Looking At God's Eternal Purposes

The marvel and wonder of God’s eternal purpose regarding man and salvation are beyond complete human understanding.  The Holy Spirit does give us glimpses from the entire Bible, the Word of God.  However, we need to dig into the Old Testament history of Israel in particular and into the New Testament revelation.

If one follows the teachings of Darby from 1828 on and of Schofield where they are stated clearly in the notes of his Bible of the early twentieth century, the waters of eternal Truth will be muddied.  One misses the glory, power, authority and majesty of God’s plan.  We should examine Bible Truth without preconceived notions obtained from their teachings that have been prevalent in the U.S.A. and England, certainly from the middle of he nineteenth century unto this very day.  I state categorically that their teachings are the biggest onslaught against the Truths of the gospel and against the true church, since their inception.

We have to see what God’s purpose was throughout Jewish history in the Old Testament and indeed from the creation and fall of man, Adam  It was that there would be an end to that nation, to its given ceremonial institutions of worship, to the following of the Law, to the ministry of Prophets such as the Old Testament major and minor ones and to its kings.  Instead there was to come forth the Seed of Abraham, the One promised to Eve, who is the Lord Jesus Christ.  All the promises would be fulfilled in Him.  The nation of Israel would be supplanted by the spiritual Israel of God, consisting of a believing remnant of natural Israel to whom would be added a multitude of believing Gentiles.

Thus we have as a prelude, the Old Covenant concerning the fathers, the prophets and Israel itself, with its King David typifying his Greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who was born of the seed of David.  All this foreshadowed the New and eternal Covenant that is the fulfilment of the Old with all of its promises.  Indeed, 1 Corinthians 1:21 tells us, “For all the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus”.

Understanding this, we can see God’s purposes in every book of the Old Testament.  We gain light in the matter whereas previously as was my experience, there was uncertainty and darkness concerning many of the wonderful prophecies.  Sixty five years ago I followed the general eschatology regarding End-Times as taught amongst Pentecostals, Charismatics, Fundamentals, Baptists and of course the Plymouth Brethren, viz. the Exclusive Brethren whose founder was the above-mentioned John Nelson Darby (named after Lord Nelson his godfather).  I was an ardent student and believer in all their teachings.  However, I did say to myself, “If I knew about the history of the Major Prophetical books I might understand things better”.

It has taken me all these years until now to have what I believe to be the truth.  This has come after much prayer and study.  The light of the meaning of those prophecies has become very bright.   I thank God I have lived long enough to finally have clear insight about the matter.  I have to say that because I followed all the prevalent teachings for years, at first I had little light.  As I began to dig, the light grew brighter until now I see it all as the marvellous and wondrous revelation of God’s eternal purpose regarding salvation that indeed it is.

If the reader has any doubts about what I am saying, may I point you to my books on “The Millennium – Bible Truth or Human Myth”, “Romans”, particularly chapters 9-11, “Ephesians”, chapters 2 and 3 and “Galatians”, such as chapters 3 and 4.

Having listened to many hundreds of sermons and teachings and having read many hundreds of books along with church magazines I am amazed that none of them knew enough to spell out what the Bible really says about these matters.  However, they did not have access to the Internet but thousands over the years were scholars.  Did they not find any books in university and seminary libraries that clarified the matter as against the befogged teachings of Darby and Schofield, whose Bible multitudes have followed?

Adam fell into sin after his wife, deceived by Satan, tempted him to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.  Through Adam sin entered the human race.  Everyone born into this world is “Born in sin and shaped in iniquity”, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.  The consequences are extreme.  Man is beset by sin, sickness, disease, sorrow, curses, death in his spirit and then physical death and unless provision can be made by God, he is doomed to an eternity spent away from the presence of God, in hell. 

Redemption from sin, the curse and hell was formulated as a plan by God before the world was created.  He commenced to reveal that plan as soon as sin began to prevail.  He did this first of all to Satan, in Genesis 3:15 when He said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel”.   Jesus Christ did indeed defeat the power of Satan over God’s chosen ones who would be born in the ensuing centuries.  Satan through the artifices of the Jews, Judas and the Romans, struck His heel when men in the plan of God, nailed Him to a cross.

The progeny of Adam and Eve included Seth, who became the one through whom the Messianic line would proceed until Christ the Messiah would be born.  We find Christ’s genealogy recorded in Luke 3:23-38, from Joseph the adoptive father, right back to Adam.  That through Mary it is found in Matthew 1.  The line continued on from Seth, generation by generation, until God called a man, Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan.  In Genesis 12, 15,17,18 and 22 in particular there are details of the Covenant God made with Abraham, whose name had been changed.  The great purpose of God is found in 12:3, “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”.

Now we find God’s purposes begin to unfold.  Some think that His chief aim was to have a natural and national Israel, descendants of Abraham, who would inherit the land of Canaan forever.  The sign of the covenant was circumcision.  We are all indebted to the Old Testament Israel in that “to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever.  Amen”.  Had we lived in Old Testament times as Gentiles converted to Judaism, we would have been obliged to follow Psalm 122:6, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you’.”   That verse does not apply for today.  The New Testament does not repeat that injunction.  Rather, there is now a “heavenly Jerusalem” that is our concern and which is the focal point of the church on earth.  This is shown by Hebrews 12:22-24, But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

    We have not and do not come to any earthly Jerusalem.  It no longer exists as the favoured city of the Old Testament.  It is not a holy city.  Our holy city is as just quoted. 

The real and ultimate purpose of God was to have a heavenly and spiritual nation or people, who would be His children, co-heirs with His Eternal Son and who would be led to glory.  Hebrews 2:10 with 1 Peter 2:9,10, reveals this purpose, “It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.  For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.  For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters” and “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.  Once you were not a people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”.  In this latter verse, Peter was speaking specifically to exiles of the Dispersion, both Jew and Gentile who had believed in Christ.

