THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL – JEREMIAH – PART 8 – Chapter 33:14 – THE SALVATION OF ALL ISRAEL – SOME PEOPLE DENY THEIR FUTURE!
WE ARE NOW COMING TO A VERY IMPORTANT SECTION THAT IS COMPREHENSIVE IN ITS SCOPE, AND ONE WE WILL CONSIDER CAREFULLY. The commentary in examining the verses is longer than normal.
Those who don’t support the restoration of Israel in line with Romans 11 and all the prophetic books of the Old Testament usually fail in one, or more, or in all areas I am going to list:
(1). They have been brought up in churches where there was either a scant interest in the Old Testament prophetic books; or in prophecy itself.
(2). They have never been exposed to the exegetical teaching of the bible. That creates ignorance in the consistency of scripture.
(3). They belong to groups (churches/denominations) strongly opposed to prophetic Israel. These include quite a large number of churches actually. I term that false teaching but I am opposed for saying that. I know that! I call only for fair examination of the scriptures, comparing scripture with scripture.
(4). Sadly some people show little interest in the Old Testament. After all, these scriptures were the inspired word of God used by the early Church for its first 200 years.
(5). It is a sad indictment on our education system where more and more people won’t take the time to examine or to study anything much. It is all a quick flit from one social media site to another on mobile/cell phones. We live in a rapidly changing society – and the decline of the church.
{{Jeremiah 33:14 “Behold, DAYS ARE COMING,” declares the LORD, “when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND THE HOUSE OF JUDAH.
Jeremiah 33:15 In those days and at that time I will cause A RIGHTEOUS BRANCH OF DAVID TO SPRING FORTH, and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.}}
A FULLER CONSIDERATION OF JEREMIAH 33:14 - BRITISH ISRAELISM AND REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY
Jeremiah 33:14 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”
This is an extremely important verse but not one in isolation, because the prophets speak frequently (hundreds and hundreds of times) about the blessings that lie ahead for the whole of Israel even though they were split into two kingdoms. Interestingly, Jeremiah writes a lot on the two parts of the division, but always teaching that they will come together as one with one blessing from God. They will be one nation united. This will be a fairly lengthy explanation for this verse.
Remember that nearly 130/40 or so years had passed from the time of Ephraim’s destruction until Jeremiah penned these words. I use Ephraim, Samaria, and Israel (the Northern Kingdom) interchangeably as the prophets do the same thing. It was the home originally of the 10 tribes after the split caused by a very stupid Rehoboam. Once Assyria conquered Ephraim that kingdom was dispersed, some of them going to Assyria, a good number integrating into Judah and the remainder dispersed throughout surrounding nations, but NOT as a group moving from one place to another.
Nebuchadnezzar oversaw the destruction of Judah/Jerusalem around 587 BC when he deported Jews to Babylon, but others were left in the land and yet others scattered through some neighbouring nations. Judah rebuilt itself and continued as Judah, (but in recent times became known as Israel) but in AD 70 Israel itself was savaged by the Romans and the people dispersed through the Roman Empire. Thus we have the great dispersions from the Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman invasions. These resulted in the diaspora, the scattering of God’s earthly people all over the earth.
All the Prophets speak of an ingathering of Israel in the days to come. We have covered this extensively so far in Isaiah and Jeremiah. The Lord recalls them from the four corners of the earth and the redeemed nations will assist in getting the Jewish saints, saved in the Tribulation, back to Israel/Jerusalem. I won’t revise all those passages already done, but will again quote one small passage – {{Isaiah 43:5-6 Do not fear for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth.”}} In fact the major references to the restoration of Israel, are to the time when God gathers His people, and the blessing He has prepared for them in the land.
Looking again at the verse we are considering – {{Jeremiah 33:14 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will fulfil the GOOD WORD which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.}}
Jeremiah states unequivocally that the two divisions of Israel's split will come together again, that is, Judah and Israel (the ones who used to live in Ephraim). Any doctrine that tries to identify either Israel or Judah as anything other than the descendants of Jacob, is false and actually insults God. God promised Abraham blessing to his descendants and this passed down through Isaac then Jacob, the children according the flesh. None of that has been revoked. God has the record of it all and will bring it to fruition.
