Israel, and Israel's Hope.
"Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." Isaiah xxvii, 6. The beauties of spring-time—when the earth emerges from the chill frosts of winter, and vegetable life starts into new being, and the face of the earth covers itself with its green and variegated robes as the season advances—are a fit and lively emblem of the future life, and glories of the future state, when God's people and the globe itself shall be redeemed from under death and the curse, and placed "Beyond the frost-chain and the fever." As trees and plants are decked in sweet and fragrant and lovely flowers and blossoms, and their branches become loaded and pendent under the growing and ripening fruits of summer, by the returning sun and refreshing showers, so shall "the trees of righteousness," and the heavenly plants of the coming kingdom, "blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit," on the return of the "Sun of Righteousness, with healing in his wings," and "the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest." Then "the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." Then God's "people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places," and it shall be known how "blessed" are those who have "sown beside all waters." Though now the faithful slumber in death's cold, icy embrace, and lie entombed in the grave, the sepulchre, the dust of the earth, and depths of the sea; yet the voice of Him who is "the resurrection and the life" shall be heard by them, and they shall start into life, and come forth immortal and glorious to fill the face of the new-made world with fruit. "All nature dies, and lives again;
The flowers that paint the field;
The trees that crown the mountain's brow,
And boughs and blossoms yield;
So to the dreary grave consigned,
Man sleeps in death's dark gloom
Until the final morning wake
The slumbers of the tomb." Let us consider—
I. Who constitute Israel?
II. The promise comprised in the text. "Israel" is a name signifying, "A prince of God." The first occasion of its use and application in the Scriptures was to Jacob, the father of the twelve patriarchs, who were the fathers of the twelve tribes. The name was given to Jacob by the angel with whom he wrestled by the brook Jabboc, until the break of day, and prevailed. The angel of the Lord inquired of him at that time, "What is thy name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then said the angel, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel" (marginal reading "A prince of God") for as a prince hast thou power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed." The signification and primary use of the name is thus determined: And Jacob became worthy of the title because of his all-conquering faith. This is the sense given to the name by our Lord when on earth in the days of his flesh. He "saw Nathanael coming to him," and saith of him, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." In which language he also gives us to understand that some bear the title who are unworthy of it. The pure and faithful, alone, are to be considered true Israelites. When Nathanael in his surprise inquires, "Whence knowest thou me?" and Jesus replies, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee," the Saviour gave him and his disciples to understand not only his omniscience, but that Nathanael wrestling in prayer under that fig-tree, and there prevailing with God as did Jacob before him with the angel, entitled him to the name of Israel. The apostle Paul uses the term in the same sense; and makes application of it only to the RIGHTEOUS of his own nation. "Who are Israelites? to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenant? Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect; for they are not all Israel which are of Israel." That is to say, the mere lineal descendants of Jacob are not Israel. Lineal descent alone does not constitute one an Israelite, or that class of persons Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption, glory, and covenants. And he adds: "Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children." The lineal descendants of Abraham, who may trace an unquestionable genealogy back to their ancient sire, are not to be regarded as Abraham's children in the sense of the Scriptures. They may be his direct descendants, but not his seed, to whom the promises were made. "But the children of the promise are counted for the seed;" and these are the children of faith, as was Abraham. Saint Paul did not regard the unbelieving Jew in any age, a child of Abraham in the view of Scripture promise, or hope. The Jews in Chatham Square and Street, of the city of New York, who live unbelieving lives, and stand ready to filch the country purchaser out of his last penny by their covetousness, Saint Paul would not regard as "Israelites indeed," or the children of Abraham. And what would he say of these, or how regard that class of the nation who are disloyal, and traitors to this government, and are helping to tear down the beautiful temple of Christian liberty and religion? Would he, if he was on earth, say of those Jews of New Orleans, and the multitude flocking to the States in rebellion, for covetous and disloyal purposes, that they are "the seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the promises?" Never! And we have a very poor and short-sighted comprehension and understanding of the Scriptures who regard such as his covenant people, or the Israel of God. The nation at large may be the seed of Abram; but not of Abraham, the father of the faithful. The Jews may lay claim, and Christian Judaizers for them, that they are "Abraham's seed" and "Israel;" but it is contrary to the teaching of the Bible. A class of unbelieving Jews came to the Saviour in his day, saying, "We be Abraham's seed." They were of the true and genuine genealogical stock—not "born of fornication," but of true and pure blood. And the Lord thus addresses them: "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God; this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in truth, because there is no truth in him; he is a liar, and the father of it." Abraham, on the contrary, rejoiced by faith to see Christ's day, and was glad, and he was an honest man. This is not the character of the Jewish nation. They, for ages past, have hated and blasphemed the name of Christ, uttering maledictions and curses upon it, more than any other