Elimelech in Moab - Israel in the World

Those of you who are able to be with us regularly know that we are studying the book of Ruth, and we are studying it from the third standpoint that we suggested to you that we would follow when we began our study some months ago. We are studying the book of Ruth from the standpoint of eschatology. Eschatology is the study of last things. In our last lesson, we gave you what we called the typology of eschatology in the book of Ruth, reminding you that you would not be able to understand this discussion, which we will continue for several weeks, unless you have the typology in the book of Ruth straight as it is related to eschatology.

The first of the types that we suggested to you last week was that Elimelech's exile in Moab was typical of Israel's dispersion. Elimelech's exile in Moab because of the famine is typical of Israel's dispersion because of judgment. We reminded you that famine in the Word of God is always used as a type of judgment. Just as Elimelech had to leave the land of Israel because of famine and go into the land of Moab, so Israel in due time was forced to leave her homeland and be dispersed as she is at the present time throughout the world.

The dispersion of Israel and its connection with prophecy cannot be fully understood unless we understand and have perfectly clear in our minds two covenants that God made with the nation of Israel. Keep in mind that a covenant is just another word for agreement. God made a covenant with the nation of Israel, more than one as a matter of fact. Some were conditional; some were unconditional. Necessary to our understanding of our study at the present time is what we refer to as the "Abrahamic Covenant." Though we are studying the book of Ruth, I would like for you to open your Bible to the book of Genesis, chapter 12, and as you open your Bibles, I might remind you that usually when the Abrahamic Covenant is studied, the emphasis is placed upon the fact that Israel is God's chosen people. There is nothing wrong with that emphasis because that is true, and that is the main emphasis that is presented in the first place in which the Abrahamic Covenant is mentioned--namely Genesis, chapter 12. Notice, please, verse 1:

GENESIS 12

These three verses are what represent the initial announcement of the Abrahamic Covenant; and as you can see from the reading of the text, the whole emphasis is on what God will do. I will, I will, I will, I will; this is an unconditional covenant, and it emphasizes what we suggest to you that Israel is the chosen people of God. However, for the purposes of our study we want to consider that part of this covenant that is related to the promise of the land. The promise of the land to Israel as her national homeland is a progressive revelation. That is, the Abrahamic Covenant is presented here, and then in different periods of Abraham's life, God reiterated the covenant. When He reiterated the covenant, He put more emphasis upon their possession of the land than He did of their being His chosen people for a chosen purpose.

I would like for you to notice that progression, calling to your attention first to chapter 12 of the book of Genesis, verse 1, where it is introduced to us only as "a land of promise." Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee." At this particular time, the land had not been identified; and at this particular time, no definite thing had been given to indicate that Abraham would possess the land. The only thing that is suggested here is that Abraham was to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go out to a land to which God would direct him, so in that sense it is a land of promise. He had nothing but the promise of God to go on. If you will look down at verse 7, please, you will notice that this land was not only to be Abraham's land, but it was to be the land of his seed as well.

GENESIS 12

This is a reiteration of the covenant. You will notice this additional revelation: "Go to a land that I will shew you," and now the added word, "I am going to give this land to your heirs."

Turn, please, to chapter 13 of the book of Genesis, and notice verses 14 and 15:

GENESIS 13

Here we are told that all that could be seen from the vantage point where Abraham was would be his land and the land of his seed at some future date when God was pleased to give it to him. Notice chapter 13, verse 17, where Abraham is told that he himself will be but a sojourner in the land.

GENESIS 13

"You will have the title to the land, Abraham, but you will not have the privilege," God said, "to dwell in it permanently. You will be a sojourner. You will walk through the land, but you will not have the land for your own." This is the very reason that He spoke to Abraham, who was not a Jew, while he was yet in the land of Ur of the Chaldees, and brought him out of that land. As a matter of fact, to be perfectly exact, you could say that Abraham was brought out of the land of Ur of the Chaldees for the express purpose of bringing forth seed that would eventually possess the land to which we make reference.

In chapter 15 of the book of Genesis, verse 7, he said:

GENESIS 15

Notice how many times God has emphasized that He has given Abraham the land. Up to this point you are probably wondering why if God is making such a point of giving Abraham this land and giving it to his seed, He is actually withholding the land from him. The answer is found in verse 16 of chapter 15, where you read that the actual possession of the land by the descendants of Abraham must wait until the fourth generation, approximately 430 years from the time this promise was given. Notice in Genesis, chapter 15, verse 16:

GENESIS 15

In verse 15, God told Abraham that he would be gathered to his fathers in a good old age--that is, that he would die without ever actually settling in the land, but four generations from this his seed would take possession of the land and would inherit it according to promise.

