Israel. "In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers (nations) have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion."
Isa. 11:10-16 Isa. 18:7
"The LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it."
Psa. 132:13,14
God has set his king upon his holy hill, Zion. The decree is declared, the Lord is God's Son. He is made higher than the kings of the earth.
Psa. 2:6,7 Psa. 89:27
After judgment has been poured out upon the nation, they will be saved on the basis of faith in the sacrifice of Christ. "He was bruised for our iniquities." Also, a fountain (of water) will be opened to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness, for cleansing. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
Isa. 53:5 Zech. 13:1 John 5:24
"Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee."
Jer. 10:6,7
When the Lord will come to the Mount of Olives, He will be seen only by the remnant who wait for Him, and in whom He will begin to set up His kingdom. The kingdom will be called "the kingdom of Israel," as it was two thousand years before, until Judah was taken captive.
Heb. 9:28 Act 1:11
"The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first," also Jerusalem shall have the first dominion. The children of Jacob will take root in their own land and blossom. "I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up."
Zech. 12:7 Mic. 4:8 Isa. 27:3,6 Amos 9:15
At this time all of the nations of the prophetic earth will return to their own respective lands, and it shall be said, "Behold the fig tree, and all the trees."
Isa. 13:14 Luke 21:29
The Lord speaks of Israel as a vineyard of red wine which He will keep from harm night and day.
Isa. 27:2
Return of the Ten Tribes
The Lord will call upon the ten tribes to return to Him, taking words, or expressing their guilt before Him. They shall come weeping. They shall answer, "Come, and let us return unto the LORD:...After two days (2000 years) will he revive us: in the third day (millennium) he will raise us up."
Hos. 14:1 Jer. 50:4 Hos. 6:1-3
From the time of their captivity, "for many days" the ten tribes will have been without rulers, sacrifices, or idols, but as they will be restored, they will return to the Lord their God and David their Messiah.
Hos. 3:4,5
These shall be brought out from the people where they have been scattered, and Jehovah will plead with them in the wilderness as He pleaded with their fathers when they first entered the land. Psa. 78 likens their return to their first coming into Canaan.
Ezek. 20:34-38
In the wilderness they shall pass under the rod and be brought into the bond of the new covenant. As a result of Jehovah's pleading face to face with the people, only one-tenth will enter into Jerusalem. That tenth shall be holy. The rebels will be purged out from among the remnant of faith because they will have refused to repent. These apostates will be delivered into the hands of strangers where judgment by the sword will be executed because they refused the mercy shown to them. They shall be judged at the border of Israel.
Ezek. 20:37 Isa. 6:13 Isa. 66:16,17 Ezek. 11:9,10
THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES
In the day of Israel's return to her land and to the Lord, she is likened to a valley of dry bones, a picture of national resurrection. The two tribes and the ten will be made into one nation, as two sticks are joined into one. They will not be divided again. David, one Shepherd, will be their King. They will have a new heart and a new spirit given them, one heart and one way, accepted with their sweet savor, resulting in showers of blessing.
Ezek. 37:1-5 Ezek. 37:15-24 Ezek. 36:26 Jer. 32:39 Ezek. 34:26
The Siege
"Ariel," or lioness of Jehovah, which is Israel, will be under the siege of all nations. The Lord will cause this final siege to surround His people in order to complete the full work in their souls, humbling them and taking away the pride which will remain, for there will still be the spirit of the Pharisee in them. They will not have learned as yet the spirit of dependence and obedience to Jehovah, but will be willing in the day of their final blessing and His power. They are told to enter into their chambers and shut their doors about them until the indignation is past.
Isa. 29:1 Isa. 26:20
In a period of forty-five days Israel will pass through deep testings, learning lessons which were never known before. "They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine."
Dan. 12:7-13 Dan. 12:11,12 Isa. 29:24
Thus, the result of the siege will teach the remnant the necessary inward instruction to make them willing in the day of Jehovah's power, the millennium.
Psa. 110:3
Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling to all who lay siege to it. The enemy will surely have remembered how Judah had been delivered at the last hour when the Lord saw that their power was gone and there was none shut up nor left.
