Paul says:
If
their fall is riches for the world, and
their failure riches for the Gentiles, how
much more their fullness! (Romans
11:12)
and
blindness
in part has happened to Israel until the
fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And
so all Israel will be saved. (Romans
11:25-26)
These are
wonderful, wonderful verses of hope and
assurance that even as God used something
negative in Israel's history, their rejection
and diminishing to offer the Gentiles to be
included and thus reconciled with the God of
Israel - as part of His people and the
Commonwealth of Israel, that even more so
Israel's coming fullness would result for this
planet earth in greater majestic consequence.
As Paul puts it - it will be as "life from the
dead."
It is this
very truth which the Apostle Paul seeks to
enlighten in this his epistle to the Romans
that after the full, preordained number of
Gentiles would be grafted into the tree and
commonwealth of Israel - thus God would return
in mercy to His people and graft tem back
again on their own tree where we Gentiles
believers by our faith and repentance find
ourselves situated. Thus Paul clearly states
for all of us who are of honest and humble
mind that, when the full number of Gentiles
has thus been grafted in, a time would come
that God would graft His own people back into
their own tree! That then the Kingdom would be
restored to Israel and ALL ISRAEL WOULD BE
SAVED! (see Acts 1:6 and Romans 11:25-26).
I believe,
as the Jews are obviously being gathered by
God from all the ends of the earth Who has
kept so His Word and Promise to them, that we
are on the very threshold of these happenings.
On one hand the completion of the numbers of
Gentiles saved and grafted by the mercies of
God into that one tree and commonwealth of
Israel and on the other hand the
restoration of the kingdom to Israel.
It was this
question which burned in the hearts of His
disciples when they asked the Lord just before
His departure, 'Will you at this time restore
the kingdom to Israel?' (Acts 1:6) The Lord
answered this question of His disciples by
stating that before there would be a
possibility of the kingdom being restored to
Israel - (the same point Paul made later in
his epistle to the Romans) that first the full
number of Gentiles needed to come in before
all Israel would be grafted back into their
own tree! We see by the massive aliyah or
immigration of the Jewish people to their land
and the reestablishment of their nation that
we are indeed on the threshold of tremendous
happenings in that land.
All the
promises of God to His people, strangely
enough, are linked to them being in the land
He promised them as an everlasting possession.
Strange because this is not so with us
Gentiles, we can be anywhere when God chooses
to extend His hand of grace to us. The Jewish
people however are being told again and again
to return to the land of their fathers and all
the prophecies of the Old Covenant prophets
tell the same story that it will be after
they will have returned to this their land
that God will pour out His Spirit upon them
and circumcise their heart and adopt them
again as His special and beloved people. This
message is clear and unmistakable as the
following scriptures show:
Therefore
prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the
Lord God: "Behold, O My people, I will
open your graves and cause you to come up
from your graves, and bring you into the
land of Israel. Then you shall know that I
am the Lord, when I have opened your
graves, O My people, and brought you up
from your graves. I will put My Spirit in
you, and you shall live, and I will place
you in your own land. Then you shall know
that I, the Lord, have spoken it and
performed it," says the Lord.' " (Ezekiel
37:12-14)
'Behold,
I will gather them out of all countries
where I have driven them in My anger, in
My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring
them back to this place, and I will cause
them to dwell safely. They shall be My
people, and I will be their God; then I
will give them one heart and one way, that
they may fear Me forever, for the good of
them and their children after them. And I
will make an everlasting covenant with
them, that I will not turn away from doing
them good; but I will put My fear in their
hearts so that they will not depart from
Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do
them good, and I will assuredly plant them
in this land, with all My heart and with
all My soul.' For thus says the Lord:
'Just as I have brought all this great
calamity on this people, so I will bring
on them all the good that I have promised
them.' (Jeremiah 32:37-42)
And I
will pour on the house of David and on the
inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of
grace and supplication; then they will
look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they
will mourn for Him as one mourns for his
only son, and grieve for Him as one
grieves for a firstborn. (Zechariah
12:10)
Thus
says the Lord who made you and formed you
from the womb, who will help you: 'Fear
not, O Jacob My servant; and you,
Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will
pour water on him who is thirsty, and
floods on the dry ground; I will pour My
Spirit on your descendants, and My
blessing on your offspring'. (Isaiah
44:2-3)
Now if these things are so we
can expect, as always was the case in
Israel's long history, that the Devil will
do everything possible to barricade and
thwart this God's wonderful, wonderful
destiny and purpose with His people. Even
as they were all nearly slaughtered by the
Nazis in that terrible holocaust that slew
two thirds of the Jewish people in Europe
just as Jeremiah had already prophesied:
"For
thus says the Lord: 'We have heard a
voice of trembling, of fear, and not
of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a
man is ever in labor with child? So
why do I see every man with his hands
on his loins like a woman in labor,
and all faces turned pale? Alas! For
that day is great, so that none is
like it; and it is the time of Jacob's
trouble, but he shall be saved out of
it. 'For it shall come to pass in that
day,' says the Lord of hosts, 'that I
will break his yoke from your neck,
and will burst your bonds; foreigners
shall no more enslave them. But they
shall serve the Lord their God, and
David their king, whom I will raise up
for them. Therefore do not fear, O My
servant Jacob,' says the Lord, 'nor be
dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will
save you from afar, and your seed from
the land of their captivity. Jacob
shall return, have rest and be quiet,
and no one shall make him afraid. For
I am with you,' says the Lord, 'to
save you; though I make a full end of
all nations where I have scattered
you, yet I will not make a complete
end of you. But I will correct you in
justice, and will not let you go
altogether unpunished.' (Jeremiah
30:5-11)
This
then was 'the day of Jacob's trouble'
prophesied to come upon them as these
verses CLEARLY show just before they
were to return to their land! And so
it was: The holocaust ended in the year
1945 and in May 1948, just 3 years after
this horrendous heartbreaking event, the
nation of Israel was born and proclaimed
in Israel!
But as
this verse also shows, Israel's troubles
are not yet over - they have had after
their return five wars and many acts of
inhumane and beastly terror to suffer, but
compared to the millions that died during
their years in the Diaspora -
the numbers however bad and painful have
dwindled to the very level mentioned in
this verse by Jeremiah: 'I will only
correct you in measure.' (Jeremiah 30:11)
This of course referring to the time after
Israel has come back to their land!
But the
battle certainly is not over yet. 'We
shall fight on Saturday and then on
Sunday' is the chant of many Muslims in
the Middle East each time that war breaks
out, meaning they will first fight and
kill the Jews and then the Christians! For
the true Muslim, this is part of his creed
that Allah wants him to be involved in
battle and jihad to submit THE WHOLE WORLD
TO THE TEACHINGS OF ISLAM: 'ISLAM' a word
which in itself means submission. The free
and often tolerant secular mindset of the
West is no match for this religious
fanaticism and often fails to understand
it in the mistaken notion that because
they in the West are generally liberal and
ready for cohabitation and tolerance that
the Muslims will repay this kindness and
tolerance in kind! But for a Muslim this
is impossible, at least if he is a good
Muslim. He or she must be involved
in the slaying or at least the submission
of all infidels till ISLAM will rule
supremely on the face of the earth in
every country and island. This is the
official creed of ISLAM and unless
officially abrogated will stand! Even if
now behind the veneer of compliance for
the time being in countries where they are
not yet in a position to command
allegiance and obedience to their ISLAMIC
laws and regulations, they sit still as
long as they will persevere in this their
religious intolerance to any other
religion, philosophy or Weltanschauung,
they will use the hospitality, liberalism
and tolerance for this their ultimate
Islamic goal - which is the submission of
the whole world to the teachings of ISLAM
- unless they will be challenged to reform
to be part of a pluralistic democratic
world.
