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Preface: There are still Jews in this world and there will continue to be so, from now until Jesus returns for us in the air. God has made a number of promises to the Jews, and He will continue to do so. There are certain books and chapters and passages in the Bible which Jews will read, and suddenly, a light will go on in their heads; and, it will become clear. What I am going to do in this study is list some of these books and some of these chapters which they will read, and, in an instant or maybe after some deliberation, their minds will be open, and God the Holy Spirit will speak directly to them.
For those who do not believe in Holy Writ and/or know very little about the Bible, the Jews have to be an anomaly to them. From 4000 years ago, we have this people, who, for a time, seemed to enjoy their great moment in the sun, and then they faded away. However, they did not disappear from history as did their brothers, the Chaldeans, the Phœnicians, the Moabites, etc. The Jews are still with us. The Jews live in almost every country and they have been persecuted as have no other people. Although most Jews have blended into whatever culture they find themselves in, many still hold to their traditions and even to their Scriptures. Despite huge numbers of people who want to see them removed from this earth, the Jews are still with us.
I imagine that there might be as many as a billion people right now, who, if they could press a button and make the Jews disappear, would do so. Many of those, if such a disappearance could be with great suffering, they would think, all the better. There is this almost inexplicable animus against the Jews—the Germans attempted to exterminate the Jews in their land, politically conservative voices in the 70's blamed much of our country’s woes upon the Jew, and a huge number of Arabs want the Jews completely eradicated from the Middle East, despite the fact that the Jews occupy 0.2% of the land and that the land which they occupy lacks oil. Some Middle Eastern nations will harass, expel and/or kill the few Jews within their own borders, so that the Jewish population in many Middle Eastern countries is virtually zero. We have already seen several nations in the Middle East ally themselves together and go to destroy this little postage stamp of a country. There are people whose hatred of the Jews is so strong, they will simply lob off rockets into present-day Israel on a daily basis, not caring whose lives they disrupt or destroy. In fact, for many of them, the more carnage the better. This is what the Jews face throughout the world, and yet they persist as a people and their little nation even prospers.
I would think that the modern Jew himself wonders about this as well. He is a nice person; he belongs to a nice family. He studies hard, he works hard; and yet, inexplicably (to him), there are all of these people who hate him. There are all of these people who think that it would be better if he was just not around.
The Old Testament was completed by around 400 b.c. Although there continued to be writings by the Jews, they recognized that these writings were not from God. However, the Old Testament, they recognized as being inspired of God, and even today, many still believe in their Scriptures.
However, the more they know about their own Scriptures, the more they ask, often in the solitude of their own souls: where is this God of the Bible? Where is the God of the Jews? Why have You forsaken us? Why have You allowed your promises to fade? How can You allow this hatred toward us to continue? And some of them search their own Scriptures for the answers, yet most of them cannot find these answers. However, these answers are there. Where the Jews are today as a people, is found in the Old Testament. Their present state of being is not a surprise to God. None of this caught Him off guard. Even today, thousands upon thousands of Jews go to their own Scriptures, and, all of a sudden, God speaks to them through His Word. After the rapture of the church, 144,000 Jews will go to their Scriptures and realize who they are and what their place is in history, and they will evangelize the earth in the last days. What I have collected here are Old Testament passages and even entire books which the Jew in the Tribulation will read (or recall) and God the Holy Spirit will make this information real to them, with the result that they will believe in Jesus Christ.
What is to follow is a number of passages and one entire book which Jews will read about or think about in the future and suddenly recognize their own place in history.
I will add chapters and verses to this study from time to time.
The best-known book among the Jewish people and the least-known book among believers in Jesus Christ is the book of Esther. A Christian may, in some kind of a trade-out deal, attend some Jewish function where the story of Esther is being taught or summarized or even acted out, and Haman’s name is mentioned, and suddenly, there is all of this hissing and booing, which confuses the Christian (he thinks to himself, who is this Haman guy?).
Let me tell you about the Book of Esther. This is an unusual book to be found in the Bible because the name of God is not found in this book. God’s actions behind the scenes are perspicuous enough, but no one utters His name; no one calls upon Him. It is as if they have forgotten Who God is.
