The period of the kings of Israel came to an abrupt end when Israel was conquered and its people carried away to captivity by Assyria in 722 BC. The kingdom of Israel only lasted 209 years because every one of its kings was evil. The nation of Judah lasted longer because some good kings were in the course of its history. However, their evil also eventually became so great that the Lord had Babylon conquered in 605 B.C., reconquered again in 597 B.C., and plundered the temple and deported the leaders and skilled workers. Babylon put down Judah's last rebellion in 586 B.C. when it burned Jerusalem and the temple. Judah had lasted only 345 years as a separate nation, and the total period of the king, starting with Saul, was only 465 years. There are those that believe that this was the end of the nation of Israel. There are those that also believe that this was the end of Israel as God's chosen people. I want to be kind, but in claiming such things, those who advocate those ideas only show their ignorance of the Pentateuch, that is the books of Moses, the prophets, and history itself. This morning I want to emphasize the hope of the future redemption given to Israel throughout its history. This will be seen in both the historical reality of its return and establishment after the exile, as recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and in the promise of the prophets of a future redemption that goes much beyond that return. Now remember that the destruction of both Israel and Judah had been forewarned and foretold by Moses, Joshua, and the various prophets during the period of the kings. All the way back in Leviticus 26, Moses had warned the first generation out of Egypt that if they obeyed him, they would be blessed and prosper in the land the Lord was giving them. But if they did not obey the Lord, then there would be increasing curses upon them. The final curse upon them would be that the Lord would lay waste their cities, make their sanctuaries and land desolate, and scatter them among the nations. Moses gave the same warning and prediction to the second generation in Deuteronomy 4, verses 25-28 and 28-64-68. Joshua gave that same warning and prediction to the generation following him in Joshua 23, verses 15-16. As the various kings did turn away from the Lord, he sent prophets to warn them again about the consequences. Among the prophets the Lord sent to Israel were Ahijah, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea. Amos chapters 3 through 8 and Hosea 8 through 10 specifically condemns the nations of her sin and the prophecies of the coming judgment. Among the prophets sent to Judah were Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah, each of them carrying warnings and prophecies of God's impending judgment. The prophets brought messages of judgment, but they also brought messages of hope. They were consistent in this. The general formula began with a description of the sins for which God would judge them, which would then be followed by the consequences of those sins, and this would in turn be followed by a message of hope of future restoration and redemption. The messages of hope often included elements that would be fulfilled nearer in time and elements that were distant in time. This goes back even to the warnings given by Moses and Joshua. Leviticus 26 warns about severe judgment that would include making the land desolate because of their abominations and iniquities. But then verses 44 and 45 add, Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor while I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking my covenant with them. For I am the Lord their God. But I will remember them, the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God, I am the Lord. Deuteronomy 4 does the same thing. After explaining that they would be scattered among the nations and serve false gods, verses 29 through 31 adds this. But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search with him with all your heart and your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you in the latter days, you return to the Lord your God and listen to his voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God. He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which he swore to them. The same is true throughout the writings of the prophets. Though the nation would be severely punished for their sin resulting in their exile, they would not remain in exile. There would also be a future return. Again, some of those prophecies would come true near in time and some are still in the future yet. Jeremiah was a prophet at the time of Judah's final days. He began ministry the 13th year of godly King Josiah's reign when there was a revival in the land. He continued in his ministry throughout the conquest of Judah by Babylon and after. He had a difficult ministry because God called him to preach to a people that would not listen, Jeremiah 7.27. Even when he became so frustrated by that he tried to quit, he could not because the word of the Lord became as fire in his bones and he had to proclaim God's truths. Jeremiah 20 verses 9 and forward. Much of his ministry was warning and condemnation, but he also had a message of hope. In Jeremiah 25, he proclaimed that because of their evil and many sins, the Lord would bring the whole nation into desolation and that Judah would serve the king of Babylon for 70 years. Verse 11. Then verse 12 adds, then it will be when 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, declares the Lord, for their iniquity in the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it an everlasting desolation. After 70 years, Babylon would be punished for their iniquity. Then Jeremiah 29 to 10 gives further explanation, saying this, For thus says the Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile." It was this very prophecy that Daniel was reading in the first year of Darius the Mede. Daniel was a Jewish exile. He was taken to Babylon in 605 BC as a teen. He then served in key positions in the Babylonian government under several kings, and then later in the Medo-Persian Empire, which conquered Babylon in 539 BC. Ezekiel is another prophet living among the exiles during this same time period. Well, as Daniel read this prophecy, he became excited because he realized that the 70 years were nearly completed. This great prayer of confession petition concerning God fulfilling this prophecy is recorded in Daniel 9. While many of the prophecies are somewhat general in nature, another very specific prophecy concerning the return from exile is in Isaiah. Isaiah is prophesying 150 or more years prior to the event, but here's what the Lord says to him in Isaiah 44-28 through 45-7. It is I who says to Cyrus, he is my shepherd. And he will perform all my desire, and he declares of Jerusalem, she will be built, and of the temple your foundation will be laid. Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, his anointed, whom I have taken by the right hand to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make your rough places smooth. I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars, and I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places in order that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. For the sake of Jacob, my servant, and Israel, my chosen one, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title of honor though you have not known me. I am the Lord and there is no other. Beside me there is no God. I will gird you though you have not known me. That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other. The one forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity. I am the Lord who does all these. Now the prophecy continues in verse 13 adds this regarding Cyrus, I have aroused him in righteousness and I will make all his way smooth. He will build my city and let my exiles go free without any payment or reward says the Lord of hosts. The prophecy then continues in Isaiah 48 verse 20 calling on them to go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans, declare with a sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, send it to the end of the earth. Say the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. The book of Ezra records the fulfillment of this prophecy. Ezra 1, verses 2 through 4 gives a decree. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you, of all his people, may his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And every survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem." Cyrus made this decree in 538 BC. And Ezra chapters 1 through 6 recounts the story of the first return under Zerubbabel. Though whoever wanted to return could do so, only 49,697 people did. When they arrived, they resumed the sacrifices and the various feasts. In their second year, they began work on the rebuilding of the temple. They had already laid the foundations when the Samaritans, the people who had been brought by the Syrians to live in the land, began opposing the building. By 534 BC, they had managed to stop the work. The Lord sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to encourage the people to resume the work, and after a series of messages by Haggai in 520 BC, the work was resumed. The hand of the Lord was seen, and that this came about when Darius the king found a record of Cyrus's earlier decree. This resulted in Darius directing the Tenai, the governor of the region, who was the key official that was keeping the temple from being built, to not only stay away from Jerusalem, but to also pay for everything out of the province's taxes and supply anything needed. Anyone violating the decree must be executed by being impaled upon a timber taken from his own house. The work on the temple went forward quickly after this and was completed in 516 BC, which was 70 years after the destruction of the first temple. The vessels from the first temple, which they had brought back by Cyrus' decree, were again in proper use. Ezra's chapters 7 through 10 recounts the return of a second group in 458 B.C. under Ezra by the authority of Artaxerxes, who provided for it out of the royal treasury. Again, anyone that desired to return could do so, but only 1,758 did return. Now, Ezra was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, and upon his arrival, he brought about some needed reforms. The key reform was having those from the earlier group that had taken foreign wives put them away. The evil influence brought about by intermarriage with the pagan people of the land had been the main cause of the nation being taken into captivity to begin with. Well, under Ezra's influence, the people returned to following the Law of Moses. Between the first and second returns is the story of Esther, a Jewish woman that ends up being King Xerxes' queen. God's gracious providence is seen throughout that book as the plan by evil Haman to destroy all the Jews in the Persian Empire is thwarted and Haman is executed instead. The Jewish feast of Purim is a celebration of this deliverance and victory over their enemies. A third return occurred in 444 B.C. under Nehemiah, who had served as King Artaxerxes' cupbearer. Artaxerxes authorized him to return to Jerusalem to rebuild its walls. Though he was opposed by the officials from the surrounding regions, Nehemiah organized and motivated the people to rebuild the walls in only 52 days. Along with the rebuilding of the walls, Nehemiah brought additional reforms. He abolished usury, by which some of the government officials had been oppressing the people. He also had Ezra come to read and explain the law to the people, resulting in the people confessing their sins and a celebration of the Feast of Booths. It also resulted in the expulsion of Tobiah, an Ammonite official that had married into a Jewish noble family priest. They had actually prepared rooms for his use in the courts of the temple. Nehemiah kicked him out. Nehemiah also restored the ties going to the Levites and restored the observance of the Sabbath by locking the gates to the city to keep the merchants out. Malachi was probably the prophet during this time, since many of the evils he denounced are also found in Nehemiah. The prophecies of the nation returning to the land had been fulfilled even to the smallest detail, including the exact number of years of captivity and the name and position of the person who would make the decree. The nation was back in the land and would remain so through the time of the coming of Messiah, which had been foretold. Between the period of Nehemiah and Malachi and the coming of John the Baptist, the Lord did not send any more prophets or give any more special revelation. During that period of time, Alexander the Great had made his sweeping conquest, placing the land under his authority in 332 BC. Following his death, his empire split into four factions, and Israel was subject to the constant wars between the Seleucids, who controlled the regions to the north, and the Ptolemies, who controlled Egypt. Though Israel had periods of independence, such as under the Maccabean Revolt in 164 BC, and that's the basis for the celebration of Hanukkah when the temple was cleansed, the Roman general Pompey conquered the region in 63 BC. All of this was foretold to Daniel as recorded in Daniel's chapters 7, 8, 9, and 11. The details of chapter 11 are so precise that liberal theologians reject Daniel as the author because they do not believe such things can be predicted. However, the Lord declares the end from the beginning, according to Isaiah 46.10, so it should not be amazing to those who believe in the God of the Bible that he can give Daniel such precise details about future events. Those who deny it only reveal that they have a different God from us. The fulfillment of precise prophecy is one of the reasons we have a confidence that it is God that is communicated to us in the Bible. But the prophet said a lot more than just foretelling the restoration of the nation to the land following the exile. He also prophesied of a particular person that would come that would sit on David's throne. I pointed out previously that the Lord made a covenant with King David that's recorded in 2 Samuel 7. Among the elements contained in that covenant are these detailed in verses 12 and 13. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendants after you who will come forth from you and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. There are many other prophecies concerning the coming king. The first one was all the way back in Genesis 3.15 with a promise that one would come that would crush the serpent's head. He has foretold in the covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that there would be one coming through them that would be a blessing to all the nations. Genesis 12, 1 through 3, 17, 19, and Numbers 24, 17. This one would be from the line of Judah, and the ruler's staff would not depart from between his feet, Genesis 49, 10. He would be born in Bethlehem, Micah 5, 2, and at a particular point in time, according to Daniel 9, 25, he would redeem mankind from their sin by paying the penalty for them, Isaiah chapter 53. There are many prophecies concerning more details about his life, his death, his character and nature, and what he would accomplish. We will examine many of those prophecies in the next sermon on the arrival of the Messiah. In some of the A.D., the Roman general Titus captured and destroyed Jerusalem after a long siege. There are many who say that this was the final end of Israel as a nation. There are those that also believe that this was the end of Israel as God's chosen people and that they had been replaced by the church. Again, I want to be kind that those who proclaim such ideas only show their ignorance of the Pentateuch, again the books of Moses, the prophets, and history itself. The very fact that Israel has existed again as a nation since 1948 shows that God is still at work in fulfilling all the ancient prophecies. The great tragedy is that those who deny a future for Israel are also making an accusation against God's character. If Israel has no future, then either God does not keep his promises or the prophecies do not mean what they say for God cannot communicate clearly. People tend to become confused about the future of Israel for two major reasons. First, the prophecies themselves are confusing because many of them contain elements of not only the restoration after captivity, but also the Messiah and a future king that transcends anything that has yet to happen historically. I will point out some examples of this in a minute. Second, many confuse the church and Israel or erroneously think the church has replaced Israel. Paul uses the analogy in Romans 11 of branches being broken off to describe Israel and the church being grafted in, verse 17. He also clearly states that the broken branches will be grafted back in again if they do not continue in unbelief, verses 23 and 24. He then states that there has only been a partial He then states that there has only been a partial hardening that has happened to Israel until the time the Gentiles has come in, verse 25. He then supports Israel's hope of future salvation by quoting from Isaiah 59, 20, and 21, that the Deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant with him when I take away their sins, verses 26 and 27. By going back to the Old Testament prophets, we learn not only God's faithfulness to Israel and her future, but also about the future events that are still to come that will have an effect on us. I must understand the Old Testament in order to properly understand and interpret the New Testament. Let me point out just a few of the many prophecies given to Israel that will be fulfilled in the future. I already pointed out that the covenant the Lord made with David was that the throne of his kingdom of his descendant would be forever, 2 Samuel 7, 13. There are no conditions in that covenant. I already pointed out the prophecy from Jeremiah 25 and 29 that the captivity would last for 70 years and that Ezra recounts the fulfilling of those prophecies. Jeremiah 30 through 33 contains prophecies with elements that would be fulfilled in the return from exile and elements that will not be fulfilled until a time yet still in the future. For example, Jeremiah 31 verses 27 through 37 describes a new covenant the Lord would make with them that would not be like the covenant which they broke. In this covenant the Lord says, quote, I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people, unquote. They would not need to teach each other to know the Lord for they would all know the Lord and he would forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. In Jeremiah 33 verses 15 and 16 he adds, in those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch of David to spring forth and he shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. In those days, Judas shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety. And this is the name by which she shall be called. The Lord is our righteousness. For thus says the Lord, David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. And the Levitical priest shall never lack a man before me to offer burn offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to prepare sacrifices continually. The passage goes on to describe that this covenant could not be broken unless man was able to break God's covenant that keeps day and night at their appointed times. Other prophets have similar elements in their prophecies. Amos not only predicts the captivity and restoration of Judah, but Amos 9.15 includes this promise that is still future. I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God. Micah's prophecies of restoration include not only the prophecy of a ruler in Israel who would be born in Bethlehem, who's going forth from long ago from the days of eternity, Micah 5.2, but also what will happen in the last days. elements within that section of prophecy include many nations seeking the Lord in Zion and him judging many peoples the nation's turning their weapons of war into farm implements so that quote Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again Will they train for war unquote so they live without fear for quote the mouth of Lord of hosts has spoken Micah chapter 4 those are still events that will happen in the future and The prophecies of Joel contain elements that were fulfilled in this lifetime and other elements that are for a future day of the Lord, which would be accompanied by signs in the heavens that have not yet happened. In addition, Judah is described as being blessed and living with abundance and in safety. Joel chapter 3. The book concludes in Joel 3 verses 20 and 21 saying this. But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem for all generations. And I will avenge their blood, which I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion." These are still to be fulfilled in the future. The book of Isaiah has 66 chapters and so contains many prophecies about different things. Included among them are many prophecies concerning the Messiah, Isaiah chapters 49 through 57. and prophecies concerning a future kingdom of Israel beyond the nation's return from exile. This includes future prosperity and safety in which violence will not be heard again in your land. Chapter 60, verse 18. And all your people will be righteous. They will possess the land forever, the branch of my planting. Isaiah 60, verse 21. That future generation will be called the offspring from the Lord, the offspring whom the Lord has blessed, and he will make an everlasting covenant with him. Chapter 61, verses 8 and 9. Isaiah 62, 8 describes a security that time saying this, the Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his strong arm, I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies, nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored. Isaiah 65, 19 through 25 describes a future Jerusalem in which there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping, the sound of crying. No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days. For the youth will die at the age of 100, and the one who does not reach the age of 100 shall be thought accursed. Verse 23, they shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord and their descendants with them. Verse 25, the wolf and the lamb shall graze together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall do no evil or harm in all my holy mountains, says the Lord. Now this has been brief, but there are many more extensive prophecies about Israel's future in Daniel, Ezekiel, Zephaniah, and Zechariah. But it's easy to see, even from what we have looked at, that what the prophets described is beyond anything that has occurred in the past or present. Their prophecies contain elements of things that are still to come. The Jews are still God's chosen people, and He still has promises that He will fulfill concerning their nation. Now, why is this important to understand in an overview of the Bible? Because the character of God is demonstrated by his fulfillment of his prophecies. If God does not fulfill his promises to Israel, then he would not be faithful or trustworthy. He would be a liar. If he could not foretell the future, he would not be omniscient or transcendent. In short, he would not be true God. The fulfillment of prophecies in the past demonstrate that the Lord is God and that He is faithful and true. We can trust Him for the prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled, including all of those related to our own salvation from sin by His grace through faith in the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In short, because Israel has a future, so do we, for it is the same God that has made promises to both.