NOTE: This is the last (sort of) installment of this series which, as I've said before is based loosely on a book I almost wrote which is based loosely off a class I almost taught. This piece is lengthier than most, but I think contains relevant information. Part one is here.
"Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;" Romans 9:4
Here at the end of verse 4 we find "promises" Many of these promises overlap or are
distinctly attached to the covenants.
Almost all heresy taught in modern times finds its roots in people to
whom the covenants were not made wanting to claim the promises associated with
those promises. By way of illustration,
if I enter into a rental agreement with a man to rent his property, that is a
covenant of sorts. The particulars of
the covenant may vary depending on our negotiations, but the nature of it is
still the same. The promise of that
covenant is that, if I meet the conditions of that covenant, I am able to
benefit from the property. Now imagine
that somebody who didn’t sign that lease suddenly decided to start sleeping in
the apartment. As someone with whom the
covenant was not made, they have no claim of the benefits of that
covenant. That same landlord may make a
separate agreement with a separate individual regarding a separate piece of
property. The fact that we both have a lease with the same individual does not
mean we have the same lease or even derive the same benefits from that
lease. The reader misses this point at
their own peril.
Promise #1-The Land
Obviously this dovetails with the land
covenant. This piece of property is defined in Genesis 15:7 as “this land”. It is a real, temporal
place located on the surface of the earth.
The borders of this land are spelled out in Genesis 15:18; it runs from
the Nile to the Euphrates. This is an
unconditional promise, as made obvious by Genesis 15:17-20, which says “And it came to pass, that, when the sun
went down , and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that
passed between those pieces. In the same
day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying , Unto thy seed have I given
this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the
Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the
Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the
Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” Abraham, and his seed are given this land
with no conditions laid on them for ownership.
Furthermore, God makes provision for their future
foolishness. Earlier in the chapter, in verse 9, it says “And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old , and a she
goat of three years old , and a ram of three years old , and a turtledove, and
a young pigeon”
The heifer is a purification offering for sin
(Num 19). This gives Abram a clean slate before it goes any further. The she
goat is an offering for sins committed in ignorance (Num 15). This blots out
any sins that Abram didn’t even realize he’d committed. The ram is an offering of a sweet savour (Ex
29). In the future, when Abrams
descendants go through poverty, they can rest in the fact that the turtledove
(Lev 12) and the young pigeon (Lev 12) speak on their behalf. So willful sins,
sins of ignorance, offerings of praise, and proof against poverty are all
represented in the list of animals God tells Abram to prepare. God has literally thought of everything.
But it doesn’t stop there. The apparent tradition was that when two
people entered into a covenant that they would split the animals and walk
through the split together. God doesn’t
do this here. He has Abraham make all the preparations and then walks through
by himself after Abraham is asleep.
But
as we covered earlier, owning the land is one thing and living there is
something else. There are definite conditions set to dwell there. Genesis
17:10-14 reads “This is my covenant,
which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man
child among you shall be circumcised.
And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a
token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man
child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money
of any stranger , which is not of thy seed.
He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must
needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting
covenant. And the uncircumcised man
child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut
off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.” Even the ‘stranger’ who is no kin to Abraham
has to be circumcised if he wants to stay in the land.
Later on, after generations in Egyptian
slavery, Abrahams descendants returned to the land and in Joshua 5:2-9 were
commanded “At that time the LORD said
unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of
Israel the second time. And Joshua made
him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the
foreskins. And this is the cause why
Joshua did circumcise : All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males,
even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out
of Egypt. Now all the people that came
out were circumcised : but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the
way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised . For the children of Israel walked forty years
in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of
Egypt, were consumed , because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom
the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto
their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and
honey. And their children, whom he
raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised : for they were
uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. And it came to pass, when they had done
circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till
they were whole . And the LORD said unto
Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.” While they were in Egypt, God never made
an issue about circumcision but before they can cross Jordan they have to have
it done.
