The Concept of Recalling Israel Back to Her Destiny
Meaning
God sent His prophets to the nation of Israel, including both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. The prophets were messengers from God, and their primary responsibility was to recall Israel back to the realization of her destiny to be a blessing. The prophets spoke to Israel during the age of decline, from the united monarchy under Solomon in 922 B.C., through the Babylonian captivity in 586 B.C.. The prophets were sent by God because the people were making an end out of traditions and rituals designed to be a means to and end. They were called to be a nation of priests, evangelist if you will, to the rest of the world. A nation who would bring about and follow the Messiah, who is Christ Jesus our Lord.
Therefore, with God’s direct message to the people, the prophets recalled Israel back to the realization of her destiny to be a blessing. Back to her responsibility to tell the rest of the world of the true and living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. However, during this age of decline, the people paid little attention to their responsibility to be a blessing. They paid little attention to tell others about God and His Christ. Instead, the nation of Israel glorified in her past at the expense of her place in the present and in the future. The people had a false sense of security because they were the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they showed no concern for the surrounding Gentile nations, who were lost in darkness.
Israel’s mistakes included making the Temple of God a reason for false security, rather than what it pointed to which was a relationship with God through faith. And with this Israel made its traditions and institutions and ends in themselves, when in reality God had given them these traditions, and laws for good and constructive purposes. In addition, Israel made the law a stumbling block to justice. They also made circumcision a fetish and turned separation as God’s chosen people into a curse, rather than being what God intended them to be. That is a nation of priests of the true and living God to the surrounding Gentile nations.
Because of their rebellion the people put the Holy Land to unholy use and fell into idolatry as a result of their rebellion against God. The people ignored God’s prophets, which eventually led to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the destruction and exile of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed and taken into exile by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., never to return. And the Southern Kingdom of Judah was destroyed in 586 B.C., and taken into exile in Babylon for seventy years. Judah and her people did return and rebuild the Temple, the city and its walls, just as God had promised they would.
“They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, And they abhor the one who speaks uprightly. Therefore, because you tread down the poor And take grain taxes from him, Though you have built houses of hewn stone, Yet you shall not dwell in them; You have planted pleasant vineyards, But you shall not drink wine from them. For I know your manifold transgressions And your mighty sins: Afflicting the just and taking bribes; Diverting the poor from justice at the gate.” (Amos 5:10-12)
“The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, all you peoples Listen, O earth, and all that is in it Let the Lord God be a witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple. For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place; He will come down And tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under Him, And the valleys will split Like wax before the fire, Like waters poured down a steep place. All this is for the transgression of Jacob And for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? ‘Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, Places for planting a vineyard; I will pour down her stones into the valley, And I will uncover her foundations. All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, And all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire; All her idols I will lay desolate, For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot, And they shall return to the pay of a harlot.’ Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals And a mourning like the ostriches, For her wounds are incurable. For it has come to Judah; It has come to the gate of My people-To Jerusalem.” (Micah 1:1-9)
“‘But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.’ Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel.” (Micah 5:2-3)