Abraham himself knew that there was more to the Covenant than one that would give a national people a national land on this earth.  It is said of him in Hebrews 11:9,10 By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Peter reveals clearly what the inheritance is in his first epistle, 1:3-5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”.  The one inheritance for all believers, both Jew and Gentile, is a heavenly land, a heavenly city an imperishable inheritance that is eternal through the salvation offered by the redemption that is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

One reason for a natural Israel was for there to be a people, who would bring forth the Saviour, as Paul shows

in 2 Timothy 2:8, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David – that is my gospel”.  Jesus had to be born of a woman.  There had to be a lineage.  There had to be a people, a nation.  The lineage was that of King David, as James aptly describes in Acts 15:16-18, “After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling (hut) of David, which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it, and I will set it up;” (for what purpose?) “so that all other peoples may seek the Lord – even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called, Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things known from long ago”.

As God had told Abraham there would be multitudes blessed through him, so His plan encompassed a King David, whose line fell into disrepute naturally, but out of whose descendants, was born his Greater Son, the Greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ.  As prophesied by Isaiah, in chapter 11, the house of David that had fallen, when there was a long period without any of its kings, would later be resurrected.  We quote, verses 1,2,  “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.  The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord”.   This shoot was the Lord Jesus Christ who was “born in the city of David” as Messiah, Christ, the Lord.  This was enunciated to the shepherds by an angel of the Lord, Luke 2:13-14  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!

The throne of David was to become the throne of Christ.  However it would never be a throne on this earth.  The kingdom of Christ is a spiritual one only and not one of this world, as Jesus said in answer to Pilate, John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world” and as He proclaimed in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of  God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” as also in Matthew 4:17, “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’.”  On both occasions, the Scriptures take up the passing of Jesus along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and His calling of His disciples.  Both the kingdom of God and of heaven are one and the same thing.  His kingdom indeed is a heavenly kingdom and not one of or on this world or earth. 

Jesus also said that the time had come.  He was surely speaking of the prophecy of Daniel 9:25, Know therefore and understand: from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince, there shall be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with streets and moat, but in a troubled time.   This is the 69 weeks or 69 times seven years from when King Cyrus as recorded in Ezra 1 was used of God to send a remnant of those in captivity in Babylon, back to Jerusalem.  This is also is seen in the book of Nehemiah.   The number of years from that time ended around the time of John the Baptist and when Jesus began to preach.  Most general interpretation of Daniel 9 to allow for a indeterminate break in time, from the period of Christ until when He returns again.  According to the words of Jesus that time of Daniel 9 was fulfilled then.  These interpreters are obviously wrong.

The birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Christ was the “sure mercies of (or love for) David” mentioned by Paul in Acts.  There is that wonderful prophecy in Isaiah 55:3, “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David”.   Then God promised that this One, this Messiah, would “call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel”, the Messiah or Christ.  Paul quoted this when he preached in a synagogue, in Acts 13:32-39, And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors ³³he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,

         ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’

³⁴As to his raising him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, ‘I will give you the holy promises made to David.’

³⁵Therefore he has also said in another psalm,

         ‘You will not let your Holy One experience corruption.’

³⁶For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died, was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption; ³⁷but he whom God raised up experienced no corruption. ³⁸Let it be known to you therefore, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you; ³⁹by this Jesus everyone who believes is set free from all those sins from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.  Paul also called this the “hope of Israel” in Acts 28:20 when he told the Jews in Rome while bound with chains in a prison.  He testified often to great numbers of them.  Some of them believed and some did not. The hope of Israel is the birth, death and resurrection of their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The hope of Israel to this day and for all time is not and never will be to have a Messiah ruling over a restored national Israel in “its own land”.  Such a thing is never portrayed in Scripture and particularly as a national hope or indeed a hope that the Christian Church has erroneously taken up to follow.   We should all take note of this “hope of Israel” spoken about by Paul.  He declared it as above.  Let us believe it.

We note the past tense in verse 32, “he has fulfilled for us”.  That is definite enough for us to accept that the promises of the Old Testament to Israel have already been fulfilled with the birth, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This fulfilment is found, as Paul says, in “the good news” or “the gospel”.

Going back to the Covenant God made with Abraham, here was a man who believed God and according to Romans 4:22, Therefore his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness”.  He became the ancestor of all who believe and have faith, which he had before he was circumcised.  Romans 4:23,24 shows that ²³Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. 

This is said of him despite the fact that the story recorded in Genesis reveals that he listened to his wife Sarah and had a child by her slave.  This was a child of the flesh and not one of the promise.  Despite the very old ages of both Abraham and Sarah, God performed a miracle and they had a “child of the promise.”  Isaac was born.  Paul in Galatians 4:22-31 likens the history of the slave, Hagar and her children as children of slavery.  They corresponded to the then and now present earthly Jerusalem “in slavery with her children”.  They have been driven out.  They do not participate in the promises of God to Abraham.  The unbelieving Jews and the nation of Israel correspond to Hagar and her children.  They are in bondage.  They have been driven away from God and the promises.  It is only the remnant of believing Israelites and the believing Gentiles in Christ, who are the true children. They are the free.  They are the inheritors of the promises to Abraham, Galatians 3:26-29, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.  They are children of the free.  It has happened so that the remnant of Jewry believing in Christ would be in Him, along with the Gentiles, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentles.  It is that we (Jew and Gentile) might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. There is nothing natural about this inheritance.  It is a heavenly one that begins in Christ’s believers on earth.  The promises were not made to national or natural Israel. As Galatians 3:16, “¹⁶Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, “And to offsprings,” as of many; but it says, “And to your offspring,” that is, to one person, who is Christ.   Jacob prophesied of Christ before he died, saying in Genesis 49:10, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his.   As a nation Israel has totally missed out.

Abraham’s natural descendants,  through Isaac, then Jacob and his twelve sons, became Israel with its twelve tribes, the Israel we read about in the Old Testament.  They were under the Old Covenant, that we find recorded in Exodus 20 to 40.

Galatians 3:17-19 informs us the reason for the Law, ¹⁷My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.  ¹⁸For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise. ¹⁹Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator.  This promise as shown above was and is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The “Law was our schoolmaster (disciplinarian) until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith” – and not by Law keeping.

It is also classed as the elemental spirits of this world Galatians 4:3, to which they were enslaved, and beggarly elemental spirits, Galatians 4:9.  The meaning of this bondage to such elemental spirits would include what follows. 

