50. Rejoice, the LORD Reigns (3)

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Hymn: RHC 49 How Great Thou Art 47 Great Is Thy Faithfulness 50 Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All

Isaiah 11:11-16

11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. 14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. 15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. 16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

Rejoice, The LORD Reigns (3)

OUTLINE

  • Glories of His First Coming (v1-5)
  • Glories of His Second Coming (v6-10)
  • Return of Israel to the Promised Land (v11-16)

Continue…

In the Preface – Prophescope on Israel, the late Rev Dr Timothy Tow wrote, “The big railway station at Gemas used to be the centre of three services, catering to travellers between West Malaysia and Singapore. One line, the Central, still serves Singapore- Kuala Lumpur-Penang (Butterworth), even up to Bangkok the Thai capital. The second is the East Coast Line that runs between Singapore and Kota Bahru. The third, now defunct, was the Malacca Line down the west coast.

In theology there are also three lines insofar as its approach to eschatology (the doctrine of last things) is concerned. In the study of the end-times leading to the Second Coming of Christ the three lines are known as Pre- millennialism, Amillennialism and Postmillennialism. The author takes the Premillennialism line.

When the Gospel was first brought by English Presbyterian missionaries to our great-grandparents, grandparents and parents from the eighteen fifties, it taught an amillennial eschatology. In 1910, however, a great revival came [o Swatow (Santou), our native place in Guangdong Province, South China, through Miss Dora Yu. She was the first to introduce the doctrine of Premillennialism which thrilled the Church with a bright hope never known before. (Miss Dora Yu was China’s first woman revivalist from whom Watchm an Nee found the Lord and received further theological instruction. Later Miss Dora Yu established China Bible Seminary in Kiangwan, Shanghai.)

The second teacher on Premillennialism to the Church throughout China and Southeast Asia was Dr John Sung (1901-1944). He taught us many lessons from the Book of Revelation and Daniel. But it was at Faith Theological Seminary, founded by American Bible Presbyterians, that my Premillennial faith was confirmed. I learned this doctrine thoroughly under the tutelage of Dr Allan A. MacRae and Dr J. O. Buswell. And it is this full-orbed view of Scripture that leads us to see Israel’s prophetic role in the end-times in which we live.

As Israel plays a major part in God’s plan of salvation for a lost mankind from the call of Abraham to the Birth of the Saviour by a young Jewish Virgin so is she predestinated to the centre stage of current history to bring in the Return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This being the case, the study of the rise and fall, fall and rise of Israel throughout the ages culminating in her regathering as a nation today, is of paramount importance. To alert us, as the fig tree shooting tender leaves is harbinger of summer, so must we be awakened to the nearness of His Coming by an Israel so prominent in world affairs today.

This “Prophescope on Israel” is a small attempt on our part to stir up the Church, to stir up young souls that they might consider what they must do in the short future before them and to prod the thinking of every Christian to what greater extent we should serve our Lord before He returns. If the publication of this book will result in the enlisting of some young man, young woman, yea, even you in middle or old age, to labour for the Lord more zealously, meaningfully, the efforts undertaken by the author will not have been made in vain.

Maranatha! Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Timothy Tow

From a proper exegesis of Scripture we see that the Kingdom of God comes in three stages.

Stage I. From the call of Abraham and establishing of Israel as a nation to the Birth of David’s Greater Son, Jesus Christ.

Stage II. From the rejection of the Saviour and Dispersal

Through nineteen hundred years to Israel’s regathering as a nation and Christ’s Second Coming.

Stage III. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ that ushers in a thousand golden years of peace. (This is the millennium mentioned six times in Revelation20, when the saints will reign with Christ a thousand years, “on the earth” Revelation 5:10).

The regathering of Israel in the Promised Land was called the Aliya which means Regathering.

Scriptural Promises

Homer Duncan has given a list of at least 25 references from the Prophets where God promises Israel that He will gather them to Canaan and give the land to them:

(1) Isaiah 11:11, 12

(2) Isaiah 14:1–3

(3) Isaiah 27:12, 13

(4) Isaiah 43:1–7

(5) Jeremiah 16:14–16

(6) Jeremiah 23:3–8

(7) Jeremiah 29:14

(8) Jeremiah 30:10, 11

(9) Jeremiah 31:8–10

(10) Jeremiah 32:37, 38

(11) Ezekiel 11:17

(12) Ezekiel 20:34

(13) Ezekiel 20:41–42

(14) Ezekiel 34:11–13

(15) Ezekiel 36:24

(16) Ezekiel 36:28

(17) Ezekiel 36:33–38

(18) Ezekiel 37:1–14

(19) Ezekiel 37:21, 22

(20) Ezekiel 39:25–28

(21) Hosea 1:10, 11

(22) Amos 9:14, 15

(23) Micah 4:4–7

(24) Zephaniah 3:18–20

(25) Zechariah 8:4–8[1]

Our late pastoral advisor Rev Dr Tow Siang Hwa wrote in Israel in Prophecy (Watch the Fig Tree! Miracle Nation Revived!):

“Israel and her people are unique among the nations. No other people have a history like hers. No other nation had its history written in advance by order of God. No other people can trace its ancestry to one man. Only Israel.