The Book of Esther speaks to the Jew of today; it tells the Jew where he is in his own soul. He is off in some foreign land, perfectly adjusted, but, for some reason, many people just don’t like him. In fact, many people even plot to kill him. This Jew ought to be thinking, why is that? I was just born a Jew; I never chose to whom I would be born. I am just trying to fit in. I am in this society that I was born into; I am successful; I contribute to this society, and yet, for reasons I do not understand, many of them hate me and many of them would like to see me dead. Why? This same Jew reads the book of Esther or hears it taught or explained, and he suddenly realizes, this is me! I am in this land in which I am born, a land in which I am hated, and this is where I would like to stay; why am I hated so much? Why can’t I just get along?
The Jews were removed from their country first in 721 b.c. and then in 586 b.c. Many Jews, at the time of this book (circa 475 b.c.) find themselves living in Persia, and they are perfectly fine to stay there, to live there and to die there. They are concerned about everyday things, their business, their families, and marriage; but they do not think about God. They do not even mention His name. There is this plot of land which God gave the Jews, but that is not really their concern, because they have no thoughts of God. So, they are fine where they are, dealing with life as it comes.
It will be helpful to understand what is occurring in the Book of Esther. And, even though God’s name is never mentioned, it should also be clear that God is working in the background. Ahasuerus was the King of Persia, ruling over a huge empire. The Persians had defeated the Chaldeans, who attacked Judah in 586 b.c., and removed the Jews from their homeland. Some Jews were allowed by the Persians to return to the Land of Promise in 516 b.c., but they had lived all of their lives in Persian lands, under a Persian king, and they were fine with that. They had been born in this Gentile land, and really had no interest in uprooting their lives and moving to some patch of ground somewhere. After all, it was a full hundred years after the dispersion. There were maybe a handful of Jewish men who actually had even stepped foot in the land of Israel before, and these were very old and dying men.
The Book of Esther follows a series of events, each of which sets into motion another series of events. Ahasuerus is drinking with his buddies in Esther 1 and he calls for his queen to come and strut her stuff for his buddies, and she refused to. A royal edict was then passed and circulated, telling all women that they had to obey their husbands.
Sometime later, Ahasuerus’ anger had subsided, but it was suggested that he get himself a new wife, and being the king, he could do that. So he inquires throughout the land, to find himself a new queen, and one of the possible women turns out to be Esther, a Jewess. Her Uncle Mordecai coached her on how to behave, and King Ahasuerus was quite taken with her, and made her his queen. After she becomes queen, Mordecai discovered a plot being hatched against King Ahasuerus, and he brings this information to the king (he now has access, being Esther’s uncle), and the plot is foiled.
In Esther 3, instead of promoting Mordecai to a high governmental position, King Ahasuerus promotes Haman (and here is where you would here Jews hissing and booing, at the very mention of his name). Mordecai does not give Haman the proper deference that Haman believes that he is due, so Haman goes to the king and tells him about the Jews, and how insubordinate that they are as a people, so Ahasuerus allowed Haman to draft legislating legalizing the killing of Jews on a specific day to come, giving him the King’s signet ring to approve whatever legislation he deemed fit. The king did not seem to be completely aware of the mandate that he had given his assent to, and he certainly did not realize that this included his Queen Esther. He simply thought that there was this rebellious people out there, disobeying all of his mandates, and causing trouble; and Haman would take care of this problem. This mandate circulated throughout the land; and the reward of someone who kills a Jew or a Jewish family was the possessions of that family.
Do you see how that speaks to Jews today? They are just living their lives, minding their own business, and, out of nowhere, there is legislation passed which allows people to kill them and take their property. This appears to be shaping up to be the Persian holocaust.
Esther learns of Haman’s plot from her Uncle Mordecai, who is understandably upset. When they finally speak, she tells him to assemble the Jews of the land and for them to fast for 3 full days, as would she and her attendants. This is the closest thing which sounds as if there may be some calling upon God, but she is not calling upon God nor is Mordecai. They are fasting. They are starving themselves because of this crisis which is about to come. However, no one is praying to God. No one is invoking His name.
