Saturday December 11 730 8pm William Bell Restoration of Israel Part 2

Welcome to the All Things Revealed broadcast. This is William Bell, and we're delighted to come to you right here on the NOW Network every Saturday from 6.30 to 7 p.m. Central Time, 7.30 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time for the All Things Revealed broadcast right here on the NOW Network. We are talking about the restoration of Israel, the restoration of Israel. And so for the remaining minutes of our broadcast, we're going to resume a study that we began on last week, talking about the restoration of Israel. And the reason that this study came up was because of some discussions that we have had with some of the Hebrew Israelites regarding when Israel would be returned, when they would return to their land, when they were scattered, and particularly a lot of this focuses around the activity of 70 A.D. There are those both in the dispensational world as well as Hebrew Israelites who believe that Israel was scattered in 70 A.D. as a result of the, and therefore were scattered and should be regathered in a yet future end time. Now some of them believe that there was, I guess, another scattering along the time of the transatlantic slave trade and that as a result of that they were brought to America and thus America becomes the place of their captivity and they are expecting a deliverance from the Lord through a return of Christ to take them out of this land and take them back to the land of Israel. Now we have had several groups who have advocated for that. We have had the Zionist groups who have gone back into the land and Christian Zionists who support that movement quite strongly. Others believe that there is still some to be gathered and taken back to the land and we want to look at those things from a scriptural point of view to see just what the Bible says about it and let the Bible do the talking to tell us concerning the restoration of Israel as opposed to maybe the things that we are hearing on television that we read and some of the books along that line but allow the scriptures to have the final authority and that is what is most important because it is the scripture that should have the final say and those who claim and who advocate that they are proponents of the scripture and believe in the word of God then that should be the way it is. So let's go ahead and continue from where we left off last week and we were in the book of Hosea. We were talking about the scattering of the northern tribes of Israel as a result of the idolatry that they had committed during the time of Jeroboam and as a result God cast them out of the land, cast them away from his face because of that but he told them that he was going to gather them. Now what is interesting and we need to go back to this chapter and look at this again so this time I am going to start at verse 9 and then read through the end of the chapter. Now this all began at least we can see in the time of the apostles that a question was raised Lord will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel. So they were looking forward to a restoration of Israel and the apostles asked about that in the first century. Now they hadn't seen anything like a transatlantic slave trade so why were they at that time even asking about the restoration of Israel when there had been no transatlantic slave trade. And there had been no holocaust for that matter in terms of what we associate with those who claim a right to the land of Palestine today. Neither of those events had occurred and yet there were those right there in the book of Acts requesting or asking the Lord will you notice at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel. So there must have been something in their knowledge of the scriptures there must have been something in the conversations the many conversations that they had with Christ there must have been something in the experiences that they had that led them to believe that they should be even asking the question or raising the question at that time. They had grown up with the scriptures they knew these passages that we're talking about and so they posed the question saying Lord will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel. I don't think we should let that question slide I don't think we should just ignore and minimize the impact of the time in which they raised the question. With some who believe that all of this is yet in our future perhaps the apostles pulled the trigger way way too fast and should have waited until they had seen the transatlantic slave trade they should have waited until they had seen the Holocaust in Germany but they didn't none of that was even on their minds none of that even came into play. The Lord simply said 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 after the Holy Spirit has come upon you now he tells them they are going to receive power after the Holy Spirit had come upon them and then they would be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the land so very important that we grasp the Lord's response and we're going to say more about that as we expand the message but back to Hosea chapter one verse nine it says then God said call his name Lo-Ammi for you are not my people he's talking to the northern tribes of Israel you are not my people and I will not be your God yet here's the blessing here's the promise the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered and it shall come to pass now this is very very important this is what we left off on it shall come to pass now what's this in the place where it was said to them you are not my people there it shall be said to them you are the sons of the living God now where was it going to be said in the place where it was said to them you are not my people there or it shall be said to them you are the sons of the living God now I believe that that