THE FUTURE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL - PART 6 - SCRIPTURES IN ISAIAH
We begin Part 6 and continue in the book of Isaiah looking at more scriptures dealing with the future restoration of Israel. I hope you can catch the great joy this will be to the Jews when the Lord calls His earthly people home when He returns at the Second Coming, to the land God gave Abraham forever (the extent of which they have never occupied, but they will after the Second Coming) – {{Genesis 15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:”}} And that was confirmed again – {{Exodus 23:31 “I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.”}}
And once again it was spoken by Joshua – {{Joshua 1:2-4 “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Josh 1:3 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. Josh 1:4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory.”}}
Let us continue with Isaiah.
{{Isaiah 51:1-3 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug: Isa 51:2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain. When he was one I called him, then I blessed him and multiplied him.” Isa 51:3 Indeed, the LORD will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places and her wilderness He will make like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and sound of a melody.”}}
An amazing passage. Those seeking righteousness are asked to look to their origins from which they were dug. That quarry was Abraham and Sarah and it is so clear in this passage it can only refer to the physical offspring from Abraham and Sarah, the Jews. It is an abuse of the passage to try to say this means the Church or Christians of the new covenant. Everything in these verses is Israel and that can’t be spiritualised away. It is a dishonour to do so, and an insult to intelligence that makes the passage try to do that.
Verse 3 is Israel in its restoration with all the glorious blessing, but verses 1 and 2 provide the pathway to that. Those who are saved in the Tribulation have pursued the path of righteousness through the response to the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom, but the remainder of verse 1 and verse 2 would indicate that the Jews must be aware of their heritage, that their nation is/was based on the faith of Abraham. It was to Abraham the promises were given, these ones which still await fulfilment. I am sure when the Lord again takes up His people there will be great awareness of Israel’s earthly blessings that come in their Kingdom. The Lord will comfort His people; they have been through great trial and persecution, but when at rest in Messiah’s Kingdom they will know comfort from all distress. That reference to, “when he was one” in verse 2 means when Abraham was but one man, and now many descendants; also when he was alone, one faithful man in all that generation (like Noah).
The big question that sometimes occupies my mind is this one, “There must be millions of people who are Jews – (true ethnic descendency from Abraham) in the sense they have descended through Abraham, or, if you like, from Jacob, but they do not know their ancestry, for it has been lost over the last 2700 years beginning with the dispersion from Samaria, the so-called matter of the 10 tribes. Will the Lord take these descendants of Abraham into account also in the future dealings with the Jews?” I think it might be the case.
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{{Isaiah 51:10-11 Was it not You who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over? Isa 51:11 so, the ransomed of the LORD will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”}}
See Isa 35 and verse 10. I suppose verse 11 is quite well known because of the Scripture in Song chorus, but this is what I think about it (MYSELF – my view, so don’t attack). Because it speaks of the returning Jewish saints at the start of the Millennium who are returning to Israel from all over the world, it therefore has no application whatever to the Church age. For that reason I think we should not sing it. It is my thought that its appeal lies in the catchy, syncopated off-beat tune associated with it. Moving on . . .
The purpose of verse 10 is to lay before the people how powerful and great God is, who can dry up the sea. If He can do that miracle, what is it then that He can bring home all the redeemed Jews after the Second Coming? They are scattered worldwide but the Lord takes over and the nations go out of their way to assist in every way. Verse 11 outlines the joy and banishment of sorrow for all those Jews who enter the Millennium. They will come singing/shouting and in great joy. Have you ever considered the joy these Jewish saints will have as they return to Israel after deliverance form the horrors of persecution in the Tribulation? They will be in the presence of the Lord with no more sorrow or tears. Great will be their blessing. God is mighty! Jehovah loves His people.
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{{Isaiah 52:4-6 Thus says the Lord GOD, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there, then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Isa 52:5 Now therefore, what do I have here,” declares the LORD, “seeing that My people have been taken away without cause?” Again the LORD declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long. Isa 52:6 Therefore My people shall know My name. Therefore IN THAT DAY I am the one who is speaking, ‘HERE I AM.’”
