The case for Israel, Part 1 11/7/2010

Israel is one of the smallest nations on earth but has the attention of the entire earth. Every nation on earth is affected by what happens there, and it is well our time to learn why, as well as what is in the very near future for this nation, as well as the rest of the world, and how it is going to affect us all, no matter where we are.

Many would wonder why they should even care.  After all, we live in the United States of America, the only super-power on the planet, or at least most of us on this e-mail list. There is no nation on earth that has the power to mount a serious threat to America on its own.  It would take a major coalition of powerful nations.  It is, or maybe more correctly was the wealthiest nation on earth.  Our population is well over 300 million, and we have our military scattered all over the world.  Israel, on the other hand is smaller than the state of New Jersey, has a population of between 5 and 6 million, and is hardly a blip on the globe.  Yet, over half of the U.N. resolutions have to do with Israel.  Its military is one of the most powerful in the world.  Its air force ranks probably #3.  It’s special ops are considered one of the very best–if notthe best in the world.

Yet, Israel will be the center of the international news from this day on.  I made a statement that may sound absurd, but God’s foreign policy from now on generates from Jerusalem out.  To quote Joel Rosenberg, “Israel is the epicenter of the world, Jerusalem is the epicenter of Israel, and the temple mount is the epicenter of Jerusalem.”  Everything on earth is affected by what happens there.  So why?

A Little Background History

As most know, the Old Testament patriarch Abraham was the beginning of the Hebrew nation.  God approached him and made an open ended covenant with him.  It is worth looking at for a moment.  “The LORD said to Abram (later Abraham), ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.  I will bless you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’  So Abram left, as the LORD had told him…”  Genesis 12: 1-4a.

Abraham’s lineage continued through Isaac, then Jacob, and through Jacob’s 12 sons. These 12 sons became the beginning of the 12 tribes of Israel.  Israel’s history is long and complicated and I won’t go into detail at this point except for a few things that are pertinent to today’s commentary.  Israel went through a vicious cycle throughout its history, which involved times of great blessing and as great times of being in bondage.  Israel would be greatly blessed by the God of their fathers, and as long as they followed His ways, continued to prosper and be blessed.  Israel would forget again and again where their blessings came from—kind of like us today, I might add.  When they forgot, they began to slip in their relationship with their Great Benefactor.  They would then gradually take on the habits of their neighbors, including worshiping pagan gods.  They would take on the same despicable rituals of murdering their young, and falling into moral degradation. God sent prophet after prophet to warn them.  These prophets lived a difficult life because their message was not popular and not well received.  They were brash, really odd in their habits, and usually abused by the people they were trying to get the attention of.

As the nation of Israel’s history continued, God sent some of their most notable prophets, namely Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and others.  These prophets were greatly used by God to not only try to “steer” the nation in the right direction, but were always used to foretell many detailed events in the future–some many centuries or even millenia later.  A few statements about what these men said at God’s direction is important to see.

What Did God Say Through His Prophets?

JEREMIAH

This is what the LORD says: “If I have not established my covenant with day and night and fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.”   Jeremiah 33: 25,26

This particular scripture is important in the fact that more and more of the world is taking sides against Israel.  It is obvious that the nation of Israel is for the most part a secular nation at this point in time, but God has made a promise that He is going to bring them around to acknowledging the fact that they missed their Messiah 2000 years ago.  It is not our job to punish them for this.  God takes care of the discipling of His people.  We need to keep our arrogant high minded ways out of it. This is especially important in light of the religious world backing an apostate doctrine which is called by numerous names, but advocates “replacement theology”.  It basically says that the Jewish people have been permanently cut off from God’s promises and are not anymore considered the chosen people, nor are they entitled to the promises that God gave them.  That is heresy and anyone, no matter what their status, is raising their head up against the God of Heaven who does not negotiate these things with the likes of men with their finite logic.

EZEKIEL

God makes an interesting comment through the great prophet Ezekiel that does a good job of setting much of the religious decrees of the day back on its heels!.  Amazing!  Can you imagine God contradicting this world’s great religious leaders??  I suppose it’s a better question to ask, how it is that anyone, no matter what status they might think they have, religious or otherwise, that they think they have the right to contradict the God that determines all things?  Here is what He says in Ezekiel 36:23 & 24:  “I will show the holiness of my great Name, which has been profaned among them.  Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself Holy through you before their eyes.  For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into YOUR OWN LAND!  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh…”

DANIEL

The prophet Daniel had a fascinating life.  His prophecies were so amazingly accurate and detailed that skeptics have never stopped trying to discredit his prophecies by saying he did not really live at the time that Biblical history says he did.  Yet, even secular history shows him having lived during the time of Nebuchadnezzar the great king of Babylon, as well as Belshazzar, his grandson who took over his kingdom much later.  He also became a top ranking government member of the Medes and Persians under Darius the Mede.  This is when he was later thrown into the lion’s den as a very old man because of the jealousy of his contemporaries.  As we know, Daniel’s God was more than sufficient to care for him for His own purposes.

