Is There a Future for the Jew?

Why we can be sure that “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”
The theory that the covenants that God made with Abram and David regarding the possession of the land of Canaan and the extent of that possession must be spiritualized to be understood ignores such Scriptures as Romans 11.
Dr. Tatford, who is editor of the British periodical, “The Harvester,” and president of Moorelands Bible College, shows that the unconditional covenants and unfulfilled prophecies of the Old Testament must be fulfilled as a part of God’s purpose for Israel.

AFTER Abram’s victory over the king of Sodom, God entered into a covenant with him, making a grant to his descendants of the land between the Nile and the Euphrates (Gen. 15: 18-21). This was later confirmed, and the patriarch was also assured that he should be the father of many nations, that he should have a spiritual posterity as well as a natural one, that all the nations should be blessed through his descendants, that the land of Canaan should be the everlasting possession of his seed, and that the covenant should be an everlasting one (Gen. 17: 2-8; 22: 16-18; etc.). The covenant was unconditional and laid no obligations upon the beneficiary: it was binding only upon the one who made it, i.e., God. It could not, therefore, be annulled by the Sinaitic Covenant of 430 years later or by any subsequent word. So important was the covenant, that God declared it ten times—six times to Abram, twice to Isaac, and twice to Jacob, and confirmed it by an oath (Gen. 26: 3). It was consequently quite irrevocable and must therefore, be implemented.
A land of the extent thus unconditionally covenanted has not yet been held by Israel’s seed. If it is to be their everlasting possession, there is obviously a future for them.
When David was settled upon his throne, God entered into another covenant with him, under which He promised to establish his house, throne, and kingdom for ever (2 Sam. 7: 12-16). No conditions were attached, and no human failure or shortcoming could consequently affect God’s covenant. The promise has not yet been fulfilled. There must patently, therefore, be a future for David’s descendants.
The sin of Israel or of the royal house might well invoke judgment, but it could not annul the covenants of God. Moral failure or wrongdoing may result in punishment, but it cannot shake the Divine Word. The covenants clearly defined Israel’s prospects in the will of the Almighty, just as a disobedient and wayward child remains the child of its parents, so a sinning Israel may bring grief to Him, but the nation can never remove itself out of the purpose of God.
There must be a future repatriation of Israel if a land coterminous with the promised boundaries is to be their inalienable possession and if the royal house is to be established in perpetuity. There can be no dubiety about the Divine purpose. God declared: “In a little wrath, I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so, I have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills. be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy upon thee” (Isa. 54: 8-10).
If this is not sufficiently explicit, Jeremiah records the words of the Lord, “Which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; . . . if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever” (Jer. 31: 35, 36). Mountains and hills must be removed, and sun, moon, and stars must disappear before Israel loses her national position. Equally emphatic is the assurance given by Ezekiel: “They shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore” (Ezek. 37: 25, 26). Nothing could be clearer than the Scriptural statements of the Divine purpose.
Because of their sin, the ten tribes of the north were carried away into captivity by the Assyrians; and over a century later, the two tribes of the south were similarly carried away by the Chaldeans. In consequence of the various permissions granted by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, numbers of the exiles returned (the majority being of the southern kingdom of Judah, although undoubtedly some were of the northern kingdom of Israel), and were thus in the land when the Lord Jesus Christ was born. With the rejection of the Messiah, the people were led into captivity, as foretold by our Lord, and the city and the Temple were destroyed as predicted by Daniel centuries earlier (Dan. 9: 26).
Israel was temporarily put aside, and for the past nineteen centuries, God has been calling out a heavenly people, the Church of God. Not until that work is complete will He turn again to His earthly people. Our Lord’s words were quite specific when He declared that “they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21: 24), whilst the Apostle Paul also added that “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom. 11: 25). Until Calvary, Israel was God’s elect. During the present age, the Church is so described; but other references make it clear that this will again be Israel’s title in a future day. There are never two elect peoples on earth at the same time, and the Church must be removed before Israel again becomes God’s elect.
