[Note: Our guest contributing author, Dr. Baruch Korman, is the senior lecturer at the Zera Avraham Institute in Israel. His compelling lectures in English, Hebrew, and Spanish are available at Love Israel.]
I heard a popular Bible teacher state, “Throughout the history of Israel, covenant breaking, and disobedience, and idolatry disqualified Israel from the present divine right to the Land (Daniel 9:4-7; Psalm 78:54-61).”
Oddly, this individual quoted from Daniel 9, for after speaking about God’s punishment upon Israel for their disobedience, idolatry and covenant breaking, Daniel states that such a punishment was temporary and that God was about to bring the people back to the Land which He had promised the Jewish people. Also, in Psalm 78, God was certainly angry with His people, but biblical prophecy makes it clear that in the end times, God would indeed return the Jewish people to the very Land which He promised them by covenant. It is a gross error to believe that the Jewish people must be obedient to return to the Land. What one must remember is that God acts to fulfill His prophetic promises because of Who He is and not because of the obedience of His people.
Unbelief does not Negate the Faithfulness of God
When considering the return from Babylon, only a remnant came home to Israel. God brought them back because it was necessary for the Jewish people be in the Land for the First Coming of Messiah Yeshua. Now, in our days, God is once again returning the people to the Promised Land in preparation for Messiah’s Second Coming.
The prophet Ezekiel offers much information concerning these issues. He writes that God will not bring the Jewish people back to the Land in the end times because of their purity; rather it will be in the Land that He will cleanse them. In other words, God Himself will bring a spiritual change to the people, but only after they have returned to the Land.
And they will not be unclean any longer in their idols and in their abominations and in all their transgressions, but I will save them from all their habitations which they sinned in them and I will purify them and they will become for Me a people and I will become for them God. (Ezekiel 37:23)
Ezekiel wrote these words over 2,500 years ago and it was for this reason he wrote these things in the future tense. This verse contains a sentence that appears numerous times in both the Old and New Testaments. This sentence is “…and they will become for Me a people and I will become for them God.” These words represent the outcome of redemption, as only through redemption can a person have a relationship with God. Therefore, it should not be surprising that in the next verse, Ezekiel writes:
And My Servant David is King over them and One Shepherd will be for all of them and in My judgments they will walk and My statutes they will keep and will do them. (Ezekiel 37:24)
The David to which this verse refers is not David the son of Jesse, but the Son of David, Yeshua. He is the Redeemer and only He can bring about such changes to the Jewish people.
When looking at this verse (Ezekiel 37:24) in the original language, it states, “And My Servant David is King over them…” All English translations I could find, except Young’s Literal Translation, place this in the future tense. The reason for the present tense is to reveal to the reader the outcome when Yeshua is ruling in the Millennial Kingdom. This prophesied righteous change is the sole result of Yeshua’s work on the cross and the redemption that the blood of Yeshua brings. The point is that the Jewish people are returning to the Land of Israel not because of their faithfulness, but only due to God’s faithfulness. He is bringing them back not because of their obedience and fidelity to the covenant, but to lead them to faith and obedience to His purpose.
Prophetic Ignorance Begets Bad Teaching
The major problem with those who teach that the Jewish people no longer have any divine right to the Land is that they ignore a plethora of biblical prophecies which attest that God will indeed bring the Jewish people back to the very Land He promised their forefathers. Again, this event, which is taking place in our days, clearly indicates God’s faithfulness and that we are approaching the End Times.
In 2022 alone, Jewish people returned to their homeland from 95 different countries. This is not by chance, but it is a strong example of the providence of God at work in our days. Again, David is mentioned a few times in Ezekiel 37. The context demands that the reader understand that it is the Messiah to Whom Ezekiel is referring. In verse 25, the Messiah is called a Prince. The Hebrew word that appears is איִׂשָנ (nasiy), which is derived from the Hebrew word which can mean “to take away or to be lifted up”. The Hebrew conveys to the reader that because Yeshua will take away the sins of the Jewish people in the end times, He will be lifted up or honored. In modern Hebrew, this word is used for the term “President.”
In Ezekiel 37:26, the Covenant of Peace is mentioned and also called an Eternal Covenant. The word “peace” in Hebrew relates to the fulfillment of the will of God and the word “eternal” relates to the Kingdom. Hence, Yeshua Himself will bring a remnant of the Jewish people to faith in the end times. With this faith, they will join the rest of the believers in the Kingdom of God. A very important point is that God will not establish His Kingdom until the end time remnant of Israel is saved. Crucially, God is returning the Jewish people to the Promised Land, not because of their faithfulness, but to bring them to faith. And it is His faithfulness that will cause this to take place.
A Testimony to the Gentiles
The chapter concludes with the following verse:
The Nations (Gentiles) will know that I am the LORD Who sanctifies Israel when My sanctuary is in their midst forever. (Ezekiel 37:28)
This means that even at this late hour in God’s prophetic calendar, He will use the Jewish people as a witness to the Gentiles concerning the faithfulness of God. The Hebrew word that is first in this verse is יָדְְָעוְּ (ye-da) and it means to know by experience. There is another Hebrew word that could have been used—להכיר (hikiyr), which refers to one only possessing knowledge of someone or something.
Ezekiel chose לדעת (ye-da) to reveal that through God’s prophetic plan concerning Israel, even right up to the Second Coming of Yeshua, there will be some Gentiles who will come to faith and experience God’s redemption. In other words, God’s original plan to use the Jewish people to be a blessing to the Gentiles will be fulfilled in the end times and the Land of Israel is foundational for this to take place.
God’s Heart for His Land and His People
When studying the Scriptures, there is a strong emphasis on the Land of Israel and how it has and will play a significant role in the will of God. Failure to acknowledge this fact reveals an errant theology based upon the mind of man, rather than on the revelation of God through His inerrant Word.
We must remind ourselves that God will never forget His promises to the Jewish people. At the Second Coming of Christ, Yeshua will send forth His angels to gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another (Matthew 24:31).
My hope is that there will be many Jewish individuals, who like myself, did not wait until the end times to accept the Gospel, but who will receive the salvation that only Yeshua offers.
I came to know Him in 1982. My family returned to the Land over 20 years ago and now calls Israel home.
We do indeed serve a faithful God!