There is an interesting sideline which I think should be emphasized which should settle once and for all the arguments which arise in the minds of people today because of the Middle East controversy as to whether or not the Jews have a right to the land. God gave the land to the Jews, but He said, "You cannot take possession of it until four generations from now, approximately 430 years." They might have said to God, "But God, why? You have told us that this land is ours. Why can't we have it?" God would have answered, "Because at the present time the land belongs to the Amorites. They don't realize it; but I, being God, knowing the end from the beginning, know that in that length of time they will have forfeited their right to the land, for their cup of iniquity will be full."

Don't ever accuse God of being unjust or unfair. God did not bodily remove the Amorites, who were only one of the peoples in the land, from the land and give it to the Jews. He didn't snatch it away from one group and give it to another group. He is the owner of all land. We are but tenants. God said, "I am going to have to make those tenants move about 430 years from now because they are not keeping the lease agreement; and when they move out, I will move you in." This is the promise that God gave to Abraham which would be fulfilled in four generations from His date.

Look at verse 18 of chapter 15, where the boundaries of this land are stated for the first time. Keep in mind, He simply referred to the land and then when Abraham went out and got to the edge of the land, He said, "Look as far as you can--north, south, east, west. It is all going to be yours. Walk through it. It is all going to be yours." In verse 18, He emphasizes the boundaries of the land.

GENESIS 15

We will stop our reading there. The rest of the verse simply names the tribes that occupy the so-called land of Canaan. I would like for you to notice the boundaries which are given here--from the river of Egypt, which is the Nile, to the great Euphrates River. Sometime when you have the time, I would like for you to examine a map and notice, with these boundaries in mind, that Israel has never possessed all of the land that God gave. If you will notice in your Bibles, even the small maps that are there simply occupy the edge, the coast land you might say, of this entire land God said would be theirs.

Some of the land that is inhabited today by the Arabs actually belongs by covenant right to the nation of Israel. Now, some of the land belonged to them because at one time they occupied it. That is the reason they fought the battles that they have fought since they have come back to the land as a nation, even though they are reclaiming what once they occupied. Examine a map which has the boundaries of David and Solomon's kingdom upon it, and you will see that they occupied it--a tremendous territory. Even though this is true, they have not yet occupied all of the land that God gave them.

Now, God's Word is never rescinded. The gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. If Israel has not occupied all of the land that God gave, you can be sure that she will. If you want to know how much of the land that she occupied, review what we have taught you from the book of Numbers when Joshua led the children of Israel into the land, and you can see that as far as actual territory is concerned, God promised them a land 25 times greater than they actually occupied. They have never occupied the land from border to border.

The last thing that we would like to emphasize to you about the Abrahamic Covenant and the land is found in chapter 17, verse 8, where it is brought to our attention that the land of Israel was to be given to them for an everlasting possession. Notice verse 8, please:

GENESIS 17

"I will give to Israel all this land for an everlasting possession." This was God's unconditional covenant, and it is foolish for anyone who believes the Bible to say that the Jews do not have a right to the land of Israel as we know it today. They have a God-given right to that land, and they have a God-given right to even more than that which they have because God said He would give the land as an everlasting possession. You will remember that the Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional. It had absolutely nothing to do with what they did. Now, though God gave them possession of the land, He retained ownership; and just as any owner of any piece of property has a right to ask tenants to move if they break their lease, God said that if the nation of Israel did not keep the terms of the lease, He would ask them to move.

The lease is not found in the Abrahamic Covenant. That is the reason it is important for you to be familiar with another covenant. Turn in your Bibles, please, to the book of Deuteronomy and notice chapters 28-30. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapters 28-30, you have recorded what is known as "the Palestinian Covenant." The Palestinian Covenant is absolutely important to our understanding of what we are learning in relation to Israel's occupying the land. The Palestinian Covenant, in contrast to the Abrahamic Covenant, is conditional. I repeat, according to the Abrahamic Covenant, Israel was to have the possession of the land that was reserved for them, but according to the Palestinian Covenant, they were to be blessed in it only if they were obedient. If their disobedience persisted, then the lease would be broken and they would be forced out of the land just as Elimelech was forced into the land of Moab because of the famine that was sent his way. If in exile they repented of their sin, they would be permitted to become tenants of the land again. God would gather them back. The Palestinian Covenant has other parts to it and other conditions, but we are going to notice with you for the purposes of our study only those conditions which are related to the possession of the land because we are studying how the book of Ruth is an illustration of God's dealing with Israel.

