How strange that we have not more clearly understood the words of God in the prophets. He cannot forget or break His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places: and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. (Isa. 2:3.) Thus, when we believe God means just what He says, every chapter and every verse beams with light.
That will be a wonderful moment when His earthly people shall see the wounds in His hands, and discover, to their utter amazement, that He whom they rejected is indeed their Messiah. They will say, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Bat he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isa. 53:4.) Yea, the whole chapter describes the astonishment of Israel, when they see their once crucified Jesus—Savior-Messiah. And this shall be “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion.” (Chap. 59:20.) What a day for Israel will that be; and what a day it is to a sin-burdened soul, when the enemy comes in like a flood, and our sins seem as if they would overwhelm the soul in everlasting despair. To us by faith the Spirit reveals the amazing fact, that He who made the heavens and the earth has been bruised for our iniquities, and raised again for our justification; and this gives peace and rest to our souls by faith. To Israel it will be by sight; they will see the One who bare their sins, the Redeemer come to Zion. What a discovery that will be! You may see what a spirit of grace and supplication God will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced. (See Zech. 12:10.) Do we believe this? The Jews will not believe it, may be, until the very moment they see Him. But is not this as true as that He was crucified for that nation?
If we understand the heavenly calling and hope of the church of God, we shall see that these Old Testament promises must refer to Israel, as they plainly say, and not to the church; and also that they must be yet future. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.” The following verses also prove this is literal Israel; for the Lord shall bring them “out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” (Jer. 23:5-8.)
Surely the future reign of Messiah is as certain as His past death, though Jerusalem shall, as foretold by the Lord, be trodden under foot, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. “Therefore fear thou not, Ο my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, Ο Israel: for I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.” (Jer. 30:10.) Yea, the Holy Spirit has been pleased to give chapter after chapter of promises to Israel of unconditional, sovereign blessing. Their very obedience flowed from the sovereign will of God, just as the first covenant was the test of their obedience, and therefore became proof of their guilt.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord; but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.....For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Jer. 31:31-34.) “Behold, I will gather them out of all countries whither I have driven them.... and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart, and one way,” &c. (Chap. 31:37-42.) Thus their future blessing and obedience depends on the faithfulness of God. Precious thought! He can never fail. What marvelous grace, after centuries of unbelief and rejection of Messiah! Do notice the repeated assurances of Jehovah. “I will.” “And I will cause the captivity of Judah, and the captivity of Israel, to return.... And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities,” &c. (Chap, 33:7-11.) “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.....In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely.” (Chap, 30:14-17.) The Lord? then, enters into the most solemn engagements to fulfill all these promises to Israel. Yet modern tradition—really unbelief—denies it all.
Now read Eze. 36:22-36. How entirely, in every particular, is Israel’s future restoration and blessing of God! Almost every sentence expresses the unconditional purpose and assurance of God. “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.....A new heart also will I give you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh..... And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” &c, &c.
What a revelation of God! What absolute security and assurance of Israel’s future blessing; with a new nature, born of God, cleansed by God, and the Holy Spirit given unto them. What a contrast is all this with man under law!
In chapter 37 all seems to be lost, and the nation is described under the figure of a valley full of dry bones. But when God shall put His Holy Spirit in them, they shall live. Just as God now quickens a sinner dead in trespasses and sins, and he lives; so then will God quicken Israel nationally. The explanation of this vision of dry bones is this: “Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms, any more at all.” And repeated assurances are given to the end of the chapter. Does it not become us to believe every word that God hath spoken thus by His prophets? If we allow Satan to suggest that God will not faithfully fulfill every word to Israel, how, then, can we be sure of our eternal redemption? Does it not rest solely on what God hath spoken? Often we find this very effect of unbelief—those who deny the certainty of God’s promises to Israel, seldom, if ever, enjoy the certainty of their own eternal redemption. We assure you, beloved reader, the word of God becomes another book when we implicitly believe it, because it is God speaking to us. We shall find a very striking subject revealed to us in Eze. 38-39; the coming up and the destruction of the last great enemy of Israel. There can be no question, also, that this enemy brings up the nations now covered by the Russian empire, and indicates others where that empire is spreading. It is also to be remarked that when this prophecy was given, and for many centuries after, there was no empire covering these countries. It has been pointed out by Hebrew scholars that the ancient translation of the Septuagint is correct. a Son of man, set thy face against Gog, and the land of Magog, Rhos, prince of Mesock and Thobel,” &c. Thus Rhos, or Russia, in modern language, the prince of Moscow and Tobolsk, with Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya, and all the northern nations under that empire, will come against Israel. They come like a storm, a cloud to cover the land. These vast armies, such as the world probably never saw gathered together before, shall fall, and be destroyed by mutual slaughter on the mountains of Israel. God says, “I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood: and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hail-stones, fire and brimstone.” The implements of war will serve seven years for fuel, and seven months will it take Israel to bury the dead. For a full description of the destruction and burial of the vast host, we should have to quote both these entire chapters. Thus the Eastern Question will never be ended until God has gathered Israel from all nations, and destroyed the power of their great enemy—Russia—on the mountains of the land of Israel. All this, however, must not be confounded with the great tribulation during the days foretold of this time of the end, the short period when the terrible Roman empire is restored, as described in the books of Daniel and the Revelation.
There is no thought, in a single text of scripture, that Israel as a nation will be blest and restored by the belief of the gospel. We shall find, in our next paper, that the glorious kingdom of God on earth will be assuredly introduced by terrible judgments. God will save them, not because they have believed, but when altogether shut up in unbelief, in the riches of His grace He will save them as objects of mercy alone. (Rom. 11:32.) “Ο the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.”
Is it not even so to you, beloved reader, if saved? Has not God taken you up as an object of mercy, even when you were in ignorance and unbelief? Has He not given you the higher—yea, the highest glory, in pure, unspeakable grace? Oh, think of the glory of that Holy One at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. Does He not say, “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory”? Nay, even more, He says, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17) Beloved fellow-believer, is not this unspeakable grace?