The Hope of Israel:
What Is It?
(1922)

By  Philip Mauro

"Not giving heed to Jewish fables" - Titus 1:14

 Introduction:

"There are certain Prophetic passages in the Old Testament, which, apart from the light afforded by the New, might be taken as relating to "Israel after the flesh," and as foretelling the restoration, at some future day, of their national greatness.

The erroneous doctrine of the teachers of Israel was based upon an unspiritual interpretation of their own Scriptures; for "they know not the voices of their prophets which were read every sabbath day."

Forward (Jewish Fables).

1. The Nature and Importance of the Question.
2. How are the Prophecies of Blessing to Israel to be Interpreted?
3. How the O.T. Prophecies concerning Israel were Interpreted by Paul.
4. What the Fathers of Israel were Looking for.
5. God's Warnings through Moses to His Earthly People.
6. God's Warnings through Moses (Continued).
7. God's Promises to the Children of Israel Fulfilled by Moses and Joshua.
8. Salvation in Zion : The Sure Mercies of David.
9. The Travail of Zion.
10. The New Covenant.
11. Ezekiel's Prophecies: Doom of Jerusalem, The Branch, Valley of Death.
12. Ezekiel's Temple; Where Did the Spirit Descend at Pentecost?
13. What the N.T. Teaches as to Future Mercies for the Jews.
14. The Hope of the Gospel, Christ's Personal Teaching.
15. Other N.T. Passages on the Future of Israel.
16. Where is the Promise of His Coming?
17. The Election hath Obtained it. Hath God Cast Away His People?
18. Building Again the Tabernacle of David.
19. Shall Israel Be Restored as a Nation?
20. The Millennium.

FORWARD

NOT GIVING HEED TO JEWISH FABLES' (Titus 1:14).

     Jewish fables (literally, myths) are no new thing. Paul has plainly warned the household of faith not to give heed thereto. He has not given us a list of those grievous heresies; but it is well known that the one that was most fondly cherished, and that constituted the gravest menace to the truth of the gospel, was the notion that the leading purpose of the mission of the coming Messiah would be the reconstitution of the Jewish nation and its elevation to the highest pinnacle of earthly dominion and glory; for that fatuous doctrine was the cornerstone of orthodox Judaism in Paul's day; and because of his sturdy opposition to it he was persecuted, his enemies plotted to take his life, and he was sent a prisoner to Rome. No wonder that, during the term of his imprisonment there, he wrote to Titus his plain-spoken warning against "Jewish fables."

     Such being the case, we question if there be anything in all the long history of Christianity that is more difficult to account for than the fact that that particular fable, concerning the purpose of Christ's mission to the Jewish people, has become the central feature of a system of doctrine which, in this 20th century of our era, has found numerous and zealous advocates amongst orthodox Christians. In view of this extraordinary phenomenon, it surely behooves those who take the Holy Scriptures for their guide and instructor in all matters of faith and doctrine, to search them with the utmost care "whether these things be so." This present volume is the result of a painstaking investigation of that important question.

     The investigation of that question leads inevitably to the subject of the Millennium; and it is believed the reader will find, in the last chapter of the present volume, something fresh upon that subject of perennial interest. Enough at this point to say that, as the author now sees it, the great question concerning the Millennium is not When? but Where?

CHAPTER I

THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE QUESTION.

     The writer seeks, at the very outset of this study, to impress the reader with the immense importance of the question we are about to examine.

     It is not merely a question of the true explanation of prophecies concerning the Jews, the Gentiles and of the Church of God, however so interesting and important these may be, for one may entertain mistaken ideas as to such matters without harmful consequences. But it is far otherwise with the question discussed in this volume ; for the truth concerning the gospel of Christ and the salvation of man is involved in it. And specially, the work of evangelization of the Jews (which, in the opinion of many, including the present writer, the coming of the Lord awaits) is vitally affected by it.

     What lies directly in the path of our present inquiry is a system of doctrine which, though of recent origin, is now accepted amongst strictly orthodox Christians, "Fundamentalists", according to which doctrinal system the promise of God to Israel through their prophets was that the coming Messiah would restore the earthly kingdom to Israel, would give it a glory far surpassing that of the days of David and Solomon, and would exalt the Jewish nation to the place of supremacy over the nations of the world. The leading authority for this new system of teaching states it thus: "When Christ appeared to the Jewish people, the next thing in the order of revelation as it then stood should have been the setting up of the Davidic kingdom" (Scofield Ref. Bible).

     We propose in the present volume to bring this radical statement to the test of Scripture; for it is subversive of the Christian faith, in that it removes the sacrifice of the Lamb of God from its central place in God's eternal plan (Rev 13:8).

     It cannot be that those who accept this radical doctrine realize what is involved in it. It is easy for the writer to believe this, because he himself at one time accepted that doctrine without the faintest idea that it involved the denial of important truth. But in course of time, after prolonged study of the Word of God, he was compelled to acknowledge, upon the testimony of the New Testament Scriptures (particularly that of the apostle Paul) that, not only is the doctrine under consideration directly contrary to the Scriptures, but it is the setting up, for the benefit of a future generation of Jews, of another hope, different from the "one hope" of the gospel of Christ; that, in other words it is "another gospel," the very thing against which Paul utters that tremendously solemn warning of Galatians 1:8,9.

     Because of this, and because also of the great benefits that have followed the writer's deliverance from the "strange" doctrine referred to above, he deems it a duty to all the household of faith to bring to their attention, by every available means, the true teaching of the Bible touching the future of the Jewish people. It is with a view to the performance of that duty that these pages are written.

     What then is the true and biblical "Hope of Israel"? To obtain a full answer to this question it is necessary that we search the Scriptures from beginning to end. But in order merely that we may have in mind a general idea of the answer while we pursue our study, it will suffice to refer to a few incidents in Paul's ministry, as recorded in the last chapters of Acts.

     The subject is very prominent there, and indeed it was because of Paul's views and his preaching in regard thereto that he was furiously persecuted by the Jews, and was finally sent in chains to Rome. For we have his own testimony to "the chief of the Jews" at Rome, to whom, when he had called them together, he said: "For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you and to speak with you; because that, for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain" (Acts 28:17-20).

     Inasmuch as what Paul had been preaching, both to the Jews and also to the Gentiles, was the gospel of Jesus Christ, and nothing else, it follows that the true "hope of Israel" is an essential part of that gospel; and therefore it is a matter regarding which we cannot afford to be mistaken.

     The above quoted statement of Paul to the Jewish leaders at the imperial city is very illuminating. It shows, to begin with, that, whatever it was he had been preaching as "the hope of Israel," it was something so contrary to the current Jewish notion thereof that it caused the people to clamour for his death (Acts 22:22), and led to his being formally accused before the Roman Governor as "a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world" (Id. 24:5). Had he been preaching what the Jews themselves believed to be, and what their rabbis had given them as, the true interpretation of the prophecies (namely, that God's promise to Israel was a kingdom of earthly character which should have dominion over all the world) they would have heard him with intense satisfaction. But what Paul and all the apostles preached was, that what God had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures was a kingdom over which Jesus Christ of the seed of David should reign in resurrection, a kingdom which flesh and blood cannot inherit, a kingdom which does not clash with the duly constituted governments of this world, and one into which the Gentiles are called upon terms of perfect equality with Jews (Acts 13:23, 34; Acts 17:2,3,7; Rom. 1:1-4; 14:17; 1 Cor. 15:50; 1 Pet. 1:12; cf. Luke 24:26).

     Thus the teaching of Christ and His apostles in respect to the vitally important subject of the Kingdom of God, the hope of Israel, came into violent collision with that of the leaders of Israel; and because of this He was crucified and they were persecuted.

     It was not a question then, any more than it is a question now, whether or not the prophets of Israel were the mouthpieces of God; for the Jewish rabbis, as well as Christ and His apostles, held firmly to the full inspiration of "the scriptures of the prophets." It was solely a question then, as it is solely a question now, as to how those prophecies are to be understood - a question of interpretation. The Jewish teachers understood the scriptures, and still interpret them, in what is now (wrongly) called the "literal" sense (i.e. that "Israel" is an earthly people, "Zion" an earthly locality, "Christ" an earthly conqueror, like David, etc., etc.) ; but Paul declared, when speaking of Jesus Christ in one of their synagogues, that it was "because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, that they have fulfilled them in condemning Him" (Acts 13:27).

     And now, in concluding this preliminary chapter, let me impress it upon the reader's mind that the choice presented to orthodox Christians today as to the interpretation of the prophecies concerning "the hope of Israel" lies between that held by the Jews of those days and that for which Christ was crucified and Paul was sent in chains to Rome. This will be clearly seen by all who consider, with open minds, the proofs given below.

