View of the Hebrews - Chapter II
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CHAPTER II.
THE CERTAIN RESTORATION OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL.
The subject of this chapter is introduced with a concise view of expulsion
of the ten tribes from the promised land. The ten tribes revolted from the
house of David, early in the reign of Rehoboam, son and successor of king
Solomon. They received from the young prince treatment, which was
considered impolite and rough; upon which they separated themselves from
that branch of the house of Israel, who from that time, have been
distinguished by the name of Jews. The revolting ten tribes submitted to
another king, Jeroboam. And this breach was never after healed. Jeroboam,
to perpetuate and widen this breach, and apprehending that if the Jews and
ten tribes amicably met for public worship, according to the law of God,
the rupture between them would probably soon be healed, set up two golden
calves, one in Dan, and one in Bethel; and ordered that the ten tribes of
Israel should meet there for their public worship. He thus "made Israel to
sin." And would to God he had been the last who has made the professed
worshippers of Jehovah "to sin," by assigning them different places to
worship, from motives not more evangelical than those of Jeroboam.
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THE CERTAIN RESTORATION
The ten tribes thus went off to idolatry. A line of kings succeeded
Jeroboam; but none of them, to the time of expulsion, were true
worshippers of the God of Israel. By their apostacy, folly, idolatry, the
ten tribes were preparing themselves for a long and doleful rejection, an
outcast state for thousands of years. This Moses had denounced; Deut.
xxviii. And this God fulfilled.
Tiglah-Pilnezer, king of Assyria, captured the tribes of Reuben and Gad,
and the half tribe of Manassah, who lay east of the Jordan, and placed
them in Halah, Harah, and Habor, by the river Gozen.--I Chro. v. 26. About
twenty years after, (134 years before the Babylonish captivity of the
Jews, and 725 years before Christ,) the rest of the ten tribes continuing
impenitent, Shalmanezer, the succeeding king of Assyria, attacked Samaria,
took the remainder of the ten tribes, in the reign of Hoshea, king of
Israel, carried them to Assyria, and placed them with their brethren in
Halah and Habor, by the river Gozen in Media--2 Kings xvii. This final
expulsion of Israel from the promised land, was about 943 years after they
came out of Egypt. The king of Assyria placed their stead, in Samaria,
people from Babylon, Cutha, Ava, Hama, and Sapharvaim. Here was the origin
of the mongrel Samaritans.
From this captivity the ten tribes were never recovered. And they have
long seemed to have been lost from the earth. They seem to have been
indeed "outcast." from the social world and the knowledge of civilized
man. The Jews, long after, were dispersed among the nations; but have ever
been known as Jews. But not so with Israel. They have seemed strangely to
disappear from the world; and for 2500 years to have been utterly lost.
What are we to believe concerning the ten tribes? Are they ever again to
be restored and known as the natural seed of Abraham? Are they now in
existence as a distinct people? If so, where are they to be found? All
parts of the world are now so well known, that one would conceive the
commonwealth of Israel
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OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL.
cannot now be found among the civilized nations. Must we look for them in
a savage state? If so, the knowledge of their descent must be derived from
a variety of broken, circumstantial, traditionary evidence. Who, or where,
then are the people who furnish the greatest degree of this kind of
evidence?
An answer, relative to their restoration, will be involved in this
chapter; and an answer to the other questions may be expected in the
chapter following.
That the Jews are to be restored to Palestine as Jews, seems evident from
a variety of considerations. And that the ten tribes of Israel will there
be untied with them, seems also to be plainly predicted in the prophets.
Let the following things be considered:
1. The preservation of the Jews, as a distinct people, among the many
nations whither they have been dispersed, now for nearly eighteen hundred
years, affords great evidence, to say the least, that the many predictions
which seem to foretel such a restoration are to have a literal
accomplishment. This their preservation is a most signal event of
providence. Nothing like it has ever, in any other instance, been known on
earth; except it be the case with the ten tribes of Israel. Other
dispersed tribes of men have amalgamated with the people where they have
dwelt, and have lost their distinct existence. And nothing but the special
hand of God could have prevented this in the case of the Jews. The event
then shows, that God has great things in store for them as Jews. What can
these things be, but the fulfilment of those many prophecies which predict
their restoration to the land of their fathers, as well as their
conversion to the Christian faith?