It is
not possible to overemphasize the
seriousness of this challenge and Israel
at this moment more than any other nation
is suffering already for years the
consequences of this religious jihad and
intolerance against her very existence as
a sovereign Jewish democratic state, an
island in the midst of a huge Islamic sea,
filled with animosity and desire of
annihilation towards them.
Nevertheless,
God will cause His people again and again
to have the victory over the will of all
her joint enemies. For it is His honor
that is at stake. It is as He says through
His prophet Ezekiel not because Israel
herself is already so holy but because of
the greatness of His holy name that He
will fulfill His word to them:
So I
scattered them among the nations, and they
were dispersed throughout the countries; I
judged them according to their ways and
their deeds. When they came to the nations,
wherever they went, they profaned My holy
name--when they said of them, 'These are the
people of the Lord, and yet they have gone
out of His land.' But I had concern for My
holy name, which the house of Israel had
profaned among the nations wherever they
went. "Therefore say to the house of Israel,
'Thus says the Lord God: "I do not do this
for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My
holy name's sake, which you have profaned
among the nations wherever you went. And I
will sanctify My great name, which has been
profaned among the nations, which you have
profaned in their midst; and the nations
shall know that I am the Lord," says the
Lord God, "when I am hallowed in you before
their eyes. For I will take you from among
the nations, gather you out of all
countries, and bring you into your own land.
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and
you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from
all your filthiness and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit within you; I will take the heart of
stone out of your flesh and give you a heart
of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you
and cause you to walk in My statutes, and
you will keep My judgments and do them. Then
you shall dwell in the land that I gave to
your fathers; you shall be My people, and I
will be your God. I will deliver you from
all your uncleannesses. I will call for the
grain and multiply it, and bring no famine
upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of
your trees and the increase of your fields,
so that you need never again bear the
reproach of famine among the nations. Then
you will remember your evil ways and your
deeds that were not good; and you will
loathe yourselves in your own sight, for
your iniquities and your abominations. Not
for your sake do I do this," says the Lord
God, "let it be known to you. Be ashamed and
confounded for your own ways, O house of
Israel!" 'Thus says the Lord God: "On the
day that I cleanse you from all your
iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell
in the cities, and the ruins shall be
rebuilt. The desolate land shall be tilled
instead of lying desolate in the sight of
all who pass by. So they will say, 'This
land that was desolate has become like the
garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate,
and ruined cities are now fortified and
inhabited.' Then the nations which are left
all around you shall know that I, the Lord,
have rebuilt the ruined places and planted
what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken
it, and I will do it." (Ezekiel
36:16-36)
This same
theme is taken up by the Psalmist when he first
describes the rebelliousness and enmity of the
nations against God's plan with His chosen
people:
Why do
the nations rage, and the people plot a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set
themselves, and the rulers take counsel
together, against the Lord and against His
Anointed, saying, "Let us break their bonds
in pieces and cast away their cords from
us." (Psalm 2:1-3)
And then the
clear answer from God to that rebelliousness and
enmity of the nations:
He who
sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord
shall hold them in derision. Then He shall
speak to them in His wrath, and
distress them in His deep displeasure: "Yet
I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion."
(Psalm 2:4-6)
This then
will be the final outcome of all the present
strife and wars of the nations against Israel.
