About
a week before beginning this booklet on Israel, I was told of a certain
Christian
man who had stated that my writings are “controversial.”
I tried to picture any of my own church members
making this statement about me or any other preacher, and I could not
bring the
picture to mind because my members have been exposed to controversy
regularly since
our ministry began in 1996. A preacher who
isn’t controversial isn’t fulfilling his call to preach.
It is our duty, as stewards of God’s word, to
take God’s side against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. When speaking to the Ephesian elders, Paul
said, “Wherefore I take you to record
this day, that I am pure
from the blood of all men. For I have not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” (Acts
20:26-27) Paul was a God-called preacher
who believed in
taking God’s side and making known the will of God concerning any issue.
When
Paul preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, it was often
controversial because
he preached it to unbelievers and he preached it on their turf (Acts
13-28). Today, when an American preacher
preaches the
gospel, he is usually safely sheltered by the walls of his own church
building,
and over ninety percent of his listeners are already professing
Christians, and
the few listeners who might not be Christians already know most of what
he will
say. That is, the average preacher in
America
lives and preachers in a comfort zone where nothing he says is
controversial. When he preaches, he
generally “preaches to the
choir,” as they say. This is so true that
on the rare occasions when the preacher might make a controversial
statement, he
feels the need to “soften the blow” by either prepping the people for
the statement
or by apologizing after the statement is made.
The truly God-called preacher does neither, or at least not as a
habit. He preaches the word of God in
faith, without
fear or favor, believing that the Holy Spirit will honor the solid and
uncompromised
declaration of God’s eternal truth.
I
do not spend twenty to thirty hours per week in prayer and study so
that I can apologize
for my preaching—or for my writing. As a
Bible-believing Christian, I assume that my writings will be offensive
to some people,
just as the preaching of Paul, Peter, Jesus, John the Baptist,
Jeremiah, Isaiah,
Elijah, and Amos were offensive to people.
Telling me that I am controversial is like telling me to “keep
up the good
work” for I know that I am in good company.
“Doesn’t he know that this might offend someone?” Yes, friend, I
knew that
when I wrote my first gospel tract some twenty years ago.
The Bible is the most offensive Book in the universe. That’s why the average Christian only reads
parts
of it, if any at all.
The
man who makes it his goal to declare the mind of God on any given
subject will be
a controversial man to someone, and he owes no one an apology because
he is following
his Biblical convictions and preaching the word of God in this dark and
deceived
world. Every preacher must make a choice. He will either offend his fellow man by taking
God’s side, or he will offend God by siding with his fellow man. In January, 1996, this preacher and author was
ordained to take God’s side, so he knows very well that he is
controversial. I am controversial because
God and the Bible are
controversial. If you doubt this, just ask
the Supreme Court.
The
subject matter of this booklet is very near to the heart of God, and I
fully expect
the continued blessings of God upon this ministry as we follow the Holy
Spirit’s
lead in making this material available. It
is nothing short of tragic that so few Christians realize the
significant role that
the tiny nation of Israel plays in the world today. Israel’s role is so
significant
that America’s continued prosperity and survival as a world power
hinges upon her
relationship to this little country. If
you
doubt that last statement, then you are not a Bible believer, and it
will be proven
conclusively in the forthcoming pages.
Friend,
can you handle the truth? Can you really
open your heart and mind to the
words of God and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal new things to you? Can you really pray with David and say,“Open
thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law”? (Psa. 119:18) Our prayer is that God will
enable you to do just that.
As
with most items that we publish, I’ve tried to keep this work as brief
as possible
due to (1) our limited financial resources and (2) our desire to keep
costs low
in hopes of wider circulation. For
those
seeking additional studies, the footnotes should provide some helpful
sources.
May
the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be your guiding light.
The
God of the Bible
In
I Corinthians 8:5-6, the apostle Paul brings out a major, yet little
known, truth
about God. He says, “For
though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth,
(as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one
God, the Father,
of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom are all
things, and we by him.” He said that
many are called gods, but only one is the true God and Father of our
Lord Jesus
Christ. In other words, a person or a
society
may worship a being whom they only think is God. The
God of the Bible is a holy God, and He is
under no obligation to accept the worship or the service of those who
misrepresent
Him, regardless of their intentions. Joshua
tells the Israelites in Joshua 24:19 that “Ye
cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he
will not forgive
your transgressions nor your sins.” These
people were clinging to their sins while attempting to worship God, and
Joshua rebuked
them for it. To such people, Jesus will
one
day say, “I never knew you: depart from me,
ye that work iniquity.”(Mat. 7:23)
The
largest “generation gap” in the world is the gap that exists between
the Creator
and His human creation. This, of course,
is due to the fact that mankind stepped into sin and became afallen
creation in
Genesis chapter three. The human record
since
that time has been one of steady descent down the stairway to Hell. Contrary to Darwin’s theory of evolution, the
human race isn’t evolving upward; man is descending downward into Hell,
straying
further from God and a God consciousness every step of the way (Psa.
39:5, Isa.
53:6, Psa. 10:4). Consequently, there is
an enormous gap between who God is and who most people think He is. This gap exists because of a number of
factors,
but unbalanced preaching and teaching and a lack of consistent Bible
reading would
have to top the list.
It
is true to say that “God is love,” but to say this and then ignore all
of God’s
other attributes is to misrepresent Him.
After all, the same Bible chapter that says “God is love” (I
John 4) also
speaks of false prophets, the spirit of antichrist, and the spirit of
error. Many would claim that it is a
contradiction to
sound such negative warnings and then speak of a God Who is love, yet
the Bible
does so from Genesis to Revelation. Most
people today who speak of God being a God of love are doing so without
a fair knowledge
of His other attributes. Love, to most
people,
is the best definition of God, yet, love is not the best definition in
the Bible. The words “God” and “love”
occur together in 72
Bible verses, but the word “holy” occurs with “God” in 106 verses. Yet people seldom use the word when speaking
of
God. There’s no particular need to define
God with merely one word, but the word “holy” would make a far better
candidate
than “love.” After all, the first mention
in the Bible of God loving man doesn’t occur until after 159 chapters
(Deu. 7:7). God’s attribute of holiness is
revealed after
only 52 chapters (Exo. 3:5). This point is
significant because of what the word “holy” means.
It signifies something or someone being whole,
complete, or perfect. God is a whole Being
Who lacks nothing, so the word holy better defines Him than love. Men
prefer love
because men are not whole, or holy. Men
are
fallen sinners, so holiness is too high for them. Just
as a child would want his father to lower
the basketball goal in the driveway from 10 feet to 8 feet, men want a
God of love
rather than a God of holiness. After all,
who was it that labeled John 3:16 as the “golden verse of the Bible,”
God or man?
Dear
reader, until you are ready to “raise the rim” back to its proper
standard and see
God as He desires to be seen, you will not understand this booklet or
its importance. God is much more than love. Being whole and complete in every way, He is a
holy God. Being the “judge of all the
earth”
(Gen. 18:25), He is a God of justice. Being
a God of justice, it is sometimes needful for Him to execute His wrath
(Exo. 15:7,
John 3:36, Rev. 16:19, 19:15). This
doesn’t
mean that God has ceased to be a God of love; it simply means that His
holiness
demands that a perfect measure of His active attributes be issued to
men on earth. That is, the Judge of all
the earth can be trusted
to do right (Gen. 18:25).
Before
God chose the Jewish people as his holy nation, He gave humanity a few
glimpses
of His character. We learn in the first
chapter
of Genesis that God is omnipotent, an all-powerful Being Who can merely
speak and
create a universe filled with time, space, and matter.
In the same chapter, and in the second chapter,
we are given the details of how God chose not to dwell alone but
instead to fill
the earth with millions of life forms, the highest of which was man. God then enjoyed fellowship with man, and He
demonstrated
His desire to provide the needs of man. He demonstrated His fairness in giving man a
freewill
to choose life or death. When man chose
death,
God instituted a merciful plan of redemption based on blood sacrifice
(Gen. 3:21).
Eventually, the human race corrupted the whole earth with sin to such a
level that
God chose to send forth His wrath and destroy what He had created. After drowning all but eight souls, God told
men
to replenish the earth once again (Gen. 9:1).
Rather than obey this command, the sinful race chose to migrate
to one region
on the earth and set up a corrupt political and religious system (Gen.
11:1-9). This provoked God to wrath
again, and the nations
were confounded and divided. All of this
happened—eleven chapters covering a period of some 2,000 years—without
a single
mention of “God is love.” Yes, God has
always
been a God of love, but for some reason He didn’t get into any hurry in
telling
us about it. In those first eleven
chapters,
God told us about many of His attributes, not just one or two of them
(I’ve only
listed a few). Frankly, to speak of God as
a God of love only is to speak of a pervert god who is unworthy of
anyone’s reverence.
For
illustration, let’s say that you meet up with a young man from a poor
third world
country who has never seen a computer. Upon
hearing you use the word, he then asks, “What is a computer?” In layman’s terms, you respond with, “A
computer
is a monitor, a processor, a hard drive, a keyboard, and a mouse, all
put together
into a neat system that allows you to type letters, send e-mails,
conduct research,
manage money, and many other things.” Rather
than memorize your complete definition, the man begins to concentrate
on one particular
thing that you said: “A computer is . . . a mouse.”