Zech. 12:2 Deut. 32:36
The Lord will rebuke Israel for the rebellious spirit that desires to go to Egypt for help, and they will be told that their strength is to sit still. "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not."
Isa. 30:2 Isa. 30:15
In fear some do go down to Egypt for help not knowing that the enemy has already conquered Egypt. They will be reminded that the Egyptians are men and not God.
Isa. 32:1
The Lord will wait, patiently, and the siege will continue until Israel is subdued and He can have mercy upon them. "The bread of adversity and the water of affliction" will continue until their teachers are seen giving Jehovah's mind for them, so they will, learn the right way. "This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left."
Isa. 30:18 Isa. 30:20,21
We, as well as Israel, will have to learn that when danger or trial comes the Lord will deal with the enemy who will be as chaff before Him. The Lord will both deliver and preserve His people.
The Indignation Against Gog
The Assyrian had been sent as God's rod to punish Judah and then was repulsed, but he will seek to return to destroy Israel and will gather many nations under his power, but it will be to their utter destruction. They will gather at the valley of Jehoshaphat outside Jerusalem, multitudes of the heathen in the valley of decision, as a cloud to cover the land.
Joel 3:12
The Assyrian is proud, he does not stay at home, "he enlargeth his desire as hell" to conquer all nations, to heap unto him all peoples. "Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied." How true this is of Russia today, as she plans to conquer the world.
Hab. 2:5 Prov. 27:20
This will be the war to end all wars before the millennial day, the climax of the great day of God Almighty, and will decide the controversy of Zion. There the Lord will sit to judge all of the heathen round about.
Matt. 25:31-46
There seem to be two aspects of judgment brought together, that of the warring nations attacking Israel in company with Gog, and also a sessional judgment upon the living nations who have heard the gospel of the kingdom but have rejected it by mistreating the Lord's servants.
The Lord will be against Gog, the great Assyrian, the leader of the world rebellion against God, His Christ, and His people. Gog will say, "I will go up to the land of unwalled villages;..., that dwell safely,...To take a spoil, and to take a prey;...upon the people..., which have gotten cattle and goods."
Ezek. 38:3 Ezek. 38:11
Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer (Germany) and his bands, all the house of Togarmah (Armenia) of the north quarters and all his bands, with many other people will come down like a flood, with Gog, to destroy Israel, "the land brought back from the sword and gathered out of many people."
Ezek. 38:16
The nations of Psa. 83 will also be of the number with Gog, of whom the prophets have spoken in regard to the day of the Lord, the same company responsible for the first attack.
Ezek. 38:17
God's people are told to not be afraid of the Assyrian in this last attack, similar to that of Pharaoh at the Red Sea, for he will be turned back and destroyed.
Isa. 10:24,25
Before the attack a great valley will have been opened when the Mount of Olives slave in the midst to the east and west, and the people of Israel will flee from the Assyrian to this valley.
Zech. 14:4,5
The Lord will come with fire and sword to plead with all flesh, and the slain shall be many, apostate Jews and Gentiles together. Through the mercy of God some of both Jews and Gentiles will escape to be sent as missionaries to declare the gospel of the kingdom during the millennial day to those who have never heard nor have seen His glory of judgment.
Isa. 66:15,16 Isa. 66:18,19
When the whole work has been performed in the heart of Israel, the Lord will destroy the Assyrian who will fall on the mountains of Israel. Edom, the leader in promoting attacks against Israel, will be destroyed without a remnant, and his land will become the last battlefield of the great day of God Almighty. It will take seven months to bury the dead. The Philistines will also lose their land.
Isa. 10:12 Isa. 14:25 Obad. Ezek. 39:12 Isa. 14:29-32
The yoke of the Assyrian upon Israel will be removed forever.
"The name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger,...his lips are full of indignation."
Isa. 30:27
"Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger."
Hab. 3:12
He will "sift the nations with the sieve of vanity."
Isa. 30:28
"I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth."
