Israel

I believe that Israel is the chosen nation of God (YHVH/YHWH or Yahveh/Yahweh), forever.  God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17:1-4) continued with Abraham’s son Isaac (17:19,21) and then with Isaac’s son Jacob, renamed Israel (32:28).  God’s covenant with Israel, His chosen ones, will be an everlasting covenant (Psalm 105:6-11).

Neither Christianity nor any other religious system has been “substituted” for Israel.  The notion of “replacement theology,” also known as “supersessionism,” is a mendacious and perilous philosophy which, unfortunately, is asserted by some Christians.

Although Israel, as a whole, has failed to recognize Yeshua/Jesus as the Messiah, it is wrong for any Christian to have disdain and contempt for Israel, which continues to be God’s chosen people.  Much of the nation of Israel is secular and worldly today, and the protective hand of God temporarily will be removed from that nation near the end of the age (Zechariah 14:2).

Soon after that, however, will be the supernatural redemption of Jerusalem.  The Lord Yeshua/Jesus will return and defeat all of those who have attacked Jerusalem, on the same day that His feet stand on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 12:9, 14:3,4).  He also will begin His rule and reign as King over the whole earth on that day (14:9).  Israel will mourn for this One whom they pierced almost two millennia ago, and God again will pour out on Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication (12:10).  Then, as in the past, Israel will be in God’s grace and under His protective hand, never to be violated again.

Only by the grace of God have the “wild branches” of Gentile believers in YHVH been “grafted into” the original “olive tree” of Israel and Judaism, which is the holy “root” that provides nourishment and support for these Christian believers (Romans 11:11,16-18).  Without Israel, there would be no Christianity, since Yeshua/Jesus was Jewish.  Spiritually speaking, Christian lineage is traced to Israel, and it is advantageous for Christian believers to come to a recognition and an acceptance of their Hebraic spiritual roots.  (See God’s Covenant: with Israel or the Church?)

God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) has yet to be fulfilled in land being returned to Israel, for all time.  I feel that forcing Israel to comply with a newly formed Palestinian “state” is a gigantic mistake, of which I strongly disapprove. There never can or will be total, lasting peace in the land of Israel until the Messiah, Yeshua, returns to rule and reign there.

The name “Ephraim” is a prophetic term for the ten tribes of Israel other than Judah and Benjamin.  Jacob (Israel) blessed his son Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48:10-20), stating that the descendants of Ephraim (the younger brother) would become a “group of nations” (48:19).  This was a prediction that most of Israel, eventually, would be dispersed throughout the nations of the world.

Indeed, after these ten tribes were taken captive by Assyria, many (though not all) of them eventually were scattered from there into all the earth, where their descendants remain today.  After the tribe of Judah was taken captive by Babylon, many of these people, primarily the offspring of Judah, eventually returned from their captivity.  Their descendants are in Jerusalem and Judea today, although a great number of them also were dispersed throughout the world in the Diaspora.

The scattered Israelites and Jews have blended and intermingled with the nations, and large numbers of them have lost their true identities.  Besides explaining to Christian believers that their spiritual Hebraic roots originated in Israel, the modern Hebraic roots movement also helps Israelites and Jews, from all twelve tribes, to understand and to embrace their Hebraic heritage.  More importantly, it endeavors to initiate and facilitate their understanding that Yeshua/Jesus, a Jew, is their Messiah.

Yeshua fulfilled countless prophecies (see a few here) found in the Torah, in the Prophets (Nevi’im), and in other ancient Hebrew writings (K’tuvim), collectively known as the Tanakh.  These writings commonly are known by Christians as the “Old Testament.”  Yeshua fulfilled all of the prophecies of Messiah ben Joseph (the most submissive suffering servant) at His first coming, and He will fulfill all of the prophecies of Messiah ben David (the ultimate and most supreme reigning King) at His second coming.  There are not two (or more) messiahs; there is only one Messiah—Yeshua ha-Mashiach, Jesus the Christ—who has come once to atone for sins, and who will come again to rule and reign.

The Messiah and Lord, Yeshua, will return to dwell in Jerusalem (Zechariah 8:3) and will reign as King over the whole earth (Psalm 2:6; Zechariah 14:9).  When he returns, He will gather Jews and other Israelites—those who will have survived the great persecutions and holocausts during the Great Tribulation and the “day of vengeance”—from all the nations of the world, and He will bring them back to Israel (Zechariah 8:7,8).  They will be joined with Jews from the tribe of Judah; together, they will defeat the last of their enemies, with the Messiah as their Banner (Isaiah 11:10-14).

After God has brought them back from the nations of the world, He will show Himself holy, through them, in the sight of the nations (Ezekiel 39:27).  It is at that time that Israel, as a whole, will know and acknowledge their true Lord and God; and they will understand that He exiled them into the nations and then brought them back to their own land of Israel (39:28), where they will live during the Millennium.  Then God’s people—all those who have been grafted and re-grafted into a united Israel—will live in peace and will be blessed by God, forevermore.

Here are verses that point to and describe the regathering, by God, of the dispersed and scattered Israelites out of the nations and back to Israel:


Basics | Israel | Law/Torah | Eschatology
 

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