Elements or elemental spirits of the world relates to  elements of knowledge, rudimentary religious ideas. Hebrews 5:12 says, ¹²For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God.  This will then be, the material as distinguished from the spiritual realm. Elements of the world will be the crude beginnings of religion, suited to the condition of children, and pertaining to those who are not Christians. Thus the Jewish economy was of the world as appealing to the senses, and affording only the first elements of a spiritual system. In those days, the heir when a child was taught by a school-master without having any power as an heir.  The Jews were taught only faint outlines of spiritual truth, and was taught them by worldly symbols. 

Paul describes the condition of Israel then  in 2 Corinthians 3:14, “But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside”.

The various institutions of the Mosaic order, which were to the Jews what an A B C, or an alphabet of letters, is to one beginning to learn.  Also, as the physical elements are the first principles of nature, and the general rules of speech and language are the rudiments thereof, so the Mosaic institutions were the elements, rudiments, or first principles of the Jewish religion, taught them by the law, as their schoolmaster, and by which they were used as children.  These are called "elements", (“elemental spirits”) in allusion to the first principles of nature and learning; and the elements "of the world", because they lay in outward worldly and earthly things, as meats, drinks, divers washings, &c. and because that hereby God instructed the world of the Jews.  Like the things of the world, they were transient, temporary, and of little value. They were unsatisfactory in their nature, and were soon to pass away, and to give place to a better system - as the things of this world are soon to give place to heaven.

They were “elements of nature”, “beggarly” of the physical world, especially the heavenly bodies.  There was a regulation by the order of nature, as said in “the days, months, times,” as in Galatians 4:-8-10, ⁸Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. ⁹Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? ¹⁰You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years.   This seems to be the better explanation.  The Galatians had turned back to observing these things that was actually following spirits.   See Colossians 2:8, ⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.  According to Jewish ideas, all things had their special angels. In the Revelation of John we find four angels of the winds 14:18; the angel of the waters 16:5; the angel in the sun 19:17.   Paul speaks of such spirits as “The thorn being a messenger of Satan” , 2 Corinthians 12:7; Satan prevents his journey to Thessalonica 1 Thessalonians 2:18; the Kingdom of God is opposed by “principalities and powers” 1 Corinthians 15:24;  Christians sometimes wrestle against “the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  Ephesians 6:12.   In this passage the “elements of the world” are compared with overseers and stewards”. This would seem to require a personal interpretation

In Hebrews 10:8, it is written “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings (these are offered according to the law”.   Nevertheless, Israel as a nation was under this Mosaic Covenant, under the Law, given by God to Moses at the top of Mount Sinai, Exodus 20 on.  There he was instructed regarding the building of the tabernacle, that according to Hebrews 9:1-5 was an earthly sanctuary.  Hebrews 10:1 lets us know that the “law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the sae sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach”.   All these sacrifices pointed to Christ, the Lamb of God who was to come, as well as High Priest after an order other than that of Aaron, rather as after the priesthood of Melchizedek, Hebrews 7.  In Hebrews 9:11,12, the Spirit declares “He being a High Priest of the good things that have come then through a greater and perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the Holy Place not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption”.  Through them and particularly those offered on the annual Day of Atonement, their sins were covered.  Worship could be performed to God.   God appointed a priesthood, of the line of Aaron.

  A Theocratic nation could function under laws and the Law established by God. This prevailed until the time of Samuel when Israel demanded a king, which God granted.  Then they became in a measure like other nations in that they became a kingdom with the first King, Saul, followed by David and his dynasty.  In those days Solomon built a Temple, after David himself had built a Tabernacle on Mt. Zion.  Then the book of Zechariah tells us of the one built by Joshua and Zerubbabel, that had been commenced by Nehemiah.  It may have followed some of the plans prophesied by Ezekiel.   However, later on Herod rebuilt it and there could have been some of Ezekiel’s ideas incorporated in the architecture.

  The nation continuously rebelled even before entering the land promised to Abraham for his natural descendants.  They were given every portion of the land promised, as we read in Joshua   But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual,1 Corinthians 15:46.  As was the man of dust (Adam), and as is the man of heaven (the last Adam, Jesus Christ) so are those who are of heaven.   The Old Testament order of things was of the natural and material.  The New Testament order of things is of the “spiritual”, as is seen in 1 Corinthians 2:13, “taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual”; 14, “for they are spiritually discerned”.   With regard to this latter verse, it should be said that the Old Testament saints who looked forward to Christ, had some degree of spiritual discernment without having any in relation to the full preaching of the gospel.  There are also the verses, 1 Corinthians 9:11, “we have sown spiritual good amongst you”; Ephesians 1:3, “Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” and 1 Peter 2:5, “like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”.  God spoke to them through the prophets, “in many and various ways”, Hebrews 1:1.  In New Testament times, God has spoken to us by a Son.  We who live in the day of grace under the gospel and the Spirit, should remember this.  What God has said to us by His Son is what counts because He spoke in the Old Testament days only by the prophets, “to our ancestors”, the Bible specifically says.  We have the understanding and fulfilment of what was spoken by the prophets to Israel.ebrews 1:Hebrews 1:1:1  Their hearts were hardened and their eyes blinded. They did not understand and generally, never will to this day.   Perhaps through His grace, God will keep on calling many of them to Christ in the future.

Israel was God’s chosen nation from amongst all the others and they were all heathen, worshipping idols.  God maintained His love for her.  He was as a husband to her.  She played the harlot.  His righteousness could not overlook her sins, rebellion and idolatry, that occurred generation after generation.  She was to have been a kingdom of priests.

Exodus 19:5,6 “Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.  Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.”  However, she did not obey nor keep God’s covenant.  She was never a priestly kingdom or indeed a holy nation.  We see here that even though God promised Israel something, as always, it was conditional and the promise was not fulfilled.   She broke the Covenant God made with her on Mt. Sinai almost immediately.  The record of it is found in Exodus 32.  She forced Aaron to make a golden calf, which they worshipped and revelled, dancing with frenzied abandon and nudity.  In verse 34, God said, “Nevertheless, when the day comes for punishment, I will punish them for their sin.”  Then He “sent a plague o the people, because they made the calf”.

