A Time to Every Purpose

A Story of Israel’s Birth, Death, Burial and Resurrection

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2:
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

The story of the Bible is the story of God’s love for Israel, a people he bound to himself through everlasting and unconditional covenants, sealed with his Word, his Spirit, and his blood. The Bible tells this story over the course of 7,000 years of earth’s history, a week of millennial days that span from her creation to her demise. 

Days One and Two tell the story of Adam and Noah, the fathers of the human race. But to everything there is a time to be born, and Israel was born in the person of Isaac, the son of Abraham. God told Abraham, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called,” (Gen. 21:12). And on the third millennial day, the God who calls himself “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” made for himself a people by virtue of an everlasting promise of a seed, a nation, a land, a priesthood, and a throne.

But there is a time to die. Less than 100 years after the kingdom of Israel was united, it was divided. On the fourth millennial day, Israel and Judah were conquered by pagans and scattered among the nations.

There is a time to be planted, buried in the ground. And for 2,000 years, the nation of Israel has been awaiting her revival. Days 5 and 6 are the Times of the Gentiles. God chose this time to reveal the great mystery which he kept hidden in himself – that in Christ, the Jews and Gentiles are fellowcitizens in his eternal household. In this glorious era, God is making himself known in the person of his Son, Jesus.

The full restoration of Israel is as sure as the Word of God itself. There is a time to pluck up that which is planted, and on Day 7, the dry bones of the house of Israel will be raised to life everlasting. Let these words be shouted from the mountaintops!

Ezekiel 37:11-14:
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,  And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

There is a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. This is the story of the Bible, the story of God’s love for Israel, and his great plan for the salvation of man through his Son Jesus. To him be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen, and amen!