Heirs and Birthrights 3: One Stick and the Israel of God

Good morning!

We have been studying the past couple of days about the tribes of the ancient Hebrew nation.  Today, I want to share with you some Scriptures which pertain to the present plight and the future restoration of this chosen people of God.  Grab your Bibles and turn to Romans 11.

I have friends who are both Jewish in heritage and also Christian in their faith.  These are some of the happiest and contented people I've ever known!  They beautifully marry the promises of the Old Testament and the sacred feasts that God instituted with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Paul describes such people in Romans 11:5-6 - - -

5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.  6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

By and large, however, people of Jewish heritage reject Christianity without even giving it a hearing. It is as if they have been blindfolded and cotton stuffed into their ears.  Paul also describes this present-day reality in Romans 11.  Note, in particular, verse 8:

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,

    eyes that could not see

    and ears that could not hear,

to this very day.”

Paul also says in this chapter that the Church of Jesus Christ, His Bride, is God's instrument of this present day. Romans 11:26 says that this situation will continue "until the full number of Gentiles" has been added to God's kingdom.  In fact, in Galatians 6:16, the Church is referred to as "the Israel of God", not because of their human lineage/genealogy, but because of their faith in their Savior, Jesus Christ.

But, what about the future of God's chosen people?
The next passage I invite you to examine is Jeremiah 50:4-7.  In this passage God is speaking to Jeremiah about the future of the two nations of Israel and Judah.

“In those days, at that time,”

    declares the Lord,

“the people of Israel and the people of Judah together

    will go in tears to seek the Lord their God.

5 

They will ask the way to Zion

    and turn their faces toward it.

They will come and bind themselves to the Lord

    in an everlasting covenant

    that will not be forgotten.

6 

“My people have been lost sheep;

    their shepherds have led them astray

    and caused them to roam on the mountains.

They wandered over mountain and hill

    and forgot their own resting place.

7 

Whoever found them devoured them;

    their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty,

for they sinned against the Lord, their verdant pasture,

    the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.’

"In those days" refers to some of the last days of this present-day earth, when all kinds of wickedness and chaos are unfolding.  These verses occur in the midst of a prophetic passage about judgment on "Babylon".  I believe that they refer to the aftermath of the great, future battle of Gog and Magog, described in Ezekiel 38-39.  During that great war, "Babylon" will have been utterly destroyed, to the point that no animals will choose to live there.  With great weeping and mourning, the people of Judah and Israel will turn their faces toward Zion (Jerusalem), and the present-day nation of Israel will become even more populated with returning "lost sheep".

Here is another relevant passage: Ezekiel 37:16-22  - - -

16 “Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Belonging to Joseph (that is, to Ephraim) and all the Israelites associated with him.’17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.

18 “When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’ 19 say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’ 20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.

This passage takes place after the period known as The Great Tribulation, which culminates with a huge, world-wide battle between Satan and Jesus Christ.  After this cataclysmic battle (not to be confused with the earlier battle of Gog and Magog) Jesus will return visibly in the heavens (Revelation 19) with His saints (the one, true Church) and "the armies of Heaven".  He will make short order of Satan in that battle (Revelation 20) and immediately afterwards, He will set up his world-wide kingdom, which will endure for 1000 years.  He will rule over all the peoples of the earth. This will fulfill Ezekiel 37:22.

God directs Ezekiel to uses the visual of two sticks becoming bound together to illustrate that in the future, He is going to re-unite the members of the various Hebrew tribes into one kingdom and that kingdom will be geographically located "on the mountains of Israel".  The reunited people will have a king, who will reign from Jerusalem.  He will be King Jesus.

Lord Jesus, truly I look forward to the day when all of Your children will fall down and worship You. It grieves me that so many of the children of Israel and Judah are in a spiritual stupor.   I thank you that my Father God is faithful, that His call is irrevocable (Romans 11:29), that although Judah and Israel have stumbled, they have not fallen beyond recovery (Romans 11:11).  In Jesus' name, amen.