The purpose of this book is not to recount the history of Israel.  It is to show that the promises of punishment and curses were exceedingly great and that they would come upon the nation as a whole, in a final demonstration of the wrath and judgment of God upon her.  Sadly our pulpits are filled with preachers who avoid this matter and instead promote an Israel even now blessed by God.   They predict a golden time of millennial blessings for a national Israel in its own land.  That God finally judged Israel and has no plans for her restoration as a nation, with a temple, priestly sacrifices and a ruling earthly Messiah is never taught.  Therefore God’s people and even sinners never hear that we have a faithful God who entirely does what He promises, even to the judgments that fell upon Israel to this day.   God’s word is sure.  The wonder and beauty of God’s plan for His church is missing, with the finality of the Old Covenant and the implementation and continuation of only the New Covenant.  They miss the glory of the mystery of the gospel as revealed to Paul and taught everywhere by him.

 Ephesians 2:15,16 “He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God (Jew and Gentile) in one body through the cross”.   In Ephesians 3:2-6 —²for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, ³and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, ⁴a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. ⁵In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: ⁶that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body.  This is the mystery and it also lets us know that in the giving to us of what the mystery discloses, there is no further plan for a nation of Israel. As Galatians 6:16, we believers all, are “the true Israel of God”.  “The” means “one”, one Israel, consisting of believers in Christ and not Israelites by natural descent. 

  As John 1:12,13 reveals, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh (as natural Jews were) or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God”.   Because those who lived in Old Testament times did not have any knowledge of this mystery, their rabbis, teachers and even true saints, were unable to grasp the significance of all the Old Testament prophecies.    They did understand some of those prophecies as shown by any reading of the four Gospels.   A millennium rule by a coming Messiah on the Jerusalem throne of David was what they anticipated.   Jesus Himself invalidated that idea.  Those who follow the Jews in their mythical beliefs in that regard, are in actuality following Anti-Christ  as it is all different from what Jesus taught.  This we will discover further on.   A blindness fell over Israel in the Old Testament.   Perhaps that also was a type of New Testament things, in that the new and true Israel of God now (and this has existed for nearly two centuries) is in the main part, also possessing a similar blindness.

With regard to the promise of land that was given to Abraham, it should be noted that the Children of Israel did inherit and inhabit all of it.  This is seen by the following Scriptures:-

Said by Moses, Deuteronomy 1:38 Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, shall enter there; encourage him, for he is the one who will secure Israel’s possession of it.

Joshua 11:23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments.

Joshua 21:43,45 Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to their ancestors that he would give them; and having taken possession of it, they settled there. ⁴⁴And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their ancestors; not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. ⁴⁵Not one of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

Joshua 23:14  And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed.

Ezekiel 20:28 “when I had brought them into the land that I swore to give them”.

Psalm 78:54,55 “And he brought them to his holy hill, to the mountain that his right hand had won.  ⁵⁵He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.”.

Nehemiah 9:23,24 You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven, ad brought them into the land that you had told their ancestors to enter and possess.  So the descendants went in and possessed the land.

It is obvious that all the promises regarding land, that had been given to Abraham were fulfilled.  In Genesis 15:5, 22:17 there had been the promise in relation to his descendants being “like the stars”.   Nehemiah in 9:19-21 shows some of the blessings of God upon them in the desert.  There was the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night to guide them and shine on their way.   The Scriptures say, “You gave your god Spirit to instruct them”.  They were not without supernatural and spiritual help and blessings, as well as material blessings, such as manna, water, clothes that did not wear out and feet preserved from being swollen.   Amazing miraculous grace of God!

The covenants God made with Israel and His promises of blessing were always conditional.   There was the possibility of their breaking the covenants.  Failure to meet the conditions would always bear the consequences of  God’s judgments and curses.  God Himself made provision for a New Covenant.  We will examine all these features as outlined in various Scriptures.

We look at -

Nehemiah 9:26,27 ”But they became disobedient and rebelled against You; they put your law behind their backs.  They killed your prophets, who had admonished them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies.  So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them”.  This passage continues relating history as found in the book of Judges of sin and rebellion, of their crying out to God for deliverance and of His raising up judges to deliver them.

There were dire warnings, such as Joshua 23:12,13, 15,16 “For if you turn back, and join the survivors of these nations left here among you, and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours, ¹³know assuredly that the LORD your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you; but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.

 ¹⁵But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the bad things, until he has destroyed you from this good land that the LORD your God has given you. ¹⁶If you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he enjoined on you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you.

Deuteronomy 32:15-22 Jacob ate his fill; Jeshurun (Israel) grew fat, and kicked.  You grew fat, bloated, and gorged!  He abandoned God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.  ¹⁶They made him jealous with strange gods, with abhorrent things they provoked him.  ¹⁷They sacrificed to demons, not God, to deities they had never known, to new ones recently arrived, whom your ancestors had not feared.  ¹⁸You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.  ¹⁹The LORD saw it, and was jealous; he spurned his sons and daughters.  ²⁰He said: I will hide my face from them,             I will see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faithfulness.  ²¹They made me jealous with what is no god, provoked me with their idols.  So I will make them jealous with what is no people, provoke them with a foolish nation.  ²²For a fire is kindled by my anger, and burns to the depths of Sheol; it devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

In the times of Christ, to which this song refers in their making Him jealous, Israel saw him in the flesh, preaching in their synagogues, doing miracles, riding on an ass to Jerusalem, in fulfilment of one of their prophecies, and expiring on the cross. Yet they rejected him. They are said to "wax fat", as above, enjoy great outward prosperity, to abound in temporal good things, as they also did in spiritual privileges; some enjoying, as the others might have enjoyed, such a ministry of the word, as never was before or since.  They heard the ministry of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, yet they "kicked".  This may denote their disobedience to the laws of God, moral and ceremonial and particularly the introduction of idolatry among them.  This was kicking against God, and his worship.  This happened first among the ten tribes, in the times of Jeroboam, in 1 Kings and among the two tribes, more especially in the times of Manasseh.  This kicking was particularly verified in Judas's lifting up his heel against Christ, and betraying him; which was not merely the sin of him only, but what the whole body of the people were involved in.  They said, “Crucify Him, crucify Him”!

