Today there seems to be much controversy among both believers and unbelievers about the role of present-day Israel and the Church. For the answers we must get back to the heart of God letting line upon line and precept upon precept guide us into all truth. (Isaiah 28: 10) Jeremiah instructs us in 6:16 “Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it and find rest for your souls.” The Lord is commanding His people to look…to think…to consider as a traveler does on a journey. What are the paths? They are the way of faithfulness that was given to Moses and the people. The paths are the way of God and that which He blesses. They are the way of godliness and righteousness and peace and joy. They are the way of God’s law and prophecy. They are the way laid out in Holy Scripture…the written Word of God given to us to be treasured and followed. Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator wrote: “O that men would be thus wise for their souls, and would ponder the path of their feet, as those that believe lawful and unlawful are of no less consequence to us than the right way and the wrong are to a traveler!” One of the Messianic Psalms 89 beautifully ties together God’s covenant made to David and His Seed (Jesus Christ) who is the Head of the Church. “I have found David My servant; with My holy oil have I anointed him: With whom My hand shall be established: Mine arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him. And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him. But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him and in My name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto Me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. Also, I will make Him My first born, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for Him for evermore, and My covenant shall stand fast with Him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and His throne as the days of heaven.” (vv. 20-29) God’s Covenant with David is based on two of God’s attributes, His faithfulness and His loving-kindness. His first attribute takes us back into the past and the second looks forward into the future. Paul uses the title “firstborn” for Christ in Colossians 1: 15-19 in connection with creation and redemption. He states that the glory of Christ in His deity is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation….all things were created by Him and for Him…He is the head of the body, the church…the firstborn from the dead…in Him all the fullness of the Father dwells. Christ is the firstborn Creator and Redeemer. In Revelations 1:5 says, “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the firstborn from among the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.” Psalm 89: 34-37 affirms God’s faithfulness, “My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips. Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.” Selah means pause and stop and think on this.
How are we to account for the wonderful preservation of the Jewish race? In the first place, the Jewish Race was raised up to reaffirm and teach that there is but one God. In the days of Abraham the nations of the earth were given over to universal idolatry, pantheism and polytheism. For 2000 years no other people but the Jews believed the “Unity” of God or taught it. The Jews have been the teachers of “Monotheism” to the nations. In the second place, the Jewish Race was raised up to be the Writers, Preservers, and Transmitters of the Holy Scriptures. To them were committed the “Oracles of God.” (Rom. 3: 1-2) Every page in the Bible was written by Jews inspired by God. In the third place, the Jewish Race was raised up that God through them might give the world a Savior. Jesus was a Jew. From Adam to His Birth at Bethlehem His genealogy had been carefully preserved by God. In the fourth place, the Jewish Race was raised up that they might save the world from moral decay. Jesus said in John 4:22 “Salvation is of the Jews.”
As we continue to read Psalm 89, beginning with verse 38 there comes a sudden and dramatic change. The song of praise and the note of hope and assurance are turned into despair and hopelessness. What is the reason? The writer says the anointed has been cast off; his crown profaned and cast to the ground; he is a reproach and his enemies rejoice; he is covered with shame; and asks “will his soul be delivered from the grave?” Today from our vantage point of being able to look back over past history, know the reason for the language of despair in the latter part of the Psalm. The orthodox Jew, moaning and knocking his head against the wailing wall, is a picture of Israel in unbelief today. When the Son of David was born in Bethlehem, the house of David was represented by a young maiden and a humble workman, the virgin Mary and Joseph. He was born, not in a place on Mount Zion, David’s ancient citadel and stronghold, but in a stable, and he was cradled in a manger. When He presented Himself to the nation as the Messiah, the Son of David, and the fulfiller of the Covenant promise, He was scornfully rejected and crucified. Forty years later the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were reduced to rubble and the people scattered.
