To restore the kingdom to Israel could only be done by opening the eyes of the Jews to see the kingdom of God. This could only happen by them being born again by the Spirit of God. When this begins to happen it will be the beginning of the restoring of the kingdom to Israel. It will not be the restoring of the nation as a great nation, nor will it be the coming of Jesus. But it will be the restoring of Israel into the Kingdom of God. Remember God had taken the Kingdom of God away from Israel and they were cast into outer darkness because of their refusal to accept Jesus, He then brought the Gentiles from the North, South, East and West (the Gentile nations) into the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 8: 11: And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
12: But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus told Israel this in John.
John 8:24: I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

"I am he" is speaking about believing that Jesus was the Messiah. If they refuse to believe on him as Messiah they will die in their sins. This means they will go to hell. Many preachers today are preaching that the Jews are already saved under the Law of Moses and don’t need Jesus to be saved. It is a lie, all men must believe whether Jew or Gentile. This is the reason that this message is so important to understand. The Church is allowing the Jews to go to hell and are not concerned that they are.

At the time of Christ only a small remnant of Jews accepted Jesus while the rest of Israel was kept in partial blindness because of their own unbelief. The only way into the Kingdom of God is to be born again by the Spirit of God. In fact the only way we can see the Kingdom of God is to be born again. This will begin happening to the Jews during the early part of the Tribulation but will greatly increase in the middle. This will erupt into a revival of both Jews and Gentiles in which millions will turn to Christ and be saved. It is very important that the Church realizes this.

The concern for the salvation of Israel was very important to the Disciples and was expressed by the Apostle Paul himself in Romans the 10^th chapter were he said this.

This was a sensitive subject to the Jews and Israelites that were born again because they knew that judgement had fallen on their family members that refused to believe in Jesus. They knew that unless God removed the partial blindness for them to be saved that they were going to hell. It is the same fear that we have for our own family members when we are reminded in our thoughts that if our loved ones do not accept Jesus before they die or Jesus comes back that they will perish in hell suffering the wrath of God. We don’t like to think about it and they didn’t like to think about it as well. How would we have liked it if the Apostles had decided not to be concerned with taking the Gospel to the Gentiles? What if they hadn’t cared enough to share Jesus with us because it was too difficult or any other reason? Why do the Gentiles neglect the Jew? Paul wondered this same thing, to read about it read Romans the 11^th chapter.

Contrary to what many preach, Ezekiel’s prophecy of the dry bones coming to life in Ezekiel 37 is not about Israel going back to the land in 1948 to become a nation nor the retaking of Jerusalem in 1967. It is actually speaking of the time that God will save Israel (Ephraim) and Judah, both groups, and place his Spirit in them. Then he will bring them back together to the land of Israel after the rapture and marriage supper in heaven. At the time he begins to save them it will be the fulfillment of Matthew 24: 32-34 the fig tree putting forth its leaves. They will come to their complete growth before the coming of Christ before the end of the Tribulation.

Another scripture that points to the prophecies of Ezekiel 37’s dry bones and Matthew 24’s the fig tree putting forth its leaves is found in Zechariah 12:
10: And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
11: In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

The spirit of grace and supplications is speaking of receiving the spirit of Christ to be saved and this will they do. The Jews in the nation of Israel will accept Jesus as their savior. He will open their eyes to believe and understand that it was their own people that shouted to Pilate and said, "crucify him, crucify him." Peter described this in the book of Acts 2: 36: Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
3: 13: The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
14: But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
15: And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

Even today in Israel there is hard resistance to the preaching of the Gospel and a certain amount of persecution against the Jews that convert to Christianity. Because of this when Israel finally repents and turns to Christ there will be a great amount of remorse and regret. But this regret will be soon turned to joy and Israel will take the Gospel to the rest of the world at every opportunity.

Most do not realize that the restoring of Israel to the land of Israel will require two restorations. One would be by bringing many, not all of the Jews back to the land before they are saved and have become believers in Jesus. This is described in Zechariah

This is not speaking of the saving of their souls but their tents, metaphorically speaking of the place of their habitation, where they lived. This was fulfilled in 1948 when the Jews become a nation again. Further fulfillment was when Israel regained the city of Jerusalem in 1967. First there had to be a gathering in the natural, which has already happened. And then there must be another gathering after Israel and Judah have been born-again and completed their calling of taking salvation to the nations through the preaching of the Gospel. They will be gathered together and made one stick with the Christ and then will rapture up to heaven for the marriage supper of the Lamb. After the marriage supper they will return to this earth at the time of Armageddon with Christ when he returns to fight against the enemies of God.

In Ezekiel 37, in the prophecy of the dry bones God reveals a Spiritual restoration followed by a national return of both the houses Judah and Joseph (the Gentiles) to the land of Israel.

