TREASURY OF SERMONS
Israel and the Church in Prophecy
By Rev (Dr) Jeffrey Khoo
(Preached at Life BPC, 10.30am Service, 30 Sep 2001)
Israel is an important key to understanding
biblical prophecy. However, there are ultra-reformed Christians who
say that Israel is no longer in God’s plan. According to them, God
has cast Israel away for crucifying Christ. The Church has replaced
Israel. The promises God made to Israel have been transferred to the
Church. Thus, OT prophecies concerning Israel must now be read
spiritually or allegorically to mean the Church, not Israel.
Is this what the Bible teaches? The questions we
want to ask are: (1) Has God truly cast away Israel? (2) Should
prophecies that deal with Israel be spiritualised away?
Has God cast Israel away? The Apostle Paul
answered with an emphatic, "God forbid" (Rom 11:1). God will never
ever cast away Israel. Paul went on to say that "all Israel shall be
saved" (Rom 11:26). God will keep the promises He has made to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And these promises concern the whole
doctrine of Israel: the people, the land, the throne, the temple.
Did not Israel sin against God? Did not Israel
crucify her Messiah? Was not Israel unfaithful? Yes, yes, and yes.
But the sins of Israel do not cancel out God’s promises. God is
greater than all our failures. He is a God who keeps His Word. In
the OT, we find Israel deep in sin. For 400 years, God sent His
prophets to rebuke the people, to call them to repent, to warn them
of severe punishment if they did not. What did Israel do? They
killed His prophets, one by one. Did God punish Israel? Yes. In 586
BC, God sent the Babylonians to conquer Israel. The Jews became
slaves in Babylon. God punished Israel, but did He forsake her? No.
In Jer 29:10, He told them ahead of time that they would suffer for
70 years in Babylon, and after that they would be allowed to return
to the promised land.
Likewise, Israel failed God and crucified their
Messiah when He first came. God punished Israel by sending the Roman
army to raze Jerusalem to the ground in AD 70. The Jews were
dispossessed of their land, and scattered to all parts of the world.
God continued to keep His covenant promises to Israel. He would
gather them back into the promised land again one day. This happened
on May 14, 1948. The fact that Israel as a nation exists today
testifies of God’s honesty and veracity.
God never breaks His Word. That is a great
comfort to us. How many times have we failed the Lord already in our
Christian lives? Are we more righteous than Israel? We are equally
sinful, are we not? When we sin against God, does He cast us away?
Do we lose our salvation? No. He punishes us. He disciplines us. But
He does not disown us. Likewise, He loves Israel too much to disown
her. Israel has a special place in God’s plan.
The Church has not taken away the promises God
made to Israel. Paul says that we Gentile believers must understand
our place in God’s redemptive plan. We are but wild olive branches
that have been engrafted into the natural olive tree which belongs
to Israel (Rom 11:23-26). The Church ought not to despise Israel. If
God is able to graft us wild olive branches into the natural olive
tree, how much more easily it will be for Him to graft back in the
natural branches when the time of salvation arrives.
When will this happen? It will happen when "the
fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom 11:25). In other words,
when the Gentile Church is full, when the last Gentile gets
converted, Christ will return and save Israel. "There shall come out
of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."
This will happen at the second coming, at the end of the Great
Tribulation, at the end of Jacob’s trouble. Has God cast Israel
away? God forbid!
God means what He says, and says what He means.
Faithful interpretation of prophetic Scripture involves taking God
at His Word. Biblical prophecies and promises must be read in their
normal, literal sense.
How do we know that prophecies must be
interpreted literally? Well, consider what happened when Christ came
the first time. There are many prophecies in the OT with regard to
Christ’s 1st coming. God told Israel way ahead of time of the coming
of the Messiah. He even provided clues on when they could expect Him
to come.
Let us learn from the wise men from the East
(Matt 2:1-2). These Eastern men were not from the Far East, but Near
East, probably Persia. How did they know about the King of the Jews?
They knew not by simply looking at the stars, but by studying the OT
Scriptures, probably Daniel’s prophecies. They must have studied
Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks (Dan 9:25). The Messianic Prince
would have to appear before His cutting off on the 69th week. As the
time drew near, the wise men must have anticipated His soon coming.
So they looked out for a sign, and saw a special Star, and followed
it to Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, they asked Herod, "Where is he
that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the
east, and are come to worship Him." Herod got very upset by this
news of a newborn King. He felt threatened by this new King. He
wanted to kill this King. He asked his Bible scholars to tell him
where this King would be born. And they said "in Bethlehem." This
was no lucky guess. They found it in Mic 5:2.
The prophecies of Christ’s 1st coming were
fulfilled literally. This tells us that prophecy must be read in the
light of its literal meaning. The wise men read prophecy literally,
the chief priests and scribes understood prophecy literally. The
prophecies saw literal fulfilment. Sixty-nine weeks (483 years)
meant just that, and Bethlehem meant Bethlehem.
The Bible talks a lot about the 2nd coming of
Christ. Since the 1st coming prophecies were fulfilled literally, we
can expect the 2nd coming prophecies to be fulfilled literally as
well. When God said that there would be a future millennial reign of
Christ on earth, it means just that. 1,000 years means 1,000 years.
When Christ said He would descend in the same way He ascended to
heaven, it means just that. He ascended to heaven in Acts 1:11 from
the Mt of Olives; He will descend and step on the same Mt of Olives
when He returns (Zech 14:4). Bethlehem means Bethlehem, Mt of Olives
means Mt of Olives, Israel means Israel, Church means Church. We
should not confuse Israel with the Church.
God does not want us to be in the dark. He wants
us to know the future. He promises a blessing to those who study
prophecy. In Rev 1:3 the Lord said, "Blessed is he that readeth, and
they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein: for the time is at hand." Let us read
prophecy, pray for understanding, and grow in faith as we prepare
for the Lord’s return. Be like the wise men from the East!
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