 View of the Hebrews
(1825 edition)
By Ethan Smith
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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."
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Chapter 1a
Chapter 1b
Chapter 2
Chapter 3a
Chapter 3b
Chapter 3c
Chapter 3d
Chapter 3e
Chapter 3f
Chapter 3g
Chapter 4a
Chapter 4b
Conclusion
Appendix
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