Hosea 5:15 I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.

Here Jesus is speaking to Israel and He is stating His position on when He will one day return. As we examine His words it becomes apparent that Jesus stated these words, and that He is going away to His place following His first coming.

He makes it clear that His return will not take place until Israel will seek His face in the midst of her affections. So following the time of Jacobs trouble is the time He is suggesting here for His return.

This message in Hosea was confirmed by Jesus while on earth not long before His crucifixion.

Matthew 23:37-39 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Hosea had penned his prophecy from the Lord at the time of the Assyrian captivity. We can be assured that the Jews who are in the land today are being returned to the land for God’s purpose. We don’t know when but these things will happen. In Micah 5:2-3, the Lord calls all the earths attention to what He intends to do.

“Hear, O peoples, all of you; Listen, O earth and all it contains, And let the Lord God be a witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple.” And the following scriptures tell what He will do. Micah 4:11-12 Micah 1:2-4 Micah 3:5-6, 11 Micah 2:12-13 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” For behold, the Lord is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. Therefore He will give them up until the time When she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren Will return to the sons of Israel. The mountains will melt under Him And the valleys will be split, Like wax before the fire, Like water poured down a steep place. Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; When they have something to bite with their teeth, They cry, “Peace,” But against him who puts nothing in their mouths They declare holy war. Therefore it will be night for you—without vision, And darkness for you—without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets, And the day will become dark over them. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, Her priests instruct for a price And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord saying, “Is not the Lord in our midst? Calamity will not come upon us.” “And now many nations have been assembled against you Who say, ‘Let her be polluted, And let our eyes gloat over Zion.’ “I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold; Like a flock in the midst of its pasture They will be noisy with men. “But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, And they do not understand His purpose; For He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor. “The breaker goes up before them; They break out, pass through the gate and go out by it. So their king goes on before them, And the Lord at their head.”

These scriptures tell us of the regathering of Israel, and of her subsequent affliction, before He delivers her.

Then in Matthew Jesus is with His disciples.

Matthew 24:3-4, 8, 14, 29-30 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

Yes Jesus said to the disciples “do not let anyone deceive you”. Later He said:

Matthew 28:16, 18-20 But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The question that you must ask yourself is this — is the command that Jesus gave the disciples on the Temple Mount — let no one deceive you — a command that they passed on to you and I?

Peter in his first sermon recorded in Acts told us what must happen in order that Jesus would return and it was put forth in a message to Israel:

Acts 3:12, 19-21 But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?… Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.

Do these verses carry a message just for Israel? Is this not also a message to inform us also of Israel’s roll in the timing of the Lord’s return.

If Jesus the word of God after having been rejected by Israel is now awaiting her return to Him before He restores all things exactly what does that mean? In Hosea 5-15, He says that He will remain in His place until Israel calls for Him in her distress.

The scriptures prophesy God’s rejection of the nation of Israel. Did this occur? Listen: Matthew 21:43 Therefore say I unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

Here Jesus took the kingdom from one nation and gave it to another.

What does that mean? What nation?

Paul says in Romans 11: 1-5, that not all Israel is rejected. The remnant of Israel remained in the chosen olive tree. So what does scripture say about God’s holy nation today?

1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We who now have received what we heretofore did not have are now that Holy nation, following in the very prophecy that Abraham was given concerning the Gentiles. We are men and women of faith, made up of a multitude of nations. This was God’s promise to Abraham when He changed his name, and this is the kingdom gospel. You and I, one with the Saints of Israel, ruling from Israel with Messiah. Paul makes this clear to us in Ephesians 2. We have inherited with the saints the covenants of promise.

Only part of that nation was cut off from the kingdom. The rest were left, and we were grafted into that collective.

We are to pray: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

If Jesus Himself promised to return to His place until Israel repents and calls on His name, then you and I will see the great Tribulation, which will result in the revealing of the sons of God. We will either view the Tribulation leading to the kingdom from earth awaiting our blessed Hope or we will view it from paradise as we await the resurrection and our new bodies.

Israel has been given a promise by God to be added back into the Olive tree. Paul, who understood these scriptures well, tells us two things. In one he warns us:

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.

Romans 11:17-21 NASB

He makes it clear here that we who have replaced the broken branches of Israel can also be broken off should we become conceited. His final warning is clear, but then in a separate passage of scripture he tells us that this very thing will one day happen before Christ returns. Paul says:

that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,

2 Thessalonians 2:2-3 NASB

This apostasy is the same as that warned of by Paul in Romans 11 above, and it was also stated as the falling away that Jesus had mentioned in Matthew 24.

These things are one day coming. If we don’t warn them will the Lord hold us accountable?

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’

Ezekiel 33:6 NASB

Paul always knew that this fall was possible. He states:

yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

Colossians 1:22-23 NASB

We stand firm by faith alone in Christ alone. Our faith is not in our faith, it is in Him.