Excepting the perennial “remnant according to the election of grace” (Ro 11:5), the prophets knew that despite regular appeals to turn and live, the nation would never “turn” (teshuvah), as a nation, until the future DOL when God Himself would turn them (“turn us and we shall be turned”; Ps 83:3, 7, 19; 85:4; Lam 5:21; Isa 63:17; Jer 31:18; Eze 20:33-44).
If history’s inerrant confirmation of prophetic revelation has taught us anything, it is that if the fulfillment of the promise were waiting on Israel’s compliance, it would be waiting forever. But God has DETERMINED the “set time” to favor Zion (Ps 102:13). He has not left the end to human cooperation, but with unalterable, unavoidable certainty (Dan 11:36), He has “determined” its nature and set the limits of its duration (Dan 7:25; 8:19; 9:24; 11:27, 35; 12:7; 2Thes 2:3, 6-8).
It is only by such an irrevocable divine determinism that every word of God can be guaranteed of certain fulfillment (Mt 5:18; 24:35). Obviously, something much more than mere foreknowledge working with the not so malleable nature of man is at play here.
