SECTION IV. RESTORATION OF THE KINGDOMS BOTH OF In the preceding Section, we have endeavored to prove, from the contexts of the passages adduced, that their only legitimate application is to the literal house of Israel; and that the restoration they predict is yet future. Distinct as these passages are, in proof of the positions maintained, those now to be cited are more obviously so, as the class of predictions they contain are still less capable of being alienated from their proper objects. Their accommodation to the Gentile church is still less admissible, because, from the distinctions they make, it is rendered more apparent that they relate to the descendants of Abraham. By express mention of the kingdom of Israel or the Ten Tribes, distinguished from that of Judah or the Two Tribes,* their reference to the literal Israel is put beyond question; while the fact that the ten Tribes have received no general restoration since these predictions were given, renders it equally manifest that their promised return to the Holy Land is still future. Under Ezra, a small portion of the Israelites returned from Babylon to their own land, when liberated by Cyrus. But those who went up were in all only about fifty thousand, (including about seven thousand servants, Ezra ii. 64, 65.) not a fifth of the whole, and these appear to have been almost all, if not wholly, of the kingdom of Judah: namely the Two Tribes, Judah and Benjamin: (Ezra i. 6. iii. 9. iv. 1, 12.;) while we are expressly told that the "nations whom the great and noble Asnapper brought over, and set in the cities of Samaria," when the Israelites were carried into Assyria, still continued to occupy them. (Ezra iv. 10.) Attention is forcibly called to this distinction in certain predictions which relate to the different circumstances in which they have so long been placed- Israel being outcast and Judah dispersed. For at the time Samaria was taken by Shalmanezer he" carried Israel [the Ten Tribes] away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor, by the river of Gozan; and in the cities of the Medes.... And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria. instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof." 2 Kings xvii. 6, 24. Of the captive Israelites, individuals would doubtless embrace opportunities of returning, but it is known with certainty that no general restoration of them has since taken place. The testimony of History proves, that, both in the first and fifth centuries of the Christian era, they were still in or near the places, of their original settlement; but latterly they have disappeared from observation, and various conjectures are now entertained concerning their present situation and circumstances.* The Lord will, however, in His own time, bring them from their hiding place, as in the following predictions they are clearly distinguished from the kingdom of Judah, with whom they are to be restored and afterwards re-united. With justice, therefore, in arguing the question, we might have assumed that those predictions which declare their combined restoration, "even the whole house of Israel," still remain unaccomplished. In addition to the evidence of this palpable fact, we will, however as in the preceding Section, endeavor to prove, from The features and customs of the American Indians have led many to believe them to be of Jewish extraction; and it was the opinion of Sir William Penn, that they were no other than the remnant of the Ten Tribes of Israel. Various authors have since adopted the same view and a work entitled "The Hope of Israel" has lately been pnblished, endeavoring to establish the fact. The work itself we have not yet seen; but if the numerous striking coincidences mentioned in its Introduction (as quoted in the Jewish Expositor for January, 1830) have been satisfactorily ascertained' they may certainly be considered as forming "Presumptive Evidence that the Aborigines of the Western Hemisphere are the long-lost Ten Tribes of Israel." Among those who entertain a different opinion of their place of concealment, it may not be uninteresting to mention, are two converted Jews, who, unconnected with any Society, sailed from Greenock in September, 1830, for Calcutta, with the design of seeking the Ten Tribes in Central India. the several contexts themselves, that this restoration has not yet been obtained. "For, lo! the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." Jer. xxx. 3. The inspired prophet imme diately adds," and these are the words which the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah." ver. 4. It might almost be supposed, from this renewed specification, that the repetition was designed to prevent the possibility of any alienation of the consolations the prophecy presents, by the misapplication of it to the Gentile church. Their return being to the same "land” which the Lord gave to "their fathers," the restoration must be literal. Nor is there any necessity to destroy the meaning of language, by calling this a prediction of their conversion, (a misnomer at which we have sometimes occasion to marvel,) that being also distinctly foretold: "They shall serve the Lord their God and THE BELOVED,* their King, whom I will raise up unto them." ver. 9. This, therefore, is an unnaccomplished prediction, as neither the house of Israel nor that of Judah yet" serve" The Beloved-the King they shall ultimately acknowledge and serve. The same prophet again records a similar prediction: "In those days, the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north, to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers." Jer. iii. 18. If, then, "the land given for an inheritance" to their fathers was the land of Palestine, their return must be to it. This will be "in those days" when" they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord, and all the na * In an admirable Letter to the Rev. Dr. Hamilton of Strathblane, by Henry Drummond, Esq., in "Defence of the Students of Prophecy," the proper meaning of the name "David," used in our Translation of this and other prophecies concerning the Saviour, is well explained. Signifying, as it does, "The Beloved," (a title applied to the Saviour in the New Testament, Eph. i. 6.,) for the sake of perspicuity we have, in the above quotation, and in others of a similar nature, made the substitution. tions shall be gathered unto it." ver. 17. This, however, it is scarcely necessary to say, is one of the promises concerning the Millennial Day; which is farther evident from its being at the time of their last conversion: "neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart." ver. 17. Although not named, both kingdoms are expressly included in the restoration declared in the following prediction by Zephaniah: "Behold at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and I will save her that halteth, AND [also] gather her that was driven out; and I will get them [both] praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord." Zeph. iii. 19, 20. Israel is "her that halteth," and Judah "her that was driven out;" but the shame of both, it is here foretold, shall cease together. Each of the two classes is first specified singly, and then they are spoken of conjointly, in the plural number; "I will get them praise and fame in every land." The one is to be saved, the other to be gathered; and "the captivity" of both is to be turned away. The time to which the prophecy relates is when those who have afflicted Israel shall be undone; and the futurity of its fulfilment may also be ascertained from the promise that then "the remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity," and they shall "not see evil any more." ver. 13, 15. Isaiah also bears explicit testimony to the same truth: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." Is. xi. 10-12. This is not the Gentile church,for in the preceding verse, "the Gentiles" are expressly mentioned as quite distinct both from "the outcasts of Israel," and from "the dispersed of Judah." Could any thing be more obvious than that this promise is to both kingdoms of Israel distinct from the church, by the very names of the Gentile nations whence they are to be rescued being thus introduced? And it is farther to be observed, that, as it has only been by their last captivity that Judah has been dispersed into "the four corners of the earth," this gathering cannot yet have taken place. That it refers to the period of the Millennium, the whole context indeed distinctly proves, when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." ver. 9. Nor is it to be confounded with their conversion, which is here again also foretold: "The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation." (xii. 2.) The restoration of both Israel and Judah, and their subsequent union, were symbolically represented to the prophet Ezekiel. He was commanded to take " one stick and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions; then take another stick and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions." These he was commanded to join "one to another into one stick." This, he is informed, represents the union of the tribes of Israel with those of Judah; and it is added by the Lord," 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.... And THE BELOVED, my servant, shall be King over them....and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever, And my servant, THE BELOVED, shall be their Prince for ever." Ezek. xxxvii. 21 C |