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The O.T. teaching concerning the restoration of
the kingdom to Israel.
Isaiah's prophecy divides into two great sections; the first, chapters 1:-39:, deals
mainly with Israel's rejection; the second, chapters 40:-66:, deals mainly with Israel's
restoration. This second section opens with the words:--
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God; speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her APPOINTED TIME is accomplished (see margin),
that her iniquity is pardoned" (Isa. 40: 1, 2).
The word rendered "warfare" in the A.V. occurs in Dan. 10: 1, where it is rendered
"the time appointed". This prophecy of restoration makes immediate reference to
"the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness". The apostles would know the close
connection between John the Baptist and this prophecy, hence their pertinent question in
Acts 1: 6. Isa. 43: contains the promise:--
"I will being thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the
north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back, bring My sons from far, and My
daughters from the ends of the earth" (Isa. 43: 5, 6).
Jeremiah, too, is a prophet of rejection and restoration. First, the Lord declares that
He will:--
"watch over His word to perform it" (1: 12) (which word, here, was a word of judgment
and wrath).
In chapter 31: 28 the Lord says:--
"And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them to pluck up, and to
break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them
to build and to plant, saith the Lord."
These words refer to Israel, as a nation, and not to "a church", as verses 35, 36 bear
testimony:--
" . . . . . If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of
Israel also shall cease from being a NATION before Me for ever."
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I
have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah . . . . . David shall never
want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel . . . . . If I have not appointed the
ordinances of heaven and earth, then will I cast away the seed of JACOB and DAVID
My servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of
ABRAHAM, ISAAC and JACOB; for I will cause their captivity to return, and have
mercy upon them" (Jer. 33: 14-26).
Small wonder that the apostles said: "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom
to Israel?"