2. That people have never, as yet, possessed all the land promised them;
nor have they possessed any part of it so long as promised. Hence their
restoration to that land is essential to the complete fulfilment of those
ancient promises. They were to possess the land to the river Euphrates,
and forever; or to the end of the world. God promised to Abraham, Gen. xv.
18--
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THE CERTAIN RESTORATION
"Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the
great river, the river Euphrates." Exod. xxii. 31--"And I will set thy
bounds from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from
the desert unto the river (Euphrates;) for I will deliver the inhabitants
of the land into your hands, and thou shalt drive them out before
thee."--Deut. xi. 21--"Every place whereon the sole of thy feet shall
stand, shall be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river,
the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea, shall your coast be."
Here then, are the boundaries of this ancient divine grant to Abraham and
his natural seed. Beginning at the river of Egypt, (a river not far from
the northeast corner of the Red Sea, and running into the Mediterranean.)
Thence northward, on the shore of the said sea, as far as the point due
west of Mount Lebanon. Thence eastward, over said mountain, away to the
river Euphrates. Thence southward, as far as the north line of Arabia.
Thence westward, to the first named river. The whole of this territory,
the natural seed of Abraham were to possess "for ever." The inhabitants
"should be driven out before them." But this people anciently possessed
but a small part of this territory. There was indeed a kind of typical
possession of it in the reign of Solomon;--which reign was a type of the
Millennium. (See Psalm lxxii.) David in his wars which were typical of the
wars that will introduce the Millennium, subdued and put under tribute the
Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites, and most of the nations dwelling in the
above named territories. And they continued in subjection in the reign of
Solomon. (See I Kings iv. 21.) But those nations were not then driven out;
nor was their land possessed by the children of Abraham. They afterward
threw off their yoke, and were extremely troublesome to the people of God.
They were only made tributary during, a part of two reigns. But God
promised--Exod. xxii. 31--"I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even to
the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river
(Euphrates.) For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your
hands,
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and thou shalt drive them out before thee." The land east of Canaan, and
away to the river Euphrates, was never possessed by Israel. Their literal
possession of that extent of territory must be an event still future.
The promised land was given to Israel "for an ever-lasting possession;"
Gen.xvii. 8. Surely this must mean a longer time than they did in ages
past possess it. This promise remains then to be yet fulfilled. It must
mean an undisturbed possession of it, so long as the possession of it on
earth may be desirable; or to the end of the world. We accordingly find
that people, at that time of the introduction of the Millennium,
expostulating with God, and pleading that ancient grant; Isa. lxii. 17,
18; "O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy way, and hardened our
heart from thy fear? Return for thy servant's sake, the tribes of thine
inheritance. The people of thy holiness have possessed it (thine
inheritance) but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy
sanctuary. We are thine. Thou never bearest rule over them; they are not
called by thy name." Here is a plea put into the mouths of the ancient
people of the Lord, at the time of their restoration, not long before the
battle of the great day, with a description of which battle this chapter
begins. They expostulate relative to the sovereignty of God, in the
resting of the veil of blindness and hardness so long on their hearts,
during their long rejected state. They plead that they are God's servants,
according to the ancient entail of the covenant. They plead for a
restoration;--and plead that their nation had enjoyed, that their
everlasting inheritance, but a little while; but that a people not called
by God's name, nor governed by his word, had trodden down the sanctuary; a
description exactly fulfilled by the Turks. This fully implies the
entering again of the Jews upon their ancient inheritance, in the last
days.
