Land of Israel Part II: Yahweh Righteously Divorced Israel
Israel’s Revolt Against God
Below please find the historical record of God’s reasons for allowing the Assyrian Captivity which occurred in 722 B.C.
2 Kings 17:20-23 describes this revolt, and the captivity of the Ten Tribes of Israel called Israel.
2 Kings 17:20 says, “So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.”
2 Kings 17:21 says, “When the LORD had torn Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam led Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit a great sin.
2 Kings 17:22 says, “The Israelites persisted in all the sins that Jeroboam had committed and did not turn away from them.”
Finally, Yahweh removed Israel from His presence, as He had declared through all His servants the prophets. So, Israel was exiled from their homeland into Assyria, where they are to this day.”
Israel’s Sins Against Yahweh
God warned the Ten Tribes of Israel many times to abandon their idolatry (2 Kings 17:7-17). Below we quote God, who clearly shows what Israel and Judah became in their histories.
2 Kings 17:7 says, “All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods.”
So, Israel’s sin caused the Assyrian Captivity of the northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.
God raised up a powerful nation named Assyria.
King Menahem of Israel paid tribute to Assyria (2 Kings 15:19-20).
The northern cities in Israel fell to Assyria first (2 Kings 15:29).
Shalmaneser V wanted to expand Assyria further. He aimed at Samaria, the Capital city of Israel.
Many Israelite families went into captivity never to return. They blended into the pagan societies where they went. They were already like the idolatrous nations before their captivity. So, they fit right in.
God was faithful and patient with Israel for years.
The captivity was certainly not God’s fault. It was true that He quit protecting them but His wayward wife went her own way.
19 evil kings ruled Israel. They had no godly kings. And the people were as sinful as the monarchs.
Israel had 9 dynasties. (1) God ended each of them, punishing the king and the people for their sins.
God waited 430 years for the Amorites to degenerate enough to evict them from the land of Canaan.
Genesis 15:16 says, “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Israel (the ten tribes), also known as the northern kingdom began in sin and ended in sin.
Some individual Israelites returned to the land by permission of King Cyrus when he authorized the return of any who wanted to go back to the land (Isaiah 45:13).
Isaiah 45:13 says, “I will raise up Cyrus in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild My city and set My exiles free, but not for payment or reward, says the LORD of Hosts.”
The primary sin for which God allowed their deportation was idolatry and all the promiscuity that goes with it. Against this God had warned.
Another sin mentioned in 2 Kings 17:7 was ingratitude toward God after He brought them out of slavery in Egypt.
Israel had feared gods who could do them no good. They could not hear, see, or think. It was superstition instead of trusting and obeying the true God of Heaven and earth.
Lesson: We cannot put anything ahead of God. Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.”
2 Kings 17:8 says, “and walked in the customs of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel.”
Leviticus 18:3 says, “You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs.”
Israelites wanted to be like other nations, which is the sin of worldliness.
Canaanites’ ejection from the land should have been a warning to Israel.
Going to Jerusalem three times per year as God commanded, was burdensome for all the males to do. But they would not have stopped doing it unless it was King Jeroboam’s political will.
2 Kings 17:9 says, “The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city, they built high places in all their cities.”
The Israelites may have thought that God did not know about their idolatrous sins.
They probably thought that they worshipped the true God by worshipping the calves at Bethel and Dan.
They put high places of worship on every hill & idols under every green tree.
They did not seem to be content with old idols; they built new ones. And they thought they did not have enough idols; Israel built many more.
2 Kings 17:10 says, “They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.”
They put idols in groves of trees & on every high hill. All this was in the face of God who said, “You shall have no other god before Me. You shall not worship them nor bow down to them.”
Jeremiah 3:6 says, “Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.”
God considered His nation’s idolatry to be prostitution. Israel was His wife.
1 Kings 14:23 says, “They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.”
2 Kings 17:11 says, “They burned incense on all the high places like the nations that the LORD had driven out before them. They did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger.”
Even the tribe of Judah burnt incense to their gods on high places.
It took 430 years from the time of Genesis 15:16 until the iniquity of the Amorites was full. But Israel degenerated much more rapidly than the Amorites.
2 Kings 17:12 says, “They served idols, although the LORD had told them, “You shall not do this thing.”
Exodus 20:3 says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
So, immorality, idolatry, and knowing the truth [and not obeying it] sped up the time until God judged Israel.