ISRAEL IS DIFFERENT. Even her name is unique: “Jehovah fights” or “Prince of God”.

The name Israel was given by God to an undeserved man Jacob (Gen. 32:28). But he was loved by God (Rom. 9:13).

Any other people would have disintegrated long ago, but not Israel. After 4000 years of dispersal and extreme sufferings, Israel is resurgent today. Why? What is the explanation?

Israel is the object of Satan’s venom and attack. Genesis 3:15 is a prediction of Satan’s enmity against Israel.

Genesis 3:15 (KJV) And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The woman is Israel, the woman who bring forth “seed” to bruise the serpent’s head. A graphic picture of Satan attacking Israel is seen in Revelation 21:1-6.

Revelation 12:1-6 (KJV) And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

No other nation has suffered Satan’s attack as Israel:

  • In Egypt, Pharaoh ordered new-born Hebrew boys to be drowned in the river Nile.
  • In Persia, Haman sought to have all the Jews slaughtered.
  • In Canaan, King Herod ordered all boys below 2 years old to be killed.
  • In A.D. 70, the Roman armies slaughtered 1 million Jews and took many captives.
  • In modern time, unnumbered millions of Jews perished in Russian pogroms and 6 million in Hilter’s gas chambers.
  • Today, Israel is besieged by 160 million hostile Arabs.

Israel’s experience has no parallel.

Ironically, NO OTHER PEOPLE ARE SO EXCEPTIONALLY BLESSED BY GOD. When God called Abraham, He promised: “I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2). God’s promises are faithful and true.

In more recent times, Disraeli was Prime Minister in England; Kissinger rose to eminence in America. Jews are world leaders in many fields. Music: Mendelsohn, Rubenstein, Menuhin. Finance: Rothschild. Science: Einstein. Medicine: Schweitzer.

Israel is the only people with a land given by God (Gen. 12:1). The land is not large (less than 10 percent of Malaysia), but its destiny and fortunes affect the entire world. Today, Israel faces two formidable and insoluable problems (human speaking):

  • The Arab confrontation,
  • The Palestinian Uprising (Intifada)

The future of the entire human race is tied to the Israeli problem. To know the future of the world one must needs understand the Israeli problem; therein is the key to the future. And the solution to the Israeli problem is in God’s Word, the Holy Scripture; not America, not Russia, not the UN.

Peace talks between Israel and her adversaries were in progress. But lasting peace will not come except our Lord Jesus, the “Prince of Peace”, returns to earth. We await this momentous event with keenest expectancy.

The return of the Jews to Israel is a sign of utmost prophetic significance. Read again Matthew 24:32-33.

Matthew 24:32-33 (KJV) Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

Our Lord’s words were not spoken for nothing. If we miss this one unmistakable sign, it will be our irreparable loss.

Why are the Jews flocking to Israel? Normal considerations and natural reasoning would certainly have dictated against such a course of action. Yet in two years (1990, 1991) about 400,000 Jews left Soviet Union alone for Israel. A reasonable observer would judge it as “foolish and foolhardy”.

Why do we say so? These are the reasons:

  • These Soviet Jews have never seen the Land.
  • They do not speak the language.
  • They have poor prospects of employment.
  • They have to cope with crippling inflation.
  • There is the ever present threat of war with the Arabs.

If these Soviet Jews had been naturally persuaded, they would have emigrated to Europe, England, America, Australia – countries which would offer sanctuary, not the prospect of “blood, sweat, and tears” of the Land of Israel. Yet they flocked there by the planeloads, day in and day out, jamming Tel Aviv airport’s arrival hall. From every corner of the earth they came, by choice and not by chance or coercion.

What choice that a PhD from Moscow should become a bus driver, or an engineer from Leningrad should work as a park attendant in Israel? Such choice has been motivated by something surpassing the natural. Unless we see the migratory phenomenon in this light, we are baffled and lost in wonderment.