race or people; and their character is proverbial for cheating, lying, and covetousness. To them cannot belong "the adoption," "the glory," "the covenants" and "oracles of God;" but to those of that nation only who are like Abraham, Jacob and Nathanael, "Israelites, indeed, in whom there is no guile." "They which are the children of the flesh are not the children of God, nor 'God's peculiar people,' nor his 'covenant people,' as they are termed. They may be, as to the flesh, the descendants of Abraham and Jacob, but are not 'children of Israel,' nor 'of God,' nor of 'the promise,' in a scriptural sense. Israel therefore constitutes those of that nation who are like Jacob of the Old Testament and Nathanael of the New. And we are ever to associate with the distinguished title, "A prince of God." None merit or deserve the name but those who prevail with God in faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please God." The unbelieving Jews of all ages have ever grieved him, and their carcasses have fallen in the wilderness and throughout all lands to the ends of the earth without50hope of "a better resurrection," and to whom he has sworn "that they should not enter into his rest." What is true of the term "Israel," as applicable to God's people, is true also of the term "Jew." "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly," declares the apostle. "But he is a Jew which is one inwardly." Few in the Christian church read their Bibles with sufficient care to observe the true meaning of the words of divine revelation; and hence they regard the Jewish nation to be, as a nation, the peculiar favored people of God, to whom God still has respect above that of any other people, and to whom he is to fulfil great covenant mercies in the future. But I do not so regard God's relation to that people, or that there are any special promises to them in the future, above that of Gentile nations. The faithful of that nation are the specially favored of God; and a Scripture reference from my text teaches that "the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward." Isaiah xxxvii, 31. Again: "Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; so will I do for my servants' sakes that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there." Isaiah lxv, 8, 9. "The new wine in the cluster," "the seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah," are the "elect" of God, and his "servants" who shall "inherit" and "dwell" in his "mountains." So teaches the New Testament also. The apostle Paul thus quotes from the prophet in confirmation of the doctrine in reference to who constitute the Israel of God: "Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." Having proven conclusively, that in all past ages, according to the sacred records, a remnant only of that nation were among the faithful, and the rest were unbelieving, he says, "Even so, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Also, under the figure of an "olive tree," with its dead branches, cut or "broken off," he presents Israel holy, both in the root and branches; and says, respecting the unbelieving Jews, "because of unbelief they were broken off." Romans xi. This had been predicted as seen in our contexts v. xi: "When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off, he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor." These unbelieving Jews, or "withered branches," are counted "enemies" for the believing Gentiles' sake, that they may take their places, being grafted into the parent tree. "The remnant," "the elect," the believing branches, are the "beloved for the Father's sake," and not the whole of the nation. This leads me to the remark, in the second place, that all those of faith of all nations, are recognized as Israelites, as truly as those of Jewish extraction. Any and all Gentile believers, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and prevail with him for the blessings of his grace, are entitled to the name Israel; for "as a prince have they power with God and with men." So reasons the great apostle of the Gentiles: "And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, when he hath called not of Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. "As he saith in Osee, I will call them, my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, that was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there they shall be called, the children of the living God. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith." Romans ix, 23–30. And in another epistle to the Gentile church he says, "Therefore remember, that ye being, in time past, Gentiles in the flesh; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world; but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ; for he is our peace, who hath made both one, and broken down the middle wall of partition between us." Let those take heed who attempt the useless work of building up this demolished wall; they can only do it with "untempered mortar," which will have no endurance, and all their pains is but labor lost. ("Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God.") Concerning this mystery of the gospel, the apostle says, "By revelation He made known to me the mystery that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise by the gospel." Ephesians iii, 1–6. Those of faith, therefore, of all generations, and Gentile nations, are regarded as Israelites, and are incorporated into one body with the faithful of the Jewish nation, and together constitute the people of God, and "fellow heirs" to the same glorious promises in Christ. This presents us with the beautiful figure of the "olive tree" in its perfection as given by the apostle: "Some of the branches were broken off." (The unbelieving Jews,) "The wild olive tree grafted in," (the Gentile church,) and "partakers of the root and fatness of the olive tree." Thus the beauty and perfection of the tree is preserved, and the Gentiles inherit with the Jews and the fathers all the covenant promises in Christ. "Know ye therefore," says Saint Paul, "that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham; and the Scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed! So, then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." Gal. iii, 6–9. "Israel" the complete and perfect "olive tree" of the Bible is constituted, therefore, of the faithful of all nations, and will "blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit."