tives whom Nebuchadnezzar had car ried away. Thus, the first restoration, nationally, not having occurred, so far as we have any Biblical record—what then, is that which is presently going on and has been continuing since May 1948? I believe we will find the answer to this question, prophesied in Ezekiel 22:17 — it is given in these words: (And you will recognize therefore, that we have been witnessing the literal fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in these 13 years since May of 1948.”) “And the word of the Lord came un to me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusa lem. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the. fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst there of. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you.” The gathering of Israel that has been going on since 1948, in fulfillment of this prophecy, is for the most terrible time of trouble and persecution the na tion of Israel has ever known. They are presently thinking to take their place in the family of nations. This, incidentally, is contrary to God’s expressed will for them, for we read in the book of Numbers, that they were never to be counted among the nations. They are counting upon the desert blossoming as the rose, and waters of the Jordan being used to irrigate the land, restoring its fertility. Undoubt edly, all of these things are about to come to pass on a larger scale than 12
ISRAEL A N D PROPHECY (continued) day there referred to is obviously from the preceding verses of Isaiah 11 which tell us in detail about conditions that will pertain on earth during our Lord’s millennial reign. Let us read that sec tion of Isaiah: “And 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, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathos, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shin- ar, and from Hamath, and from the is lands of the sea” verse 11. In other words from all over the face of the globe. You will notice that a remnant of His people is mentioned here and this remnant is referred to in Isaiah 10:20 where we are told that “. . . the rem nant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.” This remnant is the very small minority of the whole race that will be supematurally pre served through the terrible time of the tribulation that will wind up this age. I would like you to notice that that time of tribulation has not yet come, it is still future. Our Lord Jesus Christ, speaking of the tribulation in Matthew 24, said that immediately after the trib ulation of those days, God would send forth His angels with the great sound of the trumpet and gather together His elect from the four winds of hea ven. Now obviously, this reference by the Lord Jesus to that gathering after the tribulation, at the end of this age, when Christ comes in His second ad vent, is a reference to this same gath ering of which Isaiah speaks, describ ing it as the second gathering. The immediate question then is, when was the first gathering of the Jews nationally? We cannot say that the first gathering of them took place after the Babylonian captivity (B.C.), as only those who were restored from the captivity in Babylon were the cap
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