Esther requests of her king to prepare a banquet to which Haman would be invited. Haman, meanwhile, is irked every time that he sees Mordecai, because Mordecai is not bowing and scraping to him. Someone suggests to him to have a gallows made in order to hang Mordecai, and this pleases Haman, so he orders this be done.
The night before the banquet, the king cannot sleep, so he asks that the court records be brought to him, ostensibly to put him to sleep. He comes across Mordecai’s name, who had saved him from a plot, and he finds out the Mordecai has never been properly honored for this deed. So King Ahasuerus calls in Haman and asks him to honor Mordecai by taking kingly robes to him, and this is a great mortification that Haman suffers, and he goes home and tells his family about how humiliated that he is.
After this great humiliation, Haman goes to a dinner with King Ahasuerus and his Jewish wife Esther, and Esther lets her husband know just exactly what Haman’s law was, which was to kill all of the Jews in Persian, including her, and she makes this known to her husband, the king, with Haman sitting right there. Haman is executed on the very gallows which he built for Mordecai.
Now we have the problem of the king’s decree, which may be more difficult for Americans to understand. We make a law, we decide we don’t like it, and we make another law to say just the opposite. The Supreme Court makes a decision; the court changes its makeup; and they revisit this decision and strike it down. Such a thing could not be true of a King’s decree. Kings know what is right and kings do that which is right. They don’t make mistakes. In many instances, kings were seen as divine or, at worst, as divine servants of God (or of a god). So their decisions and mandates represent not those of a man who says, “Let’s just try this out and see if it works; and if it does not, we’ll just change it up.” A King in the ancient world who does that could not be recognized as king. So the king issues the decree that, sure, you can kill these Jews and take their stuff, but they are authorized to fight back; in fact, they are even allowed to organize into groups to fight back.
Quite obviously, only those who were filled with hate against the Jews or who had a tremendous amount of greed made any attempt to kill the Jews in their city. The Jews banded together and killed all of these people. Essentially, they removed this cancerous element from their society (essentially, all men like Haman were killed). This was a benefit to the Jews, of course, to remove the anti-Semitism from Persia, and this was beneficial to the society at large.
The Jews celebrated this decree and the events which came to pass with the Feast of Purim.
Even though God’s name is never mentioned and even though His name is never invoked, it should be obvious that He was behind the scenes, protecting His people. All that came to pass in this complex set of interrelated events, was all guided by a God Who loves His people, the Jews.
Here is the key to this book: Jews are scattered all over this globe, living in their own Persia. They aren’t going to pack up their belongings and return to the Land of Promise. They have lives in this land in which they are born. They don’t think about God, they don’t think about the land which He promised them; they are simply concerned with their day-to-day lives. Yet, always, acting behind the scenes, is the God of the Jews, Jehovah Elohim, the God Who loves them. Jews will read this book, or know this book, and suddenly, they will see themselves in this book, their fasts, their feasts, their Jewish identity in a foreign land, and their detachment from God. They do not recognize that God is really there and they do not know Who God really is. Their fasts and their feasts are not connected to the God Who is there, the God of the Jews, Jesus Christ.
Gen 22:1–2: After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he answered. "Take your son," He said, "your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
Gen 22:3–5: So early in the morning Abraham got up, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we'll come back to you."
Gen 22:6–8: Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the sacrificial knife, and the two of them walked on together. Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, "My father." And he replied, "Here I am, my son." Isaac said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." Then the two of them walked on together.
Gen 22:9–12: When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" He replied, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me."
Gen 22:13–14: Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham named that place The LORD Will Provide, so today it is said: "It will be provided on the LORD's mountain."
Gen 22:15–18: Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, "By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gates of their enemies. And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed My command."