Furthermore the ability to stay in the land
is predicated upon obedience. Deut 28:21-25 says “The
LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee
from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption,
and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and
with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee
until thou perish . And thy heaven that
is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be
iron. The LORD shall make the rain of
thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou
be destroyed . The LORD shall cause thee
to be smitten before thine enemies : thou shalt go out one way against them,
and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of
the earth.” The landlord of all the earth is more than willing to evict them if
they don’t behave. In fact, most of your
Old Testament is a cycle of disobedience followed by expulsion, followed by
repentance and followed by restoration.
Promise
#2-Prosperity
Exodus 15:26 says “And
said , If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and
wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his
commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon
thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth
thee”. Exodus 23:24-30 says “And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and
he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the
midst of thee. There shall nothing cast
their young , nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil
. I will send my fear before thee, and
will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come , and I will make all thine
enemies turn their backs unto thee. And
I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the
Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land
become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out
from before thee, until thou be increased , and inherit the land”. God
promised them, in exchange for obedience, that he would prosper them in health
and wealth as they made their way into the land.
Deuteronomy
28:1-11 says “ And it shall come to
pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to
observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the
LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee,
and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy
God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city,
and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and
the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy
sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and
thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when
thou comest in , and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out . The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise
up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee
one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in
all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land
which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The
LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto
thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his
ways. And all people of the earth shall
see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of
thee. And the LORD shall make thee
plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle,
and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy
fathers to give thee.”
Keep these
specifics in mind when some ‘minister’ on television or in a tent somewhere
promises you healing or prosperity as some sort of birthright. The fine print
on that contract reads that it was given to a certain man’s descendants as a
reward for obedience while living on a certain piece of property. They were never promised that if they obeyed
God while exiled in Hungary or South America that God would cause them to never
get sick and to always make good business deals. There is also nothing to
indicate that this promise passed on to any other group of people. There are few things more surreal than living
in 21st century America and seeing jobless people who live in
government housing claim Old Testament promises of prosperity while giving
their money to Bible-wresting charlatans.
Promise
#3-Supremacy
Isaiah 60:9-14 lays it out, saying “Surely the isles shall wait for me, and
the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their
gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of
Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy
walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee,
but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually;
they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces
of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought . For the nation and kingdom that will not serve
thee shall perish ; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted . The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the
fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my
sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious . The sons also of them that afflicted thee
shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow
themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of
the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” Deuteronomy 28:13 says “And the LORD shall make thee the head, and
not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if
that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command
thee this day, to observe and to do them:”
I intend
to tread carefully here because a pretty substantial case can be made that the
‘thee’ in Isaiah 60 is the Lord Jesus Christ and he will be given supremacy over all when he rules and reigns
on the earth. That is certainly the case, and a double application is probably
valid since the man Christ Jesus is of the right lineage to fulfill the verse
either way but I think that Deut 28 indicates that, somewhere in the ruling
structure, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have a seat at the
table. Either way, this is a conditional
promise based upon either personal obedience on the part of Jesus Christ, or
national obedience on the part of Israel.
This will be explored in greater depth as we go on.
Obviously the Hebrew people are not enjoying
this promise as we speak since everywhere they go everyone hates them, and
tries to kill them. They do not appear
to be the ‘head’ of anything, and after rejecting their Messiah cannot even
successfully defend the borders of the land God gave them against incursions by
their enemies. Some have mistakenly claimed that, after the
ascension of Jesus, promises like this were rescinded by God and transferred to
another group of people. But these
promises all interweave and overlap, and this promise must be viewed in light
of the others.
Promise
#4-Blessings
This promise first shows up in Genesis 12:2-3, when God promises
Abraham “And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a
blessing: And I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of
the earth be blessed .” This unconditional promise proves itself to not
simply apply to Abraham personally , as it is re-invoked in Genesis 27:29,
which says “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy
brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that
curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” It is repeated again
in Numbers 28:4-9, and applied to the entire nation when it says “God brought him forth out of Egypt; he
hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his
enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. He couched , he lay down as a lion, and as a
great lion: who shall stir him up ? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and
cursed is he that curseth thee.”
