ISRAEL’S DESTINY
By Terry James
Israel
is the one nation in human history that the Creator of all things chose to be
“a people unto himself”:
“For
thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that [are] upon the
face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6).
Jehovah
made promises to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that are staggering
in their implications. He promised to bless those who bless the nation that
would spring from the loins of these men, and warned about His curse for those
who cursed those people. God said to Abraham, “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” (Genesis 12:1-3).
Certainly,
this promise can easily be verified as coming true throughout recorded history.
The modern record, as a matter of fact, is contemporary proof of the veracity
of the Almighty and His prophetic promises. Historians –except those blinded by
the great deceiver, Lucifer—concede, sometime reluctantly, that Israel’s
history in ancient times was a record of greatness. David’s and Solomon’s exploits
and accomplishments are legendary, but built upon archaeological facts. Israel
has achieved greatness among the nations of this earthly sphere.
One
point over which secularist historians at the minimum raise eyebrows of
skepticism is that man received laws and moral codes through Moses, the son of
Abraham. Most give Hamarabi’s Code that honor. But, those who believe that God
is who He is know the great human deliverer of the chosen people came down from
Sinai with rules for living life, given by the God of Heaven to His creation
called man. Particularly, the Ten Commandments were meant for Israel to follow
as fealty to their God, and as example to the rest of the world.
God’s
promise to make Israel a great nation and to bless all other nations through
His chosen people has come true. The United States, for example, has the Ten
Commandments upon its walls within government buildings–including the Supreme
Court. America, despite the anti-God forces who want to destroy the nation’s
moral underpinnings, continues to lead the world in most areas of improvement
of the human condition. This is due to the Ten Commandments’ influence upon
American ethics and achievement. But, it goes profoundly deeper.
Much
of America’s successes in technological, medical, and every other category of
progress has been contributed by members of the Jewish race. We don’t have to
look far to find them. I’ll just mention the most obvious: Albert Einstein, the
German-born, genius-physicist who became an American citizen. No more than a
cursory study will show, indelibly, that God’s Word is true, when He followed
through on the promise to make the people of the book the head of all peoples:
“And
the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above
only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments
of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do
[them]” (Deuteronomy 28:13).
Then
what about the maltreatment, the genocide against the Jewish race down through
the millennia, particularly during the 20th century? This doesn’t appear to be
God making Israel the head of all nations. Here is where God placed some
conditions upon the people He chose as destined to become the head of all
others. Note the last of the above promise: “…if that thou hearken unto the
commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and
to do [them].”
God
will make Israel the head of all nations, if that people will listen to His
instructions and commandments. Not only is that where the nation Israel has
strayed; this is where those who say that God is through with Israel–that the
Jewish race is no longer God’s chosen—have also strayed. God’s Word says that
ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have strayed–both Jews
AND Gentiles.
Israel’s
detractors within Christianity say the Jews rejected their Messiah in His first
visitation. Therefore, they say, Jehovah has written off the Jews and the
nation Israel. The Israel in the land surrounding Jerusalem since May 14, 1948
is not the Israel of the promises, the detractors say. Modern Israel is but an
imposter, and God considers it no more within His prophecy for future national
or racial greatness than He considers any of modern Israel’s blood-vowed enemies.
Absolutely
nothing could be further from the truth. It is true that the Israel of Jesus
Christ’s day rejected Him as Messiah. It is equally true that those of His own
race, the Jews, cried “Crucify him!” the hierarchy of which convinced the
Romans to crucify Jesus. But God’s Word says that every person is a sinner. We
are born into sin–thus because Adam, the physical father of mankind, disobeyed
God in the Garden of Eden. Again, God’s Word says that “all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God.”
The
Jews, as a race, are no guiltier than my race, which is Gentile. We all, as the
human race, put Jesus Christ to death on the cruel Roman cross. He came to
earth, sent by His Father, the God of Heaven, to offer himself as the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus the Christ –the Jews’
Messiah—came to fulfill all Mosaic Law –the Ten Commandments. In Christ we can
now believe, and our sins are cleansed, washed away by Christ’s sacrifice for
all eternity. Through His shed blood, we ALL–Jew and Gentile--are in the family
of God forever.
But,
each individual human being must accept this grace gift that replaced the
sacrificial system of blood from innocent lambs of the physical sort. We must
accept Christ as Savior, as Lord one-on-one with God, because He gives each
person the free will to accept or reject His grace offer of salvation.
Now, I
must come to the sad part--the tragic part of this essay, really--in which I
have been asked to address your nation’s prophetic destiny.
God’s
Word, the Bible, foretells that the Jewish race as a whole, Israel as a nation,
will continue to reject their Messiah, the one who came to them more than 2,000
years ago. This rejection will continue to result in God’s promises being
delayed until the moment Jesus returns to put an end to mankind’s final war
called Armageddon.