“You grew fat, bloated, and gorged!  which is repeated and expressed by different words to show its certainty.   Also, it shows how affluent they became and this was to aggravate their godlessness and ingratitude.   “Then he abandoned God who made him” i.e. the worship of God (going into idolatry in times past) and the written word of God, by giving heed to the traditions of the elders.   They made of none effect the word of God; or Christ, the essential Word of God.  They left the Word of God, who created them, that Word of God which was in the beginning of all things, and by whom all things were made, who in the fullness of time was made flesh, and dwelt among men, John 1:1.

They “scoffed at the rock of his salvation” is about the same divine Person, described in Deuteronomy 32:4; and there called "the Rock".  It is "the rock of salvation" because salvation flows from him.  He is the author of it.  It is found in him and found in no other.  It shows not only his ability and strength to effect it, but the security of it in him.  It is an everlasting one. He is said to be the rock of "his" salvation, Jeshurun or Israel, He (Christ)  being of the Jews, raised up among them, and sent unto them.  He was the Saviour of some of them, even of the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  The Jews "lightly esteemed" him, had no value for him, set this rock and stone at nought.  He was refused and rejected by the builders, who is now the head of the corner.  They despised him, mocked at him, and treated him with the utmost contempt and disdain and abhorrence.  All this is signified by the word here used.  They treated him as a vile and wicked person.  They made a dead carcass of him, they crucified and slew him.  This is the crime of ingratitude hinted at in Deuteronomy 32:6; and all between is a statement of instances of divine goodness to this people, mentioned with a view to aggravate this unheard of sin.

In the above portion of Deuteronomy, which is part of the song of Moses, given by the Spirit of Christ just prior to the death of Moses, there are prophetic words as to what would happen to Israel, how God would hide His face from them, scatter them and blot out their memory from mankind.  It is about the gospel era, as in Deuteronomy 32:21 They made me jealous with what is no god, provoked me with their idols.  So I will make them jealous with what is no people,       provoke them with a foolish nation.

  This is quoted by Paul in Romans 10:19 “Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

Moses had already prophesied about the gospel, in Deuteronomy 30:12-15 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” ¹³Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” ¹⁴No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.  ¹⁵See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.

Paul uses all these verses in Romans 10:5-10, Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” ⁶But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) etc.  The connection between what Moses has prophesied and Christ with His gospel is plain.

  Deuteronomy 30:18 states, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.; for turning away from God, for not being obedient and by idolatry.  Israel was guilty of all of these sins century after century.  The final judgment of God would be sure to happen. It did occur from the years 66-70 A.D. when Vespasian and then his son, Titus, both later made Caesars, were used by God to bring their Roman Army as the main destructive force, along with the Jews themselves causing much of the judgments of God to take place.   More of that later.

Jesus also prophesied those very things and it is a wonder and amazement that after a long life of church attendance, and listening to what hundreds of preachers had to say, that all these important matters have never been spoken for me to hear any of them!  We mention Luke 21 and Matthew 24 as starters.

In Deuteronomy 27, Moses uttered all the curses that would come upon the people of Israel for sinning along certain lines, commencing with the sin of idolatry.  Israel, generation after generation, was guilty of that sin.  The curses came upon them.  May I quickly point out that always there was a small “remnant” of the people who were true to God.  Deuteronomy 28:19-45 promises many more curses upon Israel.  Why are preachers silent about this?  We read, v.45 All these curses shall come upon you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God, by observing the commandments and the decrees that he commanded you.

“Destroyed” means “destroyed”.   That is the end of a thing.  It is finished.  It can exist no more at any future time.  Such is the condition and history of the nation of Israel.  Moses foretold the destruction of Israel before they had even entered the land of Promise, Canaan.  What a great God we have and an awe-inspiring God.

The verses in Deuteronomy 28 said certain  things would happen if they did not carefully follow all the words of “this law”.  They failed to do so.  Those things happened as recorded by Josephus, the Jewish historian, and  others.  Destruction came upon them, particularly because of their refusal to receive the Son of God.   Jesus told the parable of the Vineyard, Matthew 21:28-40.  There was a vineyard, Israel.  The owner of this vineyard sent John the Baptist first of all.  Jesus said the evil tax collectors and prostitutes “are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you”.  Then it was about the rejection of this Son by the nation of Israel, as John says in 1:11, He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.  Another parable told of a landowner who leased it to tenants.  He sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.  The tenants killed the slaves.  He sent another lot.  They also were killed, Jesus said, “Finally he sent his son to them saying, ‘They will respect my son’.  But when the tenants saw the son, the said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.  So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him”.  The chief priests and elders themselves told Him what would happen to those tenants – a miserable death and then the owner would find other tenants. 

Then Jesus told them what would happen to the nation of Israel, actually, in their generation.  Matthew 21: 42, Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?’  Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will  be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.  This is a dire prophecy from Jesus of what was in store for Israel in the very time those people lived.  Peter quotes those verses in his first epistle 2:7.  He says, The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner.  The word “rejected” means “examined and found true, yet discarded”.  As Jesus explained in the parables above, the leaders knew He was the heir and yet killed him.

In Luke 19:41-44, we read what Jesus prophesied would occur in Jerusalem –

  As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴²saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.

Moses prophesied a thousand years previously, as we read in the following verses, that there would be a siege.  Historical records confirm it happened.  Israel did not know it was being visited by God, the Word made flesh.  Judgment came upon them as Paul declares in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16,  For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews, ¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone ¹⁶by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but God’s wrath has overtaken them at last. 

The sins of Israel had piled up, even as Jesus had said.  Paul said that the wrath of God had finally met up with them totally. 

Luke 11:29-32  When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. ³¹The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! ³²The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!

 37-42  While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. ³⁸The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. ³⁹Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.

⁴²“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others.

47-51  Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. ⁴⁸So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, ⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation.

The prophecies in the Old Testament of curses and judgment upon Israel were to be fulfilled even as Jesus knew.

In Luke 13:34, Jesus cried, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁵See, your house is left to you.

