God’s
everlasting covenant with Israel will be fully realized when Jesus
returns to deliver and restore the faithful remnant of God's elect
nation. At God’s appointed time, the nation will be gathered and
restored to her land to rest in perfect peace under the reign of God’s
anointed King of righteousness. Jesus is Israel’s Messiah. Through
Christ, all of God’s promises to the nation will be fulfilled.
One of God's covenant promises to Abraham was that through one of His
descendants, blessing would come to families of every nation (Gen 12:3).
In 4 BC, the promised Seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David was born.
The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s eternal Son, came into the world in the
flesh to take away the sins of the world and to provide redemption to
all who believe in Him for salvation.
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God, came in the flesh to provide the perfect sacrifice that would
remove the sins of God’s people. Jesus willingly laid down His own life
on the cross, bearing the sin of the world in order that we might become
the righteousness of God. When a sinner turns to Christ believing that
He is the Son of God whose death on the cross, burial and resurrection
from the dead provides the only way of salvation, the sinner is forgiven
by God’s grace and receives the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.
To the praise of God’s glorious grace, He reconciles sinners to Himself
through faith alone in the Person and work of His Eternal Son, Jesus
Christ. By the power of Christ’s blood, the sin of the redeemed is
removed completely and eternally. On the basis of Christ’s perfect
righteousness, God justifies sinners, declaring them to be in right
standing before His holy throne. Justified by God’s grace through faith
in the Gospel, sanctified by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and
imputed with His perfect righteousness by faith, sinners are reborn by
the Spirit of God and given new life.
Jesus is the prophesied
Messiah who will also redeem and restore the elect of Israel. During
this age of the Gentiles, the majority of Israel remains hardened in
unbelief. But when Jesus returns at the end of this age, He will
regather the faithful remnant of Israel. All who repent and believe in
Jesus as God’s Son, anointed Messiah and Lord, will be restored in the
land promised to Abraham and his seed.
Satan waged war against
Jesus when He came in the flesh to redeem sinners and destroy the work
of the devil. Satan worked evil through Herod when he ordered all the
infant boys in Bethlehem to be killed in an attempt to kill the Savior
and Lord of God’s people. However, God’s sovereign power and purposes
cannot be thwarted. Jesus triumphed over sin through His death on the
cross, and He conquered the grave when He was resurrected from the dead.
All who believe in Jesus are saved and become God's children of light.
Satan lost the battle against Jesus, but he continues to wage war
against God’s covenant nation. Presently, many Jews are gathering in
Israel according to God’s promises to the covenant nation. Satan has
stirred anti-Semitism in the world since the ascension of Christ. The
prejudice against the Jewish people continues, but God’s covenant
promises to the nation remain forever. At God’s appointed time, the
elect remnant of Israel will turn to Jesus for salvation, and He will
deliver, save, restore and glorify the elect nation of God.
God’s covenant promises to Abraham and his seed are recorded: “Now the
Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your
father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a
great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that
you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who
dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth
shall be blessed” (Gen 12:1-3).
Abraham believed and journeyed
to the land of Canaan. In this foreign land, the word of the Lord came
to Abraham in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward
shall be very great" (Gen 15:1). God promised Abraham that his son would
be his heir.
Because Abraham was old and childless, he
struggled to understand how God could create from his seed a great
nation. The Lord God took Abraham outside and said, "'Look toward
heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.' Then he
said to him, 'So shall your offspring be" (Gen 15:5). Abraham believed
the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6).
On the day that the Lord ratified his covenant with Abraham, He also
promised, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt
to the great river, the river Euphrates" (Gen 15:18). The land was
included in God's covenant with Abraham and his seed.
The Lord
opened Sarah's barren womb, and she gave birth to Isaac, who became
Abraham's heir of the covenant promises. Through Isaac, the covenant
promises were conveyed to Jacob, who became the father of twelve sons,
who became the twelve tribes of Israel.
Israel has been the
source of blessing to families from every nation, just as God promised.
From the seed of David of the tribe of Judah, the Messiah was born in
the flesh, just as it was prophesied through Jacob to his son, Judah,
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from
between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the
obedience of the peoples” (Gen 49:10).
God later made an
eternal covenant with King David, Israel’s first monarch from the tribe
of Judah. The Davidic Covenant further clarified the eternal throne of
the Messiah, the King of Israel:
“Now, therefore, thus you shall say
to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the
pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my
people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut
off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great
name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a
place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they may dwell
in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall
afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges
over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.
Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will
raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I
will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I
will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will
discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,
but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul,
whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall
be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established
forever” (2 Sam 7:8-16).
When the eternal Son of God became the
Son of Man, He descended in the flesh from the seed of David to
establish God’s kingdom. The throne of Jesus Christ has been established
forever. Jesus, God's anointed King of Israel, came in the flesh, and
will return as the Lion of Judah to deliver the covenant nation from her
enemies. All nations will bow before His throne, and He will rule over
God’s kingdom on earth with a rod of iron, securing God’s people through
His reign of perfect wisdom, righteousness, peace, and justice.
The Church is the living body of Christ, called to serve as Christ’s
ambassadors in the world. Through Christ, we have direct access to the
throne of God Almighty. In light of God’s heart for Israel, the apple of
His eye, Christians should pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for her
heart to respond in faith to the Gospel. Glorify and honor God by
blessing Israel through your prayers. Pray that her eyes will be opened
and her mind enlightened to the truth of Jesus Christ, and that through
Christ, God will gather His beloved under the shadow of His wing to
rejoice and sing His praise once again.
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