God provided a land for his people Israel to inhabit.  Through the law he established a different way for them to live contrary to 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 was longing, “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, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and solidarity with the Jewish people. It represented hope for a future of peace, freedom, and spiritual fulfillment. 

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?  This was the promise the prophets saw on the horizon.

Below I’d like to ask you to look up several Old Testament references that telegraph the time of promised restoration.  I will first list the verses followed by the elements I noticed in the passages. See if you notice these elements or perhaps others which I overlooked.

Here are the scriptures:
Jeremiah 16:14-15
Ezekiel 11:16-20
Ezekiel 34:11
Ezekiel 36:16
Deut. 30:1-6
Isaiah 11:11-12
Amos 9:14-15
Genesis 17:8

Here are elements to watch for:

• A comparison between the old and new covenant
• A connection to the patriarchs – to whom the promises were given as an everlasting possession
• Israel’s return from all nations, not just Egypt
• 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 judgement on the wicked
• Israel’s repentance
• Israel’s restoration is as certain as the fixed order of the heavens
• At the end we discover a reconstituted Eden
• Finally, the why – God will restore Israel for the sake of his own name, not because of Israel’s goodness or merit.

As we conclude this post (so you can get to your study above), let me share a favorite passage of mine from Jeremiah which states:

“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

I love how God (as Israel’s forsaken husband) reconnects with his estranged wife. Then in verses 35-36, he confirms her restoration is as certain as the fixed order of sun, moon and stars.  

And one more that grips me is how God exposes his deep emotional pain and longing for Israel to his prophet Hosea.

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 judgement 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.

I trust that you can see Israel’s restoration is a significant theme in the Old Testament.  But it’s not just the Hebrew scriptures. In our next and final post of this series we will discover how Israel’s restoration shows up in the New Testament and its implications for the body of Christ.