Reconciliation with Israel

Yesterday we looked at a prophecy from Jeremiah and a vision from Zechariah about Israel in the end times. In Zechariah 14: 2–4, the vision continues:

“For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem... Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.”

Here again we see that the present age will close with a concerted attack against Israel and Jerusalem by the Gentile nations but that the Lord Himself will intervene to save Israel. This intervention will culminate in His personal return to the Mount of Olives – the very point from which He ascended into heaven at the commencement of this present dispensation.

As a result of this final period of national peril and distress, all rebellious elements will finally be purged out from among Israel, and those who survive this final purging will then be ready to be reconciled in repentance and humility to their God.

This final purging of Israel is described in Ezekiel 20:37-38, where the Lord first predicts their regathering in their own land and then describes how He will deal with them there.

“I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me.”

The phrase used here, to “make you pass under the rod,” refers to the process by which a shepherd used to inspect each one of his sheep before admitting them to the fold. As a result of this process, all rebels will be purged out from Israel, and those who are left will be brought into a new covenant relationship with the Lord – through the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

The intervention of the Lord against the persecuting Gentile nations and His final reconciliation with Israel are further described in Zechariah.

“It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (12:9-10)

It is the Lord Himself here speaking in the first-person concerning Israel, and He says, “They will look on Me whom they have pierced ...” Here is one of the clearest predictions in all Scripture of the rejection and crucifixion of Christ. However, at this point Israel will at last acknowledge their terrible error, and in great mourning and repentance they will be reconciled with their Messiah, whom they have so long rejected.

In the New Testament Paul describes this final reconciliation of Israel to God.

“And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.’” (Rom. 11:26)