has a lot to do with the message that Jesus gave the Apostles in Acts chapter 1 in verse 8 when he said you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and the outermost parts of the land and so he's saying to them it's going to come to pass in the place where it was said to them you are not my people there it shall be said to them you are the sons of the living God then see all of these are words that we should not pass over all of these are words that are critical to understanding the time place and events involved and the players for that matter in the restoration of Israel then is a very key word here he says then the children of now watch this Judah and the children of Israel let's notice that again then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together so here's the point whenever Israel the northern kingdom is gathered and how are we going to know when they are gathered it's going to be when he says to them to the ones that he had previously said you are not my people there shall be said to them you are the sons of the living God so whenever and wherever he makes that statement to the northern tribes that is when Judah and Israel will be gathered together we should not miss that now that's important for the dispensationalist to understand that's important for the Hebrew Israelites to understand and that's important for any others the Christian Zionists etc whomever they are it's important for all to understand that there would be no gathering of all 12 tribes separate and apart from the other they would be gathered together Judah and Israel the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom that's what the text says and unless we are willing to deal with the text as it is written we are going to have a very very serious problem trying to understand the gathering of Israel the restoration of Israel so now let's see what else we find in the text then the children of Judah and the children of Israel this is verse 11 of Hosea 1 shall be gathered together and appoint for themselves one head so at the time that they hear the words to those who were not my people and he spoke that to the northern kingdom when they hear these words that you are not my people then it shall be said that you are the sons of the living God that is when Judah and Israel would be gathered together and that is also when they would appoint for themselves one head we cannot separate the appointing of the one head from the time Judah and Israel are gathered together but the time in which they will be gathered together is when he says to those who were not my people you are the sons of the living God now for those who are thinking way ahead of me and I know some of you are because you know exactly where the passage is so I'm just going to do this as a matter of routine for those who may not be familiar it's a just an education process because I know that those of you who are familiar with the scriptures understand exactly where in the New Testament this prophecy is referred to and the very statements that he says here are mentioned well look if you understand that then you should also understand that that is when Judah and Israel are gathered together and that is when they appoint for themselves one head so we should be looking for the one head as well and that is when they come up out of the land how much more difficult can that be there has to be an extreme and just absolutely irrational disconnect from a simple reading of the Word of God if we cannot put those points together as a matter of our interpretation of the scripture and thus he says for great will be the day of Jezreel that's when they come up out of the land now we pointed out to you in the previous lesson that the land out of which they were coming would be the land that they had been scattered upon this text when he says he was going to bring an end to the house of Israel and that they would be scattered as a result and this scattering was not taking place in the time of the transatlantic slave trade it was not taking place in the time of the Holocaust but this scattering had taken place when they sinned in making these wooden images at the direction of Jeroboam the second this is what we have to understand this is what we need to keep in mind now let's move forward when we get to chapter 2 we have the prophecy reiterated we have it expanded but we also have several other elements of the prophecy that helped to guide us as to when it would be fulfilled so the scripture says therefore behold this is verse 14 I will allure her will bring her into the wilderness do you see you're getting some some Exodus motif concepts here just like Israel was carried off into the wilderness so that they might worship God when they were in bondage Moses said you know let the people go into the wilderness for three days so that they can worship the Lord he says and so I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her I will give her her vineyards from there and the Valley of Acre as a door of hope she shall sing there now Israel couldn't sing the song of Zion in a strange land when he says that she will sing there it's showing that Israel would have been redeemed and restored to the presence to the face of God they would have been restored to the land they cannot sing the songs of Zion in a strange land remember Psalms 137 when the enemy said to them as they sat down and wept by the rivers of Babylon in terms of that example and they said sing us one of these songs of Zion they said how can we do it when we're in a foreign land so here was Ephraim or Israel the northern kingdom in a foreign land scattered by the Assyrians and the Bible says that they would be given the Valley of Acre as a day of hope and they would sing there the singing is related to their deliverance out of the land that's the joy and the mirth that they would have and so he says as in the days of her youth as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt so this is a recapitulation if you please of the deliverance out of the bondage of Egypt it is similar to that but it is a much greater deliverance from bondage that we need to understand and so he says in verse 16 and it should be in that day says the Lord that you will call me my husband and no longer call me my master they would no longer be slaves and in bondage that also means they would no longer be under the bondage of the law but they would now have a different relationship they would be married in a new covenant and he says for I will take from her mouth the names of the balls and they shall be remembered by their name no more in that day I will make a covenant for them and that is the new covenant with the beast of the field with the birds of the air with the creeping things of the ground bow and sword and battle I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely now here's what some people do when they read this passage they will read this passage and they will say what I don't see these beasts of the field and these birds of the air and I don't see the creeping things of the ground where God has made a covenant with them this is just absolutely the an improper way of interpreting the scriptures people try to literalize these things in the sense that they want to see literal animals etc but what we have to keep in mind is the overall context of the prophecy we've been told in chapter 1 that when they hear this phrase you are not my people although to those who he was said he said you are not my people and then he says you are the sons of living God wherever that statement is made is where all of this is fulfilled it's where all of this applies so whatever you want to make of the beast and the creeping things etc it's a part of the prophecy of the gathering of Judah and Israel together and the Bible says bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth that well that's Isaiah chapter 2 to beat their swords in the pruning shears pruning shears and their spears in the pruning looks something to that effect that's what this text is referring to and he says to make them lie down safely that's Isaiah 11 the calf shall lie down the wolf shall lie down with the lamb etc and the child shall take hold of the Cobra you know play at the Cobras hole that's metaphorical language that's figurative language for bringing those who were at enmity against one another back together in a state of peace and when they come to serve the Lord when they become one under him see the word peace in the Greek means to bind together it's from the word I row and it means to bind two who were at variance one to another back together as one but it also has some other connotations it means to it means the absence of war it also means the presence of security which is why God talks about building walls of protection around them and then thirdly it means the presence of prosperity so you can cease war but you know just like today when America goes and bombs these third world countries and you know just devastates them and demolishes them to shreds and they cease the war they cease the bombing well is that nation in a state of peace no it is not because all their infrastructure is destroyed it's nothing but chaos so what do they do they start to build now they may not build a wall around them but they do build protection by having armed forces there in order to protect the area etc and keep the peace peacekeeping forces as they want to call it and then what do they rebuild the infrastructure so that the people can get back to prosperity and they can resume their life after they've been torn down and so that's the idea of peace but he says I will betroth you to me forever yes I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice in loving kindness and mercy I will betroth you to me in faithfulness that is the marriage covenant being renewed that is the marriage of the New Testament and you shall know the Lord it shall come to pass in that day that I will answer says the Lord I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth the earth shall answer with grain with new wine with oil they shall answer Jezreel in other words this is when the blessings are now going to be poured upon them this is express expressive of their abundance it's also a festal occasion like the Feast of Tabernacles etc where they rejoice over what God has done but then watch verse 23 then I will sow her for myself in the earth that means they're going to die you sow live grain place it where it can die and then it rises up in a total new body or life it expresses itself in a new form so God is taking those who were not his people because they were alive to sin he's going to sow them and then they're going to rise up from the dying into a new people and watch and I will have mercy on her who have not obtained mercy then I will say to those who were my people you are my people and they shall say you are my God so in this connection we can see that this is when God would betroth them to himself that he would make this new covenant and in the making of the new covenant that's where the peace is going to be with the beast of the field etc but it's also the time as we mentioned in chapter 1 in the previous lesson where Judah and Israel as well as in this one Judah and Israel would dwell together whenever he says that now in our next lesson we're going to show you where that's found and we're therefore going to demonstrate where Judah and Israel come together and it has nothing to do with the transatlantic slave trade has nothing to do with the Holocaust and nothing to do with going back into the physical land that is the message and we'll see you on next week I'm William Bell saying thank you for being with us and may God bless you tune in next week 630 to 730 for another edition of All Things Fulfilled.