Several questions have been received with reference to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, one correspondent asking how the prophecies of the Ezekiel and Isaiah can be fulfilled if the Jews do not return to Jerusalem, and reign over the whole earth.
An Everlasting Possession
Canaan is a land which God gave to Abraham and to his seed for an everlasting possession: "And I will establish my covenant between me and you and yourseed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto you, and to your seed after you. And I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." (Genesis 17:7-8)
It was to be an everlasting possession for both Abraham and his seed. But Abraham himself had not so much as a foot-breadth of the land in his actual possession, (Acts 7:5) and none of his seed had it either, for even the righteous ones among them (and only the righteous are Abraham seed) "all died in faith, not having received a promise." (Hebrews 11:13; 39)
Therefore the possession of the land involved the resurrection of the dead at the coming of Christ to restore all things. By the resurrection of Christ, "God ... has begotten us again unto a lively hope, ... To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you." (1 Peter 1:3-4)
A World-Wide Kingdom
But the possession of the land of Canaan meant nothing less than the possession of the whole world, as we learn by comparing Genesis 17:7-8, 11, and Romans 4:1-13. That is to say, that which sealed to Abraham his right to the possession of the land of Canaan, was the seal of his right to the whole world.
In giving to him and his seed the land of Canaan, God gave to them the whole world. Not of course "this present evil world," (Galatians 1:4) for, "The world passes away;" (1 John 2:17) and Christ gave himself for us that He might deliver us from it and its destruction; but: "We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13)
It was not the temporal possession of a few thousand square miles of land tainted by the curse, that God promised Abraham and to his seed, but the eternal possession of the entire earth freed from every vestige of the curse. The promise is "sure to all the seed," (Romans 4:16) only through the faith of Christ. Christ is the seed, and we are heirs through Him. It is "the world to come" (Hebrews 2:5) that is put in subjection to Him; and that is what He gives us.
Even though it were true that the little territory of Canaan constituted the whole of the promised inheritance, still it would be true that the Israelites never had it; for the promise which God confirmed was to give Abraham and his seed the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, that is, Abraham must have it for an everlasting possession, and his seed must also have it for an everlasting possession.
But they all died, and in time even the country itself passed into the hands of other people. No temporal dwelling in Palestine could possibly fulfill the promise. The promise still remains to be fulfilled to Abraham and to all his seed. The inheritance is the land of Canaan; but the possession of the land of Canaan means the possession of the whole earth, not in its present state, but restored as in the days of the Eden.
The New Earth
It is evident that the children of Israel did not enjoy the rest and the inheritance, even while in Palestine, for although "He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents, Yet they tempted and provoked the most High God, and kept not His testimonies: But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images, [So that] God...greatly abhorred Israel." (Psalm 78:55-59)
A Heavenly Country
Remember that it was a heavenly country that Abraham looked for. Nevertheless, the promise of God to give him and his seed (including us, if we are Christ's, Galatians 3:16, 29) the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, will be fulfilled to the very letter.
When the Lord comes for His people to take them to himself, to the place which He has prepared for them, the righteous that will be raised incorruptible, and the righteous living ones will likewise be changed to immortality, and both together will be caught up "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
The place to which they will be taken is the free Jerusalem above, "which is the mother of us all;" (Galatians 4:26) for that is where Christ now is, and where He is preparing a place for us. That the heavenly Jerusalem is the place where Christ is now "in the presence of God for us," (Hebrews 9:24) is evident from Hebrews 12, where we are told that those who believe are now come to mount Zion, unto "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, ... to God the Judge of all, ... And to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." (Hebrews 12:22-24)
A Heavenly City
This city, the New Jerusalem, the city which God has prepared for those of whom He is not ashamed, because they seek a heavenly country, (Hebrews 11:16) is the capital of His dominions. It is the "city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God," (Hebrews 11:10) for which Abraham looked. In the twenty-first chapter of Revelation we find a description of those foundations, where we also find that the city will not always remain in heaven, but will descend to this earth with the saints to have reigned in it with Christ for a thousand years after the resurrection. (Revelation 20)
The City Brought Down
But to what spot on this earth will the city descend? Speaking of the time of the destruction of the wicked, the prophet Zechariah says: "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. ... And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall the Lord be One, and His name One." (Zechariah 14:3-4,8-9,RV)
Thus we see that when God brings back the captivity of His people, He brings them to the very spot of earth that He promised to Abraham for an everlasting possession--the land of Canaan. But the possession of that land is the possession of the whole earth, not for a few years, but for eternity. "There shall be no more death." (Revelation 21:4)
It was this glorious inheritance that the children of Israel had in their grasp when they crossed the Jordan, and which they faithlessly allowed to slip. If they had been faithful, a very short time would have sufficed to make the name and the saving power of God known in every part of the earth, and then the end would have come.
But they failed, and so the time was lengthened, until our day; but the same hope has been the one thing ever before the people of God. So we may look forward to the possession of the land of Canaan with as much earnestness as did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, yea, and David also, and all the prophets, and with the same confident hope.
Restoration of Israel
With these few outlines well fixed in the mind, the reading of the prophecies both of the Old and the New Testament will be a delight, for we shall be spared much confusion and many seeming contradictions will be seen to be plain.
When we read of a restoration of Jerusalem, so that it will be the joy and praise of the whole earth, we shall know that the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven, to take the place of the old. If a city on this earth is burnt entirely to the ground, and men build a new city on the same site, the city is said to be rebuilt, and it is called, by the same name. So will Jerusalem, only the city is rebuilt in heaven, so that there is no interval between the destruction of the old and the appearance of the new. It is as though the new city sprang at once from the ruins of the old, only infinitely more glorious.
So also when we read of the return of Israel to Jerusalem, we know that it is not the return of a few thousand mortals to a mass of ruins, but the coming of the innumerable, immortal host of the redeemed to the ever new city where their citizenship has long been recorded. Mortal men will not rebuild the city with brick and stone and mortar, but God himself will rebuild it with gold and pearls and with all manner of precious stones. "When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory." (Psalm 102:16)
He says to Jerusalem, "O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires. And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones. And all your children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of your children." (Isaiah 54:11-13)
These are the stones in which her children take pleasure. "For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof." (Psalm 102:14)
Why will men nullify all these glorious promises, by reading them as though they taught merely the temporal possession of a ruined city on this old sin-cursed earth? It is because they limit the Gospel, not realizing that all the promises of God are in Christ, to be enjoyed by none except those who are in Christ, and in whom He dwells by faith. Would that God's professed people might speedily receive "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, That the eyes of their understanding might be enlightened, that they might know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints," (Ephesians 1:17-18) and that it is to be gained only by: "The exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, Which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 1:19-20)--Present Truth, April 18, 1901 (From "Back Page," Present Truth, April 18, 1901: "The article in the Editor's Corner this week, on the Restoration of Israel [The Return of the Jews], we commend to the careful study of all our readers. This subject will be referred to again when we come to the study of the Fifth Commandment, and consider 'the land which the Lord your God gives you.' The present article will be found an excellent preparation for the better understanding of that clause." PP Editor's note: The "study on the Fifth Commandment" that Waggoner refers to is included in the book, The Law of Life)--Included in: The Everlasting Covenant (1900), Ch. 35, "The Promises Rest," which in turn was taken from an earlier article, "The Promises to Israel. The Promised Rest," in Present Truth, January 28, 1897.