THE PALESTINIAN COVENANT continued
Deut. 30:3
Today we
shall continue with this covenant as we examine verse 3. We have written about the dispersion of the
nation of Israel as a
chastisement for their disobedience, verse 1.
We have also written about the future repentance of Israel, verse
2. Let us see the return of the Lord in
verse 3. "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."
This is magnificent. We
Christians talk about our Lord's second coming or His return. At this point He had not come the first
time. No one knew that Jesus would come,
go back to Heaven, and then come back again, but God did. He knows the end from the beginning. Here 1450 some years before Christ came, God
is talking about returning to Israel. The actual time of this
return will be when He comes back to this earth again.
The
prophet Amos told us in Amos 9:9ff that God will command and sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet the
least grain will not fall to the ground.
He says that all the sinners of Israel will die by the sword, that is all that say the evil shall not
overtake nor prevent us. This lets us
know that God knew Israel would become so unbelieving of God that she would
die. Amos goes on in verse 11 to tell us
that God will raise up the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down. He will raise her up from her ruins and will
build it as in the days of old. He goes
on to say that Israel will possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen.
In that time He says the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the
treader of grapes will overtake him that soweth seed. He says the mountains will drop sweet
wine. In this setting God promises to
bring again the captivity of Israel, that is to bring them back from their dispersion. He says they will build the waste cities and
inhabit them; and that they will plant vineyards and drink of the wine. They will also make gardens, and eat of their
fruit. This is a prophecy of
prosperity. God promises further to
plant them upon their land, that is all the land from the River of Egypt to the
River Euphrates. Furthermore God says
they will then never more be pulled up out of their land which God has given
them.
In
Acts 15:14ff we see that Simeon had declared how God at the first visited
the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his Name. That is what is going on in our time, but
this is not the end. Verse 15 tells us
that the prophets agreed with this. Then
in verse 16, 17 we read, "After this
I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen
down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the
residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my
name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.”
` It
is this for which we now look and pray with John, even so come, Lord Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment