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Chapter 2
The Certain Restoration Of Judah And Israel
The subject of this chapter is introduced with a concise
view of the expulsion of the ten tribes from the promised
land. The ten tribes revolted from the house of David, early
in the reign of Rehoboam, son and successor of king Solomon.
They received from this young prince treatment, which was
considered impolitic and rough; upon which they separated
themselves from that branch of the house of Israel, who,
from that time, have been distinguished by the name of Jews.
The revolting ten tribes submitted to another king,
Jeroboam. And this breach was never after healed. Jeroboam,
to perpetuate and widen this breach, and apprehending that
if the Jews and ten tribes amicably met for public worship,
according to the law of God, the rupture between them would
probably soon be healed, set up two golden calves, one in
Dan, and one in Bethel; and ordered that the ten tribes of
Israel should meet there for their public worship. He thus
"made Israel to sin." And would to God he had been the last
who has made the professed worshippers of Jehovah "to sin,"
by assigning them different places of worship, from motives
not more evangelical than those of Jeroboam.
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The ten tribes thus went off to idolatry. A line of kings
succeeded Jeroboam; but none of them, to the time of the
expulsion, were true worshippers of the God of Israel. By
their apostacy, folly, and idolatry, the ten tribes were
preparing themselves for a long and doleful rejection, an
outcast state for thousands of years. This Moses had
denounced; Deut. xxviii. And this God fulfilled.
Tiglah Pilnezer, king of Assyria, captured the tribes of
Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manessah, who lay east
of Jordan, and placed them in Halah, Harah, and Habor, by
the river Gozen.---1 Chro. v. 26. About twenty years after
(134 years before the Babylonish captivity of the Jews, and
725 years before Christ.) the rest of the ten tribes
continuing impenitent, Shalmanezer, the succeeding king of
Assyria, attacked Samaria, took the remainder of the ten
tribes, in the reign of Hoshea, king of Israel, carried them
to Assyria, and placed them with their brethren in Halah and
Habor, by the river Gozen in Media---2 Kings xvii. This
final expulsion of Israel from the promised land, was about
943 years after they came out of Egypt. The king of Assyria
placed in their stead, in Samaria, people from Babylon,
Cutha, Ava, Hama, and Sapharvaim. Here was the origin of the
mongrel Samaritans.
From this captivity the ten tribes were never recovered. And
they have long seemed to have been lost from the earth. They
seem to have been indeed "outcast ," from the social world,
and the knowledge of civilized man. The Jews, long after,
were dispersed among the nations; but have ever been known
as Jews. But not so with Israel. They have seemed strangely
to disappear from the world; and for 2500 years to have been
utterly lost.
What are we to believe concerning the ten tribes? Are they
ever again to be restored and known as the natural seed of
Abraham? Are they now in existence as a distinct people? If
so, where are they to be found? All parts of the world are
now so well known, that one would conceive the commonwealth
of Israel cannot now be found among the civilized nations.
Must we look for them in a savage state? If so, the
knowledge of their descent must be derived from a variety of
broken, circumstantial, traditionary evidence. Who, or
where, then, are the people who furnish the greatest degree
of this kind of evidence?
An answer, relative to their restoration, will be involved
in this chapter; and an answer to the other questions may be
expected in the chapter following.
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That the Jews are to be restored to Palestine as Jews, seems
evident from a variety of considerations. And that the ten
tribes of Israel will there be united with them, seems also
to be plainly predicted in the prophets.
Let the following things be considered:
1. The preservation of the Jews, as a distinct people, among
the many nations whither they have been dispersed, now for
nearly eighteen hundred years, affords great evidence, to
say the least, that the many predictions which seem to
foretel such a restoration are to have a literal
accomplishment. This their preservation is a most signal
event of providence. Nothing like it has ever, in any other
instance, been known on earth; except it be the case with
the ten tribes of Israel. Other dispersed tribes of men have
amalgamated with the people where they have dwelt, and have
lost their distinct existence. And nothing but the special
hand of God could have prevented this in the case of the
Jews. The event then shows, that God has great things in
store for them, as Jews. What can these things be, but the
fulfilment of those many prophecies which predict their
restoration to the land of their fathers, as well as their
conversion to the Christian faith?
