Part 2 of 7
ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE
SAVED
Particularly, biblical authors searched for when the Messiah would come and
suffer in the world (see 1 Pet. 1:10-11), and how long it would be after this
that the “Lion of Judah” would return and reign as King of Kings in Jerusalem.
This, they concluded, would be come with the Great Sabbath. But before that
time came, rebelling Jews would have to acknowledge the works of God through
Christ and turn back their hearts to Divine Truth. Before the Great Sabbath,
the timely placement of Messiah had to be discerned in mysterious writing of
old:
“For I [YHVH] am as
the mature lion to Ephraim [Israel], and as the young lion to the house
[nation] of Judah [Judea]. I, even I, tear [am torn] and leave; I am took away,
and no one rescues. I will go; let Me return to my dwelling [Heaven] until they
acknowledge their offense and seek My face [identity]. In their afflictions
they will seek Me earnestly.” Come and let us return to YHVH; for He has torn,
but He will heal us. He was stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days
[2,000 yrs from cross], in the third day, He will raise us up, and we shall
live before Him. Therefore, allow our comprehension, and let us seek to know
YHVH: As the sunrise [new day], so is assured His going forth. And He shall
come as the rain unto us, as the latter rain/the former rain [two harvest
times] to the earth. (Hos. 5:14-15; 6:1-3) PIT; intrpl. mine
What the above passage plainly implies is that the Lord has two appointed times
to come to the world, like the two periods of rain of the harvest seasons in
agricultural Israel of old. As a young Lion of Judah, He would be torn and leave,
with no one to rescue. So God says in the passage that He would return to His
place. For the second coming He comes as a mature Lion to Israel, which informs
us that some time has passed since the young Lion of Judah returned to His
heavenly abode. So He would be torn, and so would they, but during the times of
trouble at the end of the age they would seek to know Him. They would
understand after two millennial days, and on the third day which is the Great
Sabbath the gathered people of Israel would be extolled, raised and living
before Him in Jerusalem. Again, they expected their Yeshua to leave and then
return on the third day, to live with them. This does not imply that God was
only on Earth twice, but He was and is awaited twice in prophecies of Scripture.
In Christian eschatology we call these the “first coming” and “second coming.”
So Jews who come to understand these things call for other to return to the
Lord for healing, which begins with hearts being turned back to the ancient
faith.
The
rocks have cried out this truth, as “Gabriel’s Revelation” tablet makes mention
of this expectancy of righteous Jews even before the first century AD; they
knew that the Lion would rise to life on the third day, and a greater third day
is awaited. They understood that God often gives His own name in the messianic
prophecies, and they awaited a suffering servant Messiah to be stricken and
rise- the prophets having foreseen this. They knew from Daniel when the Messiah
would come, as evident by the mysterious magi that visited the infant Messiah,
and they knew that His sacrifice would be at the end of four millennial days,
whereby He would return to reign as King on the third day since that time. “In
three days” He returns “to live,” the tablet says, and we “will live in His
sight.” So the tablet correlates back to the aforementioned prophecy of Hosea,
and in Hosea’s day they knew that the Lion would be struck down for the sins of
the people.
Since the Lord is
pictured as a “lion,” most translators reword the passage as if the Lion tore
Jews and then went away, but a closer look literally reveals that a lion was
torn and returned to His home. The people offended him, whereas a devouring
lion can hardly be a victim offended. Someone torn by a devouring lion is not
likely to consider the lion the victim that they should acknowledge their
offense. Only in their latter affliction do they acknowledge what was done
against the Lion. The Lion of Judah was torn to heal them.
