Let us examine certain prophecies whose fulfillment is still future. God prophesied through Moses that they would be scattered throughout the world and that wherever they went in their scattering they should find persecution. Leviticus 26:33 "You will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you." This prophecy has been fulfilled, for no nation has ever been scattered so widely and extensively over the earth as the Jew. History reveals that wherever they have gone that they have met with exile, captivity, confiscation of property, torture, and massacre.
   The above prophecy alone does not seem impossible of fulfillment — that the Jew should be scattered and persecuted — but in the light of it, there are several other prophecies concerning them which would surely seem void of all possible fulfillment.
   The natural outcome of the scattering and persecution of the Jew would be his being absorbed by other nations so that he would loose his identity. However, Numbers 23:9 has been fulfilled. "It is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." Wherever the Jew has gone, he has been recognized except in a very few cases.
   God also declared that although the Jew still will be widely scattered and persecuted, that he should never become extinct, and that He Himself would avenge the nations that persecuted him. Jeremiah 30:16, "All they that devour thee shall be devoured, and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil."
   The great empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, who in ancient times persecuted the Jew, have passed away. In modern times, Spain who persecuted the Jew lost her empire in the Americas. Czarist Russia who notoriously was one of the last nations to give the Jew citizenship rights has passed into oblivion to be displaced by Communism. Nazi Germany who cremated six million Jews lay in ruins after World War II, its leaders hunted and sentenced to death with billions in money paid in reparations to modern Israel by its persecutors. These are classic examples of God fulfilling His Word.
   God Himself has said, "Thus saith the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinance of the Moon and the stars for a light by night, who divides the sea when its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is His name: If these ordinances depart from before me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me forever." (Jeremiah 31:35-36) So, according to God’s Word, the continued existence of Israel as a nation will continue as certain as the existence of the sun, moon, and stars. Strong language this!
   One writer has said, "The Jews braving all kinds of torments, the pangs of death, and still more terrible pangs of life, have withstood the most awful persecutions. Yet mighty nations whose power embraced the whole inhabited world have vanished while the little handful of scattered, subjugated, and hunted folk still flourish, after the organized and world-wide persecutions of at least 18 centuries; preserving their laws and customs, given them in the infancy of world civilization, and preserving their unique nationality among the changes of the centuries."

   Prophecy in process of fulfillment relates to the return of the Jew to Palestine. "And as the Lord liveth, I will bring them back again to their land that I gave to their fathers" (Jeremiah 16:15). "I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I given them" (Amos 9:15).
   Since the close of World War I, Jews have been going back to Palestine. The defeat of the Turks, the Balfour declaration, and British Mandate of the area made this possible. What began as a trickle after World War I, developed into a mass migration of Jews to Israel, spurred by Hitler’s cremation of six million Jewish men, women, and children during World War II. So the long dark night of Israel draws to a close? No, not yet!
   Future prophecy concerning the Jews declares that their temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. "After this I will return, and I will build again the tabernacle of David... I will set it up; that the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called" (Acts 15:16-17).
   In our last lesson, we studied the rise of the antichrist during this period. (The Rapture will already have taken place.) Then will come the time of Jacob’s trouble. The nations of the world, although glad to be rid of the Jews themselves, by their return to Palestine, will become bitter toward them. Perhaps because of their prosperity, perhaps because of international involvement over Arabic-Jewish conflict now in progress. At any rate, in the forth-coming crisis the nations of the world will be gathered together, will come arrayed against Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:1-2). They will capture the city, and at the time when everything seems absolutely hopeless for the Jews, Christ will return. This will be what is termed by many students of scripture, the "Battle of Armageddon."
   The careful student will note that as Christ with His saints comes to deliver the Jews that a bloody combat will not take place between Christ and the nations. The saints will not take part in the battle. 2 Thessalonians 2:8 tells us that the Lord Jesus will slay "the lawless one," "son of perdition," with the breath of His mouth, and the brightness of His coming.
   After Jerusalem has been taken by its enemies, the very presence of Christ will defeat them. Then when the victory is gained, His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives. Zechariah 14:2-4 tells us of Christ’s return at the time the nations are at war with Jerusalem. "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and half the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, and His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives."