2. That people have never, as yet, possessed all the land
promised to them; nor have they possessed any part of it so
long as promised. Hence their restoration to that land is
essential to the complete fulfilment of those ancient
promises. They were to possess the land to the river
Euphrates, and forever; or to the end of the world. God
promised to Abraham, Gen. xv. 18--- "Unto thy seed have I
given this land, from the river of Egypt, unto the great
river, the river Euphrates." Exod. xxiii. 31--- "And I will
set thy bounds from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the
Philistines, and from the desert unto the river (Euphrates;)
for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your
hands, and thou shalt drive them out before thee."--- Deut.
xi. 21--- "Every place wheron the sole of thy feet shall
stand, shall be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from
the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea,
shall your coast be." Here then, are the boundaries of this
ancient divine grant to Abraham and his natural seed.
Beginning at the river of Egypt, (a river not far from the
north-east corner of the Red Sea, and running into the
Mediterranean.) Thence northward, on the shore of the said
sea, as far as the point due west of Mount Lebanon. Thence
eastward, over said mountain, away to the river Euphrates.
Thence southward, as far as the north line of Arabia. Thence
westward, to the first named river. The
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whole of this territory, the natural seed of Abraham were to
possess "for ever." The inhabitants "should be driven out
before them." But this people anciently possessed but a
small part of this territory. There was indeed a kind of
typical possession of it in the reign of Solomon; --- which
reign was a type of the Millennium. (See Psalm lxxii.)
David, in his wars which were typical of the wars that will
introduce the Millennium, subdued and put under tribute the
Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites, and most of the nations
dwelling in the above named territories. And they continued
in subjection in the reign of Solomon. (See 1 Kings iv. 21.)
But those nations were not then driven out; nor was their
land possessed by the children of Abraham. They afterward
threw off their yoke, and were extremely troublesome to the
people of God. They were only made tributary during a part
of two reigns. But God promised --- Exod. xxiii. 31 --- "I
will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even to the sea of the
Philistines, and from the desert unto the river (Euphrates.)
For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your
hands, and thou shalt drive them out before thee." The land
east of Canaan, and away to the river Euphrates, was never
possessed by Israel. Their literal possession of that extent
of territory must be an event still future.
The promised land was given to Israel "for an everlasting
possession;" Gen. xvii. 8. Surely this must mean a longer
time than they did in ages past possess it. This promise
remains then to be yet fulfilled. It must mean an
undisturbed possession of it, so long as the possession of
it on earth may be desirable; or to the end of the world. We
accordingly find that people, at the time of the
introduction of the Millennium, expostulating with God, and
pleading that ancient grant; Isa. lxiii. 17,18; "O Lord, why
hast thou made us to err from thy way, and hardened our
heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the
tribes of thine inheritance. The people of thy holiness have
possessed it (thine inheritance) but a little while: our
adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. We are thine.
Thou never bearest rule over them; they are not called by
thy name." Here is a plea put in the mouths of the ancient
people of the Lord, at the time of their restoration, not
long before the battle of the great day, with a description
of which battle this chapter begins. They expostulate
relative to the sovereignty of God, in the resting of the
veil of blindness and hardness so long on their hearts,
during their long, rejected state. They plead that they are
God's servants, according to the ancient entail of the
covenant. They plead for a restoration;--- and
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plead that their nation had enjoyed, that their everlasting
inheritance, but a little while; but that a people not
called by God's name, nor governed by his word, had trodden
down the sanctuary; a description exactly fulfilled by the
Turks. This fully implies the entering again of the Jews
upon their ancient inheritance, in the last days.