This meant that as one commentator, Gill, says, Matthew 23:38 - See, your house is left to you, desolate. Signifying that the city in which they dwelt, where they had their ceiled houses, and stately palaces, would, in a little time, within the space of forty years, be destroyed, and become a desert; and the temple, formerly the house of God, but now only their's, and in which they trusted, would be abandoned by God,.  He would grant his presence no more in it; and the Messiah, the proprietor of it, and who was now in it, would then take his leave of it, and never more return to it;.  It would also share the same fate as the city, and at the same time. Our Lord seems to have in view those passages in Jeremiah 12:7 I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my heart into the hands of her enemies.

The Jewish writers understood this of the temple. The author of the apocryphal the second book of Esdras has much such an expression as this: Thus saith the Almighty Lord, Your house is desolate, I will cast you out as the wind doth stubble.

The amazing thing is that our pulpits have been filled with preachers for generations and certainly the last three, when mention is never made of these things that happened to Israel, the temple, the institution of worship, Jerusalem, the city, the walls and the people.  This has been despite all the Bible verses that have stated specifically that Israel the nation, Jerusalem the city etc. would be totally destroyed.

These verses that follow, portray many of the cruelties that occurred from 66-70 A.D. during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, of the temple, stone by stone (each stone being 50’x 24’x 16’).  Jesus said in  Luke 21:6  “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” 

Despite the size of these huge stones, they were demolished and removed by the Romans.

Also in  Matthew 24:2 “You see all these, do you not?.... "These great buildings", as in Mark 13:2; all these goodly stones, so beautiful and large, and so firmly put together: verily, I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down; or broken.  Munster's Hebrew Gospel reads it: which prediction had a full and remarkable accomplishment; and which is not only attested by Josephus, who relates, that both the city and temple were dug up, and laid level with the ground; but also by other Jewish writers; who tell us that "on the ninth of Ab, a day prepared for punishments, Turnus Rufus the wicked, "ploughed up the temple", and all round about it, to fulfill what is said, "Zion shall be ploughed as a field".  

Yes, and to fulfill what Christ here says too, that not one stone should be left upon another, which a plough would not admit of.    Gill.

Micah 3:12 records that all would become a ploughed field.  Some scholars say that the Wailing Wall where today Jews pray, was not a part of the ancient Temple.  It was actually the remaining wall of the large buildings that were built to quarter the Roman soldiers.

Also we read of the fearful things to occur to Israel at the time when Vespasian and Titus invaded and destroyed Jerusalem, in Deuteronomy 28:47-57

Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. ⁴⁹The LORD will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, ⁵⁰a grim-faced nation showing no respect to the old or favor to the young. ⁵¹It shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, leaving you neither grain, wine, and oil, nor the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, until it has made you perish. ⁵²It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you. ⁵³In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you. ⁵⁴Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children, ⁵⁵giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns. ⁵⁶She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter, ⁵⁷begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs, and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns.

⁵⁸If you do not diligently observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, fearing this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, ⁵⁹then the LORD will overwhelm both you and your offspring with severe and lasting afflictions and grievous and lasting maladies. ⁶⁰He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were in dread, and they shall cling to you. ⁶¹Every other malady and affliction, even though not recorded in the book of this law, the LORD will inflict on you until you are destroyed. ⁶²Although once you were as numerous as the stars in heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. ⁶³And just as the LORD took delight in making you prosperous and numerous, so the LORD will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destruction; you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to possess. ⁶⁴The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. ⁶⁵Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit. ⁶⁶Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life. ⁶⁷In the morning you shall say, “If only it were evening!” and at evening you shall say, “If only it were morning!”—because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see. ⁶⁸The LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never see again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.

In relation to “bring you into Egypt again,” we are told by Josephus, that 120,000 slaves were set free by Ptolemy Philadelphus; but what is chiefly respected here is their case in the times of the Romans, and by their means. Now when Jerusalem was taken by Titus, those above seventeen years of age were sent by him to the works, or mines, in Egypt, as the same historian relates; and after their last overthrow by Adrian many thousands were sold, and what could not be sold were transported into Egypt, and perished by "shipwreck", or famine, or were slaughtered by the people whereby this prophecy was literally and exactly fulfilled, and which is owned by the Jews themselves. Manasseh Ben Israel observes, that though Vespasian banished the Jews into various countries, Egypt is only mentioned by way of reproach, as if it had been said, ye shall go captives into the land from which ye went out triumphant:

“by the way whereof I spake unto you, you shall see it no more again; the Targum of Jonathan is, "the Word of the Lord shall bring you into Egypt again in ships;'' even the same divine Word, the Son of God, that brought them out of it, and went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire, now provoked by their rejection of him, would lead them back again thither; the paraphrast adds, "through the midst of the Red sea, in the path in which you passed;'' as if they were carried over into Egypt in ships, just in that part of the sea in which they had passed before; but that was an unknown and unseen path, after the waters were closed up, and never to be seen more, and which is here meant; for not Egypt, but the way in which they passed, was to be seen no more:

and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and for bondwomen, and no man shall buy you; that is, there in Egypt they would be offered to sale, and so many would be sold until the market was glutted with them, and there would be no buyers. The Targum of Jonathan is “you shall be sold there at first to your enemies, at a dear price, as artificers, and afterwards at a mean price as servants and handmaids, until ye become despised, and be brought to serve for nothing, and there be none to take you in.”  Jarchi interprets it of they themselves being desirous, and seeking to be sold, to avoid cruelties and death; which agrees with the sense of the word, which may be rendered, "ye shall offer yourselves for sale"; but there will be no buyer, because their enemies will determine upon the slaughter and consumption of them; and to the same purpose Aben Ezra. There were such numbers of them to be sold both at Egypt and at Rome, that the sellers of them had but a poor market for them; and it seems not only because of their number, but the ill opinion had of them as servants.  Hegesippus says, “there were many to be sold, but there were few buyers; for the Romans despised the Jews for service, nor were there Jews left to redeem their own. It is said, that thirty were sold for a penny; a just retaliation to them, who had sold their Messiah for thirty pieces of silver.”

If we examine Luke 21 and Matthew 24, verse by verse, it becomes clear, when we read the many historical accounts of what happened “in this generation” as Jesus said.  Everything literally that Jesus prophesied occurred during the years 66-73 A.D., particularly, 66-70 A.D. when Jerusalem was destroyed.  The temple was burnt August 10 A.D.70, the same day and month on which it had bee burnt by he king of Babylon.  When Titus was viewing the fortifications after the taking of the city, he could not help saying his success was due to God.  “We have fought with God on our side; and it is God who pulled the Jews out of these strong holds: for what could machines or the hands of men avail against such towers as these?”