   This revelation of Jesus Christ is the second phase of the Second Coming of Christ. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb will have taken place, and the Church will return with Him (Revelation 19:1-9; Zechariah 14:4-5). This is the time that every eye shall see Him, and the time that the Jews will recognize Him as their Messiah and mourn for their rejection of Him. Then shall be fulfilled Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace; and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him as one is in bitterness for his first born."
   At this time, the veil of unbelief shall be removed and the Jews will turn to Him and acknowledge Him as their Redeemer. Isaiah 25:9 will be fulfilled, "And it shall be said in that day, so this is our God; we have waited for Him; and we will be glad and rejoice in this salvation."
   The Jews will mourn over their rejection of Christ, but not for long. Their deliverance from their earthly enemies and their spiritual darkness will bring great joy to their hearts. God has foretold in many scriptures of the joy of His people.
   Isaiah 60:1 "Arise and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee." Isaiah 60:20, "Jehovah will be thy everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." Verse 21 continues, "Thy people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified." Then Christ will establish His earthly kingdom.

   To His old covenant people God gave a two-fold prophecy concerning His son. One was the prophecy of His first coming, the Lamb of God to bear sin away. The other was His coming as king, to set up an earthly kingdom. The Jews seem to overlook what God said about His first coming, and see only His kingly appearing and reign. This is why they did not recognize or accept Christ as the Son of God. The first coming has been fulfilled. Therefore, we, with the Jews, are looking for His glorified appearing.
   The Bible speaks time and time again of the period when Christ shall reign for a thousand years upon the earth. There will be a temporary cessation of the reign of Satan.
   In our last lesson, we saw that the taking away of the Holy Spirit from earth was naturally to be followed by a great tribulation, for Satan would be an unrestrained god of this world. On the other hand, the end of Satan’s reign caused by his being bound and shut away for a thousand years from all access to the earth, will be followed by a glorious era of peace. Satan is the author of sin, disease, suffering, and misery, and when he is banished from the earth, they will leave too.
   There are many scriptures that describe the Millennium Period. We shall give a few of them. There will be no more war. Micah 4:2-4 says, "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore."
   "The inhabitants shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities" (Isaiah 33:24). Also Isaiah 35:5-10, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes, and highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be for those: the wayfaring man though fools shall not err therein. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
   "For the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." Isaiah 65:19 "And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying."
   During the Millennium, the Jews as a nation will be following Christ and will become the missionaries of the world. Jews will become a great blessing to the world. "If their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?" (Romans 11:15).
   The center of the world’s worship will be Jerusalem, and Isaiah 2:3 will be fulfilled. "And many people shall go and say, come ye and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
   All men will be able to witness and realize what the Lordship of Christ will mean to humanity. However, this reign of peace shall end when Satan is loosed from his prison. He shall gather for war all those whose hearts have not really been in harmony with Christ’s reign, although they have been under His subjection.
   Revelation 20:7-8 "And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of which is as the sand of the sea."
   Again Jerusalem will be attacked, but God will intervene with fire sent down from heaven, and Satan will be cast into the lake of fire, never more to have access to the earth, or the new heaven and the new earth. A record of what will take place is given to us in Revelation 20:9-10. "And they went over the breadth of the earth and compass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also are the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night forever and forever."
   Then eternity will arrive. There will be the second resurrection, the resurrection of the unbelieving dead and the great White-Throne Judgment. Revelation 20:11-15 "And I saw a great white throne and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away; and there was found no more place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of the things written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works, and death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire."

   When this has taken place, then will come forth the new heaven and the new earth, and the first heaven and the first earth shall pass away, and the sea shall be no more. Revelation 21:1 "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven, and the first earth, are passed away; and the sea is no more." Read Revelation 21:1-8.
   The Church will then completely enter into its vast inheritance. Paul tells us in Ephesians that in the days to come our Creator and heavenly Father is going to give us the wealth and riches that He has stored up in His great love during the eternity of the past for us.
   Oh the glorious truth of the wealth, the riches, and the joy, that belongs to God’s family. Through the ages of ages, we are going to know one another, talk with one another, and enjoy heaven eternally. Blessed be the hope of the new heaven and the new earth.