Israel
was scattered after the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem and the temple atop
Mount Moriah. This was exactly what Jesus predicted in the Olivet Discourse
(Matthew Chapter 24, Mark Chapter 13, and Luke Chapter 21.) Jesus prophesied
that not one stone of the temple would be left upon another. Titus and the
Roman legions saw to the fulfillment of this prophecy.
The
Jews lost their temple, their city, and, following Hadrian’s purge in 135 AD,
their geographical homeland area, plus their common language (Hebrew) as a
cohesive link to one another as a distinct people. Yet God’s Word foretells
that Israel will be a nation again at the end of days–the time just before
Christ returns.
Again,
tragically and sadly, you are back in the land for a time that will be worse
than any ever experienced by any people. The prophet Jeremiah foretold this:
“Alas!
for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's
trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7).
It
will be a time of horrors beyond anything even Adolf Hitler dreamed about
perpetrating upon the Jewish race. Can we see a build-up toward that time? Let
us consider the words of the prophet Zechariah, and put his prophecies as a
template over today’s headlines:
“The
burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth
forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the
spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto
all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah
and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone
for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces,
though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah
12:1-3).
The
peoples of the earth are gathering against Israel. Even some leaders within the
U.S., governmental and religious, want Israel to give away land for peace. The
“Zionists” are seen as the problem.
Israel
is basically isolated today, so far as true allies are concerned. The United States stands almost alone as your friend.
However, it hurts to say that support is eroding, while some within recent
American diplomatic efforts seem to want to exclude your nation from talks
involving the small territory you now occupy--territory, incidentally, which is
but a fraction of the land the Lord your God granted you through Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. These negotiators join the so-called international community
in wanting to placate Israel’s hate-filled enemies.
This
Neville Chamberlain-like, “peace at any cost” maneuvering is not lost on those
who want Israel wiped off the map. It is creating a perception of weakness that
will tempt them to act on their satanically driven hatreds.
Ezekiel
the prophet foretold of a time at the end of days when a northern coalition
will invade from the North (all biblical direction is given from Jerusalem).
There is not space here to go into detail, but excellent scholarship has
determined the chief attacker will be Russia, joined by many surrounding
peoples. This attack will include forces from the area of ancient Persia, which
encompasses all of Iran, and considerable surrounding geographical areas. This
coalition, I am convinced today’s news headlines indicate, is gathering now.
This will be the God-Magog assault described prophetically in Ezekiel Chapters
38 and 39.
The
one bright prospect, and it is a bright spot, indeed, is that the God of Israel
will never let Israel be destroyed; we have His Word on that:
"This
is what the Lord says, 'He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees
the moon and stars to shine by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves
roar -- the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My
sight,' declares the Lord, 'will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a
nation before Me'" (Jeremiah 31:35-36).
The
bottom line is that Israel, the Jewish race, is again destined to become hated
and persecuted –this time with satanic vitriol that will make Hitler’s
Holocaust look somewhat less terrible by comparison.
Antichrist,
the long-foretold, sometime spoofed, but 100 percent Bible prophecy guaranteed
to come on the world scene tyrant, will implement genocidal policies against
the Jewish race that will go far beyond Draconian.
I
didn’t make up this prediction. God’s Word, the Bible, does say it. I accept
that Word as the only truth there is. I, and other Christians who know Jesus
Christ as Lord, love, or should love, the Jewish people–the nation Israel. God
loves you; so must we. You are His chosen. However, I, and they, can’t change
what God has prophesied to take place, I’m convinced, in the relatively near
future.
But I,
and other Christians, are charged with showing individuals within Israel the
way to escape the coming time of Antichrist’s regime of horror. Accept Christ
now. He is Messiah. And one day, perhaps very soon, He will call His people
--Jews and Gentiles who accept Him as Savior-- to be with Him forever. This
will be the Rapture. (That stunning event, in which millions of people will
vanish from Planet Earth, can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, and 1
Corinthians 15: 51-55. Jesus spoke of it in John 14:1-3.)
The
Rapture will take place before that time of horror–the era Jesus called “great
Tribulation” (Matthew 24: 21).
The
people of the nation Israel who are unrepentant (the remnant, for most will die
in this last holocaust) will accept Christ at the last moment.
Here’s
what that future remnant’s Messiah says:
“And
it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations
that come against Jerusalem. 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”
(Zechariah 12: 9-10).
Israel
will then be made the head of all nations, with the resurrected King David
ruling as co-regent with the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, atop Mount Zion at
Jerusalem for 1,000 years –the Millennium! Believe it or not, that is Israel’s
great God-promised destiny.
-----------------------------------------