Jesus had told the believers to escape.  The siege was lifted for a short period and it is said that all the Christian believers fled as Jesus told them to do.  He said in Matthew 24:21  For at that time there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.

Historians  tell us of the cruel and terrible events that occurred at that time.  Apparently anything worse than those things had never happened even to this day.

We can go though verse after verse in Matthew 24 and compare it with the history of the events.  Each verse was fulfilled at that time.   Why are our preachers looking for further fulfilments?   God has never worked in that particular fashion throughout the ages of history.  Another big question is this.  Why has there been such a silence in the pulpits about the events of the days when Matthew 24 was fulfilled?  The reason is that the majority have been following the imaginative outlines of Darby’s and Schofield’s doctrines and so we have had our eyes blinded and our hearts hardened.  We need to go back to what the Scriptures tell us and not what we have learned from those two men  and from the Exclusive Brethren, who also erroneously say that speaking in tongues is from Satan and that tongues speakers should be placed in insane institutions.

As Moses had prophesied Israel was brought to an end.

To expect Israel to be restored is ludicrous and anti-Christ.  Darby and all his followers make the Anti-Christ in Daniel 9 as the “Anointed”.  Only Jesus Christ is the “Anointed”.  All their beliefs are made to tie in with the book of Revelation.  They, of course, are bed-fellows with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists.    Another thing that could prove of interest is that some scholars believe the book of Revelation was written in the early sixties A.D.  It is also believed that it was written to prepare and comfort the believers in Jerusalem, Judaea and the rest of that area, who would be faced with the onslaught of the Roman Army.  The name of 666, stood for the Roman letters regarding Caesar, whose name none dared to speak in the context of the book.

There is very much more that could be said but I would like to emphasize that all this occurred to bring to an end, the Old Covenant.  It is finished.  The New Covenant has taken its place.  Jewish religious institutions of worship have finished.  There are to be no more animal sacrifices to please God, as is said in Hebrews 6:6  and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt.  Also, in Hebrews 10:29-31, How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  How can any Christian think that God would ever countenance a renewal of the sacrifices of animals in any so-called  millennium at the supposedly rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. 

The writer of Hebrews was speaking to those believing Hebrews who did or wanted to go back to Temple worship.  Darby and others says the sacrifice of animals will happen again during the Millennium.  It can never be.  It is a lie.

 We have all been deceived at some time or other about the normal, general and prolific teachings of the End-Time, Israel and the Millennium, with a third coming of Christ to “stand upon the Mount of Olives”.  These teachings are ravings and demonic lies from the pit of hell.  Sadly, we all have received them in years past – because of our ignorance, and perhaps love of this world, not wanting another?

The cruel end of Israel and the absolute destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, the walls along with the finality of the Jewish institutions of worship and their carnal hopes, is actually a marvel.  It all shows the wonderful, awe-inspiring wisdom and grace of God because He had another Covenant for believers in Christ.  This Covenant is the New Covenant and it can never fail because its Surety is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He keeps the covenant for us.  Israel could never keep the covenant God made with them.  Neither could we.  Now, Jesus Christ has come and introduced the New Covenant.  No wonder Paul said in  Romans 11:33  O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

THE NEW COVENANT

There are two covenants for the Israel of God in the Scriptures.  They are the only ones.  Darby and his millions of followers say there is another one.  They cite one verse only, Daniel 9:27, “He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven (week)”  To explain this chapter is not part of the purpose of this book.   Regarding this covenant, Darby and Schofield say it is the Anti-Christ who makes a covenant.  They have misconstrued the whole chapter and given an explanation to fit their vain theories.   Christ is the Maker of the covenant.  In this regard, it is the only place in the Bible where there is a mention of a covenant with “many” as this one.  They have built a doctrine on that one verse.  The Bible says it is to be in he mouths of “two or three witnesses”.

The covenants God has made are only two, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant (Testament)

We would like to point out some places in the Old Testament where the New Covenant is prophesied, with the application to the prophecies made in the New Testament.

First of all I should quote what Hebrews 8:13 says about the two covenants – In speaking of “a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.  Here are some verses:-

Jeremiah 31:31-34 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

We now go to Hebrews to see the connection between the Old and the New Testaments.

Hebrews 7:22  accordingly Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.

Hebrews 8:6  But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises. ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.

Hebrews 12:24  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

This New Covenant has been ratified “by His blood”-

Hebrews 9:12-24 he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. ¹³For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, ¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

¹⁵For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. ¹⁶Where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. ¹⁷For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. ¹⁸Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. ¹⁹For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people, ²⁰saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.” ²¹And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. ²²Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

²³Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these. ²⁴For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Hebrews 13:20  “Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus,”

Therefore, says the Spirit,

Hebrews 8:6-13 But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises. ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.

⁸God finds fault with them when he says:

         “The days are surely coming, says the Lord,

         when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel

         and with the house of Judah;

⁹        not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors,

         on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;

         for they did not continue in my covenant,

         and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.

¹⁰      This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

         after those days, says the Lord:

         I will put my laws in their minds,

         and write them on their hearts,

         and I will be their God,

         and they shall be my people.

¹¹      And they shall not teach one another

         or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’

         for they shall all know me,

         from the least of them to the greatest.

¹²      For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

         and I will remember their sins no more.”

¹³In speaking of “a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.”

Furthermore, we know that the Old Covenant with all its appointments, the nation of Israel, the Temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the Law as such, tithing, were abolished forever.   We are reminded of the fact that as Jesus hung upon the cross, the very thick veil of the earthly temple was torn in two from top to bottom, by the hand of God.  Temple worship was finished forever for the true people of God, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ entered the sanctuary in heave for us, where even now we entered in Him.  Then in 70 A.D. the actual Temple and all its associated institutions with the nation of Israel, were abolished as such for all time.

Let us note Hebrews 10:1  Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.

Glorious work of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

In Hebrews 10:9 we have the very statement of Jesus Christ, the Son, about all this, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.

