Are the Jewish People Still God's People? - Part 2

 
Dennis Edwards

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What about the prophecies to the Jewish people and state of Israel which we seem to find in the Old Testament?

Yes, there are prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the state of the nation of Israel in the latter days. Many of the prophecies concerning Israel have been fulfilled or are being fulfilled. These prophecies include the following:

The people would return to the land in unbelief;

Isaiah 11:11-12 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,…And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Jeremiah 30:3 For, lo, the days come, says the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of 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.

Ezekiel 20:33-38 ³³ As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: ³⁴ And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out. ³⁵ And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

³⁶ Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, says the Lord God. ³⁷ And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: ³⁸ And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 36:22-24 ²² Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. ²³ And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. ²⁴ For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

Zephaniah 2:1-2 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired (the Jewish people), before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.

A nation would be born in one day;

Isaiah 66:8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

They would make the desert blossom like a rose;

Isaiah 35:1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom like a rose.

And fill the nations of the earth with fruit.

Isaiah 27:6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

Even Jesus may have made a prophecy concerning the Jewish nation. In the Old Testament the nation of Israel is sometimes symbolized as a fig tree. In Jesus’ end-time prophecy about the last seven years before His 2^nd coming, we find the following words:

Matthew 24:32-35 Now learn a parable of the fig tree (Some think Jesus is speaking about the nation of Israel.); When his branch is tender, and puts forth leaves you know that the summer is nigh: so likewise, ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Some Christians interpret the above prophecy as meaning that the generation that sees Israel become a nation in the last days, is the generation that will see the fulfilling of the rest of the Bible prophecies concerning the last seven years. Since Israel became a nation in one day in 1948, and since a generation in the Bible is alluded to as being between 70 and 80 years in Psalm 90:10, many are anticipating the fulfilment of Bible prophecy to take place very soon. The year 2,028 would be 80 years since Israel became a nation.

Because these prophecies have been and are being fulfilled in our lifetime, many Christians have come to believe that the Jewish people are still God’s special people. They believe it is God’s will for them to help Israel and believe God will bless them for blessing Israel. They believe that since it was God’s will for the Jewish People to return to Palestine, then it must be God’s will for the Jewish people to control it. 

The Western Christians, therefore, give special favour to Israel and do not hold Israel accountable for her sins. After all, they are God’s people and He has promised them the land. Because of these end-time prophecies concerning the nation of Israel, people have become confused and make a special category for Israel. They consider Israel God’s covenant nation, God’s special people, therefore, we must bless them, if we want God’s blessing on our lives. But they haven’t really thought through what they are believing.

The truth is, God loves all nations and peoples as they are all part of His creation. He would that all would repent and come to Him. He loves the Jewish people, and in His word, He has promised a remnant shall be saved in the latter days. However, as nations and as individuals, we are accountable for our behaviour before God and before our fellow man. Each man, each nation, shall give an account and shall be judged by their actions for or against the ways of God.

In conclusion, as much of Bible prophecy in the last days revolves around the nation of Israel, many Christians have come to believe that the Jewish people are special in God’s sight. The temple sacrifices will be held on the temple mount in Jerusalem once again and then stopped. The Antichrist will place the abomination of desolation in the holy place in Jerusalem (Daniel 9:27, 11:31) and say that he is God as he sits in the temple in Jerusalem (2 Thessalonians 2:4). 

The two end-time prophets will prophesize in Jerusalem for 1,260 days (Revelation 11:3), and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of Jerusalem for three and a half days (Revelation 11:9&11). When Jesus comes back at Armageddon His feet will stand on the mount of Olives in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:4). With all these Bible prophecies in and around Jerusalem in the last days, it seems that the Jewish people are still God’s people.

Christians in America, and many others around the world influenced by American Christian theology, therefore, tolerate the state of Israel’s actions and justify whatever Israel does. They condemn the Arab peoples. They fail to see Israel’s sins against humanity, and against the poor Arabs that once lived in the land. They fail to see Israel’s sins against God and His Son Jesus. Israel uses the promises to Abraham to justify their removal of the Arabs peoples from off the land. 

God’s word, however, clearly states that the Jewish people have forfeited their right to the promises of Abraham. As they have forsaken God, God has forsaken them, though He has not cast them off completely. The Jewish people are, therefore, usurpers and should not be given special privilege above other peoples or nations. Judgment is coming for all nations. Even the prophecies about the Jewish people’s return say that God brings them back to judge them as we have seen earlier.

Ezekiel 20:33-38 ³³ As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: ³⁴ And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out. ³⁵ And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

³⁶ Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. ³⁷ And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: ³⁸ And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

The prophecies in Zechariah seem to indicate that in the last days, two-thirds of the Jewish people who have returned to Israel will die in the wars of the Antichrist, and only one-third shall survive. That one-third survives because they repent of their evil deeds and unbelief and find true faith in Jesus the Christ, the true Messiah.

Zechariah 13:8-9 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, says the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

Only those that truly repent and come to Christ in truth shall be saved. Elsewhere in Scripture during the time of the great tribulation period we see that not only in Israel, but in other parts of the world, most likely the northern hemisphere where the nuclear weapons remain, some one-third of humanity shall die.

Revelation 9:13-15 & 17-19 ¹³ And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, ¹⁴ Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. ¹⁵ And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men…¹⁷ And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. ¹⁸ By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. ¹⁹ For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

In the vision of the Great Tribulation, Apostle John sees the sixth trumpet of tribulation resulting in the death to one-third of mankind. The imagery may be of present-day military machines, which Apostle John in 90 AD did his best to describe, using vocabulary of his day. Not only Israel will suffer, but the nations of the world shall suffer for their sins. 

Those nations that knew the Gospel and disobeyed God’s word will get judged more severely than those that had less of an understanding. God is a just God and will judge mankind accordingly. Our only hope in face of the events that may soon take place is to believe on the only begotten Son of God and follow His commandments, which themselves, are not grievous.

John 3:16, 18-19  For God so loved the world, (all the nations of the world), that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus), that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believes on Him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son. And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and that men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.

Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved and thy house.                 

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.

1 John 4:14-15, 19, 21                                                                                                                       And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God… We love Him, because He first loved us… And this is the commandment have we from Him, That he who loves God love his brother also.   

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Credits to Sam Shamounian. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvWrjCDn2KQ