Introduction
In the Word of God there are four main covenants that are all related to Israel. You have the Abrahamic Covenant related to the Land of Israel. The Mosaic Covenant related to the law of Israel. The Davidic Covenant related to the King of Israel and the New Covenant related to the Messiah who completely fulfils the other three covenants. While there are other covenants made in the Bible these four are the main ones. In this study we will be looking at three of these main covenants in relation to the 1,000 year period of time mentioned in the New Testament which is mentioned five times in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 20:1-7), and affirmed elsewhere in the New Testament. Theologians call it the Millennium. With this in view let’s now look briefly at three of the main four covenants we have mentioned.
The Abrahamic Covenant
The Abrahamic Covenant had to do with the Land of Israel which was given to Abraham and his physical decedents, the Jewish people or the Israelites through the lineage of Isaac and Jacob and not through the lineage of Ishmael and Esau (Genesis 15:17-19) (Genesis 17:19-22). The Mosaic Covenant of course had to do with the Law of God for the people of God which would be the laws of the Land of Israel. To have a land with people living in it you also need laws by which the people are to be governed and to live by (Deuteronomy Chapter 28).
The Davidic Covenant
Then you have the Davidic Covenant which had to do with a king. So you have a land that God chose for the People of Israel. You have a set of laws that God chose by which the people are to live by, and then you have a king or ruler that God chose to lead the nation. David was the king God chose after King Saul had rejected the Word of the LORD, and through David’s royal lineage would come the one who would be the ultimate King of the Jews, the Messiah our Lord Jesus who in His Second Coming would rule the earth from Jerusalem sitting on David’s throne forever (Jeremiah 30:9) (1 Samuel 13:14) (Luke 1: 31-33) (Acts 13:21-23).
The New Covenant
Finally you have the New Covenant made with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, not with a Gentile Church (Luke 22:20) (Jeremiah 31:31). In the New Covenant Gentile New Covenant believers are spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel and share in the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant which was always God’s eternal plan (John 10:16) (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:15-18) (Romans 4: 9-25; 11:17-18) (Ephesians 2:11-22).
Israel’s ultimate destiny
Israel’s destiny as a nation is to co-reign with the Messiah in Israel in the Messianic age to come and the destiny of the Body of Messiah is to inherit the earth and to co-reign with Israel and with the Messiah over the nations of the earth for a thousand years (Ezekiel 37: 15-28) (Revelation 5:9-10).
When you collate the covenants and review them together they are all made with Israel and the promises of the land, the law, the king and a kingdom over which the king rules, are all literal promises that have been literally fulfilled to Israel in the past and will be ultimately fulfilled to Israel in the future. (Click here to read “Why there must be a Messianic Millennial Kingdom”). These covenants also give us a comprehensive overview of God’s eternal plan of salvation for His people Israel and for the whole world which was accomplished through the “seed” of Abraham, the Messiah our Lord Jesus in the royal lineage of King David.
In the Old Testament scriptures we have numerous passages where it is absolutely clear the Jewish people will ultimately be nationally and spiritually restored completely and that literally the Messiah after His Second Coming will reign over the nations from Jerusalem and in that day Israel will “possess their possession” and “possess the gates of their enemies” (Obadiah 1:17 (Genesis 22:17).
The Thousand Years Messianic Kingdom is confirmed in the New Testament.
In Revelation Chapter 20:1-6 we have a thousand year period of time mentioned five times in these verses and clearly it directly describes the reign of the Messiah our Lord Jesus after He has returned to inaugurate and to reign for a thousand years over His Messianic Kingdom established on earth. Some will say that this is the only place in the whole of the New Testament that mentions the thousand year reign of the Messiah on earth in the age to come, and that it does not describe a literal kingdom on earth but must be interpreted spiritually.
Those who hold to this view do not understand the nature of God’s covenants made with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah that they would have a kingdom on earth and a king to rule over them after His Second Coming. All of the covenants were made with Israel including the New Covenant, and these covenants must be viewed in relation to Israel. The Bible is a Jewish Book and a first century Jewish New Covenant Messianic believer accepted that at the end of the age the Messiah would return again to earth to establish His Messianic Kingdom on earth in the age to come.
