CHAPTER 6

(780 B.C.)

REPENTANCE OF ISRAEL PROPHESIED FOR THE LAST DAYS

¹Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for He has torn, and He will heal us; He has smitten, and He will bind us up. (This speaks of Israel, in the last half of the Great Tribulation, under great persecution finally turning back to the Lord. And how do we know that? We know it because Israel as a nation has never come to the Lord in the fashion represented here, but which they will do immediately before and after the Second Coming [Zech. 13:1].)

²After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His Sight. (This Verse could very well apply prophetically to the period of Israels subjection, affliction, and Restoration. Her subjection has lasted 2,000 years, or nearly so [two days], and her Millennial Reign will last for 1,000 years [the third day].

The word day normally refers to a twenty-four hour period of time. However, it can be, and often is, used figuratively for a specified or unspecified period of time.

In the third day He will raise us up, refers to the Second Coming of Christ, when He will deliver Israel from the Antichrist.)

³Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the Earth. (His going forth is prepared as the morning, signals that His Second Coming is fixed as surely as the morning is eternally fixed to come at a certain time daily.

The Latter and former rain actually refer to two outpourings of the Spirit, the former pertaining to the Early Church, with the latter pertaining to the present time, stretching into the Millennium [Acts 2:17-21]. The latter is mentioned here before the former because Christ was rejected at His First Advent, but will be accepted by Israel at the Second Advent.)

GODS CASE AGAINST ISRAEL

⁴O Ephraim, what shall I do unto you? O Judah, what shall I do unto you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away. (The question, What shall I do unto you?, refers to the Lord using every possible method to turn both kingdoms around, but to no avail. For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away, refers to a superficial religious effort, which had no substance and quickly dissipated [Mat. 13:5-6].)

⁵Therefore have I hewed them by the Prophets; I have killed them by the words of My Mouth: and your judgments are as the light that goes forth. (Therefore have I hewed them by the Prophets, is a figurative statement borrowed from the hewing of hard wood and shaping it so as to assume the required form. Despite the powerful statements by the Prophets, which were given by the Lord, Israel was unmoved.

I have killed them by the words of My Mouth, refers to an Anointing so powerful upon the Prophets that it was enough to make anyone listen, but still, to no avail!

The phrase, And your judgments are as the light that goes forth, proclaims that Faith can always take refuge in God, Whose Judgments are perfect!)

⁶For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than Burnt Offerings. (This Passage was quoted in part by Christ [Mat. 9:13; 12:7]. Israel tried to replace Mercy and the knowledge of God with mere ritual!)

⁷But they like men have transgressed the Covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against Me. (The word men in the Hebrew is Adam and should have been translated accordingly. The Covenant spoken of concerns the prohibition respecting the forbidden fruit. Adams children, like their father, perpetually transgressed and dealt treacherously. Loss of fellowship with God and expulsion from Eden were the penal consequences that immediately followed upon Adams transgression; likewise, the expulsion of Israel from the Promised Land.)

⁸Gilead is a city of them who work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. (The area of Gilead consists of the east side of the Jordan. In the New Testament, it is spoken of under the name of Perea. Jeremiah would say, Is there no balm in Gilead...? [Jer. 8:22].)

⁹And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness. (Gilead was also known as Ramoth Gilead. It had been originally chosen by the Lord as a City of Refuge. Now it was a city of workers of iniquity and the road to it was tracked with blood.

By consent, should have been translated Shechem, for it also was a City of Refuge. Likewise, its priests, instead of saving men, murdered them by making them idolaters, for they taught them to commit lewdness, i.e., to practice idol worship.)

¹⁰I have seen an horrible thing in the House of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled. (The whoredom of Ephraim was idol worship. God calls it an horrible thing.)

¹¹Also, O Judah, He has set an harvest for you, when I returned the captivity of My People. (The idea of this Verse spans a length of time all the way to the coming Great Tribulation. That will be the harvest of wrath, which will come upon Judah at that time. When I return the captivity of My People, refers to Israel ultimately making her way back to God, which will take place at the Second Coming.)