The King and Kingdom will be restored to Israel,
as planned and decreed by God all the time, and
the nations of the world better wake up to this
divinely set purpose! As the consequences of
their unwillingness to serve this heavenly
purpose will be their utter destruction! This is
what we can read again and again by mouth of
God's holy prophets:
For the
nation and kingdom which will not serve you
shall perish, and those nations shall be
utterly ruined. (Isaiah
60:12)
'Therefore
do not fear, O My servant Jacob,' says the
Lord, 'nor be dismayed, O Israel; for
behold, I will save you from afar, and your
seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob
shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no
one shall make him afraid. For I am with
you,' says the Lord, 'to save you; though I
make a full end of all nations where I have
scattered you, yet I will not make a
complete end of you. But I will correct you
in justice, and will not let you go
altogether unpunished.' (Jeremiah
30:10-11)
For it
is the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year
of recompense for the cause of Zion. (Isaiah 34:8)
Paul states
that in comparison to Israel's diminishing which
led to the fullness of the Gentiles being given
the opportunity, because of Israel's rejection,
to be included into God's people - Israel's
fullness will be like 'life from the dead' for
the whole planet, in other words - a turn of
events with enormous worldwide consequences.
Unbelievably great and all encompassing!
So great will
be the final outcome of Israel's restoration and
fullness that God calls upon the earth and the
heavens to rejoice when He with all His
heart and all His soul will plant them in His
land and comfort them double for all the
immense suffering and humiliation and
persecution they have gone through.
Behold,
I will gather them out of all countries
where I have driven them in My anger, in My
fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them
back to this place, and I will cause them to
dwell safely. They shall be My people, and I
will be their God; then I will give them one
heart and one way, that they may fear Me
forever, for the good of them and their
children after them. And I will make an
everlasting covenant with them, that I will
not turn away from doing them good; but I
will put My fear in their hearts so that
they will not depart from Me. Yes, I will
rejoice over them to do them good, and I
will assuredly plant them in this land, with
all My heart and with all My soul.' For thus
says the Lord: 'Just as I have brought all
this great calamity on this people, so I
will bring on them all the good that I have
promised them.' (Jeremiah
32:37-42)
'Behold,
I will bring it health and healing; I will
heal them and reveal to them the abundance
of peace and truth. And I will cause the
captives of Judah and the captives of Israel
to return, and will rebuild those places as
at the first. I will cleanse them from all
their iniquity by which they have sinned
against Me, and I will pardon all their
iniquities by which they have sinned and by
which they have transgressed against Me.
Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a
praise, and an honor before all nations of
the earth, who shall hear all the good that
I do to them; they shall fear and tremble
for all the goodness and all the prosperity
that I provide for it.' Thus says the Lord:
'Again there shall be heard in this
place--of which you say, "It is desolate,
without man and without beast"--in the
cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem
that are desolate, without man and without
inhabitant and without beast, the voice of
joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of
the bridegroom and the voice of the bride,
the voice of those who will say: "Praise the
Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His
mercy endures forever"-- and of those who
will bring the sacrifice of praise into the
house of the Lord. For I will cause the
captives of the land to return as at the
first,' says the Lord. (Jeremiah
33:6-11)
How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of
him who brings good news, who proclaims
peace, who brings glad tidings of good
things, who proclaims salvation, who says to
Zion, "Your God reigns!" Your watchmen shall
lift up their voices, with their voices they
shall sing together; for they shall see eye
to eye when the Lord brings back Zion. Break
forth into joy; sing together, you waste
places of Jerusalem! For the Lord has
comforted His people, He has redeemed
Jerusalem. The Lord has made bare His holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all
the ends of the earth shall see the
salvation of our God. Depart! Depart! Go out
from there, touch no unclean thing; go out
from the midst of her, be clean, you who
bear the vessels of the Lord. For you shall
not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for
the Lord will go before you, and the God of
Israel will be your rear guard. (Isaiah
52:7-12)
For
Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, and
for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until
her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The
Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and
all kings your glory. You shall be called by
a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will
name. You shall also be a crown of glory in
the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in
the hand of your God. You shall no longer be
termed Forsaken, nor shall your land any
more be termed Desolate; but you shall be
called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for
the Lord delights in you, and your land
shall be married. For as a young man marries
a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and
as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah
62:1-5)
Whereas
you have been forsaken and hated, so that no
one went through you, I will make you an
eternal excellence, a joy of many
generations. You shall drink the milk of the
Gentiles, and milk the breast of kings; you
shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Instead of bronze I will bring gold, instead
of iron I will bring silver, instead of
wood, bronze, and instead of stones, iron. I
will also make your officers peace, and your
magistrates righteousness. Violence shall no
longer be heard in your land, neither
wasting nor destruction within your borders;
but you shall call your walls Salvation, and
your gates Praise. (Isaiah
60:15-18)
In fact the
manifold passages concerning all these events
relating to Israel's coming fullness and
restoration are so numerous and full of
excitement that it is difficult to understand
the blindness, arrogance and subsequent lack of
support and excitement by nearly all the nations
of the world and sometimes even among those who
claim to believe these very scriptures as the
written Word of God. Paul already warns the
Gentile believers in his epistle to the Romans
'not to be arrogant' or 'wise in their own
conceits' but sadly - in spite of this Pauline
warning - many among the Christian believers
today fail to get excited and supportive about
Israel's coming restoration exactly because of
pride, blindness and self opinionatedness! How
rightfully Paul foresaw all this!