He will never understand and appreciate the usefulness
of computers until this thought is placed back into its proper context
and he comes
to realize that there is more than one kind of mouse.
Likewise, God cannot be understood by people who
think only that “God is love.” He’s a
certain
kind of love, far above that of the average person, and He’s a lot more
than just
love.
Who
is God? He’s the Supreme Creator and
Commander
of the universe Who is whole in power, in wisdom, in knowledge, in
truth, in fairness,
in justice, in compassion, in love, and in wrath. This, of course isn’t
a complete
definition of God, but it should add some balance to our comprehension
of Him. If we must use a one word
definition, then the
word is holy. He’s a holy Being Who cannot
be understood or served without His subjects acknowledging this highest
and all-inclusive
attribute. The cherubim and seraphim know
this, even if men do not (Isa. 6:3, Rev. 4:8).
In fact, even the devils know it (Luke 4:34).
God
and Nations
After
the universal flood of Genesis 6-8, men began to multiply upon the
earth and God
allowed them to form nations so long as these nations remained divided
(Gen. 10:5,
32, Deu. 32:8). However, after forming nations, men decided to form a
sort of “united
nations” in Genesis chapter 11. This was
contrary to the will of God, so He intervened with judgment. We read in Genesis 11:8-9, “So
the LORD scattered them abroad from thence
upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel;
because
the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from
thence did the
LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
From
this we learn a valuable lesson: God is the Judge of Nations. Jeremiah 10:7 even states that God is the
“King
of nations.” He allows men to build
communities,
cities, and nations, but He maintains a watchful eye over them at all
times. Proverbs 15:3 says, “The
eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
The words “every place” would have to
include the White House, the Pentagon, the Senate Chamber, the Supreme
Court, the
House of Representatives, and the United Nations headquarters in New
York. The King of nations, the Judge of
all the earth,
is on His throne rendering perfect justice with every passing day. Some of His judgments are
harsh in nature (II Sam. 21:1, I Kgs. 17:1),
while others are just plain devastating (Jer. 52:1 – Lam. 5:22). Being the omnipotent God that He is, the Lord
doesn’t have to exert Himself to bring a measure of judgment on a
nation. In Jeremiah chapter 18, He speaks
of nation building
and nation destroying as being no harder than planting or pulling up a
plant: “At
what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a
kingdom, to pluck
up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I
have pronounced,
turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do
unto them. And at what instant I shall
speak concerning a
nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my
voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit
them.” (Jer. 18:7-10)
Men
are real proud of themselves and their great nations and kingdoms, but
God really
isn’t impressed. This is made more than
clear
in Isaiah 40:15: “Behold, the
nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small
dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little
thing.” If that’s not bad enough, God
delivers the death
blow two verses later: “All nations before
him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and
vanity.” (Isa. 40:17)
God isn’t very patriotic, is He?
Yes,
God is pleased to bless those nations that live righteously (Psa.
33:12), but the
record of history is that nations do not live righteously.
They grow more and more proud and wicked until
God demotes them and promotes another. This
is confirmed with the words of Psalm 75:6-7: “For
promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from
the south. But God is the judge: he
putteth
down one, and setteth up another.” The
up/down cycle of Gentile nations has been continuing for thousands of
years, but
it is about to end with judgment. No one who reads the Bible has to
wonder about
the future of the United Nations for Zephaniah 3:8-9 paints the picture
for all
to see: “Therefore wait ye
upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up
to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may
assemble
the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce
anger: for
all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure
language,
that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one
consent.”
The glory days of the Gentile empires are fading into the past because
the “times
of the Gentiles” are drawing to a close (Luke 21:24), and the nations
of this world
are headed for judgment (Joel 3:2, Mat. 25:32).
God’s
Country
However,
there is one nation that
is unlike all the rest. After the original
“UN” movement was judged at Babel (Iraq!) in Genesis 11, God called a
man named
Abram out of that same region and made an unconditional covenant with
him. Abram (later named Abraham) left Ur
of the Chaldees
for a better land that God would give him.
The original promise, which is just as sound today as it was
4,000 years
ago, is found in Genesis 12:1-3:
“Now
the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land
that I will
shew thee: And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt
be a blessing: And I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse
him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be
blessed.”
There are several things
that we could mention about this covenant, but five items will suffice
for this
study:
(1)
It’s an unconditional
covenant after Abraham
leaves his father’s house. God doesn’t say
He’ll bless Abraham if Abraham does such and such.
There’s no if in the passage or anywhere
in the chapter.
(2)
Abraham is given some
land.
(3)
Abraham’s people will
become a great nation
in the promised land.
(4)
A divine blessing
is given to Abraham,
to those whom he blesses, and to those who bless him.
(5)
A curse is
given to those who curse Abraham.
There
is nothing anywhere in the Bible that disannuls the above covenant. One cannot relegate it to the “law of Moses”
because
it was given hundreds of years before Moses, and there is nothing in
the New Testament
that says this covenant was disannulled at Calvary.
The law of Moses was fulfilled by Jesus at Calvary
(Mat. 5:17, John 19:30, Col. 2:14), but God’s unconditional covenant
with Abraham
still stands, just as God’s unconditional covenant with Noah still
stands (Gen.
9:11-17). When you see a rainbow, remember
God’s covenant with Noah. When you see a
Jew or a Jewish flag, remember Genesis 12:1-3 (unless, of course, you
prefer a curse
over a blessing).
As
sinful humans who make covenant-breaking a way of life, it is hard for
us to comprehend
someone keeping a promise for thousands of years, but that is precisely
what God
has done withIsrael, and that’s what He continues to do.
A blessing is a blessing, and God does not reverse
His blessings. Abraham gave all that he
had
to Isaac in Genesis 25:5-6. Then in
Genesis
27:27-29 Isaac passed God’s blessing on to his son Jacob (Israel). When he learned that Jacob had gotten this
blessing
through deceit, he stated that he could not reverse the blessing, but
that Jacob
would indeed be blessed. Genesis 27:33
says, “And
Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who?
where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have
eaten of all
before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.” God
had already determined in Genesis 25:23 that Jacob,
not Esau, would receive the blessing; so, although Jacob did not get
the blessing
honestly, it was still God’s will for him to have it, and God would not
go back
on His word and reverse the blessing.
A
similar thing happened in Genesis 9. In
Genesis
9:1, God blessed the three sons of Noah, including Ham.
Then Ham sins in Genesis 9:24-25, yet God does
not curse him. Instead, God curses his son
Canaan. As strange and unfair as this
might
seem, we must believe the word of God and trust God’s judgment. God does not reverse an unconditional blessing
or covenant.
Numbers
22 offers yet another example. Balaam was
hired to curse God’s people, the children of Israel, yet he is told by
God Himself,
“Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt
not curse the people: for they are blessed.” (Num. 22:12) In spite of all the sins that Israel had
committed
since leaving Egypt, God still counted the descendants of Abraham a
blessed people
whom He could not curse. That is, the
original
blessing of Genesis 12:1-3 was still binding.
Like it or not, the Jews are God’s chosen people, they are
blessed of God,
and anyone who “messes” with them is cursed.
(By the way, Balaam ended up dead in Numbers 31:8)
Just
as the United States Government views some nations of the world as
“most favored
nations,” God too has a favored nation, the nation of Israel. Other nations who desire to be favored by God
must “bless” Israel (as the United States did before the 1990’s). Nations who oppose or curse Israel become
God’s
enemies.
Isaiah
62:1-2 says, “For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace,
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness
thereof go forth
as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness,
and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which
the mouth
of the LORD shall name.”
God
says that He will not rest until Jerusalem shines forth in
righteousness. That is obviously not
happening today, and it
will not happen until she (Jerusalem) receives her King, the Lord Jesus
Christ (Mat.
5:35, Psa. 24). God isn’t resting—He isn’t
being content and satisfied—until Israel receives the fullness of His
blessing. Those who hinder this blessing
by opposing Israel
can expect nothing but curses from God.
Any
sincere Christian should have no trouble seeing that America has been
turning from
God for many years. The four walls that
have
allowed America to enjoy the blessings of God for over two centuries
have been rapidly
crumbling, especially over the past two decades. Briefly,
those four walls are
(1)
our
acknowledgement of One true moral God whose character
is manifest in the Ten Commandments,
(2)
The Bill of
Rights,
(3)
the fact
that the churches of America have historically
flamed with righteousness and carried the gospel of Christ to
multiplied millions
of souls throughout the world, and
(4)
our long
standing
friendship with the Jewish people, including our foreign policy with
Israel since
1948. The first three walls have been
crumbling
for decades, and the fourth wall began weakening in the late 1980’s and
the early
1990’s.
As
we’ve already seen in Genesis 12, God promised to bless those who bless
the Jews
and to curse those who curse them. Prior
to 1948, when Israel became a nation for the first time in over two
millenniums,
the Jews had enjoyed many years of freedom from persecution within our
borders. The Touro Synagogue still stands
today in Newport,
Rhode Island, as a monument to the history of freedom and rest that the
children
of Abraham have enjoyed in this land. As
they’ve enjoyed freedom, rest, and often prosperity, we’ve enjoyed the
blessings
of God.
