Saturday December 4 730 8pm William Bell Restoration of Israel Part 1

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the All Things Fulfilled broadcast right here on the NOW Network. I'm William Bell with the Rainsborough Church of Christ, looking forward to another great study as we delve into the Word of God. Now what we're going to do for this broadcast is we're going to talk about the restoration of Israel, the restoration of Israel. This is a very, very important topic because there are many people who are always having conversations or discussions, debates, etc. about the restoration of Israel. They believe that this is something that is yet to occur, that at one or some point in our future there is going to be a restoration of Israel to the land that we call Palestine, that we call the modern state of Israel today, that we call going back, of course, to the literal promised land. So this is what is in the back of the minds of many. You can find this concept in the minds of dispensationalists. You can also find it in the minds of those who consider themselves Zionists. In fact, some of them believe that they have already returned to the land. And then you have those who are Christian Zionists who believe in that movement as well. And you have those who are Hebrew Israelites who likewise advocate a return to the land. So we're going to look at some things in the scriptures and see just what they have to say about the restoration of Israel to the land. And these are some questions that come up and some discussions that come up from time to time. And so let's talk about the restoration of Israel. Now, just before Jesus ascended, the apostles came to him and asked him this question. And you'll find this question in Acts chapter one. The verse is around verse six, where he says, Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? So you have that in Acts chapter one and it is in verse six. And of course, the response that Jesus made to them was the following. He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you should be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea, in Samaria and Samaria and to the end of the earth or the land. And so from this point of view, we can see the Bible talks about the question that the apostles made to the Lord about the restoration of Israel. In other words, when are they going to be restored to the land? When are they going to be restored to the remaining tribe of Judah so that the twelve tribes are all together once again? The text has its background or at least a part of its background. We're not saying that's all of it because there's much more involved. But this is one of the key passages that we find in the Bible concerning the restoration of Israel. It is found in Hosea chapter one and verse four. The Bible says, then the Lord said to him, call his name Jezreel, for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. Now notice that the Lord was speaking at the time, speaking to them in the time of as recorded by the prophet Hosea. And he says to them that it would be in a little while that he was going to avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu. So God would avenge this bloodshed on the house of Jehu. And what we can see here is that the name has significance as does the location that it denotes. In other words, Jezreel. And Jezreel can mean both God scatters and therefore you get sort of an idea of what's taking place with Israel at the time, that God scatters and it has negative connotations. But you can also see that it means that God sows with positive connotations, including the bestowal of fertility. The wordplay also worked because even more than in English, the Hebrew word Jezreel sounds much like Israel and was thus used by Hosea to denote Israel in chapter 2 and verse 22. The sound of modern Jezreel of Jezreel, which is a secondary capital in Israel, was the site for the overzealous coup d'etat on Jehu, in which Joram, Jezebel, and all of Ahab's sons and also Azahiah, king of Judah, were assassinated, according to 2 Kings chapter 9 and 10. So when we look at that, we can see therefore a bit of the background that's involved in this particular text. You can find that reference in the Cultural Study Bible on Hosea chapter 1. Now Hosea prophesied from as early as the time of the Israelite king Jeroboam II, around 786-745 BC and 715-687 BC as sole king. His prophetic ministry thus lasted around 20-40 years. Now most, if not all, of it took place before the conquest of Samaria by the Assyrians in 722 BC. And again, that reference is the Cultural Study Bible. Now in 1 Kings chapter 14, verses 15 and 16, the Bible says, For the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land which he gave to their fathers. And he will scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their wooden images provoking the LORD to anger. And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and who made Israel to sin. Now this is a very, very important passage when we talk about Israel and we talk about the scattering of Israel. And we should note that this scattering has a historical foundation in these events which occurred in the time of the Old Testament, in the time of Hosea's writings, and during the time of Jeroboam II. And so this is what they are related to. They are not related to the transatlantic slave trade. Israel, as far as their scattering was concerned, were scattered, and we're talking about the ten tribes, we're talking about the northern kingdom of Israel. He's saying that they were scattered during this particular time. Let's read it one more time just so we can make sure that it is clear. And this is from 1 Kings chapter 14, verses 15 through 16. For the Lord will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land. What is he going to do? He's going to uproot Israel from this good land which he gave to their fathers and will scatter them beyond the river. That is a reference to the river Euphrates. He's going to scatter them beyond the river, and he says, because they have made their wooden images provoke the Lord to anger. And usually, of course, you know, the river Euphrates, the Tigris River, etc., in the land of Assyria. And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam who sinned and made Israel to sin. So not only does he tell us why he's doing it, it is because they made their wooden images, they provoked the Lord to anger, and this was the reason that he was going to uproot them from the good land. And you can go back to Joshua and see what he said about that good land that he was bringing them to, and he's going to give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam. Now, it said nothing about the transatlantic slave trade, did it? Absolutely not. It said he was going to give them up because of the sins of Jeroboam who sinned and who made Israel to sin. Now, the kingdom was torn away in 721 BC by the Assyrians. They were cast away because of their idolatry. And that is, they provoked the Lord to jealousy in breaking the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before me. God is a jealous God, etc. This was the command that they broke. And, of course, these idols that they had made and to which they had bowed down and given their allegiance to these idol gods. So, when we go to 2 Kings 17, verses 7-18, the Bible says, For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods, and had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. Also, the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them. And they did wicked things, notice, to provoke the Lord to anger, for they served idols of which the Lord had said to them, You shall not do this thing. Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all of his prophets, every seer, saying, Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Nevertheless, they would not hear, but stiffen their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he had testified against them. They followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. Verse 16. So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. Verse 17. And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practice witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. About three times in that section of scripture, it said that they provoked the Lord to anger. Then it says, therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. That means he took them out of the land, through the Assyrians, away from the temple, away from his throne, which was in the most holy place, and thus away from the face of God. And the Bible says, in the twelfth year, this is 2 Kings 17, 1-5, in the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hosea, the son of Elah, became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him. Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against him, and Hosea became his vassal and paid him tribute money. And the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hosea, for he had sent messengers to Saul, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. Now, so we have this background. We have this scenario where we have Israel, the northern kingdom, being cut off from the twelve tribes, being carried off into Assyrian captivity, for what purpose? For their sins and their transgressions, in making molded images, wooden calves, etc., and provoking the Lord to anger. And thus, they have been scattered. And so we should see the scattering of Israel taking place in their history during 8th century B.C. Nevertheless, the scriptures also show us that the northern kingdom would be gathered in the last days. This is very, very important. The northern kingdom would be gathered in the last days. But now, it's also important to understand that when God would gather the northern kingdom, he's going to be gathering them along with the southern kingdom. In other words, when we find the gathering of the northern kingdom, the restoration of Israel, we will also find the restoration of the other tribes, and therefore all of the tribes would be gathered. But he says this is going to take place when? In the last days. Now, it's also important to understand, and this is very, very critical, that Israel, who is also referred to as Ephraim in the book of Hosea, had been swallowed up of the Gentiles. So let's go over and take a look at that in the book of Hosea, and that would be chapter 8 and around verse 8. It says, Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the Gentiles, like a vessel in which is no pleasure. For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey alone by itself. Ephraim has hired lovers. Yes, they have hired among the nations. Now I will gather them, and they shall sorrow a little because of the burden of the kings of the princes. So they're swallowed up. They're among the Gentiles. And as a result of being among the Gentiles, we will see, as we read on in verse 11, because Ephraim has made many altars for sin. They have become for him altars for sinning. I have written for him the great things of my law, but they were considered a strange thing. For the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt. Now here's a question. The Bible says that they shall return to Egypt. Was the Lord saying in this passage that Ephraim was going to return to America? Had the northern kingdoms at any point in time been in America? No, but they had been in Egypt. And the scripture says, for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt. Now it's interesting that in Deuteronomy, God told Israel when they were one nation, when they were a single group or unit, he told them in Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verse 17 that they were not to go back into Egypt. But you see a part of the judgment upon them was that they were going to return to Egypt. This is what he says of the northern tribes in Hosea, but he had already spoken about this in Deuteronomy 17 and verse 17. And so in Deuteronomy 17, 16 and 17, he says, but he shall not multiply horses for himself nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses for the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. So they were told never to return that way again. What country did they have in mind? What country was in their frame of reference? Had Israel at the time of the writing of Deuteronomy ever been in America? Absolutely not. The only Egypt they knew was the Egypt where Pharaoh was king. And we read about that in first Kings chapter 17, that they went back to the gods of Pharaoh, who was the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was not the king of America. And we have to make sure that we're understanding that. And we're talking about Israel, but he says, you should not return that way again. Now we've seen then in Hosea that God said they shall return to Egypt. But what was that returning to Egypt all about? It was about his casting them off as those who broke the covenant and therefore were no longer regarded as his people. That's why he sent them back to Egypt. That's why he said they would return to Egypt. But he was not sending them to America in this particular text. They were removed from the land. And so he says, for Israel has forgotten his maker and has built temples. Judah also has multiplied 45 cities, but I will send fire upon his cities and it shall devour his palaces. So this is an aspect of this that we need to keep in mind that we need to understand when they're talking about Israel, they're breaking of the covenant, violating the laws of God, worshiping these idols and therefore being cut off, being cast away from the face of God and considered as no longer his people. No longer his people. Look, when God cut them off, he said to them, you are not my people and I will not be your God. But he did tell them that they would return in the last days. So let's go and look in Hosea once again and let's go to chapter one. Our time is quickly getting away. But the scripture and I want to read a couple of these passages from chapter one and then we'll try to get to chapter two if we have enough time. But the text says, then the Lord said to him, call his name Jezreel. For in a little while, I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel in the house of Jehu and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It will come to pass in that day that I will be the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. Now, in verse six, and she conceived again and bore daughter. Then God said to him, call her name, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah. And even though Judah sinned in the same way that Israel did, because of the sake of the promises God had made to David and to their fathers, he would not cast out Judah because we remember the prophecy that said that the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes until the coming of the Lord. And so he says he will save them by the Lord, their God, and will not save them by bow or by sword or battle by horsemen or horses or horsemen. And then when she had weaned, she conceived and bore son. Then God said, call his name for you are not my people and I will not be your God. So from that perspective, we can see where he says you are not my people. I will not be your God. Yet he offers a promise to them in saying, yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it will come to pass. Now, this is key and we're going to stop here. But it says, and it should come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people there. It should be said to them, you are the sons of the living God. Then when that statement is made, the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and appoint for themselves one head. They shall come up out of the land for great will be the day of Jezreel. Now, that's all the time that we have for today's broadcast, but we're going to continue beginning right here in our next broadcast. And we want you to stay tuned. This is William Bell with All Things Fulfilled saying thank you for watching our broadcast today. We trust and pray that you will continue to watch each and every Saturday. We're here from 630 to 7 p.m. Central Time, 730 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time for the All Things Broadcast. All Things Fulfilled broadcast right here on the NOW Network. Until next week, may God bless you and keep you, and you have a very, very wonderful day.