An Interpretive Synopsis of the Restoration Prophecies

A TRANSCENDENT PRESENTATION OF ISRAEL

APPENDIX:PART 1

AN INTERPRETIVE SYNOPSIS OF THE RESTORATION PROPHECIES

An overview of the prophecies from Isaiah through Malachi presents a collage of differing conditions surrounding the Restoration of Israel, including Israel’s proximity to the Promised Land and state of heart at the time of their return. These differences allow for the possibility of multiple Jewish returns to and dispersions from the Promised Land over history that fall short of the ultimate glorified restoration prophesied and for which everyone yearns to this day.

Regenerative discernment of these differences is vital to accurately perceiving the meaning of today’s events and avoiding the confusing errors of reconstructionist interpretation which lead to carnally inflamed passions, dashed expectations and saints detoured from aligning with God’s real transcendent heart for and calling on the Jewish people.

If we approach the entire body of restoration prophecy through an end times lens—sifting out historical narrative and prophecy clearly applicable only to the prophet’s immediate experience—we find that the differences in the “restoration collage” break down into two general sets of evidence: one that is clear, dominant and solid; the other tentative, exceptional and sprinkled among the forest of the first.⁵⁷

- Portrait of Glorious Permanent Restoration

As a whole, the Old Covenant prophets overwhelmingly paint a bold, dominant portrait of Israel’s conclusive restoration to the Promised Land from the ends of the earth. In that portrait, restoration occurs under the following conditions:

1) in broken repentance laced with trembling (uncertain of being received again by the Lord), but finally reconciled to Yahweh by the New Covenant;⁵⁸

2) in established peace, prosperity and national supremacy;59

3) with the unopposed subservient support of the Gentiles under the Lord’s conviction and also being converted;60

4) in permanent joy (with no sorrow), together with the comfort of the Lord;61

5) in conjunction with (not anticipation of) Messiah’s return;62

6) as a miniscule remnant following a time of world distress which nearly annihilates the whole planet,63during which:

a. that part of the nation already consolidated on the Land is attacked in judgment, driven off the Land and destroyed,64 out of which

b. the purified preserved remnant is then avenged and those of them dispersed worldwide return per above.65

These conditions are articulated over and over among the various prophets. That they are fulfilled in a glorified regenerative context is verified by key elements whose witness stretches across the covenants.

· Repentance: the Key to True Interpretation of the Restoration

Of all the above predictions about Israel’s final establishment, one stands out as the key to their meaning and a bellwether for gauging their fulfillment. It is the prediction that the Restoration is founded on repentance yielding an inwardly transformed people.

Because repentance is so basic to the restoration promises, grasping its deep scriptural implications is vital to defining the Spirit’s meaning of restoration and for proving whether Israel’s real restoration has or is occurring. Without an accounting of repentance, evaluations of human events based purely on physical reconstructive evidences of divine activity can only prove deceiving. ⁶⁶

Whatever the Spirit means by repentance—its nature, fruits and sequence—will finally prove to us what restoration truly means and whether what is happening with natural Israel today truly constitutes the prophesied restoration. Let’s defend this assertion.

o From Moses to Paul: The Repentance-Restoration Connection

From first prediction to last, the promise of restoration is tied to repentance. Moses tells Israel that when they repent, they will be restored to their land (Dt. 30:1-3ff). At the other end, the one apostolic teaching on Israel’s restoration (Rom. 9-11), also connects it to repentance (Rom. 11:26 derives from Isa. 59:20 which inextricably links Israel’s restoration to Israel’s turning and deliverance from sin.)

The Mosaic and Pauline promises stand as “bookends” to all the prophecies in between. Within the bold clear picture, the prophets predicate Israel’s restoration on Israel’s contrite repentance for their sins. (Isa. 1:25-27; 27:8-9,12-13; 57:13-19; 59:20 w. 60:9-10; Jer. 3:14; 29;12-14; 31:9; 16-21; 50:4-5; Ezk. 6:8-10 w/ 11:16-21; Hos. 3:5; 5:15-6:3; 14:1-7; Joel 2:17-19; Zeph. 3:9-20.) That is the sequence: repentance > restoration.

What then is the nature of that repentance and its fruit as seen across the scriptures?