3. I shall now adduce some of the numerous express
predictions of this event. In the prophecy of Ezekiel, the
restoration of the Jews and of Israel to their own land, as
well as their conversion in the last days, is clearly
predicted. In chapter xxxvi, we have their long dispersion,
and their guilty cause of it. But God, in the last days,
works for his own name's sake, and recovers them. God says,
"And I will sanctify my great name, which was professed
among the heathen; and the heathen shall know that I am the
Lord --- when I shall be sanctified in you before their
eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather
you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own
land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall
be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols
will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give unto you,
and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an
heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my
judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I
gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will
be your God. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways---
and shall loathe yourselves.---Not for your sakes do I this,
saith the Lord God, be it known unto you. Thus saith the
Lord God; in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all
your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell in the
cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate
land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight
of all the heathen that passed by. And they shall say, this
land that was so desolate is become like the garden of Eden;
and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become
fenced and are inhabited. Then the heathen who are left
round about you, shall know that I the Lord build the ruined
places, and plant that which was desolate. I the Lord have
spoken it, and I will do it." Here is their regeneration;
having a new heart; being cleansed from all sin. And beside
this, we find expressly promised their being reinstated in
the land of their fathers, which had long lain waste. They
rebuilid their ancient cities. That this is in the last
days, connected with the introduction of the Millennium, the
connexion of the whole passage, and the following chapters,
fully
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decide. Both houses of the descendants of Abraham, (viz,
Israel and Judah,) are recovered, as will be seen. Those
predictions cannot be fulfilled merely by the conversion of
that people. For over and above their express conversion,
they are established in the land of their fathers.
The prophet proceeds further to predict and illustrate the
wonderful event, by the resurrection of a valley of dry
bones, chap. xxxvii. which figure God thus explains:"Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they
say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut
off for our parts. Therefore prophecy, and say unto them;
thus saith the Lord God; behold, O my people, I will open
your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves,
and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know
that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my
people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put
my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you
in your own land. Then shall ye know that I the Lord have
spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord."
The re-union of the two branches of that people follows, by
the figure of the two sticks taken by the prophet. On the
one he writes, "For Judah, and for the children of Israel
his companions." Upon the other; "For Joseph, the stick of
Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions."
Lest any should say, the prediction which here seems to
foretel the restoration of the ten tribes, as well as that
of the Jews, were accomplished in the restoration of that
few of the Israelites who clave to the Jews under the house
of David, and the ten tribes are irrecoverably lost; it is
here expressed that the Jews and those Israelites, their
companions, were symbolized by one stick; and Ephraim, all
the house of Israel, (the whole ten tribes,) by the other
stick. These sticks miraculously become one in the prophet's
hand; which is thus explained. "Thus saith the Lord God;
Behold, I will take the children of Israel (their general
ancient name, including the twelve tribes) from among the
heathen, whether they be gone; and I will gather them on
every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will
make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of
Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they
shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided
into two kingdoms anymore at all. And they shall dwell in
the land that I gave unto Jacob, my servant, wherein your
fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even
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they and their children and their children's children
forever." Can a doubt here rest on the subject, whether the
Jews and the ten tribes shall be re-established in
Palestine? Can such divine testimony as this be done away?
But similar testimonies to the point are numerous in the
prophets. This passage has never yet received a primary, or
partial fulfilment. The whole of it remains to be fulfilled.
Some of the predictions which are to have an ultimate
accomplishment in this final restoration had a primary one
in the restoration from the seventy years captivity in
Babylon. But even this cannot be said of the prophecy under
consideration. None of those written on the second stick, in
the hand of the prophet, have ever yet been recovered. The
whole passage is intimately connected with the battle of
that great day, which introduces the Millennium; as appears
in the two following chapters. Here the house of Israel
enter again upon their everlasting possession of the land of
promise, which God engaged to Abraham.
A reiteration of these predictions is intermingled with the
predictions concering Gog, or the powers of Antichrist, to
be collected against the Jews, after their restoration, in
the two chapters succeeding. "In the latter years thou (Gog)
shalt comeinto the land that is brought back from the sword,
and gathered out of many people, against the mountains of
Israel, which have been always waste, (or have lain waste
for so many centuries during the dispersion of the Jews;)
but it (that nation) is brought back out of the nations, and
they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and
come like a storm; thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the
land, thou and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
Thus saith the Lord God; it shall also come to pass, that at
the same time, shall things come into thy mind, and thou
shalt think an evil thought; and thou shalt say, "I will go
up to the land of unwalled villages, (the state of the Jews
in Palestine, after their restoration;) I will go to them
that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them, dwelling
without walls, and having neither bars nor gates; to take a
spoil, and to take a prey, to turn thine hand upon the
desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people
that are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten cattle
and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land." "Thou shalt
fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands.
