Picture: Where Is God’s True Israel? 2TC 344.1
In proclaiming the everlasting gospel to every nation, God’s church is fulfilling the prophecy, “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Isaiah 27:6. As the result of the efforts of Jesus’ followers, an abundant harvest is developing, bringing the benefits God hinted at in His promise to Abraham, “I will bless you ... and you shall be a blessing.” Genesis 12:2. 2TC 344.2
This promise of blessing should have met major fulfillment during the centuries following the Israelites’ return from captivity. God intended that the whole earth would be prepared for the first advent of Christ, even as today He is preparing the way for Jesus’ second coming. See Zechariah 8:3, 7, 8. 2TC 344.3
God did not want Israel to repeat the sins that had characterized her prior to the captivity. “Execute true justice,” the Lord told those engaged in rebuilding. “Speak each man the truth to his neighbor; give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace.” Zechariah 7:9; 8:16. 2TC 345.1
God promised rich rewards to those who would practice these principles: “Just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing.” Zechariah 8:13. 2TC 345.2
The Babylonian captivity cured the Israelites of image worship. After their return, under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah they repeatedly pledged to keep all the commandments of the Lord. The times of prosperity that followed gave evidence of God’s willingness to forgive. Yet with fatal shortsightedness they selfishly kept for themselves the blessings that would have brought healing and life to multitudes. 2TC 345.3
This failure was plainly visible in Malachi’s day. In his rebuke against transgressors, the prophet spared neither priests nor people. Only by sincere repentance could they experience God’s blessing. “But now,” the prophet pleaded, “entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us.” Malachi 1:9. 2TC 345.4
However, God would not allow His plan to redeem the human race to be frustrated by any temporary failure of Israel. “From the rising of the sun to its setting,” the Lord declared through His messenger, “My name is great among the nations.” Verse 11, NRSV. 2TC 345.5
Through transgression, those who once had been spiritual leaders had become “contemptible and base before all the people.” Malachi 2:9. Yet God left none without hope. Malachi’s prophecies of judgment came with invitations to the unrepentant to make peace with God. “Return to Me,” the Lord urged, “and I will return to you.” Malachi 3:7. The God of heaven is pleading with His erring children to cooperate with Him in carrying forward His work on the earth. The Lord holds out His hand to Israel to help them to the path of self-sacrifice, to share with Him the heirship as children of God. Will they recognize their only hope and respond? 2TC 345.6
How sad that in Malachi’s day the Israelites hesitated to yield their proud hearts in hearty cooperation! Their self-justification shows plainly in their response, “In what way shall we return?” 2TC 346.1
The Lord reveals to His people one of their special sins. “Will a man rob God?” He asks. “Yet you have robbed Me!” Still unconvicted of sin, the disobedient inquire, “In what way have we robbed You?” 2TC 346.2
“‘In tithes and offerings... . Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing... . And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground... . And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Verses 7-12. 2TC 346.3
God gives the sunshine and the rain; He causes vegetation to flourish; He gives health and ability to earn income; and He desires men and women to show their gratitude by returning tithes and offerings so that His vineyard may not remain a barren wasteland. They are to reveal an unselfish interest in building up His work in all the world. 2TC 346.4
Through messages such as those that Malachi bore, as well as through oppression from heathen foes, the Israelites finally learned that true prosperity depends on obedience to the law of God. But with many, obedience did not flow from faith. Their motives were selfish. They gave outward service as a way to achieve national greatness. The chosen people did not become the light of the world, but shut themselves away from the world as a safeguard against idol worship. They perverted the restrictions forbidding intermarriage with the heathen and joining in the pagan practices of surrounding nations so that they built up a wall of partition between themselves and all other peoples. This shut from others the blessings God had commissioned Israel to give to the world. 2TC 346.5
At the same time, by their sins the Jews were separating from God. They were unable to discern the spiritual meaning of their symbolic services. In self-righteousness they trusted their own works—the sacrifices themselves—instead of relying on the merits of Him to whom these things pointed. “Seeking to establish their own righteousness” (Romans 10:3), they built up a self-sufficient system of forms. Not content with the regulations God Himself had appointed, they invented countless detailed rules of their own. The greater their distance from God, the more rigorously they observed these forms. 2TC 347.1
With all these burdensome rules it was practically impossible for the people to keep the law. The glorious truths shadowed in the symbolic services were buried under a mountain of human tradition. Those who really wanted to serve God groaned under a heavy burden. 2TC 347.2
The people of Israel had separated themselves so far from God that they could have no true understanding of the promised Redeemer’s character or mission. Instead of wanting redemption from sin, they set their hearts on regaining worldly power. They looked for the Messiah to exalt Israel to rulership over all nations. In this way Satan had prepared the people to reject the Savior when He would appear. Their pride and false conceptions would prevent them from honestly weighing the evidences of His Messiahship. 2TC 347.3
For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had waited for the promised Savior’s coming. His name had been enshrined in song and prophecy, in temple rite and household prayer. Yet when He came they did not recognize Him. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” John 1:11. They recognized in Him no beauty that they should desire Him. See Isaiah 53:2. 2TC 347.4
Jesus’ life among the Jewish people rebuked their selfishness. They hated His example of truthfulness, and when the test came they rejected the Holy One of Israel and became responsible for His crucifixion. 2TC 347.5
