Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: Stay tuned as Dr. Gary Hedrick discusses Israel's coming restoration right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinct first-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello.

Today our Bible teacher is Dr. Gary Hedrick, and he's talking about the coming restoration of national Israel, a restoration in fact that has already begun. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. And now with today's installment, here is Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: All right, thank you. And welcome listening friend to another edition of the program. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series on Israel's coming restoration. We're talking about that great prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 37 about Israel's end-time restoration.

Now sometimes people will say, "What's the big deal about Israel's restoration? Why should we care?" They'll say, "Why don't you talk about something else? We get so tired of hearing about Israel this and Israel that. We're Christians, and we want to hear about Christian things, not all this Jewish stuff."

Well let me tell you something, my friend: Christianity, hold onto your seat, Christianity is Jewish. Jesus the Messiah is Jewish. His parents were Jewish. The Bible is a Jewish book. It was written by Jewish writers. The apostles were Jewish. The first Christians were Jewish.

The first church in Jerusalem was Jewish. And as believers in Jesus the Messiah, do you know how you became part of the family of God? It was by being grafted into the vine of Israel. If you are a Christian, listen, if you are a Christian, you are a spiritual descendant of Abraham.

And I'm glad to be able to say that 999 out of every thousand letters we get here at the CJF are strongly supportive of what we're doing. Letters that are critical are very rare. The vast majority of you who listen to this program love the Jewish people, and love Israel, and love to hear Bible teaching from a Messianic perspective.

In fact, I had a call not long ago from a Baptist preacher in Alabama. He's a lay preacher who drives a truck for a living. And he said he visited an Israeli consulate not long ago in one of the cities where he has to drive his truck.

And he told the people there that he was a Baptist preacher and he wanted to enlist as a volunteer to serve in the Israeli army if he was ever needed, if there was ever another Middle East war. He told me, he said, "Brother Gary, I served my time in Vietnam. I know what war is. And I don't take it lightly. But I told them there in the Israeli consulate that if they ever needed me, I'd be there."

He said those Israeli officials couldn't get over it. He said the lady said, "Would you wait here for just a moment?" and she came back with someone else who listened to the whole story all over again. And he said, "Would you wait here for just a moment?" and he brought somebody else.

And finally they ushered him into a big office, and this Baptist truck driver found himself talking to one of the main emissaries of the Israeli government in this country. And he said this Jewish man looked like he wanted to cry. He couldn't believe that a Christian truck driver from Alabama would be willing to travel halfway around the world to fight and possibly die to defend the Jewish nation.

But you know what? It doesn't surprise me. I see the letters that come through here. I know your love for Israel and the Jewish people. And I'll tell you something: you don't have to travel halfway around the world to get into the thick of the battle. All you have to do is get on your knees.

Pray, witness, share your faith, help provide resources so we in ministries like ours can broadcast the gospel, and so we can print our materials, and so we can support our workers all around the world. You can get involved right now, right there where the Lord has put you.

Well let's get back to Ezekiel 37 before we run out of time today. This is that great prophecy where Ezekiel talks about the end-time restoration of Israel. And today we come to verse 15 where Ezekiel says, "The word of the Lord came again to me saying," verse 16, "Moreover thou son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it for Judah and for the children of Israel his companions; then take another stick," he said, "and write upon it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions."

Now look at this. The Lord is telling Ezekiel to take two sticks of wood. On one he's to write the name of Judah. On the other stick he's to write the names of Ephraim and Joseph. So here's the stick of Judah and the stick of Ephraim.

You see, after the death of King Solomon, the nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom had its capital at Samaria and was known as Ephraim. The reason it was known as Ephraim was that of the 10 northern tribes, the tribe of Ephraim was the most influential and powerful. In fact, the first king of the northern kingdom was Jeroboam, who was from the tribe of Ephraim.

So that was the 10 tribes who lived in the north, represented here in the book of Ezekiel by the stick of Ephraim. You say, "Well what does Joseph have to do with it? There's no tribe of Joseph, so why is he even mentioned?" And you're right, there is no tribe of Joseph as such, although it is mentioned in Revelation 7, by the way.

But do you remember why there was no tribe of Joseph? Let me show you something back here in Genesis chapter 48, beginning in verse 15. Just leave something there in Ezekiel 37 to mark your place and turn back to Genesis 48.

