The Hope of Israel, or, The Restoration of the Jews, Part of the Divine Scheme and an Element of the Gospel.

IT WILL seem a strange suggestion to most in these days, that there is any connection between the gospel hope and an event so local in its character as the restoration of the Jews to their own land (Palestine). Nevertheless, such a connection exists, if we are to be guided by the Scriptures, rather than by learned opinion or venerable tradition.

The interest taken by " Christians, " as a body, in the Jews, is purely sentimental in character, and it is very weak and purely retrospective. It arises from the history of the Jews--from their national relation to the Deity in former times; from their ancient mediumship as the channel of revelation; and from their flesh-and-blood connection with the Messiah. It does not stretch into the future, except in the form of professed solicitude for the spiritual interests of the nation, in common with those of mankind in general. It recognises no connection between their future and the salvation to be manifested in the earth, but is rather in a mood to thank God for a future in which the Jew has no place as such.

Now, we shall see, before we get through this lecture, that the truth of God justifies an interest of a much more practical kind than this. We shall find that in the purpose of God, the salvation of the world is bound up in the destiny of the Jews; that apart from their national glorification, such salvation is a dream, to be realised neither by nations nor individuals, spiritually nor temporally,--and that the man who is either ignorant or skeptical of this coming future development, is darkened in his understanding on one of the essential features of Christian teaching.

We look at the evidence. Jesus said to his disciples, " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel " (Matt. 15v 24). That he meant the Jews is evident from another statement:--

" Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. "

He further declared to the woman of Samaria, at Jacob's well, " SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS " (John 4v 22). These passages alone show the national restrictedness of the salvation proclaimed by Jesus and his apostles. Jesus was a Jew, born in the house of David as the God-appointed heir of David's throne, and the apostles who laboured with him were also Jews. They proclaimed a message which came from the God of the Jews, and which according to the original instructions of Christ was only intended for the Jews. Therefore, Paul could emphatically characterise the gospel as " THE HOPE OF ISRAEL, " which he did in the words recorded in Acts 28v 20, " FOR THE HOPE OF ISRAEL I am bound with this chain. " He could also make the following statement with peculiar emphasis, in defending himself before Agrippa:--

" And now I stand and am judged for THE HOPE OF THE PROMISE made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, HOPE TO COME; FOR WHICH HOPE'S SAKE KING AGRIPPA, I AM ACCUSED OF THE JEWS " (Acts 26v 6, 7).

He could also say with a truthfulness not generally appreciated:--

" My kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the ADOPTION, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, AND THE PROMISES " (Rom. 9v 3-4).

Thus it is evident that the salvation proclaimed for acceptance in the gospel is intensely Jewish in its origin, its application, and its future bearing; and it is equally evident that this was the light in which it was regarded by the disciples after the day of Pentecost; for we read in Acts 11v 19, that " They which were scattered abroad . . . travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to NONE BUT UNTO THE JEWS ONLY. " The reader will also remember that Peter required a special revelation to instruct him as to God's proposed admission of the Gentiles into the blessings of Israel, and even then he threw the onus of it upon God. He did not attempt to justify it himself, but apologised to his brethren for preaching to the Gentiles, saying, " What was 1v that I could withstand God? " (Acts 11v 17). The fact is, the admission of the Gentiles was one of the " mysteries of the gospel. " This is evident from the statement of Paul, in Ephesians 3v 4-6:--

" Ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel. "

But this opening the way for the admission of the Gentiles did not destroy the Israelitish character of " THE HOPE. " The effect was just the other way. Instead of the Gentiles converting the hope into Gentilism by their reception of it, the hope converted them into Jews, conforming them to its essentially Israelitish character. Hence, says Paul, to those Ephesians who received it, " Ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise... Now therefore ye are NO MORE STRANGERS AND FOREIGNERS, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God " (Eph. 2v 12, 19). He further said to the Romans, " HE IS A JEW which is one inwardly " (Rom. 2v 29), that is, he who, being a Gentile by birth, has become a Jew in heart, and taste, and hope, is more of a real Jew than the reprobate natural son of Abraham. Referring to the admission of the Gentiles, he speaks of it as a cutting out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and a grafting contrary to nature, into the good olive tree (Rom. 11v 24). Hence the Gentiles are " wild olive branches, " without hope--without birthright--without promises--without a future portion of any kind; and if they would become heirs of the inheritance to come, they must cast off " the old man " of their Gentilism, and put on " the new man- " of true Jewism, " which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him " (Col. 3v 10).

