The Repentance of Israel as a Condition for the Return of Jesus

Introduction

The biblical concept of legitimate kingship involves the principle that willing acceptance of the king by his people is a basic prerequisite. A king who would impose his reign by force upon his people unwilling to be governed by him would be a tyrant. A key scriptural example of this principle is the way that David enters into his kingship.

David was first anointed of God to be king while he was still a shepherd, by the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 16:1,12-13). However, David had to wait many years and endure hardship, conflict and suffering before he actually entered into his kingship, and even that occurred in two stages. First he was accepted only by his own tribe, the tribe of Judah, who anointed him to be their king in Hebron, where he ruled for seven years (2 Samuel 2:1-4). Only after that was he finally accepted by the rest of Israel, who then in turn anointed him to be king over all Israel (2 Samuel 5:1-5). And only thereafter did David finally defeat the last Canaanite stronghold – the Jebusite city of Jerusalem – the place which God had chosen as His own special place on earth (2 Samuel 5:6-7).

Jesus as the Messianic Son of David attains to his kingship according to a pattern similar to that of his father David. First, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit by God at the beginning of His ministry (Luke 3:22). After much suffering, conflict and death, he was raised and ascended to heaven. Thereafter he was recognized and accepted as their Messianic King by some of his people Israel (Acts 2 and following). However the national leadership and the majority of Israel continued to reject him, and does so to the present day. His acceptance as King Messiah by the people of Israel is yet to occur. When that finally happens it will usher in his full Messianic reign, beginning with the defeat of his enemies at Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2-3) and his assumption of the throne of David – an earthly throne which involves an earthly rule over the House of Jacob/Israel (Luke 1:32-33, NASB):

³² “…. the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

The sequence sketched out above is validated by Peter’s programmatic statements in Acts 2 and 3, and confirmed by the words of Jesus himself in the Gospels, with Paul filling in certain details in Romans, as described below. Therefore it is scriptural and reasonable to suppose that Jesus will not return to earth as the Messianic King of Israel until Israel as a people/nation repents of their rejection of him and is ready to accept and welcome Him – the one “whom they have pierced.” (Zechariah 12:10).

Peter’s Programmatic Statement in Acts 3:17-21

Peter had already issued his call to Israel for repentance for forgiveness of sins in Act 2, as he testified that God had raised Jesus from the dead and had exalted him as Messiah and Lord to heaven. As a result, some 3000 believed the Messianic message. In Acts 3 Peter again calls for the repentance of Israel and furthermore announces God’s plan for the return of the resurrected and ascended Messiah to earth in Acts 3:17-21 (NASB): 

¹⁷ “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. ¹⁸ But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Messiah would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. ¹⁹ Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; ²⁰ and that He may send Jesus, the Messiah appointed for you, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the period (χρόνων) of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.

Peter says that his audience – the people of Israel (vs. 12) – must “…repent and return, so that..” (vs. 19a) the following three events may occur – events which are therefore contingent upon and consequent to their repentance:

1. 1. Their sins may be wiped away,
   2. Times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and
   3. That He may send Jesus their Messiah from heaven.

The third event – the sending of Jesus from heaven – is evidently accompanied by the period (chronos), or time of the “restoration of all things“, which Peter specifies as things spoken about by Israel’s prophets.   

The following observations are relevant:

• • Peter’s address to Israel in Acts 3 starts with a clear and emphatic presentation of their guilt in rejecting Jesus and in bringing about his death (Acts 3:13-15):

¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you handed over and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. ¹⁴ But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ but put to death the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, 

• • Peter then qualifies their guilt by stating that there was an element of ignorance in their actions, and  moreover that God Himself was “in this way” fulfilling His plan (vs. 17-18) :

¹⁷ “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers also did. ¹⁸ But the things which God previously announced by the mouths of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has fulfilled in this way. 

• • Peter continues to address his audience the people of Israel as “brethren” (vs. 17), reaffirms their status as covenant children, and assures them that God’s raising of Jesus from the dead was done for them first of all (vs. 25-26) 

²⁵ It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God ordained with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ²⁶ God raised up His Servant for you first, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”

• • The meaning of Israel does not change within Peter’s address: the Israel who are guilty of Jesus death is the same Israel who are called to repent and who are affirmed to continue to be the covenant children of God. Years later Paul affirms the ongoing covenant status and priority in God’s purposes for physical Israel – his “brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (e.g. Romans 1:16, 9:3-5, 11:28-29).   

• • The validity of Peter’s call for the people of Israel to repent is based on their continuing status as covenantal children and the fact that there was an element of ignorance in their rejection of Jesus. Peter’s reference to their ignorance, and his call for their repentance, are based on the words of Jesus himself, when he called to His Father from the cross (Luke 23:34):

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

Jesus’s request for the forgiveness of his people, made just before his death – a death which would in fact be the singular event that would make that forgiveness possible – suggests that the salvation of Israel was very much in his thoughts. Indeed the salvation of Israel was at the center of his purpose and calling, as the prophet Isaiah had foretold in Isaiah 49:5-6:

⁵ And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him
⁶ He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also make You a light of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Isaiah says that Jesus would also be “a light of the nations” – but the priority of Israel’s salvation is clear, as already noted above. The programmatic words of the angel in Matthew 1:21 confirm that fact:

“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Jesus’s focus on the salvation of Israel is reflected by the Apostle Paul’s intense concern for the same thing as expressed in Romans 9:1-3:  

9 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, ⁴ who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons…..

