As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols. For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers.
It is very tempting to see the Old Testament as simply the Old Testament. We have a delineation between the scriptures from the time before the arrival of Christ and the events leading to his natural birth. When we read about God’s people Israel in those old books, we see a pattern of disobedience and repentance. They go through a revolving door of choosing God then choosing the gods of their enemies and back. In each instance, God called them back to him, but that pattern did not end with the advent of Christianity. God is still calling the Jews back to him through a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. With each one who turns to him comes a sweet and pleasing aroma.
Although the prophecy above has been fulfilled, we know that God’s people Israel today do not occupy the land of their fathers as a group. They currently are scattered over the world, and much of that is due to displacement by other peoples throughout history. The thing is, the promised land has never ceased to be the promised land. There is a reason why we see many Jews today making aliyah back to Israel. Returning to that land, however, is not the end of the story. This is really a return to the God of Israel, which now carries the implication of Messiah already having come. The aromatic sacrifice here is not the act of moving one’s life to that land but of submitting that life to the Christ.
As Christians, we have been grafted in to the Jewish line of Christ. He came first for them. As members of God’s kingdom and co-heirs with Christ, we must pray for our Jewish brothers and sisters to come to know Jesus as Messiah. It is still the Father’s desire for them to accept his Son and submit to him. It is still the Father’s desire for his people to return to him in humility. For God’s people not only to return to the land of their fathers but also to repent and accept the cornerstone whom they have rejected for so long, that will be such a sweet and pleasing aroma. Father, we pray for your people to continue to return to the land You promised them, to accept Messiah’s sacrifice and to offer themselves in return.