So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people
Israel; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the
Holy One of Israel. Behold, it is come, it is done, saith
the Lord God. This is the day whereof I have
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spoken. And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go
forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons---seven
years."
The whole account is thus divinely summed up.--- "Therefore,
thus saith the Lord God; now will I bring again the
captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of
Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; after that
they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses
whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt
safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have
brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of
their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight
of many nations; then shall they know that I am the Lord
their God, who caused them to be led into captivity among
the heathen; but I have gathered them into their own land,
and left none of them there (among the heathen) any more;
neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have
poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the
Lord God." It seems as though this were enough, if nothing
more were quoted from the prophets to prove our point. If
this proof should be deemed insufficient, one would be apt
to say, nothing that inspiration can assert upon the point,
could be deemed sufficient!
But that it may appear that the prophetic writings unite to
exhibit this as a great object of the Christian's belief, I
shall note some of the other predictions of it.
In Isaiah xi. the stem from the root of Jesse is promised.
The Millennium follows when the cow and the bear shall feed
together, and the wolf and the lamb unite in love; and
nothing more shall hurt or offend. "And it shall come to
pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again, the
second time, to gather the remnant of his people, who shall
be left, from Assyria and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and
from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Humah,
and from the isles of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign
for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather together the dispersed of Judah, from the four
corners of the earth." Here just before the Millennium, the
Jews and ten tribes are collected from their long
dispersion, by the hand of Omnipotence, set a second time
for their recovery. A body of the Jews, and some of several
other tribes, were recovered from ancient Babylon. God is
going, in the last days, to make a second, and more
effectual recovery from mystical Babylon, and from the four
quarters of the earth. The prophet proceeds; "And the Lord
shall utterly destroy
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the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind
shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it
in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod. And
there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people,
which shall be left from Assyria; like as it was to Israel
in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." Mr.
Scott, upon this passage, says; "For the Lord will then
remove all obstacles by the same powerful interposition,
that he vouchsafed in behalf of Israel, when He separated
the tongue, or bay of the Red Sea, and destroyed that
hindrance to the departure of Israel; and with a mighty wind
he will so separate the waters of the river Euphrates, in
all its streams, that men may pass over dry shod. Thus an
highway shall be made for Israel's return, as there was for
their ancestors to pass from Egypt into Canaan. This part of
the chapter contains a prophecy, which certainly remains yet
to be accomplished."---Bishop Lowth says the same; and adds,
as quoted by Mr. Scott, "This part of the chapter foretels
the glorious times of the church, which shall be ushered in
by the restoration of the Jewish nation, when they shall
embrace the gospel, and be restored to their own country.
This remarkable scene of Providence is plainly foretold by
most of the prophets; and by St. Paul. " We thus have the
testimony of those great men, Lowth and Scott, in favour of
a literal restoration of the Jews to their own land, being
here predicted. And here is a drying upof a mighty river, to
prepare the way for the event. A river is the symbol of a
nation. When Israel were to be redeemed from Egypt, the Red
Sea was to be dried up before them. When they were to be
redeemed from Babylon, the Euphrates was by Cyrus to be
dried or turned, to accomplish the event. And in their last
restoration to Palestine, (ere long to be accomplished,)
another great mystical river is to be dried up. The sixth
vial dries up the mystic Euphrates, that the way of the
kings of the east may be prepared. This is to be fulfilled
on the Turks. Perhaps the event is now transpiring. This
river is to be smitten in its seven streams; as stated in
this prophecy of Isaiah; perhaps indicating that the Turks,
be they ever so powerful in provinces and resources, as
seven is a number of perfection, they yet shall fall by the
remarkable hand of God, to accomodate the return of his
ancient people. These prophetic hints give an interest to
the present struggles in the south-east of Europe, or in
Greece.
