Jeremiah 30:1 “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ² “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Write all the words which I have spoken to you in a book. ³ For behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers, and they shall take possession of it.’” But notice when this would be fulfilled: 30:⁹ But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.” We know this is a Messianic prediction b/c it predicts that one day David will be their king again, and that always is fulfilled figuratively in Jesus. Also 34:In the latter days you will understand this.” The “latter days” refers to the last days of the Jewish age from AD 30 to AD 70. So the restoration of the fortunes of Israel and being brought back to their land would be fulfilled at the same time as David, i.e. Jesus, would be their king, which was fulfilled when Jesus ascended to heaven.

Ezekiel 34:¹¹ For the Lord God says this: “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and look after them. ¹² As a shepherd cares for his flock on a day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. ¹³ I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. ¹⁴ I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing place will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down in a good grazing place and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I Myself will feed My flock and I Myself will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God. ¹⁶ “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will eliminate. I will feed them with judgment.” In Ezekiel 34 God condemns the elders of Israel for not shepherding the flock as they should. He predicts that in the future God himself will take over shepherding the flock. We know that this passage is a Messianic prediction fulfilled in Jesus the Good Shepherd (John 10) b/c 34:²³ “Then I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. ²⁴ And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.” Anytime the prophets predicted that one day David would be king, shepherd, and prince over the flock it refers to Jesus. So being brought back to their land would be fulfilled at the same time as David, i.e. Jesus, being made Shepherd of the flock. That was fulfilled when Jesus became the Shepherd of the Jewish believing remnant.

Ezekiel 36:²⁴ For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the lands; and I will bring you into your own land. ²⁵ Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. ²⁶ Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances. ²⁸ And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.” We know this is a Messianic prediction b/c it predicts that God will put His Spirit within them. That was fulfilled in Acts 2 and in the last days of the Jewish age when the miraculous indwelling was poured out on the remnant Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah (as was also predicted by the prophet Joel in Joel 2:28-32). He did not put His Spirit in the unbelieving Jews.

Ezekiel 37: ¹⁴ And I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.’” 37:²¹ And say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land.” This is the famous “valley of dry bones”. The dry bones represent the dead in sin state of Israel and predicts that one day God will put His Spirit in them and raise them from their graves spiritually. Again, this is a Messianic prediction b/c God put HIs Spirit in the remnant Jews who accepted Jesus in Acts 2 and the last days. He did not put His Spirit in the unbelieving Jews. We know this is a Messianic prediction b/c, as in Ezekiel 34:23-25, it predicts that one day David will be their king again, and that always is fulfilled figuratively in Jesus. 37:²⁴ “And My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances, and keep My statutes and follow them. ²⁵ And they will live on the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and My servant David will be their leader forever. ²⁶ And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and set My sanctuary in their midst forever. ²⁷ My dwelling place also will be among them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. ²⁸ And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”’” So the bringing to their own land would be fulfilled at the same time as the pouring out of the Spririt, which was fulfilled in the book of Acts as God poured out His Spirit on the believing Jewish remnant.

These prophecies from Jeremiah and Ezekiel are obviously Messianic. They are predicting a time in their future when the “fortunes of Israel” will be restored and Israel will be brought back to live on their land (the promised land). But they also predict that when that is fulfilled that David will be their king and that always figuratively is fulfilled in Jesus as king (not a literal raising of David from the grave to be king). They also predict that when that is fulfilled that God will pour out His Spirit on Israel and this would be fulfilled when God poured out His Spirit on the Jewish remnant who accepted Jesus as the Messiah in Acts 2 and during the last days of the Jewish age. So it would stand to reason that Israel’s fortunes being restored and Israel being brought back to live in the land would be fulfilled at the same time in some way for the Jewish remnant who accepted Jesus. Of course, the believing remnant did not receive physical land as fulfillment of this prediction. Paul says in Romans 9 that the promises made to Israel in the Old Testament did not fail to come to pass. But he quickly points out that the promises were fulfilled in spiritual Israel, i.e. the Jewish remnant who believed in Jesus as the Messiah, and not the whole nation of Israel. Romans 9:⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; ⁷ nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” ⁸ That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.”

So, the promises of restoration of the fortunes of Israel and returning to their land was fulfilled only for the Jewish believing remnant and not the whole nation. It was already being fulfilled spiritually and figuratively when Paul wrote Romans 9.  The prophets were not predicting, as many claim, that the whole Jewish nation would one day be restored to the physical land of Palestine, which many say was fulfilled in the 1948 statehood of Israel and their being given much of the promised land (but not all) by the United Nations.

