The prosperity of the ancient people of Israel promised in the Old Testament is consistently used to present a rosy vision of the future. A supposed prediction of coming events. Only one “small detail” is overlooked and also kept secret.
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An apostate people
“It says in the Old Testament that the people of God will return to their former glory,” is one claim. Such statements do indeed exist, but the detail lies in a set condition and has nothing to do with the future from our current perspective.
The very first chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah describes the miserable conditions within the people. Isaiah was the first of the so-called great prophets and lived in Judah. Northern Israel had already been destroyed by Assyria. The prophet Isaiah was desperately needed to lead the apostate people in Judah back onto the right path. The name Isaiah is “Yeschayah” in Hebrew and means “The Lord saves”. This name alone reveals what the old people of God were like.
Isaiah 1:4-6:
“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.“
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Possible way out of the misery

All hope was not lost. There was still a way out, Isaiah 1:16-20:
“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.“
The great apostasy of the people is particularly clear in the previous verses (be sure to study the Bible yourself!). However, there follow descriptions of the possible way out and, above all, the prospect of forgiveness if the people finally return to the ways of God.
Further Urgent Calls to Repentance
Isaiah 51:4-5:
“Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.”
but the very next verse 6 is often omitted:
“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.“
Stubborn stubbornness
The people called by God through His prophets were stubborn and obstinate. Jeremiah received the people’s response to God’s calls announced through the prophets.
Jeremiah 6:16-17:
“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.”
The consequences

God responded to the people’s stubborn refusal by conquering Judah through the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The people of Jerusalem were led into exile in Babylon. The later prophet Daniel was there as a teenager. Jeremiah had already announced it, Jeremiah 25:11-12:
“And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.“
After decades in exile and in old age, Daniel begged God for forgiveness for his apostate people (Daniel 9). After 70 years, as announced, Babylon was conquered by Medo-Persia. The Persian king Cyrus sent the first Judeans to Jerusalem. Daniel was not there. He was already well over 80 years old and too old for such hardships. But the prophet received another announcement. The last “grace period” for his people, the 70-year week, including the announcement of the appearance of the Messiah to the exact year (Info).
Last deadline not used
But the people of God did not use this last deadline either. It happened as history describes. Just 3.5 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the apostle Stephen was stoned. Saul, a Pharisee and persecutor of the first followers of Christ, was purified by Jesus and was then called Paul. The gospel, the message of the way of salvation, was taken away from the Judeans and from then on proclaimed to the Gentiles.
Jesus Christ himself announced that Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed (Matthew 24). This happened in 70 AD. This was followed in the 130s by the great revolt against the Romans (Bar Kochba revolt). The result was the elimination of Judah and the enslavement or dispersion of the people.
Immanuel – Jesus
If one only considers that the promised prosperity of the people was only connected to the required obedience to God, then the supposed contradiction between the promised Immanuel and the Jesus who appeared seems all too logical.
One of the favorite hooks of those who call the Bible a fable and therefore point out supposed contradictions and inconsistencies is the different name of the promised Messiah. In the Old Testament, the Messiah was announced and he was to be called Immanuel, as described in Isaiah 7:14:
“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
But what was the real name of the one coming? Jesus.
Well, here too it would only be “smart” to take the context into account. On what occasion and in what context was “Immanuel” announced. It is also very helpful to know what the name “Immanuel” means and also the name Jesus. Immanuel is the Hebrew term for “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). The name Jesus is derived from the Greek “Iesous” and this in turn from the Hebrew “Yehoshua”. A combination of the name of God “YHWH” and the verb “yascha” (help, save). Thus “God saves”.
Immanuel, or “God with us,” was announced along with the prospect of prosperity after the people had returned to God’s path. In such a case, it would have been a delight for God to be with His people. But it did not happen. The people’s apostasy was so deep that the only way to avert their final ruin was through a rescue operation. Therefore, the Messiah did not appear as the God who was present with joy, but as the desperately needed savior.
“Back then” suddenly becomes “vision of the future”

When God described a prosperous Israel in the future through His prophets in the Old Testament, it was only in connection with the fact that the people would FINALLY walk on the righteous path again. But that did not happen. However, this promised prosperity is now being misused to explain a prosperous people in the (near) future. The Messiah will establish an earthly kingdom in which the people of Israel will (finally) return according to the Torah (Moses’ law books) and rule over the Gentiles..
Nope. The train has long since left the station, almost 2,000 years ago. This futurism with the previous split of the Christian community through a (secret) rapture before the so-called 7-year tribulation period (dispensationalism) will not happen. That is an old wives’ tale from the pens of Jesuits (Info).
This story about the earthly, 1000-year kingdom of peace is appropriately constructed to create an intersection with the ideas of the Jewish communities. After all, a unity is to be formed. But this ecumenism is naturally based on a whole range of lies and is nothing other than the united rebellion against God. (Info).
The actual future of the earth as described in the Bible looks completely different from what is widely reported (Info). Jeremiah saw this future:
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
Jeremiah 4:23-26
Bible verses from King James Version (1611)