     The question of the "literal" interpretation of the O.T. prophecies will be discussed in the next chapter.

CHAPTER II

HOW ARE THE O.T. PROPHECIES OF BLESSING TO ISRAEL TO BE INTERPRETED?

     The main purpose of the present chapter is to bring clearly to view the important truth that in Scripture the contrast is not between the spiritual and the literal, but between the spiritual and natural; for a passage of Scripture may refer, when taken "literally," either to "that which is natural" or to "that which is spiritual." In other words, the literal interpretation may call for a thing which exists in the realm of nature, or for the counterpart of that thing which exists in the realm of spiritual realities (1 Cor. 15:46). It is of the utmost importance that this be understood; for the advocates of modern dispensationalism have wrought confusion, and have succeeded in giving plausibility to many misinterpretations of Scripture, by first taking for granted (erroneously, as will be herein shown) that a "literal" interpretation necessarily calls for something material or natural, and by then insisting strenuously that all prophecies which refer to Israel, Jerusalem, Zion, etc., should be interpreted "literally." It will not be difficult to show that this is a thoroughly unsound principle of interpretation, that it is based upon a false premise, and that its application has made havoc of many prophecies.

     For example, those expositors who think the Bible teaches us to expect hereafter a millennium of earthly bliss, a golden age of world-wide peace and plenty, during which the Jewish nation will be reconstituted and will have the place of headship over a world occupied by God-fearing and peace-loving Gentiles, base that expectation upon certain Old Testament prophecies which, they think, are to be fulfilled "literally"; and since they cannot possibly be fulfilled in that manner during this era of the Gospel, there must needs be an age to come of an entirely different character from this day of gospel salvation.

     This argument, however, is utterly fallacious, because [it is] based upon a false premise. Those who make use of it take for granted that in order to interpret a prophecy "literally" its fulfillment must be located in the realm of nature, and not in the spiritual [eternal] realm. Thus they assume that the "literal" interpretation is in contrast with the "spiritual" interpretation thereof; and they denounce and repudiate what they refer to disparagingly as "the spiritualizing" of the prophecies.

     Undoubtedly our natural bias is in favor of the so-called "literal" interpretation of the prophecies in question; for to the natural man the things that are seen are the real things; and to that view we are disposed to cling tenaciously, notwithstanding the plain teaching of the New Testament that the seen things are but the fleeting shadows of things unseen, the latter being the spiritual and eternal realities with which the promises of future blessing have mainly to do. For the New Testament Scriptures state, in most unambiguous language, that "the seed of Abraham," to whom "all the promises of God" belong, are those who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:7, 29; 2 Cor. 1:20). Further, in the New Testament it is plainly revealed that, even as "Abraham had two sons" (which might make it uncertain whether the descendants of Ishmael or those of Isaac were to inherit the promises) so likewise there is a natural "Israel," "Zion" and "Jerusalem" and also a spiritual counterpart of each; and that just as Ishmael preceded in time the true heir (though eventually he was to be "cast out" and not to be "heir with the son of the free woman") even so the natural Israel, Zion, and Jerusalem preceded the respective spiritual realities to which those names properly belong. For God's invariable order of procedure, in the working out of His eternal purposes, is "first - that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual" (1 Cor. 15:46).

     If, therefore, an O.T. prophecy of blessing, intended for the true Israel (that "holy nation" of 1 Pet. 2:9), be interpreted as applying to "Israel after the flesh," the interpretation is not "literal" (i.e., according to the letter) except in the sense in which "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. 3:6); for obviously in this case the "literal" interpretation destroys the prophecy completely. And it is specially to be noted that, in the passage from which this Scripture is quoted, Paul is explaining the great differences between the Old Covenant (which was of the letter) and the New Covenant (of the Spirit); and, moreover, he is comparing the ministry of Moses, which had to do with things that are seen (an earthly sanctuary and its vessels of service, animal sacrifices, etc.), with the ministry of himself and others whom God had made "able ministers of the New Covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit." Also it should be noted that the apostle there speaks of the Old Covenant (under which promises were made to the natural Israel) as "that which is done away"; whereas the New Covenant is "that which remaineth," that is, abideth eternally (v. 11).

     From this Scripture alone it is evident (and the same truth is set forth at greater length in Gal. 4:21-31 and Hebrews Chapters VIII-X) that all future promises of glory and blessing for Israel and Zion must belong to the true Israel and the heavenly Zion. And, in this very passage, we are admonished to "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen" (4:18); which admonition, however, is habitually disregarded in the interpretation of prophecies relating to these very subjects.

     We ask the reader specially to note that in the above quoted passage, the apostle speaks of the old covenant as "that which is done away" (v. 11), "that which is abolished" (v. 13). This shows that the old covenant, under which the earthly nation of Israel had been constituted, was already, in Paul's day, a thing of the past.

     Evidently then our difficulty in understanding prophecies of the class referred to above is due to our lack of faith and our spiritual dullness. For, in respect to the things which are not seen, faith takes the place of sight; for faith has to so solely with things not visible to the natural eye; and hope likewise, for "hope that is seen is not hope" (Rom. 8:24). Wherefore it is written that, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"; and "through faith we understand" (Heb. 11:1,3).

     Hence, to understand the prophecies it is necessary, and vitally necessary, that we believe the revelations of the New Testament; that we accept as "literally" true that there is now, at this present time, a realm of spiritual realities, into which our risen Lord is actually entered, and we in Him; that "the substance of things hoped for" is there, not here; and specially that God's purposes concerning His City, Temple and People are being fulfilled at this very time, in that spiritual realm, though the natural eye cannot see what is going on there.

     The writer of these lines can testify from experience that, by the simple process of believing what is written in the New Testament concerning the actual present existence, among the things not seen, of the true Zion, of the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem, of the holy nation which is a royal priesthood, and of other spiritual realities, the main difficulty in the understanding of the Old Testament prophecies which speak of a glorified state of the things named above, vanishes away.

AN ILLUSTRATION FROM ZECHARIAH

     Zechariah is one of the books that is frequently referred to as containing prophecies which await a "literal" fulfillment in a future dispensation.

     Zechariah, with Haggai, prophesied during the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple, after the return from Babylon of some of the deported Israelites; at which time "the elders of the Jews builded and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo" (Ezra 6:14). But, as all are agreed, the prophet looks beyond what those men were building, to a temple and a city that were to be far more glorious. He records the word of the Lord concerning Zion: "For, lo I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be My people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee" (2:10,11). And the prophet goes on to speak of a priest, Joshua, who was clothed at first with filthy garments, but to whom it was said, "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe the with change of raiment" (3:3,4). This Joshua and his fellows were to be "men wondered at; for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua" (vv. 8,9).

     There is no difficulty in recognizing in this passage a prophecy of the coming of Christ as the Branch of Jehovah and as the Foundation Stone of the true Temple of God; for Peter (quoting a similar prophecy by Isaiah) writes to those who have been "redeemed... by the precious blood of Christ," saying:

     "Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious"; and he had just said in the preceding verse, "Ye also, as living stones are [being] built up, a spiritual house, an holy priesthood" - as typified by Joshua's change of garments - "to offer up spiritual sacrifices" (1 Pet. 2:5,6). Thus by Peter's application of the prophecy we are given plainly to understand that it relates to "spiritual" things, and that it is now being fulfilled in the spiritual realm.

     It will greatly help us in our efforts to understand the class of prophecies above referred to, if we give due heed to the facts stated in the above quotation from Peter (and stated also in Hebrews 12:22-24, and in the Epistle to the Ephesians as pointed out below) that God's "spiritual house" is in course of erection now, that it is being built "in Sion", and that the believers in Jesus Christ are "living stones" therein, and are also a "royal priesthood."

     Zechariah refers again (6:12-15) to "the Man whose name is The BRANCH," and who "shall build the temple of the Lord"; and says of Him that "He shall bear the glory, and He shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne." None will dispute, in the light of New Testament Scriptures, that this prophecy is being fulfilled now (Heb. 2:9; 8:1, etc.). And the prophet goes on to say that crowns shall be given also to certain men, whom he names, and that "they that are far off" (a scriptural designation of Gentiles, see Acts 2:39 and Eph 2:13), "shall come and build in the temple of the Lord."

     Furthermore, in Zechariah 9:9 we have the familiar passage: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion... behold, thy King cometh unto thee"; and we know to a certainty, from Luke 19:38, that that prophecy was fulfilled when Christ came to Jerusalem to die for our salvation.

