Ethan Smith

“ We thus have the testimony of those great men, Lowth and Scott, in favour of a literal restoration of the Jews to their own land, being here predicted. And here is a drying up of a mighty river, to prepare the way for the event. A river is the symbol of a nation. When Israel were to be redeemed from Egypt, the Red Sea was to be dried before them. When they were to be redeemed from Babylon, the Euphrates was by Cyrus to be dried or turned, to accomplish the event. And in their last restoration to Palestine, (ere long to be accomplished,) another great mystical river is to be dried up. ”

“ These sticks miraculously become one in the prophet's hand; which is thus explained. "Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel (their general ancient name, including the twelve tribes) from among the heathen, whether they be gone; and I will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. ”

“ To say then, that all those predictions of such a restoration to Palestine, are to be accomplished only in the bringing of that people (in their dispersed state) to embrace the Messiah; is to take a most unwarrantable liberty with the word of God! Look at one passage; Ezekiel, 36th, 37th, 38th, and 39th chapters. Are the new heart (the heart of flesh) there promised, and God's gathering them out of all lands into their own land, which had so long lain waste, one and the same event? ”

“ And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all the heathen that passed by. And they shall say, this land that was so desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced and are inhabited. Then the heathen who are left round about you, shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that which was desolate. ”

“ The Millennium follows, when the cow and the bear shall feed together, and the wolf and the lamb unite in love; and nothing more shall hurt or offend. "And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again, the second time, to gather the remnant of his people, who shall be left, from Assyria and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Humah, and from the isles of the sea. ”

“ In Isaiah xviii. a land shadowing with wings at the last days, is by the Most High addressed, and called to aid this restoration of that people of God. "Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from the beginning hitherto; a nation meted out, and trodden down; whose land the rivers have spoiled. ”

“ 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" [Isa 11:11-12] . Here just before the Millennium, the Jews and ten tribes are collected from their long dispersion, by the hand of Omnipotence, set a second time for their recovery. A body of the Jews, and some of several other tribes, were recovered from ancient Babylon. God is going, in the last days, to make a second, and more effectual recovery from mystical Babylon, and from the four quarters of the earth. ”

“ Here, after the long rejected state of Jacob and Judah, a blessed remnant at last shall be recovered;—a seed from Jacob, (the ten tribes) and from Judah (the Jews) an inheritor of Canaan shall come and dwell in that land. This has never yet been fulfilled. But it will be accomplished when God will (as in the following verses) "create new heavens, and a new earth" [Isa 65:17] , in the millennial glory of the church.
In Amos ix. 14, 15, is a prediction of this event. "And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them ”

“ There was indeed a kind of typical possession of it in the reign of Solomon;—which reign was a type of the Millennium. (See Psalm lxxii.) David, in his wars which were typical of the wars that will introduce the Millennium, subdued and put under tribute the Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites, and most of the nations dwelling in the above named territories. And they continued in subjection in the reign of Solomon. (See 1 Kings iv. 21.) But those nations were not then driven out; nor was their land possessed by the children of Abraham. ”

“ But it was to be thus, only "till the fulness of the gentiles be come in" [Rom 11:25] , and then Israel shall be grafted in again, and their promised restoration be accomplished.
This prophet proceeds in the following chapters to predict the same event. See Hosea, 2d and 3d chapters. The account closes thus; "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without a teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David, their king ”

“ God here promises "the city (Jerusalem) shall be built to the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever" [Jer 31:38, 40] . Here God engages that as Ephraim is God's first born ”