How Does Jacob Become Israel?

             The Apostle Paul opens Romans 11 with this bold statement: “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!” Paul goes on to show us God’s loving and just nature by explaining God’s plan in verses 11-12. “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!”
            What does this have to do with our current series about restoring end-time terms and concepts?
In the last blog we saw how Jacob wrestled with God because of our human tendency to want to justify ourselves with our own works or human strides. We will always fall short. That’s why grace is a crucial message in these last of the last Days.
           In Jesus’ ground-breaking teaching about His coming at the rapture, known as the Olivet Discourse, He made a declaration that stunned the disciples. “Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” He was referring to their beloved Temple. Hearkening back to Daniel 12, He declared the desolation and the beginning of sorrows as the signs of this present age. To the Church, it was the beginning of the tribulation of those Days. To the Jews it was known as the time of Jacob’s Trouble.
            When Jesus made that declaration, something happened in the spiritual realm. The archangel Michael, the chief prince assigned to Israel stood still. He had to hearken to God’s Word as spoken by the Messiah (Ps. 103:20). He had to stand by and do nothing when the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem. He had to stand still when the Temple was destroyed from within by the Jewish people in 70 AD.
            Choices always have consequence. Yet God was able to use the Jew’s rejection of Jesus to bring about His divine will. Although He had to allow the natural branch (the Jews) to be cut off, it allowed the Gospel to be extended to the Gentiles (the wild branch). Paul reminds us that the Jews were not cut off or cast away permanently, as some scholars teach despite what Romans 11 declares. They shall be restored at the appointed time.
            If you have been following these blogs, you know that the appointed time coincides with the rapture of the Church. Our being gathered in plain sight for all the world to see opens the eyes of Jacob, who then declares Jesus as the Messiah. The natural branch is thereby grafted back in. Hosea 6 refers to this as Israel’s 3rd Day revival.
            Daniel 12:1 describes what will happen. Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible preserves the tense and word usage found in the original Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) writings. The extremely literal translation is not exactly easy to read, but it does accurately record what the prophecy said would happen.
            “And at that time stand up doth Michael, the great head, who is standing up for the sons of thy people [Daniel’s people—the Jews], and there hath been a time of distress, such as hath not been since there hath been a nation till that time, and at that time do thy people escape, every one who is found written in the book.”
            The book is the Book of Life, which is the basis for God’s final judgment—if you are in Christ, then your name is in the Book of Life. The unparalleled time of distress is that of Jacob’s Trouble that spans Days 5 and 6 of God’s great Week. How do they escape?
            You may recall from earlier blogs that when Jesus comes to gather His Body, the Church, His Bride at the rapture, He literally stands on the Mount of Olives. It causes an earthquake that splits the mountain, thereby making a way of escape for the remnant of Jews who are now our fellow saints in the Lord (Zech. 14:4-6). Note that Zechariah gives the same final sign before Christ’s return—total darkness over the whole earth. In short, our 3rd Day resurrection triggers Israel’s 3rd Day acceptance.