To keep fresh before your minds what we are learning from the book of Ruth, remember that Elimelech's departure from the land of Canaan, under judgment, to the land of Moab is an illustration of Israel's departure from the land of Palestine under the judgment of God. Of course Elimelech's departure was only one. Israel's was more than one. Some people, to make a distinction, use two words: one, "deportation" and another, "dispersion." "Deportation" is used because in one instance God permitted them to be conquered by neighboring countries and left a remnant in the land. "Dispersion" is used in other instances because God took them from the land and scattered them throughout the known world.

I am going to suggest that we look at the first condition of the Palestinian Covenant that is of interest to us, and that is that blessing was promised in the land for obedience. It is interesting the way that the Spirit of God describes this in chapter 28:

DEUTERONOMY 28

They were actually in the land now. Remember when God was talking to Abraham, they were not yet in the land. Now they are in the land and God said, "If while you are in the land, you obey Me, the sky is the limit. I will set you on high. These blessings will rest upon you. These blessings will overtake you. They will be more than you could possibly dream of." Then these blessings are listed, and when you have time you might want to look at those blessings more in detail or call to mind some of the lessons that we studied when we were studying the book of Deuteronomy.

Just as certainly as there was blessings promised in the land for obedience, there was chastening promised in the land for disobedience. You see how longsuffering God is? God did not say to them, "Now the very moment that you disobey Me, that very moment will I move you out of the land." He said first, "If you obey Me, every blessing will be yours." Then in verse 15 of chapter 28, he said, "If you disobey me, then I will discipline you while you are still in the land." Notice how it is described in verse 15:

DEUTERONOMY 28

There is the description of the curses that will come. Cursed shall be the city; cursed that shall be the field, etc. Farther on in the chapter we are told that the Lord would cause:

DEUTERONOMY 28

This is one of the reasons we say that Elimelech's dispersion in the midst of famine is illustrating this point, famine being a part of judgment.

Another condition of the Palestinian Covenant is dispersion for persistent disobedience. If they are obedient, blessing. If they are disobedient, chastening. If they persist in their disobedience, then there shall be a dispersion or a deportation from the land.

Perhaps in the first judgment that God brought upon them, a deportation would be a more accurate suggestion. Look at what God promised them in chapter 28, verse 36, concerning the deportation for their disobedience.

DEUTERONOMY 28

Notice in verse 36 that God said He was going to cause them to be deported into a nation which neither they nor their fathers yet knew. Two things in this verse indicate the foreknowledge of God. The Israelites had not yet had a king, but God said, "You are going to set a king over you, and after a long period of time, when these kings rule, they are going to lead you away from Me; and I am going to turn you over to a nation that you do not know in the sense that it is not yet in existence."

Keep a marker here in Deuteronomy, chapter 28, and turn with me, please, to the second book of Kings because you might like to relate the fulfillment of this prophecy to the prophecy itself if you are discussing this with others at some time and they ask you to do it.

II KINGS 17

The passage of Scripture continues the discussion of the taking of the ten tribes--notice what I am saying, the ten tribes--into Assyria. By this time the kingdom had been divided: Israel a nation of ten tribes, Judah a nation of two tribes. Now turn over a few pages, please, to chapter 24 of the second book of Kings, and notice in verses 12 and 14 the fulfillment of the prophecy as far as Judah is concerned. We have noticed the prophecy of Assyria and Israel. Now we notice the prophecy of Judah and Babylon.

II KINGS 24

You can see why we refer to this as a deportation. They took the best of the people. They left in the land the poorest of the people. The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father's brother, king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah. Now the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, thought that Zedekiah would be a loyal vessel, but it proved otherwise. If you will notice in chapter 25, verse 7, when Zedekiah proved to be unfaithful:

II KINGS 25

Going back to Deuteronomy, chapter 28, when God said, "If you are disobedient to me, then I shall bring thee unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shall thou serve another god of wood and stone." In the land of Assyria and in the land of Babylon, the Israelites learned what it meant to bow down to someone other than the true God of Israel.

Notice, please, in verse 49 of chapter 28, another suggestion as to what happened when they persisted in their disobedience. In verse 49, you will read:

DEUTERONOMY 28

We will stop our reading there because I think that gives you an idea of why we would say to you that this represents the Roman invasion or conquering of the land of Israel because of her continued disobedience.