And this is where Jacob is very old and he's about to bless his son Joseph and his grandsons Manasseh and Ephraim. These were Joseph's sons. And in verse 15 it says, "And he," Jacob, "blessed Joseph and said, 'God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who fed me all my life long unto this day,'" verse 16, "'the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.'"

Now let's stop there. Who is this Angel that Jacob equates with God? This is what we call Hebrew parallelism. The God who fed me and the Angel who redeemed me; they're one and the same.

Besides, this Angel is Jacob's redeemer, and only God redeems. So who is this Angel? He's the Angel of Yahweh, the Angel Jacob wrestled with all night in Genesis chapter 32. We talked about that not long ago.

And many of us believe that Angel was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ in a pre-incarnate appearance, one of many such appearances throughout the Old Testament. Then in verse 17 it says that when Joseph saw that his father Jacob was giving the blessing of the firstborn to Ephraim, Joseph took his father's hand and started to move it.

After all, they knew that Jacob was nearly blind, so Joseph thought the old man was confused and he started to take Jacob's hand and move it from the head of Ephraim to the head of Manasseh, who was the firstborn. But what did the old man say?

In verse 19 it says, "And his father," Jacob, "refused and said, 'I know my son, I know. Manasseh also shall become a people and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother, Ephraim, shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.'"

Now let me just stop here and say that the British-Israelites use this as a proof text for their idea that the Anglo-Saxon people who settled Europe and North America are the lost 10 tribes of Israel. They'll say, "Look at that prophecy there in Genesis 48. It says Ephraim's descendants shall become a multitude of nations, so that's the British Commonwealth, a multitude of nations.

And Manasseh is the pilgrim fathers, the branches of Joseph who would run over the wall, so that's us, the United States of America." But it's nonsense, my friend. This phrase "multitude of nations" in Hebrew simply means a fullness of goyim, a fullness of peoples.

The word goyim doesn't always refer to Gentiles. When Rebecca, for example, was pregnant with those twins Jacob and Esau, what did the Lord say? He said, "Rebecca, there are two goyim in your womb. There are two nations in your womb, two peoples are in your womb," and one of them was Israel. So goyim doesn't always mean Gentiles.

So what he was simply saying was that Ephraim's descendants would become a fullness of people, and that's exactly what happened because Ephraim's descendants, the tribe of Ephraim, became the most powerful and dominant tribe in the northern kingdom. That's why the northern kingdom came to be known as Ephraim.

Then it says Jacob blessed Ephraim before Manasseh, and by blessing both Ephraim and Manasseh, he was giving Joseph, their father, a double portion of the inheritance in Israel. Now favoritism is wrong, but facts are facts.

And the fact is that Joseph was Jacob's favorite. He was the baby of the family and Joseph loved him best. That was one reason his brothers tried to get rid of him, because they were jealous of Joseph, and that was more Jacob's fault than it was Joseph's fault.

But anyway, that's why it mentions Joseph back here in the prophecy of Ezekiel 37, because he was the father of Ephraim, the dominant tribe in the northern kingdom. So the stick of Joseph represents the northern kingdom of Ephraim, or in Hebrew, Ephrayim, and the stick of Judah represents the southern kingdom of Judah, or Yehudah.

And he says, "Take thee one stick and write upon it for Judah and for the children of Israel his companions; then take another stick and write upon it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions." And then in verse 17 look what he tells Ezekiel to do: "And join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one."

In Hebrew they shall become echadim from echad, the same word that's used to describe the unity of God in Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema. Those two sticks shall become echadim in thy hand. What a wonderful promise.

At the end of time when the Messiah returns, Israel will be returned to the land, and it will no longer be the northern kingdom of Ephraim and the southern kingdom of Judah, but it will be one country: Israel. And by the way, have you noticed what they call that little country there on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean? It's not Judah and it's not Ephraim or Samaria; it's Israel.

Well that's all of our time for today. Until next time, this is Gary Hedrick saying, God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you Gary, and thank you listening friend for tuning in today. We've been listening to Dr. Gary Hedrick discussing Israel's coming restoration from the prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 37.

If you found today's program especially helpful and insightful, you'll be glad to know that we have placed the entire series of programs on compact disc. The title is Israel's Coming Restoration. It's available for your gift of just six dollars or more to help us keep this program here on your station.

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We'd be very grateful. And as always, when you're in touch, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on Israel's coming restoration right here on Messianic Perspectives.

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