Israel – Past, Present, and Future

Israel – Past, Present, and Future

Subject – Israel, God’s Chosen People

By Rick Welborne

Romans 9:1-3 (NKJV)
¹  I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
²  that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
³  For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 

Romans 10:1 (NKJV) ¹ Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 

Romans 11:1-2 (NKJV) ¹ I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
²  God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. 

--Important questions to ask. Are the Jewish people God’s “chosen people”? If so, why have most Jews not accepted Jesus as Messiah? 

--Has the church “replaced” Israel in terms of promises God made to her that now belong to the church? 

--In these three chapters, Paul addressed the subject of Israel and the Jewish people, and how they fit into God’s redemptive plan. 

--In chapter 9, Paul pivoted from talking about the human race generally to the Jewish people specifically. 

--As a Jew, Paul grieved that many of his people rejected their Messiah, believing that their heritage meant they were saved already. In our text we will discuss how Israel fits into God’s eternal plan.  

--Questions: Are the Jewish people God’s “chosen people”? If so, what does that mean? Is God done with Israel since the Jews rejected Jesus and played a role in His crucifixion? 

--Has the church replaced Israel in terms of promises God made to her that now belong to the church? Do Jews have an automatic path to salvation? 

--Israel’s rebirth. The United Nations determined there should be a Jewish state in the Middle East in 1947. Israel was reestablished as a state following the War of Independence on May 14, 1948.

--The British mandate officially ended over what was then called Palestine. 

Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion stated on May 14, 1948 - Israel will reclaim the Biblical homeland God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

--US President Harry S. Truman supported Ben-Gurion’s proclamation eleven minutes following the announcement. The Jews returned to their homeland, but the Arab nations opposed it. 

--On May 15, 1948, seven Arab nations (Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, and 4 other nations) sent twenty-five thousand troops against Israel while Israel still had no military. Israel won. 

--650,000 Jews were in Israel at the beginning of the war. By the end of the war, 800,000 Jews had fled to Israel. They absorbed their own refugees despite their numbers doubling quickly. 

--The Arabs numbered fifty million people. They did not absorb their own refugees, but put them in refugee camps which their descendants live in to this day.

Ezekiel 37:21-22 (NKJV) ²¹  Then say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;
²²  and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; 

--The re-establishment of Israel was prophesied twenty-five hundred years earlier in Ezekiel and in Isaiah it tells us Israel was reborn in a day.

Isaiah 66:8 (NLT2) ⁸ Who has ever seen anything as strange as this? Who ever heard of such a thing? Has a nation ever been born in a single day? Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment? But by the time Jerusalem’s birth pains begin, her children will be born. 

--Most Jews have not accepted Jesus, just as it was in Paul’s day. 

Romans 9:3 (NLT2) ³ for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.  

--Paul said the Jews were more accountable because of their knowledge. 

 Romans 9:4-5 (NLT2)
⁴  They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.
⁵  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

--Many Jews stumbled then and even now on Jesus, the “stumbling stone”

 Romans 9:30-33 (NIV) ³⁰ What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;
³¹  but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.
³²  Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone."
³³  As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 

--Those who do not break under their sin and come to faith in Jesus are crushed by Him for rejecting Him.

Matthew 21:44 (NKJV)
⁴⁴  And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder." 

--Everyone (including Jews) must understand there are no shortcuts to salvation.

Romans 10:9-13 (NKJV) ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
¹⁰  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
¹¹  For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
¹²  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
¹³  For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."  

--Jews and Greeks (Gentiles) alike must believe in Christ to be saved and go to heaven. 

John 1:11NKJV “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” 

--Why are the Jews God’s people if most of them reject Him? They are God’s chosen people because through them, God revealed the Messiah Jesus and His redemptive plan for the world.

Deuteronomy 7:6 (NKJV) ⁶ "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

Genesis 12:3 (NKJV) ³ I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 

--We bless Israel and honor the Jewish people because of the role God chose for them in the same way, we honor Mary for the role God chose her for. We respect Mary as the mother of Jesus.

--When we honor Israel, we honor our Lord.

Matthew 25:40 (NKJV) ^40…inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'  

--There is no favored status regarding salvation just because they are Jews. We are all saved by grace. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

 --Paul was saying national identity does not translate to spiritual identity. Misinterpretation of this verse has led to a false doctrine called replacement theology. 

--This school of thought claims the church has superseded Israel. It argues that God transferred the promises and blessings from the Jews to the church because Israel rejected and crucified Christ.

--The church has not replaced Israel; God still has a plan and purpose for them.

Romans 11:1-2 (NKJV) ¹ I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
²  God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew…

--Paul was saying he was a Jew, and God had not cut him or his fellow Jews out of His plan. The damaging effects of replacement theology has led to Antisemitism. 

--This theology led Catholics to commission the Crusades and slaughter Jews and Muslims for their holy war. Martin Luther wrote Anti-Semitic content because of his belief in replacement theology.

--Adolf Hitler hailed Martin Luther in his book Mein Kampf and quoted him as one of the reasons for slaughtering the Jews in World War Two. But antisemitism is rooted in Satan.

Revelation 12:4 (NIV) ⁴ The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.  

--This child can refer both to Jesus and Israel. God’s plan for the future of the Jewish people is that “all Israel will be saved.” 

Romans 11:25-27 (NLT2) ²⁵ I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.
²⁶  And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say, “The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness.
²⁷  And this is my covenant with them, that I will take away their sins.” 

 --“The full number of Gentiles come to Christ”. The only prophecy that needed to be fulfilled prior to the rapture was Ezekiel 37, the 1948 rebirth of the Jewish state.

--The first part of the second coming is Jesus coming in the clouds for the rapture. The second part of the second coming is Jesus coming to establish the millennium.

--The Lord will come when the fullness of the Gentiles comes, which is a number only God knows. Jews can still get saved during this time, but this window is for the Gentiles.

-- “All Israel will be saved”. After the rapture of the church, those left behind will face great tribulation. The tribulation will refine the Jews.

--The first Holocaust killed one out of every three Jews. In the “second holocaust,” two out of every three Jews will die. The one-third that remains—the remnant—will see Christ and be saved. 

--The remnant of Israel will first pay a steep price.

Zechariah 13:8-9 (NLT2)
⁸  Two-thirds of the people in the land will be cut off and die,” says the LORD. “But one-third will be left in the land.
⁹  I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”