John Ecob
No nation on earth has been hated, hounded and horribly treated like the nation of Israel and there is a reason.
The Bible says that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The natural condition of the human heart, untouched by the grace of God is evil, and since all sin is against a Holy God it is natural that men should show no sympathy for those who represent a Holy God and herein lies the reason for antisemitism.
It is not because the Jews are a holy people for they committed the greatest crime ever when they crucified the Lord of glory but it is because they are God’s elect and chosen nation to communicate Truth to the world.
About 2000BC God chose a Godly man, Abraham, and promised that his descendants would be given the land of Canaan located at the centre of the three great continents. God promised to bless Abraham’s descendants and to make them a great nation. They would be God’s representative people on earth through whom He would communicate the Truth to all mankind.
Within that nation God raised up prophets, “holy men of God” who spoke the Word of God received audibly or by visions and these words of God were recorded in what became known as the scriptures of truth.
To that nation God performed great signs and wonders which He never performed to other nations. When He brought Israel out of the land of Egypt about 1500BC the land of Egypt was
punished with ten plagues, the Red Sea parted to allow Israel to escape and Pharaoh with his army perished.
For 40 years God sustained about 2 million people in the wilderness and then dried up the Jordan River to allow them to cross into the promised land.
After Israel left Egypt God revealed Himself in fire on Mount Sinai and gave to Moses His perfect moral and spiritual law for all mankind so that Moses reminded the people:
“Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation
from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him” (Deut.4:33-35).
Other nations have had their gods and false prophets and some have recorded their prophets in so called “holy books” but these are Satan’s attempt to immitate the truth of the Creator God. Satan has also sought to destroy Israel. If Satan could cause the Jews to cease to exist he would have frustrated all the purposes of God for God has revealed that He intends to ultimately establish His kingdom on earth and Israel will be the leader among the nations.
Israel has not been a perfect nation. Again and again they have turned to the worship of heathen gods and again and again God has chastened them by allowing heathen nations to invade their land, to take them captive and scatter them across the globe.
In fact, when they began as a nation, God told them what would happen to them if they were unfaithful. He said they would be invaded, taken captive and their life would hang in doubt while they were persecuted among the nations. So severe would the persecution be that they would be reduced and become “few in number”.
When Israel rejected Messiah the Romans were sent in AD70 to destroy Jerusalem and to scatter the people. God put the Jews aside as His people on earth for a season and turned to the Gentiles so that for the past 2,000 years He has been working through the Church of Jesus Christ to make known the Truth. At the beginning of this Church age God used the last of the Jewish prophets to complete Divine Revelation. The Apostle John was the last in AD96 to record the Holy Scriptures.
When the Church age began, the early Church was a holy company of people but as the centuries rolled by it became corrupted as men added traditions to Scripture and abandoned the Word of God. Today there is a remnant of true believers who stand by the Word of God alone and who know the grace of God in truth.
Christendom is getting ripe for judgment and the time of Christ’s return is drawing near. More and more, Christendom is abandoning the moral standards of God’s law and many have long abandoned the Gospel of redeeming grace by substituting a works-based salvation. Yet God in grace is still working by His Spirit today drawing sinners to Christ, convicting of sin and completing the Body of Christ. When that number has come in, all those who have trusted Christ for salvation will be Raptured and God will again deal with the world through the nation of Israel.
Paul wrote:
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own
conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom11:25-27).
The salvation of Israel will occur after the Christians have been raptured. It will occur in a time that the Bible calls “the time of Jacob’s trouble” and that Jesus called “great tribulation”. Daniel prophesied that it would be a period of 7 years.
Immediately after the Christians have been raptured there will be 144,000 Jewish men world-wide who will repent and turn to Jesus Christ. These will preach the Gospel of the Kingdom “in all the world” until they are martyred halfway through the 7 years of tribulation.
During the first half of the 7-year Tribulation, Israel will be invaded by Russia and her Islamic allies; Iran, Turkey, Libya and Sudan. But the prophets Joel and Ezekiel tell us that this invasion will cause the Jews to turn to Jesus Christ. No doubt the preaching of the 144,000 will be influencial.
During the second half of the 7-year Tribulation Antichrist will rule the world as head of the revived Roman Empire. Other great powers in Asia and the isles will suffer terrible destruction during the first half of the Tribulation and at the mid-point Antichrist will be welcomed as a world saviour and benefactor. There will be a one-world government during the second half of the Tribulation but
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt.24:29-30).
Antichrist’s aim will be to destroy Israel for Israel will again be God’s witness on earth. Antichrist will occupy Jerusalem and the rebuilt Jewish temple and set up his idol with supernatural powers to deceive the world. The Jewish remnant will fight back and God will preserve them for the last half of the Tribulation.
The climax of history however will come and Christ will return in glory and power with all the angels of heaven. Antichrist will be slain and cast into the lake of fire; Satan will be bound for 1,000 years in the bottomless pit and Christ will reign with His people Israel from Jerusalem.
At the beginning of Christ’s 1,000-year reign all who survive the Tribulation will appear before Christ and He will divide the “sheep” from the “goats”. The “sheep” are those Gentiles who trust Christ during the Tribulation and the “goats” are those who receive the “mark of the Beast” and worshipped his image.
The “goats” go away into “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” but the “sheep”, “inherit the kingdom”. This division of peoples will occur 75 days after the Lord returns.
The Kingdom of Christ will begin with a greatly reduced population for Jesus said,
“except those days should be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Matt.24:22).
All who enter Christ’s kingdom will be believers who responded to the Gospel of Christ during the Tribulation. The entire surviving nation of Israel will turn to Christ
“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer.31:34).
It is hard to contemplate a world with no unbelievers; a world where every living person loves the Lord and His people Israel. For the first time in history there will be absolutely no antisemitism and the nation of Israel will be honoured to take the first place among all nations of the world.
We know from scripture that the Gentile nations who survive the Tribulation will assist the Jews to return to the land that God gave to Abraham. Isaiah states:
“Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them…” (Isa.60:8-9).
“the sons of strangers (Gentiles) shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee” (Isa.60:10). “Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles … and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron…” (Isa.60:16-17). “The LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy
glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended” (Isa.60:19-20).
Antichrist’s one-world government will be destroyed and “the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day there shall be one LORD and His name one” (Zech.14:9).
Jerusalem will be illuminated by the glory of God that shines above a new Temple built to the specifications given to Ezekiel the prophet.
Instead of antisemitism, Jews will be held in high esteem as Zechariah wrote: “Many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you” (Zech.8:22-23).
Jerusalem will be the centre of world government and trade. Jews will be Godly people ruling the world under the King of kings; our Lord Jesus Christ, and the law of the Lord will be administered by them. Thus we read,
“ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles” (Isa.61:6).
The world capital in Christ’s kingdom will be at Jerusalem and wars will cease when Christ reigns. Isaiah wrote:
“In the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains,… all nations shall flow unto it. And many
people shall go and say … we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa.2:2-4).
Even the animal creation will be at peace as it was before the great Flood and in Eden.
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isa.11:6).
So when we pray the Lord’s prayer just remember what you are praying for when you say, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” You are praying for the soon return of Christ and the establishment of His everlasting kingdom. Christ came the first time to die for the sins of the world but He is coming a second time to receive the glory of His kingdom and the adoration of His subjects.
The Old Tesament saints are already with Christ; the Church-age saints will be raptured before the Tribulation; the Tribulation martyrs will be raised at the coming of the Lord and the Kingdom saints will be raised at the end of Christ’s 1,000-years reign.
Will you be there? You can if only you turn from sin to the Saviour of sinners and invite Him into you heart.