(Pt. 3 – You’re Back In)

Longing for Zion

God provided a land for his people, Israel, to inhabit.  Through the law, he established a different way of life for them, contrary to the practices of the surrounding nations. Their way of life and worship of God was to be a light to the nations. But when Israel rejected God’s ways, worshipped other gods, and embraced the culture of their pagan neighbors, they were removed from the land of promise.  Although exiled, the promise of returning to the land echoed in the backs of their minds as an ancient promise echoing through the corridors of time. The Psalmist perfectly captures the sentiment.

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion…
How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?  If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!  Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!
Psalm 137

Through the centuries, the Jewish soul has longed, “L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim,” translated as “Next year in Jerusalem.” It was a traditional phrase concluding the Jewish Passover Seder and Yom Kippur services, expressing a longing for redemption, rebuilding of Jerusalem, and solidarity with the Jewish people. It represented hope for a future of peace, freedom, and spiritual fulfillment. 

Prophets Saw a Future

The prophets spoke of a time when Israel would return to their land, a time when God would live with his people in the land, as a reconstituted Eden.  But it must be different this time; she must have the strength and power to live in God’s ways. Sheer willpower and resolutions are inadequate to restrain the human heart bent toward evil. If we live long enough, we eventually realize we are not nearly as strong as we thought.  Only God can fulfill God’s covenant and laws. But what if God could live in his people; what if his Spirit could dwell within us?  That was the hope and promise the prophets saw on the horizon.

“Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’ For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.”
Jeremiah 31:8-12

Isaiah saw something similar.

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.”
Isaiah 62:1-4

Can we hear God’s heart in the scriptures above? Treating Israel as his first-born son, rescuing him from enemies much stronger, taking delight in his people and his land.  But it was not just a promise of return to the land.  There was a new and better covenant yet to come. Back in the land with a better covenant, what could be better?

A New and Better Covenant

Even though his rebellious brethren were to be exiled, that was not the end of their destiny.  This is what the Lord allowed the prophet to see.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34

Many know this text as the new covenant that was prophesied in the Old Testament. It is one of (if not the most) important doctrines we share in our faith, and it should be.  But here’s the kicker, it was not given to the church, but to Israel and Judah. If we were to read on to verses 35-37, God (as Israel’s husband) reconnects with his estranged wife, confirming that her restoration is as certain as the fixed order of sun, moon, and stars.  

Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar– the LORD of hosts is his name: “If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.” Thus says the LORD: “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD.”
Jeremiah 31:35-37

God has laid down the challenge for those wanting to eliminate or replace Israel.  If someone can stop the fixed order of the heavens above and explore the foundations of the earth, only then will he cast off Israel.

These ideas were not just spoken by the prophet Jeremiah 2600 years ago, not at all, they were restated during the church age in the book of Hebrews (written to Jews), echoing the very words of the prophet.

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Hebrews 8:6-13

Several things we should notice in these passages about the covenant.

• There was nothing inherently wrong with the Old Covenant. The fault lay in the people’s weakness and inability to abide by the terms of that covenant (Jer. 31:32; Ps. 78:10).
• Secondly, notice that both covenants (Old and New) are made with Israel, not the church.  The church is “grafted in” to Israel’s covenant with God.
• The law does not go away in the New Covenant; rather, it moves from an external law to a law written on the heart, a “circumcision of the heart,” which we saw earlier,  or as Paul calls it in Romans, the “law of the Spirit of life.”
• And finally, the way of forgiveness and life with God is only through the covenant; there is no alternative pathway.  

A Father’s Compassionate Heart

There is one more passage I need to share before we end today.  It speaks of God as the parent of a wayward and rebellious firstborn child. Many of us understand firsthand what that kind of pain feels like, and I assure you that your heavenly Father understands. 

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
…
How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O  Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.  I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.
Hosea 11:1-4; 8-9

Can we feel God’s heartbeat for his people? Although judgment is deserved and would likely be the human response, God says he is not a man and will not respond in kind.  His compassion is warm and tender, and although Israel will have to walk through deep troubles ahead, in the end, she will be restored.

Do we see Israel’s restoration as a significant theme in the Old Testament?  But it’s not just the Hebrew scriptures. Beginning in our next post in this series, we discover how Israel’s restoration appears in the New Testament and its implications for the body of Christ.

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Further Study

Supposing you would like to study Israel’s restoration further.  Here are some passages you might consider.  Listed below are the references; I list some of the themes I picked out from the verses.  Do you see the same things or pick out different ones?

Here are the scriptures:
Jeremiah 16:14-21
Ezekiel 11:16-21
Ezekiel 34:11 – 24
Ezekiel 36:16 – 38
Isaiah 11:11-12
Amos 9:11-15
Genesis 17:7 – 8

Themes (not in particular order)

• A connection to the patriarchs – to whom the promises were given as an everlasting possession
• Israel’s return from all nations, not just Egypt
• Israel’s restoration to the land is because God is vindicating his own name, not because of Israel’s meritorious behavior.
• Israel’s restoration is not without discipline. 
• The restoration is connected to the new covenant. (New Spirit he will put within them)
• The promise includes land and God’s blessing on the land
• A connection to the latter days
• Israel’s time of restoration will be a time of judgment on the wicked
• Restoration embodies the imagery of the good shepherd
• Israel’s repentance
• Isaiah sees the regathering as a second regathering of the peoples
• At the end, we discover a reconstituted Eden