Jerry C. Brewer
The denominational industry often speaks of the “unfulfilled prophecies” of the Old Testament—especially those regarding the Jews’ land and their restoration to it. In so doing, they take the prophecies of the Old Testament, skip over all subsequent periods of time and apply them to the end of the world and Christ’s second coming. Those claims are absolutely false. There are no “unfulfilled prophecies” relating to the Jews.
God made three basic promises to Abraham and his descendants in the Old Testament. These promises may be classified as The Temporal Promise, The Restoration Promise, and The Spiritual Promise.
The Temporal Promise
Under this heading, there are two sub-classifications. The first of these is the promise God made to Abraham, assuring the patriarch that from him a great nation would emerge. “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2).
The second sub-classification of The Temporal Promise is that this nation, which would descend from Abraham, would be given a land in which to dwell.
And he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full…In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates (Gen. 15:13-18).
The first part of the Temporal Promise—the making of a great nation from Abraham’s descendants was accomplished when Jacob and his sons went into Egypt and sojourned there. That is found in the latter part of the book of Genesis and in the first few chapters of Exodus. During their sojourn in Egypt, they multiplied greatly until they could count 600,000 fighting men 20 years old and above at the time of their exodus.
The second part of the Temporal Promise—giving this nation a land in which to dwell —was fulfilled in the conquest of Canaan and Joshua recorded that everything God promised concerning the land was fulfilled.
And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers; and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass (Josh. 21:43-45, JB Emph.).
Most folks, who are consciously or unconsciously contaminated with the doctrines of millennialism, take God’s promise to restore the Jews to their land after their captivity in Babylon, jump over the centuries, ignore their fulfillment 400 years before Christ came and apply them to the Jews at the end of the world. But, like the national and land promises, the restoration God promised to the Jews has already been fulfilled.
The Restoration Promise
Jeremiah was among the prophets who foretold the Jews’ captivity for their idolatry, and he was one of the witnesses of Jerusalem’s destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 629 B.C. Jeremiah also foretold God’s punishment that would be visited upon Babylon and the Jews restoration to their land.
And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words, which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath promised against all the nations (Jer. 25:11- 13).
Ezekiel, who was a prophet during the 70 years of Babylonian captivity, foretold of the Jews’ restoration to their land.
For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 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…and ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ezek. 36:24-28).
God further assured the Jews they would be restored to their land by Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones.
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord (Ezek. 37:11-14).
In this highly figurative passage, Israel is represented as dead in captivity. The Lord said the dry bones of Ezekiel’s vision were Israel, but that they would be resurrected from their captive condition and live again in their land from whence they had been taken.
Isaiah was another prophet who spoke of the Jews’ return to their land following their captivity.
Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb…that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: that saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid (Isa. 44:24-28).
This prophecy, in which Isaiah called the Persian king Cyrus by name, was spoken approximately 210 years before Cyrus’ decree—issued in 536 B.C.—that allowed the Jews to return to their land.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah (2 Chron. 36:22-23).
The identical wording of Cyrus’ decree is found in Ezra 1:2-3. Following that decree, the Jews returned to their land in three expeditions that covered almost 100 years and that period is chronicled in the Old Testament books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.
The first expedition of returnees was led by Zerubbabel, an ancestor of the Lord (Ezra 1-6). This group laid the foundation of the temple and rebuilt it. The second expedition was led by the scribe Ezra who restored the law in the lives of the people (Ezra 7-10), and the third and final expedition was led by Nehemiah who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 1-13).
Every promise that God made to the Jews concerning their nation, their land, and their restoration to the land was fulfilled in the Old Testament. There will never again be a restoration of Jews to that land, and that nation known as Israel which occupies part of Palestine today is not the Israel of the Old Testament. Neither is their occupation of that land a fulfillment of God’s promise. His promises regarding their nation and land have already been fulfilled.
The Spiritual Promise
“…and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). That promise was fulfilled in Christ (Gal. 3:16). Paul said Christ is the promised “seed” of Abraham and through His atoning sacrifice all nations of the earth today may be blessed.
Though the Jews knew the words of this promise, they did not understand it. They thought they were the “seed” of Abraham through which God would rule over and bless all nations. That’s why they rejected and killed their own Messiah. He did not fit their preconceived notions of a material kingdom ruled by one of their own.
That’s the same notion entertained today by millennialists who say Christ will return, the Jews will be restored to their land, and He will reign a thousand years in Jerusalem. Those notions are as fanciful and false as those entertained by the Jews of Jesus’ day. Not a single promise that God made to Abraham and his descendants failed. All came to pass, and to look for further fulfillment of any of them today is futile.
Israel which occupies the land today is not the Israel of the Old Testament. That nation’s end was pronounced by Jesus Christ in Matthew 23:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation (Matt. 23:36).
Israel’s cup of iniquity was almost filled with the blood of prophets they had killed and Jesus said that “upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth” from Abel unto Zacharias, who was slain by them between the temple altar. There is no divine record of this Zacharias. H. Leo Boles wrote,
He was slain on holy ground where they ought to have been worshiping God. What a crime to slay a prophet of God on the very spot where they should be worshiping God. Jesus warns the people by saying that “all these things shall come upon this generation” (Boles, A Commentary on The Gospel of Matthew, The Gospel Advocate, Nashville, 1963, p. 455).
On the heels of the Lord’s indictment, He lamented over the city and looked down the corridor of time when Titus and Vespasian would raze the city and the temple.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate (Matt. 23:37-38).
The Lord spoke of Jerusalem’s doom, saying, “your house is left desolate” and 37 years later as Jesus said, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matt. 24:2). National Israel died in 70 AD.