Prophetic Scripture has been fulfilled in spectacular fashion before our very eyes as it has been in less dramatic fashion this century. Only the spiritually blind do not see. Our God, who declared that after the scattering would come a regathering, is keeping true to His promise. The Jews themselves would probably attribute their action to a sense of, nationalism or patriotism. But we, being enlightened, see in all this the unseen hand of God. Thus, we conclude:

The Regathering is SUPERNATURAL.

In fulfilment of Deuteronomy 30:5 (KJV) And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

So they come from every land, to their Land of destiny, drawn by invisible urgings implanted by the God of their father Abraham deep in their hearts.

[As of March 2023, Israel’s population stands at approximately 9.73 million. Jews make up the majority at 73.5% (about 7.145 million individuals). The Arab community, spanning various religions excluding Judaism, accounts for 21% (around 2.048 million).]

Recall the words of Isaiah 46:10, “… my counsel shall stand, and I will do my pleasure.”

When God moves, nothing can stop Him, no not even the armed might of the Soviet Union. Antisemitic rulers in the last had virtually imprisoned the Jewish population. But almighty God sent a 20th century Cyrus, as it were “Gorbachev His anointed” (cf. Isaiah 45:1) to “perform all my pleasure (Isaiah 44:28).

From the moment of its birth, modern Israel has been in a life-and-death struggle, fighting for her very existence. A few million Jews surrounded by 160 million blood-thirsty Arabs found a friend and helper in the USA. In 5 wars she has emerged victorious on each occasion over her Arab adversaries.

  • War No. 1: 1948 War of Independence. Six Arab-nation neighbours’ combined forces set out to destroy the infant nation. Outnumbered and outgunned, the new-born Israel emerged victorious, by a miracle of God.
  • War No. 2: 1956 Sinai War. Israel joined Britain and France to wage war against Egypt in a futile operation which was halted by UN action.
  • War No. 3: 1967 The Six-Day War. In a stunning operation, Israel defeated the combined forces pf Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and captured Arab East Jerusalem, and vast territories of the Sinai Peninsula; the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
  • War No. 4: 1968-1970 The War of Attrition
  • War No. 5: 1973 The Yom Kippur War.

[Fast forward: 7 October 2023, 50 years later, the war with Hamas]

The Intifada or Uprising: Since 1988, Israel has been confronted by a most serious problem: the uprising of the Palestinians in the “Occupied Territories” (West Bank and Gaza). About one million Palestinians filled with other bitter resentment and fratricidal hatred have become a potent source of civil disobedience, rioting and armed attack against Israeli rulers. Peace talks notwithstanding, the enmity persists.

Today, with the settlement of Gaza to the Palestinians, there is still no peace.

(3)Return of Israel to the Promised Land (v11-16)

11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Following the destruction of the Temple and City in 70 AD a large number of Jews were sold into slavery or exiled to neighbouring or distant countries. Their descendants became the nucleus of the Jewish communities that sprung all over the world, even to this day. When another revolt occurred in the reign of Hadrian 132-135 AD, the scattering of all Jews from their homeland was complete. This is now known as the Diaspora.

Situated at the junction of three continents the land of Israel has been vulnerable to invasion by stronger powers. Here is a table of the succession of conquests of Israel.

The most wide-angled prophescope on the regathering of the Jews is given by Isaiah in Chapter 11:11-12.

And when these outcasts of Israel are gathered they will be united as one. “The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim” (verse l3).

13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

This unity of all the sons of Jacob in a multi-partied State is declared in the Proclamation of the State of Israel by David Ben Gurion the first Prime Minister as follows:

Declaration of the Establishment of the State of lsrael

ERETZ ISRAEL (Land of lsrael) was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of nationaland universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.

After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their politicalfreedom.

lmpelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. ln recent decades

they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma’pilim and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community, controlling itsown economyand culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to allthe country’s inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.

ln the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodor Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.

This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-lsrael and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.

This catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people – the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe – was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz- lsrael the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the home-land wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully-privileged member of the comity of nations.

Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-lsrael, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assed their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.

ln the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.

On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-lsrael; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-lsrael to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.

This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.

ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE’S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OFTHE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.

WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate, being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th lyar, 5708 (1Sth May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October, 1948, the People’s Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People’s Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called “lsrael”.

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the ln-gathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of lsrael; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the

29th November,1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-lsrael.

WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the State of lsrael into the comity of nations.

WE APPEAL – in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months – to the Arab inhabitants of the State of lsrael to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.

WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperatíon and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of lsrael is prepared to do its share in common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.

WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-lsrael in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream – the redemption of lsrael.

PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE ALMIGHTY, WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5th DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14th MAY, 1948).

To be continued…

[1] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 631). Bible Communications, Inc.