It was Augustine who perpetrated the idea of ‘spiritualising’ the Millennium saying that it covered the time period from the cross to the Second Coming, and that from the redeeming work of the cross Satan was bound. Well if Satan was bound then who let him loose to wreak murder and mayhem on earth? In Revelation Chapter 20 Satan is bound and removed from human contact (20:1-3). So we cannot be in the Millennium as yet! Those into replacement theology have Augustine to thank for this method of ‘spiritualising’ plain texts of scripture to somehow not be related to literal Israel as a nation. Such thinking that the Church is now ‘The New Israel’ or ‘Spiritual Israel’ became widespread after Augustin’s time, yet the Bible nowhere uses these terms. Another term we see used by Rabbi the apostle Paul is the term “The Israel of God.” He writes; “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God (Galatians 6: 15-16).” (See “Who Are the Israel of God?”).
Rabbi the apostle Paul was referring to all who have been spiritually circumcised in heart by the Spirit and that these were true Jews identifying them with the Commonwealth of Israel as a people and a nation (Romans 2:28-29) (Ephesians 2:11-22). Physical circumcision was not obligatory for Gentile believers. The new creation in Messiah, that circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, was the mark of the Israel of God; however, this spiritual truth did not do away with Israel as a nation. Gentile believers had been spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel. The Israel of God is not referring to a Gentile Church that has replaced Israel as a people. This idea that the Church has replaced Israel is not Biblical!!!
Added to this, very quickly after Augustine the Greek, Latin and Roman Church fathers started to Hellenise the scriptures, interpreting them through the lens of Greek thinking and understanding and remove them from their Jewish roots, teaching that God had finished with Israel and had replaced the nation of Israel with the Church. Added to this, also those who are into replacement theology would deny that in 1948 when Israel was reborn as a nation, that it had nothing to do with God or with Bible prophecy, but was an event engineered by man through the League of Nations (Now called the United Nations). Furthermore, they would see the current situation in Israel today of no prophetic significance at all, a blatant, spiritually seductive and deceptive lie out of the bowls of Hell!!!
When you view the covenants they all point to a restoration of God’s literal kingdom on earth, to a restoration of Eden on earth, and the restoration of the Davidic Royal Dynasty. The prophets were all Jewish, the apostles were all Jewish, the Messiah our Lord Jesus was Jewish and the whole Bible is a Jewish Book to be interpreted through the lenses of a Jewish way of understanding and not with a western gentile mindset. To try to make plain literal promises to a literal nation as somehow to be interpreted only spiritually is nonsense!!!
God means what He says, and while He has made spiritual promises to Israel as a nation this does not nullify the fact that He has also made literal promises to them as a nation that are to be understood literally. In order to understand certain passages of scripture related to what we will discover in the New Testament we need to review three of the four main covenants in more detail as they directly connect with what the New Testament teaches about a future Messianic thousand year Kingdom to be established on earth at the end of this present age, and that Israel will have a king to rule over them in the royal lineage of King David. Now we need to look at the three main covenants in more detail.
The Abrahamic Covenant
This covenant was an eternal covenant guaranteed to the physical decedents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Jewish people. This covenant also applied to the spiritual children of Abraham in that all who believe in Messiah for salvation, whether Gentile of Jew are children of Abraham. Gentile believers who are spiritually grafted into the Olive Tree, Israel, inherit the blessings of the New Covenant made with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah through the blood of Messiah shed at Calvary. The Abrahamic Covenant was a specific covenant given to the physical decedents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob being the Jewish people related to the possession of the Land of Israel to be for them “an everlasting possession” in other words, forever!!! (Genesis 17:8). God gave the Jewish people the LAND OF Israel “to possess it!!!”
(Genesis 15:4-8) “Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. And He said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” He said, “O LORD God, how may I know that I will possess it?”
