Israel: Still the Focus of God's Plan?

I hesitate to approach this topic in a web-based article. That's because there are so many concepts in Bible interpretation that really need to be more firmly established than can be done in this format. But the issue has such important implications for public policy and for Bible interpretation that I feel it's important to weigh in.

The Old Testament, after a brief introduction to the presence and condition of mankind on earth, spends the rest of its time on God's chosen people, a small portion of the descendants of Abraham. All Old Testament prophecy is given in relation to the nation of Israel, or to the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

This focus on Israel does not vanish in the New Testament, partly because most of its authors were Jewish, and partly because the one book of prophecy in the New Testament borrows heavily from the Old Testament prophecies. Even if those prophecies foretell some new events, they use the symbols from the Old Testament.

All this emphasis makes it seem certain that the modern-day nation of Israel must certainly play an important part in an age that most Christians believe is the earth's last.

Prophecy in the Bible is rarely what our culture makes it out to be, a prediction about future events. But whenever a prediction is made it has a tendency to become self-fulfilling. That is, because people are aware of the prophecy they tend to act in ways that make it come true. This is particularly true when you make negative predictions about children. If you keep telling a child she'll never turn out to be any good she might well believe you and, in dejection, never excel or even meet her potential.

For that reason Bible prophecy, when it bothers to predict the future, speaks symbolically. The only way to safely and certainly interpret predictive prophecy is to wait until the events foretold have taken place. Only then can we accurately unravel the symbolic references.

I personally believe that most predictive prophecies have more than one application -- multiple fulfillments, if you wish. So while certain Old Testament prophecies provided solace to the intertestamental Jews, they also have an "end of time" application.

Given this background, it's not surprising that most modern Bible interpreters have missed two key prophecies that place all scriptural mention of the nation of Israel in proper context. These two are found in Daniel and in Zechariah.

Before we turn to these passages, we must recall that the prophecies probably did not make sense to their authors. They were given in visions of symbols that represented the predicted events. In one case it was critically important that the meaning be hidden until the events had taken place so that the prediction did not become a part of its own fulfillment. For this reason it might take a little extra effort to determine the meaning of the symbols used.

We start with Daniel 9. The preceeding visions of Daniel are given fairly specific and explicit interpretations. In Daniel 2, which was Nebuchadnezzar's vision, not Daniel's, we learn the general outline of the kingdoms of the world through to the establishment of Christ's kingdom (the stone cut out without hands).

In Daniel 8 the aged prophet sees another vision that covers the remaining portion of the drama of earthly kingdoms. During the vision Daniel hears about the cleansing of the sanctuary. Certainly Daniel felt this must mean the restoration of worship at the temple in Jerusalem. An angel in the dream said it would take 2300 days. That works out to less than six and a half years.

Still, Daniel found the dream troubling -- but he had to go back to work. Later, likely at the convergence of the time in his dream and the 70 years forecast by Jeremiah (who Daniel may well have known as a youth), Daniel prays for the restoration of his people.

At the close of this prayer (which takes up most of Daniel 9) the angel Gabriel comes to explain things to Daniel. These things relate, as Daniel expects, to his own people, Israel and, more specifically, Judah. Listen to the beginning of the angel's explanation:

Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

Here's where this format fails us. It takes a lot of work to establish God's plan for Israel from the Old Testament. Essentially God intended his people to carry the blessings he offered them to the entire world. The Jews got this mixed up and thought God had offered salvation to them exclusively. This means they were ill prepared to "bring in everlasting righteousness."

This verse is saying that Israel has 70 'sevens' ['weeks' in the King James Version] to live up to God's expectations. There is no clue as to what would happen if they failed. Now while days still come in 'weeks' of seven, years came in 'weeks' of seven for the Jews. Every seventh year the land was to rest, and slaves were to go free. So for Jews, the meaning of the 'sevens' would not have been difficult to interpret.

Do the math, that's 490 years. You don't have to get really technical about the placement to guess that this time period runs out somewhere around the time of Jesus. Bible scholars have looked up the date given for starting this time period ("From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem...") and found that it works out perfectly.