So, if this only refers to the Jewish believing remnant being brought back to their land, and if this was not fulfilled literally, then what does it refer to? The Jews were expecting the entire nation to be restored to its physical power just as in the kingdom of David. Even the apostles expected this after the resurrection of Jesus. Acts 1:⁶ So, when they had come together, they began asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Then Peter said in Acts 3:¹⁹ Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; ²⁰ and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things, about which God spoke by the mouths of His holy prophets from ancient times.” That was not predicting a restoration of Israel to physical power but instead was predicting a restoration for the believing Jewish remnant of spiritual blessings, i.e. forgiveness, salvation in Jesus, grace, etc.

But what about the promise to be brought back to their land. If this was not meant to be a physical return to the land, and if it only was fulfilled for the Jewish believing remnant, then it must have been fulfilled figuratively and spiritually in some way. I have always struggled to explain how that was fulfilled, but I think I finally have it figured out. I received help on this from Philip Mauro’s book, The Hope of Israel (published in 1971). He said that this referred to “the heavenly places”. Paul said that the early Christians, Jew and Gentiles, were raised from the death spiritually to be made alive spiritually and raised to sit with Christ in the heavenly places. Ephesians 2:⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead n our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So the land promise for the believing Jewish remnant was fulfilled when they were raised to sit in the heavenly places, i.e. a spiritual realm of safety in the hands of God. John 10:²⁷ My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.” That makes sense since the physical land of Palestine is where physical Israel dwelt and a spiritual land, the heavenly places, would be a figurative spiritual fulfillment since it does not refer to a physical fulfillment.

The figurative spiritual land that the believing Jewish remnant received, and that all believers receive, is to dwell in the heavenly places with Christ, a spiritual realm, in the very hands of God HImself. That is far better than getting some piece of dirt somewhere. It does take an understanding in the figurative fulfillment of prophecies to come to this conclusion. People tend to want to understand all prophecy as being fulfilled literally. Indeed, some predictions are fulfilled literally, such as Micah 5:2 Jesus being born in Bethlehem. But many of the prophecies, as seen by “David being their king” are obviously fulfilled figuratively and spiritually, not literally. That would be true of the land promise. It is sad that so much false expectations are put on Israel returning to the holy land in 1948 as the fulfillment of the land promises. It makes Christians feel that they must support Israel in the holy land today as some part of God fulfilling HIs promises, which is just not true. Many tied the supposed 2nd coming of Jesus to the 1948 statehood of Israel and being given part of Palestine by the UN. They said that Matthew 24 would be fulfilled in our “generation” (Matthew 24:34), which would mean in the next 40 years after 1948. Some thought the year 2,000 AD was the critical year and that the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy in Daniel 9 would be fulfilled in the last 7 years before the year 2,000. Nothing happened. Here we are in 2025 AD and still nothing has happened. The further we get from 1948 and nothing happening. shows that their predictions were wrong.

That is very similar to Jesus’ actual predictions of his 2nd coming that was to be within the lifetime and generation (Matthew 24:34) (a period of 40 years in the Bible) of those he was speaking to (Matthew 10:23; 16:27,28; 24:31-34; 26:64). Either his 2nd coming was in the next 40 years or he was a false prophet. He did come back in 70 AD in judgment on the Jewish nation just as he predicted when the Romans destroyed the temple and the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So he is not a false prophet as the Muslims, unbelieving Jews, and atheists claim. He did not “delay” his 2nd coming, as many claim. Hebrews 10:37 For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.” But those who expected Jesus to return and set up a physical kingdom did not realize his 2nd coming in 70 AD. They simply said that his 2nd coming was delayed, but that it would still occur soon in the first century. As they entered the 2nd century, they still claimed an imminent 2nd coming, but it became more and more difficult to explain why He had not returned as they expected. So now their “delay theory” is going on some 2,000 years. They thought 1948 would be the solution to all this, but that did not happen.

I know this is long and detailed, but I hope it helps to understand prophecy fulfillment. I hope it helps clear up all the false teaching about Israel being restored to the holy land and what the role of the nation of Israel is in our future. The “hope of Israel”, as Philip Mauro so clearly shows, is that Israel would accept Jesus as the Messiah and received spiritual, not physical, blessings today. It is not some hope of the nation of Israel receiving land or being restored as a power. We should pray for Israel. They have such a long, deep rooted connection with Yahweh of the Bible. God has rejected them as a nation (Matthew 21:43) but He still longs for them to accept Jesus.