For most people, Gen. 22 is a very peculiar chapter of the Bible. God has made all of these promises to Abraham, about him having a son with his wife Sarah (both of whom were unable to have children), and how God would multiply his seed like the stars in the sky, and that God would give this people this great plot of land. So Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah, and then God says, “Take Isaac to the land of Moriah to a place that I will show you, and offer him up to Me as a burnt offering.” Most Jews and Christians understand this just to be a test of Abraham’s faith and obedience. There is a lot more to this command than that. God said to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. And offer him there for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.” (Gen. 22:2). Murder was wrong from the beginning (Gen. 9:6) and, in the Law, human sacrifice was wrong (Deut. 12:31).
There is a Mount Moriah in Jerusalem and that may have been the way that this general area was known. I personally believe that, once Abraham arrived with Isaac in the land of Moriah, that God directed them to Mount Golgotha, where our Lord was crucified. Although I have no proof of this, Mount Golgotha would have been in the same area, probably within an hour’s walk of arriving.
This is what is known as a type. God is directing Abraham to offer up his only son, the son whom he loves, as a sacrifice, as a burnt offering (fire, in the Bible, always speaks of God’s judgment). Isaac, who is probably a strapping young man at this point, is obedient. There is no indication that he resists his father. Associated with this will be the idea of substitution; a goat will be substituted for Isaac and offered up in his stead. In the same way, God offered up His only Son, the Son Whom He loves, in our stead, as a substitute for us. Jesus Christ is the obedient Son, obedient even to the death of the cross. Jesus Christ is known as the antitype, which is, a fulfillment of the type. The type can be a person or an incident—often one which stands out as being unusual—and we find a fulfillment of this type in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross.
At various times in history—and certainly at the beginning of the Tribulation—Jews will read this narrative and realize, this is not about Abraham showing great obedience to God, but this is about God’s Son to come, Who will be the actual reality of this shadow incident.
The No-Water Tests of Exodus 17 and Numbers 20
Exodus 17: The first generation faces a no-water test:
The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the LORD's command. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So the people complained to Moses: "Give us water to drink." "Why are you complaining to me?" Moses replied to them. "Why are you testing the LORD?" But the people thirsted there for water, and grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you ever bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" (Ex. 17:1–3).
Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me!" The LORD answered Moses, "Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the rod you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink." Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel (Ex. 17:4–6).
He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" (Ex. 17:7).
Two generations traveled with Moses through the desert—those who were adults at the time that they left Egypt (Gen X) and those who were children at that time (the Generation of Promise). Often, they are lumped together as one and called the Exodus Generation. Gen X complained after leaving Egypt because they did not have water to drink. God told Moses to strike a rock with his staff (representing judgment) and from this rock would flow waters of life. Moses is to strike the rock one time, as Christ was judged once for our sins, and from Him would flow living waters.
On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him." (John 7:37–38).
Christ died to sin once for all (Rom. 6:10b).
They [the Exodus generation] all drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ (1Cor. 10:4b).
Numbers 20: The second generation faces a no-water test:
And there was no water for the congregation, and they were gathered against Moses, and against Aaron. And the people contended with Moses, and spoke, saying, “Oh that we had died when our brothers died before Jehovah! And, why have you brought the assembly of Jehovah to this wilderness to die there, we and our animals? And, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place, not a place of seed, nor fig, nor vine, nor pomegranate; and there is no water to drink?” (Num. 20:2–5).
And Moses and Aaron went in from the eyes of the assembly, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and fell on their faces. And the glory of Jehovah appeared to them. And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron. And speak to the rock before their eyes. And it shall give forth its water; and you shall bring water out of the rock to them; so you shall water the congregation and their animals.” (Num. 20:6–8).
And Moses took the rod from before Jehovah, as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation before the rock. And he said to them, Hear now, you rebels, shall we bring forth water to you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice; and much water came out; and the congregation and their animals drank (Num. 20:9–11).
And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in Me, to sanctify Me before the eyes of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring in this congregation to the land which I have given to them.” (Num. 20:12).
Back in Ex. 17, the rock was already judged. Moses had already stricken the rock with his rod, which represented judgment—God’s judgment of Jesus Christ, the Rock. The rock is not judged a second time; Moses is simply supposed to speak to the rock, and from it will flow living waters, just as we are to believe in Jesus Christ, and when we do, we will never thirst again (John 4:6–14).