Daniel came to the Babylonian Empire while a very young man and while there had some very strange dreams.  The king also had his own weird dreams which his own wise men or astrologers could not interpret.  God then gave Daniel the interpretation of the dreams. Both Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams and Daniel’s dreams had to do with the future. Nebuchadnezzar had two very strange dreams, one having to do with future empires of the world, and one having to do with his own status.  God in his mercy for this king gave him a warning about his own pride and gave him a year to handle it.  We read of course that he did not, and went insane for seven years, as God said he would.  God then restored him, and this great arrogant king came to himself, humbled himself, and then wrote the fourth chapter of Daniel, which is now recorded in the sacred Scriptures.  Amazing!!

The other dream of Nebuchadnezzar’s,  as well as the ones given by God to Daniel laid out the future of the world in great detail.  The Babylonian Empire was to be succeeded by the Medes & Persians, then the Greeks, the Romans, and then a second form of the Roman Empire.  Daniel’s prophecies provided some of the most accurate information available in Scripture.  In Daniel 9:24-27 is given a time-line which, if it is understood for what it really says, opens the rest of Biblical prophecy.  If not understood, the rest of Biblical prophecy is a mystery and can be greatly misrepresented and greatly misunderstood.

These four verses actually give the actual amount of historical days between the command to rebuild the second temple in Jerusalem and when Jesus was declared King, just before He was crucified.  The decree to rebuild was actually given on March 14, 445 BC by Artaxerxes Longimanus.  The only time that Jesus ever allowed Himself to be called a King was on Palm Sunday which was on April 6, 32 AD.

We are given the scope of it all in chapter 9: verse 24.  Then, without going into all of the particulars, the weeks of sevens just means what it says.  69 weeks, divided into two parts, but literally  meaning 69 x 7 (week)  (verse 25 of chapter 9) up to the time of Palm Sunday.

Verse 26 says, “after which the Messiah or Anointed One is cut off (killed)”.  This verse also tells of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by Titus the Roman and provides for the great 2000 Church Age interlude before the last week or years in verse 27.

Verse 27 is God’s promise of His personal dealings with Israel for another segment of time in which He will restore them, although not without great cost to them.  There is a saying today amongst the Jews, “Never Again”, referring to the Holocaust, but according to Scripture, even though 1 out of 3 Jewish people lost their lives through the Holocaust, 2 out of 3 will lose their lives during the time called Jacob’s trouble, or the Great Tribulation. This is on our horizon today.

So in short, when the mathematics are worked out, the total of the 69 weeks of years, including all the leap years,, allowing for the fact that there was no year -0-, and adding the days between March 14 and April 6, it all adds up to 173,880 days.  That happens to come out to the very day that Israel became a nation once again on May 14, 1948.

How can anyone ever say that God did not keep His promise to Abraham, and thereby also to the Jewish people?  Please take the time to let this sink in.

GOD IS IN CONTROL OF TIME!  ALL THINGS ARE ABOUT TO BE FULFILLED!  ARE YOU REALLY READY?  TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH TIME

In the next post, I am going to use some specific quotes by religious leaders, including both high level Catholic leadership as well as Protestant denominational leaders that are denying God’s irrefutable covenants to Israel both via the Old Testament and New.  This puts them and those that swallow these heresies in great danger because of God’s strong statements concerning His chosen people.

I will also touch on the Palestinian issue and what the true solution is, as well as where America is making a serious error if it continues to try and split the nation of Israel.

I will also bring up a new entity on the world scene which includes the former president Carter.  This group calls themselves “The Elders”, and travels all over the world in order to give advice on how to solve world problems.  They have already weighed in on the Israeli / Palestinian problem, and continue to do so.

Watch for this in the next post…

In the meantime, please look up and allow the Lord to draw you close to Himself.  The days are becoming evil, but God has promised to walk closely to us.  He will guide us, and will never leave us alone–NEVER!  But, there is a great value to going after a deep relationship with Him.  What is it worth to you??  Hopefully, more than anything else there is.  We are only pilgrims on this earth, and what we see is passing very quickly.  Jesus is coming soon. Will He find YOU to be one of the faithful ones?  I pray so!

Jake