III.

The Restoration of the Jews.

BY THE REV. THOMAS WOODROOFFE, M.A.,

CANON OF WINCHESTER.

EZEKIEL XXXvii. 21, 22.

Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.

ARE the ancient people of God to be restored to their standing among the nations of the earth, or are they not? Are they, who for their national guilt have been for centuries outcasts

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and wanderers on the face of the globe, to be brought again into their own land, in willing subjection to Him whom they have so long and so pertinaciously rejected, or are they to be merged among the other inhabitants of the world, so that no man shall know where they are, and the term Jew shall cease to be used as expressive of national distinction? These are questions of deep interest to every humble student of the Bible, not as prompted by vain curiosity, but because they involve the principle of interpreting that Book which God has given us as a light to our feet and a lamp to our paths.

This passage of the prophet Ezekiel is one among many which, to my apprehension, unequivocally declare the literal restoration of the ancient people of God to their own land. The terms in which this event is announced are too plain to admit of mistake, the event is foretold in the most unconditional manner, and its accomplishment is guaranteed by the Word of the unchanging God, I WILL. This event, moreover, is not incidentally mentioned in the Book of God. It is dwelt upon again and again, with every variety of circumstance, by those holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by

the Holy Ghost. It is the climax of many a prophecy; the bright light shining at the end of the dark vista of Jewish tribulation; the daystar of the splendour and glory of the Church of Christ. May the same Divine Spirit, who taught His prophets to write, teach us to understand and to believe what they have written; may He keep me from error in my endeavours to interpret His Word, and enable me to set forth His truth for your edification!

I. Let me request your attention to THE

PARTICULARS

PHECY.

SPECIFIED IN THIS PRO

1. THE PEOPLE, of whom Ezekiel speaks, are the children of Israel, all sprung from the loins of Jacob, divided at an early epoch of the regal dynasty into two separate nations, and never at any subsequent period reunited. The ten tribes, you will recollect, after openly apostatising, under Jeroboam, from the national faith, and giving themselves over to the practice of idolatry and the abominations which follow in its train, were driven out from their inheritance into the land of Assyria, and are outcasts and wanderers to this day. The two tribes remained stedfast in their allegiance only for a

short time; following in the wake of the others, they drew down on themselves the displeasure of God, who commissioned Nebuchadnezzar to be His instrument in punishing them; their city and temple were desolated, and they carried captive to Babylon for seventy years. That captivity was the forerunner of another, surpassing it, beyond all the powers of description, in intensity as well as in extent. The crowning act of national wickedness was the rejection of the Messiah; and God has, in righteous judgment on their tremendous guilt, made a way to His indignation, inflicted on them those plagues which He had threatened by Moses, and driven them out of the good land which He had given them, into the utmost parts of the earth for eighteen centuries. Such are the people of whom the prophet speaks, and such their present condition.

2. THEY ARE TO BE RESTORED. I will gather them, says Jehovah, on every side, and bring them into their own land. In His sovereignty He gave them, as the nation of His choice, the good land flowing with milk and honey, between the river of Egypt and the Euphrates, to be their inheritance. The grant

originally made to Abraham and his seed was absolute and unconditional, while the actual enjoyment of it by successive generations was made to depend on the condition of their obedience. The unconditional grant of the country on the one hand, and the conditional enjoyment of it on the other, are strikingly brought before us in Leviticus xxvi. In verses 14-39, Moses denounces the awful plagues which God would inflict on them as the penalty of their disobedience. But, though the vials of Divine wrath would be poured out upon them, they would not be utterly emptied; He would not make a full end of them as He has made of other nations; for, after threatening them with a long catalogue of the plagues with which they should be scourged, He makes this gracious declaration (v. 44): And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God. What was the covenant that should not be broken, but the covenant that He would be their God, and that they should have the land,--the covenant made with