This
promise bears itself out in world history, as one nation after another finds
the sun setting on it’s prestige and strength after mistreating the Hebrew
people. A quick list from the ancient world would include the empires of Egypt,
Rome and Babylon, and Greece all of whom spanned the world until they
mistreated the Hebrew people. Spain lost
their armada, and soon afterwards, their supremacy due to their seizure of
Jewish properties during the Inquisition.
In the modern world we have the examples of Germany and Britain, one of
whom slaughtered Jews and the other gave away Abrahams land in the Balfour
declaration. Niger, Chad, Ethiopia,
Nigeria, Upper Volta, Senegal, and Mali all have one thing in common; they all
severed ties with Israel and sided with
the Palestinians in 1972 and 1973. All of them had the Sahara desert expand
into their countries, and now all of them have a difficulty feeding their
people. Though it’s dangerous to cherry
pick history in order to make it fit a thesis, the Bible is clear; in Zechariah
2:8-9 it proclaims “For thus saith the
LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled
you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon
them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants : and ye shall know that the
LORD of hosts hath sent me”
This promise has some future application,
also, as we can see in Matthew 25:31-46;”When
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations:
and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep
from the goats: And he shall set the
sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right
hand, Come , ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world: For I was
an hungred , and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty , and ye gave me drink : I was
a stranger, and ye took me in : Naked,
and ye clothed me: I was sick , and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came
unto me. Then shall the righteous answer
him, saying , Lord, when saw we thee an hungred , and fed thee? or thirsty ,
and gave thee drink ? When saw we thee a
stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and
came unto thee? And the King shall
answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed , into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels: For I was an hungred ,
and ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty , and ye gave me no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me not in :
naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying ,
Lord, when saw we thee an hungred , or athirst , or a stranger, or naked, or
sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying , Verily I
say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it
not to me. And these shall go away into
everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.“ Here is a future event in which nations are
somehow judged for how they treated Jesus’ brethren with eternal consequences.
Promise #5-Restoration
The nature and scope of this promise is staggering. God, having committed himself to this people,
further commits himself by making a promise that exists afresh and anew to
every generation of Hebrews. No matter
what their fathers or grandfathers had done, the promises of God exist brand
new for them if they will only return to him.
God will never write off or cast away Abraham’s seed, as he says so
clearly in Leviticus 26:40-46 "If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies ; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled , and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember ; and I will remember the land.
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies , I will not cast them away , neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly , and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD. These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses."
Every fresh generation of Abrahams descendants faces this promise, and faces this choice; will they believe what God said, or just be one more generation of scattered skeptics living in someone else's country while their own country is inhabited and enjoyed by squatters? And if they, as a group somehow turned their hearts towards God, what would that look like? The scriptures state that some future generation of Hebrews will do just that, and when they do, God will honor it no matter how many centuries of apostasy that preceded them and restore them by bringing them back into the land.
This is reiterated in the oft-misapplied 2 Chr 7:14 , which says "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray , and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
Promise
#6-Signs
This promise dovetails with the covenant for
signs,; in fact they are the flip side of the same coin. The nation begins with signs in Exodus 4, and
those signs are invoked again and again (Ex 8, Ex 13, Ex 31, Num 16, Num 26,
Deut 6, Deut 11..etc etc) as proof that God is dealing with them. The church
was never promised this. In fact, the church has a
‘better covenant’ and ‘a more sure word of prophecy’.
In the early book of Acts, when Jewish
apostles were dealing with Jewish hearers, they deployed their signs and the
Bible says “And fear came upon every
soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.” These are
called the “signs of an apostle” in
2 Corinthians 12:12 and every person doing ‘signs’ in the book of Acts is a
descendant of Abraham.
In God’s future dealings with Israel as a
nation, he will bring back Moses and Elijah (Rev 11) and once again, signs and
wonders will be the medium of communication.
At the same time, the devil’s counterfeit will be hard at work (as in
Moses’s day) with his own signs and wonders (Mark 13:22, 2 Thess 2:9).