     In Zechariah 13:7-9 the atoning death of Christ is foretold in the words, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered" (See Matt. 26:31). And what was to follow as regards the Jewish people is foretold in these words: "And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts shall be cut off, and die; but the third part shall be left therein." And in agreement with this, the two great parties, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, were "cut off"; but a third part, the disciples of Christ, were left. And as to these, the prophecy goes on to say: "And I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined" (See 1 Pet. 1:6 and 4:12); "they shall call on My Name and I will hear them. I will say, It is My people; and they shall say, The Lord is My God" (See Rom. 11:1,2).

     Moreover, the apostle Paul declares the same truth concerning the building of God's true temple now as declared by Peter. He makes known that those who believe in Jesus Christ are even now "quickened together with Christ, - and raised up together, and made to sit together [i.e. on thrones] in heavenly places [Zion] in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:5,6); which plainly declares that we live and reign with Christ even now. This indeed is not perceived with the natural eye or realized in our conscious experience. Nevertheless it is true, and this truth is developed in Chapter XX of this volume.

     And furthermore, in the immediate context, Paul also declares the companion truth revealed by Peter, namely that the saints of this era, Gentiles as well as Jews, and being "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth into an holy temple in the Lord" (vv. 20, 21).

     The expression "in that day" occurs about twenty times in the book of Zechariah; and, as a judicious commentator says, "It is a synonym for the great Messianic hope." The first of these occurrences we have quoted, "And many nations shall be joined unto the Lord in that day" (2:11). What was "that day", then, is this day now, for "now is the day of salvation"; and "all the prophets from Samuel... as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days" (Acts 3:24). And so, when Zechariah says (13:1) "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleaness," we understand clearly that he is foretelling the cross of Christ; as very plainly appears from verse 7, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." Further reference to the prophecies of Zechariah will be found in Chapter X, The New Covenant.

     Enough has been said, however, to make evident that the prophecies of Zechariah referred to above, and hence other prophecies of like character as well, relate to things spiritual and have their fulfillment in this present era of grace.

     But it will be profitable to follow a little further the subject of the building of God's true temple. So we recall that, at our Lord's first visit to Jerusalem, when He had driven the traffickers out of the temple which Herod had built and which was one of the wonders of the world; and when the onlookers demanded of Him what sign He could give in proof of his authority to do those things, He answered and said unto them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). The Jews understood this "literally"; that is to say, they took it as applying to that building of material stones which stood on Mt. Moriah; and had the record stopped there, it would doubtless be insisted by some in our day that that great edifice, which has been meanwhile destroyed so completely that not one stone remains upon another, is to be miraculously restored in the coming millennium. But, to the end that we should not be misled and also that we might have a key to the interpretation of prophetic utterances of this sort, the Spirit caused John to insert the explanatory note: "But He spake of the Temple of His Body."

     This is just one of the many, seemingly casual, indications scattered throughout the Scriptures, that God's promises are to be fulfilled and His purposes are to be accomplished in the resurrection; that is to say, in the new creation.

     Again, at a subsequent visit to Jerusalem, at the season of one of the feasts, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink, he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37,38). We might well wonder what would have been made of this saying by those who insist upon "literal" interpretations, had it been left unexplained; and therefore we should be thankful indeed for the added words, "But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Those words put beyond all uncertainty the meaning of the phrase ""living water," as used, for example, in Zechariah 14:8, "And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former (or eastern, marg.) sea [the Caspian], and half of them towards the hinder sea" [the Mediterranean] - in other words, both eastward and westward - "in summer and in winter it shall be" - that is, all the year round.

     In the light of John's explanation, we understand, therefore, that out Lord was foretelling, not some extraordinary physical phenomenon, which was to happen in a far off millennial age, but the then approaching era of the Holy Spirit, when there was to be an outflow of the gospel, "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven" (1 Pet. 1:12), both eastward and westward from Jerusalem. Thus both the place whence (Jerusalem) and the time when ("in that day") those living waters were to begin to flow out into all the world, both summer and winter, are plainly foretold in Zechariah's prophecy. Further explanations of the prophecies concerning the outflow of living waters from the Temple at Jerusalem will be found below (Chapter XIII) in connection with a discussion of Ezekiel's temple and of the question, Where did the Spirit descend at Pentecost?

     And again let it be noted that these explanations put us in possession of the general principle upon which all prophecies of the same sort should be interpreted. They harmonize fully with all other indications contained in the Scriptures; making it abundantly plain that all the prophecies of future glory and blessing for Israel, Zion, and Jerusalem, pertain to that "holy nation" (1 Peter 1:9) "the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16), and to that heavenly "Mount Sion," and to "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," to which we already "are come" (Heb 12:22.).

     Therefore, for the above, and for other reasons set forth elsewhere in this volume, the writer reaches the conclusion that we are to look for the fulfillment of the prophecies in question - not to another age than this, but - to another locality; namely, to that spiritual realm, which Paul designates "the heavenlies"; where our Lord is gone to prepare a place for us, where the true temple is now in course of erection, and where already exists "the Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all" (Gal. 4:26).

     The idea of a future "dispensation" for the fulfillment of prophecies on the earth, abounds in difficulties, and moreover it contradicts many passages of Scripture; whereas the idea of another locality, a spiritual and heavenly realm where those prophecies are in course of fulfillment now, is free from all difficulty, and has, moreover, the support of many N.T. Scriptures.

     Concerning the now-existing realm of unseen things enough is said in the Scriptures to make known that it is a region of great activity; that the "principalities and powers" therein are numerous and mighty - angels and demons, good spirits and evil - and hence we must infer that there are happenings there which are of immense importance and significance. For example, we read: "There was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels" (Rev. 12:7). Also, that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12).

     In this connection it were well to recall that the title of the last book of the Bible, "The Apocalypse," means the unveiling; that is to say, the taking away of the vail that normally separates the realm of spiritual things from that of natural things. That the title indicates that the visions described in the book of "Revelation" bring into view things and happenings in the spiritual realm, whereof, except for this unveiling, we should be wholly unaware. And when we come to Chapter XX, where is found the only reference in the Bible to the millennium - "the thousand years" - the language of the inspired writer makes it evident that the happenings of the millennium are part of the history of the spirit realm. This will be shown in the last chapter of this volume. It follows that all effort to find a place for those happenings in the history of this physical world, whether before or after the second advent, is utterly vain.

CHAPTER III

HOW THE O.T. PROPHECIES CONCERNING ISRAEL
ARE INTERPRETED BY PAUL

     We shall be the better prepared for an examination of the O.T. prophecies concerning "the hope of Israel" if we first observe how those prophecies were interpreted by the N.T. writers, especially Paul. Therefore we call attention at this point to a few N.T. passages.

     When Porcius Festus remanded Paul for trial before King Herod Agrippa on the charges lodged against him by the Jews, and when the king had given the apostle leave to speak for himself, he said:

"And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews"
(Ac. 26:6, 7).

     This is very definite. It proves that Paul, in preaching the gospel of Christ crucified and risen from the dead, was proclaiming to the people of Israel the fulfillment of God's promise to that people; a promise that had been made, not only to them through Moses and the prophets, but also directly to their fathers - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And this, be it noted, is in exact agreement with the testimony of Peter, who, writing to converted Jews of the dispersion and speaking of the prophets of Israel, said: "Unto whom it was revealed that, not unto themselves but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you" (1 Pet. 1:10-12).

     Paul's statement to King Agrippa further proves that this gospel-salvation, which he preached, was and had been the hope of every true Israelite - "all our twelve tribes." Therefore the true hope of Israel was not, and is not, an earthly kingdom which some future generation of Jews, men of flesh and blood, are to inherit. Furthermore, the true Israel of God, as Paul himself had previously explained in his epistle to the Romans, is composed of believing Israelites according to the flesh, with believing Gentiles added to them, forming one body, as represented by the olive-tree of Romans XI.

     The above statement of Paul to King Agrippa also makes clear what he meant by saying: "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded" (Rom. 11:7). For the true hope and expectation of all Israel - "our twelve tribes" - lay in the resurrection, where the promise of the "sure mercies of David" was to be fulfilled (Acts 13:34). It matters not that, as individuals, they were nearly all "blinded" to it, and were looking for a kingdom of earthly grandeur, suited to their carnal ideas; for the truth of their own Scriptures was that the kingdom of God, which had been promised by their prophets, was a spiritual kingdom, to be realized in the resurrection of the dead, and to be entered only by those who are born again of the Word and Spirit of God.

     The Lord Jesus Himself had given the same teaching concerning the Kingdom of heaven (or Kingdom of God, the two expressions being used by Him interchangeably). Thus He taught His disciples, saying, "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3); and He goes on to show that to enter into that kingdom is to "enter into life" (vv. 8-11). And this he followed up by declaring how hard it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom (Matt. 19:16-26), calling it in one verse (23) "the kingdom of heaven," and in the next, "the kingdom of God." And He concluded the lesson by saying to those who had forsaken all and followed Him; "Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (v. 28).

