Does the Church Replace Israel? Part Four
On the brink of Middle East peace, let’s
consider Israel once again.
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Several years ago, my neighbors had two mammoth trees in their front yard that stood very close to their house. Because the trees were showing signs of age and would cause damage if they fell, my neighbors decided to cut them down. However, they left a good portion of the stumps, intending for a sculptor to carve beautiful figures.
We all know how good intentions go by the
wayside, and theirs did, too. For a while, the tall stumps just stood there
branchless. Then, to our surprise, we started to see sprouts coming from the
tops of these “dead” stumps. The roots were still alive.
As the LORD gave Isaiah his great commission,
He told him to go and tell his countrymen to see but not see, hear but not
hear, make their hearts dull, ears heavy, and shut their eyes. But when Isaiah
asked how long, God cloaked His answer. “Until the cities are
laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, the land is
utterly desolate, the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places
are many in the midst of the land. But yet a tenth
will be in it, and will return
and be for consuming, as a terebinth
tree or as an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down. So
the holy seed shall be its stump.”[1]
Not an exact timeframe. And while most of us
get the gist of what the LORD said to the prophet, it’s hard to grasp the full
meaning. But let’s try.
Devastation would come. Destroyed cities, empty
houses, most survivors removed, and a tenth, a remnant, would return. Yet why
would the returnees be for consuming?
According to history, Israel experienced
devastation and dispersion by Assyria, Babylon, and Rome. After seventy years
in Babylon, 42,360 Jews returned to the land.[2] Were the descendants of
the Babylonian returnees the ones “for consuming” by Rome? It seems so.
But the LORD said, the stump remains after He mentioned consuming. Why?
If God
says leave the stump, He must have a reason.
My neighbors wanted sculptures, but what was
God’s future purpose? In Romans chapters nine through eleven, Paul lays out the
answer. Grieved about Israel’s inability to see
truth, Paul so desired Israel’s salvation that he would have traded his life
for theirs. Israel had been given “…the adoption, the glory, the covenants,
the law, the service of God, and the promises.”[3]
And because of this, they had “…a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” Why? Sin,
hard hearts, and partial blindness. So, Paul spoke the antidote:
“For
whoever calls on the name of the LORD
shall be
saved.” [4]
Paul then explained Isaiah’s prophecies, the
purpose of the remaining stump, and Israel’s blindness. He began by asking a
question and answering it. “I say then, has God cast away His people?
Certainly not!”[5]
It seemed as though He did because in about
twenty years from Paul’s writing, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed for a
second time. The people were either slaughtered or scattered throughout the
world. How can Paul’s answer be true?
Aha! The
STUMP remained!
Like the stumps in my neighbor’s yard budded,
Israel did too. On May 14, 1948, their stump sprouted, and a nation was born in
a day.[6] Israel’s land blossomed
and budded as the LORD prophesied it would. “Those who come He shall
cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud,
and fill the face of the world with fruit…The wilderness and the
wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as
the rose.”[7]
None of this happened when Israel returned from
Babylon. They could barely feed themselves, let alone the world. But they do
today. God’s plan before He laid the foundation of the world was for His chosen
people, Israel, to bring forth Yeshua Jesus, God in flesh, their Messiah. But
for all things written to come to pass, and salvation to be for everyone
by grace through faith, the Almighty did something drastic.
He blinded
Israel in part.
Quoting Isaiah, Paul said Israel stumbled at
the truth of Christ, because, “…as it is
written: ‘God has given them a
spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that
they should not hear, to this very day.’”[8]
Paul further explains Israel’s stumbling. “I say then, have they stumbled
that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall,
to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the
Gentiles.”[9] God was not finished with Israel! (To be
continued.)
Love in Christ,
Anita
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