The term Israel is woven into the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. It is found in certain prophecies in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other books of the Old Testament. Paul takes up the subject of the gathering of Israel, which casts valuable light on God’s method of saving mankind. A correct understanding the real truth.Many Christians subscribe to erroneous concepts concerning the gathering of Israel. Some observers feel that concepts have at least a degree of responsibility for the dangerous political situation now prevailing between the Arabs and the Israelis.
A great many people do not know that the Bible teaches there are two different Israels. One is the literal Israel, composed of the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh. Then there is the spiritual Israel, composed of the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh. Then there is the spiritual Israel, composed of Gentiles and Jews who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. Many misunderstood the distinction because they apply certain Biblical statements to literal Israel that apply only to spiritual Israel.
Here is one example in a prophecy concerning the gathering of Israel. “It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands 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” (Isa. 11:11,12).
In its literal application this refers to the restoration of the nation of Israel to its homeland after the Babylonian captivity. But that was only a partial fulfilment. Many Christians have applied these verses to the modern restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and to the establishment of the state of Israel. But if we want the real truth, we must take into account the whole Biblical concept of Israel and the gathering of Israel. Unless we do this we cannot have a true concept of this subject.
The great promises that God made to the Jews, or literal Israel, were conditional on their obedience to Him. Thus, He told them, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” Ex. 19:5,6.
The Israelites forfeited their right to have these promises fulfilled for them by their persistent disobedience. This reached the limit when Jesus, the Son of God and the only true Messiah, made a final effort to bring them back to God. They cut themselves off from being God’s Israel when they rejected the Son of God.
Literal Israel was replaced b spiritual Israel. Then all the great promises and covenant provisions were transferred from literal Israel to spiritual Israel and have been, and are being, fulfilled to those who receive the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour.
Notice how Paul emphasizes this concept: “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” Gal. 3:29.
Paul shows that being a true Israelite does not depend upon being a literal descendant of Abraham or upon being circumcised, but upon receiving Jesus as a personal Saviour, and upon being made a new man or a new woman: “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” Gal. 5:6; 6:15, 16.
Notice that those who are born again in Christ are “the Israel of God.” Gentiles and Jews may have salvation on the same terms, the acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour.
This true concept of Israel eliminates apparent contradictions. Romans 9:27 says, “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant (or small number) shall be saved.” This is correct because only a comparative few of literal Israel, or Jews, will accept Christ. (This, of course, is true of all mankind.) When Paul says, “So all Israel shall be saved” Romans 11:26, he means that all of spiritual Israel, both Jews and Gentiles, accept Christ, obey Him to the end, and thus are saved.
As we have already noted briefly, the Word of God distinguishes between two kinds of Jews, between literal and spiritual Israel. “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” Romans 2:28,29.
Paul declares that the term Jew no longer refers to all descendants of Abraham, so far as God is concerned, but to those who are true followers of Christ. Thus the fact that there is a political nation of Israel in Palestine has no bearing on God’s plans for the Jews. The application of Isaiah 11:11, 12 and similar Old Testament prophecies to the present Jewish nation is invalid. In Romans 11:12-20 Paul makes it plain that literal Israel, or the Jewish nation, cut itself off from being God’s true Israel when they rejected Jesus as the Messiah. When they did this, the prophecies, promises, and blessings were reapplied, and now are for spiritual Israel, composed of all Jews and Gentiles who accept Christ.
In the parable of the wicked husbandmen (Matt. 21:33-45) Jesus showed the Jews that the kingdom of God was to be taken from them and given to another nation that would bear fruits of righteousness. In 1 Peter 2:9 this body of Christians is called “an holy nation” and “a royal priesthood.”
The key to a correct understanding of the prophecy of Isaiah 11:11, 12, as it now applies, is found in Jeremiah 18. Jeremiah was told by God to watch a potter at work. A vessel the potter was making didn’t turn out as he formed it into another pattern. Then the Lord said to Jeremiah: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord… At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them” Jeremiah 18:6-10.
In the light of these words, compared with the conditional blessings and cursings God and dressed to the nation of Israel through Moses (Deut. 11:27,28) and the manner in which Israel continually rebelled against God, we can readily understand how He finally rejected them and applied His blessings to another, spiritual, “nation.”
The Israelite people were intended to be not only a political nation but also God’s spiritual people. Under the leadership of the Messiah they were destined to be great, and other peoples would be attracted to them (Gen. 49:10).
Christ helped us to understand the spiritual meaning of that Genesis prophecy when He prophesied of Himself, Shiloh: “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). Thus He spoke of the gathering of Israel as a gathering to Himself for salvation and eternal life (see chap. 10:16).
So ever since spiritual Israel replaced literal Israel, the gathering of Israel according to God’s plan has not been to Palestine, or Jerusalem, or any other spot on the earth, but unto Christ. It is not on a national or wholesale basis, but it is a one-by-one experience as each individual makes a decision to receive Christ. In keeping with this concept, Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28; cf. Eph. 2:11-16).
Some will say, “Were not 3,000 Jews gathered to Christ in one day at Pentecost?” True. And each received the gift of the Holy Spirit as he received Christ and responded individually to the call to repent and be baptized. This one-by-one gathering will reach climactic proportions under the great revival to come (see Rev. 18:1). Thousands in all parts of the world will be gathered to Christ in one day. This, in turn, will bring the supreme gathering of Israel when Jesus comes to “gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:31).
In Amos 9:11 God prophesies, “In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, …I will build it as in the days of old.” Some have used this to prove that there will be a full restoration of the Jews to Palestine. However, at the first Christian council in Jerusalem the apostle James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, applied this prophecy to a gathering of the converted Gentiles to Christ (Act. 15:13-16). This is in accordance with the way Israel and the gathering of Israel has been presented.
