Hebrews Chapter Eight, Israel's Resurrection

Hebrews 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them in their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

 

This verse is reminiscent of the prophecy of Joel, which reads at length: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days,” Joel 2:28, 29 NIV.

The prophet Zechariah likewise glimpses this marvelous, watershed moment in Israel’s history, not yet seen by human eyes: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit [footnote: or the Spirit] of grace and supplication. On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity,” Zechariah 12:10, 13:1 NIV.

The first covenant God made with Israel was conveyed to them by Moses, written by the hand of God on tablets of stone. The second covenant was conveyed to them by Messiah the Prince, manifesting Himself in Jerusalem as the Savior Israel had been waiting for, and as Daniel was told, He would be cut off, but not for Himself, Daniel 9:26. He would be cut off for the sake of Israel, to atone for their sins, John 11:50. More than that, Messiah the Prince would not only “raise up the tribes of Jacob,” but become a light to the Gentiles, and salvation to the end of the world, Isaiah 49:6.

Messiah will come a second time in glory, and the Jews will recognize Him whom they pierced, and they will mourn and finally accept their King. Note how nothing is asked of Israel’s people. The Jews have no contingency to fulfill. God will put His laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. This is a rather drastic change; the Law originally came to them externally by means of divine revelation. The tablets (and the whole of the Law) explained what Israel must do, but did not reach past the eyes and ears.

The new covenant sees God bringing the new nature to Israel, the Second Birth, writing His laws in their minds and hearts, denoting willful obedience to God’s truth that springs from a nature bestowed only through faith. We are told in no uncertain terms that Israel as a nation will be saved, Romans 11:26. God’s earthly people, the only nation He has covenanted with, will have their land, their King, and the peace God promised them, but on His terms. The Law failed because the people rebelled and sought idolatry over obedience. The Law, in which they trusted, compounded their sin by revealing their unwillingness to do as they were commanded, though they said they would.

The new covenant, once implemented, immediately reconciles wayward Israel to their covenant God. He implants His laws in their hearts (see James 1:21), internalizing the Law and its intentions, and may now be called their God again, while He designates the title of, “My people,” to those who once were, “enemies,” of the gospel, Romans 11:28, Hosea 2:23.

Hebrews 8:11 “None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. [12] “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Recalling Zechariah 13:1, quoted earlier, this promise or series of promises remains unconditional. God, foretelling what will happen in the latter days to the nation of Israel, says that He will be their God again, and they His people. The new covenant the writer speaks of will be the catalyst for this transformation.

Again, what is the new covenant? Christ our Lord, High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Christ the High Priest that ascended in the true Holy of Holies with His own blood, offered through the eternal Spirit to God the Father as a propitiation for our sins. Jesus and His cleansing blood is better than the Law and temple sacrifice. What the blood of bulls and goats could not do, He did once for all, by the sacrifice of Himself.

Habakkuk 2:14 states, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Malachi writes, “For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations,” says the Lord of hosts,” Malachi 1:11. Isaiah adds, “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea,” Isaiah 11:9.

This promise, made through the efficacious atonement of Israel’s Messiah, culminates in a national resurrection. Presently in the dispensation of the church the Jew is saved like the Gentile, because Christ is building His church. Though the church began in its infancy exclusively Jewish it has largely been a Gentile organism for many centuries. Israel, the natural branch, will be grafted back in to the olive tree that God has long cultivated, and the result is a national revival and the fulfillment of God’s promises to His earthly people, Romans 11:26-28.

Notice in Romans 11:27 (cited from Isaiah 59:20), that God’s covenant with Israel is simply that He takes away their sin. It is written, “shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children,” Isaiah 66:8. In Ezekiel we find the vision of the valley of dry bones, representing cast off Israel. God tells the prophet, “these bones are the whole house of Israel,” Ezekiel 37:11. But God regenerates them, breathes life into them, and He says of them, “I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it, and performed it,” Ezekiel 37:14. Israel’s national destiny is to receive what God initially promised through Abraham, prior to the Law, and solidified once more in David, permitting a glimpse of the glory awaiting reconciled Israel during Solomon’s reign.

Zechariah records that Israel will mourn when they understand that they have rejected the Messiah they longed for, Zechariah 12:10-14. Grieve they may, but rejoicing will follow, and Israel will return to the forefront of God’s focus in His dealings on planet Earth. Does God simply force Israel to believe? Of course not. Human volition and free will are integral in any genuine response to the gospel of God’s grace. Remove those and God becomes a pernicious puppet master, showing His glory to a universe programmed to respond like a cosmic laugh track to everything He does. God’s sovereignty permits human choice to simultaneously reveal sin’s nature and His omniscience.

Jeremiah records that none will need to teach his neighbor divine truth, for all Israel will know God from the least to the greatest. This was the determiner of acceptance or rejection of an individual, according to our Lord, Matthew 7:23. The Psalmist says, “Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,” Psalm 36:10. Conversely, God says of the wicked, “they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me…through deceit they refuse to know Me,” Jeremiah 9:3, 5. Hosea writes, “Yet I am the Lord your God, ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me, for there is no savior besides Me,” Hosea 13:4.

The Jews, then, know God in a way that Adam knew Him before the Fall: a spiritual fellowship between Creator and His creation. Adam by special creation was a son of God, made so by God’s direct creative agency. Christ, the Second and Last Adam, likewise was begotten by the Holy Spirit’s direct agency. That is why our Lord is called the Son of God after His incarnation. He is also Son of Man, or human, by virtue of descent from Mary and David’s bloodline.

So too their rebirth will make formerly rebellious Israel children of God, adopted into the household of faith when He pours His Spirit upon them. He will put His Spirit in them, and they shall have a new nature, reborn in God’s image. His mercy extends to Israel, blotting out their former rebellion, which led them down a hard road of persecution and wandering. God will gather them into the land of their fathers and cause them to rest.