God
has waited for acknowledgment of an unjust offense against Him, which occurred
before He returned to His dwelling-place. But only at the end of the week would
Jews heed the truths and be healed by Him. The truth is God blinded the nation
so that Gentiles would have space to repent. So we find that the passage in the
Book of Hosea is indeed an extension of the theme that God inspired in the Book
of Isaiah, which should be apparent by the similar wording, despite
translations. Consider that in the passage below an innocent Man is torn- an
extension of God to us- as the Arm of the Lord. So God’s work was despised and
rejected:
Who has believed
our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He shall
grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has
no form or comeliness [physical attraction]; and when we see Him, there is no
beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of
sorrows [pains] and acquainted with grief [sicknesses]. And we hid, as it were,
our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem [honor] Him. Surely
He has borne our griefs [sickness] and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him
stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded [or pierced] for
our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our
peace was upon Him, and by His stripes [whips] we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way [beliefs]. And the
LORD [YHVH] has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was
afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep [ewe] before its [her] shearers is silent, so He opened not His
mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His
generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the
transgressions of my people [Israel] He was stricken…
But
then Prophet Isaiah goes on to explain that He would yet live:
Yet it pleased the
LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering
for sin, He shall see His seed [offspring], He shall prolong His days, and the
pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His
soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify
many, for He shall bear their iniquities [sins]. Therefore, I will divide Him a
portion [inheritance] with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and he was numbered
[convicted] with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors. (Isa. 53:3-8; 10-12) NKJV; intrpl. mine
What is stronger than lions in dividing the spoil? Only, God, as Samson knew
when the Spirit came upon him as he slayed the foreshadowing Judean lion, and
from his death he gathered honey for his Hebrew family. Yet somehow the true
Lion would be sent to slaughter as a Lamb for the sins of Israel. Moreover, we
perceive that the Suffering Servant Messiah would live after death to become
the Conquering King Messiah and see the spiritual fruits of His works. The Lamb
of God’s sacrifice- His own Right Arm towards us- precedes the mature Lion of
Israel. In Revelation we find that because of His suffering for the sins of His
people, judgment is also committed to His hands. God entrusts His authority
over the world to the Son whom He calls by His very own name. And if we pay
close heed, we indeed find the Lion of Judah and the suffering Lamb are one the
same Savior in the passage:
And
I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside
and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?”
And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the
scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to
open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me,
“Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to
open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” And I looked, and behold, in the
midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the
elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns [divisions
of power] and seven eyes [to watch those divisions], which are the seven
Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll
out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. (Rev. 5:1-7) NKJV; intrpl.
& emp. mine
When Jewish religious leaders rejected the Messiah, the Suffering Servant
prophecies were purposely confused with the whole nation of Israel being the
sinless servant, which truly makes no hermeneutical sense for Isaiah 53.
Several passages speak of all Israel being God’s servant, but those passages do
not grant a license to religious leaders to distort the other plain passages.
The Jewish people have been led away from truths concerning the Suffering
Servant Messiah, but according to Scripture God will awaken them at the end of
two millennial days. Rabbis today skip over the Isaiah 53 passage in Synagogue
readings, but the Lord promised to revive the Jewish nation for the third day
from the cross. In the Talmud they have substituted “Yeshua,” meaning
“salvation,” for a derogatory acronym, “Yeshu,” which means: “May his name be
forgotten and blotted-out” of the Book of Life. Nevertheless, God’s “Salvation”
has been remembered and has spread to every corner of the world- far from being
blotted out.
So
if we follow on to truly know the Lord, we come to understand that His
arrivals, via the Messiah as our Emmanuel (God among us), were appointed as the
two distinct times of harvest season. Further, a sign was given of Him rising
in the flesh on the third day, glorified. Messiah had to suffer at the end of
four millennial days but then arise to life- as Lazarus was raised from the
dead on the 4th day. Christ saw the spread of His spiritual offspring. After
the Messiah, the apostles were the “Firstfruits” of God’s harvest, but a great
“Ingathering” will come at the end of the age. Israel will have all twelve
tribes restored, along with the promised boundaries that will extend to the
Euphrates River. And from Israel the world will be made righteous and just.
This is the panoramic picture that most of the parables and prophecies are
concerned with. Yet there is much, much more to this Great Mystery, as we shall
see.
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