Here we read where the LORD tells Abraham that he will have decedents through Isaac and not through Ishmael and then showed Abraham the stars in the sky and revealed to him that his decedents would be as numerous as the stars in the sky which could not be counted. Abraham believed in the LORD and God credited his faith as righteousness, a righteousness received and bestowed by faith and not by works. Abraham’s faith put him into a right standing with God, the great Biblical truth concerning salvation through faith in Messiah that is revealed in both Testaments (Habakkuk 2:4) (Titus 3:5-7) (Romans 1:17; 3:21-26) (Galatians 3:11) (Hebrews 10:38).
In Romans chapter four Rabbi the Apostle Paul tells us that all who have the same kind of faith as Abraham had, are his spiritual children, whether they are Jew or gentile. Having said this of course does not do away with the fact that the Abrahamic Covenant was made in relation to Abraham’s physical decedents the Jews possessing the Land of Israel. The whole Land of Israel then belongs to the Jewish people, the physical decedents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not through the decedents of Ishmael and Esau. The covenant concerning the Land of Israel for the people of Israel is the foundation of redemption for the whole planet. As the Messiah our Lord Jesus said; “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).
God chose to do it this way. Abraham wanted to know how he could have the assurance that his decedents would inherit the Land of Canaan (Israel today) and the LORD cut the blood covenant with Him and with His “seed” the Messiah (Galatians 3:16), who was to come. We see this covenant taking place in Genesis 15:9-19 and in this covenant God specifically set out the geographical boundaries of the Land of Israel for the Jewish people, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River and everything in between including Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan Heights, Lebanon and part of Syria up to the Euphrates River.
The Davidic Covenant
(2 Samuel 7:11b-16) The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant (“seed”-singular, not plural as in “seeds”) after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”
The LORD promised David that He would raise up one of his decedents, his “seed” (singular, not plural) and establish his kingdom forever. Solomon would build the physical temple but he is not the focus of these promises to David because Solomon spiritually backslid and the kingdom of Israel was not established forever at that time. In 586 BC the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and sacked Jerusalem. It is clear from the text that the “seed” mentioned is the future Messiah, the Lord Jesus in the lineage of David. God would raise up the Messiah.
While Solomon was to build the physical temple, the LORD had in view the spiritual temple of God who would be the Messiah, Israel’s true king who would die and be raised to life again after three days lying in the grave (John 2:19). The temple would also be that temple made up of living stones (New Covenant believers in Messiah) the Apostle Peter writes about (1 Peter 2:5). The Messiah’s throne and His kingdom would be established by the LORD forever! Clearly this “seed” mentioned in 2 Samuel Chapter seven is not a reference to King Solomon but to the Messiah our Lord Jesus in the royal lineage of King David himself.
The Messiah’s house and His kingdom (all those circumcised in heart by the Spirit, being the Israel of God collectively) would endure before the LORD forever. God had promised to the Jews a specific piece of real estate with set boundaries and a king who would rule over it. The throne would be the throne of the Messiah forever!!! The throne of David is connected to the Land of Israel. In the Messianic thousand years kingdom after the Messiah has returned, defeated all of His enemies, fully restored Israel nationally and spiritually, and has inaugurated His reign from Jerusalem, you will have a land, a law and a king and this king will reign over the House of Israel forever! Amen!!!
At present Israel does not possess all of the land promised to them, neither does Israel as a nation by and large accept the Lord Jesus as their rightful king and Messiah. While more and more individual Jews in Israel and in other nations are coming to a saving faith and knowledge of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, many as yet are to be saved and brought out of the Gentile nations back to the Land of Israel. Having said this, the day will come when all Israel will be saved and have their rightful king reigning over them as God’s redeemed people (Jeremiah 30:9) (Ezekiel 37:24-28) (Romans 11:25-29). God will give the Messiah the throne of David as the King of the Jews! As we read in Luke’s gospel; “Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The LORD God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!” (Luke 1:31-33). The house of Jacob is literal Israel including the Gentile believers spiritually grafted into Israel. This is in the New Testament!
