themuzicman
September 26th 2007, 10:44 AM
I've been studying the OT as part of my course of study, and I'm finding that there is a cycle which repeats itself throughout the Old Testament with respect to Israel, and I'm starting to see that cycle repeated in Jesus' lifetime.
Let me explain.
The Old Testament from the time of Abraham revolves around God's covenant with Abraham regarding the physical land of Israel.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;
And the story of Abraham takes him to Egypt, where he lies about Sarah being his wife... twice... and then returns to the land, where the covenant is finally established after the test with Isaac.
Jacob goes through his trials, and at the end of his life, Joseph, one of the sons of Israel, is sold into slavery, and he goes to Egypt, where the Israelites remain for 400 years, before God rescues them and sets them on a path to the promised land.
But they wander for 40 years because they grumble against God.
And the next generation gains entry into the promised land.
However, after establishing their foothold in the land, they fail to conquer it all, and the book of Judges is about how Israel falls away from God, and God sends a judge to call them back, and this happens repeatedly... Until Samuel appoints Saul King of Israel.
Then we have a prosperous time under Saul, David and Solomon, but at the end of Solomon's life, he begins to worship other gods, and God sends more prophets to warn Israel about exile from the land (Hosea, Joel, Amos, and the other pre-exilic prophets), and then Israel and Judah are conquered and sent off of the land.
Now, the exhilic prophets use exodus language to describe going into exile and returning.from it. Jeremiah even predicts the length of time that they are gone.
And 70 years later, they return to the land.
The cycle we see, here, is Israel submitting to God, then wandering from faith in Him, and after God sends them into exile, and they call upon Him, they return.
But, there's another aspect to this:
25 "When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God [so as] to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 "The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. 28 "There you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 "But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find [Him] if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. 30 "When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. 31 "For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
God predicts this cycle, and even states that only a few will remain. The remnant.
This happened during Elijah's time, when 7000 remained that didn't bow their knee to ba'al, and also happened in the return from exile, when only a few returned to rebuild the city.
There's also one other aspect of the prophets: When they prophesy, they always preach restoration after Israel (or at least the remnant) calls upon God.
Fast forward to the New Testament.
John the Baptist comes preaching:
1 Now in those days John the Baptist ^came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
He's calling Israel back to worshiping God, preparing the way for the Messiah.
And Jesus says:
49 "For this reason also the wisdom of God said, `I will send to them prophets and apostles, and [some] of them they will kill and [some] they will persecute, 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house [of God]; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.'
Judgment against Israel for killing the prophets...And later He tells this story:
9 And He began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. 10 "At the [harvest] time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him [some] of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 "And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. 12 "And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. 13 "The owner of the vineyard said, `What shall I do? I will send my beloved son ; perhaps they will respect him.' 14 "But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, `This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.' 15 "So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 "He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others."
Granted that this was spoke primarily against the Scribes and Pharisees, but they were the leaders of Israel, and would represent Israel as a nation.
And, of course:
22 And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there [just] a few who are being saved?" And He said to them, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 "Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, `Lord, open up to us!' then He will answer and say to you, `I do not know where you are from.' 26 "Then you will begin to say, `We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets'; 27 and He will say, `I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.' 28 "In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. 29 "And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline [at the table] in the kingdom of God.
The weeping and gnashing of teeth is a theme in Matthew, as well:
8 But the centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 "For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, `Go!' and he goes, and to another, `Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this!' and he does [it]." 10 Now when Jesus heard [this], He marveled and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. 11 "I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline [at the table] with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 12 but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 "And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. 4 "Again he sent out other slaves saying, `Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are [all] butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast." ' 5 "But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. 7 "But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. 8 "Then he ^said to his slaves, `The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 `Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find [there], invite to the wedding feast.' 10 "Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. 11 "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, 12 and he ^said to him, `Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?' And the man was speechless. 13 "Then the king said to the servants, `Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Again, we have those who were invited, who do not come, and are destroyed, and those who do not have wedding clothes are sent out.
And what we notice of Jesus parables which appear to prophesy is that there is no message of restoration. There is judgment, and then destruction.
Of course, we've all seen this before, but it's a study I've had to do in Joel that put this all together:
28 "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29 "Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30 "I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. 31 "The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
This portion of Scripture is in the redemption part of Chapters 1 and 2. It seems to be something that happens after the restoration.
Clearly Peter cites this as applying to Pentecost.
But what of verses 30 and 31? The sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood isn't restoration, but destruction.
So, is Israel destroyed?
32 "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the Lord has said, Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
Clearly Joel intends destruction, and says that those who call upon God and are called by Him will be saved.
Paul cites this verse in Romans 10, and then in Romans 11, speaks of God's promises to Israel being fulfilled through the remnant.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same [Lord] is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in [the passage about] Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life." 4 But what is the divine response to him? "I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to [God's] gracious choice.
