“In that day ‘I will raise up (restore) David’s fallen tabernacle (shelter) – I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins – and will rebuild it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,’ declares the Lord, who will do these things.” (Amos 9:11-12)
In 70AD the nation of Israel was devastated by the Roman armies that sacked the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. Biblical Mosaic Judaism was no more. The Roman soldiers who torched the Temple were Arab Auxiliaries who hated the Jewish people, a hate tracing its roots all the way back to Ishmael and Esau. Titus tried to stop the destruction of the Temple and sent a command to preserve it but by the time the message arrived the temple was engulfed in flames. The fury of the Arab legions against the Jews was unabated.
David’s tabernacle or tent had fallen. Israel as a nation had become so spiritually bankrupt that God had to send the Romans against His backslidden people. But had He finished with Israel? Most definitely not! Around 40 years earlier a small group of 120 Jewish believers in the Messiah our Lord Jesus, including the 12 apostles, were endued with spiritual power from on High and spiritually resurrected as the Body of the Messiah. David’s fallen tabernacle had been raised to life once again and God had tabernacled once more among this remnant of faithful Messianic believers (Luke 24:48-49) (Acts 1:8) (Acts 2:4). This was the harbinger or the foreshadowing of the complete national and spiritual restoration of Israel to come at the end of this age.
During the siege of Jerusalem, just before it fell to the legions of Titus in 70AD, Simeon the presiding Bishop of the Jerusalem Assembly led the faithful believers through the Roman lines during a lull in the siege and they were miraculously protected from the Romans as they passed undetected through the Roman lines to safety. The first century assemblies, established by the apostles before they were all martyred except John, were all Jewish assemblies. The first Gentile assembly was born when the Roman Centurion Cornelius and his family were all born again, baptised in water and filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44-48).
After this Gentiles started to be saved in great numbers and were spiritually grafted into the Jewish fellowships. The First century Church was Jewish at its very roots and the Old Testament its Bible. In the New Testament nowhere are we told that the Church had replaced Israel. In the first century we clearly see Gentile believers being spiritually grafted into a spiritually resurrected Israel (Romans 11:17-18). Believing Jews and Gentiles had now become one new man in the Messiah with the middle wall of partition separating them removed by His atoning death and resurrection. However, the assemblies still remained Jewish at their very roots and part of spiritually restored Israel (Ephesians 2:11-22).
While God’s plan was always to save the Gentiles it was never His will that saved Gentiles be separated from the nation of Israel but by extension and inclusion be spiritually grafted into Israel and this included Edom, the Arab nations. The apostles at Jerusalem recognised that on the Day of Pentecost David’s fallen tabernacle was spiritually restored and that God wanted the Gentiles to be grafted into Israel and inherit the promises God made to Israel through the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Acts 15:12-18).
When Paul and Barnabus had finished their report to the Council at Jerusalem how God had been saving the Gentiles through their ministry, James, the first among equals, recognised not only that God has spiritually restored Israel but that He had also brought into their ranks Gentile believers. Indeed James quoted the words of the prophet Amos directly from the Old Testament which was the only Bible they had because the New Testament was still in the process of being written. Yet when we look at this prophecy in Amos 9:11-12 it not only applies to what happened in the first century when Israel was spiritually resurrected, but also tells us what will happen again in Israel at the end of this age when the whole nation will be saved (Romans 11:25-27)
According to the prophets Israel as a nation are to be fully restored nationally and spiritually at the end of this present age. In 1948 Israel became a nation again after almost 2,000 years of exile. It was a nation reborn in a day! (Isaiah 66:7-9) In 1967 in six-days the armies of Israel captured the rest of the city of Jerusalem. The whole City was now in Jewish hands. This was a miracle that had been foretold in the prophet Ezekiel Chapter 37.
According to the prophecy in Ezekiel Chapter 37 in the last days Israel would be partially restored as a nation but not spiritually restored at the same time (Ezekiel 37:1-8). This partial national restoration happened in 1948. However, their complete national and spiritual restoration is yet to come in the future. This will happen in the Land itself when a surviving remnant from the Time of Jacob’s Trouble will encounter the Messiah our Lord Jesus and be saved (Zechariah 12:10-14) (Romans 9:27-29; 11:25-27) (Zechariah 13:8-9). Jews from every nation will have been saved and live safely in Israel (Ezekiel 37:9-14). Israel as a redeemed nation will enjoy the Messianic Kingdom under the reign of the Messiah our Lord Jesus (Ezekiel 37:15-28). In that day all nations will be governed from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:1-5).
As believers in our Lord Jesus, and in light of His Second Coming, and as we see this world rapidly deteriorating under the weight of this Coronavirus, and the dark spectre of war and other catastrophes looming on the horizon, let’s remember that after this age is over we have another age to look forward to where we will co-reign with our Lord and Messiah if we have endured to the end through the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 24:13) (James 1:12) (2 Timothy 2:12) (Revelation 5:10). Added to this, after the Millennial Messianic Kingdom there is eternity to come where we will enjoy God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the hosts of heaven and the company of all the redeemed of every age with unabated joy unspeakable and full of the glory of God and that without limits!
As Paul writes; “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9) or as the author of Hebrews writes; “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Let’s also keep in mind that the Lord Jesus is the author and perfector, or the finisher of our faith in Him, and we have this assurance that what He starts in our lives He fully intends to finish because “the gifts and call of God are irrevocable!” (Romans 11:29). After the Messiah has returned to earth and reigns from Jerusalem on Mt Zion in the City of David, He will have completely restored and raised up David’s fallen tabernacle, repaired its broken walls, restored its ruins and will have rebuilt it as it used to be when God Himself tabernacled among His people. Selah!