For such an high priest did [Jesus] became to us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who does not need to daily—as did those high priests—to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's; for this He did once, when He offered up himself (Heb. 7:26–27).
So Christ was but once offered "to bear the sins of many," and Christ will appear a second time without sin to those expecting Him for salvation...we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 9:28 10:10).
God’s intention was another type. In the first no-water incident, Christ, the Rock, is judged for our sins, and from Him flows living water. In the second no-water incident, the Rock has already been judged, so that we speak to Him in faith, and from Him flows waters of life. Establishing this type was so important that God did not allow Moses, one of the greatest spiritual leaders of all time, to lead his people into the Land of Promise.
Again, this is another passage which is familiar to many Jews, but they never quite get the importance of it. They understand that Moses disobeyed God, but, if this incident is just viewed by itself, apart from being a type, his act of disobedience seems, quite frankly, rather trivial. He made a mistake. He got a little angry. But the problem was, God wanted this type to be exact. The Rock is judged once and once only; and after that, we simply believe in Him and we are saved. At some point in time, a Jew will read this or think about it, and he will suddenly understand the importance of it all.
Many Jews are more secular, and they know very little about their Scriptures. They know about the exodus, they know about King David, and they know at one time, they considered themselves God’s chosen people. Many young Jews dismiss that, either being fully immersed in their society or because of all the evil which has happened to them. However, at some point, the Jew will read the warning in Lev. 26—which God warned them long before they entered into the Land of Promise,
Before the Jews even entered into the Land of Promise, God warned them: I am Jehovah your God, Who has brought you out from the land of the Egyptians, from being their slaves; and I will break the bars of your yoke, and cause you to stand erect. And if you will not listen to Me, and do not do all these commands; and if you reject My statutes, and if your soul hates My judgments, so as not to do all My commands, to the breaking of My covenant; I will also do this to you (Lev. 26:13–16a). For the rest of the chapter, God warns the Jews of the various cycles of discipline that He will bring upon them: I shall appoint terror over you, the wasting, and the burning fever, destroying the eyes, and consuming the soul; and you shall sow your seed in vain, and your enemies will eat it. And I shall set My face against you, and you shall be smitten before your enemies; and those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee, and there will be no one pursuing you (Lev. 26:16b–17).
Each time that they ignore God”s warnings, God ups the discipline a notch: And if after these things you will not listen to Me, then I will chaveise you seven times more for your sin; and I will break the pride of your strength, and will make your heavens as iron, and your earth as bronze; and your strength will be consumed in vain, and your land will not give her produce, and the tree of the land will not give its fruit. And if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to listen to Me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins, and send against you the beast of the field, and it will bereave you. And I will cut off your livestock and will make you few, so that your ways are desolate. And if you are not chaveised by Me by these things, and will walk contrary to Me, then I, I also, will walk contrary to you, and will strike you, even I, seven times more for your sins; and I will bring a sword on you, executing the vengeance of the covenant, and you will be gathered to your cities, and I will send pestilence into your midst; and you will be given into the hand of an enemy. When I break to you the staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and will give back your bread by weight; and you will eat, and will not be satisfied (Lev. 26:18–26).
God continues, ending with the fifth cycle of discipline: If you will not listen to Me for this, and will walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you in fury. I also will chastise you, I also, seven times for your sins. And you will eat of the flesh of your sons, and you will eat of the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your altars, and will put your dead bodies on the carcasses of your idols. And My soul will loathe you. And I will make your cities a waste, and will make your sanctuaries desolate; and I will not smell your sweet fragrances. And I will make the land desolate, and your enemies who are living in it will be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among nations, and will draw out the sword after you, and your land will become a waste, and your cities will be a desolation. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths, all the days of the desolation. And you will be in the land of your enemies; then the land will enjoy rest, and will enjoy its Sabbaths. It will rest all the days of the desolation, that which it has not rested in your Sabbaths while you lived on it. And those who are left of you, I will also bring a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf will chase them; and they will flee, as one flees from the sword; and they will fall when no one pursues. And they will stumble upon one another, as if it were before the sword, when no one pursues. And you will have no power to stand before your enemies. And you will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will devour you. And of those who are left of you, they will putrefy in their iniquity, in the lands of your enemies; and also in the iniquities of their fathers, they will putrefy with them (Lev. 26:27–39). The Jew who reads this is struck by its accuracy. Many Jews know about Masada, about the Wailing Wall, and some recognize, in Nazi Germany, for instance, that they are living in the midst of their enemies. Even when their lives continue in relative peace, but they are suddenly shocked by vicious anti-Semitism, they realize that, in truth, they are living in the land of their enemies.