3. I shall now adduce some of the numerous express predictions of this
event. In the prophecy of Ezekiel, the restoration of the Jews and of
Israel to their own land, as well as their conversion in the last
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days, is clearly predicted. In chapter xxxvi. we have their long
dispersion, and their guilty cause of it. But God, in the last days, works
for his own name's sake, and recovers them. God says, "And I will sanctify
my great name, which was profaned among the heathen; and the heathen shall
know that I am the Lord--when I shall be sanctified in you before their
eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of
all countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle
clean water upon you and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give unto
you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And
I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and
ye shall keep my judgements and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your
God. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways--and shall loathe
yourselves. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known
unto you. Thus saith the Lord God; in the day that I shall have cleansed
you from all your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell in the
cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be
tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all the heathen that
passed by. And they shall say, this land that was so desolate is become
like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are
become fenced and are inhabited. Then the heathen who are left round about
you, shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that
which is desolate. I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it." Here is
their regeneration; having a new heart, being cleansed from all sin. And
besides this, we find expressly promised, their being reinstated in the
land of their fathers, which had long lain waste. They rebuild their
ancient cities. That this is in the last days, connected with the
introduction of the Millennium, the connexion of the whole passage, and
the following chapters, fully decide. Both houses of the descendants of
Abraham,
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(viz. Israel and Judah,) are recovered, as will be seen. Those predictions
cannot be fulfilled merely by the conversion of that people. For over and
above their express conversion, they are established in the land of their
fathers.
The prophet proceeds further to predict and illustrate the wonderful
events, by the resurrection of a valley of dry bones, chap.xxxvii. which
figure God thus explains: "Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of
Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hopes lost; we are
cut off for our parts. Therefore prophecy, and say unto them; thus saith
the Lord God; behold, O my people, I will open 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 land. Then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and
performed it, saith the Lord."
The re-union of the two branches of that people follows, by the figure of
the two sticks taken by the prophet. Of the one he writes, "For Judah, and
for the children of Israel his companions." Upon the others; "For Joseph,
the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions,"
Lest any should say, the prediction which here seems to foretel the
restoration of the ten tribes, as well as that of the Jews, were
accomplished in the restoration of that few of the Israelites, who clave
to the Jews under the house of David, and the ten tribes are irrecoverably
lost; it is here expressed that the Jews and those Israelites, their
companions, were symbolized by one stick; and Ephraim, all the house of
Israel, (the whole ten tribes,) by the other stick. These sticks
miraculously become one in the prophet's hand; which is thus explained.
"Thus saith the Lord their God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel
(their general ancient name, including the twelve tribes) from among the
heathen, whether they be gone; and I will
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gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will
make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one
king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations,
neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. And they
shall dwell in the land that I gave unto Jacob, my servant, wherein your
fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even their children and
their children's children forever." Can a doubt here rest on the subject,
whether the Jews and the ten tribes shall be re-established in Palestine?
Can such divine testimony as this be done away? But similar testimonies to
the point are numerous in the prophets. This passage has never yet
received a primary, or partial fulfilment. The whole of it remains to be
fulfilled. Some of the predictions, which are to have an ultimate
accomplishment in this final restoration had a primary one in the
restoration from the seventy years captivity in Babylon. But even this
cannot be said of the prophecy under consideration. None of those written
on the second stick, in the hand of the prophet, have ever yet been
recovered. The whole passage is intimately connected with the battle of
that great day, which introduces the Millennium; as appears in the two
following chapters. Here the house of Israel enter again upon their
everlasting possession of the land of promise, which God engaged to
Abraham.
A reiteration of these predictions is intermingled with the predictions
concerning Gog, or the powers of Antichrist, to be collected against the
Jews, after their restoration, in the two chapters succeeding. "In the
latter years thou (Gog) shalt come into the land that is brought back from
the sword, and gathered out of many people, against the mountains of
Israel, which have been always waste, (or have lain waste for so many
centuries during the dispersion of the Jews;) but it (that nation) is
brought back out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm; thou shalt be like a cloud to
cover the land, thou and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus
saith
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the Lord God; it shall also come to pass, that the same time, shall things
come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought; and thou shalt
say, "I will go up to the land of unwalled villages, (the state of the
Jews in Palestine, after their restoration;) I will go to them that are at
rest, that dwell safely, all of them, dwelling without walls, and having
neither bars nor gates; to take a spoil, and to take a prey, to turn thine
hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited. who have gotten
cattle and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land." "Thou shalt fall
upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands. So will I make my
holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and the heathen shall
know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, it is come, it is
done, saith the Lord God. This is the day whereof I have spoken. And they
that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire
and burn the weapons--seven years."