But to come to a closer consideration of the subject: Paul says he was bound " for the hope of Israel, " which is equivalent to saying that he preached it, seeing that it was for his preaching that he was put in bonds. Now, if Paul proclaimed " the hope of Israel, " it is clear that he did not preach the set of ideas which now passes current in the popular churches as the gospel; for in what sense can these ideas be said to be " the hope of Israel " ?

What hope has the gospel of orthodoxy for them? It promises them no special blessings in connection with its final development. On the contrary, it takes from them what hope they have. It tells them that their Messiah is not coming, and that their hopes of national reconstitution and aggrandisement under him, in their own land, are carnal and delusive. This alone shows it cannot be the gospel which Paul preached, for the one which he preached was " the hope of Israel. " Its essential feature was to be recognised in a Jewish national hope, founded upon certain promises made of God to the progenitors of the nation. Those promises on which that hope was founded, constitute glad tidings, or gospel proclaimed by-Jesus and the apostles for belief, and those who believed it derived a specific hope from the things so proclaimed. Now, as the one truly Christian hope arises from a reception of the doctrinal teaching of the gospel, and since that is the basis of a Jewish national hope, it must be very evident that there is an intimate connection between the Christian hope and the hope of Israel. It is the purpose of this lecture to point out that connection, and, in the doing thereof, to introduce certain matters relevant thereto, which are essential to be known by all who desire to attain to a true knowledge of what the Scriptures teach.

The Jews are a people whose origin and history are pretty well known to intelligent Scripture readers. Abraham, the member of a Chaldean family, was commanded to separate himself from his people, and go into a land " which he should alter receive for an inheritance " (Heb. 11v 8). He obeyed, and went out, " not knowing whither he went. " He was afterwards informed that his descendants would become a great nation, with whom God should have special dealings, and who should be the special objects of His care. In the course of time Abraham's household went down into Egypt, and settled in that country as a friendly colony. In the course of events, the Pharoahs enslaved them, and subjected them to a bitter rule for more than two centuries. At the end of that time, they were delivered through divine interposition by the hand of Moses; and after various vicissitudes, they settled in the land of promise under a divine constitution, which provided that so long as the nation was obedient to its requirements, they would remain in the land in prosperity, but that so soon as they departed from the statutes of God who had called and constituted them, adversity would overtake them.

The subsequent part of their history is summed up in a sentence; they failed to observe the conditions of this national covenant, and were expelled from the national territory in disgrace, and scattered among the nations as fugitives, where they remain to this day.

Now, the intelligence of ordinary professing Christians does not go beyond this general outline of the history of the Jews. They look upon Jewish national history as consummated, and the national destiny as irrevocably sealed. They take no cognisance of any future in store for them, as affecting the world's interest in any form. They think that if the Jews turn orthodox Christians, and become the disciples of the missionaries sent to convert them, well, they may return to their land; but whether they do or not, it is no matter. " The Anglo-Saxons are the people leading the van--and destined to become the civilisers and enlighteners of the whole world. The Jews are nowhere; they are behind the age, and will very likely be absorbed by the dominant people, who are rapidly filling the word with fruit. " This is a prevalent sentiment; and to suggest (as is done in the subject of this lecture) that the salvation of the world is in any way beholden to the contemptible race of the Jews, is to incur the displeasure of patriotism, and the patronising pity of the wise of this generation.

However, an intelligent regard for the Scriptures of truth enables a man to endure these unpleasant results. He is able to see the futility of human proposings when they come into collision with God's declared purpose. The great Disposer has said, " My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways " ; and this principle we see illustrated in the matter in hand. Human " ways " would have extirpated the Jews from the earth centuries ago; but the Higher ways have preserved them amid the fall of Gentile dynasties, and the annihilation of Gentile races; and to this day they remain a distinct and indestructible people though scattered among the nations of the earth. Human " thoughts " have alienated the Jews, as a nation, from all further divine relationship; but the Higher thoughts, while having for the time cast off Israel for their sins, have decreed the ultimate disappearance of every other nation under heaven, and the eternal preservation of the despised nation in closest communion with Himself (Jer. 30v 11). This will be brought into stronger prominence hereafter. Meanwhile, the reader's attention is directed to the following testimonies regarding the national standing of the Jews before God:--

" I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be MINE " (Lev. 20v 26).

" Thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a SPECIAL PEOPLE UNTO HIMSELF, above all people that are upon the face of the earth " (Deut. 7v 6).

" Thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God; and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a PECULIAR PEOPLE UNTO HIMSELF, above all nations that are upon the earth " (Deut. 14v 2).

" The Lord hath avouched thee this day to be HIS PECULIAR PEOPLE, as He hath promised thee; and that thou shouldest keep all His commandments, and to make thee high above all nations which He hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour: and that thou mayest be a holy people unto the Lord thy God " (Deut. 26v 18, 19).