In Jeremiah, xxiii. 6,8, is the restoration of Israel. "In
his days, (i.e. under the millennial reign of the righteous
branch raised up to David,) Judah shall be saved, and Israel
shall dwell safely; I will
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gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries, whither
I have driven them, and will bring them again to their
folds. Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that
they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, who brought up the
children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the Lord
liveth, who brought up, and who led the house of Israel out
of the north country, and from all countries whither I have
driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land." As
this event is under the reign of Christ, so it has never yet
been fulfilled. It is an event of the last days; and plants
the ancient people of God in their own land.
The same comparison of the same event, we find in Jeremiah
xvi. 14, 15. After denouncing their long dispersion for
their sins; God says," Therefore, behold the days come,
saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord
liveth that brought the children of Israel out of the land
of Egypt; but the Lord liveth that brought up the children
of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands
whither I had driven them; and I will bring them into their
land, that I gave unto their fathers."
In Isaiah xviii. a land shadowing with wings at the last
days, is by the Most High addressed, and called to aid this
restoration of that people of God. "Go, ye swift messengers,
to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from
the beginning hitherto; a nation meted out, and trodden
down; whose land the rivers have spoiled. In that day shall
the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts, of a people
scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from the
beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under
foot; whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of
the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion." The people here
described, (to be brought by that land addressed, as a
present to the Lord, to Mount Zion, or to Palestine,) are
evidently the descendants of Abraham, and an event of the
last days. A further explanation of this chapter is to be
given in the last chapter of this work.
The same thing is noted in Isaiah lx. The Jewish church is
called upon: "Arise, shine, for thy light is come and the
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. The gentiles shall
come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising. Who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves to
their windows? Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the
ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their
silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord
thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath
glorified thee." Here
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are ships conveying the Hebrews to Palestine, as clouds and
as doves to their windows. Chap. lxvi. 20: "And they shall
bring of your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of
all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters,
and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain
Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring
an offering in a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord."
In Zephaniah iii. 10. (connected with the battle of the
great day, and the Millennium.) we read; "From the rivers of
Ethiopia my suppliants (or worshippers) shall bring my
offering, even the daughter of my dispersed;" as the passage
should be rendered.
In Isaiah lxv. we find the sin, the dispersion, and the
gathering again, at the Millennium, of the ancient tribes of
the Lord. In relation to their gathering after their
banishment, and "their works are measured into their bosom,"
it follows; "Thus saith the Lord; As the new wine is found
in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not; for a
blessing is in it; so will I do for my servants' sakes that
I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed
out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains;
and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell
there." Here, after the long rejected state of Jacob and
Judah, a blessed remnant at last shall be recovered; --- a
seed from Jacob, (the ten tribes) and from Judah (the Jews)
an inheritor of Canaan, shall come and dwell in that land.
This has never yet been fulfilled. But it will be
accomplished when God will (as in the following verses)
"create new heavens and a new earth," in the millennial
glory of the church.
In Amos ix. 14, 15, is a prediction of this event. "And I
will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they
shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they
shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; and I
will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be
pulled up out of their land, which I have given them, saith
the Lord God." This restoration is surely future. For after
the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, they were
again expelled from their land, now for many centuries. But
after the restoration here promised, God says, "They shall
no more be pulled up out of their land. " This shows that
the restoration here promised is both future and literal.
Jer. xxx. 3; "For lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and
Judah, saith the Lord; and I will cause them to return to
the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall
possess it." In the restoration from Babylon, Israel was not
returned; and the Jews possessed their land but a short
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time. Hence this prophecy remains to be fulfilled. Read the
whole 31st chapter of Jeremiah, and you will find the
restoration of the Jews and the ten tribes, to the land of
their fathers, in the last days; and their continuance in it
so long as the sun, moon and stars endure. "If those
ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, (i.e. of
the sun, moon and stars) then the seed of Israel shall cease
from being a nation before me forever." God here promises
"the city (Jerusalem) shall be built to the Lord; it shall
not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever." Here
God engages that as Ephraim is God's first born; so he will
earnestly remember him still, and surely have mercy upon
him, for his bowels are pained with his long outcast state.
That he will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah
with the seed of men; and that "like as he had watched over
them, to pluck up, and to break down, to throw down, and
destroy and afflict; so he will watch over them to build and
plant.["] That all this shall be, when the new convenant is
made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not
according to the covenant that he made with their fathers.