The whole account is thus divinely summed up.--"Therefore, thus saith the
Lord God; now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy
upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my only name;
after that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby
they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and
none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and
gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in
the sight of many nations; then shall they know that I am the Lord their
God, who caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen; but I
have gathered them into their own land, and left none of them there (among
the heathen) any more; neither will I hide my face any more from them; for
I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God."
It seems as though this were enough, if nothing more were quoted from the
prophets to prove our point. If this proof should be deemed insufficient,
one would be apt to say, nothing that inspiration can assert upon the
point, could be deemed sufficient!
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But that it may appear that the prophetic writings unite to exhibit this
as a great object of the Christian's belief. I shall note some of the
other predictions of it.
In Isaiah xi. the stem from the root of Jesse is promised. The Millennium
follows, when the cow and the bear shall feed together, and the wolf and
the lamb unite in love; and nothing more shall hurt or offend. "And it
shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again, the
second time, to gather the remnant of his people, who shall be left, from
Assyria and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam,
and from Shinar, and from Humah, and from the isles 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." Here just before the Millennium, the Jews and ten tribes
are collected from their long dispersion, by the hand of Omnipotence, set
a second time for their recovery. A body of the Jews, and some of several
other tribes, were recovered from ancient Babylon. God is going, in the
last days, to make a second, and more effectual recovery from mystical
Babylon, and from the four quarters of the earth. The prophet proceeds;
"And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and
with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall
smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod. And there
shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left
from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of
the land of Egypt." Mr. Scott, upon this passage, says; "For the Lord will
then remove all obstacles by the same powerful interposition, that he
vouchsafed in behalf of Israel, when He separated the tongue, or bay of
the Red Sea, and destroyed that hindrance to the departure of Israel; and
with a mighty wind he will so separate the waters of the river Euphrates,
in all its streams, that men may pass over dry shod. Thus an highway shall
be made for Israel's return, as there was for their ancestors to pass from
Egypt into Canaan.
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This part of the chapter contains a prophecy, which certainly remains yet
to be accomplished."--Bishop Lowth says the same; and adds, as quoted by
Mr. Scott, "This part of the chapter foretels the glorious times of the
church, which shall be ushered in by the restoration of the Jewish nation,
when they shall embrace the gospel, and be restored to their own country.
This remarkable scene of Providence is plainly foretold by most of the
prophets; and by St. Paul." We thus have the testimony of those great men,
Lowth and Scott, in favour of a literal restoration of the Jews to their
own land, being here predicted. And here is a drying up of a mighty river,
to prepare the way for the event. A river is the symbol of a nation. When
Israel were to be redeemed from Egypt, the Red Sea was to be dried before
them. When they were to be redeemed from Babylon, the Euphrates was by
Cyrus to be dried or turned, to accomplish the event. And in their last
restoration to Palestine. (ere long to be accomplished.) another great
mystical river is to be dried up. The sixth vial dries up the mystic
Euphrates, that the way of the kings of the east may be prepared. This is
to be fulfilled on the Turks. Perhaps the event is now transpiring. This
river is to be smitten in its seven streams; as stated in this prophecy of
Isaiah; perhaps indicating that the Turks, be they ever so powerful in
provinces and resources, as seven is a number of perfection, they yet
shall fall by the remarkable hand of God, to accommodate the return of his
ancient people. These prophetic hints give an interest to the present
struggles in the south-east of Europe, or in Greece.