And God provides them a way back: Lev 26:40–46: And if they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass with which they have trespassed against Me; and, also, that they have walked contrary to Me, that I also have walked contrary to them, and I have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are then humbled, and they then have accepted punishment for their iniquity; then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and I shall also remember My covenant with Abraham, and I shall remember the land. For the land shall be forsaken by them, and shall satisfy for its Sabbaths, in the desolation without them. And they shall satisfy for their iniquity, because, even because, they have kicked against My judgments, and their soul has loathed My statutes. And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I hate them, to consume them, to break My covenant with them; for I am Jehovah their God. Then I shall remember for them the covenant of the first fathers, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God; I am Jehovah.
A Jew is certainly not going to be evangelized by Lev. 26. However, what happens is, he develops a greater respect for the Scriptures and for What God has told him in Holy Writ, and, if he is truly seeking God, God will reveal the gospel to him either in His Word or through someone else.
Psalm 89 is very similar to Lev. 26. The Jew reading these promises made to David may not believe in Jesus Christ and may not see the connection, but he will be intrigued. The Jew reading Psalm 89 is struck by many things. Again and again, God promises that He will keep His promises to Israel, and God makes some pretty remarkable promises to Israel and to David’s Seed:
Psalm 89:1–4: I will sing of the mercies of Jehovah forever; I will speak with my mouth Your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up forever; You shall establish Your faithfulness in the heavens. I have cut a covenant with My elect; I have sworn to David My servant, I will establish your Seed forever, and build up your throne to all generations. Selah. There is a permanence here; God promises to establish David’s Seed forever, and to build up His throne to all generations. This ought to intrigue the Jewish reader.
God’s power and righteousness are noted. Psalm 89:5–14: And the heavens shall thank Your wonders, O Jehovah; also Your faithfulness in the assembly of the saints. For who in the sky shall be ranked with Jehovah, who among the sons of the mighty is like Jehovah? God is greatly to be feared in the congregation of the saints, and to be adored by all around Him. O Jehovah God of Hosts, who is a strong Jehovah like You? And Your faithfulness is all around You. You rule the pride of the sea; when its waves rise high, You still them. You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one slain; You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm. The heavens are Yours, and the earth is Yours; the world and its fullness, You founded them. You have created the north and the south; Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name. You have a mighty arm; Your hand is strong, Your right hand is high. Justice and righteousness are Your throne's foundation; mercy and truth go before Your face. Two thoughts ought to occur to the Jew who is reading this for the first time (or, where it is suddenly penetrating his soul for the first time): God’s great strength is clearly noted. Why is He not fulfilling His promises? God’s faithfulness and justice and clearly put forth; so how can God promise these things and not deliver? This passage tells us that God clearly has the ability to bring to pass whatever He chooses; this passage tells us that bringing these things to pass lines up with his character; so, therefore, what has happened with His promises to David and to Israel?
The Jews are His people. Psalm 89:15–18: Blessed is the people knowing the joyful sound; O Jehovah, they shall walk in the light of Your face. They shall rejoice in Your name always; and they are exalted in Your righteousness. For You are the glory of their strength; and by Your favor You lift up our horn. For Jehovah is our shield, yea, the Holy One of Israel our King. God is the glory and the strength of His people. And the Jew reading this will ask himself, “So, then, where is God?”