The last week begins with Jesus' baptism. Three and a half years later, in the "middle of the 'seven' [Jesus] put an end to sacrifice and offering." At his death the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, indicating that its services were no longer needed to point forward to his substitutionary death.

Notice that the time given to the Jews does NOT run out here. They still have three and a half years to live up to God's plan. The point is that God did NOT reject his people for killing Jesus!

We know that the Jews, as a nation, did not accept Jesus, even after his death. But does this prove that God's plan ran out as scheduled? No, but the failure of Israel was predicted in a prophecy that necessarily presented this in figurative language. To understand it we need to pick up a few concepts from Ezekiel.

Repeatedly, when talking about the Babylonian/Persian captivity, the Old Testament prophets included promises from God that he would restore his people. One of these is found in Ezekiel 36. Our quote begins at verse 7.

Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I swear with uplifted hand that the nations around you will also suffer scorn. "'But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown....'"

This passage goes on to include the precious promise of Ezekiel 36:26, when God says it is HIS responsibility to replace his people's stony, uncaring hearts. God planned to restore Israel. In return, he expected them to carry his blessings to the rest of the world.

Now let's go to the next chapter and find another promise. God told Ezekiel to make two sticks and write on them; one for Judah and one for Joseph [Ephraim].

Ezek 37:20-22 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.

God wanted to restore the rift caused when Solomon's son decided to take a hard line against the people who wanted relief from his father's high taxes. God wanted to reunify Judah and Israel. When Jesus got here he found the Jews busy hating the "Samaritans" because they had not maintained racial purity.

Now, let's look at a passage in the book of Zechariah, chapter 11, beginning at verse 7. This passage uses the symbol of a shepherd, used earlier in Ezekiel and hinted at in the original profession of Israel'sgreatest king: David.

So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock. In one month I got rid of the three shepherds. The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them and said, "I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another's flesh. Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the LORD. I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"--the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter. Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Can there be any question as to the Messianic nature of this passage? And now that we've seen the two "covenants" from Ezekiel, the two staffs make perfect sense. This prophecy predicted that God would be forced to break his covenant with Israel.

So what!? If you read Galations 3:28, 29 you learn that starting with the New Testament everyone who accepts Christ is considered part of Israel,and can inherit every promise made to the chosen nation. So when we interpret prophecy (and other Biblical passages), for our day we must put "Christ's people" in place of "Israel."

I suppose some will now accuse me of antisemitism. I maintain, however, that the ideas which follow call for Jews to be treated as equals, not as people deserving of special treatment. You may already be imagining the public policy implications.

Following World War II and the revelations that millions of Jews had suffered death as part of Hitler's evil "solution," certain Jews took advantage of the sense of shock and shame that followed. Apparently feeling guilty, western governments took action on the call for a Jewish homeland in part of the ancient territory of Israel.

This move necessarily displaced a large group of people who had, for centuries, lived in that part of the world. Most of these people,descended from those children of Lot, Abraham, and Isaac that did not become part of the 12-tribe nation of Israel, are already natural enemies of the Jews.

In the name of atoning for the sins of the fascists, we created a large body of refugees and a conflict that we haven't yet resolved (and probably never will). Then, to further complicate matters, we continue to support Israel and her heavy-handed military approach to life in the Middle East. Is it any surprise that most of the rest of the world looks on the United States as the "Great Satan"? Without the threat of U. S. military intervention, the combined power of numerous Arab allies of the Palestinians might well destroy the formidable Israeli armed forces.

"But the Jews have more ancient right to the land than the Palestinians," many of you might argue. You can't disagree with a fact like that. But if you are to take that approach and you are, like me, a non-native descended resident of the United States you had better pack your bags. The Native American's claim to this land is far more recent than the Jew's claim to Israel!

Do I advocate the elimination of the nation of Israel? No. What's done is done. But we should be pressuring the Israeli government to be more understanding and flexible in its negotiations with the Palestinians. In short, we should hold Israel to the same standard we hold for any other nation in the world, such as Cuba, or Iraq, or Serbia....

The end of the divine covenant with Israel has serious spiritual implications as well. These, however, will have to wait for another "position paper."

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