2 Kings 17:13 says, “Yet through all His prophets and seers, the LORD warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.”
Prophets that God used to speak to Israel were Ahijah the Shilonite, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Jonah, Micah & others.
Yahweh told them to turn from their calves, Baals, and Molechs many times.
Through the prophets He reproved and exhorted. He often, in patience, did not do what He threatened to do but always promised that if they did not turn back to Him, He would disperse them among other nations.
He told them that they had no right to the land if they did not obey Him.
At Mount Sinai Israel had agreed that they would keep His laws (Exodus 19:8).
Exodus 19:8 says, “The people all responded together, ‘We will do everything the LORD has said. So, Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.’”
It was not only by promises that He gave them the land; He also gave it to them by covenant. But the eternal part of the promise and covenant was only for those who were people of faith. Otherwise, He would not have ejected them from the land. If the eternal part of the covenant was for all Jews regardless of their sin, all Jews would have inherited the land forever, even into eternity. But many Israelites died and went to Sheol in the Old and New Testament times.
The greater land is Heaven. And the only way to go to Heaven is in God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:14-19). This is true, whether living in Old or New Testament times.
2 Kings 17:14 says, “But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the LORD their God.”
They refused to hear God’s instructions, advice, and admonitions.
Their fathers in the wilderness refused to listen to God also.
Oxen stiffen their necks so that the yoke will not fit on. The Israelites did not want to worship God.
Deuteronomy 4:25-26 prophesies, “if you then act corruptly and make an idol of any form—doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoking Him to anger— 26I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it but will be utterly destroyed.” (2)
Note that the nation of Israel consisted of two kinds of people as below:
The first kind of Israelites of the Old Testament were those who were steeped in sin. They were those who did not have personal faith in Yahweh. They had no Savior from sin. They were people like the ten spies who were unwilling to believe God.
The second kind of Israelites in the Old Testament were those who died with Christ at the cross. They had personal faith in Yahweh/Jesus. They were people like Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Leah, Joseph, Joshua, Caleb, Rahab, Ruth, Samuel, David, God’s prophets, and the rest of those in Hebrews chapter 11.
TABULAR VIEW OF TWO KINDS OF ISRAELITES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
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1st kind |
Unbelieving and Idolatrous Israelites |
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2nd kind |
People of faith like Abraham |
Forgiveness of the Old Testament sins of individual believing Israelites occurred at Jesus’ cross (Romans 3:25-26). The “sins committed beforehand” of Romans 3:25 were the sins of Old Testament believers.
Romans 3:25-26 says, “God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. 26He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.”
2 Kings 17:15 says, “They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols. They themselves became worthless, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.”
TABULAR VIEW OF GODS COVENANTS WITH ISRAEL
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God made an unconditional covenant (3) with Abraham Genesis 15:18 (4) |
God chose Abraham to obey Him (Gen 18:19) |
“For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” (Genesis 18:19) |
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God made a conditional covenant(5) with the nation of Israel (Exodus 19:8) |
If the nation obeyed, they could have the land but if not, God expelled them. |
“And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 28:2) “If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you” (Deuteronomy 28:15) |
2 Kings 17:16 says, “They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal.”
For a picture of an Asherah Pole please follow this link.
Israel abandoned all Yahweh’s commandments.
They worshipped images, calves, the host of Heaven, and served idols.
James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”
They worshipped the sun, moon, stars, Saturn, Mars, Mercury, and Venus.
They used divination to try to find out what to do and what would happen in the future. This was instead of simply listening to Yahweh.
1 Kings 16:31 says, “And as if it were not enough for him [Ahab] to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he even married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and he then proceeded to serve and worship Baal.”
2 Kings 17:17 says, “They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.”
Both Baal and Molech worshippers used human sacrifices at times.
Deuteronomy 18:10 says, “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,”
They were such servants of sin that they sold themselves as slaves to sin.
They neglected the Word of the true God but used divination to find the will of the idol for their present time and for their future.
By Covenant God could have destroyed Israel. But He was so very patient with them for years.
God divorced the Northern Kingdom of Israel for Adultry, but He did not divorce individual Israelites from the prophecies.
God divorced Israel (Hosea 1:9; 2:2; Jeremiah 3:1). The divorce was legal and necessary.