God’s promises to David are then given: Psalm 89:19–29: Then You spoke in a vision to Your holy one; and You said, I have laid help on a mighty one. I have exalted a chosen one from the people. I have found My servant David; I have anointed him with My holy oil. My hand shall be fixed with him; and My arm shall make him strong. An enemy will not exact against him; nor the son of iniquity afflict him. And I will beat down his foes before him, and plague those hating him. But My faithfulness and My mercy is with him; and his horn shall be exalted in My name. And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry to Me, My Father, You are my God, and the rock of my salvation. And I will make Him My first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. I will keep My mercy for him forever, and My covenant shall hold fast with him. And I have established his Seed forever, and His throne as the days of the heavens. God promises to keep His mercy for David forever, and again he asks, “Where are you, God?” But he also notices phrase Rock of my salvation and references to David’s Seed, Whose throne will be as the days of heaven. The reader may be struck with the fact that, some of these promises are clear and they don’t seem to be fulfilled, but there are other aspects of this psalm which the reader is not fully apprehending. If he asks himself, “Who is this Rock?” he recognizes that the Rock is Jehovah. But then, Who is this Seed Whose throne is forever? How can a man from David’s loins reign forever?
And again, the warnings from God. Psalm 89:30–32: If his sons forsake My Law, and do not walk in My judgments; if they profane My statutes and do not keep My commandments; then I will visit their transgressions with the rod, and their sins with stripes.
But, despite these warnings, God promises that His covenant with David will continue to stand. Psalm 89:33–37: But I will not annul My mercy from him, and I will not be false in My faithfulness. I will not profane My covenant, nor change what goes from My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His Seed shall be forever, and his throne as the sun before Me. Like the moon, it shall be forever; and a faithful witness in the sky. Selah. Once God has sworn in His holiness, then He cannot withdraw or change what He has sworn. God will not lie to David. David’s Seed is forever? Isn’t God the only thing which is forever?
The Jew asks himself, maybe God has simply rejected us; maybe He is long gone; we sinned against God and so He just left us. And then he reads what the psalmist writes, which expresses the exact same sentiment. Psalm 89:38–45: But You have cast off and rejected us; You have passed over on Your anointed. You have turned away from the covenant of Your servant; You have defiled his crown on the ground. You have broken down all his hedges; You have brought his strongholds to ruin. All who pass by the way plunder him; he is a curse to his neighbors. You have set up the right hand of his enemies; You have made all his enemies rejoice. And you have turned back the edge of his sword, and have not held him up in battle. You have made his glory to cease and have hurled his throne to the ground. You have shortened the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah. All that has come into the mind of the reader is expressed by the psalmist. God has cast off and rejected His people. God has turned away from the covenant which He made. Who is this Seed of David, Whose crown has been defiled, over Whom His enemies rejoice? Who is this one covered with shame?
Psalm 89:46–48: O Jehovah, until when will You hide Yourself? Will Your wrath burn like fire forever? Remember, I pray, the time of life; for what vanity have you created all the sons of men? What man lives and never sees death? Will he deliver his soul from the hand of Sheol? Selah. The psalmist appears to be reading the Jewish reader’s mind. How long will Jehovah hide Himself? Will His wrath against the Jews burn like a fire forever? And besides, all men die; will God deliver a man’s soul from death?
The reader, in step with the psalmist, calls for God to recall His former graciousness. Psalm 89:49–51: Lord, where are Your former kindnesses that You swore to David in Your faithfulness? Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, my bearing in my bosom the insults of the many peoples with which Your enemies have cursed, O Jehovah; with which they have cursed the footsteps of Your Anointed. The reader calls upon God to remember His people, to remember all of the hatred which has been heaped upon His people.
The final words are: Blessed be Jehovah forever. Amen and Amen! (Psalm 89:52). The reader seems to be left up in the air. Where is the fulfillment? Where is God? He is to be blessed forever; so where is He? And Who is David’s Seed.
He may recall to mind the words of Zechariah: And I have poured upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitant of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and supplications, and they have looked to Me Whom they have pierced, and they have mourned over it, like a mourning over the only one. And they have been in bitterness for it, like a bitterness over the first-born (Zech. 12:10).
And several hundred years later, this is fulfilled in Jesus: And the angel said to her, “Do not fear, Mary, for you have found grace from God. Listen! You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you will call His name Jesus. This One will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob to the ages, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke1:30–33). In Jesus are the promises to David fulfilled.