The New Covenant
(Jeremiah 31:31-32) “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.”
The New and everlasting covenant that God established through the sacrificial blood of the Messiah was made with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, not with a Gentile Church! It was a better covenant than the Mosaic Covenant because God’s laws would be written on the hearts of His people by the Spirit of God living on the inside of them. As we read…
(Jeremiah 31:33-34) “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbour and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” The Day of Pentecost was the harbinger of the final and full spiritual restoration of Israel that will occur at the very end of the age which would also usher in the commencement of the thousand year reign of the Messiah after His Second Coming.
When the Law was given to Moses on Mt Sinai there was fire and smoke seen on the top of the mountain, which was the outward and visible sign of the presence of the Triune God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Ten Commandments themselves were written on tablets of stone by the finger of God Himself. As we read; “When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18).
On the Day of Pentecost when the Law of God was written on the hearts of the 120 in the upper room there were what seemed to be tongues of fire seen resting upon each of them individually as the law was written on their hearts by the finger of God by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3). From that day onwards all who exercise saving faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile, receive new hearts, new affections and a new direction in life through the circumcision of their hearts by the blessed Holy Spirit, hence, they become members of the Commonwealth of Israel (Romans 2:28-29) (2 Corinthians 5:17) (Galatians 6:15) (Ephesians 2:11-22). On the Day of Pentecost David’s fallen tabernacle (House) was restored and the Gentiles who believed in the Messiah our Lord Jesus were spiritually grafted into David’s House, the Israel of God, which was God’s eternal plan for salvation (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:14-18).
Even though 70AD saw the destruction of the Temple and the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans, almost 2,000 years later in 1948 Israel was reborn as a nation in one day (Isaiah 66:7-9). Ezekiel the prophet foretold their exile and their return to the land in the last days and that after they were back in the Land of Israel the people of Israel still alive on earth would be spiritually restored (Ezekiel Chapters 36 & 37). 1948 saw a partial national restoration, as Israel does not as yet possess all of the land promised to Abraham and to his decedents the Jewish people. In the Messianic age to come Israel will possess all of the Land given to them by the LORD!!!
While many Jews today in Israel and in the Gentile nations are coming to a saving faith in Messiah our Lord Jesus many more are as yet to come to Him. At present Israel as a nation for the most part spiritually are still aliens and strangers to their own covenants of promise and to the blood that was shed in the New Covenant by the sinless and perfect Passover Lamb Himself, the Messiah our Lord Jesus to remove Israel’s sins. When the Time of Jacob’s Trouble comes in the last three and a half years of this present age, there will be a remnant of Jews who will be saved and become a part of David’s Tabernacle (kingdom), the Israel of God, that was spiritually restored on the day of Pentecost (Zechariah 12:10-13:1) (Romans 11:5, 25-27).
It is so easy for some to ‘spiritualise’ texts out of context to support their presuppositions or particular doctrinal position. Does the New Testament alter or change any of these great covenant promises concerning the complete national and spiritual restoration of Israel as a nation at the end of this age ruled over by a physical king? Certainly not! In fact the New Testament reaffirms or reiterates the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants! These covenants have never been annulled. God always remembers His Covenants especially where Abraham and his physical decedents are concerned.
As it is written in the Psalms; “He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded to a thousand generations, The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant” (Psalm 105:8-10).
Notice two words that are in the text related to God’s Covenant promises to the people of Israel “forever” and “everlasting.” This covenant God made with Abraham guaranteed Abraham’s decedents, a land to live in, a King to rule over them, and a Saviour to save them from their sins, and from all their enemies, and from the hands of all who hate them. This was the oath the LORD swore in a blood Covenant cut with Abraham and with his “seed” (singular) the Messiah our Lord Jesus (Galatians 3:16).