If
the reader insists that this notion is far-fetched (God’s blessings on
America being
connected with Israel), he is left with an unanswerable question: Why
hasn’t God
already damned America? Why didn’t God let the Russians nuke us during
the “Cold
War”? For that matter, terrorists have
been
around for decades, so why hasn’t God allowed them to attack long
before now with
far greater loss of life than that of 9/11?
America banned prayer from schools way back in 1962, and then
she banned
the Ten Commandments from schools in 1980.
Sodomy has become an accepted “lifestyle” in our land, and some
states are
permitting Sodomite marriages. Since the
1973 Supreme Court ruling on legalized abortion, America has butchered
over forty
million babies, yet for some strange reason God allows us to continue
as a nation. Why? We’re
just a drop in a bucket and less than nothing, according to God’s word,
yet He allows
us to continue, even in all our sins. Why?
This
will seem strange, but to be quite honest, America “lucked up” and
began wandering
from God at the “perfect” time. Had we
committed
the sins of the twentieth century in the nineteenth century, God might
have brought
our nation to an end. It “just so
happened”
that when America took the devil with one hand she took Israel with the
other! We produced the perverted American
Standard Version
in 1901, and then followed up with more Bible perversions than one
could “shake
a stick at” over the next 100 years. We
chose
to bankrupt our country by passing the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.
Then we got
ourselves into a “foreign entanglement” with World War I (which our
first President
warned us about). Then the stock market
crashed
in 1929, and the Great Depression hit in the 1930’s.
FDR was quick on the scene with “a chicken in
every pot,” which grossly expanded the Federal Government and created
the Welfare
State. John Dewey then poisoned our
schools
with his “progressive education.” In the
1940’s, we found ourselves in another war.
Ten years later we were worshipping Elvis Presley, and in the
1960’s and
1970’s we threw prayer out of the schools, got high and worshipped the
Beatles,
lost over 58,000 soldiers in Vietnam, and the Sodomites started coming
out of their
closets. We legalized the slaughter of
over
40,000,000 unborn babies in 1973, and then threw the Ten Commandments
out of the
schools in 1980. In the 1990’s, we really
showed our true colors by sending Bill Clinton to the White House twice. Many seriously doubted if America would
survive
the Clinton Presidency.
Now,
if God is still alive and on His throne, how does one explain the above
paragraph? Why would a righteous God
tolerate such evils? The question was best
answered in a 2004 Bible
Conference that our church held with Dr. William Grady.
Bro. Grady dealt with this subject one night in
great detail and pointed out the fact that in 1948 America bought an
insurance policy.
That’s exactly what happened. On May 15,
1948, Israel declared her independence as a nation for the first time
in over 2,500
years (a major event in God’s eyes, according to the Bible). Eleven minutes later, the United States, your
country, acknowledged Israel’s sovereignty
and became her friend. The document signed by President Truman reads as
follows:
This
Government has been informed that a Jewish state
has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by
the provisional
government thereof. The United States
recognizes
the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new state
of Israel.[1]
That
is what saved our neck as a nation because that brings our country
under the protection
of Genesis 12:1-3. Remember, Genesis 12
was
when God chose a special nation after judging all the other nations! God had promised that He would restore Israel
in the last days (Amos 9:13-15, Jer. 31:38-40, Ezk. 48:30-34, etc.),
and America
agreed to help Him do it. To put it in
football
lingo, America had fumbled the ball over and over, we had made many careless and stupid mistakes, and we were
headed
for certain defeat, but on May 15, 1948, we made a game-breaking play
that saved
the day. We placed Israel in the lineup,
and Israel’s Father just happens to be GOD (Exodus 4:22).
(Nice, move, Mr. Truman!) Call it
luck, call it wisdom, or call it mercy
from God, but that is what saved our neck as a nation, because a friend
of Israel
is a friend of God and a recipient of His blessings.
He promised blessings to the friends of Israel,
and He cannot curse those whom He blesses.
The
Land Grant
Genesis
12 continues by pointing out which piece of land God had in mind for
the Jews: “So Abram
departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and
Abram was
seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram
took Sarai his
wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had
gathered,
and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go
into the
land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place
of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the
land. And
the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this
land: and
there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.” (Gen.
12:4-7)
The
land of Canaan, according to God, was to become the land of the Jews,
the land of
Israel. This, of course, is the area that people call Palestine today. As the above text reveals, God promised this
land
unto Abraham and his seed. Genesis 17:7-8
emphasize that this is an everlasting covenant:
“And I will establish my covenant
between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an
everlasting
covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed
after
thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for
an everlasting
possession; and I will be their God.”
The
Arabs lay claim to this land because they too are descendants of
Abraham, through
Ishmael, but God was careful to cover this issue as well.
In Genesis 17:18-21, Isaac, not Ishmael, was chosen
of God to receive the blessing: “And
Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might
live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy
wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac:
and I will
establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with
his seed after
him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard
thee:
Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will
multiply him exceedingly;
twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac,
which
Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.”
Abraham honors
these words of God a few chapters later when he gives all his
possessions to Isaac,
not Ishmael: “And Abraham gave
all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the
sons of the concubines, which Abraham
had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while
he yet lived,
eastward, unto the east country.” (Gen. 25:5-6).
God
wanted Abraham to exercise some faith by sojourning in the promised
land, the land
of Canaan, fully believing that God would make good on His promise and
give him
the land. Then Abraham sojourned too far
southward, a famine came, and he traveled on down to Egypt.
Immediately, he encountered
problems (Gen. 12:6-20). That turns out to
be the pattern throughout the Bible: when the Jew is in the land, he is
in fellowship
with God; when he’s out of the land, he is out of fellowship. This truth is echoed again with Isaac in
Genesis
26:2-3:
“And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into
Egypt; dwell
in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn
in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto
thee, and unto
thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath
which I sware
unto Abraham thy father.”
Two
chapters later God brings Jacob’s name into the covenant:
“And Isaac
called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou
shalt not
take a wife of the daughters of Canaan . . . And give thee the blessing
of Abraham,
to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land
wherein thou
art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham . . . And, behold, the LORD
stood above
it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of
Isaac: the
land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And
thy seed shall
be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west,
and to the
east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed
shall all
the families of the earth be blessed. And,
behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou
goest, and
will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until
I have done
that which I have spoken to thee of.” (Gen. 28:1, 13-15) Jacob, of course, is the father of the twelve
tribes of Israel. In fact, God changes
Jacob’s
name to Israel in Genesis 32:28. In
Genesis
35:9-12, God reminds Israel of this, and He reminds him of the land
grant for his
people: “And God appeared unto
Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed
him. And God said unto him, Thy name is
Jacob:
thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy
name: and he
called his name Israel. And God said unto
him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a
company of nations
shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; And the land
which I gave
Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee
will I give
the land.”
To
the Bible-believer, one thing is very clear: God gave the land to the
Jews, the
descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
If He had stopped with Abraham, the Arabs could claim the land
through Ishmael. If He had stopped with
Isaac, the A-millennial
and Post-millennial “Christians” could claim the land as a spiritual
blessing through
Christ (Gal. 3-4). God knew this very
well,
so He out-smarted everyone by naming Jacob/Israel as the rightful heir
to the land
of promise. That one would upset the world
for the next 3,800 years.
Of
course, 3,800 years is less than four days in God’s sight (II Pet.
3:8), so the
promise is still fresh on the mind of God.
It never left His mind (Exo. 2:23-25; 3:8, 17; 15:14-18;
23:31-33; 32:13;
Jer. 32:37-41; Joel 3:2; Amos 9:14-15, etc.), and it’s more on His mind
today than
ever. Hopefully, it’s also on your mind (Jer. 51:50; you’ll get a lot
more out of
this if you check the references and mark them!).
The
land grant itself extends west to the “river of Egypt” and east to the
Euphrates
(Gen. 15:18-21). Hammath is the boundary
in the north (Ezk. 48:1), while Kadesh serves as the southern boundary
(Ezk. 48:28). So, while the UN, the news
media, the “Palestinian
Authority”, the Pope, and the U.S. President are losing sleep over
Israel’s “occupied
territories,” God is preparing to have the last laugh by letting Israel
occupy the
entire territory! In plainer words, the
“Gaza
strip” and the “West Bank” will seem like nothing when Israel finally
possesses
all of the occupied territories plus parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and
Saudi Arabia! The “wild” men from Ishmael
(Gen. 16:12) have
proven unworthy to inhabit this land, so God will “spue” them out (Lev.
18:28, Psa.
78:55) and give the land to its rightful heirs.
God’s
Sweetheart
To
better understand how serious this matter is in the mind of God, let’s
look at how
God chooses to illustrate his relationship with Israel.
As already noted, Israel is spoken of as God’s
son. A good father will always provide and
protect his son, a very close relationship.
I personally have three sons and two daughters, and, though I am
a rather
peaceful man, I’m certain I could and would ruin anyone’s day who chose
to harm
one of them (You toucha’ my kid, I breaka’ you face, etc.). Well, Israel has an even more protective
Father,
and He’s rather large. In fact, the earth
is His footstool (Isa. 66:1). What do you
suppose He could do to someone who “messed with” His son?