It is sometimes said that the elect remnant of Israel, who accepted the Gospel and were incorporated with believing Gentiles into one body, became the “holy nation” of 1 Peter 2: 9, and that this was the plenary fulfillment of the Old Testament pledge that Israel should never cease from being a nation before God. Those who take this view argue that the Old Testament promises to the nation, now find a spiritual realization in the Church. But, as has been pointed out by more than one expositor, the blessings enjoyed by the Church do not correspond with the promised restoration and conversion of Israel, nor with the many predictions of her supremacy in a future day (Isa. 14: 1-3; 41: 11, 12; 49: 22-26; 51: 22, 23; 54: 15; 60: 12-16), nor with the renewal of the land’s fertility (Isa. 35: 7; 41: 18, 19; 43: 20: 55: 12, 13; 60: 13; Jer. 31: 5). If these prophecies were not intended to be taken literally, then words cease to have any significance.
In Romans 11: 23, 24, the Apostle Paul clearly implies that the natural Jewish olive branches shall one day be grafted back upon the tree from which they were temporarily displaced to make way for the Gentile branches. The obvious implication is that Israel has not been finally and utterly rejected. At the Jerusalem Council, James plainly stated that God’s purpose was first to call out from the Gentiles, a people for His name and that, after this, He would return and would “build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down” (Acts 15: 14-16). There is no doubt that the reference in Amos 9: 11, from which James quoted, was to the restoration of the nation and her re-establishment in peace and prosperity in the land.
The Old Testament prophets repeatedly and explicitly foretell the restoration of Israel. Jeremiah declares that God will cause the captivity of Judah and of Israel to return and that He will build them again as at the first (Jer. 33: 7, 8). Ezekiel states that, for His name’s sake, God will gather His people out of the nations and bring them into their own land (Ezek. 36: 22-24). Hosea says that “Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice,” but that afterward they shall “return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king” (Hos. 3: 4, 5). Lest there should be any doubt, Ezekiel reveals that the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah are to be reunited and to be reconstituted as one nation (Ezek. 37: 16-22). The details are quite plain, and God must fulfill His Word. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” declared the Apostle Paul (Rom. 11: 29), and what God has promised, He will perform. “Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people,” He said, “so I will bring upon them all the good that I have promised them” (Jer. 32: 42).
If, as we believe, the 70th “week” of Daniel 9: 27 is still unfulfilled, it is essential for Israel to be in her own land in order that the western powers may enter into the predicted treaty with her. Similarly, a returned Israel and a rebuilt Temple are essential for the fulfillment of 2 Thessalonians 2: 2-4; Matthew 24: 15-31 and other Scriptures.
For these events to happen, the elect of the present day (i.e., the Church) must first be removed, but present conditions suggest that that is not far distant.
It is clear from our Lord’s own words, as well as from Old Testament prophecy, that the prospect before the restored Jew is first a period of unparalleled tribulation and judgment that will be brought to an end by the return of our Lord to the earth to set up the Kingdom for which Israel has been waiting. In that day, the unfulfilled prophecies of a glorious reign, in which there will be peace, righteousness, and equity, will come to fruition, and the age-long pledges of a land as an everlasting possession will be implemented. Even the tribal boundaries of Ezekiel 47 and 48 have yet to be realized, and there can be no doubt that there is a future for the nation.
There can be no possibility of interpreting prophecies such as Isaiah 11: 6-10 and 65: 19-25 otherwise than literally, and any attempt to spiritualize them and make them applicable to the Church is ill-reasoned. “Hath God cast away his people”? asked the Apostle Paul. “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew” (Rom. 11: 1, 2).
FREDERICK A. TATFORD, Litt.D., Th.D.
RICHMOND HILL, RICHMOND, SURREY, ENGLAND.
“The Sunday School Times” Oct. 8, 1960