In Jeremiah, xxii. 6,8, is the restoration of Israel. "In his days, (i. e.
under the millennial reign of the righteous branch raised up to David,)
Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; I will gather the
remnant of my flock out of all countries, whither I have driven them, and
will bring them again to their own folds. Therefore, behold the days come,
saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, who brought
up the children of Israel out of the land
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of Egypt; but, the Lord liveth, who brought up, and who led the house of
Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I have
driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land." As this event is
under the reign of Christ, so it has never yet been fulfilled. It is an
event of the last days; and plants the ancient people of God in their own
land.
The same compassion of the same event, we find in Jeremiah xvi. 14, l5.
After denouncing their long dispersion for their sins; God says,
"Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be
said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the
land of Egypt; but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel
from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither I had driven
them; and I will bring them into their land, that I gave unto their
fathers."
In Isaiah xviii. a land shadowing with wings at the last days, is by the
Most High addressed, and called to aid this restoration of that people of
God. "Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a
people terrible from the beginning hitherto; a nation meted out, and
trodden down; whose land the rivers have spoiled. In that day shall the
present be brought unto the Lord of hosts, of a people scattered and
peeled, and from a people terrible from the beginning hitherto; a nation
meted out and trodden under foot; whose land the rivers have spoiled, to
the place of the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion." The people here
described, (to be brought by that land addressed, as a present to the
Lord, to Mount Zion, or to Palestine,) are evidently the descendants of
Abraham, and an event of the last days. A further explanation of this
chapter is to be given in the last chapter of this work.
The same thing is noted in Isaiah lx. The Jewish church is called upon;
"Arise, shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee. The gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising. Who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves
to their windows? Surely the isles shall
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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." Here are
ships conveying the Hebrews to Palestine, as clouds and as doves to their
windows. Chap. lxvi. 20: "And they shall bring of your brethren for an
offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots,
and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain
Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring and offering in
a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord." In Zephaniah iii. 10,
(connected with the battle of the great day, and the Millennium.) we read;
"From the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants (or worshippers) shall bring my
offering, even the daughter of my dispersed;" as the passage should be
rendered.
In Isaiah lxv. we find the sin of the dispersion, and the gathering again,
at the Millennium, of the ancient tribes of the Lord. In relation to their
gathering after their banishment, and "their works are measured into their
bosom," it follows; "Thus saith the Lord; As the new wine is found in the
cluster, and one saith, destroy it not; for a blessing is in it; so will I
do for my servants, sakes that I may not destroy them all. And I will
bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my
mountains; and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell
there." Here after the long rejected state of Jacob and Judah, a blessed
remnant at last shall be recovered;--a seed from Jacob, (the ten tribes)
and from Judah the Jews) an inheritor of Canaan shall come and dwell in
that land. This has never yet been fulfilled. But it will be accomplished
when God will (as in the following verses) "create new heavens, and a new
earth," in the millennial glory of the church.
In Amos ix. 14, 15, is a prediction of this event. "And I will bring again
the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities,
and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine
thereof; and I will plant them upon their land,
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and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land, which I have given
them, saith the Lord God." This restoration is surely future. For after
the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, they were again expelled
from their land, now for many centuries. But after the restoration here
promised, God says, "They shall no more be pulled up out of their land."
This shows that the restoration here promised is both future and literal.
Jer.xxx. 3; "For lo, the last days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring
again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah, saith the Lord; and I
will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and
they shall possess it." In the restoration from Babylon, Israel was not
returned; and the Jews possessed their land but a short time. Hence this
prophecy remains to be fulfilled. Read the whole 31st chapter of Jeremiah,
and you will find the restoration of the Jews and the ten tribes, to the
land of their fathers, in the last days; and their continuance in it so
long as the sun, moon and stars endure. "If those ordinances depart from
before me, saith the Lord. (i. e. of the sun, moon and stars) then the
seed of Israel shall cease from being a nation before me forever." God
here promises "the city (Jerusalem) shall be built to the Lord; it shall
not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever." Here God engages
that as Ephraim is God's first born; so he will earnestly remember him
still. and surely have mercy upon him for his bowels are stained with his
long outcast state. That he will sow the house of Israel and the house of
Judah with the seed of men; and that like as he had watched over them, to
pluck up, and to break down, to throw down, and to destroy and afflict; so
he will watch over them to build and plant. That all this shall be, when
the new covenant is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
not according to the covenant that he made with their fathers. Thus is an
event to take place under the last, the gospel dispensation; and hence it
must be now future.