     From this it appears that the "all Israel" of Scripture here designated as "the twelve tribes of Israel," is a spiritual nation; and that it shall come into its inheritance in the day of "glory," when the kingdom of God shall be manifested, and when Christ, who is now upon His Father's throne in heaven, shall occupy the throne of His glory.

     Returning now to Paul's defense before King Agrippa, we note his concluding words:

     "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying" - not a new thing, a mystery never before revealed, but - "none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come" - not that Christ would restore earthly dominion to national Israel, as now is widely taught amongst Christians, but - "that Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people [Israel] and to the Gentiles" (Ac. 26:22,23).

     Here is clear proof that the gospel proclaims nothing that was not foretold by the prophets; for, as we know from Paul's teaching elsewhere, the "mystery" of the gospel was that believing Gentiles were to become "fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God," being made "fellow heirs [with saved Jews] and of the same body, and partakers [with saved Jews] of His promise in Christ"; and that all this was to be accomplished "by [means of] the gospel" (Eph. 2:11-22; 3:6,9).

     And the last quoted passage also proves that the predicted manifestation of light to the people of Israel and to the Gentiles was to come after the sufferings of the promised Messiah and his resurrection from the dead. Here we have the statement of an inspired apostle as to what was the order of revelation as it stood when Christ appeared to the Jewish people; - not "the setting up of the Davidic kingdom," as stated by the leading exponent of modern dispensationalism, but - the sufferings of Christ and His resurrection from the dead, followed by the showing of Gospel light to the Jew fist, and also to the Gentile. In other words, that "the next thing in the order of divine revelation" was precisely what came to pass.

     By this it appears that Paul's statement as to what was "the next thing in the order of revelation as it then stood" flatly contradicts that of the Scofield Reference Bible, quoted above.

     Likewise the apostle Peter, in a passage already quoted (1 Pet. 1:9-12), makes known what was "the next thing in the order of divine revelation" as it then stood; namely, the "salvation" concerning which the prophets of Israel had enquired and searched diligently, searching what the Spirit of Christ, who was in them did signify when He testified beforehand "the sufferings of Christ and the glories [plural] that should follow."

     We have referred in the preceding chapter to the fact that Paul, when he arrived in Rome, sent for the leading Jews of that city and declared to them that it was "for the hope of Israel" he had been brought thither in chains (Ac. 28:20). The next succeeding verses make evident that the hope of Israel was the Kingdom of God as Paul had preached it everywhere (Ac. 17:3, 7; 19:8; 20:25), and as he had expounded and defined it in his Epistle to the Romans (14:17). For the account in Acts 28 continues:

And when they had appointed him a day there came many to him to his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the Kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening" (v. 23).

     Inasmuch as those Jews were thoroughly indoctrinated with the then current Jewish teaching, it needed, of course, much exposition and persuasion, and the enlightenment of the Spirit of God besides, to make evident to them that what Moses and the prophets had foretold was a spiritual kingdom, which was to be established through the sufferings and death of the expected Messiah of Israel. But it is an extraordinary thing indeed that, after the truth in this regard has been clearly set forth in the N.T. Scriptures, and has been apprehended by successive generations of Christians for nineteen centuries, there should have arisen in these days a system of doctrine which takes for one of its foundation stones the very same error touching the true hope of Israel which turned Paul's fellow Israelites against him.

     To those at Rome who "believed not" the things spoken by Paul, he used great plainness of speech, saying to them:

"Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esias the prophet unto out fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye hear and not understand; and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it" (vv. 25-27).

     By this it appears that the hope of Israel, the kingdom of God and the salvation of God are three different names for one and the same thing. And it also shows that a supernatural and punitive blindness concerning the kingdom foretold by the prophets had been laid upon the unbelieving part of the natural Israel, even as the same prophets had predicted; which blindness, as we learn from Romans 11:25, is to continue "until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." But who can explain how it is that the very same error which Paul here denounced, and for the denouncing of which he suffered persecution and imprisonment, has found advocates among orthodox Christians of the twentieth century?

     The Scriptures we have been reviewing make it plain that "the hope of Israel" was to be realized in the resurrection. Christ was to suffer, to die, and to rise again; He the first, and afterward they that are His (1 Cor. 15:23). There is no other hope for Israel, and never was. If the promise of God to Israel had been earthly dominion, or if that had been even a part of the promise, it is impossible that Paul should not have declared it on the occasions to which we have referred, and should not have spoken of it in his Epistles- especially Romans. Nor could he possibly in that case, have used the language we have quoted above.

     There are indeed certain prophetic passages in the Old Testament which, apart from the light afforded by the New, might be taken as relating to "Israel after the flesh," and as foretelling the restoration, at some future day, of their national greatness; for there is in those passages no distinct reference to the resurrection. But that goes for nothing. For the natural intelligence could not possibly have discerned that Psalm 16 and Isaiah 55:3 were to be fulfilled in the resurrection. The Holy Spirit, however, by the apostle Peter, has given us to know that David, in the 16th Psalm, was foretelling that God "would raise up Christ to sit on his throne" (Ac. 2:30, 31); and by the apostle Paul the same Spirit has made known that the broad promise of "the sure mercies of David" was to be fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ from the dead (Ac. 13:32-34).

     The erroneous doctrine of the teachers of Israel which we have been discussing, was based upon an unspiritual interpretation of their own Scriptures; for "they knew not the voices of the prophets which were read every Sabbath day" (Ac. 13:27). That doctrine was fatal to everyone who received and clung to it; and also to the nation as a whole. Therefore, its revival amongst orthodox Christians in these days is a proper cause for serious misgivings.

CHAPTER IV

WHAT THE FATHERS OF ISRAEL WERE LOOKING FOR.

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for"
(Hebrews 11:1)

     We turn back now to the Old Testament Scriptures for the purpose of ascertaining what is foretold therein concerning the future of the Israelitic people, and particularly what, if any, indication they contain as to the restoration of their national greatness in a yet future day.

     And first we direct our attention to the patriarchal era, in order to learn what it was that the fathers of Israel were taught of the Lord to anticipate for themselves and their posterity. This is the proper place to begin our inquiry; for we recall that when Paul was arraigned before King Herod Agrippa by his infuriated fellow countrymen, because he preached a hope for Israel radically different from that held and taught by them and their rabbis, he declared that he was "judged for the hope of the promise made of God to our fathers." And he went on to say that God's promise to the fathers was the true hope of all Israel - "our twelve tribes" (Ac. 26:6,7).

It is written that "faith is the substance of things hoped for." If, therefore, we know what a man is hoping for, we know what he believes. "The faith of Jesus Christ" is that on which is founded "the hope of the gospel" (Col. 1:23); and there is just the "one hope" for all men (Eph. 4:4); because there is but one gospel (and never was, or will be, "another gospel." Gal. 1:6-9). The hope of the gospel has ever been the coming of Him who should bruise the serpent's head, and who should be Himself "bruised" in the deadly conflict; Him who by death should destroy him, that had the power of death, the Devil.

     It is fitting that the faith of Abraham should have a large space in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews; for Abraham is "the father of all them that believe" (Rom. 4:11). That chapter does not state what the gospel was that "God preached unto Abraham" (Gal. 3:8); but it tells what the effect thereof was upon his life and conduct, and what his hope was, that is, what he was looking for. It is recorded that -

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange (or foreign) country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise"
(v. 9)

     And verse 10 gives the explanation -

"For he looked (lit. was waiting for) the (not a) city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God."

     Mention is made also of Sarah's faith, which was also an important factor in the accomplishment of the purposes of God, and who is herself a type of that heavenly city upon which Abraham's hope was fixed...the "Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of all" (Gal. 4:26). And further, it is expressly declared that Isaac and Jacob were co-heirs with Abraham of "the same promise" (v. 9). And then, concerning those four - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Sarah, to whom "the promises" were directly given, we have this illuminating testimony:

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off; and were persuaded [fully convinced] of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they seek a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city" (vv. 13-16).

