THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL

Both Zechariah 10 and Romans 11 are concerned with the redemption of Israel. Romans 11:1 starts with the question, has God cast off His people Israel?

Romans 11:2 answers the question and simply states that God has not cast off His people Israel. It says, “God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew.” God is still dealing in the fulfillment of His promises to Israel and He has not set them aside.

And as you progress through the Romans 11, Paul develops what God’s plan for Israel is. It culminates in verse 26 which says, “So all Israel shall be saved As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer who shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” Why is God going to fulfill that? “For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” And verse 29 says, “And the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.”

God is going to redeem the nation of Israel. In Isaiah 59:20-21, we read concerning this same prophecy, “And the redeemer shall come to Zion.” That was quoted in Romans 11. “And unto those who turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the Lord. My Spirit that is upon thee and My words which I have put in Thy mouth shall not depart out of Thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever.”

There is a forever message that will abide in Israel that culminates when the redeemer comes to Zion. The redeemer will come out of Zion. He will be Jewish. He will turn ungodliness away from Jacob. He will take away their sins. This all forms part of what Jeremiah calls the new covenant. Jeremiah 31:33 says, “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 it 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 sin no more.”

The primary indication of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 is related to Israel. The gentiles / church have already participated in the new covenant, had the law of God written in their hearts and had their iniquities removed. God has already done graciously in our behalf, but yet shall do the same to Israel.

Jesus returns will also be with the redemption of Israel in mind. When He comes, Israel will already have undergone a severe spiritual upheaval. They will have experienced political and economic devastation under Antichrist. They will have gone through social devastation because of the wars that they will have been involved in (eg Ezekiel 38-39). The hundred and forty four thousand in Revelation will have proclaimed the gospel. There will be a final period of national holocaust as the war of Armageddon rages.

Armageddon, that great war that occurs in the land of Israel in the end of the times, will sweep away any Jewish delusion that they could possibly bring the kingdom on their own. In the midst of the abomination of desolations, as Daniel calls it and Jesus reiterates it in Matthew 24, the whole nation is going to be brought to a place of really reexamining their spiritual priorities. And no question about it, many will respond to the gospel. The Holy Spirit will begin to prepare their hearts for the arrival of their Messiah.

And when Christ comes back, riding on a white horse with all the armies of heaven following Him, He slaughters all the armies of the world, He judges all the ungodly and He delivers Israel and gives Israel the Kingdom. But in addition to that, there will be a salvation as well. There will be a spiritual deliverance. Zechariah 12:10 says says, “I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication. And they shall look on Me whom they have pierced and mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son and be in bitterness for Him as one is in bitterness for His firstborn. And there shall be great mourning.” And at the end of verse 9 of 13, it says, “I will say it is My people and they shall say, The Lord is my God.”

In fact, in 13:6 it says, “And one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Your hands? And He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends.” They’ll recognize Him. And they’ll be saved.

And at that point in the words of Paul in Romans 11:23, they will be grafted back into the stock of blessing, back into the place of blessing. And they’ll enter into the Kingdom.

Ezekiel talks about how tragic it was in Israel’s history to be without a shepherd. It says in Ezekiel 34:6, “My sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill. Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth and none did search or seek them. Therefore ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As I live, saith the Lord God, surely because My flock became a prey and My flock became food to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd,” and He’s indicting the priests and the prophets here, “neither did My shepherd search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and fed not My flock. Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will require My flock at their hand and cause them to cease from feeding the flock, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore for I will deliver My flock from their mouth that they may not be food for them.”

But such a shepherd would come. Further in the chapter in verses 22 and 23, “Therefore will I save My flock, I will set up one shepherd over them and he shall feed them, even My servant David.” And, of course, He has in mind ultimately greater than David. “He shall feed them and he shall be their shepherd and I the Lord will be their God.” And then He closes by saying, “I the Lord have spoken it.”

Israel will make a pact with the Antichrist, according to Daniel 9:27. They will get engulfed in the Antichrist system before they’re pulled out of it. Another passage that indicates that Israel will indeed be brought into a belief in idols and so forth is in Matthew 24. “For many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.” Verse 23, “Then if any man shall say, Lo, here is Christ and there..believe it not for there shall arise false Christs, false prophets showing signs and wonders in so much if it were possible it would deceive the very elect.”

Paul in writing to the Thessalonians in chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians points up the fact that the Thessalonians need to be aware that Christ has not yet come because the apostasy hasn’t yet come, but when the apostasy does come, there will come lying signs and wonders, deceiving many.

Isaiah 66:4 says, “I also will choose their delusions and I will bring their fears on them because when I called, none did answer. When I spoke, they didn’t hear. But they did evil before My eyes and chose that in which I delighted not. I will choose their delusion,” And so God is going to allow the world to come into a delusion and Israel will be engulfed in it somehow and God in His wonderful grace will come in the midst of that delusion with a true shepherd to offer to them.

Christ is going to come in judgment using the nation Israel as His war horse. In Zechariah chapter 12:1-9 we see this in detail. Verse 9 says, “It will come to pass in that day, I’ll seek to destroy all the nations that come against Israel.” Chapter 14 of Zechariah tells us the very same thing.

Zechariah 10 Verse 5, “And they shall be like mighty men who tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight because the Lord is with them and the riders on horses shall be confounded and I will strengthen the house of Judah and I will save the house of Joseph,” those are just names for Israel, “and I will bring them again to place them in their land for I have mercy on them and they shall be as though I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God and will hear them and they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man.”

The world is going to go into a state of shock in the day when the King of Kings comes with His mighty people from Israel to win the great and final battle before the Kingdom. By the way, Jeremiah 32:37 prophesies this very same thing.

That’s God’s plan. “They shall be as though I had never cast them off.” I do not see how people can say God will never restore Israel or that they will never have a place in His final plan.

Zechariah 10:6, “And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them.” God will honour His promises to them.

Isaiah predicted joy in the Kingdom. “Rejoice with Jerusalem, be glad with her,” Isaiah 66:10, “all ye that love her, rejoice for joy with her all ye that mourn that ye may nurse and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation, that you may drink deeply and delighted with the abundance of her glory, for thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river and the glory of the nations like a flowing stream. Then shall you be nursed, you shall be born upon her sides and be dandled on her knees.” And the joy that she has will be transferred to us. “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And when you see this, your heart will rejoice and your bones will flourish like an herb and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward His servants.” They are all going to be together again as we see in Isaiah 5:26.

When Jesus comes at the end of the Tribulation, those Jews that are redeemed will not die. They will go into the Kingdom in physical bodies and they will occupy the earthly Kingdom in their physical form. And the earth will literally proliferate with children. In fact, in Zechariah 2:4 it says, “Jerusalem will be inhabited like a town without a wall because of the multitude of men in it.”

Now before that happens, verse 9 says God has another plan. “I’ll first will sow them among the peoples.” He has done that, hasn’t He? From 70 A.D. they were scattered and dispersed all over the world. He says, “I’ll sow them among the peoples and they’ll remember Me in far countries and they’ll return again, not alone, but with their children. And I’ll bring them again out of the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria…and those are just symbols of all the countries where they’re scattered…and I’ll bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.” That’s not just Zechariah’s thoughts. Isaiah Isaiah 54:1 and 49:20 writes about it as well.
“And thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up Mine hand to the nations and set up My standard to the peoples and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their queens thy nursing mothers,” and He moves into a second area and says not only will you be having children, but the whole world is going to be moving in and you’re going to have to make room for them.

“I will strengthen them in the Lord and they shall walk up and down in His name, saith the Lord.” That verse simply says there will be a total and complete spiritual revival.