In this prophecy of the return to the land it is preceded by the fact that God is going to place his Spirit in them before he restores them to their land. This is one of the things that got my attention and that was to note that when Israel came back to the land in 1948 that they were not Born Again by the Spirit. I knew then that the teaching that Israel’s dry bones in Ezekiel was not speaking of their return in 1948 but was speaking of a later time. A time that Israel will come to the knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ and will receive him as their Lord and Savior. Israel will call on the Lord to be saved before the final return to the land and the final return of Jesus. They will no longer be dead in their trespasses and sins but will come to life, as they become new creatures in Christ.

There are three different places in scripture that speak of the spiritual conversion of Israel and Judah to salvation before returning to the land of Israel. When I first began to see these scriptures I felt that there has been some sort of mistake that has happened by everyone helping the Jews return to the land of Israel. I was beginning to wonder if it was out of step for this to happen, in other words were the Gentiles trying to make prophesy happen? I was relieved when I found the scripture in Zechariah 12: 17 about the tents of Judah being saved first. The three different places in scripture that speak of the conversion of Israel and Judah to salvation before returning to the land of Israel was spoken by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37: 14, by Moses in Deuteronomy 30: 1-6 and then by Jesus himself in Matthew 23: 37-39.

We have just read what Ezekiel had to say by the valley of dry bones. Now let’s see what Moses said about this subject. In Deuteronomy we find a prophecy by Moses that is eye opening concerning the promise of returning to the land in the last days.

As we look at the content of Moses’ prophecy we will see that he is simply saying that there would be a time that Israel would be scattered into the nations of the earth. If they would return to God with all of their hearts (vs2) that God would deliver them from their enemies and bring them back to the land that he had given them under the leadership of Moses (vs3). This is conditional. The promise is that they would have to return to the Lord with all their heart and keep his commandments. In understanding this we must realize that in order for Israel to return to God with their whole hearts they would have to be born again so that God could circumcise their hearts (vs6). In other words it would be impossible for them to do this if God didn’t circumcise their hearts first, fulfilling verse 6. It is important to realize that the people of Israel cannot return to God with out coming to Jesus. Jesus while speaking to the Jew said that no man could come to the Father without coming through the son. In other words there is no relationship between the Jews and the Father as long as they reject Jesus.

This is the condition that they must keep in order for God to bring all of Israel back to the land. God has only partially allowed his people to return to the land and they are constantly persecuted by the nations around them. But when they return to God with their whole hearts having been born again by the Spirit, both those outside of the nation and those within, he will return and place them in the land and they shall live together in peace. This is speaking of the thousand-year reign of Jesus from Jerusalem. At that time after both houses of Israel, Judah and Israel (the Jews and Gentiles) have been born again the dead will be resurrected and the living shall be caught up together with them to the marriage supper of the lamb. They will then return with Jesus to Armageddon and will reign and rule with him on this earth. The center of this rule will be from Jerusalem. We must realize that Jesus will not come back and restore the whole house of Israel back to the land until they have accepted him. If they wait until after he comes back it will be too late and they will perish in God’s wrath the same as anyone else. Jesus confirms this in Matthew 23: 39.

This promise to Israel is often misunderstood because we as Gentiles are moved by emotion that the nature of Jesus is to protect us as a mother hen. There is nothing wrong with this but we lose the message through our desire to see ourselves being treated as little chickens under the mothers’ wings. He will protect us in the same measure that he has promised Israel, yet this is not what this promise is all about. It is a promise to Israel, all of Israel, not just the Jews in the land but to all of those that had been scattered from the past invasions by the Assyrians and Babylonians into the nations around the Mediterranean Sea and the area of Babylon. Millions were living outside of the land of Israel as well as within; they were divided just as they are today. There are over 13 million Jews in the world not counting the descendants of the 10 lost tribes of Israel. There are only around 6 million Jews living in the land of Israel itself

At that time Jesus was telling all of Israel as he spoke to Jerusalem that he would have gathered all of the scattered of Israel back to the land of Israel and would be their King. That he would protect their nation and all of their children against their enemies on one condition. That condition was that they would receive him and believe. But as he said, "ye would not". The promise goes on to say that they would be left desolate, which is spiritual and physical. Their souls would be lean and dry and that the people would be forced from their homes and the land would become desolate concerning Jewish people living there. There has been a few that have returned down through the centuries to the land of Israel. The land was renamed Palestine by the Romans. However a return was unsuccessful until after World War II and in 1948 a small people were able to form a New Israeli Government in the land. But this will not be the main return and regathering of Israel.

In the 39^th verse Jesus said something that defies most of the end-time theology of most theologians. Most believe that Israel will not accept Jesus until he comes through the eastern gate of Jerusalem and they see the nail scars in his hands and the wounds in his body. It is commonly taught that they will ask him where he got those wounds and that he will say, "in the house of my friends." They teach that at that time Israel will recognize him as the Messiah and will fall down in remorse realizing how they had rejected him in the past. I realize that there are scriptures that taken literal would seem to agree with this but I believe that they are to be applied spiritually and I will show you why. In the 39^th verse Jesus said that the Jews would not see him again until they said, "blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Since we know that all men shall see Jesus when he returns for the final time bringing horror to millions and joy to others it is important to know this. If Israel waits until Jesus returns to be saved and believe after he has come back they will go to Hell the same as any other sinner, whether they are Jews or not. Jesus told the Jews that if they did not believe that he was "he" the Messiah that they were still in their sins. The only way we can pass from death unto life is through believing and calling on Jesus. Compare the following scriptures with the 39^th verse.

He will not return until they accept him as Messiah and call on him to be saved. This will begin happening during the early part of the Tribulation and continue until he returns. It will be the fulfillment of the fig tree putting forth its leaves.

The Fig Tree

When the Jews begin coming to Jesus during the early part of the Tribulation it will be the fulfillment of these scriptures. Israel without Christ is like a tree that has dried up and withered and died, yet it can be restored to life through Jesus. Jesus told a woman as he was on his way to the cross in Luke 23: 28: But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 31: For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

In verses 29 and 30 of this passage of scripture Jesus described what it would be like when the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70AD. It told them how horrible it would be for a woman to be trying to run and save her life if she was pregnant. He described what it would be like when trying to hide themselves from the Romans so that they could be spared from death. But being invaded was not what made Israel a dry tree. What made the fig tree a dry tree was for the simple reason that they had rejected the life that would have kept them green. From the time of the crucifixion at which time the Holy Spirit left the Temple in Jerusalem it was 40 years to the destruction of the Temple. During that time God gave them these 40 years to repent and accept him. They did not and over that period of time as they rejected the disciples of Christ and persecuted them for preaching Jesus to them; the nation withered and died as a people of God. The invasion was the results of their rejection.

It is important to understand this. If we believe that the fig tree (Israel) became dry at the invasion because they were driven out of their country and that the fig tree came to life in 1948 when they became a nation we miss the whole point of the coming of the Messiah to Israel. He came to seek and to save their souls in the process however had they accepted him in a large way he would have destroyed their enemies, but they refused. As they accept Jesus they will come to life from being spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. They will then do a great work for Jesus in helping take the Gospel to the world. This will be the fig tree putting forth her leaves.

He said that the generation that saw this happening would not pass away until all is fulfilled. A generation in reality is 40 years according to the Bible; it was used over and over again including the invasion of Israel being 40 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. If the fig tree bringing forth leaves was in 1948 everything should have been over with by 1988. It just didn’t happen and this ought to cause the Church to wake up to the truth. I believe that it will be a quick work and will come to an end much faster than 40years after it begins to happen. God is going to restore Israel to the Kingdom of God.

The answer to this question will surprise most people because it is an unfamiliar area in the New Testament to most believers. In Romans the 11^th chapter Paul revealed the importance of the salvation of the Jewish people and it’s effect on the Gentile nations.

In verse 11 of these scriptures Paul tells us that because Israel had refused to believe in Jesus that God had turned to the Gentiles and they had received the riches of Christ and his promises, eternal life, heaven etc. In other words he is pointing out the results of these actions taken by Israel and it’s effect on us the Gentiles.

In verse 15 of these scriptures Paul repeats this action by saying that if the casting away of Israel brought about the reconciling of the world, speaking of the Gentiles. Then how much greater will the Gentile nations be blessed when Israel does come to Christ? He answered this by saying that it would be like life from the dead, in other words it would be a spiritual resurrection of millions of Gentiles from being dead in trespasses and sins. It is the same as it was in Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the salvation of Israel and the resurrection of the dry bones only the opposite, it will be Gentiles this time. I would say a world revival, what about you?

In Revelations the 12^th chapter we see this happen at the middle of the Tribulation, around the time of the invasion of the Antichrist. Listen to the scriptures carefully and you will see what I mean.

This is showing the revival of lost souls that I was telling you about salvation to the lost and strength to the believer. The kingdom of God will be restored to Israel as well as to the Gentiles and the power of his Christ will be preached in a tremendous way. Greater than at any other time during the history of the world. The power of his Christ is preaching of the Gospel and the cross of Jesus. Paul said that they were one and the same and was the power of God unto salvation to both Jew and Gentile.

I hope that you have enjoyed this teaching and that it will inspire you to pray for the salvation of the souls of the people of Israel. It is hard to reach one through preaching alone. Prayer is the only way we can reach the Jewish people asking God to remove the blindness so that they can receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Your Brother in Christ,
Tommie Spurgeon