And, at some point, the Jew looks to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and he puts away his preconceived notions, the ways that Jews have tried to explain away this chapter, and lets the words wash over him.
Isa. 53:1: Who has believed our news? And to whom is the arm of Jehovah revealed? There are two key elements to our understanding the Word of God: God has to reveal it to us. We can read the same passage again and again, but it never really resonates; and then, suddenly, it makes sense. To whom is the arm of Jehovah reveal? And the key to the plan of God is believing what God has said.
Isa. 53:2: For He comes up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form nor magnificence that we should see Him; nor form that we should desire Him. Whoever this is, does not reveal Himself as this great warrior, but He grows before God as a tender plant, as a root which sprouts from dry ground (during the time of Jesus, Israel had fallen into great apostasy). We look upon the man Jesus and there is nothing which calls attention to Him. We do not recognize Who He is by His visage. In fact, quite the opposite occurs. He is despised and abandoned of men, a Man of pains, and acquainted with sickness. And as it were hiding our faces from Him, He being despised, and we did not value Him (Isa. 53:3). He is despised and abandoned by the men of his day (and for all generations since that time). Yet, He is a true man, subject to the pains of life. We looked away from Him (negative volition); we did not recognize His importance.
Then we are told what He has done on our behalf. Surely He has borne our sicknesses, and He carried our pain; yet we esteemed Him plagued, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His wounds we ourselves are healed (Isa. 53:4–5). Our transgressions and chastisement were put upon Him. We thought that God had simply done this or that perhaps this was some miscarriage of justice, but by Him, our own wounds are healed.
We instead have gone away from God. Isa. 53:6: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have each one turned to his own way; and Jehovah made meet in Him the iniquity of all of us. Again, we are told, God laid our iniquity upon Him. The Jew reads this and recalls his rich history of animal sacrifices, that blood must be shed in order to atone for his sins.
He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, but He did not open His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a young lamb before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from justice; and who shall consider His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; from the transgression of My people, the stroke was to Him. And He appointed Him His grave with the wicked, but He was with a rich man in His death; though He had done no violence, and deceit was not in His mouth. But Jehovah pleased to crush Him, to make Him sick, so that If He should put His soul as a guilt offering, He shall see His seed; He shall prolong His days; and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand (Isa. 53:7–10). Just as we sacrificed our lambs, so He was led to the cross. He did not attempt to defend Himself; He did not cry out about the injustice of it all. He had done no wrong, but it pleased Jehovah to crush Him. His soul was offered as a guilt offering. And then there is that promise: God will prolong His days, and the will of God will prosper in His hand. Just as the promises made to the Seed of David, a throne which would be forever, so we find these same sorts of promises.
He will see the fruit of the travail of His soul; He will be fully satisfied. By His knowledge the righteous One, My Servant, will justify for many, and He will bear their iniquities. Because of this I will divide to Him with the great, and with the strong He will divide the spoil; because He poured out His soul to death; and He was counted with those transgressing; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for those transgressing (Isa. 53:11–12). Jesus will see the production or the result of the travail of His soul—His bearing our sins. He has made intercession for us, those who have transgressed against God.
And perhaps, at some point, they are drawn to the New Testament, to see what is there, to see what their parents had warned them about.
And He [Jesus] came to Nazareth where He was brought up. And as was His custom, He went in on the day of the Sabbaths, into the synagogue, and He stood up to read (Luke 4:16). Jesus goes into a synagogue, and the Jewish reader may not have even realized that Jesus taught in the synagogues throughout ancient Israel.
It appears as though Jesus did not even choose the passage, but that this scroll was handed to Him. And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And unrolling the book, He found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Because of this He anointed Me to proclaim the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim remission to captives, and to the blind to see again," to send away the ones being crushed, in remission, to proclaim an acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:17–19; Isa. 61:1–2a).
Then comes one of the most dramatic moments in human history: And rolling up the scroll, returning it to the attendant, He sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:20–21). Jesus was sent by God to proclaim the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah.