The End

The late, great J. Vernon McGee also saw this parallel. In

“Thru The Bible,”

he expounds on Hosea’s prophetic pas-

sage: “‘In the third day he will raise us up’—this is very inter-

esting in light of the fact that the resurrection of Christ was on

the third day. He was raised for the justification of both Jew

and Gentile. This will also be applicable in that future day

when God will bring Israel back into that land and bring them

to himself. In Ezekiel 37 God speaks of that day as a resurrec-

tion, and that resurrection will be based on the One who was

raised on the third day; for in Christ’s resurrection there is pro-

vided, for any man who will accept it, a redemption and a justi-

fication which will bring him into a right relationship with Al-

mighty God.

“The apostle Paul develops the subject of the future of Isra-

el in Romans 11. In our day, God’s purpose in building his

church is to draw to himself both Jew and Gentile, people out

of every tongue and tribe and nation, who are going to come

before him to worship. When God completes his purpose in

the church and takes it out of the world, he will again turn to

the nation Israel and will raise her up. Every prophet who

wrote in Scripture—and even some who didn’t write—spoke

of God’s future purpose for the nation Israel. Even before the

children of Israel could get into the land, Moses began to talk

about the coming day when God would restore them back to

the land for the third time. The third time—on the third day,

so to speak—the restoration to the land would be a permanent

restoration. There is a correlation between this restoration and

Christ’s being raised from the dead on the third day.”

Vol. 3, pp. 635-636, used with permission.