     This gives us clearly to know, first that "the promises" exerted a mighty influence over those to whom they were first given, (proving that their faith in what God had spoken was real and unwavering); and second, that the nature of the promises were such as to turn their thoughts entirely away from the earth, and to raise in their hearts the expectation of a country "better" than the very best of earth (showing that the promises themselves were spiritual and heavenly in character). For those promises had the effect of making even "the land of promise" itself to be to them as a foreign country. For while the land of Canaan was indeed promised to Abraham's natural seed, that promise never was "the hope of Israel." The hope of the gospel which God preached to Abraham was of such a nature that it caused him, and those who were "the heirs with him of the same promise," to declare themselves "strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

     As will be more fully shown in subsequent Chapters, God's promise that He would bring Abraham's descendants into that land was punctually fulfilled. For it is recorded in the Book of Joshua that "the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware unto their fathers to give them, and they possessed it, and dwelt therein... There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord hath spoken unto the house of Israel" (Josh. 21:43-45). But the possession of that land by later generations was forfeited through disobedience, apostasy, and idolatry, even as Moses and Joshua foretold; and, in consequence of their complete repudiation of Jehovah their God, they were "plucked off the land" (Deut. 28:63,64; Joshua 12:13). And thus was fulfilled the prophetic "allegory" of Abraham's family history, according to which the bondwoman and her son, representing Israel after the flesh, were to be "cast out" (Gal. 4:30); which is the end of their history as a nation.

     It was not until centuries of time had passed, not until faith had vanished from among the children of Israel, not until the true spiritual and eternal character of the promises had faded out of sight, and fleshly lusts had taken the place of heavenly hopes and longings, that there arose among the natural seed of Abraham the ruinous doctrine that "the hope of Israel" was an earthly thing. That doctrine was the product of degenerate times. It was tenaciously held and zealously propagated by the scribes, Pharisees, rabbis and lawyers of first century Judaism - that "generation of vipers"; and it wrought in them such devilishness that they eagerly carried out the will of their "father, the devil" (Matt. 23:33; John 8:44) in compassing the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. Should we not therefore regard that odious doctrine with abhorrence and fear? And should it not be a matter of anxious inquiry as to how it has arisen and spread itself among the true followers of Christ in these perilous times?

     And now we come to the grand climax of the passage we are examining, Hebrews XI. It is found in verse 16, where it is announced that the fathers of Israel desired "a better country, that is an heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city"; and from Revelation 21:2,3, we learn that He will dwell with them in that city forever.

     Here is truth of the highest importance and most practical character. These words give us the explanation of the fact that the Eternal God, the Almighty Creator, He who is infinite in power, wisdom and holiness, condescends to call Himself "the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob" (Ex. 3:6, 16; Matt. 22:32).

     There could be no more emphatic assertion of the oneness of God's elect, the true "seed of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7,29), and of the truly fundamental truth that there is just "one hope," one "common salvation" for them all, whether by nature they be Jews or Gentiles.

     And there could not be a more impressive refutation of the erroneous doctrine - now current amongst certain groups of Christians - that the biblical "hope of Israel" is a thing of earthly place and dominion. This is surely "another gospel," very different indeed from the gospel God preached unto Abraham.

CHAPTER V

GOD'S WARNINGS THROUGH MOSES TO HIS EARTHLY PEOPLE.

     God's first covenant with Israel was very broad in scope, but was conditional in character; that is to say, the performance of its promises by Jehovah was dependant upon certain express conditions, which the Israelites bound themselves to fulfil. Here are the terms of that covenant, as proposed by God and agreed to by "all the people":

"Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant" - note the condition - "then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation"
(Ex. 19:5,6).

     Here are three things, which, upon the express conditions of obedience and fidelity on the part of the children of Israel, God promised to make of that people: first, a peculiar treasure to Himself; second, a kingdom of priests; third, a holy nation. There was no promise of earthly territory in that Siniatic covenant.

     Thereupon Moses, in his character of mediator of that covenant, called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. "And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord" (vv. 7,8). So the terms of the contract were agreed to by both the contracting parties.

     Then God spake in their hearing the "Words" they were to keep, the Ten Commandments (Chap. XX); and He also gave to Moses "the judgments" whereby their dealings with one another were to be governed (Chaps. XXI - XXIII). And thereupon "Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord hath said we will do" (Ex. 24:3).

     Accordingly the contract was reduced to writing and was executed in a most solemn manner; it being a blood covenant, which was the most binding sort. For Moses took "the book of the covenant," that is the scroll of parchment on which the terms of the contract were inscribed, and read in the audience of the people, and took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words" (24:6-8). Here is where we read of the blood of the old covenant; with which we should compare what is written concerning the "blood of the new covenant" (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 13:20).

     Within the space of forty days that covenant was broken by the abominable idolatry of the golden calf and the shameless rites with which the people, led by Aaron, worshipped it (Chap. XXXII); and it should be noted that the terms of that covenant were never again ratified with that people. We shall see presently what were the terms of the substituted covenant that God made with the children of Israel, but we would impress upon the reader, as truth of the highest importance, that the three wondrously glorious promises of the covenant of Exodus XIX - XXIV were reserved for another people, the true Israel. For to them, the apostle Peter writes that God had made them apart from all conditions, "a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people" (1 Pet. 2:9).

     When the Israelites made and worshipped the golden calf, God was minded to destroy them and to make of Moses a great nation (Ex. 32:10). Had He done so, He would nevertheless have fulfilled the promises He made "to Abraham and his seed" (Gal. 3:16); for Moses was a direct descendant of Abraham. For the same reason it follows that, in fulfilling those promises to Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:7, 29), God has kept His covenant with Abraham in letter as well as in spirit.

     But Moses interceded for the people; and God spared the people, and commanded Moses to lead them to the land He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob 33:1; and He made with them another covenant (34:10); which covenant, in respect to what was promised thereby, was very inferior to the covenant they had broken; for this substituted covenant (which was not a blood covenant) was restricted to the terms and conditions upon which God would permit them to continue in possession of the land of Canaan.

     Those terms and conditions are set forth in detail in the book of Deuteronomy; where, after the recital of them, Moses writes :

"These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb" (Deut. 29:1).

     The subsequent history of the Israelites shows that they broke this substituted covenant also; and not in one particular only, but in every particular, thereby forfeiting irretrievably all the stipulated blessings, and incurring all the curses thereof. That covenant having been finally annulled ("done away," 2 Cor. 3:11; Heb. 10:9, etc.), there remains now, of all the covenants ever made by God with a people in this world, none but "the everlasting covenant," or "new covenant," whereof Jesus Christ is the Guarantor ("Surety," Heb. 7:22), who fulfils all the conditions of perfect obedience, even "unto death"; and is also the Mediator (Heb. 9:15; 12:24) ; which covenant was, as we have seen, sealed with His own blood.

     Therefore, as regards God's covenants with that earthly people, "Israel after the flesh," the matter stands thus: the conditional promises thereof were all nullified by their breach of covenant; whereas the unconditional promises were all fulfilled to them, to the last detail, through Moses and Joshua; and God, moreover has caused that fact to be plainly recorded, as we shall presently see.

     Let us now notice briefly some of the records made by Moses concerning the covenant under which the Israelites entered into possession of the land that God had sworn to their fathers to give them:

     A very comprehensive prophecy is found in Numbers 33:55,56, where God plainly says, through Moses, that in case they should fail to drive out the inhabitants of the land, as He had repeatedly commanded them to do, then as a first consequence, those that were permitted to remain should become pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides; and "Moreover, it shall come to pass that I shall do unto you as I thought to do unto them"; and what He purposed as to those idolatrous nations was their national extermination and their expulsion from that land. This prophecy concerning the earthly Israel has been completely fulfilled.

     Deut. 4:1. Here is a summary of the covenant. They were to hearken always to God's statutes and judgments; and, upon that express condition, they were to go in and possess the land. Every blessing mentioned in this book is made to depend upon that same condition. This chapter lays special emphasis upon the Second Commandment (vv. 15-24); for it was because of the breaking of that commandment that the Siniatic covenant had been nullified; and now God proclaims to the whole nation, and makes it a matter of record, what would certainly be the penal consequences to them if they should break this substituted covenant. And not only so, but He confirms His word with a solemn oath, saying, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over to Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed" (v. 26). Will God fulfil His word? Shall heaven and earth bear witness that He did not mean what He said?

     Careful note should be taken of the promise of mercy (Verses 29,30) which should be fulfilled to them if, when scattered among the heathen (vv. 27,28), any of the should turn to the Lord:

"If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation and all these things are come upon thee, if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shalt be obedient unto His voice."

     This is the promise of the gospel of Christ. It is repeated in Isaiah 55:7 ("the sure mercies of David," Isa. 55:3, Ac. 13:34); and is recalled by Paul in 2 Cor. 3:16. It is the one and only hope for the natural Israelite, as for all mankind. The conditions are, "turn to the Lord" (i.e., repent) and be "obedient to His voice" (obey the gospel by coming in faith to Jesus Christ). Specially is it to be noted that this promise is to the individual, there being no collective promise for the nation as a whole. This is the mercy of the everlasting covenant which God had sworn to their fathers (v. 31). Thus it stands in the Word of God.