Hosea 1:9 says, “And the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not your God.”
Hosea 2:2 says, “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.” (6)
But God still saves individual Israelites in Jesus the Messiah (Romans 9:23-24).
Romans 9:23-24 says, “What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory 24including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles.”
The vessels of God’s mercy among the Israelites were those whom He chose and redeemed in Christ. They were those who accepted Yahweh/Messiah as Lord and Savior.
The Holy Spirit stated the time of God’s choice of the Israelites as “whom He prepared in advance.” God chose them before creation. He prepared them for salvation between the times of their conception in the womb and of their salvation.
God’s decrees are unimpeachable.
And Election unto salvation is one of His decrees.
The unbelieving Jews are already on their way to hell. To remove them from their place of prestige as God’s adopted nation for just cause is righteous.
The point is: what complaint can anyone make if God cast away Israelites who hate Him. They are already, by their own choices, going to hell. They are so sinful that they cannot return to Him.
If any Israelite complains about this, our Lord Jesus stands with open arms to welcome him to salvation. Salvation from sin in Christ is far better than membership in a Synagogue. In Christ, the Jewish Messiah, there are abundant spiritual treasures from God. These are justification, purification, sanctification, adoption, and glorification in Heaven. They are priceless blessings.
God is using Jewish unbelief to make His glory known among those Jews and Gentiles whom He chose in Christ.
These He prepared by their births and natural growth.
Romans 9:25 quotes Hosea 1:10 as follows, “Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
Notice that Hosea 1:10 does not foretell the rebirth of the nation of Israel. Rather, it prophesies multitudes of Israelites and Gentiles that God saves by grace through faith in Messiah. See the Jewish Apostle Paul’s interpretation of Romans 9:25 above.
God dispersed the Israelites among the Gentile nations as seed.
Then, after generations, He saved the elect among Jews and Gentiles in the same place [geographical location] in which He sowed them [in Gentile nations].
God had sowed Israelites of the captivity among the Gentile nations.
And He is still saving Israelites among the Gentile nations.
But the countless number of Israelites who become “sons of the living God” are in Christ, not in the Law of Moses. Paul writes in a Christian context.
So, the nation that God adopted was only a shadow nation which expected the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and His new spiritual nation (1 Peter 2:9).
The people of Jesus’ nation do inherit a land, but it is the new earth (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1).
The nation of Israel of the Exodus was not an eternal nation. It had a beginning and an ending. The terms of the relationship between Israel and God were conditional. Israel agreed to a conditional covenant(7). God pledged to do His part if Israel did her part.
Believing the opposite is superstition.
God gave Israel a conditional covenant. And none of the Hebrews except our Lord Jesus Christ obeyed that [Mosaic] covenant.
God was completely just in allowing the Romans to destroy Galilee and Judah in 70 A.D. That was because He conditioned His covenant with that nation upon their obedience(8). They broke the covenant which they agreed to keep. God did not break it. He was always kind to His adulterous wife [Israel]. Finally, out of respect for the land, He divorced her (Please see Jeremiah chapter 3 below).
By His law God had to divorce the nation of Israel.
Jeremiah 3:1 says, “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many [idol] lovers— and you would return to Me?”
So, God cannot return to the nation of Israel as a nation. But He can return to Israelites individually. That is what He does in the New Testament through salvation in Christ. For the explanation of this please follow our link below:
https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/prophecy/the-fullness-of-israel-and-the-gentiles
Commenting on Jeremiah 3:1 Dr. John Gill, in his Baptist Commentary says, “shall not that land be greatly polluted? either Judea, or any other, where such usages should obtain; for this, according to the law, was causing the land to sin, filling it with it, and making it liable to punishment for it; this being an abomination before the Lord. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render it, "shall not that woman be defiled?" she is so by the latter husband; and that is a reason why she is not to be received by the former again” (Deuteronomy 24:4).
Deuteronomy 24:4 says, “then the husband who divorced her first may not remarry her after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination to the LORD. You must not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.”
To re-marry your wife after she leaves you and marries another man puts sin in the land. God strictly forbids you to remarry your ex-wife if she has married another and then divorces.
To commit such sin in the land causes the land to sin. Israel played the harlot with many idol lovers both before and after the divorce. Now, if she wants to return to God [her former husband], she sins. When she sins, she puts more sin in the land. That is one reason why the former husband must not receive her as wife again (Deuteronomy 24:4; Jeremiah 3:1).
God’s point is that He must follow His own law. He has a wife also.
God’s wife Israel sinned against Him far more than any man’s wife sins against her husband.
God tells us that we cannot take our former wife back after we divorce her and after she remarries. So, God cannot take Israel back as a nation after He divorces her and lets her play the harlot all she wants. To do so defiles the land and Heaven. The land connects to Heaven.
Repeating Jeremiah 3:1 as follows, “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.
If the inhabitants of the land sin, the land sins. Man’s sin defiles Heaven and the amoral land to which God connected Heaven. Note that God personifies the land. That is, He speaks of the land as if it is a person, to make a point.
The land is a ceremonial holy thing like the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark pictures Christ while the land pictures Heaven, the place of fellowship with God.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel never returned to the land as the ten tribes or as a nation.
The Israelites never returned from the Assyrian Captivity to the land of Israel. A few did but the Assyrians re-populated the Northern Kingdom of Israel with Gentiles. Hence, we have New Testament Samaria, named from the Capital City of Israel of the northern kingdom. But the Judahites did not venture into Samaria because half-breeds filled it.
And God, through Isaiah 9:1 calls Galilee, Galilee of the Nations [Gentiles] because so many Gentiles mixed with the un-deported and/or trickling back Israelites. Matthew 4:15 says, “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.”
The land of Israel on the east side of the Jordan River was, in Isaiah 9:2 called the land of darkness because it was so pagan. But both John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus the Messiah found reception of the Gospel invitation there.
Matthew 4:16 quotes Isaiah 9:2, referring to Christ and His ministry there as follows: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”
That light, of course, was our Lord Jesus Christ. He did not come as a military Messiah, but as a suffering, dying, resurrecting, ascending, saving, and ruling Messiah. He defeated the ultimate enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil by dying for individual Israelites and Jews. He re-united them with saved Gentiles in Himself as One New Man (Ephesians 2:14-16).
He welcomed Galileans who came to Him in repentance and faith.
Our sins defile Heaven. If we were to go to Heaven in our sinful state, we would defile Heaven. That is why we cannot go to Heaven unless we are sinless. Because God charges the guilt of our sins to Christ, we can go to Heaven. Christ, by His death for us erases our sins from God’s just mind and from our consciences.
Commenting on Deuteronomy 24:4 Dr. John Gill in his Baptist Commentary says, “and thou shalt not cause the land to sin which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance; since if this was allowed, that men might put away their wives, and take them again at pleasure, and change them as often as they thought fit, no order could be observed, and the utmost confusion in families introduced, and lewdness encouraged, and which would subject the land and the inhabitants of it to many evils and calamities, as the just punishment thereof.”
Note that there is a holy place for holy people. When the people sin, it defiles the land. God gave the land to be a holy land, set apart for Him and for His people. When the people sin against God, they become unholy, and their land becomes unholy as well. This is why God took the land away from Israel in the Assyrian Captivity.
And the Israelites of the Assyrian Captivity never returned to the land as a nation. Some returned individually with the Judahites, but they were individuals. Israel, the northern kingdom never returned.
In Jeremiah 3:14-15 God once again invited Israelites to return. But this time His invitation was to individual descendants of Israel. It was not to national Israel.
Jeremiah 3:14-15 says, “Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion. 15Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
The Scripture above prophesies Pastors [Shepherds] of Churches. Pastors are shepherds..
God promised to receive returning Israelites “one from a city and two from a family.” This was not a national return. It was a “whosoever will” return. It was a New Testament kind of return.
When Old Testament Judah returned to their land, some few Israelites went back with them. But the main migration back to the land was to Christ during His earthly ministry. It was literal because Yahweh was there. But it was also a spiritual change of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is Yahweh. He is the Yahweh of Judah. He built heavenly Jerusalem. He ascended into Heaven and welcomes all Israelites to come to Him in repentance and in faith. He is Yahweh who also is God’s suffering servant of Isaiah 53. He is the One to whom Israelites return “one from a city and two from a family.”
He welcomed the twelve Jewish apostles, the 120 Jewish Church members, the 500 Galileans, the 3000 [Jews and Proselytes] whom He saved at Pentecost, the 5000 men who believed, the gentile centurion Cornelius, and the hundreds of thousands who embraced Christ during the first century of the Christian Church.