Promise
#7- A Prophet
Deut 18:15 says “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken “. This capital ‘P’ Prophet would be like Moses,
a Hebrew, and this promise found it’s fulfillment in the birth of Jesus
Christ. Moses worked signs and wonders,
and Jesus worked signs and wonders. Moses’ birth was accompanied by the
slaughter of infants, and Jesus’ birth was accompanied by the slaughter of
infants. Moses was a mediator between
God and Aaron, and Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and man. Moses was rejected by his people the first
time, and Jesus “came unto his own, and
his own received him not..”. Moses
was accepted by his people the second time, and the Jews will accept Christ as
a people at his second coming. The parallels are remarkable, and as icing on
the cake, the Bible says that the spirit of Jesus Christ is the “spirit of prophecy”.
Promise
#8-A Great Nation
“And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a
blessing:” is
the promise given in Genesis 12. Not only will they exist as an ethnic group in
the land that God gave them, but they will be a self-governing people; a nation
all their own. Exodus 19:6 repeats the
promise adding that they will be “a
kingdom of priests, and an holy nation”. They are never referred to as a nation in
Abraham’s day, and they certainly aren’t self-governing while slaves in Egypt,
but after coming out of bondage, crossing the Red Sea, and entering into the land,
Exodus 33:13 quotes Moses as saying “Now
therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy
way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider
that this nation is thy people.”
Here is where it gets interesting. Beginning in the book of Joshua they take the
land and dwell there as a self-governing people, but repeatedly because of
idolatry, they aren’t able to stay self-governing. Over and over again they are conquered and
enslaved by Philistines or Babylonians or Chaldeans. In AD 70, after rejecting their Messiah they
were driven out of the land by Rome and dispersed to the four corners of the
earth where they stayed until the 1940’s when
Israel became a nation again.
Throughout the 1940’s up to this
present day, emigration back to the land continues.
As important and pivotal as the re-emergence
of Israel as a nation is, I cannot honestly claim that event to be the total
fulfillment of those verses. Simply put,
they are currently neither a kingdom of priests, nor an holy nation. They exist, at present, unable to completely
vanquish their enemies and hold onto the land God gave them. They are not in
obedience to the word of God. They are, as a group, an odd mix of unregenerate Christ-rejecting secularists
and unregenerate Christ-rejecting religionists.
Because of all this, I think those verses have a future fulfillment as we
will establish later.
Promise
#9-National Conversion
Joel 2
is where we find this promise, which reads “Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his
people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be
satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the
heathen: But I will remove far off from
you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with
his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and
his stink shall come up , and his ill savour shall come up , because he hath
done great things . Fear not, O land; be
glad and rejoice : for the LORD will do great things . Be not afraid , ye beasts of the field: for
the pastures of the wilderness do spring , for the tree beareth her fruit, the
fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for
he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down
for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and
the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten , the
cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent
among you. And ye shall eat in plenty ,
and be satisfied , and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt
wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed . And ye shall know that I am in the midst of
Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall
never be ashamed”
There are
a lot of particulars to this promise that deserve further study but are outside
the scope of this study. Suffice to say
that God promised them that, after literally centuries of either half-heartedly
serving him or outright rejecting him, that one day they as a people would praise
him while living in the land and prospering. There seems to be no condition on
this promise, rather it comes across as a certain fact that this will
happen. On this side of Calvary, the
only possibility would be if Abraham’s descendants accepted their Messiah in the future. Since the scriptures cannot be broken, there
must be a national conversion coming up.
Promise #10-A King
After
being promised a land to live in, and a nation to belong to, Gen 49:10-12 tells
us that a king is coming to reign. “Judah
is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up : he stooped down ,
he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up ? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor
a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the
gathering of the people be.”
This is
another unconditional promise that, in practice, means that even while under
Babylonian rule or Egyptian slavery, the Jews could take comfort that one day
one of their own would rule over them.
That king, as explained by other passages would be God himself, although
the verse is partially fulfilled during the reign of David. If you compare 1
Samuel 12:13 (“Now therefore behold the
king whom ye have chosen , and whom ye have desired ! and, behold, the LORD
hath set a king over you.”) with Isaiah 9:6-7 (“ For unto us a child is born ,
unto us a son is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor , The mighty God, The everlasting
Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the
increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of
David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and
with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will
perform this.”), it becomes obvious that God gave them their choice for a
king, but that God’s choice would be the final king over them.
It goes without saying that the Gentiles were
never promised that one of their own would be their ruler, and certainly not
that God himself would be their king.
Promise
#11-Healing
This may be the most frequently stolen
promise in the age we live in. Entire
ministries have been built up claiming divine freedom from illnesses and
sicknesses while claiming promises given to Old Testament Jews. A careful look at what God actually promised
is the usual remedy for this problem, and so, looking at Isaiah 35:4-6, we see
that it says “Then the eyes of the blind
shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped . Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and
the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out , and
streams in the desert.” It’s a healing
not just of the infirmities of blindness, deafness and lameness, but healing of
the land itself. Isaiah 42:6-7 says “I
the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will
keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the
Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to
bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of
the prison house.” Exodus 15 gives the conditions of this promise when it
says “And said , If thou wilt diligently
hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in
his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I
will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the
Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.” A connection between physical illness and spiritual illness is
made in Psalm 103 which says “Bless the
LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all
his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine
iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;”
This much
is clear; the healing would be done
by God himself predicated upon their obedience and accompanied by their
deliverance. They would not get sick
unless they sinned, and if they sinned and repented, God would heal them. This
is why, the night the Jews left Egypt there was not a sick person among
them. This is also why so much of
Christ’s earthly ministry was spent healing the blind, the deaf and the halt
while proclaiming that their sins were also forgiven. It was proof of his
diety.
The flip side of this is that, while healing
was promised with obedience, disease was just as surely promised with
disobedience in Deut 28, and both the blessing and cursing are only promised
while they are in the land God gave to Abraham.
Gentiles were never told that their illnesses are because of sin, or
that obeying a list of rules would get them supernatural healing. The truth is that we live in a sin-cursed
world and we are all in bodies subject to decay and death, with no promise that
God will heal us, though he certainly is at liberty to do so.
This topic gets revisited in the book of James
written to the 12 tribes which are scattered aboard where once again, they are
promised healing. So much damage has
been done by false ministers who have cited passages that didn’t apply to them
and then signed God’s name to promises that he never made. These scripture–wresting wreckers have told
people that their grandmother was going to be free of cancer, and when the
grandmother died, the grandchildren rejected God. Some ‘healers’ even blame the victim for not
having enough ‘faith’. These charlatans have set up tents and fleeced the
biblically ignorant instead of declaring the whole counsel of God. These clowns have made money selling relics,
including pieces of the tent fabric where purported healings took place. The entire affair is rotten from the top to
the bottom and it finds its foundation in not understanding the details of
God’s promises.
Promise
#11-The God of All Warfare
Zecheriah 14:1-3 gives this promise “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh , and
thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against
Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken , and the houses rifled , and
the women ravished ; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and
the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth , and fight
against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.”
The day of battle referred to is shown in
Exodus 14, where Moses tells the people “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye
not, stand still , and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you
to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no
more for ever.”: Verse 25 shows that
the Egyptians understood exactly who they were battling against when they said “Let us
flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the
Egyptians.“ God promised to get
involved in their warfare in Josh 23:10 which says “One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is
that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.” Nehemiah claims this
promise in Neh 4:20, saying “In what
place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us:
our God shall fight for us”. He does this in reference to Deut 20:1-4, which says “When thou goest out to battle against
thine enemies , and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be
not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up
out of the land of Egypt. And it shall
be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and
speak unto the people, And shall say
unto them, Hear , O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your
enemies : let not your hearts faint , fear not, and do not tremble , neither be
ye terrified because of them; For the
LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies
, to save you”. Looking at Isaiah
54:17, it says “No weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper ; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in
judgment thou shalt condemn . This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.” The
promise is clear; while in the land, and threatened by their enemies, God will
involve himself in their warfare and drive out their enemies. He has also
promised that he will come to their aid at least one more time, this time when
they are threatened by the entire world.
Promise
#13-Tribulation
Placing the church in the great tribulation is
quite the vogue thing to do lately, and it’s almost singularly the result of
poor discernment among Bible expositors. Regardless of what your position is on
this future event is, the descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob were promised
that they would be here for it, but that they would survive it. “And these are the words that the LORD
spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice
of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail
with child ? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a
woman in travail , and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is
like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of
it.” Jer 30:4-7
“And at that time shall Michael
stand up , the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and
there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation
even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered , every
one that shall be found written in the book.” Dan 12:1
These verses are commonly misapplied to future events.
Promise
#14-The Return of David
Jeremiah 30: 9 says “But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I
will raise up unto them.” At the time this was written David had been dead
for quite some time, and yet he is promised to return. Some people say that, rather than David
returning, it is the seed of David returning in the person of Jesus Christ, and
while I’m sympathetic to their position, the verse makes a distinction between
God and David. There are two separate
people in the verse. Furthermore, in
Ezekiel 34:23-25, it says “And I will
set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David;
he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd . And I the LORD will be their God, and my
servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it”.
Promise
#15-Scattering
The next
three promises are all linked together and see their fulfillment over and over
again to a lesser degree in Jewish history.
“And I will scatter thee among
the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy
filthiness out of thee. 16 And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in
the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.” Ez 22:15-16
Having disobeyed God, God promised them that
he would scatter them. This happened
more than once in Israel’s history, with the last time being the destruction of
Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Promise
#16- Purging
What’s interesting about this promise is that,
although it is part of the overall cycle of promises that includes a
scattering, this purging doesn’t happen while the Jews are scattered. If you look closely at Ezekiel 22, you can
see that the purging and purifying takes place after they are gathered
up from being scattered, and that is accomplished with the heat and fury of
God. “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying , Son of man, the house of Israel is to me
become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of
the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye
are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of
Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and
brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the
fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury,
and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in
the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the
furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I
the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.”Ez 22:17-22
I believe this portends a future regathering
and purging that may have begun when Israel re-emerged as a nation in the
1940’s. It seems quite likely that
Abrahams descendants might continue to emigrate to Palestine and that a
significant portion of them are present in the land during the time of Jacob’s
trouble. During that time of trial and affliction they are melted and call out
to God and are reshaped into the holy nation that God has always wanted them to
be.
Promise
#17-Regathering
God
repeatedly uses the example and symbology of the Exodus to illustrate to Israel
how he will deal with them. He does this again in Ezekiel 20: 34-38 where the
Bible says “And I will bring you out
from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered,
with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of
the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the
wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord
GOD. And I will cause you to pass under
the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: And I will purge out from among you the
rebels , and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of
the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of
Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD”
A close look at this promise reveals some
interesting truths. It is true that the children of Israel were scattered in AD
70 and they have sojourned in the various nations of the world since then. It would be convenient to say that the
re-emigration into Palestine since the 1940’s in the fulfillment of this
regathering. But it wouldn’t be true to the passage. The passage maintains that
God will bring them out into the wilderness and speak to them there, with
‘wilderness’ being scripturally defined as the areas east of the Jordan River.
That has not happened. It also says that no rebellious Hebrews will be allowed
into the land. That is not the current condition of the citizens of Israel as
they are by and large, Christ rejectors.
This passage has to be about some singular
future event regarding those people and that land, and not a general promise
about God regathering them from someplace like Egypt or Babylon. The Bible also
mentions this event in Jeremiah 31:10, which says “Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles
afar off, and say , He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as
a shepherd doth his flock.”
Furthermore, this future regathering results
in a changed people with a changed government that impacts the entire
earth. Isaiah 2 describes it as “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come
to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it. And
many people shall go and say , Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the
LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and
we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word
of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall
judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat
their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
Jeremiah 3:17-18 gives us more insight into
it, saying “At that time they shall call
Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto
it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more
after the imagination of their evil heart.”
