Jacob and God’s Endtime Players to Restore the House of Israel – Chapter 4, Part 6

​This week in our review of Isaiah Decoded we’ll continue with our look at chapter 4 - Jacob/Israel, Believers in a Creator-God. This week we’ll address the key players in God’s Endtime restoration of the House of Israel.  One thing that we don’t have is a dearth of groups claiming to be God’s chosen righteous who will  be lifted up to meet the returning Messiah and lead with Him in the millennial age. So in connection with our review of chapter 4, we’ll identify the important players of God’s Endtime restoration.

---

Gentiles
For all intents and purposes, Gentiles is a broad category of humanity that aren’t connected to the House of Israel.  In the prophecy of Isaiah, the Hebrew word גּוֹי – goy - is translated as “nation or nations” and not gentile(s).

"A Gentile is a non-Jew, the term being a common English translation of the Hebrew words goy (גוי) and nochri (נכרי)." - New World Encyclopedia


Jacob
As we saw in chapter 4, Jacob is defined as -
1.“believers in the God of Israel,….But it is made up of more than just Jews, Christians, or Moslems”
2.“all those whom God has created to be his people”
3.“God’s people who, over many centuries, assimilated into the nations of the world, who lost their identity as Israelites, yet have maintained a belief in God.”
4.“all who acknowledge God as their Maker, but who don’t do much beyond that.”
-P. 109,110
 
Finally, Dr. Gileadi states at the end of the first paragraph that – 
“In an endtime setting, Jacob/Israel comprises people of all nations whom God seeks to reclaim.” – P. 110


Israel
When we look at Israel in an Endtime context, we can identify two groups. The one of course is those peoples who are literal or ethnic Israel - the Jews. We can also identify another group who are under covenant with God which we can identify as those being in America. Consider Rabbi Sacks comments on the founding of America.

"And as for John Winthrop onboard the Arbella, he as it were re-enacts the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses renewing the covenant at the end of his life, and says, “And to shut this discourse with that exhortation of Moses, that faithful servant of the Lord, in his last farewell to Israel (Deut. 30): ‘Beloved, there is now set before us life and death, good and evil,’ in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His ordinance and His laws, and the articles of our covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied.” (John Winthrop, ‘City upon a Hill’, 1630)

And hence, therefore, choose life.

So, those early Pilgrim Fathers saw themselves absolutely as the new Moses, new Israelites, entering the new promised land, and they did so on the basis of a covenant." - Sacks, The Promise of American Renewal

Moreover, we see the Nation of America founded on her covenant and law with God in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.
 
​
Ephraim
Ephraim is identified with Jacob in Isaiah’s prophecy, and is associated with the tribe of Ephraim either literally or by grafting-in.
 
“This message my Lord sent to Jacob, and it shall befall Israel. And the entire people—Ephraim and those who dwell in Samaria—shall know of it, who say in pride and arrogance of heart,” – Isaiah 9:8,9
​
“Addressing the Jacob/Israel category of his people—in this case, “Ephraim and those who dwell in Samaria”—Jehovah censures them for their conceitedness, for not acknowledging from whence their blessings come” – Gileadi, Apocalyptic Commentary – Isaiah 9.
 
By and large we can identify this group as members of the LDS church. As a matter of practice, members receive a “patriarchal blessing” that declares their lineage with the House of Israel. The vast majority of these blessings are identified with Ephraim. Here is that part of my blessing that declared lineage -  

​In the prophecy of Isaiah, Ephraim is God's people in apostasy. We can say that because latter-day Ephraim has rejected the law and covenants God gave to Israel.
 