     But compare this with the now current system of teaching, according to which God will being the Israelites in a body again after the day of gospel salvation is ended, to Palestine "in unbelief"; and will there convert the entire nation, not by faith, but by the sight of Jesus Christ standing on the Mount of Olives!

     The above quoted warning and oath of God that He would, in the event of their lapse into disobedience and idolatry, destroy them from off the land, was never revoked or modified, that I can find; but on the contrary, it was reiterated again and again.

Deut. 6:14,15. "Ye shall not go after other gods of the people which are round about you... lest the anger of the Lord be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth" (or land).

Deut. 7:1, 2, 3. Here they are forbidden to make any covenants with the Canaanites and to intermarry with them (they subsequently did both); the penalty for disobedience being stated thus: "So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly" (v. 4). For while He "keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments," yet He "repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them." (vv. 9.10).

Deut. 8:1-18. This chapter is of capital importance. In it Moses charges the children of Israel to remember all God's dealings with them in Egypt and in the wilderness, saying:

"Otherwise it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods and serve them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face, so shall ye perish, because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord you God."

     Here God declares explicitly the completeness of their destruction as a nation. It was to be such as obliterated those nations which the Lord had destroyed before their face. Can it be supposed He did not mean this? And if He meant it, how can anyone maintain, in the face of so clear a statement, the doctrine of a national restoration for Israel?

     Furthermore, the form of this tremendously impressive warning, "Ye shall surely perish," is like that given to Adam, "Thou shalt surely die." But in the case of Adam, God's enemy, the father of lies, raised a question concerning the divine utterance; "Yea, hath God said?" With This example and its disastrous consequences in mind, we should be suspicious as to the source of the doctrine which declares, concerning the nation of Israel, that, it shall not perish, but that, on the contrary, it is to be not only saved, but also is to be exalted to the place of supremacy among and over the nations of the world.

Deut. 11:1-9. Moses here recalls God's judgments upon Pharaoh, his land and his army; also His judgments upon Dathan and Abiram; and he admonishes the people of Israel to be warned thereby, and to keep the commandments of the Lord, "that ye may prolong your days in the land." (Over and over Moses declares that God was giving them that land solely because He had promised their fathers He would do so; and that their continued possession of it depended upon their obedience and fidelity).

     And again in this same chapter (vv. 16,17), Moses bids them take heed that "ye turn not aside and serve other gods and worship them; and then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you... and ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you."

     And at verses 26-28 we read the choice God presented to them: "Behold, a blessing and a curse! A blessing if ye obey... a curse, if ye obey not." Then how about those that obey not the gospel (2 Thess. 1:7-9)?

     Then follow a number of chapters (XII-XXVI) containing "the statues and judgments," they were to obey as the condition of their remaining in possession of the land and enjoying God's favor and blessing therein; and in chapter 24: 14-26 are twelve several curses which, after they should have entered the land of Canaan, the Levites were to recite, as coming upon those who should sin against the Lord; and to each curse all the people were to respond, "Amen."

     Then in the following chapter (XXVIII) is the solemn declaration that, if they would not hearken and obey, "all these curses shall come upon thee... until thou be destroyed" (vv. 15-20). And then, after the recital of a long list of the appalling evils that were to overtake them, Moses says: (vv. 47,48):

"Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee;... and He shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until He have destroyed thee."

     This was fulfilled in the Roman oppression of Israel, iron being the symbol of the Roman empire (Dan. 2:40; 7:7). And the follows (vv. 50-67) that marvelously exact and vividly descriptive prophecy, which God gave through Moses, of the final siege and destruction of Jerusalem, the horrors of which were to be unsurpassed in all history; which prophecy ends with this prediction (vv. 63-67):

"And it shall come to pass that, as the Lord rejoiced over you to do good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth unto the other... And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest," etc.

     This is their condition at the present time; and it should be noted that in this same chapter Moses says concerning "all these curses" that "they shall be upon thee, for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed forever" (v. 46).

Deut. 29:1. Here we learn that the covenant under which the Israelites were given possession of the land of Canaan was not, as appears to be commonly supposed at this present time, the covenant of Sinai (and we have already seen that the covenant said not a word about their possession of any earthly territory). For here we read: "These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb." And this is followed by a further warning that the breach of this latter covenant would be punished by an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah; that is, an irrecoverable ruin (v. 23).

Deut. 30:1-10. "And it shall come to pass when all these things come upon thee" - so it was all to happen, and what then? Special heed should be given to this chapter, because here is where mercy is promised them; and here are stated the conditions on which they may obtain it, after they should have been destroyed as a nation, plucked from off their land, and scattered among all the nations of the earth. First there is the promise of a return from captivity if, among the nations wither the Lord should have driven them, they should "return unto the Lord thy God" (v. 2). Then follows a passage (vv. 11-14), which is quoted in part by Paul in Romans 10:6-10, and concerning which he says that "the word," there spoken by Moses, is "the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

     Thus we find that the very last hope of mercy that is held out through Moses to that "disobedient and gainsaying people," to whom God says "I have stretched out my hands all the day long," is the "one hope" of the gospel of Christ.

     Verse 15-20 (of Deut. 30) are intensely solemn, and their meaning is so plain it would be like charging God with trifling (as scoffers make light of His warnings concerning hell and eternal torment) to say that this pledge, which God calls heaven and earth to witness, does not mean exactly what it says. Again we have the plain statement, "If thine heart turn away... ye shall surely perish, and shall not prolong your days in the land."

Deut. 31:15-21. God now appears to Moses and plainly tells him that "this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of strangers, and will forsake Me, and break My Covenant. And My anger shall be kindled against them." Therefore He commanded Moses to teach them that remarkable prophetic "song," which witnessed beforehand what they would do, and what was to befall them. "For," says God, "I know their imagination even now, before I have brought them into the land" (21).

     To this Moses adds (vv. 27-30) that he knew their rebellion even while he was with them; "And how much more," he asks, "after my death? For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and evil will befall you in the latter days" (and no subsequent recovery is hinted at; though surely, if such a thing were to be, it would appear here).

Deut. XXXII. Here is the "song" which bears so clear a testimony against them. Notice the following points:

     "They have corrupted themselves; they are a perverse and crooked generation" (5): "Remember" all that the Lord did for them (7-14); "But" - how they requited Him; and then, what He will do because thereof: "I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end will be" (20). "A fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell," etc., (22). Threats of vengeance are found in verses 23-26; and there is the declaration that, were it not that their adversaries would be gratified thereby, God would have made "the remembrance of them to cease from among men" (26). In verses 28-42 we find more of what was "laid up in store" for them, and sealed up among God's "treasures" (of wrath - see Rom. 2:5; Job 14:14; Jer. 2:22). "Their foot shall slide in due time" (34,35). Finally He lifts up His hand to heaven and swears a great oath of vengeance against all enemies (40-42).

     Verse 21 is specially significant because of the prophetic reference therein to that new "nation" which was eventually to displace the natural Israel (see Rom. 10:9). And the last verse of all is most important in the light of the interpretation the Holy Spirit has given through the apostle Paul: "Rejoice, O ye nations with His people." This is a promise of the gospel to the Gentiles, to whom Paul was made the special messenger of God (Rom. 15:10). Paul had already shown (11:7) that "His people" was not the nation of Israel in its entirety, but only that part of it ("the remnant according to the election of grace") which He foreknew; with which remnant the saved from among the Gentiles were to be incorporated; thus forming the true Israel of God, represented by the "good olive tree."

     Thus it has been foreseen of God, from the beginning of the earthly Israel, that the only hope of the natural Israelite at this stage of human history is to believe in Jesus Christ and be graffed into "their own olive tree." What better thing could be desired for them?

WHAT THE APOSTLES WERE LOOKING FOR.

     It is appropriate we should take notice in this connection of the fact that the apostles of Christ, and they who follow their teaching, were (and are) looking for the very same things which were in the vision of the fathers of Israel; for as Peter - writing "to them that have obtained like precious faith with us" (the apostles of Christ) says: "We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Pet. 3:13).

     Thus the outlook of the true "Israel of God," that "holy nation" which is, and always was, composed only of those who are "of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all" (Rom. 4:16), was ever the same. And it was, as we should expect, a radically different outlook from that of the degenerate and apostate Jews, who looked for an age (or "dispensation" as it is now called) of earthly glory for the reconstituted Jewish nation; an age in which that nation will occupy the place of dominance over the Gentiles. Manifestly Peter could not have written the above quoted verse if he had held the now current doctrine of a millennium of earthly greatness for the Jewish nation.