This covenant affirmed in the New Covenant cut with the shed blood of the Messiah not only guaranteed Israel salvation, but also included the Land of Israel and their Messiah, the King of the Jews who would reign over the House of Israel and Judah forever!!! For Israel it would be “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:7-8). David will have a physical decedent sitting on his throne in Jerusalem forever!!! A first century born again Messianic Jew recognised this fact! At the end of the Thosand Years Messianic Kingdom, after the final rebellion is put down swiftly, the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven and there will be a new heavens and earth created, and earthly Jerusalem will be merged with the heavenly Jerusalem in the final and eternal state (Isaiah 65:17-25) (Revelation 21:1-4).
In fact, in Matthew Chapter 1:1 we read; “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the Son of David, the son of Abraham.” The fact that He is the Son of David and the son of Abraham points to the fact that Abraham’s decedents will have a king and a Land to live in under the king’s reign. New Covenant believers are already under the Messiah’s reign spiritually speaking (Ephesians 2:6). In the Messianic Thousand Years Kingdom to come after this present age is over, the redeemed of Israel will co-reign with the Messiah on earth. The Jews will co-reign in Israel with the Messiah sitting on David’s throne at Jerusalem, and the Body of Messiah will co-reign with Him over the nations of the world for a thousand years. The throne of David in Jerusalem will have a king to sit on it and the one who will reign over the House of Israel forever!!! This is a future event which will completely fulfil the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants giving the people of Israel a land and a king to rule over them and a saviour from sin affirmed in both Testaments as we see prophesied by the priest Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.
(Luke 1:67-75) “And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant—As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old—Salvation from our enemies, And from the hand of all who hate us; To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”
A first century Messianic Jewish believer, who knew the Old Testament, would have no problem with this prophecy being spiritually and literally fulfilled to the nation of Israel. The New Testament does not re-interpret or ‘spiritualise’ these promises but articulates these promises to Israel literally!
The Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus
From the time of the apostles onwards the early Christians were all premillennial. In other words they all believed that the Messiah our Lord Jesus would return before The Thousand Years Messianic Kingdom commenced. From the time of Augustine (354-430AD) he spearheaded replacement theology by ‘spiritualising’ the thousand years which we have discussed earlier in this article. This theological position is called “Amillennialism.” It teaches that there is no literal millennium and that the thousand years is not a literal period of time. Of course Augustine, like the Latin and Greek Church fathers, started to re-interpret the Bible through the western Greco-Roman lenses and way of thinking and removing the New Testament from its Jewish roots. Anti-Semitism was already well entrenched within Europe and the Jews were designated as “Christ killers.” Augustine’s ‘doctrine’ only added fuel to a fire that had already started to rage against the Jews.
Biblically, the whole earth is still waiting for the regeneration of all things under the reign of the Messiah in His thousand years Messianic Kingdom. The Messiah our Lord Jesus spoke about this when He said to His disciples; “Truly I tell you, in the renewal (regeneration) of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). Here the Lord Jesus is referring to a future time on earth when His disciples will literally sit on twelve literal thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel in the Messianic age. Once again a first century Torah observant, Torah knowledgeable, born again Jewish New Covenant believer, would have no problem with this concept of the Messiah reigning over a literal kingdom on earth being literally fulfilled in a future age.
In the Greek text the word “regeneration” not only has a spiritual application but a physical application as well. In its Biblical context it means “to recreate all over again the signal and glorious change of all things (in heaven and earth) for the better, that restoration of the primal and perfect condition of things which existed before the fall of our first parents” which the Jews looked for in connection with the advent of the Messiah, and which Christians expected in connection with the visible return of Jesus from heaven.
The Son of man we are told will sit on His glorious throne in the regeneration of all things, in heaven or on earth? At present He is sitting at the right hand of His Father in heaven waiting to return to this earth to reign on the throne of David from Jerusalem and to have His twelve disciples also sitting on 12 thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. In Matthew Chapter 25:31-36 we have the Lord Jesus personally present on earth judging the nations that have survived His Second Coming in relation to how they have treated His brethren the Jewish people. It does not pay to be “an Israel basher” because it will affect your eternal destiny (vs.41-46). You cannot love the Messiah our Lord Jesus while at the same time hating and denigrating the Jews!!! The fact that the Messiah sits on His glorious throne on earth clearly reveals a Messianic age and a literal thousand year reign on earth to come after this present age comes to its close.