In
the Bible God also likens Israel to His wife (You toucha’ my wife . .
.), a relationship
which is even closer than that of a child.
A marriage is one flesh, a love relationship based on a
covenant. A good
husband will love, protect and provide for his wife.
God knows this better than anyone, so He wouldn’t
have made the comparison if it didn’t best illustrate his love and care
for Israel.
Ezekiel 16:1-14 records how this romance and marriage began: “Again
the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem
to know her
abominations, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy
birth and thy
nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy
mother an
Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel
was not cut,
neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted
at all, nor
swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to
have compassion
upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of
thy person,
in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee
polluted
in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live;
yea, I said
unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. I have caused thee to
multiply as the
bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art
come to
excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is
grown, whereas
thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon
thee, behold,
thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and
covered thy
nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with
thee, saith
the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water;
yea, I thoroughly
washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I
clothed thee also
with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded
thee about with
fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with
ornaments, and
I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a
jewel on thy
forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine
head. Thus
wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine
linen, and silk,
and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and
thou wast
exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen
for
thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put
upon thee,
saith the Lord GOD.” That’s some
pretty
intimate language, is it not? God was the
Knight in shining armor who came to rescue the damsel in distress. Israel was in bondage to Pharoah and the
Egyptians,
yet God moved in with “a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm”
(Psa. 136:12),
gave the Egyptians a “fairly good whippin” (to quote a black preacher I
know), and
then He drowned Pharoah and his army in the Red Sea while riding off
with his new
bride. You gotta’ admit, that’s a pretty
memorable way to start a marriage! My,
what
a honeymoon! I bet that if your marriage
began like that you’d never forget it. In
fact, you’d probably tell the story every chance you got (Num. 21:14,
Jsh. 2:10,
24:6, Psa. 78:1-72; 106:7-11, Isa. 51:9-10, Acts 7:36, Heb. 11:29,
etc.). Around 1490 B.C., Israel became
God’s sweetheart,
and she still is today.
As
a good husband is willing to sacrifice for his sweetheart, God is
willing to sacrifice
for Israel. Note the wording of Isaiah 43:1-4: “But now
thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed
thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee
by thy name;
thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with
thee; and through
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the
fire, thou
shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am
the LORD
thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy
ransom, Ethiopia
and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been
honourable,
and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people
for thy life.”
Did you get that? America, England,
China,
Africa, Russia, Italy, Syria, and all the rest are expendable. If you doubt it, just try finding their names
on the gates of New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:12). Israel is God’s wife. Yes, they’ve had their “ups and downs,” due to
her unfaithfulness, but He hasn’t forgotten His vow, and He’ll ruin
anyone’s day
who messes with her. If my language seems
exaggerated, please consider Zechariah 2:8:
“For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory
hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that
toucheth you toucheth
the apple of his eye.” Go ahead, make
God’s day.
Although
Israel is presently living out of fellowship with God, His plan is to
gather her
back to her land (Amos 9:13-15, which He has been doing for over 100
years), judge
her for her sins in the Great Tribulation (Jer. 30:7, Mat. 24:9-51,
Rev. 6-16),
grant her a new birth as a nation (Isa. 66:7-8, Rom. 11:25-28), renew
their marriage
vows (Isa. 54:1-8), and then enjoy a 1,000 year “honeymoon” (Isa.
11:1-12, Mat.
19:28, Rev. 20:1-7).
Again,
this is not exaggerating matters in the least, which is clear from the
following
passages:“Therefore, behold, I will allure
her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
And I will
give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley ofAchor for a door
of hope: and
she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day
when she came
up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be at that day, saith the
LORD, that thou
shalt call me Ishi (meaning her man or her husband); and shalt call me
no more Baali.
For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they
shall no more
be remembered by their name. And in that day will I make a covenant for
them with
the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the
creeping things
of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle
out of the
earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee
unto me for
ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in
judgment, and in
lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in
faithfulness:
and thou shalt know the LORD.” (Hos 2:14-20) A
similar passage that conveys the same truth
is Isaiah 54:1-8: “Sing, O
barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and
cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the
children of
the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
Enlarge the
place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine
habitations:
spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou
shalt break forth
on the right hand and on the left (There goes the Palestinian
State!); and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles
(There goes Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia!), and
make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not; for thou shalt not
be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to
shame: for
thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the
reproach of
thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband (Did you get
that? Please get that!); the
LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel;
The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the LORD hath called
thee as
a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou
wast refused,
saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; (only two
days--II Peter
3:8) but with great mercies will I gather
thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; (Great
Tribulation)
but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD
thy Redeemer.”
Such
passages are often erroneously spiritualized by the commentators and
applied to
the church, to Israel’s past, or to both.
A good example is Matthew Henry’s comments on Isaiah 54:1-5:
If we apply this to the state of the Jews after
their return out of captivity, it is a prophecy of the increase of
their nation
after they were settled in their own land. Jerusalem had been in the
condition of
a wife written childless, or a desolate solitary widow; but now it is
promised that
the city should be replenished and the country peopled again . . . But
we must apply
it to the church of God in general.[2]
Why
must we apply it to the church of God in general? Matthew
Henry was a devoted man who loved the
Lord dearly, but, like most commentators and preachers of his day, he
didn’t believe
the Old Testament literally. He insisted
on spiritualizing God’s promises to Israel and applying them to the
church. This is partly understandable
since the Jews had
not yet returned to the homeland, and it didn’t appear that they would
return, but
the Scriptures were very clear in stating that they would.
As for these passages having reference to the
Jews returning from the Babylonian captivity, one only has to read
Isaiah 11:11
where God speaks of a second restoration:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of
his people,
which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros,
and from Cush,
and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands
of the sea.”
So,
the a-millennial and post-millennial writers were in error. Clarence Larkin exercised more faith when he
wrote. Though the Zionist movement had
begun during Larkin’s
life, he went home to be with the Lord nineteen years before Israel
became a state. Yet, in 1918, thirty years
before Israelwould
become a sovereign state, when there were less than 100,000 Jews living
in the homeland,
Larkin wrote the following words:
When
the Children of Israel return to their own land
it will be to possess and occupy all that was promised to Abraham. “The Royal Grant” given by the Almighty to
Abraham,
extended from the “River of Egypt” unto the “Great River,” the River
Euphrates (Gen.
15:18); and according to Ezekiel (Ezek. 48:1-29), from Hammath,
north-east of Damascus,
to Kadesh on the south. The Temple will be
rebuilt. The Glory of the Lord will return. Sacrifices will again be offered. The
Government
shall be reestablished, and the nations of the earth will be blessed
through Israel. Zech. 8:20-23.[3]
Larkin
believed that Jehovah and his Jewish sweetheart would “get back
together,” and he
had the boldness to tell others about it at a time when most preachers
were still
stuck in the mud with Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke.
Consequently, to this day, Larkin’s books remain
some of the best Bible study materials available
(“I will bless them that bless thee . . .”,
etc.)
Just
as on “the third day there was a marriage
in Cana of Galilee” (John 2:1), there will be a marriage between
Jehovah and
Israel on the “third day” after the first coming of Christ (II Pet.
3:8). Hosea, the prophet who speaks of
Israel’s reunion
with God after a period of separation, speaks this very truth in Hosea
6:1-2: “Come,
and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us;
he hath
smitten, and he will bind us up. After two
days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we
shall live
in his sight.” The first day was from
the time of Christ till about 1,000 A.D., then the second day runs up
until our
present time, ending with the second coming of Christ.
The third day (as in resurrection) will be the
Millennial kingdom of Christ and His saints with Israel being the head
of all nations. According to the Bible,
God’s sweetheart returns
home (1890 to the present), the “old flame” is rekindled, and a happy
marriage begins. Woe be to the poor sucker
who gets in the way
(Zech. 2:8).
The
Poor Suckers
The
following chronology is not a complete listing by any means (that would
take a book
in itself), but we’ve tried to make it thorough enough to prove that
“messin’ with
Israel” just isn’t too smart. Genesis 12:1-3 has been burning in the
mind of God
for some 4,000 years, and He stands well prepared to confirm His word
and make an
example out of anyone (man or nation) who is foolish enough to try Him. Some of the following dates are approximate,
not
exact. Let’s watch the fight, shall we?
1920 B.C. Egyptians
are smitten with plagues after taking Abraham’s wife (Gen. 12:10-20).
1913 B.C. Gentiles
are defeated in battle by Abraham and his men after they had taken his
nephew Lot
into captivity (Gen. 14:1-16).
1732 B.C. As
a means of protecting Jacob (Israel), God brings terror upon local
cities as he
makes his way back to Bethel, the place of God’s blessing (Gen. 35:5). This, of course, foreshadows God terrorizing
Gentile
cities and nations today who attempt to stand in the way of Israel
peacefully settling
in the land as the Second Coming of her King approaches.
1491 B.C. Amalek
(from Esau) becomes a perpetual type of the flesh and an enemy of God
when he gets
the “wise” idea of attacking Israel (Exo. 17:8-16).
Some 400 years later, God remembers this and commands
king Saul to “go and smite Amalek, and utterly
destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and
woman, infant
and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” (I Sam. 15:3).