     Indeed the entire chapter bears strong testimony against that doctrine. The general subject of the chapter is "the promise of His coming" (v. 4); and its special purpose is to warn the Lord's people of what would seem to them a long delay in His second coming and to assure them that the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some would regard it, but that the reason for the seeming delay was because of the long suffering of God, and of His desire that not any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (vv. 3-9).

     To all that give due attention to this passage it must surely be evident that what is immediately to follow this day of salvation for all men is "the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (v. 7), "the day of the Lord" (v. 10), "the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (v. 12). 

     Manifestly, if this present day of salvation were to be followed by a day of glory, peace and prosperity for the earth, a day in which the entire Jewish nation and other nations as well, are to be saved, there would be no long suffering and mercy in prolonging the Saviour's absence; but just the reverse. The apostle's reason for the delay is valid only if the return of the Lord is to usher in the day of judgment, and if it coincides with "the coming of the day of God." The apostle reminds us that the world that existed in the time of Noah, "being overflowed with water, perished"; and goes on to say that, "the heavens and earth which are now... are kept in store" - not for a thousand years of peace and plenty, but - "reserved unto fire" (v. 7).

     In verse 10 he warns us, as do other Scriptures (Mat. 24:42; 1 Thess. 5:2; Rev. 16:15), that our Lord's coming will take the world by surprise; and he couples the warning with information which shuts out all possibility of a millennial dispensation to follow His coming; for the apostle says:

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."

     And then he admonishes us as to what our "conversation" (manner of life) ought to be in view of the immanency of these exterminating judgments; and that we should be "looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (v. 12).

     Manifestly it is impossible that we should be "looking for," and more so that we should be "hasting unto," the coming of that day, if a millennial age is to intervene.

     This passage in Second Peter is referred to again in Chapter XV.

ERRONEOUS TEACHING CONCERNING THE SINIATIC COVENANT

     Dr. Charles W. Rankin, President of the Fundamentalist College in Shanghai, China, calls attention in a recently published booklet to the grievous doctrine of the leading Dispensationalists concerning the Law of God which He gave the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Dr. Rankin cites several notes on Exodus 19:3 in the popular "Reference Bible," referred to above, which state that:

"the law was not imposed until it had been proposed and voluntarily accepted";

     Also the note on Gen. 12:-

"The dispensation of Promise ended when Israel rashly accepted the law (Ex. 19:8)."

     And Dr. Rankin comments as follows:

"In other words, God did not intend the Mosaic Law to be accepted by the Jews, the Jews 'rashly' accepted it, - did something God did not want them to do. Therefore God did not intend the Mosaic Law to be a part of the Bible. He merely proposed it to the Jews, of course not desiring them to do a rash ting and accept it, and so it was the Jews who put it into the Bible by their 'rash' action. It was not even put into the Bible by human wisdom, as avowed Modernists teach, but was put in by man's will when acting rashly. Therefore having thus by man's 'rash' action of course improperly come into the Bible, the Mosaic Law cannot truly be a part of the Bible. Accordingly, put it out. This is the logic of the teaching of these Premillennialist leaders. And there can be no escape from this logical destruction of the Pentateuch under their teaching. To the extent of striking at the authority of the Mosaic Law, no Modernism could be worse.

"Moreover it is the most aggravated impiety and irreverence to teach that God having proposed to men a covenant, a Law, that they could act 'rashly' in giving heed to His proposition and accepting it.

"God had just led the Jews out of Egypt by the strength of His mighty arm. They were not in a position from any standpoint to make law for themselves, and moreover, the Mosaic Law was not only the necessary State law for the Jewish nation which God Himself was to govern, but it was a revelation from God of Himself, of His moral law, and of His plans for both Jew and Gentile. It contains the prophecies of the coming Messiah, the Ten Commandments, the Levitical System typifying the Atonement of Christ. The Mosaic Code is the foundation for the entire Bible.

"And God led the Jews to Sinai to receive His Law. Under most sublime and awe-inspiring conditions was Moses called up into the mount to receive it for them. And he was commanded to teach it to them (Ex. 24:12). Moreover, it was the duty of the Jews to receive it (Deut. 4:13-14). The Mosaic Law was God's commands, - was His Law. And had the Jews failed willingly to accept it, they would simply have been in rebellion."

     Beyond all question, when God offered to the children of Israel the covenant of Sinai, it was with the intention that they should accept it and faithfully observe it; and beyond all question, the law He gave them at the beginning of their history as a nation has been an unspeakable blessing to them, with incidental benefits to other nations.

CHAPTER VI

GOD'S WARNINGS THROUGH MOSES (Continued)

     The truth of the matter concerning which we are inquiring can be ascertained with certainty by a study of God's covenants with the children of Israel (to which partial consideration has been given in the preceding chapter), and of His messages to that people from time to time, given through His servants, the prophets.

     We have already seen that, by the covenant of Sinai, God offered them the highest of all blessings, but upon the express condition of obedience; the terms being, "If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My Covenant" (Ex. 19:5,6). To this they all agreed, saying, "All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do" (v. 8). And this pledge of obedience was twice repeated by them after the ten commandments had been spoken to them (Ex. 24:3 and 7). Nevertheless, that covenant was broken by them within forty days through the idolatry of the golden calf ("Which My covenant they brake," Jer. 31:32).

     Nevertheless, in response to Moses' intercession, God continued to acknowledge them as His people, and consented to go with them into the land that had been promised by Him to their fathers. But the covenant of Sinai was annulled, and a substitute covenant was made with them at the end of their wilderness journey, when they were about to enter and occupy the land of Canaan. For we have seen that in the last chapters of Deuteronomy is the record of another covenant, which, like the first, was accompanied by the giving of the law.

     The additional (or substituted) covenant was made with the next succeeding generation following that which had broken the covenant of Horeb. It is very different in its terms, particularly in that those great promises - "ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me, ...and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" - are entirely omitted. (Those wonderful promises reappear in connection with God's new covenant people, the true "Israel," the "holy nation," I Pet. 2:9).

     The covenant made at the end of the wilderness journey is limited to a recital of the terms and conditions upon which the children of Israel would be permitted to occupy the land of Canaan, which God had promised their fathers that He would give to their children; and as has been already stated, the children of Israel failed completely to keep the conditions of this covenant, even as they had failed to keep those of the other. Moreover, though the Lord God of their fathers sent to them repeatedly by His messengers, the prophets, to warn them, and to recall them to Himself, "because He had compassion upon His people, and on His dwelling place," yet "they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy" (2 Chr. 36:15,16).

     It is recorded that both Israel and Judah "kept not the commandments of the Lord their God"; wherefore "the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight" (2 Kings 17:18-20).

     Nor was this national rebellion and apostasy ever repented of. For Christ declared concerning the generation of His day that they would fill up the measure of their fathers, and would bring upon them the wrath of God to the uttermost (Matt. 23:29-36). And this was repeated by Paul a short time before the final storm of judgment burst upon them (I Th. 2:14-16).

     Close attention should be given to the last prophecy of Moses (Deut. 28-32) because of the clear light it throws upon the subject of our present inquiry. It foretells the history of the children of Israel, down to the very end thereof, showing that it would be a history of continued apostasy and rebellion, and of stubborn refusal to hear the voice of Jehovah by His servants the prophets; and it declares with marvelous exactitude and fullness of detail what the end of that nation was to be (Deut. 28:49-68). This has ever been accounted, by all who have given attention to it, one of the greatest wonders of prophecy. For example, Keith on the Prophecies contains an instructive comment upon this passage, from which I quote the following:

"The commonwealth of Israel from its establishment to its dissolution subsisted for more than fifteen hundred years. In delivering their law, Moses assumed more (much more) than the authority of a human legislator; for he asserted that he was invested with a divine commission; and he who founded their government foretold, notwithstanding the intervening of so many centuries, the precise manner of its overthrow.

"While they were yet wanderers in the wilderness, without a city and without a home, Moses threatened them with the destruction of their cities and the desolation of their country. Even while they were viewing for the first time the land of Palestine, and victorious and triumphant, they were about to possess it, he represented the scene of desolation that it would present to their vanquished and enslaved posterity, on their final departure from it. Ere they themselves had entered it as enemies, he describes those enemies by whom their descendants were to be subjugated and dispossessed; though they were to arise from a very distant region, and though they did not appear till after a millenary and a half of years: "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young' etc. (quoting Deut. 28:49-52).

"Each particular of this prophecy has met its full completion. The remote situation of the Romans, the rapidity of their march, the very emblem of their arms, their unknown language and warlike appearance, the indiscriminate cruelty they manifested toward old and young, could not have been represented in more descriptive terms. The Roman Generals, Vespasian, Adrian and Julius Severus, removed with parts of their armies from Britain to Palestine, the extreme points of the Roman world."

