Promises and Prophecies Final Thoughts

“Thus saith the Lord, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; …. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus saith the Lord; if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.” (Jer. 31:35-37)

“Thus saith the Lord, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; …. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus saith the Lord; if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.” (Jer. 31:35-37)

This prophetic statement of Jeremiah was made about a hundred years after the Northern House of Israel, together with the bulk of Judah, was taken captive and deported by the Assyrians, and shortly before the remnant of Judah would be deported to Babylon, all because they all had forsaken and forgotten the Lord their God. In this narrative of Promises and Prophecies we have come to the time that the Israelites disappear from the pages of the Holy Bible, yet for at least three hundred years after their deportation and disappearance, the Bible, through the minor prophets, continues to admonish Israel for its sins and to proclaim restoration and redemption to these same people. Thus, it stands to reason that God, although He divorced them and banned them from the land, He, God, still regarded them with compassion and love. When Jesus arrived on the scene, He came to redeem His people, He came for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Paul, in His epistles, calls those that he addresses in his letters as “Israelites”. Hebrews 8:8 corroborates Jer. 31:31, that a new covenant will be established with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, thus all Israel. With all this Scriptural evidence, it is hard to fathom that today’s theologians deny the existence of a physical Israel, but spiritualizes same into a worldwide church and at the same time, claiming that physical Israel is found solely in Jewry. But, if that would be the case, then, as I said earlier, all the prophetic predictions made throughout the Bible would be void and of no effect, thus making God a liar.

In order to counter this theological philosophy, we need to establish the fact that the Israelites are, even in our present time, a real and physical entity. In the Apocrypha, in 2 Edras, we can read the account as to how the Israelites in their banishment left that land of their captivity and journeyed across the Caucasus and ended up in what is now known as Southern Russia, the Ukraine, and the Crimean Region. From there they migrated ever westward, probably by tribes and at various times, until they reached their allotted places in Western Europe and the British Isles, the location in accordance with several of Isaiah’s prophetic uttering’s and in fulfillment of Nathan’s prophecy to King David in 2Sam. 7:10, where it says that Israel will be appointed a new dwelling place.

It is in that same chapter that the prophecy is made that the House and Kingdom of David will be established forever. But, some will say, that that Kingdom and Royal House ceased and came to its end when Zedekiah lost the Kingship and eventually his life at the hands of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. In Ezekiel 17 we read about the rebellion of Zedekiah against Nebuchadnezzar, which led to Jerusalem’s ultimate overthrow and the demise of the House of Judah as a Kingdom, yet in verses 22 and 23 of same chapter we read a profound statement where the Lord God declares by the mouth of Ezekiel, “Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it out; I will crop off from the top of its young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent; in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it…” (Eze. 17:22,23). Ezekiel is using figurative speech here that has a profound effect on the future of Israel on a whole. The highest branch of the high cedar depicts the then soon to die Zedekiah. The young twigs are symbolic of Zedekiah’s offspring and the tender one indicates that this offspring is female, thus a daughter or daughters and that person, daughter, would be planted on a high mountain, (Kingdom or Realm), and eminent, meaning of being of great stature or importance in Israel. In Gen. 49:10 we read the prophetic blessing that Jacob utters in regard to his son Judah, “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.” (Gen. 49:10). Now this sceptre or lawgiver did not commence until David became King. David was of the Tribe of Judah. And to David was promised that his dynasty would be forever (2Sam. 7:16) until Shiloh, which is Jesus the Messiah, shall come to take that throne into perpetuity. (Isa. 9:6, 7)

God works in marvelous ways, His wonders to perform, His Word is ever true and whatever He said or promised has come to pass or will yet be accomplished in the future. Hallelujah!