Amos 9:9
God's glory in judgment upon the Assyrian and His glory in grace in restoring Israel will be manifested. "God came from Teman (Edom),...His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise." Judgment will then be past.
Isa. 63 Isa. 60 Hab. 3:3
"For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."
Hab. 2:14
After full deliverance, the hearts of the entire nation will be deeply touched, fully repented, and every family will weep apart. There will be individual mourning because they will remember their ways and will review Isa. 53 which will remind them of their blood-guiltiness, also the sins of youth. They cry "out of the depths," as they mourn.
Ezek. 20:43 Zech. 12:10-14 Psa. 25:7 Psa. 130
The ten tribes will ask the Lord, "What are these wounds in thine hands?" He will answer, "Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends."
Zech. 13:6
After mourning days are past, the barren woman Israel, who will then have more children than the married wife, will sing. As blessing will increase in the entire restored nation and death is swallowed up in victory, there will be a feast of fat things, joys never known before.
Isa. 54:1 2 Kings 8:6
The testimony of the true God, given to Israel in the past, will go out to all nations and peoples. All tears will be wiped away, the rebuke of His people gone forever.
Isa. 25
Israel had been told in Joel 2 that "afterward" or "thereupon" the Lord would pour out His Spirit, but after their being restored to Himself He will say, "I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel."
Ezek. 39:29
The Lord will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. He will put His law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and He will be their God, and they shall be His people. The new covenant in Israel will never be removed.
Jer. 31:31
Jews and Gentiles who are still on earth after the rapture of the Church, having heard and rejected the gospel of the grace of God in the present day, will experience none of the millennial blessing, but will be consigned to eternal punishment.
Psa. 9:17
The Millennial Kingdom
The kingdom, established by the Lord Himself, the Son of man, will have all other kingdoms subject to it. "And many people (nations) shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,...:and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem."
Isa. 2:2,3
Jehovah will use Israel as the means of blessing in the kingdom, also Israel will be the police force to maintain order among the nations. The Lord will make Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy.
Mic. 5:7,8
The "new heavens and a new earth" in the 1000-year millennial kingdom suggest a moral and physical change. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad...:and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God."
Isa. 65:17 Isa. 35:1,2
The present desert will be a place of habitation, needed to accommodate multitudes born and living through the 1000 years when there will be no death. "In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert."
Isa. 35:6
As to other changes, the habits and nature of all creatures except the serpent shall be transformed, so that even the lion and the lamb will lie down together, and the wolf and lamb shall feed together. Israel shall dwell safely in the wilderness and shall sleep in the woods. The people shall build houses and inhabit them, they shall plant and eat the fruits, the eyes of the blind shall see, the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the lame shall leap like a hart. "The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof." "And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever."
Isa. 65:22 Ezek. 34:25 Zech. 8:5 Isa. 32:15-18
ALL ISRAEL AT HOME AT LAST
"As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest; so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name."
Isa. 63:14
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
"Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins."
Isa. 40:1,2
"O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
"Behold the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."
Isa. 40:9-11
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
"He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
Isa. 40:28-31
Full restoration of Israel will include their worship renewed as well, in contrast to former wilderness days and the kingdom of David when they did not understand the law and ordinances except obedience to instructions. Their intelligence in the ways of God was not nurtured.
After they have been restored, they will understand something of God's government, mercy, and grace, and the temple, sacrifices, and ordinances will have a new meaning as to the tremendous blessing and at what a cost to their Messiah, a result of His death. They will learn what is holy and what is profane.
Ezekiel gives a description of the temple and its enclosure.
The prince or vice-regent will probably be from the line of David, and the sons of Zadok, the priests, will keep the charge of the Lord in connection with the sacrifices and worship, receiving special instruction from Jehovah.
The people will be shown how to divide the land, the original names of the tribes will be revived, and the name of the city from that day shall be "The LORD is there."
Ezek. 40-48
Courtesy of BibleTruthPublishers.com. Most likely this text has not been proofread. Any suggestions for spelling or punctuation corrections would be warmly received. Please email them to: BTPmail@bibletruthpublishers.com.