God is Not Finished with Israel
Even though by and large the Jewish people did not receive their Messiah due to their false expectations of how He would come and reestablish the Kingdom, God’s purposes and promises to Abraham remain intact. In fact, God will fulfill all His covenant promises to Israel proclaimed in Scripture.
In AD 70, Israel was taken captive into the nations of the earth and her Temple destroyed. This exile was longer and more extensive than previous periods of judgment. The rejection of the Messiah came with greater ramifications, resulting in a partial hardening and spiritual blinding taking place.
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day” (Romans 11:7–8 ESV).
In the natural, it seemed as if God had forsaken His people and completely rejected them. This hardening occurred as the New Covenant was being spread to the Gentiles for over 2,000 years, fulfilling God’s eternal purposes from the beginning through His faithful Son and descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. If that had been the end of the story, we could easily say today that Israel, after the flesh, no longer matters or plays a significant part in our current moment or future. But Scripture shows us that this is not the case:
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace (Romans 11:1–5ESV).
In the mystery of God’s eternal purposes and election, He has promised unconditionally to return His attention to the Jewish people and bring them back from the farthest corners of the nations. He will deal with them one final time until His controversy with Jacob is resolved.
Isaiah 34:8 (KJ21) declares, “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.” This controversy of Zion is the ever present and consistent frustrations of the nations over the Jewish people themselves, the Land given by covenant, and more specifically, the city of Jerusalem. The controversy is God dealing with the nations while also dealing with His people until they are finally faithful to Him.
One of the most significant prophecies fulfilled from the Scriptures is the recent return of Jews from the nations back into the Land of Promise and the restoration of their national identity. Prophesied thousands of years ago, we have seen and will continue to see one of the greatest miracles witnessed in human history: God bringing His people back into the Land of Israel from the farthest corners of the nations as the world is nearing the return of Messiah Jesus at the end of the age. The recent return of Jews from the nations is even more miraculous when we realize that their return is while they are still in the state of unbelief. God has sovereignly gathered them for the purpose of His ultimate dealing with His covenant people.
—excerpted from An Overview of Why Israel Matters by Lee Cummings