Isaiah 52:7-10 How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces PEACE and brings GOOD NEWS OF HAPPINESS, who announces SALVATION and says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isa 52:8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices. They shout joyfully together for they will see with their own eyes when the LORD restores Zion. Isa 52:9 Break forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem for the LORD has comforted His people. HE HAS REDEEMED JERUSALEM. Isa 52:10 The LORD has BARED HIS HOLY ARM In the sight of all the nations that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God.”}}
VERSES 4-5. These two verses outline the oppression of God’s people, the Jews, by the Gentile nations. This was true from Egypt to the present day. The Jews have been the most continually-oppressed people in all history. Jewish persecution is on the increase right now, seen in the United Nations and here in Australia, and in almost every western country. It is noted from all over that anti-Semitism is ugly and occurring all over. The use of the word “Assyrian” speaking about the conquest of Assyria over Samaria, has given rise to a few using “The Assyrian” as a term for the coming world leader/Antichrist. Isaiah lived not too long after the defeat of the Northern Kingdom so Assyria was fresh in his mind and Nebuchadnezzar was still some 200 years away.
VERSE 6. This is such a lovely verse. Jesus stands in the midst of Israel, His people, and announces, “Here I am,” prefaced by that key phrase, “in that day.” Messiah will not be aloof like most current day executives and authority figures. He is in the midst. It is said in verse 6 that His people will know His Name. That last word is singular, but we know from all of scripture that “IN THAT DAY” of Israel's restoration, the Lord will be known by many names. Every one of those names has its own special meaning for His precious, redeemed people. In that day the redeemed Jews will know Him as MESSIAH.
VERSES 7-10. The passage before us here is one of great hope and comfort for the Jews. Verse 7 begins with wonderful news. What is this news? It can be none other than Israel's great restoration, but God will not restore unrepentant and disbelieving people. The good news comes to Israel, and looked at in two ways. The first is the ministry of the 144 000 who will preach this good news of the Gospel of the Kingdom in the Tribulation, God’s coming earthly kingdom ruled by Messiah, mighty preachers proclaiming the coming Kingdom to be restored to Israel. See Rev chapter 7 and {{Matthew 24:14 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.”}}
Three aspects are given that will underlie conditions in this Kingdom – peace, good news of happiness, and salvation. Your God reigns! Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, will reign over “YOUR” people for this is being spoken to the Jews (more so to Israel). Another touch of deity is here because it says, “Your God”, but we know that is Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is God. I suppose in a broad sense these words could refer to the announcement BY Messiah but I am not inclined that way. I would say of the verse what I did about 51 verse 7. It does not refer to the Church age and I would choose not to sing it. In the song, “Your God reigns” has been changed to “Our God reigns” taking away its exact meaning and application to the Jews. It is only a guess but if you asked those in meetings where this chorus might be sung, “What do the words mean?” then I think 95% plus would have no idea of the context but would make it “Christian”. Sing what we know, not what is popular or promoted or is catchy in melody. A certain range of what is sung is incorrect.
VERSE 8 pictures the watchmen seeing the restoration that comes and they too announce it. Restoration for Zion! Verse 9 is all about comfort and redemption, and joyous singing heralds Israel's salvation. What was barren is now productive and the Lord comforts His people. Verse 10 speaks about the Lord baring His holy arm in the sight of all nations. This is a reference to the deliverance of the Jews at Armageddon when God’s mighty power is revealed from heaven by the King of Kings coming on the white horse of Revelation 19. He comes to deliver, then to reign. The world that is left, the sheep nations, will recognise the great deliverance at Armageddon.
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{{Isaiah 54:1-3 “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child. Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed for the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD. Isa 54:2 Enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs Isa 54:3 for you will spread abroad to the right and to the left and your descendants will possess nations, and they will resettle the desolate cities.”}}
These verses belong to the Millennial expansion. Israel was as if barren with no (proper) inheritance but they will joyfully sing, because enlargement of their land will come and they will spread out. There is a reference to the desolate one and the married woman. [[“The contrast is not between Zion and other cities, but between Zion’s present and her past: even now in her widowhood and barrenness she has more children than she had before her separation from her Husband.”]] Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
That ends PART 6. PART 7 WILL FOLLOW
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
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