Messianic Perspectives

Guest (Male): Stay tuned as Dr. Gary Hedrick discusses Israel's coming restoration right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Aiello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinguished 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, dealing with Israel's end-time restoration. And on the last program, we were talking about the Olivet Discourse of our Lord, where he prophesied that Jerusalem would be trodden under foot of the Gentiles one final time before his second coming.

We talked about the fact that there are certain aspects of the Matthew 24 prophecy that do refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, but most of the prophecy has to do with events during the coming tribulation period, leading up to the second coming. And some people get all hung up and they say, "How can it be past history and future prophecy at the same time?" And again, what we have to understand is that the times of Messianic fulfillment are what the New Testament calls the last days.

The times of Messianic fulfillment began with the first coming of the Messiah 2000 years ago, and they end with the second coming of the Messiah. So that means the last days, technically, have lasted for some 2000 years. Of course, what a lot of people say is, "How can you call it the last days when it lasts for 2000 years?" And Peter gave us the answer to that question, didn't he? Let's turn back here and take a look at 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 8.

Peter says, "But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." You see, a thousand years seems like a long time to us. But to God, it's like one day. So to us, it seems like the last days have gone on for 2000 years, and they have. But to God, it's like two days. And Peter anticipated the problem that some people would interpret the delay in prophetic fulfillment to mean that the promises won't be fulfilled, or maybe to mean that they had already been fulfilled at some time in the past so they have nothing to do with the future, like the preterist view.

So he says in verse 9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness." That is, the Lord is not slow in fulfilling his promises as some people consider slowness. You see, it depends on your definition of slow, doesn't it? And he's already told us that as far as the Lord is concerned, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day. So the Lord is not slow in fulfilling his promises, "But is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Now, look what he says in verse 10. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are in it shall be burned up." He's talking about the prophetic Day of the Lord. And again, when you think of the Day of the Lord, don't think of a 24-hour day, but think of a prophetic day of a thousand years. Remember, one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

So this Day of the Lord refers to events that span roughly a thousand years, or to be precise, 1007 years, because the Day of the Lord begins with the rapture of the church and concludes 1007 years later with the new heaven and new earth at the end of the millennium. I don't want to lose you, but the point I want to get across is that the events described in Matthew 24 span the entire period of Messianic fulfillment. And sometimes we find that those events are repetitive.

The abomination of desolation, for example, like we talked about last time, has already happened twice in Jewish history, and it'll happen again during the tribulation period. It's the cycles of history, and those cycles are especially prominent in Jewish history. Let me give you another example. In Jewish history, seven monumental events all occurred on the same recurring date: the ninth of Av. If you use one of our Jewish home calendars, you probably already know that the Jewish month of Av, spelled Aleph, Bet, or A-V, roughly corresponds to the month of August on our regular calendar.

It's usually the last part of July and the first part of August, something like that. But the ninth day of Av is an anniversary date for a whole series of cataclysmic events that happened in Israel's history. For example, it was on the ninth of Av that the 12 spies returned from spying out the Promised Land some 3500 years ago. And because the people believed the majority report of those 10 spies, an entire generation was condemned to die in the wilderness.

Then in 586 BC, it was on the ninth of Av that Solomon's Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. In AD 70, it was on the ninth of Av that the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans. In AD 71, it was on the ninth of Av that the Romans plowed up Jerusalem with salt and left it desolate. In AD 135, it was on the ninth of Av that Simon bar Kokhba's army was destroyed. In the year 1290, it was on the ninth of Av that England expelled all of the Jews from the country. And in 1492, the deadline for all Jewish people being expelled from Spain was on the ninth of Av.

That's why in traditional Judaism, the ninth of Av is a fast of mourning called Tisha B'Av, the fast of Av, because so many of Israel's tragedies have fallen on the ninth of Av. That's a day when Orthodox Jews fast as an expression of their grief over the destruction of the Temple. Or in years when Tisha B'Av falls on Shabbat, they will fast on the tenth day of Av instead of the ninth. So history runs in cycles, especially Jewish history. And with respect to the destruction of Jerusalem, the cycle will be repeated one more time.

And then the restoration promises will be fulfilled and Israel will be planted in her land, never to be uprooted again. But there's more to this than just physical restoration. That is, there's more to the restoration promises than merely the fact that the children of Israel will be restored to their land physically. The Bible teaches that they will also be restored spiritually. In fact, a physical restoration would be pointless without a spiritual restoration. It would be useless to restore Israel to her land physically without restoring her spiritually.

That's part of the problem we're having in Israel right now. You've got leaders of the nation who have no spiritual perspective. One of the highest officials in the Israeli government right now is a man who openly says he's an agnostic. He's not like the late Menachem Begin, who was an Orthodox Jew from head to toe with an unwavering faith in the promises that God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And as far as Mr. Begin was concerned, there was no compromise.

Even though he was not a believer in Jesus Christ as far as we know, Mr. Begin had a spiritual perspective on the issues that faced his country. But now, Israel is led by people who don't believe those promises. Israel is becoming more and more of a secular state. And the modern secular Israeli is seen as more enlightened, while the old-fashioned Orthodox Jews in Israel are seen as rabble-rousers and fanatics. Do you know what most Israeli young people want?

They want to be like American young people. They imitate our fashions, they imitate our music, they imitate our hairstyles, they imitate as much of our culture as they can because they want to be like us. So in many ways, Israel is no more a religious state than Germany or England or France or Russia. So she needs more than just a physical restoration; she needs a spiritual restoration. She needs to know the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and she needs the Holy Spirit in fulfillment of the New Covenant.

And that's what Ezekiel says in chapter 37, beginning in verse 14. He says, "And I will put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord." That's the New Covenant. Turn back to chapter 36, and I'll show you what he's talking about. Chapter 36 of Ezekiel, beginning in verse 25, he says, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you."

"Verse 26: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Now, watch this. This is the difference between the Old Covenant of Law and the New Covenant of Grace. The Lord says to Israel in verse 27, "And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." That's the key, my friend. We can't do it in our own strength; we can only do it in his strength.

Under the Old Covenant, God gave Israel the Law and then told them to keep it. Their response was, "Anything you tell us to do, Lord, we will do." That's what they said. But they didn't do it. They couldn't do it. But under the New Covenant, the Law is not written on tablets of stone, but in our hearts. And he puts his spirit in us, and he causes us to walk in his statutes. It's not anything we can do; it's his work in us. That's the Christian life, my friend. Well, it's hard to believe, but we're out of time again. 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 discuss 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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Call our toll-free number, 1-800-926-5397, and we'll be happy to handle all of the details. And as always, when you're in touch with us, 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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