1491-1487
B.C.
Pharaoh and the Egyptians are dealt swift judgments from God for
forcing
the children of Abraham into servitude (Exo. 4-14).
After numerous plagues (foreshadowing the coming
“last plagues” of Revelation 16), all the firstborn of Egypt end up
dead; then Pharaoh
and his army are drowned in the Red Sea.
1452 B.C.
Balaam, a heathen soothsayer who loved “the
wages of unrighteousness” (II Pet. 2:15) thought he could curse Israel
and still
profit, in spite of the fact that God warned him not to try it (Num.
22-25). He ended up dead after having
counseled the king
of Moab to defile the Israelites with heathen fornication, integration,
and idolatry
(Num. 31:8, 16; Rev. 2:14).
1451 B.C. Under
the leadership of Joshua (the Old Testament word for Jesus), the
Israelites crossed
the Jordan and began claiming the promise land for God (Jsh. 1-11). Rahab, who helped Israel, was spared and
blessed
of God (Jsh. 6:25). Achan, who troubled
Israel,
was stoned to death (Jsh. 7:25). The
Gibeonites,
who deceived Israel, ended up being servants (Jsh. 9:27).
1406 B.C. Eglon,
king of Moab, died with a dagger in his gut after having kept Israel in
bondage
for eighteen years (Jgs. 3:12-25).
1296 B.C. Sisera,
a Canaanite army captain who was dumb enough to oppose Israel in
battle, had his
head nailed to the floor with a tent peg—by a Jewish woman—in her home
(Jgs. 4:18-21).
Her name was Jael, which means “wild or mountain goat”!
Bad, move, Sisera! Bad move!
1249 B.C. Thousands
of Midianites, who had ruled over and afflicted the Israelites for
seven years,
were defeated in battle by a mere 300 Jews (Jgs. 7:7-25).
1120 B.C. Samson,
a Jewish man of faith (Heb. 11:32), was raised up of God to be a
first-class terrorist
to the Philistine enemies of Israel. Using
the “foxfire” tactic, he burned up the crops of the Philistines (Jgs.
15:3-5). Then he killed 1,000 men with the
jawbone of an
ass (Jgs. 15:15). But his greatest victory was his suicide mission
where God enabled
him to kill over 3,000 Dagon-worshippers by pushing down the supporting
pillars
of their pagan party house. The last thing
they did before dying and going to Hell was mock a Jew (Jgs. 16:23-30).
1063 B.C. Goliath,
an uncircumcised giant of the Philistines, defied the armies of Israel,
and then
he was brought to the ground by the slung stone of a Jewish young man
named David
(I Sam. 17).
1056 B.C. The
Amalekites came up with the bright idea of invading Israel, burning
Ziklag, and
taking Jewish women captive, including two wives of David.
Bad move!
Within a week, most of them were dead and in Hell, and David
recovered all
(I Sam. 30:1-20).
901 B.C. Ben-hadad
the king of Syria decided to join the poor suckers club.
He threatened to invade Israel and take whatever
and whomever he desired. God had other
plans,
so big Ben lost over 100,000 soldiers in one day (I Kgs. 20:1-30). In less than twenty years, Ben-hadad himself
was
smothered to death (II Kgs. 8:15).
710 B.C. Sennacherib
king of Assyria defied the armies of Israel and the God of Israel. That night an angel of the LORD killed 185,000
of his men. Shortly thereafter, while
worshipping
his pagan god, king Sennacherib was murdered by his own sons (II Kgs.
19).
606-586
B.C.
Babylon besieged Jerusalem, burned it with fire, destroyed the
temple and
carried the Jews into seventy years of captivity. The
Babylonians were then overtaken by the Medes
in 538 B.C. (Dan. 5:30-31).
510 B.C. Haman,
an Agagite, plotted to destroy the Jews in the kingdom of Ahasuerus. He especially hated Mordecai the Jew, and he
had
plans to hang him on a fifty cubit gallows. Although “God” and “Lord”
are mentioned
nowhere in the book, the whole plan backfired, ending with Haman, his
ten sons,
and five hundred followers dead (Esther 9:1-14).
168 B.C. Antiochus
IV Epiphanes (the mad) lay siege to Jerusalem, destroyed the walls,
defiled the
altar, prohibited Jewish worship, and carried away 10,000 captives. Antiochus died four years later at
only fifty-one
years of age.[4]
39 B.C –
325 A.D.
Rome, the “dreadful and terrible” beast of Daniel 7, decided to
lord over
the promise land and God’s covenant people. During these centuries,
Rome lay siege
to Jerusalem three times (39 B.C., 69 A.D., and 135 A.D.).
Over 1,000,000 Jews were killed when Titus destroyed
Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and an estimated 97,000 were taken into slavery
and captivity.
Then Hadrian established Jerusalem as a pagan city in 135 A.D. by
erecting a temple
for Jupiter at Mt. Moriah (where God’s temple belongs) and a temple for
Venus at
Golgotha. The Jewish worship was
abolished,
and the Jews were banned from the city for the next two hundred years.[5] In 315 A.D. Constantine
declared Roman Catholicism
the state religion of the Roman Empire and passed numerous laws against
the Jews. Within another 150 years, the
Roman Empire would
fall to the Huns, Visigoths, and Vandals.
It is true that many factors contributed to the fall of Rome’s
imperial power,
but to pretend that her treatment of the Jews was not a factor is to
deny the accuracy
of Genesis 12:1-3. It may very well be
that
Rome could have continued as an imperial power had she blessed the Jews
rather than
cursed them.
500 – 1400
A.D.
Known as the Dark Ages (improperly termed the Middle Ages in
government schools),
this is the period when the Roman Catholic Church ruled Europe and
inflicted much
persecution against Christians and Jews.
The Jews were labeled Christ killers and often forced into
servitude, other
hardships, or just plain murdered. Payday
came on October 31, 1517, when a German by the name of Martin Luther
nailed his
95 Thesis to the door of the Castle Church at Whittenberg.
This began the Protestant Reformation, a movement
from which Rome would never fully recover.
613 Roman Catholic
Spain jumped in on the act of Jewish persecution by forcing all Jews to
either submit
to pagan “baptism” (sprinkling) or leave the country.
In less than 100 years, Muslims would take the
country and rule it for over 700 years.
1391 – 1497
Spain persecuted Jews again with murder, slavery, and forced
“baptism.” Then, in 1588, God sank the
Spanish Armada (just
as He promised in Psalm 48:7--Tarshish is believed to be Spain). This allowed England to produce the King James
Bible only twenty-three years later while stopping the spread of
Catholic idolatry
throughout the growing British Empire. Catholic
idolatry, as you likely know, is forbidden in the second commandment,
written by
a Jew.
1543 – 1564
The reformation fires had been burning brightly since Martin
Luther’s famous
95 Thesis was nailed to the church door at Whittenberg.
Then, in 1543, Luther blundered by publishing
a work titled Concerning the Jews and Their Lies. Among
other things, this work advocated Jewish
persecution, including the destruction of their homes and synagogues
and the forbidding
of their worship.[6] Only two years after the
publication of his anti-Jewish
work, Rome began her Council of Trent. It
continued with about twenty-five sessions through December 4, 1563. This twenty year counter-reformation effort
would
cause millions of blind Catholics to remain in the Roman church, thus
drastically
decreasing the number of people who would join Luther’s movement.
1791 – 1917
Persecution arose in Russia as many Jewish men were required to
serve up
to twenty-five years in the military, Jewish children were deprived of
a proper
education, and frequent massacres occurred in an effort to thin out the
Jewish population. Payday came in 1917
when Russia fell from the
hands of the Czars into the hands of Communism.
1917 Jerusalem,
the “city of the great king” (Mat. 5:35) had been under the control of
the Turks
for about seven centuries: not a good thing in the mind of God. With the Zionist movement gaining momentum and
the Jewish population increasing in the area, it was now needful to
secure the city
for the Jews. With aircraft now being a
part
of warfare, God was about to have some real fun with the Turks who had
never seen
an airplane. More importantly, He would
fulfill
Isaiah 31:5:“As birds flying, so will the
LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and
passing over
he will preserve it.”
The date was December 9, 1917, and the man for the job was a British
General
named Allenby, who just happened to be a Bible-believing Christian. The name “Allenby” means “prophet from God”
in the language of the Turks! Knowing
that they were being invaded by a “prophet from God” in the sky, the
Turks
became terrified and gave up the city without Allenby firing a single
shot.
1933 – 1945
After killing 6,000,000 children of Abraham and boasting that
his Third Reich
would last 1,000 years, Hitler’s kingdom fell after only twelve years. Twelve is the number for Israel, the nation
that
will really rule for 1,000 years—with a Jewish King!
A little over three years after Hitler’s defeat
and suicide, the Jews would have a totally independent nation for the
first time
since 606 B.C. Later, Germany was divided
by the Berlin Wall, an appropriate answer to the ghetto walls that
Hitler had previously
built for the Jews. The decree for the
wall
was passed by the East German Volkskammer on the twelfth of August,
1961.
1948 After
Israel won her independence in May, 1948, she was “welcomed” to the
region by her
Arab neighbors with attacks from all sides, just as they had promised
before the
May 14thdeadline. The United Nations
knew
this would happen and did nothing to stop it.
