“For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.” (Jer 16:15, NKJV)
There is another grouping of Scriptures which are commonly used to justify the establishing of the modern state of Israel. The Scripture quoted above is one of them, but Scriptures with a similar theme – speaking of how God will change the destiny of scattered Israel and bring them back to “their land” – abound in the Old Testament: Isa 61:4; Jer 30:3 & 18; 31:23, 38-40; Ezek 16:53; 28:25; 36:33-36; 37:25-28; 39:25; Joel 3:1-2, amongst others.
One thing we need to agree upon about the exegesis and understanding of the Word of God – the Bible is grounded in unfolding revelation (Luke 24:27). (Read chapter 6 of Michael Cassidy’s Getting to the heart of things for a clear delineation of this.) Within the parameters of this wide guideline we need to understand the following: the New Testament interprets the Old Testament; the letters to the churches interpret the gospels; the sections of didactic teachings explain the symbolic sections; the universal explains the local; Scripture interprets Scripture. To state it aphoristically – the New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament, the Old Testament is illuminated in the New Testament.
Heb 1:1-2 makes it very clear: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.” On the mountain of transfiguration Moses (=the law) and Elijah (=the prophet) appeared. Simon Peter immediately wanted to start building a hut for the three of them, but God envelops them in the cloud of glory which surrounds Jesus Christ and then says “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matt 17:5). JESUS IS THE CULMINATION OF THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS – EVERYTHING HAD POINTED TO HIM, not to Israel or the Jews or the Christians of the end-times. In the past God had also spoken through the prophets, but they had only prophesied up until the coming of the Son. In Matt 11:13 Jesus spells it out in no uncertain terms – “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” John the Baptist was the last great figure of the Old Covenant, which was mainly about the Kingdom of Israel (Matt 11:11). Then the dispensation of the Kingdom of God came about.
Thus we for instance find that Isa 66:8 states, “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.” Does this point to the establishment of Israel in 1948? Not according to Heb 1:1 and Matt 11:13. It points to “a holy nation … who once were not a people but are now the people of God” (1 Pet 2:9-10).
It is this Israel which the prophets had prophesied about, those who come from spiritual bondage and exile and became the spiritual Israel, children of Abraham (Gal 3:7). “From the outset, not all Israelites of the flesh were Israelites of the spirit.” (Rom 9:6, Peterson-translation.)
The Zion which was giving birth (in Isa 66:8, quoted earlier) is not the secular political movement of Zionism; it is the Bride who has already arrived on the mountain of Zion (Heb 12:22). We will later return to Zion in more detail, but meanwhile have a look at what the following Scriptures have to say about it – Ps 2:6, 48:2, 132:13-14; Isa 12:6, 14:32, 28:16, 51:11 & 16, 59:20, 60:14; Joel 2:32; Gal 4:26 and Rev 14:1.
- Sela: Secure in your spirit this method of reading the Word. And please read all the Scriptures listed above J
- Read: Deut 13; Ezek 39; Micah 1
- Memorize Ezek 39:27
