Hi, Noach. Anybody who's read my stuff knows I'm the antithesis of a replacement theologian. Israel will most definitely be restored---that is, a believing remnant. As a clarification, I would state that the primarily gentile ekklesia, while not replacing Israel in Yahweh's affections, will most definitely be
counted among His "bride" or "wife." Revelation 19:7-8 describes a scene that takes place in heaven,
before the return of Yahshua to the earth, hence before the Millennial Kingdom age on the earth in which Israel will have been restored:
"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." At this point, there is no indication that the remnant of Israel has figured out that their Messiah is Yahshua---something they'll do on a national scale on the definitive Day of Atonement, a mere five days before the Messiah's Kingdom begins on the Feast of Tabernacles.
But can God, according to His own standard, "remarry" Israel? Yes and no. It's covered in another mitzvah in
The Owner's Manual:
Quote:(78) One who divorced his wife shall not remarry her if after the divorce she had been married to another man. “…Then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled.” (Deuteronomy 24:4) Here we see a restriction placed on the husband of the broken marriage: he is not to remarry the wife he previously divorced if she had been married to someone else in the meantime. This is where it gets a little confusing. The book of Hosea, especially the second chapter, seems at first to imply that Yahweh has different standards for Himself. In verse 2 He says, “She [Israel] is not my wife, nor am I her husband.” Israel, after unsuccessfully seeking other “lovers,” says in verse 7, “I will go and return to my first husband.” But then down in verse 16, we read, “It shall be in that day, says Yahweh, that you will call me ‘my Husband.’” And in verse 19, “I will betroth you to Me forever.” What gives? Is Yahweh breaking His own rules? He would be, except for one stunning detail: “From now on, we regard no one [e.g., Jews] according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (II Corinthians 5:16-19) The Israel to whom Yahweh will betroth Himself in the Last Days is not His old unfaithful wife, for she is prohibited by law from re-marrying her old Husband. Rather, she is now a new creation that, with the Church, has been made pure and undefiled by the blood of the Lamb of God. But until she is transformed in Spirit by receiving Yahshua, her renewed relationship with God is legally impossible. The implications should be stunning for any practicing Jew today: it is impossible to form a relationship with Yahweh through Judaism.
To complete the thought, it is only possible for a Jew (or a gentile, for that matter) to form a relationship with Yahweh through
Yahshua. The religion of Judaism is no more efficacious in forming this relationship that the
religion of Christianity is. We must become "a new creation" through being "in Christ."
kp