In fact, as Mid-East Analyst and Commentator Emmanuel Winston
points out,
the UN had hoped that the Arab nations would annihilate the newly
formed State of
Israel:
All
problems with the Jews would be quickly settled by the 7 invading Arab
armies. There would, of course, be no
opportunity
for rescue—except for a possible token late arrival of some troops from
England,
France, or America. They would find a handful of Jews left whom they
would rescue
with great fanfare and self-congratulations.
The Arab-Muslims would have “danced in the blood” of the Jews
and reclaimed
their trampled manhood—just as they claimed they would do before the
1947 UN vote
enabling the State of Israel to be born.[7]
But God
had other plans. Winston continues:
When the 7
Arab-Muslim armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen,
and Saudi Arabia attacked as promised on May 15, 1948, the untrained
Jewish remnants
from the graveyards of Europe fought back with junk equipment and
miraculously beat
the combined, vaunted Arab-Muslim armies who were stopped and chased
across the
deserts. However, the Armistice Lines left
the Egyptians in occupation of the Gaza Strip and Jordan occupying
Judea and Samaria
(which they now called the ‘West Bank’) as well as a large part of
Jerusalem.[8]
John
Westwood, in his work The History of the Middle
East Wars, sums up the result of Israel’s first modern war:
The net result of the war of 1948, started by the Arabs to stifle
Israel at birth,
was a quite unexpected enlargement and strengthening of the new Jewish
state. The war had not only witnessed the
creation of
the Israel Defence Force, but the IDF’s increasing battle worthiness
had ensured that the
frontiers of Israel, temporary though they might be, had advanced well
beyond the
limits envisaged in the UN partition plan whose implementation had
first provoked
the Arab assault.[9]
Had
the UN known that
Israel was to win this war, it would have never given her a starting
chance as a
nation. So, in reality, God handed a
defeat
to both the Arab nations and the UN. The
Arabs explained away their shameful defeat by claiming that American
forces helped
the Jews, but it was GOD who helped the Jews, the God of
Genesis 12:1-3
1967 The “don’t
mess with Israel” saga continued through the Sinai Campaign of 1956 and
then hit
another high point in 1967. Knowing that
the Arab nations were planning to attack, the Israelis launched a
pre-emptive strike
against Egypt on June 5, 1967, capturing the Gaza Strip and the Sinai
Peninsula. Jordan then attacked Israel and
lost control of
the “West Bank” and the eastern sector of Jerusalem.
Syria, who had already increased border clashes
with Israel and had organized its troops, was also attacked, thus
losing the Golan
Heights and Old Jerusalem to the rightful owners. The
Six Day War (II Pet. 3:8!) ended on June 10,
1967, with Israel possessing more land than she had possessed in over
2,000 years. Her land mass more than
tripled, increasing from
8,000 square miles to 26,000 square miles.
Had the UN, the USA and the USSR stayed out of the affair, she
would have
possessed a lot more. (For some reason the
“peace keepers” only show an interest in ceasefires when Israel is
winning.) This Israeli victory created the
great “occupied
territories” that the American media would scream about for the next
four decades.
1973 The Yom
Kippur War began on October 6, 1973, when Egypt and Syria jointly
attacked Israel
on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
When the war ended two weeks later, Israel had taken possession
of an additional
165 square miles of land from Syria, and she had surrounded the
Egyptian Third Army
at the Suez Canal. The “peace keepers”
came
crying again insisting that Israel give back the land gained during the
conflict. America, being too yellow to do
much of anything
outside of Kissinger’s “bilateral agreements” was slapped by the Arabs
with the
1973 oil embargo.
1981 After
concluding that Iraq was nearing the completion of a 70-megawatt
nuclear reactor
for the purpose of making weapons for destroying Israel, Prime Minister
Menachem
Begin ordered an Israeli raid to destroy the reactor.
The Israeli fighter jets flew in undetected, bombed
the reactor, and were on their way home before the Iraqis knew what had
happened. Much to everyone’s surprise, no
lives were lost
in the raid.
1991 During
the Gulf War, Iraq, under the dictatorship of Sadaam Hussein, fired 39
Scud missiles
onto Israeli soil (called holy land in Zechariah 2:12), although Israel
had no involvement
in the war. Twelve years later (there’s
that
number again) Hussein’s sons were killed and his restored “Babylonian
kingdom” fell
as he was captured while hiding in a hole in the ground. Perhaps
Hussein’s life
verse could be Isaiah 47:1: “Come down, and
sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there
is no throne
. . .”
1991 On October
30, 1991, President Bush (Sr.) signed the Oslo Accord at the Madrid
Peace Conference. The agreement called for
Israel to turn over some
of their God-given land in order to appease a bunch of wild-minded
terrorists (Gen.
16:12). The President was very happy to
reach
this agreement, but he wasn’t happy with what followed the next day. On Halloween (trick-or-treat, Mr. President!)
a very rare storm formed and headed in the wrong direction for our
Eastern Seaboard. (Guess who owns a
vacation home on the Eastern
Seaboard!) The storm was so rare that a
book
was written and a movie was made about it, both titled The Perfect
Storm. Thirty-foot waves hit
Kennebunkport, Maine, and played a real
nice “trick” on the President
by wrecking his home. The following day,
the New York Times had two interesting pictures on the front page. One
was a picture
of Israeli and “Palestinian” leaders debating at the “Peace Conference.” The other was a picture of the storm damage up
in the Northeast.
1992 On August
23, 1992, Halloween came early as Mr. Bush put on his peace costume
again and preached
about “land for peace.” The same day
Hurricane
Andrew blew into Florida, destroying over 180,000 homes and causing
over $30,000,000,000
in damages. It was the worst natural
disaster
to ever hit America—and GOD was behind the whole thing:
“O my God,
make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth
the mountains on fire; So persecute them
with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek
thy name, O LORD.” (Psa. 83:13-16) “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power,
and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the
whirlwind and
in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” (Nah. 1:3)
1994 On August
16, 1994, after a year in office, President Clinton attended a meeting in Geneva
with the President of Syria and discussed—guess what—“land for
peace.” (They never learn, do they?) The
next day Southern
California was hit with a 6.9 earthquake.
1998 The
Monica Lewinski story broke on January 21,
1998. This “just happened to be” the same
week that Clinton was holding meetings with Yasser Arafat and Israeli
Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu in hopes that Israel would give up “land for peace.” In addition to saying, “I did not have sexual
relations with that woman, Miss Lewinski,” Clinton also said, “. . . I
hope that
Mr. Netanyahu will turn his words to deeds and comply with the
agreements.”[10] Clinton became only the
second U.S. President
to be impeached by Congress.
2001 In his
third debate with Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential campaign, George W.
Bush stated
that “Israel is our friend and we’ll stand by Israel . . .”[11] Eight months after being
elected it seemed that
he would stand behind those words. On
August
23, 2001, our President went on television with some pretty tough talk
for Arafat
and his terrorist followers:
The
Israelies will not negotiate under terrorist threat, simple as that . .
. if the
Palestinians are interested in a dialog, then I strongly urge Mr.
Arafat to put
100% effort into . . . stopping the terrorist activity.
And I believe he can do a better job of doing
that.[12]
But
the tough talk was short-lived. Saudi
Crown
Prince Abdula saw the President make that speech, and he just “came
unglued” (went
ballistic, hit the ceiling, lost it, etc.).
Abdula called Prince Bandar, who also saw the speech from his
Rocky Mountain
retreat. Bandar then told Condi Rice that
the sixty-year alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United States was
at an end,
and that Saudi Arabia would look out for themselves only from now on in
the region
(there went the oil!). The news upset Bush
so badly that he “did a 180” and sent a personal letter to appease
Prince Abdula. In the letter were these
words: (Don’t miss it! You are about to
read one of the chief reasons
for the events of 9/11):
I
firmly believe that the Palestinian people have a right to
self-determination and
to live peacefully and securely in THEIR OWN STATE in their own
HOMELAND.[13]
(emphasis added.)
That
was around August 25. Less than three
weeks
before 9/11 our President bowed down to a declared enemy of Israel and
said that
they have a right to a PALESTINIAN STATE in the land that God gave to
the Jews.
Abdula
proudly showed off the letter for a few days to Arab leaders, even to
Arafat, thus
making the most powerful nation on earth look like a little whipped
puppy. Then the White House reiterated its
mid-east plans
for peace on September 7, that being a Palestinian state for Israel’s
enemies. On September 8 and 9 President
Bush stated that
he was even willing to meet with Arafat at the United Nations, and he
agreed to
meet with Bandar the following Thursday to further discuss the matter. Bandar said that he was “the happiest man in
the
world” on September 10, yet he was exhausted from all the travel and
diplomacy,
so he phoned his office and told his staff that he was taking off the
following
day, Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
2005 Not learning
his lesson from the tragedy of September 11, President Bush continued
his promotion
of a Palestinian state. Then in May, 2005,
he pledged $50,000,000 of the American tax payers’ money to help
evacuate Jews from
the Gaza strip so the suffering “Palestinian refugees” could have a
homeland. Over 8,500 Jews were driven from
their homes during
August, 2005. Writing on the evacuation, Terry Watkins of
Dial-the-Truth Ministries
states the following:
As
my wife and I watched the pleading Jews dragged from their homes and
land, I said,
“God is not pleased with this. Somebody’s
gonna pay big time for this. God might
start
destroying some homes and running some people out of their land.[14]
After
the Gaza evacuation ended in late August, America suffered the worst
natural disaster
in her history. Hurricane Katrina began to
form on August 23, and within a week she had flooded 75% of New
Orleans, leaving
parts of the city under 20 feet of water.