Peter filled with the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost said this in Acts 3:24-26, And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. ²⁵You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ²⁶When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

The New Covenant is clearly revealed in the prophecies of the Old, even to the extent of it being for “First the Jew and then the Gentile”.  There is to be no other covenant.

This New Covenant that has been established for the church of Jesus Christ, the true Israel of God, has far better than the Old one.  He lasts forever and will never fail. We, Jew and Gentile, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are under this New Covenant.  Through it we have our hopes set on an eternity in heaven, where we continue with the eternal life we have already received.  We will never come back to this earth, or this world for God has in plan for us “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness”.

It is good to look at what Ezekiel says.

Ezekiel 16:60 -62 yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant. ⁶¹Then you will remember your ways, and be ashamed when I take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and give them to you as daughters, but not on account of my covenant with you. ⁶²I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD,…

The meaning of these verses is this.

The prophet speaks of Israel and also Gentiles, e.g Samaria.  One commentator remarks:

“Thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger - The Gentiles, who were before the Jews were called, and after the Jews were cast off, are here termed the elder and younger sister. These were to be given to Jerusalem for daughters; the latter should be converted to God by the ministry of men who should spring out of the Jewish Church. The former, who were patriarchs, etc., profited by the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. Among the latter the Gospel was preached, first by Christ and his apostles, and since by persons raised up from among themselves.

But not by thy covenant - This was the ancient covenant, the conditions of which they broke, and the blessings of which they forfeited; but by that new covenant, or the renewal to the Gentiles of that covenant that was made originally with Abraham while he was a Gentile, promising that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed; that covenant which respected the incarnation of Christ, and was ratified by the blood of his cross.”

Then another plainly shows what God is speaking about regarding covenants.

“The covenant made with them at Sinai, quickly after they came out of Egypt, when they were, both as a body politic and ecclesiastical, in their infant state; for, as Kimchi says, all the while they were in Egypt, and until they, came into the land of Canaan, were called the days of their youth; and to this covenant, which had the nature of a matrimonial contract, the, prophet refers when he speaks of the ‘love’ of their "espousals", and the ‘kindness’ of their ‘youth’, Jeremiah 2:2; this covenant the Lord remembered, and made good his part, though they neglected theirs; and it was particularly remembered when Christ was made under this law, and became the fulfilling end of it to his people; yielding perfect obedience to it, and bearing the penalty of it in their room and stead; for here begins a declaration of the grace and mercy of God to the remnant, according to the election of grace, which were among this degenerate people, and whom the Lord had a special regard unto.”     Gill

This is about the covenant of grace, made with the Messiah and his spiritual seed; which is confirmed of God in Christ; ordered in all things and sure; whose promises are yea and amen in Christ; and the blessings of it, the sure mercies of David; a covenant that shall never be broken, made void, or removed; but will continue for ever. This is the new covenant, or the covenant of grace, as exhibited and administered under the New Testament; see Hebrews 8:8-13  God finds fault with them when he says:

⁸         “The days are surely coming, says the Lord,

         when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel

         and with the house of Judah;

⁹        not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors,

         on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;

         for they did not continue in my covenant,

         and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.

¹⁰      This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

         after those days, says the Lord:

         I will put my laws in their minds,

         and write them on their hearts,

         and I will be their God,

         and they shall be my people.

¹¹      And they shall not teach one another

         or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’

         for they shall all know me,

         from the least of them to the greatest.

¹²      For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

         and I will remember their sins no more.”

¹³In speaking of “a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.

One writer connects Ezekiel 20:40 For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, says the Lord GOD, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land; there I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred things. with  Ephesians 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,…

We should forget the idea that has been taught us for many a year that we must interpret Old Testament prophecies about Israel in a literal manner.  That is an impossibility as I found out for example, when looking at Zechariah 14:4,5,10,11 speaking of the Lord standing on the Mount of Olives.  To treat it literally, one has to be amazed when looking at a map that the places mentioned are 30 kilometres apart in one instance an around 60 in another.  It could not be literal.  We cannot “literal” with “spiritual” meanings.  Rather we must compare “natural” meaning with “supernatural meanings”.  Many have to be taken as being supernatural or spiritual if you like, as here.

A wonderful chapter regards the coming of the Messiah, not to offer a natural kingdom to Israel at any time, but to be the great Shepherd of the sheep the One who gives His life for them.  This is Ezekiel 34.  Some verses are –

Ezekiel 34:10-13 Thus says the Lord GOD, I am against the shepherds; and I will demand my sheep at their hand, and put a stop to their feeding the sheep; no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, so that they may not be food for them.

¹¹For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. ¹²As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. ¹³I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land.

Ezekiel 34:14-16 I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. ¹⁶I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

Ezekiel 34:22-31 I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

²³I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. ²⁴And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.

²⁵I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild animals from the land, so that they may live in the wild and sleep in the woods securely. ²⁶I will make them and the region around my hill a blessing; and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. ²⁷The trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase. They shall be secure on their soil; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and save them from the hands of those who enslaved them. ²⁸They shall no more be plunder for the nations, nor shall the animals of the land devour them; they shall live in safety, and no one shall make them afraid. ²⁹I will provide for them a splendid vegetation so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the insults of the nations. ³⁰They shall know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord GOD. ³¹You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord GOD.

Here again the Spirit shows us the application from a natural point of view regarding Israel, how it is to be fulfilled.   Jesus Himself in the gospel of John applies Ezekiel 34 to Himself and shows its spiritual or supernatural meaning.  We read the following verses:-

John 10:1-18 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁷So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

We have the whole picture of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ coming for the purpose of seeking out His sheep to gather them and to die for them.  These sheep are the remnant of Israel and also Gentile sheep.  The latter are not of natural Israel.  Together these sheep for whom He will die, are His fold.  After He has died for them, He will raise Himself from the dead.  This is the will of the Father.  His will is for the true Israel of God,  Galatians 6:16 As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

He quote” and one fold” is the mystery of the gospel that was revealed to Paul and to no one in the Old Testament days

It is declared by him in -

Ephesians 2:11-21 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands—¹²remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ¹⁵He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.  ¹⁷So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,  ²⁰built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.  ²¹In him the whole structur