Hope of Restoration

The goal of today’s study, is to get to understand the Hope of restoration of God’s people after they sinned and went into exile.

Recap

2 Corinthians 3:3–7 NKJV

3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. 4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,

So we find the letter, tablets of stones that it kills, it ministers Death.

But the letter, the tablets of stones were part of the first covenant, so to understand Paul’s statement, we have to investigate the first covenant, this is something we have done so far in this study.

Moses & Paul

Deuteronomy 5:1–5 NKJV

1 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. 4 The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. 5 I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said:

So, they heard the Lord speak to them face to face, i.e. without any medium, they all heard his voice.

Then the words they heard, was written on tablets of stones.

Deuteronomy 5:22 NKJV

22 “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

But why?

verse 25-27

Deuteronomy 5:25–27 NKJV

25 Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die. 26 For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.’

So, when they all heard the voice from heaven, they rejected it, and said, “you speak to us, God should not speak to us”, but we notice, they do not have any challenge with “what was said”, the challenge was with “Whose voice”.

Now, God gave Moses the real reason for that rejection;

Deuteronomy 5:28–29 NKJV

28 “Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. 29 Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

So, no heart to fear God, hence, the result is Israel would not do God’s commandments, why, because they do not have in them the heart to fear God, i.e. the right heart.

Now, God had to write the commandments, for Moses to teach the people the law.

Deuteronomy 5:30–31 NKJV

30 Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” 31 But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.’

Summary of Our recap

The people that heard the first covenant, didn’t have the right heart

Hence, they weren’t going to be able to do God’s law.

God then wrote the law, for Israel to turn, hence, have faith.

The story of Israel was one of people whom entered into a covenant with God, but do not have a right heart.

Blessing & Curse of the Law

Now, the keeping of the law or breaking of the law, determined Israel’s destiny in the land.

They could either have “life” in the land, or experience “death” in the land, and this was based on keeping the law.

Deuteronomy 28:1–3 NKJV

1 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: 3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.

Notice, something that what they should obey, is same voice they rejected, but they were to observe carefully all His commandments, they they will have blessings in the land.

Deuteronomy 28:15–16 NKJV

15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

pronouncing curses — kuh-sez;

So, based on their response to the voice of the LORD, either keeping or breaking of the law, they could experience either curse or blessings.

Curse of the law

Deuteronomy 29:1–4 NKJV

1 These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb. 2 Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land—3 the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.

So, as they were about to cross river Jordan into the Land, Moses spoke about all of them in general that to that very point “The lord has not given you a heart to perceive”, “eyes to see” and “Ears to hear”. Why? Because Israel had not turned, they rejected the God and his voice, hence, they do not have the right heart, “God has not yet given the heart”.

Hence, Israel had a future that was either ways certain, unless they turn to the Lord. Their future will be that they will experience the curse of the law.

Now, that curse of the law got described in Deuteronomy 29;

Deuteronomy 29:14–19 NKJV

14 “I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone, 15 but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today 16 (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, 17 and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold); 18 so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood; 19 and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.

So, a man, or a woman or a family or a tribe.

So, if a man turns to other gods, what happens is stated to us the ultimate or climax of the curse of the law,

Deuteronomy 29:20–21 NKJV

20 “The Lord would not spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law,

So, the individual that does this, will be cut off from amongst the people. The person would experience death. This is the ultimate curse of the law. It is banishment or removal leading to death.

Why will this happen? Because his individual act, threthens the entire nation

Leviticus 18:24–29 NKJV

24 ‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. 25 For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. 26 You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you 27 (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled), 28 lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you. 29 For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

So, the removal of the individual, is because it threthens the whole assembly, and could ultimately lead to the banishment or removal of the entire nation. So, within a covenant, it is not mainly about the individual, the act of the individual in turn could affect the entire nation.

Now, what if a tribe doesn’t follow the commandment, as a people they all turn to other God’s.

Now, what is a tribe? Remember there is twelve tribes of Israel, and they all had their own region, where they settled, so within the promise land, they had their landmarks.

Now, it was possible that as a people, in a land, that they all decide to follow the immagination of their heart, let us look at what could happen to that tribe, or even the entire nation all together;

Deuteronomy 29:21–28 NKJV

‘The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ 24 All nations would say, ‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ 25 Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; 26 for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. 27 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. 28 And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

So, the entire nation themselves could experience death. Now, what does that mean? It is the assimilation of the entire tribe, nation or kingdom, into another nation, hence, you seize to exist as a distinct people.