Maybe one of
the clearest and most known prophecies seen by
Ezekiel concerning the soon to come restoration
of Israel is found in Ezekiel 37 where the
prophet sees a valley of many dry bones come
miraculously alive and then after this physical
restoration blown upon and filled with the Holy
Spirit. It is a beautiful passage which shows
that what happened on the day of Pentecost - in
partial fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel -
was only a mere foreshadowing of what will soon
occur, not just to the 120 Jews who were
gathered then in the Upper Room but to the WHOLE
RESTORED HOUSE OF ISRAEL. The wind from the four
corners of the earth will now blow upon the
whole house of Israel, on all flesh, not just on
those few Jews who then were part of God's holy
remnant.
I believe it
is then that the Gentile and Jewish believers
TOGETHER will enter their greatest and most
powerful time in history doing the same works
and even greater as Jesus and His early
followers. It will be a tremendous time, truly
making the glory of the latter house greater
than that of the former days of the Acts of the
Apostles. It will be the time of restitution
of all things. The restitution of the
Temple, the restitution of the prophetic
Ministry of Moses and Elijah, the two end time
witnesses of God, the restitution of the tribes
of Israel, the restitution of Israel's final
borders, the restitution of the Ark and the Holy
Temple as described in the last eight chapters
of Ezekiel. It will be as Peter said after the
day of Pentecost to his Jewish people:
Repent
therefore and be converted, that your sins
may be blotted out, so that times of
refreshing may come from the presence of the
Lord, and that He may send Jesus, the
Messiah, who was preached to you before,
whom heaven must receive until
the times of restoration of all things,
which God has spoken by the mouth of all His
holy prophets since the world began. (Acts
3:19-21)
All this is
exemplified in the Revelation of John the
Apostle where we find the tribes restored, the
Temple and those who worship there - the
centrality of Jerusalem - not Rome, Utah,
Canterbury or Geneva, present day centers of the
churches - but Jerusalem and Israel with all
that belongs to it have become the focus point
again for this planet earth. It is as a great
bible teacher Lance Lambert one day remarked in
relation to the universalistic emphasis of most
of today's Christianity ignoring the central
geographical place of Jerusalem and Israel in
the end times: If Christians or theologians
maintain that since the coming of Christ and the
birth of the Church there is no more specific
biblical interest in the land or people of
Israel, why do we find in the book of Revelation
- definitely a book describing the end time
events - only or mainly references to God's land
and God's city? The two witnesses prophesy in
Jerusalem, not in any other worldly city. The
144 000 who follow the Lamb wherever He goes are
standing in Jerusalem on Mount Zion and so on!
Surely any honest reader of and believer of the
Bible must be willing to draw the only
conclusion possible: God will restore His people
and all things connected with Israel as is
clearly shown in the book of Revelation! And as
Paul puts it if their fall was riches for the
world - how much more their fullness?
Jan Willem
van der Hoeven, Director
International Christian Zionist Center