Amos predicted that God will plant Jews in their own land, never again to be uprooted (Am. 9:15), but they were banished by Titus in 70 CE. Zechariah predicted that ten people from all nations will take firm hold of one Jew and say, Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you (Zech. 8:23), it did not happen either. Haggai predicted that God will make Zerubbabel a signet ring (Hag. 2:23) but what happened to Zerubbabel, we don’t know.  What’s your response?

Amos 9:15 is a kingdom prophecy. It is fulfilled, not in the Jewish nation but in the Christian church.  The new Israel is the church that Jesus established.  Like Paul said, “not all Israel is Israel.” (Romans 9:6) and “it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” (Romans 9:9)  The “land” of the new Israel prophesied in Amos 9:15 is not a physical land, but it is spiritual, because, as Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36)  So Amos 9:15 has already been fulfilled through the Christian church.

The fulfillment of Zechariah 8:23, like Amos 9:15 is found, not in the Jewish nation but in the Christian church.  It, too, is a kingdom prophecy.  God prophesied repeatedly in many of the prophetic books, that “all nations” will stream into the kingdom of God, perhaps most famously in Isaiah 2:1-5, but also in Zechariah 8:23.  The “Jew” in this passage is a spiritual Jew, as expressed in Galatians 3:7-9, where Paul tells us that the descendants of Abraham are those with faith in Jesus.

Haggai 2:23, like the others, is a kingdom prophecy.  Zerubbabel, like Joshua in Zechariah 3:8, is a “symbol of things to come.”  In fact, by coincidence, I preached on this exact passage just last Sunday, making the point that Zerubbabel, as governor and as a descendant if David, is a prefigure of the Messiah.  In fact, Zerubbabel is in the direct line of descent from Abraham to Jesus, as mentioned in Matthew 1:12.

All three of these prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus Christ and in his church. Anyone who suggests otherwise probably does not understand the relationship between Jewish prophecy and the New Testament.  Jesus said that the Hebrew Scriptures testify about him (John 5:39).  This is proved by Amos 9:15, Zechariah 8:23, and Haggai 2:23.

John Oakes