During recent years we have been hearing much concerning the return of the Jews to the Holy Land. By some this gathering of Israel and the consequent rebuilding of old Jerusalem is looked upon as a most certain sign that the millennium of peace is soon to be ushered in.
But those who look for such things seem never to give thought to the fact that the God who dealt with Israel is a God of perfect justice, and that if He dealt justly in causing them to be removed from the land, He certainly could restore them only when they manifest sincere repentance in forsaking the sins that caused their expulsion. The omission of the principle of divine justice in considering this subject is a reproach upon the name and character of God, and has led to much error and confusion. The great adversary of truth is pleased to find that many are ready and eager to believe that God is like man,—moved by hasty impulses rather than by a deep sense of justice and right.
The Jews were exiled because of apostasy from the service of God, the most prominent of which was failure to honor the Sabbath that had been given them as a sign that they were worshippers of the true God, their Creator. (Exodus 31:13, 17; Ezekiel 20:12-20.) That they had cast off their allegiance to God and heaped contempt upon the Sabbath is further shown in Jeremiah 17:21-27, where God promised them that if they would keep this sign of their loyalty to Him in its fullness of meaning, the city and nation would never be destroyed. See also 2 Chronicles 36:20, 21 and Nehemiah 13:17, 18.
The final destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jews came as a result of their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. This rejection of the Messiah was foretold by the Old Testament prophets. (Isaiah 53:3-8; Psalm 22:6-8.) Daniel also had foretold the very time when the Messiah should come, and that for “the overspreading of abomination” attendant upon His rejection; that He would “make it desolate” again, this time “even until the consummation,” or end. (Daniel 9:24-27.) Seeing all this, we read that Jesus wept over the impenitence of the city that knew not the time of her visitation. The time of her final destruction was drawing near, when she would be “laid even with the ground” and the Jews “led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem . . . trodden down” by the Gentile nations until their probationary time should also end. (Luke 19:41-44; 21:20-24.) Oh, if they had only received Him when He came, how different would have been their history!
And in what condition do we find them to-day? Do we find them turning to the Lord in sincere repentance? Do we find the Jews as a people keeping the Sabbath, which shows them loyal to their Creator and Redeemer? Far from it. While they acknowledge that they should honor the Creator’s Sabbath, yet very few indeed are willing to sacrifice business and pleasure in order to keep it holy. Are they, to-day, as a people, recognizing Jesus as the Messiah and Saviour of Israel? A few are; but, as a race, there is nothing to indicate that they ever will. Only a “remnant” will be saved, just as Isaiah and Paul declared. (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27.) As a people, the Jews are weekly desecrating the Sabbath, given as a sign by which they may show their loyalty to God. As a people, they are openly committed to the rejection of Jesus, the Messiah. Can a just God receive and restore them so long as they continue in transgression, and refuse to repent? God forbid! This can never be. God will receive every one of them that will return to Him in sincerity and truth; but the Jews, as a nation, unrepentant and unbelieving, He will never receive and restore. True Israel, that is, spiritual Israel, will be restored in the fullness of the promise when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with all the faithful, shall receive the promise for which they have long been waiting. This will be at the resurrection of the just. See Hebrews 11:8-11, 40; Luke 13:28, 29; 14:14.