In the parable of the vineyard, Christ called the attention of the Jewish teachers to the blessings bestowed on Israel and showed God’s claim on their obedience. He pulled back the veil from the future and showed how the whole nation was bringing ruin on itself: 2TC 348.1
“There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 2TC 348.2
“Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the tenants took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son’. But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.” 2TC 348.3
Christ now asked them, “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” The priests joined with the people in answering, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” 2TC 348.4
They had pronounced their own doom! Under Jesus’ searching gaze they knew He read the secrets of their hearts. They saw a picture of themselves in the tenants. 2TC 348.5
Regretfully Christ asked: “Have you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” Matthew 21:42-44. 2TC 348.6
The Jewish nation determined that they would not receive Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. From that time on, darkness surrounded their lives like midnight. The predicted doom came on the Jewish nation. In their blind rage they destroyed one another. Their rebellious pride brought the wrath of their Roman conquerors on them. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem, laid the temple in ruins, and plowed its site like a field. Millions were sold as slaves in heathen lands. 2TC 349.1
What God intended to do for the world through Israel, the chosen nation, He will finally accomplish through His church. He has entrusted “His vineyard to other vinedressers,” who faithfully “render to Him the fruits in their seasons.” These witnesses for God are the spiritual Israel, and God will fulfill to them all the covenant promises He made to His ancient people. 2TC 349.2
For many centuries, secular and religious law prohibited preaching the gospel in its purity. As a result, the Lord’s great moral “vineyard” was almost unoccupied. The people were deprived of the light of God’s Word. Error and superstition threatened to blot out true religion. God’s church was as surely in captivity during this long period of persecution as the children of Israel were during the exile in Babylon. 2TC 349.3
But, thank God, the privileges given the people of God when they were delivered from Babylon have been restored to spiritual Israel. In every part of the earth, men and women are responding to the Heaven-sent message, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come.” Revelation 14:7. 2TC 349.4
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city,” which has “made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” God has given spiritual Israel the message, “Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” Verse 8; 18:4. As the captive exiles obeyed the message, “Flee from the midst of Babylon” (Jeremiah 51:6), so those who fear God are withdrawing from spiritual Babylon. Soon they are to stand in the heavenly Canaan as trophies of divine grace. 2TC 349.5
When the promised Messiah was about to appear, the message of Christ’s forerunner was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Matthew 3:2. Today, in the spirit and power of John the Baptist, messengers whom God has appointed are alerting a judgment-bound world to the closing of probation and Christ’s appearance as King of kings and Lord of lords. The responsibility rests on His church to warn those who are standing on the brink of eternal ruin. The principles in the great controversy must be made plain to every human being who will listen. 2TC 350.1
In these final hours the Lord expects His church to rally to action as never before. Those whom Christ has made free through His precious truth are to proclaim the praises of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. The blessings He so liberally bestowed, they are to communicate to every people. Every true disciple is to radiate an influence of life, courage, and true healing. 2TC 350.2
The coming of Christ will take place in the darkest period of earth’s history, when Satan will work “with all unrighteous deception.” 2 Thessalonians 2:10. We see his working in the many heresies and delusions of these days. His deceptions are even contaminating the professed churches of Christ. The great apostasy will develop into darkness deep as midnight. But out of that darkness God’s light will shine. To His people God says, “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” Isaiah 60:1. 2TC 350.3
At Nazareth Christ said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18, 19. This was the work He commissioned His disciples to do, “to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out. ... Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speed ily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” Isaiah 58:7, 8. 2TC 350.4
Thus in the night of spiritual darkness God’s glory is to shine out through His church. All around us we hear the wails of a world’s sorrow. On every side we find the needy and distressed. We are called to help relieve life’s hardships and misery. If Christ is abiding in us, our hearts will be full of divine sympathy. 2TC 351.1
There are many who are without hope. Bring back the sunshine to them. Many have lost their courage. Pray for them. Read to them from the Word of God. Upon many there is a soul sickness that no physician can heal. Bring them to Jesus. 2TC 351.2
The whole earth, wrapped in darkness and pain, is to be lighted with the knowledge of God’s love. The light is to reach every class of people. No longer are the heathen to be wrapped in midnight darkness. 2TC 351.3
Christ has made every provision for His church to be a transformed body, every Christian surrounded with a spiritual atmosphere of light and peace. He wants us to reveal His own joy in our lives. 2TC 351.4
Christ is coming with power and great glory. While all the world is shrouded in darkness, there will be light in every home of God’s people. They will catch the first light of His second appearing. While the wicked run in panic, Christ’s followers will rejoice in His presence. 2TC 351.5
Then the redeemed will receive their promised inheritance. Here God’s design for Israel will meet its literal fulfillment. God’s plans have been moving steadily forward toward their accomplishment. This is how it was with Israel through the history of the divided monarchy, and it is this way with spiritual Israel today. 2TC 351.6
The apostle John testifies, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” 2TC 351.7
“He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” Revelation 7:9, 10; 17:14. 2TC 351.8