     And this writer proceeds to show, as many other commentators have done, how, point by point, in the minutest detail, the judgments executed by the Romans in the years 66-70 of our era, were prescribed by Moses.

     Now the matter of chief interest for our present purposes is that, from this national destruction by the Romans there was to be no recovery. And in this, the prophecy of Moses is in full accord with that of Jesus Christ, recorded in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. For Moses said: "God will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land wither thou goest to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth even to the other" (Deut. 28:63,64). This, according to this prophecy, was to be the end of their history as a nation.

     Nor is there any promise of God, by any later prophet, of recovery for the earthly nation from this final destruction and dispersion at the hands of the Romans. For an attentive reading of the prophecies concerning "Israel," "Zion," and "Jerusalem," leads to the conclusions that such as are yet to be fulfilled relate to the heavenly people, country, and city, to which respectively those names properly belong; and that all prophecies of recovery intended for "Israel after the flesh" (I Cor. 10:18) were completely fulfilled in and after the return from the Babylonian captivity.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A RIGHT UNDERSTANDING
OF THESE PROPHECIES

     Some may think it a matter a small consequence whether the prophecies of future blessing and dominion for "Israel" apply to the earthly or to the heavenly people. But not so; for the matter affects the whole subject of salvation and the hope of the gospel. It needs to be settled, and settled according to the Scriptures, in order that the gospel itself may be understood and its work properly accomplished. For so long as another hope, that is to say "another gospel" (upon which, be it noted, the only anathema of the New Testament is laid, Gal. 1:8,9) is presented for a section of the human race (the scattered descendants of Jacob) and that a hope of earthly character, just so long, and to that extent, will the work of the gospel itself be obscured. It was so at the beginning, when the fixed notion of a restoration of the earthly greatness of Israel made the Jewish people the implacable enemies of the gospel, and of the Christ of the gospel, Who is also the Christ of prophecy.

     Therefore I am impelled to insist in the strongest way, and to call upon all friends of the gospel to do the like, that there is but one hope, one gospel, one salvation, even as there is but one Saviour for all men. Israel after the flesh was a nation under the law. As such, i.e., as being under the law, promises were given them, all those promises being expressly conditioned upon their obedience to the law; and as such, judgments were denounced upon them as penalties for disobedience, which judgments mounted up to complete national extermination, if their disobedience should be persistent- as it was.

     And now the law has been superseded by the gospel, with its "better hope." The economy of the law, with all its shadows - people, land, city, temple, priesthood, sacrifices- has been set aside, and forever. Therefore, it is needful, and is due to the glory of the gospel, and of Him Who died and rose again in order that all men might have the blessings of the gospel, that it should be clearly established and ceaselessly proclaimed that there is one hope, and only one hope, for all mankind. For there is no room in the purposes of God for "the hope of the Gospel" and for another hope for any. Whatever promises there were annexed to the law were all conditional; and all have now been forfeited and annulled. Its curses were what the nation earned for itself; and hence there is, in this dispensation of grace, but one way of escape from the curse of the law, and that is by accepting the mercy which God freely offers to all men through "Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead" (II Tim. 2:7).

THE KINGDOM FORETOLD BY MOSES

     It is a remarkable fact that Moses foretold, in this last prophecy, that the children of Israel would set a king over them; and he also foretold what would be the consequences thereof (Deut. 28:36). That wicked act on their part was to be the culmination of apostasy; for it meant the repudiation of the sovereignty of Jehovah. We have His own word for this; for He said to Samuel, when commanding that prophet to give them their desire, "They have not rejected thee; but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them" (I Sam. 8:7). That kingdom therefore was not "the kingdom of God," preached by John and Christ. So far from its being the kingdom of God, the truth is that its establishment involved the setting aside of the kingdom of God. And it was not "the kingdom of heaven," for what the people demanded was a kingdom of earthly character, "like all the nations." It is strange indeed, therefore, that any Christian expositor should regard the proclamation of Christ and His forerunner as the announcement of the restoration of that kingdom, born of apostasy and rebellion; and the more so after God had plainly spoken concerning it, saying, "I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath" (Hos. 13:11).

     Moreover, this ending of that odious kingdom in precisely what Moses had foretold long before it came into existence. For his words were, "The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known" (v. 36). That, of course, was the Babylonian captivity. The kingdom ended then, but not the nation. And in agreement with this historical fact, the prophecy of Moses goes on to speak of the subsequent experience of the nation, as an experience of continued servitude to, and oppression by, other nations. It shows too that the post-captivity period was to be an era in which they should have, not peace and plenty in their land, but dearth, distress, and various other miseries and afflictions (vv. 37-48). The fact that Moses speaks of the continued existence of the nation after the Babylonian captivity affords strong reason for the belief that his prophecy gives the history of the nation down to its very end. From this alone we have warrant for the conclusion that from the national destruction wrought by the Romans there was to be no recovery.

     That, of course, was not the view of the Jewish teachers, who, "because the knew not the voices of the prophets" (Ac. 13:27), and because their thoughts and desires were carnal, interpreted the promises as pertaining to a kingdom of the very same sort as their forefathers had demanded of Samuel - one "like all the nations."

CHAPTER VII

GOD'S PROMISES TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL
FULFILLED BY JOSHUA

     The book of Joshua contains a passage (Chapter 21, verses 43-45) which throws clear light upon the question we are investigating- the future of the Jews. The passage has already been briefly noticed; but its importance demands a more extended consideration. Its value for our present purpose lies chiefly in the fact that thereby it clearly appears that nothing now remains to be fulfilled of all that God promised the fathers of Israel He would do for their natural descendants.

     Joshua, whose name signifies Saved-of-Jehovah, had by God's express command, led the children of Israel across the river Jordan and into the land which the Lord had promised their fathers to give them. Furthermore, after a personal interview with "the Captain of the host of the Lord" (who could have been none other than the Lord Jesus Himself) he led them victoriously against their enemies, subduing one after another, until, as the record declares, "he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses" (11:15). And finally, he divided the entire land among the twelve tribes, assigning to each tribe its inheritance, and to the Levites cities in diverse parts of the land.

     God was with Joshua in a very special way; and through that chosen and well prepared instrument He completed all He had pledged Himself to do for the children of Israel under His unconditional covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and this is plainly and most emphatically declared in the passage we are about to examine. The confusion and misunderstanding that now exist, in regard to the present status and future prospects of "Israel after the flesh," would never have arisen had due attention been given to these facts of Scripture: first, that God's promise to the fathers of Israel concerning the land of Canaan went no farther than He would bring their descendants into that land, would give them complete possession of it, and would subdue their enemies under them; and second, that their continued possession of that promised land would depend upon their faithfulness to Him and their obedience to His commandments.

     Accordingly, when the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had fulfilled to their seed, through Joshua, all He had pledged Himself to do for them, all of which He faithfully accomplished to the last detail, notwithstanding their many and great "provocations" during the forty years He suffered their manners in the wilderness, then the unconditional covenants with the fathers were fulfilled so completely that "there failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel." Therefore, they stood thenceforth, as to their relations with God, wholly upon the conditional covenant He made with them through Moses, which we have considered in a previous chapter (Deut. 29:1). The details of that substituted covenant, which is strangely ignored by Bible teachers in our day, occupy the greater part of the Book of Deuteronomy. The substance of it was, as we have already seen, that, upon the express condition that the children of Israel would diligently keep the commandments of God- those commandments being of the essence of the covenant- He would plant them firmly in that land, would establish them in permanent possession of it, and would, moreover, give them to enjoy certain specified blessings therein. But if, on the other hand, they should be disobedient, should adopt the customs of the people of the land, and should forsake Him to worship their gods, then He would bring sundry curses upon them, and eventually, for persistent rebellion and apostasy on their part, would destroy them from off the land and scatter them among all the nations of the world (Deut. 28:15-68). This is stated again and again, in the clearest and strongest terms (See Deut. 29:23-28; and 30:17,18).

     Certainly it is impossible to maintain, in the face of these plain Scriptures, and of what we are now about to bring to the reader's attention, that God had obligated Himself to give the land of Canaan to the natural seed of Abraham for an everlasting possession. Moreover, those who so teach overlook the fact that, if God had indeed obligated Himself by His covenants of promise, not only to bring the children of Israel into that good land, but also to establish them in it forever, then it would have been a breach of covenant on His part to pluck them from off the land and scatter them among all nations of the world, as He has now done. But, as to the conclusions we should reach regarding this important matter, we are not left to an inference, however plain; for we have this clear record:

"And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.

"And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that He sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.

"There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass