If we pray, “Come Lord Jesus,” and “Thy kingdom come,” we must recognize that these prayers will not be answered until the Jewish brethren of Jesus are regathered into their own land, and say to Him, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39). Jesus will not return until His biological brothers and sisters (the Jews) are ready to welcome Him and embrace Him. He will then replace their hardened hearts with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26) and they will look upon Him whom they have pierced and mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son. (Zechariah 12:10).
The coming of the kingdom of God is the consummation of a marriage relationship. All of human history has been and is about the forming of a holy bride upon whom God can lavish His love, and by whom He may be loved. All of creation is longing for this consummation (Romans 8:19). It is the reason why the visible universe was created. It is all about the Love between a Heavenly Bridegroom and His Bride.
As Jacob greatly desired Rachel, he was constrained to marry Leah, as well. Regardless of the human emotion involved and the manipulation of Laban, this was ordered by God, for the two brides ultimately brought forth the whole house of Israel (Genesis 29-30).
In the same way, Yeshua Messiah passionately loves both the Gentile Church and Israel. He longs for the day when He will be one with both, and in Him, the two will actually become one bride. Then the wedding can occur![i] The household of God will not be complete until Jew and Gentile are “reconciled both in one body to one God through the cross” (Ephesians 2:16). See also Ephesians 2:11-22.
Just as Joseph was reunited with his family in Egypt, Jesus longs to be reunited with the extended family of His physical birth. His heart has long been broken over the breach that has existed for over two thousand years.
God is preparing Israel for this great reconciliation by regathering the Jewish people into their own land. Scripture is clear that this great exodus from every nation to which they have been dispersed and this regathering to their land of inheritance must precede their profound spiritual awakening. (See Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 31:8-10; Jeremiah 30:3; Ezekiel 39:25-29; Jeremiah 16:14-15; Jeremiah 32:37-42; Ezekiel 11:17; Ezekiel 20:41; Ezekiel 36:24). Jeremiah 31:31-36 states that all of this is being done so that God may fully restore Israel and bring her into the new covenant.
Though there has been a long season in human history during which Israel has been “broken off” (see Romans 11:20) – God has never broken His eternal covenant with her. Even as He released strong judgement upon Israel, dispersing her to Gentile nations, He made the amazing vows found in Jeremiah 31:35-37 and Jeremiah 33:20-26. These vows, largely overlooked by the church, declare that as long as the sun shines and the moon is in its place and the stars appear in the sky, as long as the cycle of day and night continue, God is keeping His covenant with Israel. They may be faithless, but He is ever-faithful to His covenant. All one needs to do is to look up into the night sky or toward the noonday sun to be assured of God’s everlasting covenant with His people, Israel.
Another fact commonly overlooked is that Moses foretold the entire history of the Jewish people, including the scattering and regathering, as well as the renewing of the covenant, in Deuteronomy 4:23-31 and Deuteronomy 30:1-6.
As all of this occurs, it will be a banner to the nations. In his book, The Last Word on the Middle East, Derek Prince wrote that a banner is a brief message meant to proclaim and provoke. This banner proclaims that God keeps His everlasting covenants, and it points to the coming of Messiah. “It is God’s purpose,” wrote Derek, “that all nations be confronted with this message.”[ii]
God is doing all of this for His Name’s sake (Ezekiel 36:22). It is motivated by His love, not only for Israel, but for the world. It is motived by His desire for His bride. The miracle of Israel’s restoration will be a message to the nations declaring who He is, in order that they may respond to His love and turn to Him.
We are to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6-9). The very essence of this prayer is “Thy kingdom come.” There will be no peace in Jerusalem until His kingdom is established there. The realization of the kingdom of God upon planet earth will be the consummation of a marriage between Yeshua Messiah and His beloved bride. Only upon the spiritual awakening of Israel and the “making of both groups (Jew and the true church) into one, who then dwell in intimate communion with their Husband-King, (Ephesians 2:14) will there be peace in Jerusalem and upon this planet. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem, then, is to pray for all of God’s purposes for His creation to be fulfilled.
Throughout the long centuries of their dispersion, the most brutal sufferings of the Jewish people were inflicted upon them by “Christians.” By being grafted into the eternal covenant which God first established with the Jews through Abraham (see Romans 11:17-18), Christians are partakers of the inheritance of a Jewish Messiah (Hebrews 3:14). God did not have to allow the Gentiles into the plan at all – but He did. Therefore, Gentile believers owe a great debt to the first Covenant people. It is through them that the prophets, the Bible, and the Savior have come. In John 4:22, Jesus said, “Salvation is of the Jews.” For the most part, Christians have not honored this debt or honored God in His love and plan for the Jewish people. The one who loves God and wants to be intimately united with Him as part of His Bride will see that opposing God’s plan for the Jews is opposing God Himself – in essence, pushing away the lover, set on doing one’s own thing. Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength means the one who loves has no personal agenda but is 100% yielded to the plan and purposes of the Beloved. If we long for the consummation of the marriage covenant, we must embrace the completion of God’s promises and plan through and for the Jewish people.
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One. You shall love Him with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
The love between God and His Bride is the purpose of all creation. Our highest calling is to LOVE God with everything that we are. Everything else flows out of that, and without that, nothing matters.
As we look toward the coming of our Lord and the establishing of His kingdom, let us get the whole picture, not a partial picture skewed to our particular prejudices and comfort zones. Jesus, the Messiah, is rejoicing over a bride who is being prepared for Him. Gentile believers need to realize that this bride is incomplete without the Jews, who will be regathered into their own land, be severely tested and subsequently purified (see Zechariah 12 and 13), have their eyes opened to behold their Messiah, and then say to Him the words of reconciliation He has longed to hear from His own Jewish brothers and sisters, “Blessed is He who comes.”
Written by Betty McKinney
[i] Nita Johnson, “Prophetic Insight and Family Focus” newsletter, March/|April 2000
[ii] Derek Prince, The Last Word on the Middle East. Derek Prince Ministries International, 1982. p.118
Excellent article!
What an Anointed writing. My heart is overwhelmed with its eternal truth. May Adonai continue to reveal His Heart to you my sister. You are blessed. Shalom. Matthew