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The prophet Joel, when foretelling the last days, and the Millennium,
notes this event; chap.iii. 1. "For behold, in those days, and at that
time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I
will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of
Jehoshaphat." The battle of the great day of God follows; verse 9--17.
Upon which follows the Millennium. In this series of events, God "brings
again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem."
In Zeph. iii. is the same. A new preparatory scene of judgment is
predicted; verse 6, 7. The battle of the great day follows; verse 8. Then
the Millennium; verse 9. To prepare the way for this, the noted
restoration is promised; verse 10--18. And the scene closes thus; verse
19, 20. "Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and I
will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will
get me praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At
that time I will bring you again, even in the time that I gather you; for
I will make you a name and a praise among all the people of the earth,
when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord."
The prophet Hosea most decisively predicts this event. His first son must
be called Jezreel; for God would soon avenge the blood of Jezreel; and I
will cause to cease the house of Israel." This house did cease; and has
been banished and lost to this day. The name of his daughter Lo-ruhamah,
is explained: "Ye are not my people; and I will not be your God." Here is
their long excommunication. But he immediately proceeds to predict their
restoration. Chap.i. 10, 11; "Yet the number of the children of Israel
shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered;
and it shall come to pass that in the place, where it was said unto them.
Ye are not my people; there shall it be said to them. Ye are the sons of
the living God. Then shall the children of Israel and the children of
Judah be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head; and they
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shall come up out of the land; (earth;) for great shall be the day of
Jezreel." Here the ten tribes were to be dispersed, and again restored,
together with the Jews; and their numbers and prosperity shall be immense.
St. Paul quotes this passage, Rom. ix. 25, merely by way of accommodation,
to note that the gentiles were called into the church; (a thing noted by
expositors as very common in the sacred writings;) yet by no means with a
view to hint, that this text is not to receive a more literal
accomplishment in a future restoration of the ten tribes. In numerous
scripture the sentiment is confirmed that there shall be a literal
restoration. The bringing in of the gentile church is a prelude to this.
Israel were excommunicated that the gentiles might take their place. But
it was to be thus, only "till the fulness of the gentiles be come in," and
then Israel shall be grafted in again, and their promised restoration be
accomplished.
This prophet proceeds in the following chapters to predict the same event.
See Hosea, 2d and 3d chapters. The account closes thus; "For the children
of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and
without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and
without a teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek
the Lord their God, and David, their king; and shall fear the Lord and his
goodness in the latter days." Here is a description of the present
rejected state of Israel; and a prediction of their national restoration,
"in the latter days."
But few of the predictions of this final restoration are given. To recite
them all, would be unwieldy. In Isai. xiv. is a prediction of the
destruction of a power under the name of the king of Babylon; which event
is evidently the same with the destruction of the mystical Babylon of the
last days,--inasmuch as it is to be accomplished upon the mountains of
Israel; verse 25. To prepare the way for this, we have the promised
restoration of Israel, verse 1, as immediately preparatory to the event;
and therefore
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it must in its ultimate accomplishment be still future. "For the Lord will
have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them on their own
land. And the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave
to the house of Jacob." The stranger being joined unto Israel, restored to
their own land, and what follows in the second and third verses, were
events, which were not fulfilled when the Jews returned from ancient
Babylon; but are just such events as are promised to take place after the
final restoration of Israel, and the battle of the great day. The promised
restoration is expressly applied to Israel. Judah and Israel had become
two nations long before this prophecy. The even is then clearly future.
Israel shall be again chosen and set in their own land.
