The restoration of Israel is something the Bible speaks a great deal about and yet the majority of Christians haven’t a clue about it! Why is that? I think that may be because many people either think that the prophecies have already been fulfilled or they don't even know that they’ve been proclaimed. If we're going to really understand what is coming in these last days we need to understand both what has happened already as well as what has been declared and promised. I think that many people are putting their hopes in falsehoods while the truth of what our father's will actually isn’t even considered.
I think that if you go back and read the New Testament, primarily the gospels and you review the account of Yeshua and his disciples, you’ll gain more clarity and understanding about what Israel was expecting at Yeshua’s first coming. They were very familiar with the Prophet’s teachings about Israel being gathered from every side to bring them into their own land and make them one nation again where they would no longer be a divided Kingdom and a descendant of David would rule over them. The they would obey him and they would dwell in the land Yehovah promised to Abraham where they would never be uprooted again. The Kingdom of Israel would be restored. This is what they were expecting when Yeshua came the first time, so as we go in our understanding of the end times, it's important that we go back to the scriptures with fresh eyes of understanding.
Now that you understand this, hopefully you can better understand the end times leading to the millennial Kingdom. We must understand that the focus of Judah at that time was the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel. They were in the land but the land was controlled by Rome. They were waiting for a King who would lead them and bring them back to dominance and power that the one and only true God promised them. They were waiting for their promised Messiah, their anointed one, their King. They were waiting for David to return. This is how they understood their Messiah.
This is why Matthew chapter 1 went through Yeshua's genealogy. It was written primarily for the Jews and the genealogy was important for them to know and believe that Yeshua was the Messiah. This is why in the gospels he was constantly referred to as the “Son of David.” With this prophetic understanding locked in, you can see that the stage was set for Yeshua. What they didn’t expect was that before he could restore the Kingdom, he had to suffer in order to redeem them. Because of their myopic expectations, they rejected him. Thank goodness Yehovah keeps his promises even when his people don’t. He will come again and when he comes again, it will be as their King!
Instead of starting in Matthew, want to focus on John chapter 1 with John the Baptist. If you remember, Daniel’s prophecies were well known and the Jews were anxiously waiting for their Messiah to come as Daniel and the prophets had told them. That’s why the Pharisees and Sadducees came to him first to inquire if he was in fact the Messiah. They knew that the time of the Messiah was near.
Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.” Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”
~ John 1:19-27
If you read the gospels without understanding the expectation that the Jews had for the restoration of Israel and them having a new King from the line of David to lead them back to prominence, you are missing an entire understanding of the scriptures.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”
~ John 1:29-31
Now people say that Jesus is King all the time. But, we all need to understand Messiah being King in context, away from religious dogma and our own expectations. For example, Even his own mother who knew who he was and no doubt she had expectations of him too. We see this when she came to him at the wedding telling Him that there was no wine. What did Yeshua say to Her?
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
~ John 2:4
He knew what he was there for, but the time had not yet come. If you understand the expectation was there, you'll better understand this Bible that you're reading. So, from now on as you read the gospels, you need to understand that at that first coming, The Jews were expecting a king but, He did not come to be king. It was not yet His appointed time. He did explain to Nicodemus that His purpose for that time was because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
~ John 3:16-21
He was sent to the world so that those of us who believe in him would receive everlasting life and be saved. This goes back to the promises to Abraham. It was to be through Abraham's seed that all the nations of the Earth would be blessed. This is what Messiah has done for us.
There are so many people that claim him with their mouths. They claim him, but they have not taken the time to get to know him personally. They only know “about” him through religion and modern-day doctrines that were presented to them by the institutionalized churches attended and the seminary trained hirelings who taught them. But, you must understand, it wasn’t only the Jews who were waiting for him. There were also others of the lost sheep of Israel. For example, in John chapter 4 when Yeshua met the Samaritan women at the well.
Please understand who the Samaritans were. The Samaritans were descendants of the Israelites, from the northern kingdom who remained and had intermarried with foreign settlers after the fall of Israel at the hand of the Assyrians. As a result of racial intermarriage, the people of Judea, who had returned from captivity in Babylon as a result of their own disobedience only a few hundred years earlier, didn’t consider the Samaritan’s to be Jewish enough. The Samaritan’s were despised even though they were their kin.
The Samaritans continued to worship as the Jews did but with some exceptions. For example, they only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament as their Spiritual Authority. They also built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim which they believed to be the site of the altar where Abraham prepared to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. In spite of all they had in common, the Jews would have nothing to do with the Samaritans!
So, when Yeshua sat with the Samaritan woman at the well and talked with her, His disciples were shocked! But please understand this, even the Samaritans were waiting for the Messiah. The woman said to him”
“Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
~ John 4:19-26
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
~ John 4:39-42
I hope you understand that the people of Samaria expected the Messiah and like the Jews, they expected that all things will be restored too. Even after his crucifixion, his disciples were still hoping that he was going to restore the Kingdom in their lifetime. We know this because they asked him:
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
~ Acts 1:4-6
So, if you do not start your understanding from the foundational point that the Jews were expecting the Kingdom to be restored at that time, you probably won’t understand what is coming. Sadly, too many of us do not understand the spiritual war that is being waged upon us because we read the Bible by picking and choosing isolated scripture soundbites that can be deliberately or accidentally taken out of context. We also neglect and/or completely ignore the Old Testament. We also add man made doctrines from the contemporary world and/or we tie in the totally unbiblical traditions of our forefathers and attach them to our ways of worship.
And here’s the rub, there are many out there in modern Christendom today who feel that they are preparing for Yehovah's coming kingdom who are actually being prepared for Satan's. Because of this, many will come face to face to meet the Messiah on the day of judgment and Yeshua will say to them: “I never knew you, depart from me you who practice lawlessness.” Many “Christian’s” are making the very same mistake of the Pharisee’s that Yeshua condemned them for by adding things to and taking things away from our “Christian religion” that God never told us to.
The disconnect is because there are far too many people who believe they will be saved who only know God through the traditions of their forefathers and the religion they created to worship him in their way instead of knowing him through his word, being born of the spirit and as a result, obeying His commandments like He told us to. Remember this, virtually every miracle Yeshua performed at his first coming was a refutation of the extra-biblical teachings of the Pharisees that they elevated to equal status with God’s Torah and they held them over the people. Today, many Christian denominations have added their own legalistic traditions to their Christian Religion. This is why I ask if it is any wonder why Christ questioned aloud if the Son of Man would find faith on the earth when he returned?
The most important thing anyone can do today is to study the scriptures and understand Yehovah through them and leave the doctrines of men at the door. Remember, just as the Jews had certain expectations regarding Messiah at his first coming, Christian’s today have expectations of their own regarding his second. But are we correct? I think in many instances the answer is no. Those who really love Him must have a correct understanding of what it is they say they believe. Sadly, I think many don’t!
You can’t fully understand why Yehovah sent His son Yeshua simply through the “Red Letter” lens of the Gospels or the writings of the Apostle Paul alone. To understand the New Testament, you must have a foundational understanding of the Old Testament.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Remember, at the time Paul wrote this in his epistle to Timothy, the Old Testament “was” the scriptures! So, study the word from the beginning to the end, come to know Yehovah, the god of Israel, and understand what he has prophesied to come through his son Yeshua whom he sent. His day is approaching and our goal is to be ready. Will you be ready? If you make knowing Him through the study of His word your priority and then live for Him, I promise you that you will be! Commit to the reading and studying of the word and prepare yourself, for the kingdom of Yehovah is at hand!