The Five-Fold Prophecy Understanding An Important Latter-day Divine Promise
Israel believers who attend mainstream churches are well aware that there are numerous biblical passages that are either mistranslated, misinterpreted, or deliberately ignored by the modern clergy. A good example of all three instances is 2 Samuel 7:10, “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime.” This verse is given as a future prophecy in almost all Bible translations including the King James, although a very few others recompose it as a past event.
The story has been told that when Bible translator James Moffat was completing his translation, a group of Dispensationalists contacted him asking that he compose this verse in the past tense as if it was already completed in Palestine. To his credit Dr. Moffat refused their request, saying that he could not make the verse say what it does not.
This important Davidic prophecy actually contained a five-fold set of divine promises, each of which had separate and explicit historical fulfillments, none of which were realized by Israel in the old land of Canaan.
“I will appoint a place for my people Israel…”
John Gill, an eighteenth-century expositor, gave his own explanation: “Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel… The land of Canaan: this the Lord had of old appointed to them, and had introduced them into and settled them in it, but not entirely and alone; in many places the Canaanites had inhabited; but now they should be expelled, and the Israelites should have the place to themselves.” It is surprising that a theologian could give such an utterly unhistorical view of what is well-known biblical history. The Canaanites were not the only people harassing Israel in Palestine. The Bible records a collection of enemies including “the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou” (Deut. 7:1). In addition, the Edomites were an especially incessant thorn even during the time of Christ. These nations were never expelled, and the Israelites never had the place to themselves.
Israel was commanded to remove these peoples, but they did not. Knowing Israel’s continual willful disobedience, God’s ultimate plan was not to expel other nations from Palestine in order to leave Israel alone there, but to remove Israel herself from their midst. Since Israel would not remove the other nations, God removed Israel instead! “Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only” (2 Ki. 17:18). Israel migrated to “a land where never mankind dwelt,” as the prophecy in the Apocryphal book of Second Esdras 13:40-45 states. Bible history records that a majority of Israel was expelled—exiled by Assyria and Babylon to lands north and east, from which they migrated still further to other largely uninhabited lands north of the Caucasus where Israel could dwell alone.
W.M.H. Milner, in his book, “Verse By Verse: From Genesis To Malachi,” (1901) commented, “To us His [God’s] plans seem to await realization, but to Him they are realized as soon as planned, even from the foundation of the world. It is manifest from the subsequent providential history of the chosen people in Palestine that …they were rooted up and removed into far countries…But this was a promise of a lasting independence (for such is the literal meaning of the [Hebrew] word tachath—‘under himself’) in an appointed place of their own” (p. 78).
“and will plant them…”
In her book, “British-Israel Bible Notes,” (1907), Jesse Bell explained, “This is part of the message the Lord gave Nathan, the prophet, to David. It is not a promise of Palestine, for they were in it at the time, and were afterwards driven out of it…it is a promise of new and additional land for Israel in a future time; even in the latter days, when they should again turn to the Lord their God…It is a permanent occupancy that is promised. The last passage may be translated, ‘neither shall they be harassed by enemies, as aforetime’” (p. 72).
Israel would indeed be planted and flourish, growing into a multitude of nations. A wonderful and neglected prophecy is recorded in Genesis 48:17-19: “And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.
And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.” (Cf. Isa. 54:1-3)
“that they may dwell in a place of their own”
Dr. Denis Hanan, author of “Israel: A Thesis,” (1891) explained, “The predictions of a place of safety and blessing distinct from Palestine which is here made, is more fully proclaimed in the later prophets. ‘I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her…and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth…at that day thou shalt call Me Ishi, and thou shalt call Me no more Baali…and I will sow her unto Me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, Thou art My people, and they shall say, Thou art my God’ (Hosea 2)” (pp. 50-51).
The Bible makes it clear that Israel would be migrating to and settling in other lands, especially the desolate or uninhabited parts of the earth: Europe, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and even the South Pole! The Prophet Isaiah recorded, “Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages… And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted… The children which thou shalt have [Judah], after thou hast lost the other [lost House of Israel], shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell” (Isa. 49:8, 11, 20).
“and move no more.”
It is interesting that not a single mainstream evangelical commentary understands this important individual prophecy, because it contradicts their modern beliefs. If you think that Palestine was the fulfillment of the prophetic land from which they would never move, how would you explain the fact that Israel subsequently moved several times out of that land? David’s prophecy in Second Samuel 7 is dated to 1042 B.C. The House of Israel was later subject to several exiles in 732, 721, and 676 B.C. The House of Judah was invaded and the people exiled in 604, 597, 586 B.C., and 70-73 A.D. To claim God told King David that Canaan was the land from which Israel would “move no more,” makes Bible prophecy into an utter falsehood.
The Prophet Jeremiah gave evidence that both Israel and Judah would move out of Canaan and lose all remembrance of their former home: “My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace” (Jer. 50:6). This certainly suggests a lengthy trip to other lands.
Indeed as a people we have forgotten our original resting place. The very word, “Caucasian,” implies that our first known existence was in the Caucasus Mountains. Yes, lost Israel’s grave was the Celto-Saxon’s birthplace! Yet this was only a gateway to Europe, America, and other lands from the Mideast. Prophecy has now been fulfilled and we will move no more.
“neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime.”
Author Caroline Pearse, in her book, “Israel in the Scriptures” (1902) says, “It was to be ‘a place’ in which they were safe from the attacks of their enemies, in which the ‘children of wickedness’ should not molest them. Clearly, then, it must be some other place than Palestine, for in Palestine they were continually afflicted by their enemies, and from it they were removed, carried captive by Assyrians and Chaldeans, and turned out by the Romans and the Turks” (pp. 39-40).
The lost tribes of Israel stopped being afflicted and defeated by foreign nations when they grew in numbers and strength to become “the chief of the nations” (Jer. 31:7). Isaiah also foretold our day: “In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake… No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD” (Isa 54:14-17). Amen!