Overviews of the Prophecy of Isaiah, ​Gileadi
“Isaiah’s prophecy about Ephraim consists mostly of reproofs. Ephraim lives in the past, acting as if former glories are current ones: “Woe to the garlands of glory of the drunkards of Ephraim! Their crowning splendor has become as fading wreaths on the heads of the opulent overcome with wine” (Isaiah 28:1). The king of Assyria—a new Flood (Isaiah 8:7–8)—will invade Ephraim’s land: “My Lord has in store one mighty and strong: as a ravaging hailstorm sweeping down, or like an inundating deluge of mighty waters, he will hurl them to the ground by his hand. The proud garlands of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden underfoot” (Isaiah 28:2–3)."

"Ephraim plows the same ground over and over, never moving beyond the basic principle of “line upon line and precept upon precept” to personal revelation (Isaiah 28:9–13, 24–29). Its prophets are drunk: “These too have indulged in wine and are giddy with strong drink: priests and prophets have gone astray through liquor. They are intoxicated with wine and stagger because of strong drink; they err as seers, they blunder in their decisions” (Isaiah 28:7). When God “lays in Zion a stone,” many disbelieve: “Scoff not, lest your bonds grow severe, for I have heard utter destruction decreed by my Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, upon the whole earth” (Isaiah 28:16, 22)."

"Isaiah spares no words when indicting God’s people, particularly their leaders. When he says of Ephraim’s priests and prophets, “All tables are full of vomit; no spot is without excrement” (Isaiah 28:8), his intent is figurative. The context of this entire chapter relates to Ephraim’s self-deception, its reluctance to receive direct revelation from God, instead relying solely on the beginner’s method of learning—“line upon line, precept upon precept” (Isaiah 28:10). Half-digested truths are regurgitated for God’s people to swallow, so much that God intervenes to restore his word—but not until that state of affairs provokes his judgments (Isaiah 28:11–22).”


Yehovah’s Endtime Remnant
Yehovah’s Endtime Remnant are those who repent, return and keeps God’s law and covenant. Comprised of the House of Israel and grafted-in Gentiles who keep God's law and word, they reach the first category of blessedness - Zion/Jerusalem.

Yehovah's Endtime Remnant

Repents and Returns >

Keeps God’s Law and Word Endures Endtime Trials >

​Zion/Jerusalem (Remnant)

Overviews of the Prophecy of Isaiah, Gileadi
​"The purpose of Isaiah’s call nevertheless emerges from the pages of his prophecy. First, a remnant of God’s people, consisting of Jehovah’s “disciples” (Isaiah 8:16), heeds Isaiah’s appeal to repent. They survive the destruction God’s people as a whole are bringing upon themselves by their collective guilt (Isaiah 8:13–15)."
 
"All is not lost, however, as a repentant remnant of God’s people escapes destruction: “Had not Jehovah of Hosts left us a few survivors, we should have been as Sodom or become like Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9)."
 
"Isaiah similarly predicts a new Passover. As the angel of death passed over Israel’s firstborn sons when he smote Egypt’s firstborns (Exodus 12:1–29), so he passes over a remnant of God’s people when the Assyrians lay siege to them: “As birds hover over [the nest], so will Jehovah of Hosts guard Jerusalem; by protecting it he will deliver it, by passing over it, preserve it” (Isaiah 31:5)"
 
"In the end, those who are excluded and betrayed by their own people are gathered with God’s righteous remnant: “Thus says my Lord Jehovah, who gathers up the outcasts of Israel: ‘I will gather others to those already gathered’” (Isaiah 56:3, 8)."
 
“In that day my Lord will again raise his hand to reclaim the remnant of his people …"


Seed of Messiah
Our last group of players in Israel’s restoration fall under the Seed of Messiah. Whether literal or adopted/grafted-in are of the lineage of the Messiah. Qualifying to be God’s Son/Servants/Elect and His Angelic Emissaries they enter into the Davidic Covenant and are High Priests, having their calling and election made sure, receiving the presence of the Son. These include Yehovah’s leadership comprised of God’s Endtime Servant, 144,000 and community leaders.

Seed of Messiah

Judah ​(right to rule)

Ephraim ​(birthright heir)

This group of players won’t be determined until God’s Servant arrives.