THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

236 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
passage prophesies the restoration of Israel as an
earthly people. Therefore we need not dwell longer
upon it.
ISAIAH'S TESTIMONY
Then we have this passage:
"And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble
the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed
of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of
Judah shall be cut off :
Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah
shall not vex Ephraim" (Isa. 11:12, 13).
This Scripture is part of one of the most glorious
of all the 0. T. prophecies of Christ and His gospel;
and I protest earnestly against the attempt to put upon
it a meaning that would lend support to the carnal expectations
of apostate Jews. The verses immediately
preceding the quotation are these :
"In that day" what day? "there shall be a root of
Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; and to it
shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious. And it
shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand
the second time to recover the remnant of His people which shall
be left from Assyria, and from Egypt" etc. (comp. the countries
out of which they were gathered on the day of Pentecost,
Ac. 2:9-11)
And then follow the words quoted in the article under
consideration, viz., "And He shall set up an ensign
for the nations" (the Gentiles!). So here we have a
clear and distinct prophecy of the gospel, precisely as
it was historically fulfilled in the begnning of this dispensation.
Christ was to come as a "Shoot" or
"Branch" out of the stem of Jesse (the royal house
being cut down to the roots) ; and "the spirit of the
Lord" was to "rest upon Him" (w. 1, 2)
. This "Root