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The Hope of Israel
This "hope of Israel" extends from Acts 1:6 to Acts 28:20, to the very frontiers of the dispensation, and then it abruptly ends. Nothing in the Prison Epistles demands the use of the
word, "restore" for all is new. While the word, "Israel" appears twelve times in the epistle to the Romans, it is mentioned in Ephesians, only to be set aside (Eph. 2:12),
and in Philippians only of Paul himself who was by birth an Israelite (Phil. 3:5). Consequently, we can say that after Acts 28, Israel as a factor disappears from the page of Scripture until
the book of the Revelation is reached and the present parenthetical Dispensation of the Mystery is closed. Abraham, who is spoken of 29 times by Paul in his early epistles, is not mentioned
once. We are fully justified in considering Acts 28 to be a dispensational frontier, it being the dividing line between the kingdom and Scripturcs that pertain to Israel, and the revelation of
the mystery which is directed to the Gentiles.
Israel were the people of God at the birth of Christ (Matt. 2:6), Israel were the people of God at the crucifixion (Acts. 4:27), Israel were a disobedient and gainsaying people, but still a
"people" throughout the period of the Acts (Rom. 10:21). Israel were still a people when Paul reached Rome (Acts 28:17). The hope of Israel reaches to the 28th chapter of the
Acts, and after that is heard no more until seen in the Prophetic visions of the book of the Revelation. A few years after the time of Acts 28, Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple razed to the
ground, and Israel scattered. What greater evidence do we need to prove that at Acts 28 we reach a crisis? Detailed proof that the Saviour's earthly ministry was limited to, and
directed to Israel will not be called for by the reader, one or two passages will suffice for the present.
"Now I say that Jesus Christ was a rninister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the Father" (Rom. 15:8).
To confirm promises already made is entirely different from introducing a mystery hid from the ages and generations, and as it is expressed by the Apostle it makes the fact clear that the Church of
the One Body was not in view up to the time of writing the epistle to the Romans.
"To the Jew first". (1:16). "Ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made unto our fathers . . . unto YOU FIRST. . ." (Acts 3:25,26).
Paul recognizes the prior place of Israel even as Peter did, but there is no such priority in the Church of the one Body (Col. 3:11). When the Apostle actually reached Rome, his first concern
was to see the leaders of his own people, Israel. He does not hesitate to use such terms as "men and brethren," "customs of our fathers," "my nation," which cannot
be interpreted as of any but literal Israel The particular passage however that we now desire to consider is Acts 28:20, where Paul says, "For the hope of Israel I am bound with this
chain.." Romans 15 which we have already partly quoted speaks of the "hope" entertained by believing Gentiles toward the close of Paul's public ministry. After writing
I Thessalonians 4, and I Corinthians 15, and other passages relative to the hope of the Church during the Acts, the Apostle gives as his last word on the subject before his first ministry ceased
(Acts 20:22-25), in the last epistle of the period, the epistle to the Romans:
'`There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentile HOPE (Gr.elpizo); now the God of that HOPE (Gr. elpis,) fill you with all joy and
peace in believing" (Rom. 15:12,13).
Here the hope of the church is based upon the prophecy of Isaiah 11, and is focused upon the millennial kingdom. With the statements of Paul regarding the unique character of the mystery in
Ephesians 3 and Colossians 1 before us, it is impossible to believe that "the one hope" of that unique calling should be millenial in character and based upon Isaiah 11. If we add to
this the opening testimony of Acts 1:6, and the further testimony of Acts 26:6,7, we shall have indubitable evidence that there is one hope extending throughout the whole period covered by the Acts
of the Apostles, endorsed by Paul in his epistles, and further clinched by his reference in Acts 28:20, and that is "The hope of Israel." For the sake of truth let us quote the two
passages mentioned above:
"When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, Saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
"And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers unto which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come. For which
hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews."
If the evidence of these four crucial passages, Acts 1:6, 26:6,7, Romans I5:12,13 and Acts 28:20, is not sufficient to prove to our critics that the hope which covers this whole period of the Acts,
together with the churches called into being while the Acts was in making, is one and the same, nothing we can add can be expected to bring conviction. We cannot let the matter pass without
registering our concern at the blindness and obstinacy of any believer who could so react to these statements of Holy Writ. If Acts 28 be not a dispensational boundary, there will be no change in the
hope of the believer who comes under the teaching of Ephesians, 'the one hope" of that calling will still be "the hope of Israel" which we sincerely trust every reader will say
"is ABSURD", for so it is, and consequently, we have provided yet another proof that Acts 28 is of critical dispensational importance.
Before we give an analysis of Acts 28:23-31, there are several important items that claim attention. We return to Acts 1:6 and note that the real point of the Apostles' enquiry, is not
"will the kingdom ever be restored to Israel?" or "will the kingdom be transferred to the church?" it was the question of time, "at this time". As believing Jews,
they would have entertained no doubt about the literal nature of the kingdom, and as a company just recently instructed by the Risen Christ out of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, they would
have had no room for doubt at all. There is intentional vagueness in the answer of the Lord, but a vagueness that pertained to one feature only "at this time". It could not be to them
whether the kingdom would be restored to Israel at that time, or whether Israel would persist in their non-repentance and so pass out into the "Lo-ammi" condition spoken by Hosea.
"It is not for you to know the times and seasons, which the Father hath put His own power" (Acts 1:7).
This possibility of a "gap" or a deferment is of extreme importance and involves the examination of several passages of Scripture. First, let us note the parable of the marriage of the
king's son, given in Matthew 22. It will be seen that those who refused to come at the first invitation were not cut off, but pardoned for their rudeness, and a second and fuller invitation
was sent to them: "Tell them which are bidden (or them that have been bidden): Behold,I have prepared My dinner. My oxen and My fatlings are killed, and all things are ready;
come unto the marriage" (Matt. 22:4).
The fact that the sequel to this second refusal ended with the burning of their city shows us that A.D.70 is in view, a view repeated in the words of Matthew 23:38: "Behold, your house is
left unto you desolate."
Here in this parable we have indicated the original preaching of the gospel of the kingdom as seen in operation throughout the earthly ministry of the Son of God. Then, there is the sending of a
second message to the selfsame people, but with the added fact that Christ could then be preached as having died and risen, "all things" being indeed "ready." This second
invitation was given at Pentecost and remained open until the hope of Israel was set aside at Acts 28:28, to be followed in a few years by the literal "burning of their city."
Associated with this failure is another related feature, found by comparing Acts 28:25-27 with the words of Matthew 13:14-15. Both passages quote Isaiah 6:9-10 and both quotations agree in
every word, even where they make a slight departure from the Septuagint. The quotation in Matthew 13 is introduced by the words "and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah,"
whereas the Apostle says " Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto your fathers." First, we observe that the strongest term is used in Matthew 13:14 for
"fulfill", namely Gr.anapleroo, consequently Israel had so far manifested that hardness and blindness as to have reached the place where their conversion and healing had become impossible -
yet this same passage is repeated in Acts 28. The reason for this repetition is obvious.
An objection based upon Matthew 13 (regarding the fulfillment of Isaiah 6 in Acts 28) is a dangerous weapon and likely to act as a boomerang., For if it be maintained
that the doom pronounced by Isaiah was fulfilled at the time when the Lord quoted this passage, and that no extension of time under the mercy of God can be admitted, then those who thus teach must
not resent the accusation that must be laid against them that in their view Paul himself must be criticized and accused of falsely applying a Scripture that was already fulfilled and done with..
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