In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. (Hebrews 1:1,2 NIV)
What was the tragedy of the old
Israel? Of course, the tragedy of the old Israel, finally, is their dismissal.
Their dismissal: “The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall
be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” That happened! and
it stands today. The kingdom of heaven taken away—not for that Israel, but for
another! The tragedy of Israel is that they are dismissed from the dispensation,
or the dispensational movement of God. This has lasted for two thousand years.
How many more years we do not know, probably, not so long, but you leave that
alone.
Here I am going to upset a lot of you: you leave Israel alone for the time
being. You will only get into terrible confusion if you get down on this earth
with an earth touch in these things.... You see, you go on like that and it leads
to confusion if you come down onto this earth. Leave it alone and see what God
is doing, and God is doing a spiritual thing, not a temporal thing. I could take
an hour to enlarge upon that last phrase, “not a temporal thing.” Do you see, in
the sovereign activities of God, that now He is confounding and confusing and
breaking down all temporal representations of His heavenly kingdom?! Men are
trying to set up local churches after New Testament order. You have never had
more confusion in local churches than you have today. They are trying to set up
things, constitute things, Christian movements, Christian institutions,
Christian organizations, and they are all in confusion and do not know what to
do with one another. You may think that is an exaggeration, but you see what I
mean? —God is breathing upon every temporal representation in order to have a
spiritual expression of Christ! That is the heart of what we are saying, and
that is what is here.... This new Israel is so much greater than the old because
Christ, this Messiah, is so much greater than their conception of a Messiah... I
am talking about the greatness of this One Who is introduced in Hebrews: “God,
...hath at the end of these days spoken in His Son, Whom He appointed Heir of...”
an exclusive party? —No, “of all things.” That is Paul’s great word all
the way through: “all things, ...all things, ...all things,” and in the
end, “to sum up all things in Christ.” And if I need to safeguard, I am
not talking about universalism. I am talking about God’s ultimate realm and
sphere where it will be nothing but Christ.