Over 1,300 people were killed, and some 300,000 people evacuated
the city. Some estimate that the
restoration of New Orleans
will cost the tax payers upwards of $200,000,000,000, and this doesn’t
include other
damages done along the Louisana and Mississippi coastlines. The state of Mississippi began losing up to
$500,000
per day in lost gambling revenues alone due to destroyed casinos.
Did
America learn her lesson? No, she didn’t. In less than two months after Katrina visited
the gulf states, President Bush met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud
Abbas and renewed
his vow for a Palestinian state. Bush told
reporters that he had assured Abbas that:
the
US would use its influence to help realize a shared vision of the two
democratic
states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.[15]
Peace
and security? Not if the Bible is true,
and
not if the record of history means anything.
The
“Palestinian Problem”
One
of Satan’s biggest deceptions of the last days is that “Palestine” is
the homeland
of the “Palestinian refugees.” The word
“Israel”
occurs 2,565 times in the Bible, and in 238 of those occurrences one
can see the
word “land” in the same verse. “Palestine,”
on the other hand, occurs only once in the Bible, yet this has become a
common name
for the holy land given to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So, the first
dose of deception came in the form of a smooth name change that
semantically robbed
the Jews of their God-given homeland.
The
second dose came in the form of another smooth word, a word chosen to
tug on one’s
heart strings while historical facts would fall by the wayside: If only the poor and downtrodden “refugees”
had
a place to call home.
These
“refugees” are supposedly Arabs who fled for safety during Israel’s war
for independence
in 1948. The word “refugee” itself
indicates
someone who is in danger and must flee for a place of safety. This was not the case with the Arabs living in
the holy land in 1948. These people
willingly
left the land after being told to do so by their Arab military
commanders. The Arab League misled them
into believing that
they would soon return to the land and claim their share of Jewish
property after
Israel suffered defeat. When Israel began
winning the war, instead of losing, the Arabs panicked and fled in
large numbers,
even though the Jewish leaders encouraged them to remain in the land
and carry on
their normal lives.[16]
Estimates
on how many Arabs fled the land in 1948-49 range from 50,000 to over
600,000. The trouble is that over
2,000,000 desire to “return”
to the land today! Basically, any Arab who claims to have ancestors who
once lived
in Israel’s land is considered a “Palestinian refugee” and is
“entitled” to live
there himself.
For
some reason the media can’t seem to get around to asking why the
wealthy Arab nations
won’t give up enough of their own land to accommodate their poor
brethren. After all, the oil-rich Arabs
possess over 600
acres of land to every 1 acre possessed by Israel!
If anyone should be showing some compassion for
the “Palestinian refugees,” it is their own people, not the Jews.
The
sad truth of the matter is that the Arab nations do not want to solve
the “Palestinian
problem” near as much as they want to shove Israel into the sea. To the Jew-hating Arabs, the refugees are
nothing
more than political pawns that they can exploit to further their agenda
against
Israel. And this is nothing new. Nearly
five
decades ago the Arab leaders made this perfectly clear at their
Conference of Arab
Refugees at Homs in Syria. At this
conference
on July 11th and 12th, 1957, the Arab leaders reached the following
resolution regarding
the “Palestinian problem”:
Any
discussion aimed at a solution of the Palestinian problem which will
not be based
on ensuring the refugees the right to annihilate Israel will be
regarded as desecration
of the Arab people and an act of treason.[17]
There
goes the “peace” plan. The Arab position
hasn’t changed a bit in the past fifty years, and it isn’t going to
change. Sure, there have been “talks” and
“treaties” and
“agreements,” but there have also been non-stop Arab terrorist attacks
against Israel. The Israelis continuously
have to attack sites
in the “refugee” camps in hopes of weeding out known terrorists, yet
the press would
have us believe that these camps shelter no one but innocent civilians. The Arabs have given Israel no reason to
believe
that they would become peaceful and behave themselves if they were
granted statehood. More importantly, the
record of history indicates
that they will not behave themselves, and the Bible record agrees. A Palestinian state would be a terrorist state
with the annihilation of Israel as its chief aim. To
grant these “wild” men statehood next door
to Israel would be on par with moving Charles Manson into your spare
bedroom. “And he
will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's
hand against
him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” (Gen. 16:12)
To
expect the tiny nation of Israel to give up land so that 2,000,000 of
her enemies
can live next door is insane to say the least, especially considering
the fact that
these enemies are set on Israel’s destruction!
The “Palestinian problem” was created by the Arabs, not the
Jews, so it is
the Arabs who should bear the burden and solve the problem, and America
will have
to agree with that if she expects to receive the continued blessings of
God. If she doesn’t, she’ll end up in
history’s junkyard
with all the other nations.
The
Final Solution
The
man who believes and reads the Bible has a wonderful advantage over the
masses who
believe and read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time,
Life, Newsweek,
and all the rest. The press tells us what
they think is happening in the world and what they want to happen in
the world. The Bible tells us what is
going to happen in
the world.
After
this present earthly scene has passed and eternity has begun, there is
only one
nation mentioned by name in the Scriptures:
“And he carried me away in the spirit
to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her
light was like
unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
And had
a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve
angels, and
names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the
children
of Israel.” (Rev. 21:10-12) Where are the Arab nations?
They’re gone.
Where is the “Palestinian state?”
It’s gone. Where are Iraq, Russia,
Great Britain, the United States of America, the UN and the Vatican? They’re all gone! We presently live in the
“times
of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24), but these times will soon be over, and
God’s “Jewish
clock” will begin ticking once again. When
it does, God will not be interested in anyone’s agenda other than His
own, and He
will certainly remember to punish those who ignored and opposed his
word in this
present world. Before you vote in the next
election, you might want to inquire of the candidate’s policy on Israel. When you pray, you might want to pray for the
peace of Jerusalem (Psa. 122:6). When you
decide to support new missionaries, you might want to take on a
missionary or two
to the nation of Israel and to Jews elsewhere.
When you send out cards and gifts to people, you might want to
remember a
Jewish friend or relative. The Jewish people, individually and
nationally, are God’s
covenant people, and it’s always wise to bless them.
“It’s a good investment,” as they say out in the
world, but more than that, it’s the right thing to do.
As
a child of God, the Christian is to have the mind of God.
He is to see as God sees and think as God thinks.
As we’ve already studied from Scripture, God’s
mind is on Israel. He is personally
dedicated
to watching over this tiny nation and preserving her.
Regardless of how many people and nations oppose
Israel, she remains the apple of God’s eye.
He is passionately in love with her and He desires to be loved
by her. Our duty as Christians is to feel
God’s heartbeat
for Israel and seek her reconciliation to Him.
We should let our Jewish friends know how we feel about them. They should know that we love them as a people
and we support and pray for Israel as a nation when so many others are
against her. We should seek to win Jews to
Christ while we
can. The Jewish people have been through
the iron furnace of this world, and it’s about to get seven times
hotter (Dan. 3:19). May the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob keep
our hearts in tune with His heart that we might experience a deeper
love and compassion
for Israel.
So,
in summary, Hitler’s “Final Solution” for the Jews wasn’t final, nor
will the solutions
of the UN, the USA, the Pope, or the “Palestinian Authority” be final. God has the Final Solution.
As Bob Jones Sr. used to say, “Nothing is settled
until it is settled right, and nothing is settled right until it is
settled with
God.” Until then, may we let Jerusalem
come
into our minds, and may we pray for her peace until that glorious day
when “they shall sit every man under his vine and
under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of
the LORD of
hosts hath spoken it.” (Mic. 4:4)
Behold
Your King!
(The material
contained in this section is also available in printed tract form. Order The Messiah. Suggested
Donation: 10 cents each) http://www.biblebaptistpublications.org
The
reason for God’s restoration of Israel in the twentieth century
involves more than
just the promises stating that he would do so.
There are also many promises concerning Israel’s Messiah. God restored Israel as a nation because He
knows
her King is coming, and that King is none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Scriptures presented in the
pages ahead will
solidly confirm this.
If
you, dear reader, happen to be Jewish, may I ask you to seriously
consider Jesus
Christ? Friend, I challenge you to carefully study the following
Scriptures and
answer one simple question: IF JESUS CHRIST IS NOT THE MESSIAH, THEN
WHO IS HE? How could any one man fulfill
so much of God’s
prophetic word if he isn’t the prophesied Messiah?
Please
think about that as you read the following . . .
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Gen. 3:15: And I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Gal. 4:4: But when the fulness of the time was come,
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law
Messiah
in Old Testament:
II Sam. 7:12:
. . . I will set up thy seed after
thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his
kingdom.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Acts 13:22-23: . . . David
the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart . . . Of this
man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel
a Saviour, Jesus
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Deuteronomy 18:15: The LORD thy God will raise up unto
thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like
unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Acts 3:20-22:
And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto
you . . . For Moses
truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up
unto you
of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever he
shall say unto you.