Thus it is an event to take place under the last, the gospel
dispensation; and hence it must be now future.
The prophet Joel, when foretelling the last days, and the
Millennium, notes this event; chap. iii. 1. "For behold, in
those days, and at that time, when I shall bring again the
captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all
nations, and will bring them down into the valley of
Jehoshaphat." The battle of the great day of God follows;
verse 9-17. Upon which follows the Millennium. In this
series of events, God "brings again the captivity of Judah
and Jerusalem."
In Zeph. iii. is the same. A new preparatory scene of
judgment is predicted; verse 6, 7. The battle of the great
day follows; verse 8. Then the Millennium; verse 9. To
prepare the way for this, the noted restoration is promised;
verse 10-18. And the scene closes thus; verse 19, 20.
"Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and
I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven
out; and I will get me praise and fame in every land where
they have been put to shame. At that time I will bring you
again, even in the time that I gather you; for I will make
you a name and a praise among all the people of the earth,
when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the
Lord."
The prophet Hosea most decisively predicts this event. His
first son must be called Jezreel; for God would soon avenge
the blood of Jezreel; "and I will cause to cease the house
of Israel."
[beginning of page 41]
This house did cease; and has been banished and lost to this
day. The name of his daughter Lo-ruhamah, is explained: "Ye
are not my people; and I will not be your God." Here is
their long excommunication. But he immediately proceeds to
predict their restoration. Chap. i. 10, 11; "Yet the number
of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to
pass that in the place, where it was said unto them, Ye are
not my people; there shall it be said to them, Ye are the
sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Israel
and the children of Judah be gathered together, and appoint
themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the land;
(earth;) for great shall be the day of Jezreel." Here the
ten tribes were to be dispersed, and again restored,
together with the Jews; and their numbers and prosperity
shall be immense. St. Paul quotes this passage, Rom. ix. 25,
merely by way of accomodation, to note that the gentiles
were called into the church; ( a thing noted by expositors
as very common in the sacred writings;) yet by no means with
a view to hint, that this text is not to receive a more
literal accomplishment in a future restoration of the ten
tribes. In numerous scriptures the sentiment is confirmed
that there shall be a literal restoration. The bringing in
of the gentile church is a prelude to this. Israel were
excommunicated that the gentiles might take their place. But
it was to be thus only "till the fulness of the gentiles be
come in," and then Israel shall be grafted in again, and
their promised restoration be accomplished.
This prophet proceeds in the following chapters to predict
the same event. See Hosea, 2d and 3d chapters. The account
closes thus; "For the children of Israel shall abide many
days without a king, and without a prince, and without a
sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and
without a teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel
return and seek the Lord their God, and David, their king;
and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter
days." Here is a description of the present rejected state
of Israel; and a prediction of their national restoration,
"in the latter days."
But few of the predictions of this final restoration are
given. To recite them all, would be unwieldy. In Isai. xiv.
is a prediction of the destruction of a power under the name
of the king of Babylon; which event is evidently the same
with the destruction of the mystical Babylon of the last
days,--- inasmuch as it is to be accomplished upon
[beginning of page 42]
the mountains of Israel: verse 25. To prepare the way for
this, we have the promised restoration of Israel, verse 1,
as immediately preparatory to the event; and therefore it
must in its ultimate accomplishment be still future. "For
the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose
Israel, and set themin their own land. And the strangers
shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the
house of Jacob." The stranger being joined unto Israel,
restored to their own land, and what follows in the second
and third verses, were events, which were not fulfilled when
the Jews returned from ancient Babylon; but are just such
events as are promised to take place after the final
restoration of Israel, and the battle of the great day. The
promised restoration is expressly applied to Israel. Judah
and Israel had become two nations long before this prophecy.
The event is then clearly future. Israel shall be again
chosen and set in their own land.
This restoration is a great event in the prophets; and we
find it in the New Testament. Paul (in his epistle to the
Romans, chap. xi.) notes their being again grafted into
their own olive tree, as a notable event of the last days,
which shall be the "riches of the gentiles;" yea, "life from
the dead" to them. See also Isaiah xlix. 18-23. One passage
more I will adduce from the writings of Moses; Deut. xxx.
The long and doleful dispersion of this people had been
predicted in the preceding chapters. Here their final
restoration follows. "And it shall come to pass, when all
these things are come upon thee, and thou shalt call them to
mind among all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath
driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God; ---
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. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land,
which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it, and
he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers."
This has never yet been fulfilled. For the Jews, returned
from Babylon, were very far from being multiplied in their
land above their fathers. This remains still to be
accomplished.
Thus the prophetic writings do clearly decide, that both
Israel and the Jews shall, in the last days, before the
Millennium, be literally restored to their own land of
Palestine, and be converted to the Christian faith.
4. To give a mystical import to all these prophecies, and
say they will be fulfilled only in the conversion of these
ancient people
[beginning of page 43]
of God to Christianity is to take a most unwarrantable
liberty with the word of God. Some have made such pretence;
but far be it from me to follow them! Why not as well apply
a mystical sense to every prediction of future events? To
the predictions of the battle of that great day; of the
Millennium; of the resurrection of the bodies of men; of the
final judgment; of the conflagration of this world; of
heaven; and of hell? Why may not those as well all be
fulfilled, not by a literal, but by some mystical
accomplishment? Is not this to add and to diminish, with a
witness? Paul says, (2 Tim. ii. 16.) "But shun profane and
vain babblings; for they will increase unto more
ungodliness, and their words will eat as doth a canker; of
whom is Hymeneas and Philetus; who concerning the truth have
erred, saying, that the resurrection is past already, and
overthrow the faith of some." What was the liberty taken by
those arch heretics? No doubt it was this; applying to the
predictions of a resurrection of the bodies of men from the
grave, a mystical resurrection of the soul from the death of
sin. But the predictions of the resurrection are far less
numerous, and are not more express, than are the predicitons
of the restoration of the Jews and Israel to their own land.
In various of the most remarkable of these predictions, we
find it distinctly ascertained that the Jews shall be
converted; shall have a new heart given them; shall have
their hearts circumcised to fear the Lord. And beside this,
it is said that people shall (as a distinct nation.) be
restored to the land of their fathers, and shall dwell in
temporal prosperity there through all following ages, and be
more numerous than ever were their fathers. To say then,
that all those predictions of such a restoration to
Palestine, are to be accomplished only in the bringing of
that people (in their dispersed state) to embrace the
Messiah; is to take a most unwarrantable liberty with the
word of God! Look at one passage; Ezekiel, 36th, 37th, 38th
and 39th chapters. Are the new heart (the heart of flesh)
there promised, and God's gathering them out of all lands
into their own land, which had so long lain waste, one and
the same event? What can such expositors do with the
predictions of Gog and his bands, gathered against them, and
falling upon the mountains of Israel? Are these (and all the
predictions in Joel, Zechariah, and other prophets, of the
gathering of all nations to Jerusalem.) to be explained
away, so that no "gathering of the nations, and assembling
of the kingdoms" must be expected? It must be a dangerous
expedient thus to explain away the clear and express
sentiments of revelation. The old and best
[beginning of page 44]
expositors generally have believed in a literal restoration
of Judah and Israel. And no material objections can be
raised against it, which might not in its principle operate
as forcibly against all predicted future events.
5. That the Hebrews are to have a literal restoration,
appears from the fact, that the threatenings that God would
cast them off, had their fulfillment in a literal rejection
of them from the promised land. The promises of their
restoration appear to be an exact counterpart of this; and
hence must have their effect in restoring them again to
Palestine. If such promises did not design to restore them
again to the land of their fathers; why should the
threatenings of their rejection of God, be designed to have
their effect in expelling them literally from the land of
promise? Why should one of them receive a literal, and the
other a mystical construction? No account can be given of
this. If there is no benefit in restoring them to Palestine;
why was there any calamity in expelling them from Palestine?
Why did not God let them continue there, though he withdrew
his spirit and grace from them? But if, over and above this
they must be expelled from the land of promise; then surely
their promised restoration must (over and above giving them
the heart of flesh) bring them back to the Canaan, which was
given to them for an everlasting possesion.
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