Jesus Christ also saved countless gentiles, whom God adopted into the Church as spiritual descendants of Abraham (Galatians 3:29; John 1:11-13).
And Paul, who was amid this huge harvest of souls, shows that it was all in fulfillment of God’s prophecy in Hosea chapters 1 and 2 (Romans 9:25-26).
Romans 9:25 says, “As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”
Romans 9:26 says, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
Paul says that the salvation of believing Jews and Gentiles in Christ fulfills the prophecy of Hosea 1:10 (Romans 9:30-33).
Romans 9:30 says, “What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;”
Romans 9:31 says, “but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.”
Romans 9:32 says, “Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,” Romans 9:33 says, “as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
Israel returned and is still returning to Mount Zion above.
But they returned individually to the Zion and Jerusalem above (Hebrews 12:22-24).
Hebrews 12:22-24 says, “Instead, you [Hebrews] have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels 23in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
The above is the place to which the returning Israelites came back in the New Testament times. This fulfills the prophecy of Jeremiah chapter 3 and Hosea chapters 1 and 2.
In the context of Hebrews chapter 12, the Apostle says that the Hebrews did not come to Mount Sinai, a most uninviting place. Instead, they came to the place of grace, the New Jerusalem and to our Lord Jesus. This was just as Jeremiah prophesied in chapter 3:14.
Jeremiah 3:14 says, “Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.”
God divorced Israel, the northern Kingdom. It appeared to be the end. But He welcomed individuals from the nation and from families back to Himself. God sowed Israelites in foreign lands. Their descendants sprouted in those lands and returned there to Yahweh Jesus by faith spiritually.
Please study Romans 9:23-29, which explains the return of the Jews as their salvation in Christ.
Illustration: Perhaps you own your own home and property. You own it but God owns it. But if you sin against God, falling into idolatry, God will, though patient with you, ultimately take your land from you. The ultimate removal of our land on earth is when people go to hell.
It was the same with Israel. God always retained ownership of the land. But He keeps His arms wide open to those who come individually to Him. Come to Jesus in repentance and faith.
God always retained ownership of the land.
He never gave it to Israel unconditionally. If they did not do right, they could not stay there.
Leviticus 25:23 says, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity for the land is mine, with me you are but aliens and tenants." The "people of the land" are tenants in God's land.
God never gave the land to Israel for Israel to own it instead of Yahweh.
God fulfills His promises. Christ is the heir of all things and is the Seed to whom God made the promises. He gives the new earth to Christ. Christ gives the new earth to all Abraham's regenerated children someday. “The meek shall inherit the [new] earth.”
We claim promises by faith not by being an ethnicity.
Psalm 37:9 says, “For the evildoers will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.”
So, one does not get the ultimate land unless he goes to Heaven.
The sins of the northern kingdom caused their permanent loss of the land.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Israel. He is and always has been sinless.
National Israel is not True Israel. God, speaking of Israel as His vineyard says,
“What more could I have done for My vineyard than I already did for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?” (Isaiah 5:4).
In the New Testament our Lord Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard” (John 15:1). Our Lord is referring to Isaiah chapter 5. Sinful Israel was God’s vine, but she had no fruit. Jesus says He is the true vine, also known as the true Israel.
For this please follow our post at the link below: https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/prophecy/the-new-testament-teaches-two-kinds-of-israels-seed
And to see the true meaning of Romans 11:26 “and so all Israel shall be saved,” please follow that link as follows: https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/prophecy/the-fullness-of-israel-and-the-gentiles
Meanwhile, there are several previous posts to read in this blog study of prophecy.
Please go to www.williamrandolphpublishing.com Then click on “blog” and then click on “prophecy.”
Conclusion
Since the northern kingdom, called “Israel” did not return to the land nationally,
And since Jesus in Matthew 21:43 says, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you [national Israel] and given to a people producing its fruit.”
And since our Lord Jesus, in Matthew 21:38-44 foretold that God’s penalty on Israel and Judah for crucifying His Son was losing the Kingdom of God,
And since the only inspired record we have of the northern Kingdom of Israel’s ultimate return to the land is the New Testament,
And since the return of the remnant of Israel is to Christ and to His Heaven,
And since that return is to the Jerusalem above,
And since the return is to Christ, who is Yahweh,
And since Jeremiah chapter 3 foretold the return of individual Israelites, and not a national return to the land,
And since Scripture teaches that the land of Israel is a visible token of Heaven,
And since Romans 11:1 asks the question: “Has God cast away His people?”