So when I say “Ephraim” died (a tribe), what has happened to “Ephraim” is that we can’t categorically say, “THIS ARE THE EPHRAIMITES ANYMORE”. On what category? They have become part of another people. This is literally what happened to them;

Israel in the Land

1 Kings 11:9–13 NKJV

9 So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded. 11 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 12 Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

One tribe for the son of Solomon;

in Chapter 12, under Rehoboam (Son of Solomon), the kingdom became split into two.

1 Kings 12:18–20 NKJV

18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of the revenue; but all Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. 20 Now it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.

So, from now on, we have the Kingdom of Judah (which consist of Judah and Benjamine and also Simeon — a small tribe that was within Judah also), but the major tribes about 10 belonged to the Northern Kingdom.

So, what happened then was “Northern kingdom” became what we will call “Kingdom of Israel” while the southern kingdom would be called “Kingdom of Judah”.

Now, remember, the heart issue persisted into generations, and what we will find out was, the Kingdom of Israel, followed other gods and experienced exile.

The Northern kingdom & It’s Sin

2 Kings 17:1–2 NKJV

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. 2 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

So, you will clearly see the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel, having separate kings, now verse 5 began to let us know what happened to the kingdom of Israel over time.

2 Kings 17:5–8 NKJV

5 Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7 For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had feared other gods, 8 and had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.

So, you will see clearly, that they went after other God, and served other gods.

Verse 13-14 lets you see why;

2 Kings 17:13–14 NKJV

13 Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.” 14 Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

Just like their fathers, they also did not believe in the LORD their God.

From what we have been learning so far, what would happen to them, was exile, which will lead to “death”.

2 Kings 17:17–18 NKJV

17 And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.

Notice again, the Lord was very angry with Israel! Not all the tribes, but the tribes that were part of Israel. Judah, remained alone.

Now, when we read on, what happened was “he removed them from His sight”. This is exactly what we call exile, and it will eventually lead to their death.

2 Kings 17:20–23 NKJV

20 And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His sight. 21 For He tore Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin. 22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, 23 until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day.

So, what did the northern kingdom experience? EXILE, i.e. carried away from their own land, and it was so to that very day.

So, Israel i.e. the northern kingdom, experienced the curse of the law, that is they were removed from the land, and as a people they died, meaning, we could not identify who they were anymore, as a people. They have been assimilated into other cultures and other people.

Hosea 13:1 NKJV

1 When Ephraim spoke, trembling, He exalted himself in Israel; But when he offended through Baal worship, he died.

Hence, Ephraim is dead, we can’t pick out which tribe it is anymore (2kings 17:24-41). They have become assimilated. So, this is the death of a nation.

Hope

The interesting part was, Moses already said this is what will happen, Israel would experience both the blessings and the curses. Why? When they get into the land, they will not keep God’s law, rather, they will follow the dictates of their own hearts, and eventually, they will be removed from the land, but “DEATH IS NOT THE END”

Deuteronomy 30:1–6 NKJV

1 “Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, 2 and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. 5 Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

While in exile, what would happen was, “Israel would begin to call to mind the words of the Lord”, then, they will begin to “obey His voice”;

— Now, this text is quite hard to translate, because, which happens first? Israel returning to the Lord, or God gathering Israel from amongst the nations, then giving them a new heart so as to Love the Lord your God? because we need a new heart to obey God. (We will deal with this next week).

But, what we see is, DEATH IS NOT THE END, God is set to gather all of Israel from amongst the nations, and God himself, will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your descendants.

So, the story did not end in death, it will end in the regathering of Israel, and the giving of a new Heart and Spirit.

Hence, the very root cause of Israel’s failure, GOD WOULD ACT AND FIX IT. HE WOULD EVENTUALLY HAVE ALL ISRAEL, WITH A HEART CIRCUMCISED, AND THEM DOING HIS VERY LAW.

This sets the tone for our understanding of the New Covenant. Let’s read it abit as we will explore further next week;

Jeremiah 31:31–34 LEB

31 Look, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day of my grasping them by their hand, bringing them out from the land of Egypt, my covenant that they themselves broke, though I myself was a master over them,” declares Yahweh. 33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts and on their hearts I will write it, and I will be to them God, and they themselves will be to me people. 34 And they will no longer teach each one his neighbor, or each one his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for all of them will know me, from their smallest and up to their greatest,” declares Yahweh, “for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will no longer remember.”

It is a new covenant, where God’s law will be on the heart of his people. Yet, this covenant as you will note, is with the house of Israel.

So, we are left with some unknowns, What about the gentiles? How are we in the New covenant? More for us to study