The restoration is a great event in the prophets; and we find it in the
New Testament. Paul (in his epistle to the Romans, chap. xi.) notes their
being again grafted into their own olive tree, as a notable event of the
last days, which shall be the "riches of the gentiles ;" yea, "life from
the dead" to them. See also Isaiah xlix. 13--23. One passage more I will
adduce from the writings of Moses; Deut. xxx. The long and doleful
dispersion of this people had been predicted in the preceding chapters.
Here their final restoration follows. "And it shall come to pass, when all
these things are come upon thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among
all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt
return unto the Lord thy God;--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. 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." This had never yet been fulfilled. For the Jews,
returned from Babylon, were very far from being multiplied in their land
above their fathers. This remains still to be accomplished.
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Thus the prophetic writings do clearly decide, that both Israel and the
Jews shall, in the last days, before the Millennium, be literally restored
to their own land of Palestine, and be converted to the Christian faith.
4. To give a mystical import to all these prophecies, and say they will be
fulfilled only in the conversion of these ancient people of God to
Christianity, is to take a most unwarrantable liberty with the word of
God. Some have made such pretence; but far be it from me to follow them!
Why not as well apply a mystical sense to every prediction of future
events? To the predictions of the battle of that great day; of the
Millennium; of the resurrection of the bodies of men; of the final
judgment; of the conflagration of this world; of heaven, and of hell? Why
may not those as well all be fulfilled, not by a literal, but by some
mystical accomplishment? Is not this to add and to diminish, with a
witness? Paul says, (2 Tim.ii. 16.) "But shun profane and vain babblings;
for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their words will eat as
doth a canker; of whom Hymeneas and Philetus; who concerning the truth
have erred, saying, that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow
the faith of some." What was the liberty taken by those arch heretics? No
doubt it was this; applying to predictions of a resurrection of the bodies
of men from the grave, a mystical resurrection of the soul from the death
of sin. But the predictions of the resurrection are far less numerous, and
are not more express, than are the predictions of the restoration of the
Jews and Israel to their own land.
In various of the most remarkable of these predictions, we find it
distinctly ascertained that the Jews shall be converted; shall have a new
heart given them; shall have their hearts circumcised to fear the Lord.
And beside this, it is said that people shall (as a distinct nation.) be
restored to the land of their fathers, and shall dwell in temporal
prosterity there through all following ages, and be more numerous than
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ever were their fathers. To say then, that all those predictions of such a
restoration to Palestine, are to be accomplished only in the bringing of
that people (in their dispersed state) to embrace the Messiah; is to take
a most unwarrantable liberty with the word of God! Look at one passage;
Ezekiel. 36th, 37th, 38th, and 39th chapters. Are the new heart (the heart
of the flesh) there promised, and God's gathering them out of all lands
into their own land, which had so long lain waste, one and the same event?
What can such expositors do with the predictions of Gog and his bands,
gathered against them, and falling upon the mountains of Israel? Are these
(and all predictions in Joel, Zechariah, and other prophets, of the
gathering of all nations to Jerusalem,) to be explained away, so that no
"gathering of the nations, and assembling of the kingdoms" must be
expected? It must be a dangerous expedient thus to explain away the clear
and express sentiments of revelation. The old and best expositors
generally have believed in a literal restoration of Judah and Israel. And
no material objections can be raised against it, which might not in its
principle operate as forcibly against all predicted future events.
5. That the Hebrews are to have a literal restoration, appears from the
fact, that the threatenings that God cast them off, had their fulfilment
in a literal rejection of them from the promised land. The promises of
their restoration appear to be an exact counterpart of this; and hence
must have their effect in restoring them again to Palestine. If such
promises did not design to restore them again to the land of their
fathers; why should the threatenings of their rejection of God be designed
to have their effect in expelling them literally from the land of promise?
Why should one of them receive a literal, and the other a mystical
construction? No account can be given of this. If there is no benefit in
restoring them to Palestine; why was there any calamity in expelling them
from Palestine? Why did not God let them continue there, though he
withdrew his spirit and grace from
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them? But if, over and above this, they must be expelled from the land of
promise; then surely their promised restoration must (over and above
giving them the heart of flesh) bring them back to Canaan, which was given
to them for an everlasting possession.
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