And since Romans 11:2 answers that question by saying, “God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew,”
And since Romans 8:29 teaches that God did not foreknow all Israelites,
And since, in the context of Romans chapter 11 the Holy Spirit goes on to explain that the foreknown remnant of Israel of the New Testament is the same remnant as the foreknown remnant in the Old Testament, the believers of both testaments,
And since our Lord taught that those descendants of Abraham who were trying to kill Him were not true children of Abraham (John 8:37-44),
And since the Apostle Paul [in Romans 2:28-29] taught that the true Israelites were not the natural Hebrews but were those of any nation who were Israelites in their hearts,
And since the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:6-9 proves that not all descendants of Abraham are true Israelites,
And since it was not God’s fault that the Assyrians deported the Northern Kingdom of Israel from their land of Israel,
And since we can conclude that God is perfectly just in expelling national Israel from the land while welcoming any Israelites who return to Him in repentance and faith,
And since when God welcomes any Israelite of faith to Himself, He has received Israel to Himself (Romans 11:1-2),
And since Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew that the ultimate land of Israel was Heaven (Hebrews 11:8-10, 14-16),
And since we must interpret promises of the Old Testament by consulting our Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles (the New Testament) on the return,
Therefore, we conclude that the prophecies of the return of Israel to the land are the return of believing individual remnant Israelites to Christ and His land, which is Heaven.
But what can we say of the multitude of Scriptures that seem to foretell the return of Israel and Judah to the earthly land? The answer to that question must await our next post in which [with God’s help] we shall show how the New Testament interprets of each of those prophecies.
And what can we say of Daniel 9:24-27 which many godly people say is about national Israel? The answer to this question must await our subsequent posts in which we will show that Daniel 9:24-27 is about our Lord Jesus the Messiah rather than being about unsaved Israel. We believe that the true Israel is Jesus Christ, the true seed of Abraham.
NOTES
(1) “A dynasty is a succession of rulers from the same family or line” by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
(2) Because of God’s patience and long-suffering, He does not always fulfill His threats at once. But He does fulfill them. He fulfilled Deuteronomy 4:25-26 in stages, culminating in AD-70.
(3) A covenant is like wedding vows in which each person pledges to do his/her part. Both profit from this. In the Bible, God pledges to do both parts if it is an unconditional covenant. The example is that God chose Abraham to be responsible to Him. But because Abram, without God would only sin continuously, God chose him for salvation and “to bring to Abraham what He had promised him.” So, the [covenant was unconditional to Abraham. He had no ultimate conditions to save himself. He put his life in God’s hands and God vowed to make sure Abraham fulfilled his part of the covenant. In short, God chose him to be holy and God brought it to pass. But Abraham was responsible to God to do right.
(4) Genesis 15:18 says, “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.” In our previous post we showed that God connected this land to Heaven. And we demonstrated that Abraham’s primary descendant is Christ. And our Lord Jesus ratified an eternal covenant with His death. The inheritance under the Mosaic Covenant was the land. But the greater land was the eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9:15 says, “Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first [Mosaic] covenant. The New Testament use of the word “inheritance” is an extension of the land promise that God made to Abraham.
(5) A conditional covenant is one in which both covenanting parties pledge to do their part. If either breaks any vow, the covenant becomes null and void. So, God made a conditional covenant with the nation of Israel. He pledged to be their God but only if they obeyed Him. And God’s covenant with our Lord Jesus Christ was a conditional covenant. God’s Son agreed to obey God’s entire will for Him. He obeyed it all. God’s rewards for our Lord were His bride, the Church, the right to send the Holy Spirit to them, and the eternal rulership which He received (Acts 2:33). And Jesus is ultimately responsible to His Father to keep His people in the faith (John 17:20-24; Hebrews 6:9).
(6) For a more complete understanding of Hosea’s prophecy please follow this link for our blog post on The Return of Israel.
(7) Exodus 19:8 says, “And all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the LORD has spoken.”
(8) Exodus 19:8 says, “And all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the LORD has spoken.”