So, the question is: Will the nation of Israel rise in the future as the people of God and worship in their temple? Is there a promise of restoration from the last prophet to them, namely Jesus Christ?
Michael
Let me explain.
The Old Testament from the time of Abraham revolves around God's covenant with Abraham regarding the physical land of Israel.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;
And the story of Abraham takes him to Egypt, where he lies about Sarah being his wife... twice... and then returns to the land, where the covenant is finally established after the test with Isaac.
Jacob goes through his trials, and at the end of his life, Joseph, one of the sons of Israel, is sold into slavery, and he goes to Egypt, where the Israelites remain for 400 years, before God rescues them and sets them on a path to the promised land.
But they wander for 40 years because they grumble against God.
And the next generation gains entry into the promised land.
However, after establishing their foothold in the land, they fail to conquer it all, and the book of Judges is about how Israel falls away from God, and God sends a judge to call them back, and this happens repeatedly... Until Samuel appoints Saul King of Israel.
Then we have a prosperous time under Saul, David and Solomon, but at the end of Solomon's life, he begins to worship other gods, and God sends more prophets to warn Israel about exile from the land (Hosea, Joel, Amos, and the other pre-exilic prophets), and then Israel and Judah are conquered and sent off of the land.
Now, the exhilic prophets use exodus language to describe going into exile and returning.from it. Jeremiah even predicts the length of time that they are gone.
And 70 years later, they return to the land.
The cycle we see, here, is Israel submitting to God, then wandering from faith in Him, and after God sends them into exile, and they call upon Him, they return.
But, there's another aspect to this:
25 "When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God [so as] to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 "The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. 28 "There you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 "But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find [Him] if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. 30 "When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. 31 "For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
God predicts this cycle, and even states that only a few will remain. The remnant.
This happened during Elijah's time, when 7000 remained that didn't bow their knee to ba'al, and also happened in the return from exile, when only a few returned to rebuild the city.
There's also one other aspect of the prophets: When they prophesy, they always preach restoration after Israel (or at least the remnant) calls upon God.
Fast forward to the New Testament.
John the Baptist comes preaching:
1 Now in those days John the Baptist ^came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
He's calling Israel back to worshiping God, preparing the way for the Messiah.
And Jesus says:
49 "For this reason also the wisdom of God said, `I will send to them prophets and apostles, and [some] of them they will kill and [some] they will persecute, 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house [of God]; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.'
Judgment against Israel for killing the prophets...And later He tells this story:
9 And He began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. 10 "At the [harvest] time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him [some] of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 "And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. 12 "And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. 13 "The owner of the vineyard said, `What shall I do? I will send my beloved son ; perhaps they will respect him.' 14 "But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, `This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.' 15 "So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 "He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others."
Granted that this was spoke primarily against the Scribes and Pharisees, but they were the leaders of Israel, and would represent Israel as a nation.
And, of course:
22 And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there [just] a few who are being saved?" And He said to them, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 "Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, `Lord, open up to us!' then He will answer and say to you, `I do not know where you are from.' 26 "Then you will begin to say, `We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets'; 27 and He will say, `I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.' 28 "In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. 29 "And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline [at the table] in the kingdom of God.
The weeping and gnashing of teeth is a theme in Matthew, as well:
8 But the centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 "For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, `Go!' and he goes, and to another, `Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this!' and he does [it]." 10 Now when Jesus heard [this], He marveled and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. 11 "I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline [at the table] with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 12 but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 "And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. 4 "Again he sent out other slaves saying, `Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are [all] butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast." ' 5 "But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. 7 "But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. 8 "Then he ^said to his slaves, `The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 `Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find [there], invite to the wedding feast.' 10 "Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. 11 "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, 12 and he ^said to him, `Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?' And the man was speechless. 13 "Then the king said to the servants, `Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Again, we have those who were invited, who do not come, and are destroyed, and those who do not have wedding clothes are sent out.
And what we notice of Jesus parables which appear to prophesy is that there is no message of restoration. There is judgment, and then destruction.
Of course, we've all seen this before, but it's a study I've had to do in Joel that put this all together:
28 "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29 "Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30 "I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. 31 "The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
This portion of Scripture is in the redemption part of Chapters 1 and 2. It seems to be something that happens after the restoration.
Clearly Peter cites this as applying to Pentecost.
But what of verses 30 and 31? The sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood isn't restoration, but destruction.
So, is Israel destroyed?
32 "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the Lord has said, Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
Clearly Joel intends destruction, and says that those who call upon God and are called by Him will be saved.
Paul cites this verse in Romans 10, and then in Romans 11, speaks of God's promises to Israel being fulfilled through the remnant.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same [Lord] is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in [the passage about] Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life." 4 But what is the divine response to him? "I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to [God's] gracious choice.
So, the question is: Will the nation of Israel rise in the future as the people of God and worship in their temple? Is there a promise of restoration from the last prophet to them, namely Jesus Christ?
Michael