In fact we see this coming age described in the prophets (Isaiah 2:1-5) (Isaiah 66:17-25) (Ezekiel 37:15-28) (Micah 4:1-8) (Jeremiah chapters 30-31) (Zechariah 14:6-21) and in many more passages of scripture. Trying to ‘spiritualise’ these plain literal texts concerning Israel’s complete spiritual and national restoration at the end of this present age, followed by the Messianic age to come, and trying to make them apply to a Gentile Church, is plainly doing ‘monkey tricks’ with the texts, and in a very real sense trying ‘to make square wooden pegs fit into a perfectly round hole.’ You might try to shave the pegs to fit but they just won’t fit!!!
In the time of the Lord Jesus the Jews were waiting for their Messiah to come who in their thinking would drive out the Romans from Jerusalem and out of the Land of Israel in the same way Judas Maccabeus and his army the Maccabees drove out the Seleucid Greeks and after this reconsecrated the Temple (167-160 BC. The idea of a future Messianic kingdom was engrained in Jewish thinking. Of course the Jews misunderstood the first coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus who came to bring salvation to His people as the suffering servant revealed in the character of Joseph, not to deliver them from the Romans, but from the oppressing power of sin and Hades.
However, in His Second Coming He will come to bring retribution and judgement on Israel’s enemies as the all-conquering King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and as the rightful King of the Jews to inaugurate His Messianic reign on earth. Because the Jews by and large rejected the Messiah in His first coming and at His trial called down a curse upon themselves and their children (Matthew 27:25), they brought upon the nation God’s righteous judgement in 70AD and the curse has passed on down upon their decedents.
In light of this curse it also needs to be said when any Jewish person comes to a saving faith in Messiah our Lord Jesus that curse is broken over their lives because the Messiah in His substitutionary death in their place at the cross became that curse Himself and bore its consequences as well, even though He was without any sin at all (Galatians 3:13) (2 Corinthians 5:21) (1 Peter 1:9). He was the spotless Passover Lamb sacrificed for Israel’s sin and for the whole world (1 Corinthians 5:7) (1 John 2:2).
However, because the Messiah our Lord Jesus became Israel’s Passover Lamb sacrificed for their sins, by the power of His blood to atone for sin, He broke the power of the curse of sin and death at the cross guaranteeing a future time would come when the whole nation of Israel itself would be spiritually and nationally restored completely because of that atoning sacrifice for their spiritual defilement because of sin. (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). A partial spiritual restoration occurred on the Day of Pentecost (the former rain of the Spirit) that will come to its fullest fulfilment at His Second Coming when all Israel will be saved (the latter rain of the Spirit). Israel as a nation is yet to pass through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble to bring them to the Messiah to be saved. After this has occurred the Messiah will reign over them on the throne of David (Jeremiah 30:1-10), a remnant will survive to co-reign with the Messiah on earth (Zechariah 13:8-9).
In that day all Israel will be saved! (Romans 11:25-29). This time of Jacob’s Trouble will be the time of Great Tribulation lasting for three and a half years in duration (1,260 days, 42 months, a time, times and half a time) (Matthew 24:21-22) (Daniel 12:1), and then the Messiah our Lord Jesus will come back immediately after the tribulation of those days, not before, and at that time His angels will gather His elect saints from every corner of the earth to meet Him in the air at His Second Coming (Matthew 24:29-31) (Mark 13:26-27) (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). His Second Coming will not be secret one but open and visible for everyone still alive on earth to see (Luke 21:27) (Revelation 1:7). He will come again to earth in the same way He ascended into heaven in the clouds and visibly for all to see (Mark 13:26) (Acts 1:11).
In Matthew 24:27 we are told that His Second Coming will be like the lightening that flashes from east to west. The Greek word used is “as light” or as “the light of the morning sun” or as “rays of light coming from the east.” Also we see mentioned that “where the carcass is there will also be vultures.” The idea of a dead and decaying body describes the conditions of the world spiritually while “the vultures” describe a world under the power of the horde of wicked entities feeding on the souls of the unsaved, producing a world filled with violence, sexual perversion, sodomy, bestiality, debauchery, hedonism, paedophilia, greed, pride, arrogance, injustice, spiritual deception and with the imaginations of people around the globe continuously preoccupied only with evil all of the time, with wicked thoughts, desires and actions, just as it was in the time of Noah before the flood, and in the time of Lot, just before the fire fell from heaven upon those wicked cities in the plain, being Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 24:37-41) (Luke 17:26-30). When you look at today’s world we are definitely living in the last days that clearly reflect the wicked days in the time of Noah and Lot. This is where the whole world is today. Only the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus will save the whole planet from self-destruction (Matthew 24:21-2).
At one time while He was still on earth His disciples asked Him whether at this time He was going to restore the kingdom of Israel. He did not deny this fact that He would do this as this was the expectancy of every Jew, not just the disciples. He did not deny this expectancy they had of a future Messianic Kingdom on earth with its HQ at Jerusalem, and made a reference to the fact that they were not to know the times or the dates the Father had set by His own authority, but that they should focus on their witnessing and work for Him after the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon them (Acts 1:6-8). The timing of the establishment of the Messianic kingdom was not important; however the establishment of the Kingdom of God, also defined as the Gospel of the Kingdom, was of vital importance and to be preached (proclaimed) in every nation of the world and only after that was accomplished would the end come (Matthew 24:14).
Notice the Lord Jesus also said that His disciples “were not to know the times or the dates.” Date setting related to His Second Coming will always prove to be wrong as we have already seen down through the history of Christendom perpetrated by certain ‘very sincere’ individuals who were ‘very sincerely’ wrong! However, He did not imply that His disciples were not to know “the signs” of His Second Coming. In fact His Second Coming and the signs of it are clearly revealed in many places in the New Testament in the gospels and the epistles and especially throughout the Book of Revelation. Eschatology can be a very powerful and effective tool in evangelism as everyone wants to know about the future! In fact we are not to ignore Bible prophecy (2 Peter 1:16-21). (See “Why is Bible Prophecy Important?”).
In the Book of Acts we also see that the Messiah’s Second Coming has been appointed by God the Father and that He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago through His holy prophets (Acts 3:20-21). “The restoration of everything” The word “restoration” describes “a true theocracy reigning over the perfect state before the fall.” In other words Eden would be restored on planet earth under a theocratic government.
As we read in the prophet Isaiah; “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:6-7). Notice in this prophecy that the government will be resting upon the shoulders of the Messiah. He will have a government and a throne to sit on from where He will govern the nations. It will be David’s throne at Jerusalem!!!
Epilogue:
In the time of the restoration of all things according to the Abrahamic, the Davidic and the New Covenant, the Messiah our Lord Jesus will return to the Land of Israel and the Jews will have a land to live in with a king to rule over them forever!!! When the Messiah comes back He will reverse the curse from the fall of man and Eden will be restored. Even the animals will live at peace with humans. As we read in the prophet Isaiah; “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain (the Millennial Temple at Jerusalem), For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:6-9).
The Messiah is coming back to reverse the curse and to put an end to it and the nightmare it has created in the world in this present evil age and to establish righteousness, justice, peace and His laws globally, and to establish the throne of David forever on which the Messiah will sit to rule over the nations from Jerusalem. In that day for a thousand years Satan will have been removed from human contact and “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.”
The New Testament does not change the Old Testament, but reaffirms the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their decedents the people of Israel and to the Gentiles spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel that collectively make up “the Israel of God!” If God’s Word mean anything then what He has said must be true!!! A restoration thousand year period of time following this present age is coming for the people of Israel where the Messiah will rule and reign on the throne of David as the King of Israel. In that day the Messiah will have fully restored the Jewish royal Davidic dynasty that “torpedos” antisemitism and replacement theology and puts to silence the “Israel bashers” once and for all time!!!
