Jewish Exile Finally Ending
- Michael E.B. Maher
- Apr 10
- 5 min read
Isaiah 11:10-16 "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious." (11) It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea. (12) He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. (13) Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim. (14) But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west; together they shall plunder the people of the East; they shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab; and the people of Ammon shall obey them. (15) The Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River, and strike it in the seven streams, and make men cross over dry shod. (16) There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who will be left from Assyria, as it was for Israel in the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.
The next prophetic event which we will discuss is the return of the Jewish Diaspora. In this regard, I have discussed in detail the above-quoted passage of scripture in my series “Two Israels Unveiled”, where the prophet Isaiah specifically refers to the second time the Lord will recover the remnant of His people from the four corners of the earth. In that series we established that this passage refers to the gathering of the Israel of God (the church) during the rapture, and has nothing to do with the nation of Israel (Israel after the flesh). In other words, it is when the church returns to reign with the Lord Jesus that the saints will plunder the people of the east, laying their hands on Edom and Moab, and the people of Ammon will obey them.
So, the question arises: if the rapture refers to the second time the Lord recovers the remnant of His people, when was the first time? There are only two possible answers to that question: it was either the return of Judah’s exiles from Babylonian captivity in the year 539 BC, or it is the current return of Israel's exiles, which is ongoing at this present time. The first recovery however, cannot refer to the return of the Jews in 539 BC, because that event affected only a limited number of Judah's exiles and had no impact on the majority of Israel’s and Judah’s diaspora. Therefore, we see that the answer is that we are currently witnessing the first recovery of the remnant of God's people. In other words, the current return of Israel's Diaspora is a prophetic event being fulfilled.
As an aside, it is interesting to note that the current Israeli leadership holds an (erroneous) eschatological view that the ongoing return of the Jewish diaspora is the second gathering referred to in this passage. Because this passage speaks of the saints plundering the people of the east, laying their hands on Edom and Moab, and the people of Ammon obeying them, the Israeli leadership believes that the Messiah will soon appear and empower the nation of Israel to rule over their enemies. This delusional thinking is a driving force behind many of the destructive decisions being made by the Israeli leadership today.
Deuteronomy 30:1-6 "Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, (2) and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, (3) that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. (4) If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. (5) Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. (6) And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live.
In the previous section we stated that, on numerous occasions, God sent His prophets to warn the Jews that, because of their unrepentant sinfulness, He would send the nation into exile. We also saw that God's prophetic warnings were fulfilled when the last of the Jewish nation was finally sent into exile in the year 352 AD. Nevertheless, there were just as many prophecies in the Old Testament where God informed the Jews that, after some time, He would bring them back from exile. The passage of scripture quoted above is the first record of the Lord speaking on this subject through His prophet Moses, around the year 1406 BC[1].
Hosea 3:4-5 “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. (5) Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.”
Regarding Israel's exile, we have already discussed the above-quoted passage of scripture in the section dealing with Israel’s restored sovereignty. In this passage, the Lord confirms that Israel would be dispersed among the various nations of the earth, because it speaks of the children of Israel returning from exile in the latter days. The Lord states that Israel's exile would last for "many days" and would only be completed in the "latter days." In other words, the Lord is indicating that Israel would remain exiled until the close of this current age.
Hosea's prophecy proved accurate, as historical records show that between 352 AD and 1882 AD, no Jews resided in the geographic region that became known as Palestine[2]. In other words, the Jews were exiled from their Promised Land for approximately 1,530 years—truly "many days."
Michael E.B. Maher
Comentarios