THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL IS KNOWABLE

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The end of the story for Israel is wonderful. Jesus (Israel’s Messiah) will rule all the nations of the world from a new Jerusalem established on the highest mountain in a world that has been restructured by God by pouring out His wrath upon an unrepentant world with the Trumpet (Revelation 8) and Bowl (Revelation 16) judgements.

An artist’s impression of the Millennial Jerusalem based on Biblical prophecies. Zion is synonymous with the city of God, and it is a place that God loves. Zion is Jerusalem. Mount Zion is the high hill on which David built a citadel. 

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. Thus says the Lord: I have returned to Zion and will dwell amid Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain… Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the Lord of hosts? Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them to dwell amid Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.” Zechariah 8:2-8

“Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.” Zechariah 14:16-17

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” Zechariah 8:20-23

My next post will provide the prophesied details of the terrible persecution the Jews will suffer under the Antichrist before Jesus returns to rescue them at the battle of Armageddon. During the great tribulation, God does His utmost to bring the Jews to the truth of their Messiah by sending two witnesses with incredible power. The same two that appeared with Jesus on Mt. Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah. They will prophesy for 1260 days

“And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth… They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.” Revelation 11:3,6

What happens next reveals a great deal about the power of Satan and his relationship with God. God allows the satanically empowered Antichrist to kill the two witnesses and have a moment of celebration but then God shows his overwhelming power to turn things around and demonstrate He is in control at all times.

“And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.“ Revelation 11:7-13

This is apocalyptic evangelism. Using Scriptures to show the truth of God’s Word and therefore of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the only way to receive salvation.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

ISRAEL’S FUTURE FORETOLD AND ASSURED

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Jeremiah 600 BC said:

” ‘For behold , the days are coming, says the Lord’, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it”. Jeremiah 30:3

“Hear the word of the Lord, O Nations, And declare it in the isles afar off, and say HE who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd does his flock”. Jeremiah 31:10

The message itself is simple. First it was God who scattered Israel (from their own land). Second the same God who scattered Israel is now regathering them (to their own land). Third God will not merely regather them; HE will also keep (protect) them. Thus the ultimate safety of Israel is guaranteed by God.

Another remarkable prophecy concerning Israel’s regathering is made by Isaiah 750 BC:

“Those who war against you shall be as nothing, As a non-existent thing. For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand.” Isaiah 41: 12,13

When Israel declared itself a Nation on May 14, 1948, the armies of seven Arab nations marched in defiance against her, boasting that they would push the Jews into the sea. Outnumbered 100 to 1, Israel not only repelled the invaders but acquired more of Palestine than was granted in the UN partition plan. Many miracles occurred as Biblical tactics were employed.

One of the greatest military feats in history was the 1967 War. The Arabs again boasted they would destroy Israel. However in six days Israel overran the combined forces of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and took the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, the West Bank (Samaria and Judea), and the Sinai.

Psalm 129: 5,6 and Psalm 125:3 reinforce what Isaiah declared.

“Let all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back. Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up”

“For the sceptre of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous ….” 

‘The sceptre of the wicked’ is I believe an accurate description of Islam.

Finally Psalm 33: 8-12 is an unequivocal declaration that it is God’s Word that brought the world into being; and that it is the same Word that directs the course of history. Nations and their governments may hold their councils and issue their decrees, but whenever these are in opposition to God’s prophetic Word, they will come to nothing.

“Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His inheritance.”

As the surrounding darkness increases, the light of biblical prophecy grows correspondingly brighter. It is the only reliable source of information concerning the Middle East.  Whilst bible prophecy signals tough times ahead for Israel we do know that God will fulfill all His counsel and His promises. The critical point of the Lord’s revelation to Israel is prophetically depicted in Zechariah 12:10

“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieves for a firstborn.”

Two chapters further on, Zechariah pictures the actual return of the Messiah, JESUS in person on the Mount of Olives.