Israel was set aside, disciplined through the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and dispersed, but God has not permanently rejected them.
After Israel as a nation rejected the apostles' offer of the King and Kingdom, God permitted Rome's armies to destroy the temple and city in 70 A.D., scattering the Jewish people. Les Feldick teaches this discipline was not the end; God promised to bring Israel back. In the 20th century the Jews returned, and in 1948 Israel became a sovereign state, showing God is not finished with them.
2 Samuel 7:14-15 — God says He will chasten Israel with the rod of men but that His mercy will not depart — the 'flip side' of discipline that Les emphasizes.
Acts 7:59-60 — The stoning of Stephen, which Les identifies as the crescendo of Israel's rejection of the Messiah.
In 2 Samuel 7:14-15 God tells David that if his descendant commits iniquity, He will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men, but His mercy shall not depart from him as it did from Saul. Here Scripture sets both discipline and ongoing mercy in place. When Jesus told the parable of the nobleman, the citizens said, 'We will not have this man to reign over us' (Luke 19:14). In the book of Acts, Stephen is stoned by the religious leaders — a climax of the nation's rejection of the Messiah (Acts 7).
Les Feldick explains that although some individual Jews believed, the nation of Israel as a whole rejected the apostles' appeal to repent of killing their King. After about seven years of this rejection, God set the nation aside. Les says the rejection reached its crescendo at the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7, after which Israel declined spiritually. God then sovereignly permitted the Roman army under Titus to destroy Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D., forty years after Pentecost. The Jewish people were uprooted and scattered into a dispersion that continued until modern times. Yet Les emphasizes the 'flip side': the word 'but' in 2 Samuel 7. God disciplined Israel, but He did not give up on her. Beginning in the early 1900s, Jewish people returned to the land, and in 1948 Israel became a sovereign state after war with surrounding Arab nations. Les presents this regathering, along with Israel's continued existence, as evidence that God is not finished with the Jewish people and will yet fulfill His promises to their forefathers.
No. Les teaches that God set the nation aside after their rejection, but He did not stop loving or working with them. In 2 Samuel 7:14-15, God promises to chasten Israel with the rod of men yet says, 'But my mercy shall not depart away from him.' Les points to that 'but' as the flip side: discipline is not the same as termination. He says God promised from day one that He would not give up on Israel and will yet fulfill all the promises He made to their forefathers.
Les teaches that about forty years after Pentecost, after the nation had repeatedly rejected the apostles' message, God sovereignly permitted the Roman army under Titus to come into Jerusalem, destroy the temple and the city, and uproot the Jewish people out of the Promised Land. This began a dispersion that lasted until modern times. It happened, Les says, because they rejected their Messiah and their King.
Beginning in the early 1900s, Jewish people began returning to the land and establishing settlements. Les says that after war with the surrounding Arab states, Israel became a sovereign state in 1948, with Harry Truman recognized as the first world leader to acknowledge that sovereignty. Les uses this regathering — along with Israel's dry-bone existence in Ezekiel's vision — as evidence that the Bible is supernatural and that God is preparing to fulfill His prophetic Word to Israel.
Les emphasizes that despite Israel's rejection at the cross, God in His grace sent Peter and the eleven apostles in the early chapters of Acts to appeal to the nation to repent of killing their Messiah and to offer them the King and the Kingdom. Israel as a whole refused, and after Stephen's stoning the nation's rejection reached its crescendo. From that point Israel slid into dispersion.
The Flip Side of God's Chastening
Les shows from 2 Samuel 7 that God promised to chasten Israel when they sinned, but the word 'but' in verse 15 reveals the flip side — His mercy would not depart. So discipline did not mean the end of Israel.
God Sets Israel Aside and Disperses Them
Les says that after about seven years of rejecting Peter and the eleven, God gave up on the nation and set them aside. The Roman armies then destroyed the temple and Jerusalem, and the Jewish people went into a dispersion that lasted until the 20th-century return and 1948 statehood.
Stephen's Stoning: The Crescendo of Rejection
Les explains that Peter repeatedly appealed to Israel after Pentecost to repent and accept the King. Israel rejected the appeals out of hand, and the crescendo of their rejection came at the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7. From there Israel slid into dispersion and God turned to the Gentiles.
70 A.D.: Rome Destroys the Temple and City
Les teaches that after Israel continued rejecting the Old Testament promises of the King and Kingdom, God sovereignly permitted Titus's Roman army to destroy the temple and Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and uproot the Jews into dispersion — all because they rejected their Messiah.
Crucify Him: The Nation's Refusal
Les recounts that the nation demanded 'Crucify Him!' and said 'We will not have this man to rule over us.' Yet God was gracious and in early Acts gave them another opportunity to repent and receive the King and Kingdom.
Discipline and Unbroken Promise
Les says that because Israel rejected their Messiah, they lost the temple, the land, and were dispersed, experiencing ghettos and the holocaust. But God promised from the start that He would not give up on them and will bring them back and fulfill all His promises to their forefathers.
Repeated Dispersions and a Modern Return
Les notes that God had before taken Israel out of the land (Assyria, Babylon) and brought them back. After their rejection of Christ, He again dispersed them in 70 A.D., but is now bringing them back from the four quarters of the world, fulfilling His promises.
The Jew: Living Proof of Scripture
Les describes the Jews as very dry bones scattered since 70 A.D., with no human possibility of becoming a nation again. Their regathering — and the modern state of Israel — is, in Les's teaching, supernatural evidence that the Bible is the Word of God.
2 Samuel 7:14-15: I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.
The foundation for discipline with ongoing mercy that Les applies to Israel's rejection of the Messiah.
Luke 19:14: But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
Les quotes this as Israel's rejection of the Messiah — their words were fulfilled as they demanded His crucifixion.
Ezekiel 37:3: And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.
Les applies the dry-bones vision to Israel's long dispersion and God's power to regather them.
Acts 7:59-60: And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
The stoning of Stephen, which Les identifies as the crescendo of Israel's rejection of the King and Kingdom.
No. Les Feldick teaches that God set the nation aside but never gave up on her. He promised to bring Israel back and fulfill every promise made to their forefathers, even after their rejection of the Messiah.
Les says it wasn't exactly final, but the nation reached the crescendo of rejection when they stoned Stephen in Acts chapter 7. After that, Israel slid into dispersion and the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.
Les points out that the Jewish people began returning to the land in the early 1900s and became a sovereign state in 1948. He sees this as evidence that God is still working with Israel and that the Bible's promises are true.
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