No one who knows the Father (1 John 1-2) can doubt that the Father heard and continues to hear Jesus’s last words of petition before his death. The significance of Jesus’s use of the plural (“them”, “they”) should not be overlooked – Jesus prayed not only for individual Israelites, but also for Israel as a people/nation. God will forgive “them” as a people/nation, if “they” as a people repent. God has not and will not reject His people (Romans 11:1).

Supporting NT Scriptures

Certain of Jesus’s words as reported in the Gospels provide further support to the above interpretation of Peter’s preaching in Acts 3.

Luke 19:41-42

⁴¹ When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. 

The phrase “they have been hidden” is in the passive form. When this form occurs in Scripture in this type of context, it means that God is the source of the action or condition; this verbal form is called “the divine passive”. The blindness or incomprehension of Israel is therefore to be understood as having its source in the purposes of God. This connects with Peter’s claim in Acts 2:17-18 that Israel acted in ignorance and that God so worked to fulfill His purposes. The use of the word “now” implies that what is now hidden is to be revealed in the future in God’s appointed time.

Matthew 23:37-39

³⁷ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. ³⁸ Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! ³⁹ For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Jesus mourns and laments over Jerusalem’s condition. Jesus’s words “How often I wanted to gather your children together….”  reflect his persistent concern for Israel’s salvation. But now he reluctantly states their position – they have rejected him, and thus they will experience the desolation of their house (the Temple, and by extension Jerusalem), and that they will not see him again until they become willing to welcome Him as the one sent by God, i.e. they repent. Note that Jesus does not say “unless you say” but he says “until you say” to clearly imply that the time when they do so will definitely come.   

Luke 21:20-24

²⁰ “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near….. there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; ²⁴ and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The desolation of Jerusalem will extend to all the land and the people of Israel. The people of Israel will be exiled and scattered into the (Gentile) nations, and Jerusalem will be given over to desecration by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. That implies that there will be an end to Israel’s exile and Jerusalem’s desecration. All of this is consistent with God’s covenant promises to Israel in Leviticus 26, which specifies the curses for disobedience (Leviticus 26:14-39) but also their ultimate restoration and blessings (Leviticus 26:40-45).    

Matthew 24:14

¹⁴ This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come…….

The time of the end, when God acts to redeem Israel, will come when all the Gentile nations will have heard the “gospel of the kingdom”. Jesus then summarizes the events of the end time in Matthew 24:15-31. Those events will include great tribulation, deceptions, cosmic disturbances, and culminate in the coming of the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven. This will involve a revelation of the Son of Man, mourning of the tribes, and the gathering of the “elect” as described in verses 30 and 31:

³⁰ And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the land (τῆς γῆς) will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

³¹ And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Verse 30 recalls Zechariah 12:10:

¹⁰ “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

In verse 31 Jesus paraphrases from Deuteronomy 30:4, which is part of the passage promising the national restoration of Israel, when they will have been scattered among the nations, and they finally come to repent and return to the Lord (Deuteronomy 30:1-6). This passage, with verse 4 bolded and adjacent relevant material in red to emphasize the connections with the scriptures referenced above, is as follows (NASB):

30 “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, ² and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, ³then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. ⁴ If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. ⁵ The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. ⁶ “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

Jesus’s paraphrase of Deuteronomy 30:4, at least in the form in which it appears in the Greek of Matthew’s text, is closer to the Septuagint (Greek version) of this verse:

⁴ If thy dispersion be from one end of heaven to the other, thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and thence will the Lord thy God take thee.

It remains to be noted that Matthew 24:14- 31 connects with Peter’s words in Acts 3:20-21:

²⁰ and that He may send Jesus, the Messiah appointed for you, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.

It is evident that the time of “the end” in Matthew 24:14, which is described in verses 15-31, corresponds to “the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets“, mentioned by Peter in Acts 3:21. Moses, who Peter refers to in Acts 3:22, was the foremost of the prophets and he already spoke in Deuteronomy 30 of that “time of restoration“.

Romans 11

Paul’s letter to the Romans further confirms the pattern discussed above and fills in a few more details of God’s plan and purposes for Israel and the Gentiles.

11 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! …..  ² God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew…… ⁵ In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice…. ⁷ What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; ⁸ just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, Eyes to see not and ears to hear not, Down to this very day.”….. ¹¹ I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles….. ²⁵ For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; ²⁶ and then all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” ²⁷ “This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” ²⁸ From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; ²⁹ for the gifts and the calling (election) of God are irrevocable.

Note the following aspects of Paul’s message in the above passage:

• • God has emphatically not rejected His people Israel.