The “good word” of verse 14 is the fulfilment of the promises all through the Major and Minor Prophets. These are the ones we have been considering in this entire study. The following verses we have already covered, but I quote them here as support for Jeremiah’s consistency in the amalgamation of the two split nations. They are to be taken at face value, the “house of Israel” being Samaria/Ephraim/Israel, and the “house of Judah” being the southern kingdom, known as Judah but also Israel later on as we see in the New Testament.
{{Jeremiah 3:18 In those days THE HOUSE OF JUDAH WILL WALK WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.
Jeremiah 31:27 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND THE HOUSE OF JUDAH with the seed of man and with the seed of beast, Jer 31:28 and it will come about that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy, and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH,}}
In this final reference Jeremiah prefers the united nation “Israel” – {{Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.}}
There is a most disgraceful error getting around whose demonic purpose is to excise God’s promises to Israel, His people. There are two errors known as British Israelism and Covenant Theology (I am stating it as I understand it from what the bible teaches. Those who disagree can gladly show me otherwise.) British Israelism puts forth that the dispersed Jews from the Northern Kingdom made their way to Britain, or to Britain through Germany, which they call Assyria. There is not the slightest thread of proof in history that this has happened, and a study of Britain in 700 BC and Germany too, would show the impossibility of that ever happening. As I said earlier in one of the commentaries I made, it falls into the same class of fairy-tale the Mormons believe about ancient America. The Samarian Jews did NOT form the British people! These advocates also like to include the United States as an offshoot of Britain. Herbert W Armstrong and The World Tomorrow and Tomorrow’s World hold to this pernicious teaching.
Replacement Theology is ungodly in my estimation. It takes the promises God gave to the Jews and transfers them to the Church. By whose authority is this done? Certainly not on the authority of the bible. “Has God cast His people away?” asked Paul in Romans. The answer is a double negative in Greek to emphasis the point. It means “Not in any way! No, no, never. Some believe “the house of Israel” is the Church, that the Church was adopted into Israel. Supersessionists hold that the universal Church has become God's true Israel and so Christians, whether Jew or Gentile, are the people of God. That might be so to them, but all the Old Testament prophecies on Israel’s restoration are never even considered. There is so much distorted, twisted logic and fantasy in that, that we wonder how people can follow this error.
I have tried to read considerably into the beliefs and what adherents say, but I find their explanations contradictory and at variance, as if few have a deeper hold on the points they embrace. IT IS NOT MY PURPOSE TO ARGUE THESE THINGS. I FIND THAT UNPROFITABLE LIKE CALVANISM AND ARMINIANISM. I simply want to set out the promises to Israel.
God gave promises to Abraham and later through the prophets to the Jews, whether they were part of Samaria or Judah. They are the same promises, all for God’s earthly people. The Minor Prophets who lived in the Northern Kingdom, also are consistent with these very same restoration prophecies for their people. In other words, the Prophets of the Northern Kingdom, and those of the Southern Kingdom all are in perfect alignment. The Jews are of one heritage and have one destiny. Always remember ISRAEL is God’s EARTHLY people, and the CHURCH is God’s HEAVENLY people. They are distinctively different. The lines must not be blurred.
Ezekiel wrote this very important prophecy regarding the separate kingdoms, Ephraim (or Samaria or Israel) and Judah BUT he lived about 140 years AFTER the fall of the Northern Kingdom so this prophecy has nothing to do with the return from the Babylonian captivity.
{{Ezekiel 37:15-17 The word of the LORD came again to me saying, “And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, ‘For JUDAH and for the sons of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of EPHRAIM and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ “THEN JOIN THEM for yourself one to another INTO ONE STICK, that they may become one in your hand,
Ezekiel 37:18-20 and when the sons of your people speak to you saying, ‘Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?’ say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of EPHRAIM, and the tribes of Israel, his companions, and I will put them with it, with the stick of JUDAH, AND MAKE THEM ONE STICK, and they will be one in My hand.”’ The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes,
Ezekiel 37:21-23 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “BEHOLD, I WILL TAKE THE SONS OF ISRAEL FROM AMONG THE NATIONS WHERE THEY HAVE GONE, AND I WILL GATHER THEM FROM EVERY SIDE AND BRING THEM INTO THEIR OWN LAND, AND I WILL MAKE THEM ONE NATION IN THE LAND, on the mountains of Israel and one king will be king for all of them AND THEY WILL NO LONGER BE TWO NATIONS, AND THEY WILL NO LONGER BE DIVIDED INTO TWO KINGDOMS. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions, but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them, and THEY WILL BE MY PEOPLE AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD.}}
That is a critical passage but the pivotal verse is 22. It is so clear I do not need to repeat it. God will gather and rejoin one people from one beginning with one destiny. THESE ARE JEWS, NOT A CLASS OF JEWS AND ANOTHER OF GENTILES BEING JOINED. What Rehoboam and Jereboam destroyed, God will heal and make one. Israel IS Israel, NEVER the Church. The Church IS the Church, NEVER Israel.