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Zechariah 9:9: . . . O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter
ofJerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto
thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass,
and upon
a colt the foal of an ass.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Matthew 21:5:
Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King
cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt
the foal of an ass.
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Isaiah 35:5-6: Then
the eyes
of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as
an hart, and the
tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break
out, and streams
in the desert.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Matthew 11:4-5:
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those
things which
ye do hear and see: The blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel
preached
to them.
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Isaiah 53:9:
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death; because
he had done no violence, neither was any
deceit in his mouth.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
I Peter 2:22: Who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Psalm
41:9: Yea, mine own familiar friend, in
whom
I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath
lifted up his heel against me.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
John 13:18-21: . . . that the scripture may be fulfilled,
He that eateth bread with me hath lifted
up his heel against me . . . one of you shall betray me.
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Zechariah 11:12: And I said unto them, If ye think
good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my
price thirty pieces of silver.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Matthew 26:15:
And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him
unto you?
And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces
of silver.
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Micah 5:1: . . . they shall smite the judge of Israel
with a rod upon the cheek.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Matthew 27:30: And they spit upon him, and took the
reed, and smote him on the head.
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Psalm 22:1: My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?...
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Matthew 27:46:
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Psalm 22:18:
They part my garments among them,
and cast lots upon my vesture.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Matthew 27:35:
And they crucified him, and parted
his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the
prophet . . .
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Psalm 69:21:
They gave me also gall for my
meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar
to drink.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Matthew 27:34:
They gave him vinegar to drink
mingled with gall: and when he had tasted
thereof, he would not drink.
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Isaiah 53:7: He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he
openeth not his mouth.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Mathew 27:12:
And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Psalm 34:20:He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is
broken
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
John 19:33-36:
But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: . . . that the
scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of
him shall not be broken.
Messiah
in Old Testament:
Psalm 16:10:
For thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Jesus
Christ in New Testament:
Acts 2:31: He seeing this
before spake of the resurrection
of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did
see corruption.
Messiah
in the Old Testament:
Psalm 110:1: . . . The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at
my right hand, until I make thine
enemies thy footstool.
Jesus
Christ in the New Testament:
Hebrews 10:11-13:
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering
oftentimes the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins for ever,
sat
down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool.
These
are only some of the many prophecies that
the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled during His earthly ministry. Jesus clearly is the Messiah!
Before
the time of Christ, in the days of Moses, Samuel, David and all the
other kings
and prophets, why did the Jewish people offer slain animals as
sacrifices to God? Perhaps your answer is,
“Because God commanded
it.” Yes, He certainly did, but why? What is the logic in forgiving sin on the
basis
of a dead animal? Was this to continue
forever,
animals being slain for the sins of men?
What was the purpose? How can a
dead
animal cleanse anyone from sin? It makes
no sense at all!
However,
when you consider Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross,
it all makes
perfect sense. Remember Genesis 3:21, when
God made coats of skin to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve? They had already made themselves aprons of fig
leaves, but God wanted an animal to shed its blood and die a
sacrificial death for
Adam and Eve’s covering. It is THE BLOOD
that makes atonement for the soul (Lev. 17:11), so God required blood.
In
the next chapter, Genesis chapter four, God rejects Cain’s offering of
fruit and
vegetables, but he accepts Abel’s lamb. Why? LAMBS HAVE BLOOD!!!
Remember
Exodus chapter twelve, the night of the Passover? God
said the Jews in Egypt must have THE BLOOD
of a LAMB on their door posts and on the upper mantle of their houses
in order to
be protected.
Friend,
all of the Jewish sacrifices pointed to the one FINAL sacrifice of
God’s Son on
Calvary! Your Messiah came and gave Himself as a payment for your sins! In doing so, He FULFILLED all the law and the
prophets. Jesus Christ said, “Think
not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” (Mat.
5:17)
Jesus,
your Messiah, was God manifest in the flesh, and He gave himself for
you. Notice how the prophet Zechariah told
you this:
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me
whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his
only son, and
shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn.” Notice how God says “I” and
“me” are the same
as “him” and his “only son.” Read it
again,
please. God said that HE (God) would be
PIERCED. Do you remember Isaiah 7:14? It says that the virgin born son would be
“Immanuel,”
which means “GOD WITH US.” Friend, when
your
people rejected Jesus Christ they rejected GOD WITH US!
The
Jewish prophet, John the Baptist, correctly titled Jesus Christ “the
Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world” (John
1:29). What is a lamb?
A sacrifice, right? Consider I
Peter 1:18-20: “Forasmuch as ye know
that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,
from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot: Who
verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,”
God
came and provided Himself a Lamb. Remember
what Abraham told Isaac in Genesis chapter 22? He said, “. . . My son,
God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
.” GOD IS THE LAMB! JESUS
CHRIST, EMMANUEL, IS GOD WITH US, AND HE
PROVIDED HIMSELF AS THE LAMB TO TAKE AWAY ALL SIN, INCLUDING YOURS!! If
you believe
Moses and the prophets, then you must also believe what they wrote in
the aforementioned
Scriptures about Jesus Christ.
My
Jewish friend, there’s only one thing left to do: RECEIVE
JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOUR. You need not
only a Messiah, but also a SAVIOUR,
because you are a lost sinner. Romans 3:23 says, “ For all
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Men
have been in sin since the very beginning,
which is why God has accepted blood sacrifices from the beginning. Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” But
notice Romans
5:8-9: “But God commendeth his
love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Much more then, being
now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” If you continue to reject your true Messiah
and
Saviour, then you must reap the wrath of God.
God has no other Messiah for you.
Only through the Lord Jesus Christ can you be saved. He fulfilled your law and ended your
sacrifices,
being the final sacrifice himself. Yes,
God
has some special plans for Israel as a nation, but His plan for you
personally is
Jesus Christ. Receive him today as your
Saviour! Romans 10:9-13 says, “That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is
made unto salvation. For the scripture
saith,
Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For
there is no difference between the Jew and
the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon
him. For whosoever shall call upon the
name of the
Lord shall be saved.”
Why
not pray this simple prayer right now (and really mean it):
Dear
Lord,
For the
first time in my life I really see the truth. I
can see now that the Messiah was to be a perfect
sacrifice for my sins. I believe Jesus
Christ
is the Son of God and that He made the perfect blood atonement for my
sins with
His own blood. Please forgive my ignorance
and my rejection of your Son. Come into my
heart, O God, and wash all my sins away in the precious blood of Jesus
Christ, for
I trust Jesus only for the salvation of my soul. In
the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Friend,
if you’ve just asked God to save your soul through the Lord Jesus
Christ, then you
are now SAVED! You have been BORN AGAIN
(John
3:3) by the Spirit of God. You have done
exactly what God told you to do, and God has done exactly what He
promised to do. Now you can look forward
to the Second Coming
of Jesus Christ, THE MESSIAH WHO SAVED YOU!
Now you must confess Jesus Christ before men. Do not be ashamed of the one who died for you. Contact us so we can assist you in finding a good Bible believing church. You need to be baptized (as a public showing of your faith in Christ), and you need to be an active member of a strong fundamental church. Please contact us soon.
Copyright
© 2005 James L. Melton http://www.biblebaptistpublications.org
If
you are still confused and would like more reading material, send for a
free copy
of our booklet Understanding God’s Salvation Plan.
[1] www.trumanlibrary.org/israel/palestin.htm. (9/29/2005)
This site allows one to see a copy of the actual document with
President
Truman’s signature. It was May 14, 6:11
p.m.
Washington time, but May 15,12:11 a.m. in Israel.
[2] Matthew
Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1961), p. 909.
[3] Clarence
Larkin, Dispensation Truth (Glenside, PA: Clarence Larkin Estate,
1918), p. 66.
[4]
Encyclopedia Britanica, 2005, Deluxe Edition, CD ROM.
Article: Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
[5] Companion
Bible, Appendix 53 (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1990),
p. 77.
[6]
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
[7] www.christianactionforisrael.org/un/stillbirth.html.
(9/29/2005)
Emmanuel
A. Winston: UN Planned State of Israel as a
Still-Birth.
[8] Ibid.
[9] John
Westwood. The History of the
Middle East Wars (North Dighton, MA: World Publications Group, Inc.,
1984, 2002),
p. 24.
[10] William
Koenig. Eye to Eye: Facing
the Consequences of Dividing Israel (Alexandria, VA: About Him
Publishing, 2004),
p. 57.
[11]
www.usembasy.it/file2000_10/alia/a0101804.htm
[12] William
P. Grady. How Satan Turned
America Against God (Knoxville, TN: Grady Publications, Inc.), p. 724. Dr. Grady quotes from pages 242-245 of the
work
House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger.
[13] Ibid., p.
726.
[14] www.av1611.org/katrina.html.
[15]
www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4359248.stm.
[16] Frank
Gervasi. The Case for Israel
(New York, NY: The Viking Press, Inc., 1969), pp. 108-112.
[17] Ovid
Demaris. Brothers in Blood:
The International Terrorist Network (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, 1977),
p. 119.