August 28, 2006: Israel: What in the world is going on? Part II

I promised last time that we'd look more this time at Israel in prophecy.

Throughout history God has chosen different people, different families, and different groups for certain purposes. God made it clear that He chose Israel (the Jews) as a group whose purpose was to be a nation of priests and a holy nation to God. (Exodus 19:6) The Bible makes it clear that God loves all peoples, but He has chosen Israel for a specific job. Throughout her history, Israel has at times done what she was supposed to do.

Through God's workings with her in delivering her from Egypt's slavery, and parting the Red Sea, God's fame and glory was proclaimed throughout the world. Through His wisdom and blessing given at the time of Solomon, He revealed Himself to many nations. Through His just laws and His discipline of Israel's sins, God showed His holiness, and through His forgiveness to the often failing Jews He showed His mercy. God used them, as we said last week, to preserve His word and to bring the Messiah into the world. Missionaries like Jonah carried the message of the Lord outside Israel's borders; Jews dispersed at the time of Christ helped other cultures to know who the God of the Bible was, so they'd be more receptive when the message of God's Son, Jesus, was proclaimed. But Israel has never lived up to the height of its true calling, to truly be that nation on earth that models what God desires for the human race, and the people group that spends its time not in contributing to the physical needs of man but to his spiritual relationship with God. As a nation of priests, Israel's calling is to be a people in full-time service to God on behalf of all the other people on the earth...but instead, Israel has rejected God and is running from its calling. But God's purposes can not be thwarted by man's will. Israel is running away, but God will catch her. The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). His purpose will be accomplished at last.

To accomplish this, God has to discipline Israel for her sin, bring her to repentance, and prepare her for her unique ministry.

The first part of the discipline on Israel is the present Church Age in which we live. Because Israel has rejected God, God has set her aside for the present time, and is no longer using her as she was meant to be used. Just like a coach benching an uncooperative starter, and putting a substitute in the game, God has benched Israel and created a new institution, The Church, to be His servants in the here and now. Thus, God is no longer working through Israel. The Church, which is a unique organization that is not associated with any physical family, people group, or country is the group that God has chosen to carry forth His good news of free salvation from sin by faith in Jesus Christ. God has done this for purposes known only to Him, but he has also done this as a punishment on Israel...to provoke her to jealousy (Romans 10:19; 11:11).

We do not know how long the Church Age will last; no year determines its end, but rather an event. When the total number of people God has ordained to be part of His Church is reached, Jesus Christ will return in the Clouds to take His church away to heaven with Him from this world. The Church Age will then be concluded.

The next thing that will happen is that some Jews, a minority of those living, will return to the Lord and recognize that Jesus is their Messiah. This small band will preach the good news to their fellow-countrymen and to foreigners. Many from both groups will believe and be saved. God will be using this small remnant of Jews to spread His word...but the majority of Jews that do not believe, along with the majority of non-Jews, will look for salvation from another source--one who comes in his own name, not the name of the Lord (John 5:43). Together, the Jews and the people of many other nations will make a treaty with this individual (Daniel 9:27), instituting a 3.5 year period where it seems that man has solved his own problems.

That leads into the second phase of God's punishment of Israel. They will be betrayed by this false messiah. Under the influence of Satan, he will seek to do what Satan has always desired to do to void the promises in the Word of God...annihilate the Jews from off the face of the planet. This horrible period of time is called the Great Tribulation. Many Jews will be killed, and they will be pursued and hunted down globally. In the ensuing chaos, as God gives free reign to men and demons, much heartache will be suffered by all the inhabiters of the earth. Over the course of time many other Jews--and non Jews--will turn to Christ.

During this period the evil world ruler, who betrayed the Jews, will lead an invasion army of the holy Land, and conquer it. This invasion has been predicted in many places in the Bible, but one of the most detailed is in Ezekiel chapters 28 and 39, where the nationality of some of the invading countries is listed.

This occupation will continue until somewhere near the end of this 3.5 year period of war. It seems that near the end of this time the surviving Jews will retake control of Jerusalem, but in the process of doing that will find themselves surrounded for easy extermination. By now, with the conversions and the deaths, a majority of those Jews who are still alive will be believers in their Messiah and will call on Him for help, repenting of their national sins--and He will come, defeat the enemy, destroy all nonbelievers from the face of the planet, atone for Israel's rebellion, and inaugurate a new age on Earth, where Jesus Christ Himself shall reign, and where the people of Israel will finally fulfill their calling as a unique nation in this new order, being the capital and the center and the Priests for all the other living nations. And thus so ordered, the world will enjoy a thousand years of prosperity, with Satan bound and death all but abolished.

But the believers who enter this age from Israel and all over the earth will have children, and repopulate the planet (these are the earthly believers who survived the Great Tribulation who will be having these children, not resurrected saints). Just like in any age before, each of these children, while having to conform outwardly to God's laws, will have to make their own inner decision as to whether they truly submit to Christ from the heart or not. Surely living in paradise on earth, seeing Jesus, and experiencing nothing but goodness, they would choose to trust Him with their loyalty? But how to know for sure? At the end of the thousand years, Satan will be released to test the hearts, and, behold, although there will be loyal people from every nation, the majority of the people of the earth will join Satan in one last rebellion--for God shows us that all of our excuses for not accepting Christ (I can't see him, I've had tragedy in my life, it's my environment) do not hold up. It is our choice. And the nations of the earth will reject Him, even with all of those excuses removed. That is, every nation but one. Israel will stand firm, at last, for Christ. Together, with the few from all the other nations who are loyal to Christ, she will stand surrounded by Satan's forces for one final battle-- which will never occur. For God will send fire from heaven to destroy the rebels, and then the universe as we now know it will be destroyed, and nothing will be left except for God to judge the dead, consign them to the lake of Fire, and welcome the believers from all the ages into the new heavens and earth, a whole new universe, where there is no curse, and where righteousness dwells forever.

So, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, the choice you must make is still the same--how will you decide on Jesus? Will you trust Him as the One to save you from your sin, your Lord? Or will you reject Him? On that question alone, not your nationality, nor your family background, nor your religious affiliation, will all of your eternity be decided. I'd encourage you to look up the verses cited above, and also to read the Book of Revelation, which lays out this series of events.

Next time we'll summarize all this with a view of current events.

~Pastor Brian

August 8, 2006: Israel: What in the world is going on?

Isn't it amazing how at the heart of so many problems in the world today is a controversy over a little piece of land (smaller than Indiana) called Israel?

Isn't it strange how that in World War II the center of Hitler's ambitions was the wiping out of the Jews?

What in the world is going on?

The Bible tells us, in Romans 9-11, that God has chosen the people of Israel, those biological descendants of Abraham, for a special role in world history. A secular philosopher once said that "the Jews are the burr in the saddle that keeps history moving." How true that is--how much of world history revolves around this tiny group of people. There are only 21 million Jews in the entire world (out of six billion people...by comparison, America has 300 million people). In America, Jews make up only about 2.5% of our population. The nation of Israel is only about 150 miles long and 70 miles wide. Yet long ago God chose the people of Israel, the Jews, to be a special treasure to Him. He used them to be the caretakers of His law, and the biological ancestors of Jesus, the Messiah. And God never just uses us and tosses us aside. He said He made an everlasting covenant with His people (again, read Romans 9-11).

Of course, the people of Israel (along with the rest of us) crucified Jesus and rejected their King and Messiah. The Bible says that's why they have had nothing but trouble ever since. But Beware! It does NOT mean that God seeks their destruction. On the contrary, He has promised that they will always endure as a separate people: and that is exactly what has happened. From about AD 135 to 1948 the Jews were scattered among all the nations of the world...but they did not assimilate and disappear as a people, like any other culture in similar circumstances would have done. Instead, they endured. Then, in 1948, because of the collective guilt the world was feeling about the Holocaust, the UN declared that the Jews could have a homeland in the area that God had long ago given them under Joshua, and thus the state of Israel was formed.

But anti-Israel, anti-semitic (which means anti-jewish) feelings persist among many people, especially the Muslim Arabs. When it's all said and done, I'm convinced that this hatred, just like Hitler's, is Satanically inspired. Satan hates the Jews because God has a purpose for them. The Bible not only says that they will never disappear as a people, but that one day they will return to the Lord and to Jesus their Messiah, and then will assume the place that God has destined for them to have. Satan knows this, and he is trying with all of his might to destroy these people and void God's promise. And don't be fooled, he hates Christians just as much, if not more. If the forces seeking to destroy Israel are successful, their next target will be the nation with the most Christians in the world...America.

So, what then?
Well, as believers we should pray for the peace of Israel...not peace from war, but peace with God. That He would open the eyes of the Jewish people to their Messiah. We owe them that because, without the Jews, who brought us Jesus, none of us would be saved. So we should pray for their salvation.

Secondly, we should share our faith in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, with any Jewish people we know--not in a pushy, arrogant way, but in a humble, concerned and loving way.

Thirdly, we should support missionaries and missions who are attempting to reach the Jews. The Bible said we are to preach the gospel first in Jerusalem. A great organization that does this effectively using Jews who believe in Jesus as its evangelists is called Jews for Jesus. Next, we should pray that America remains a supporter of Israel, rather than an opponent. That does not mean we approve or support whatever Israel does (since it is a State run by unsaved and thus ungodly men).

But we don't want to be on the side of those who would seek to exterminate the Jews, or take away the land that was given to them in covenant by God. Besides, Israel is the only functioning democracy in the middle east, and has faithfully supported America like no other country other than the United Kingdom. If Israel is destroyed, they are coming after us next.

Fifth, we should also pray for the enemies of Israel and America that they too would find the peace that only Jesus Christ can bring, and we should send that good news of forgiveness and salvation to them as well.

Sixthly, we must pray for our President that he would continue to stand firm as one of the few supporters of Israel on the world stage.

And, lastly, we should support political candidates who take a pro-Israel stance.

Next week we'll look at some of the prophecies in the Bible that deal with the situation in the Middle East.

~Pastor Brian

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