When it comes to the unique relationship between God and His earthly Israel, it should be no surprise that Satan would do everything he can to discredit Israel. He tried to have the Jews of Mordecai’s time exterminated. He tried to kill the infant Christ. Satan will distort God’s holy plan. That is why you have so many aberrations of scripture manifesting themselves. We must be careful. The terrible teaching that confuses and destroys Israel/Ephraim and Judah is part of this monstrosity. A friend sent me this material I found interesting and I quote:-
[[“The Mormons believe that the Mormon Church represents Ephraim, which will be rejoined with the Jews. This is why they have established a large centre in Jerusalem, on Mount Scopus. The Hasidim is not thrilled with their presence! The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they are the real twelve tribes of Israel (no Jews needed). British Israelism, a theology developed during the 19th century, claims that the Anglo/Irish citizens of Great Britain and the original United States are actually descendants from the lost tribes of Israel. Herbert W Armstrong and the WorldWide Church of God has picked up on Anglo-Israelism, as have other fringe groups including “Kingdom Identity” or “Christian Identity”.
The fellow who shot the children at the JCC in LA was with Christian Identity. Here's an excerpt from the Kingdom Identity web site: [[WE BELIEVE the White, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and kindred people to be God's true, literal Children of Israel. Only this race fulfils every detail of Biblical Prophecy and World History concerning Israel and continues in these latter days to be heirs and possessors of the Covenants, Prophecies, Promises and Blessings YHVH God made to Israel. This chosen seed line making up the "Christian Nations" (Genesis 35:11; Isaiah 62:2; Acts 11:26) of the earth stands far superior to all other peoples in their call as God's servant race (Isaiah 41:8, 44:21; Luke 1:54). Only these descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel scattered abroad (James 1:1; Deuteronomy 4:27; Jeremiah 31:10; John 11:52) have carried God's Word, the Bible, throughout the world.”]]
What of the supposed lost tribes? Dan Juster offers a reasonable solution to this mystery: All Israel is included in the Jewish people today. After the destruction of the northern kingdom, northerners joined the southerners during the revivals of Hezekiah and Josiah. 2 Chronicles 30:18 says that "many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun came to Jerusalem" for Passover. This event occurred sometime after the Assyrian invasion and the carrying away of Israel. In 2 Chronicles 34:9, it is recorded that Ephraim and Manasseh contributed to the rebuilding of the Temple by Josiah. While the Assyrians did destroy the kingdom of Israel, apparently not all were exiled.”]] (End of quote).
CONCLUSION: There are Jews in the world today (descendants of Jacob) who know not they are Jews by ancestry. Not all those who identify as Jews are DNA descendants of Jacob. There is coming a day when God will save, and later gather all those Jews back to Israel. They will get saved in the Tribulation, and restored in their homeland at the start of the Millennium. Gentiles have nothing to do with Jewish heritage or descent, because Christian Gentiles are a heavenly people and the Jews are the earthly people. British-Israelism and Replacement Theology with their roots in Augustine and his allegorical approach to the prophecies are fully unbiblical in Old Testament prophecies because they murder the glorious hope of Israel. God is not pleased. The prophetic books are literal. If one wants to hold to allegory, then perhaps Isaiah chapter 53 is nothing more than allegory.
The Old Testament prophets saw darkly and wrote the visions they saw and the word of the Lord that was revealed to them. Their narrative did not follow any sequential order and as I have said beforehand, often the timeframe skipped from the present to the future then maybe to the past and then right back to the future in only a few verses. It is necessary to discern these time jumps and if that is done, then the correct exegesis is arrived at. People who come up with strange ideas, even bizarre ones do not discern the scriptures because they are not familiar with them. Before one can be definitive about the prophecy contained in the Prophets, that one must be familiar with the prophecies as a whole and have studied them in great detail over years. Every part must be interlocked and arrived at in complete harmony.