The repentance Moses cites is usually applied only to Israel’s repentance after the Babylonian captivity. True, the Jews expressed a measure of repentance for breaking the Mosaic covenant—at least as articulated by Daniel’s intercession (9:4-19)⁶⁷—and subsequently returned from Babylon back to the Land. This is therefore considered to be their restoration.

But compared to the depth and extent of Moses’ promise—and of all the later prophets— and because God’s call for Israel’s repentance continues right up through Paul, it’s clear that the repentance and restoration Moses calls for is of a caliber unforeseen in his time, was only superficially fulfilled by the Jews in BC 538,⁶⁸ and certainly has not been found among the natural seed at any time since.

o Transformation of the Repentance Call Across the Covenants

Seen with larger vision, Moses’ call to repentance was but a first call from which grows a vast “repentance thread” leading to Messiah’s glorious return at the end of the ages.

In between Moses and Paul, Israel’s restoration via repentance is tied to the image of threshing at harvest time from which but a small purged remnant is gleaned.⁶⁹ The threshing speaks of the tribulation process by which the “chaff” of all that is of the flesh—including racial pride and distinctiveness—is burned away, leaving only the humble to receive Messiah. Such is how John the Immerser finally applies this imagery in his announcement of Yeshua (Mt. 3:7-12).

In this way, the Mosaic call transforms to become the repentance calling forth eternal life unto new transcendent identity—the very regenerative national transformation repentance preached by John, Yeshua and Peter (Acts 2) when they proclaimed the coming of the kingdom. It then ties to Romans 11 where Paul tells of Israel’s restoration through repentance at the end of the Times of the Gentiles—agreeing with the “harvest time” imagery showing this occurs at the consummation (“harvest”) of the mortal ages.

All together then, the call to Israel’s national repentance from Moses through the prophets to John, Yeshua, Peter and Paul is one call. Its transformation across the covenants together with its foretold timing reveals that this repentance is not just a “We’re sorry” for the national forsaking of the Mosaic Law, nor is it a returning of Israel’s heart to “the Law.”

As an end time event governed by the New Covenant, Israel’s national repentance is to be made relative to the New Covenant—the imperishable covenant by which all men are brought into Eternal Israel. It is to be their repentance for everything at the root of adamic identity and nature that birthed both their idolatrous forsaking of the Law and their idolatrous embrace of it unto rejecting Messiah’s superior offer of regenerative transnational life through faith in Him.

Israel’s true restoration requires repentance for the self-idolization of human heritage as the “seed of Abraham” by which they rejected Messiah’s covenantal call to national identity transformation via national self-denial—a covenant whereby they were to have become the first people ever to forsake their adamic origins (“leaving father and mother”) to be displayed as members of Eternal Israel from above—and so regeneratively restored.

When it occurs, Israel’s repentance will answer to the original intensive repentance called for by Peter in Acts 2; and will submit to Paul’s teachings of Jewish heritage denial—something which has yet to happen even among today’s Messianic believers.

o Like Repentance, Like Restoration

The nature of true national repentance proves the nature of the Restoration tied to it and what the restoration prophecies truly are predicting. As the called-for repentance is ultimately a regenerative one unto eternal life and to national identity transformation through heritage denial, so is the accompanying restoration thus proven to be a regenerative one to an entirely new—not reconstructed—order of glorified life.

On coming to the regenerative repentance climactically exhorted by John, Yeshua and Paul, Israel will undergo the eternal identity change that transforms them corporately to become joined to and manifested as Eternal Israel in the Promised Land.⁷⁰ Their regeneration coincides with the return of the immortals from ages past who have already put on the identity of Eternal Israel. Israel’s remnant gathering from earth’s “four corners” and Eternal Israel’s gathering from heaven’s “four winds” will be seen as one.⁷¹

It’s at this point—together with their fathers of faith before them and the nationless Gentiles of faith since Christ—that Israel’s transformed survivors will return to inherit the Promised Land under all the glorific conditions listed above, decisively showing the regenerative nature of the Restoration itself.

NEXT – APPENDIX:PART 2: RELATING THE RESTORATION PROPHESIES TO THE BOOK OF REVELATION

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