God sounds a warning through Jeremiah in Chapter 32 to the Jewish people: “Because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their leaders, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned their back to Me and not their face; though I taught them, teaching again and again, they would not listen and receive instruction.” (vv. 32-33) In verses 37-44 God promises through Jeremiah that He will gather them out of the lands to which He drove them in His anger and wrath and bring them back to the Promised land. In verse 27 of that chapter God said, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” In verses 17-20 Jeremiah declared: It is God who made the heavens and the earth by His great power and by His outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for God! Jeremiah said that God had set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day both in Israel and among mankind and made a name for Himself! God’s miraculous nature and actions in relation to Israel are expressed in Isaiah 66:8, “Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?” God performed this miracle on May 14, 1948 when the modern State of Israel was established! The verse underscores God’s sovereignty and faithfulness, affirming that He can bring about new beginnings and blessings even in the midst of struggle and difficulty that we witness today.
God has not forgotten His Covenant promise. Two thousand years have passed since David’s Son and Lord was crucified and raised from the dead. But in God’s reckoning a thousand years are as one day. The prophet Hosea says in 6: 1-3: “Come, and let us return unto the LORD; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD; His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain upon the earth.”
When we consider the condition of Israel today, back in the land in unbelief, we wonder whether the third day of the prophecy is about to dawn. God is certainly chastening the seed of Israel with the rod, and more dark days lie ahead in the time of Jacob’s trouble—the seven-year Tribulation, but we can rest assured that the covenant with David has not been forgotten in God’s purpose. In His own good time it will be fulfilled, and the throne and the crown and the kingdom will be restored to their rightful place. It will not be by the will of man but by God’s hand! The One who will occupy the throne and wear the crown will be David’s Son and Lord, the Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. The darkness will merge into dawn and the last words of the Psalm will be fulfilled: “Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen!” At Jesus’ Second Coming the Jewish people will experience the blessings of their promised Kingdom on earth when Messiah reigns from Jerusalem for 1000 years known as the millennial kingdom after the tribulation and before the Great White Throne Judgment of the wicked. During the millennium, Jesus will reign as king over Israel and all the nations of the world. (Isaiah 2: 4; 42:1) According to Rev. 20: 6, the Church will reign with Christ! The world will live in peace during this time, Satan will be bound (Rev. 20: 1-3) and at the beginning, everyone will worship God.
Unlike the earthly kingdom promised to Israel, the Church is promised a heavenly kingdom that is eternal and everlasting with Jesus Christ as the Head. Israel was chosen in Abraham from the foundation of the world. (Mt. 25: 34) The Church was chosen in Him (Jesus Christ) BEFORE the Foundation of the World. (Eph. 1: 4-6) Some religious bodies believe that the Christian Church is but another phase of what they call the “Jewish Church,” and they insist on a “ceremonial ritual” and retain the Priesthood with its altar, vestments, etc., and Temple-like buildings; and call the ordinances of the Christian Church “Sacrifices” and “Sacraments.” This is unscriptural. The word “Church” was first spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 16: 13-20 when Peter responded to His question: “Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Peter answered and said: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus answered and said unto Peter: “Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church; and the Gates of Hell (Hades) shall not prevail against it.” The “Rock” means Christ Himself and is in harmony with other scriptures that speak of Him as a “Rock.” In Psalm 89 we earlier read that Jesus is referred to as the Rock.
It is important for us to return to the Book of Acts as there could be no Church until the Day of Pentecost when those gathered were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Just as the promise in Hosea we read connected the blessings upon the Jews to the latter rain of the Spirit, Peter in Acts 2: 15-20 quoted Joel 2: 23, 28-32, the former rain as the prediction as an illustration of what was taking place in his day, and as a guarantee that God would yet completely be fulfilled as the blessings of the latter rain in the last days of the Church. Peter in Acts 4: 11 says that “Christ is the Stone which was set at nought of your builders (Jews), which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among me, whereby we must be saved.” The Church is the mystery formed after the Cross of Christ, distinct from both Jews and Gentiles individually, yet inclusive of both groups. Paul in Ephesians 2: 14-15 writes that Christ “made both groups into one and broke down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between them” by abolishing the law of commandments in His flesh.” The Church awaits Christ’s coming “for” His Saints in the “Rapture”. It is evident with what we see occurring that God is purifying His Church—the Bride, making it ready for His Son. God is returning His Church to the biblical timeline of the Acts Church as we have recently seen with Charlie Kirk’s parallel with Stephen’s martyrdom. According to 1 Cor. 15: 51-52 the Church awaits the “Last Trump.” Be ready!