Isaiah 10:20-21 weighs in on this prophetic
event, claiming “And it shall come to
pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the
house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall
stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return , even the remnant of
Jacob, unto the mighty God. “
Isaiah 11:11-12 gives us still more
information. “And it shall come to pass
in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover
the remnant of his people, which shall be left , from Assyria, and from Egypt,
and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from
Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations,
and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of
Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
Jeremiah 23:3-8 goes on to say “And I will gather the remnant of my flock
out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to
their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase . And I will set up shepherds over them which
shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed , neither shall
they be lacking , saith the LORD. Behold, the days come , saith the LORD, that I
will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper ,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved , and Israel
shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called , THE LORD
OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold,
the days come , saith the LORD, that they shall no more say , The LORD liveth,
which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and
which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from
all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.”
Deuteronomy 30:2-9 indicates that the very
heart of this returning generation will be different. ”And
shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all
that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and
with all thy soul; That then the LORD
thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return
and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered
thee. If any of thine be driven out unto
the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and
from thence will he fetch thee: And the
LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed , and
thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good , and multiply thee above thy
fathers. And the LORD thy God will
circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God
with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And the LORD thy God will put all these curses
upon thine enemies , and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee. And thou shalt return and obey the voice of
the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous
in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy
cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice
over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:”
As the risk of getting ahead of myself, it’s
worth pointing out that the promise in Deut 30 to gather them from “the outmost parts of heaven” coupled
with the Isaiah 11 passage about the “four
corners of the earth” makes for some interesting cross references in Mark
13 and Matthew 24.
Promise
#18-Deliverance
In Jeremiah 30:10-11, the context is the time
of Jacob’s trouble, and the Bible says “Therefore
fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed , O
Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of
their captivity; and Jacob shall return , and shall be in rest , and be quiet ,
and none shall make him afraid . For I
am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all
nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee:
but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether
unpunished”. It’s the same context
of Zephaniah 13:8, which reads “And it
shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein
shall be cut off and die ; but the third shall be left therein.” During the time of Jacob’s trouble, those
that have been regathered back to Jerusalem for the promised purging will see
2/3 of their population destroyed, but God has promised that the Antichrist
won’t be able to annihilate all of them.
Promise
#19-National Resurrection
“The
hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and
set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about:
and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very
dry. And he said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live ? And I answered , O Lord GOD, thou knowest . Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these
bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones;
Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live : And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring
up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall
live ; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. So I prophesied as I was commanded : and as I
prophesied , there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came
together , bone to his bone. And when I
beheld , lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered
them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind,
prophesy , son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from
the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain , that they may live . So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they lived , and stood up upon their feet, an
exceeding great army. Then he said unto
me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say ,
Our bones are dried , and our hope is lost : we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you
to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I
have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall
live , and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the
LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.” Ezek 37:1-4
Out of all these promises, I must confess
that this one is the one I feel I have the shakiest understanding on. Many
have said that his is a reference to the resurrection of Israel as a nation in
the 1940’s and the subsequent resettling by Hebrews. I think the passage is too specific to allow
such a broad interpretation, since God never refers to the scattered Hebrew people
as being dead or as being in a grave. Taking it at face value, God promises
that the dead bodies of deceased Hebrews buried outside of the land of Israel
will resurrect themselves and head towards the land. This has not happened yet, and I’m not sure
when it will happen.
In closing, these promises cannot be extended to a body of New Testament believers without significantly altering the details of the promises. We have no earthly land, but rather are called out of "every kindred and tribe and tongue". We have no promise of prosperity since we have no land to be prosperous in. God wont protect us from our enemies in our land or heal us in our land, our give us one of our own as a king in our land for the same reasons. He won't regather us because we were never scattered. He won't deliver us because we have already been delivered by Jesus Christ. He won't purge us because our sins have already been purged by Jesus Christ. As amazing as these promises are, the book of Hebrews says we have "better promises" and "better" doesn't mean "the same promises just changing hands".
