Date: May 2005 Series: - “I Want to be Left Behind” (VII) Title: Understanding Prophecy

       Understanding the Prophetic Message (continued) - Following the central theme of Old Testament prophecy - the First Coming of the Messiah^[1] - several other secondary themes run through Old Testament prophecy.  (1) The OT Prophets preached repentance and warned Israel of coming judgment for their disobedience.^[2]  (2) They also preached repentance and warned of coming judgment to the nations surrounding Israel.^[3]  (3) The Prophets provided enough information as to what would occur during the "Intertestamental period" (400 BC. to Christ's first coming) that Israelites could survive this era with hope.^[4]  (4) Isaiah and Malachi foretold the Messiah's forerunner.^[5]

       Israel Dispersed and Restored to the Land - One of the hallmarks of modern end-times expectations is emphasis on the restoration of national Israel to their land in 1948 as the key that opens the door to other things happening.^[6]  There are a number of Old Testament prophecies of Israel being dispersed from their land for covenant unfaithfulness^[7] and later restored to their land.^[8]  The current popular understanding is that these were predictions of Jews dispersed from the land by the Romans in their suppression of revolts in 70/132-135 A.D. and dispersed from the land until the 1948 A.D. creation of the Israelite state.

            This appears to be "Biblical" except for several commonly ignored facts.  First of all, the northern 10-tribe Israelite nation was exiled to Assyria (723-2 B.C.) and the southern 2-tribe kingdom, Judah, went into Babylonian exile (606-536 B.C.), but was restored to the land under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah (536-430 B.C.).  Why should we prefer the Babylonian exile as the predicted event?  Simple - inspired Old Testament Prophets identified the Babylonian exile and restoration as the one that had been predicted!  Just by plotting the sources/dates for the OT predictions of the dispersal and restoration of Israel to their land you can find powerful evidence for the Babylonian captivity being the intended exile, for every one of those prophecies was uttered prior to 586 B.C. when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple and took the last of the captives to Babylon.  When we consider the prophets that spoke after 586 B.C., we find that none of them said anything about Israel being dispersed from their land and re-gathered in the future!  The prophet Daniel, who was a participant, plainly said that the Babylonian exile was the one that had been predicted (Daniel 9:1-9)!

 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. . . . All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. "Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you.  You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.  Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth.  The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.  (Daniel 9:2,11-14)

Along with Daniel's commentary on the Babylonian exile and restoration as the fulfillment of the OT predictions, so also Jeremiah looked on it as Israel's predicted dispersion among the nations (Lamentations 1:3).  The Prophet Zechariah (520 B.C.) prophesied during the time of Israel's return to the Land and he viewed the Babylonian exile/return as the accomplishment of the earlier predictions (Zechariah 7:8-14; 8:1-15).  In the mid-fifth century B.C., Nehemiah looked upon the exile to Babylon as the one promised and prayed that God would let him participate in helping Israel with their return to the land (Nehemiah 1).

     Second, when you examine the New Testament references to the approaching Roman destruction of Jerusalem and Temple,^[9] the only OT reference cited for such is Daniel 9:26 (in Matthew 24:15) rather than any of the predictions between Genesis and Daniel and there is no promise of another national restoration.  Where did New Testament writers ever discuss the prophetic importance of national Israel someday being restored to the land before Jesus' return?  They didn't, because their emphasis had shifted to the heavenly Jerusalem and Promised Land, not this earth!^[10]

     Daniel - Without Daniel and Ezekiel, most dispensational discussions of the "Battle of Armageddon" would be running on fumes (I think they already are).  It is my belief that future prediction in both Daniel and Ezekiel primarily were intended to bridge the Intertestamental era (400-5 B.C.) and give Israel enough light to maintain their hope until Messiah arrived - the first time!  With Israel dispersed to Babylon, Daniel identified four worldly kingdoms that would rule the Middle East until the Messiah's time, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar's current Neo-Babylonian empire, then two more (Medo-Persia & Greece), and notes that God would re-assert His direct rule over His people during the fourth (Rome - Daniel 2; cf. Mark 1:14,15).  Daniel 8 focused on the troubled times Israel would face as Medo-Persia and Greece would struggle with each other (490-332 B.C.) followed by the troubles associated with Antiochus IV (170-142 B.C.).  Daniel 9:24-27 identifies a 490-year period in which God would complete His dealings with national Israel, bring forth the Messiah and inaugurate the "new covenant" era of international blessing, and then Jerusalem and the Temple would again be destroyed.  Daniel 11 focused on details of the period of Persia's decline and then Israel being fought over by the Greek rulers of Egypt and Syria, possibly down to the coming of the Romans and the First Coming of Jesus.^[11] (to be continued)