Since the great king David, at the height of his power, had not received the promise, what utter folly it is to suppose that the promise to restore Israel to their own land can ever be fulfilled by any return of the Jews to old Jerusalem. David was “a sojourner,” waiting for the fulfillment of the promise just the same as Abraham was; it is very evident, therefore, that any restoration of the old order of things would be in direct opposition to the promise. Those who are building their hopes on “Jerusalem which now is,” are losing all the blessedness of the Gospel. “We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,” therefore we will put no confidence in anything connected with old Jerusalem; for “Jerusalem which now is,” “is in bondage with her children; but Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” 1Galatians 4:25, 26. When the promise is fulfilled, and the people of Israel really possess the land, and are no more strangers and sojourners in it, their days will no more be as a shadow, but they will abide for ever. EVCO 432.3