• • Although some in Israel have been chosen to respond to the gospel, the majority have been hardened and made deaf and blind to the gospel. That was and is an act of God so that His purpose to gather believers from the Gentiles/Nations could be accomplished. This characterization of Israel’s condition is consistent with Peter’s leading statement in the Acts 3:17-21 passage where he states that they “acted in ignorance“.

• • Paul describes Israel as consisting of a chosen “remnant” of Israel plus “the rest” of Israel who were hardened. He does not speak of a “true Israel” or a ‘spiritual Israel” – terms which are completely absent from the New Testament. For Paul there is only one Israel – the physical descendants of Jacob “my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons (Romans 9:3-4) –  which includes both the believing remnant and the rest who were hardened.     

• • Once the “fullness of the Gentiles” have been saved, God will turn back to Israel and remove their hardening so that they can hear and understand and respond to the gospel.

• • The salvation/redemption of Israel will be an act of God which will involve the revelation of Jesus as their Messiah, leading them to receive forgiveness of their sins which must involve their “repentance and return” as specified by Peter in Acts 3. Paul’s transformation from a persecutor to a disciple of Jesus on the road to Damascus – which was precipitated by a direct intervention of Jesus from heaven (Acts 8) and, like Israel in Acts 3:17, involved an element of ignorance – “…I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief…” (1 Timothy 1:13) – may serve as a type or pattern of how Israel will also be “shown mercy” and be similarly transformed.     

The Prophecy of Zechariah

Peter in Acts 3 says that Jesus waits in heaven “…until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time“. That restoration must include the events described by the prophet Zechariah in Chapters 12 – 14. This portion of Zechariah describes conditions and events related to the repentance of Israel, the coming of Jesus to earth to save his people and destroy their enemies, and the establishment of the Messianic kingdom. The following are the most relevant passages.

12 The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel…..³ It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it…..⁹ And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem….

The above passage describes a time when Israel occupies Jerusalem and is beset by “all the nations”. A primary issue of contention appears to be the status of Jerusalem – the nations are opposed to Israel controlling Jerusalem and having it as their capital. God promises to act decisively against those nations that seek to defy Him. Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 fit the scenario described by Zechariah.

The situation described in this passage has never yet occurred in history – all previous attacks on Israel/Jerusalem were by individual nations such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks or Romans. The last such attack was by the Romans 2000 years ago, after which Israel was scattered to the nations and the times of the Gentiles trampling of Jerusalem began. That time is only now in the process of being completed. Israel was re-established as a nation in their ancestral land in 1948, and has controlled Jerusalem since 1967, while many nations are opposed to that situation.

¹⁰ “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

At the time described in Zechariah 12, before or during the attack of the nations on Jerusalem, God will by His Holy Spirit pour out His grace on His people. As they seek their God, He will reveal to them that Jesus whom they crucified/pierced is their Son of David, their Messiah. At this revelation they will repent with deep mourning and weeping.

The revelation of Jesus as the one Israel rejected and crucified, and Israel’s repentance, is referenced by Jesus as one of the events of the end time, in Matthew 24:30

³⁰ And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the land will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

Zechariah Chapter 13 continues:

13 “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity….

⁹ “And I will bring the third part through the fire,
Refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name,
And I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are My people,’
And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

As Israel repents, God will forgive them and cleanse them from all sin and impurity. This will involve a process of testing, refining and purifying. Not every individual will pass this testing process (see Acts 3:23). All who do pass the testing process will constitute “all Israel”. They will be restored to their proper covenant relationship as the people of their God.

Zechariah continues to describe the return of the Lord to earth and His intervention on behalf of His people:

14 …. ² For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured…. ³ Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. ⁴ In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. ⁵ You will flee by the valley … Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!

Once God has forgiven and restored His people, and they have called upon His name for salvation (see 13:9 above), Jesus will descend from heaven to the Mount of Olives, thus fulfilling the words of the “men in white” in Acts 1:11: 

⁹ And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. ¹⁰ And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. ¹¹ They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

Zechariah 14 goes on to describe the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom, which will be based in Jerusalem in the land of Israel:

⁸ And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. ⁹ And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one.

Concluding Thoughts

There are many more scriptures which connect with the passages already quoted and discussed. The noted passages include Old Testament texts from the books of Moses to the Psalms and the Prophets, and New Testament texts from the Gospels, through Acts and Paul’s letters. Those passages constitute an amazing tapestry of scriptural threads which taken together display a wonderful picture of God’s covenant faithfulness to His promises and His righteousness in all His ways concerning both His people Israel as well as people from the Gentiles whom He freely offers to adopt into the same salvation for all who will call upon Him with repentance and faith. However when that scriptural tapestry is viewed, so to speak, from the back, as is done (perhaps unwittingly “in ignorance”) by those who have been taught that Israel was rejected by God and replaced by the Church, then no clear and consistent picture can be distinguished, and many of the textual threads will seem out of place and in need of rearrangement. If you find yourself in the latter category, consider re-evaluating your perspective and try looking at the tapestry from the other side.

Pro Sola Sriptura