Look at verse 63 of chapter 28:

DEUTERONOMY 28

We suggest to you that verse 63 refers to the worldwide dispersion of the Jews when they were dispersed from their land to the farthest corners of the world.

We reminded you when we first looked at this Palestinian Covenant that God had an agreement in it, and that was that if they repented of their sin, wherever they were, God would bring them back to the land again. We ask you to turn to chapter 30 of the book of Deuteronomy, and notice that promise.

DEUTERONOMY 30

Here is a distinct and definite promise that God will gather Israel back from the far corners of the world when they have acknowledged their sin.

That leads me to suggest that we look at one final thing in our study and that is the specific causes of dispersion and the specific causes of deportation as they are described in the Word of God. Notice the causes presented, first, in Deuteronomy, chapter 29, verses 24-28:

DEUTERONOMY 29

These are words which describe the deportation into the land of Assyria and Babylon. They tell us that because Israel had forsaken the conditions of the Palestinian Covenant, primarily in the worship of idols, God found it necessary to deport them.

There is the other thing that we referred to, a worldwide dispersion. We need to ask ourselves what was the exact cause of that? We ask you to turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 27, and recognize that we are examining a paragraph within the Crucifixion scene itself which will tell us why God dispersed the nation of Israel to the four corners of the earth. In verse 19 of Matthew, chapter 27:

MATTHEW 27

And, Beloved, God took them at their word. For when we were looking at the typology, we called your attention to chapter 21 of the Gospel of Luke in which was described the invasion of this nation from afar. A nation like an eagle, was going to lay waste the land, the city of Jerusalem, after a siege so long and so terrible that people ate their own children and refused even to share their own children with other people who had nothing at all to eat. This, God said, is the result of disobedience. The nation of Israel is scattered throughout the world today because they rejected their Messiah.

Listen very carefully to what I am saying to you because you need to keep these facts in mind. In these days of confusion, in these days of twisting the truth, the ecumenical movement is dangerous for many reasons; but one reason is that in order to avoid offending a so-called minority, in order to avoid appearing anti-Semitic, they boldly declare that the Jews did not crucify Jesus Christ. They say that the Jews were no more responsible than was Pilate, than were the soldiers. That is not what the Bible says. The Bible says the Jews crucified Christ. I am not anti-Semitic. No person who understands God's prophetic plan could be anti-Semitic, but I do believe in setting the facts straight. They were guilty of rejecting their Messiah, and they will not be gathered back to the land until they confess that sin.

In our next lesson, the Lord willing, we are going to discuss with you that very fact. You remember that Naomi's return to the land when she heard the famine was over is an illustration of Israel's return to the land when she hears the famine is over. That may begin to answer a question that is in some of your minds, if you are thinking. I have emphasized more than once that God will gather the nation of Israel back to the land only when she has confessed her sin of rejecting her Messiah. Yet we see in the land today a nation, a nation of Israel with a government that is fighting to regain lost territory.

How do we explain this? It is explained in a twofold way. The Jews are gathered back to the land in unbelief. This is not the regathering that is promised in this portion of the Word of God; but if the regathering that is promised in this portion of the Word of God is to be fulfilled, then the stage has to be set for it. God in His providence is setting the stage. The nation of Israel is there. The Israelites are hearing that there is bread in the land. The land is prospering as it has never prospered before. The Bible says that the desert will blossom as a rose. The blossoming is beginning. Jews all over the world are hearing about it, and those who are in great affliction are going back because they have heard there is bread in the land. But those who are not in affliction are not going back. They readily give money to enable the nation to prosper. They readily give money so that Jews in Russia and other parts of the world who are being persecuted and who are being afflicted can go back, but they themselves have not yet gone through the fining pot. The time will come when they will, but at the moment they have not.

Elimelech's going to Moab under the judgment of God is an illustration of Israel's being scattered throughout the world under the judgment of God. Naomi's return to the land because she heard there was bread is illustrative of Israel's return to the land because she hears what is going on.

In our next lesson, we will discuss with you what Naomi suffered in the land of Moab as being illustrative of what Israel has suffered for nearly 2000 years.

Father, we ask that Thou will bless the Word that we have tried to deliver. Grant, Father, we pray, that as we understand more of Thy perfect plan related to the end of the age, we will cause our own lives and our own programs to be geared to it. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.