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The True Fulfillment of Prophecy, part 6

The birthright mainly contains the dominion mandate and the fruitfulness mandate from the first chapter of Genesis. The dominion mandate is divided into two parts—priestly authority and kingly authority—which were the main focus of Christ’s first coming. Fruit comes at the end of a growing season, and so fruitfulness in the world is required at the end of the age, especially in the time of Christ’s second coming.

It is best seen in the Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5, which spoke metaphorically of the time when God planted His vineyard (Kingdom) in the land of Canaan in the time of Joshua. “He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones” (Isaiah 5:2). So He plowed it down and started over (vs. 6).

Jesus used this as the model for a parable in Matthew 21:33-46. The main difference is that instead of the vineyard producing “worthless” fruit, Jesus said that the stewards of the vineyard simply refused to render Him the fruit in its season. Worse yet, they beat His servants who came to collect the fruit and finally even killed His Son (Matthew 21:39).

Jesus told this parable shortly after cursing the barren fig tree for its lack of fruit (Matthew 21:18, 19).

John the Baptist had come as a divine fruit inspector (Matthew 3:8-10). When he was executed, Jesus took over that job for the next three years (Luke 13:6-9). It was at the end of those three years, as Jesus neared the end of His ministry, that He issued His verdict in Matthew 21. The nation, pictured as a fig tree, had failed to fulfill its purpose in being planted in Canaan. The nation had killed the prophets and was about to kill the Son as well (Matthew 23:29-37). Hence, once again, God was about to plow it up and destroy it, using the Roman army (Matthew 22:7).

The End-Time Rebirth

Jesus prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 23:38 and 24:1, 2. He then went on to talk about tribulation in the latter days prior to His second coming. But later, in Matthew 24:32-24, He prophesied the rebirth of the cursed fig tree:

³² Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; ³³ so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. ³⁴ Truly I say to you, this generation [genea, “offspring, that which has been begotten”] will not pass away until all these things take place.

Most people recognize this as a prophecy of the rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948. I agree with this. Yet most are mistaken, thinking that this fig tree will soon bear fruit. But Jesus spoke only of the tree putting forth more “leaves.” They seem to forget that the reason Jesus cursed the fig tree in the first place was because it had leaves but no fruit. Jesus looked for fruit, not leaves.

They forget that fig leaves have been a problem since Adam (Genesis 3:7), when fig leaves were used to try to hide their sin and nakedness. Fig leaves are not a valid substitute for the heavenly garments that clothed Adam and Eve at the beginning. Fig leaves represent self-justification apart from the blood of Christ.

Proper Interpretation

The misinterpretation of Jesus’ prophecy is mainly due to the church’s belief that the Jews are the Israelites. After all, we read in Isaiah 27:6,

⁶ In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout, and they will fill the whole world with fruit.

This prophecy refers to Israel, not Judah. It refers to the so-called “lost tribes of Israel,” led by the ruling tribe of Ephraim, and exiled to Assyria, never again to return to the old land. We read about this in 2 Kings 17:18,

¹⁸ So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah.

The kingdom of Judah lasted another 120 years or so before being exiled to Babylon. Judah returned after 70 years, because their calling was to produce the Messiah, who had to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). But Judah did not have the right to claim the name Israel, the name given to the sons of Joseph (Genesis 48:15, 16). For this reason, when the nation was divided, it was the northern ten tribes (united with Ephraim) who retained the name Israel.

The Zionist leaders in 1948 debated about what to call their newly-formed state. Some thought it should be Judah or the Kingdom of Judah. In the end, they decided to call it Israel, primarily to lay claim to the prophecies given to Israel and to trick the Christians into thinking that they were fulfilling the prophecies of the restoration of Israel.

This was a grand deception, of course, because up to that time traditional Judaism had prayed every week that the lost Israelites would be reunited with the Jews. Virtually every rabbi knew that the Jews were not the biblical Israelites. The Jewish professor of Israel studies at the University of Minnesota (in 1971) knew this very well and was fond of pointing this out in order to “prove” that Bible prophecy had failed. I clearly recall him telling the students, “The prophets all expected the Israelites to return to the old land, but instead they were lost.”

We, however, know the truth. The “return” was not fulfilled by changing one’s homeland but by returning to God with sincere repentance. Furthermore, if one is inclined to study the actual whereabouts of those “lost tribes,” one may read about the archeological discoveries of Dr. Leroy Waterman after the great library at Nineveh was discovered (1900) and later excavated. His 4-volume set, entitled, Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire, was published in 1930.

You can read a shorter review of Dr. Waterman’s volumes in Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets, by the biblical archeologist, Prof. E. Raymond Capt. (He was a friend of mine, by the way, from 1975 until his death in 2008.)

I also wrote briefly about the migrations of Israel and how the Israelites lost their name in my book, Who is an Israelite? as well as in my commentary on Hosea: Prophet of Mercy. These can be read online free of charge or purchased.

https://godskingdom.org/studies/books/who-is-an-israelite/

https://godskingdom.org/studies/books/hosea-prophet-of-mercy-book-1/

Two Destinies

The destiny of Israel is outlined in Jeremiah 18:1-10, where the prophet was instructed to go to a potter’s house and observe what turned out to be a divine revelation. The earthen jar that the potter was making was defective, so he beat it down and rebuilt it to his satisfaction. God then told the prophet in Jeremiah 18:6, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” The answer, of course, is YES, that is precisely how God will deal with Israel.

Then the prophet turned his attention to Judah and Jerusalem, beginning in Jeremiah 18:11. It is a long prophecy that extends to the end of chapter 19. First he lists the sins of Judah to show why God was going to deal with Judah so severely. Then in Jeremiah 19:1 God told him to take an old earthen jar (not wet clay) and go to the valley of Ben-hinnom just outside Jerusalem, taking some of the elders as witnesses.

There the prophet was told in Jeremiah 19:10, 11,

¹⁰ “Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you, ¹¹ and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired”…’”

The majority of Christians today apply Jeremiah 18:1-10 to the Jewish state, thinking that this state is the biblical Israel. But just because the founders of the Jewish state named it Israel does not make it so in the sight of God. In actuality, the destiny of the modern Jewish state is prophesied in Jeremiah 19:10, 11, which, when finally broken, “cannot again be repaired.”

Note the contrast between Israel’s wet clay jar and Judah’s old earthen jar. Wet clay can be remade; an old jar, once broken, is cast into the city dump (Gehenna, the valley of Ben-hinnom). Anyone who stands in the way of divine judgment by supporting the Zionist project will also be in danger. When “this people and this city” is finally destroyed so completely that it can never again be repaired, some will think that prophecy failed. Only those who know the difference between Israel and Judah will remain standing on a firm foundation with unshaken faith.