Category: Palestine / land of Canaan / Holy Land

A Heart Transplant for Israel #3

Monday, March 24, 2014

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 KJV).

The Great Physician must perform this surgery if His beloved patient is to live!

When JEHOVAH in human flesh, Jesus Christ, came to earth, many Gentile empires had already conquered and oppressed Israel. Most Jews were scattered worldwide. The few Jews who lived in Palestine were under the oppressive, brutal, overtaxing Roman government—their Davidic kingdom had been destroyed many centuries earlier. Their corrupt religious leaders lied to them and cheated them out of God’s Word (sound familiar?!). Centuries of continuous rejection of God’s Word (the “Old Testament” Scriptures) and centuries of pagan religion had finally taken their toll on God’s earthly people, but Israel’s greatest sin was yet to come.

Israel’s spiritual state reached such an extremely low point that the Jews demanded that Jesus Christ—their long-promised Messiah who had come to rescue them from sin, Satan, and the Gentiles—suffer an excruciating death on a cruel Roman cross. Despite her promise to do what God said many centuries earlier, Israel demonstrated that she did not want to be God’s earthly nation, His vessel to reach the Gentiles with His salvation.

On behalf of the nation, Israel’s leadership confessed, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15). The Jews said to Roman governor Pontius Pilate, “His blood be on us, and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). Israel did not think twice about Jesus’ execution: they were tired of hearing His authoritative sermons and seeing His righteousness. Sin had hardened their hearts against God, and they would not be dissuaded: “For this people’s heart is waxed gross [thick, callous], and their ears are dull of hearing…” (Matthew 13:10-17).

Yea, God’s beloved nation, Israel, had a heart problem, and He alone could save them. They took His life—actually, He laid down His life (John 10:17,18)—to make a generous blood donation, for it was the only way to make Israel’s heart transplant possible….

A Heart Transplant for Israel #2

Sunday, March 23, 2014

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 KJV).

The Great Physician must perform this surgery if His beloved patient is to live!

Nearly 500 years after the Abrahamic Covenant was given, JEHOVAH God delivered the nation Israel from Egyptian slavery. He gave them a series of tests in the wilderness: Exodus 15:25 says, “he proved them.” God miraculously converted bitter water into potable water for “murmuring” (grumbling/ungrateful) Israel (Exodus 15:22-26). A month later, in Exodus chapter 16, Israel complained that they had no food to eat: they were ungrateful and they again “murmured” against God. Nevertheless, as Exodus 16:11-36 says, God provided Israel with manna (bread) and quail (meat)—they wound up eating that manna for 40 years! Israel even disobeyed God’s instructions when collecting the manna. In Exodus chapter 17, Israel again complained against God that they had no water to drink. Again, God faithfully and miraculously provided water for Israel (verses 1-7). He even gave them a miraculous military victory when the Amalekites fought them for that water (verses 8-16)!

When the LORD through Moses told Israel they would have to keep His commandments to be His nation, Israel replied, “All that the LORD hath spoken, we will do” (Exodus 19:8). After Moses received the Law and came down Mount Sinai to deliver it to Israel, he was angered to see Israel dancing naked around an idol, the golden calf. Israel had not even heard God’s commandments, and yet they had already broken them! They forsook JEHOVAH, their deliverer and caregiver, and preferred to worship a stupid, lifeless idol.

As the centuries passed, Israel fell into greater and greater sins. From Moses to Malachi, a period of about 1,100 years, Israel waxed worse and worse. Her kings and people grew increasingly corrupt and apostate. Consequently, she lost her economy, her monarchy, her God-given religion (Temple, priesthood, animal sacrifices, et cetera), her real estate, her blessings from God, her God’s presence, everything.

The Great Physician diagnosed Israel’s condition—she needed a new heart….

A Holy Nation #6

Saturday, January 25, 2014

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45 KJV).

Today’s Scripture summarizes a book most burdensome to many.

As per the Old Covenant, increasingly sinful Israel would endure five rounds of escalating chastisement from God, many divine attempts to reform the wayward nation (see Leviticus 26:14-39). The last course of judgment (verses 27-39) involved Gentile armies (Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Medes, Persians, and Romans) overrunning and defeating Israel, killing her people, taking off to foreign lands most of the rest of the Jews as prisoners of war. The Promised Land would be desolate of Jews. Israel would lose her Davidic kingdom, and the pagan Gentiles would rule over her instead. God was bound by His Word to weaken and curse His beloved nation!

Just before, during, and after that fifth course of judgment began, God sent His prophets to speak and write to Israel. The “Major Prophets” (Isaiah through Daniel) and the “Minor Prophets” (Hosea through Malachi) concentrate on two general themes: God’s judgment and Israel’s deliverance. These prophets clearly warned that, due to her disobedience, Israel would have many terrible days ahead (and the worst are yet to come!). Yet, these prophets surely comforted that, due to JEHOVAH’S faithfulness, Israel would have many wonderful days ahead (and the best are yet to come!).

Israel had forsaken JEHOVAH and His covenant, worshipped pagan idols, and legally, God declared her as sinful, worthy of His wrath and unworthy of His blessings—she had become Satan’s people. She was everything but the “holy nation” God wanted her to be (see today’s Scripture). The devil surely thought he had JEHOVAH defeated: “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children” (Isaiah 49:24,25).

There was hope: JEHOVAH promised that Messiah would come and deliver Israel from Satan….

The Prince of Peace, Born in the Middle East

Saturday, December 21, 2013

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6 KJV).

Ironically, God’s wisdom ordained the birthplace of the Prince of Peace to be the contentious Middle East….

Almost from the very beginning of time, the Middle East has been a battleground, the chief war zone of good and evil. Originally the peaceful home of Adam and Eve, today it is the most contentious region on the globe. Because of Adam’s sin, what was a paradise is now known as the area where man joined Satan in his rebellion against God. Adam and Eve utterly failed to reign over the earth for God’s glory (Genesis 1:26-28). Instead they united with the opposition, and were banished from God’s presence and the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23,24).

“Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Romans 5:12). Verse 14 says that Adam “is the figure of him that was to come.” God would send another Man, Jesus Christ, and He would accomplish what Adam failed to do: glorify God on the earth by dispossessing it from Satan, and reigning in righteousness. This is the “government” spoken of in today’s Scripture.

“For if by one man’s [Adam’s] offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (verse 17). Adam plunged the human race into sin and made it God’s enemy; Jesus Christ offers mankind eternal life, forgiveness of sins and a reconciled relationship with God! This was God’s goal in sending Jesus Christ.

As our world desperately continues to seek peace, let us remember there will be no peace on earth until the Prince of Peace returns to His nation, Israel, and rids our planet of Satan and his policy of evil (the root of the Middle Eastern turmoil). At Christ’s Second Coming, there will be peace on earth (Luke 2:14), and especially in the Middle East.

Big Brother Versus Heavenly Father #5

Friday, November 8, 2013

“…for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:5c,6 KJV).

Big Brother is watching; Heavenly Father is, too!

In Daniel 9:24-27, the angel Gabriel informed the prophet that, in addition to Israel being out of her Promised Land for 70 years (the Babylonian captivity of 606-536 B.C.), so that her land could be cleansed of sin, there would be 70 weeks of years (or 490 years) for her people to be cleansed of sin. Verses 25 and 26 say that 483 years were fulfilled before Calvary. The last seven years—God’s wrath, the “Tribulation,” or “day of the LORD”—should have occurred in early Acts (Joel 2:28-32 cf. Acts 2:16-21).

However, rather than wrath, the ascended Jesus Christ poured out His grace and peace on Saul of Tarsus, his chief enemy on earth. In Acts chapter 9, Saul was saved, and was ordained of Christ as the Apostle Paul. The program that God had been operating—Israel’s prophetic kingdom program (Acts 3:19-21)—was interrupted. Jesus Christ’s earthly kingdom is still awaiting fulfillment.

From Paul’s salvation onward, God began to form a body of people, the Church the Body of Christ, who would govern the heavens for His glory like Israel would do on earth (Ephesians 1:20-23; Ephesians 2:6,7; Colossians 1:16-20). The Bible calls this the mystery program, which God had kept secret until He revealed it first to Paul (Romans 16:25,26). We, living in the Dispensation of the Grace of God, are actually living in an interim time period between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel’s prophecy.

The program that God is operating today has nothing to do with Israel’s prophetic program; our current dispensation, the mystery program, revealed first to the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:1,2), is totally isolated from Israel’s program. Hence, earth’s governments remain corrupt: God’s program to restore them is currently postponed so He can operate our program to restore the heavenly governments to Himself.

Howbeit, before we discuss God’s present-day dealings with mankind, let us see the resumption of Israel’s program….

Big Brother Versus Heavenly Father #3

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

“…for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:5c,6 KJV).

Big Brother is watching; Heavenly Father is, too!

Just before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and carried the last of its inhabitants away to Babylon in 586 B.C., the LORD told the Prophet Ezekiel to command Israel’s (wicked) prince: “Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him” (Ezekiel 21:26,27).

Notice, God would take Israel’s crown from her, and she would not be restored politically until her Messiah (Jesus) would come: it is Jesus Christ’s right to inherit Israel’s crown (see Luke 1:31-33). Until Jesus would come and establish His earthly kingdom, Israel would be out of her Promised Land and Gentile empires would dominate her (in Luke 21:24, Jesus called this “the times of the Gentiles”).

The book of Daniel, contemporary with Israel’s 70-year Babylonian captivity, is the prophetic record of the Gentile empires that would rule the world (which had been Israel’s prospect). In Daniel 9:24-27, the angel Gabriel informed Daniel that it would take 70 weeks of years (or 490 years) to cleanse the Hebrew people of their sin (especially pagan idolatry). Since then, 69 of these weeks of years—or 483 years—have run their course (according to Daniel 9:25-26, they were fulfilled between circa 450 B.C., the year Jerusalem’s wall was rebuilt with Nehemiah, and A.D. 30, the time Jesus Christ died on Calvary).

One more week—the final seven years—of Daniel’s prophecy is still waiting fulfillment. We call this the seven-year Tribulation (or “Daniel’s 70th week”). Once that last seven-year period is finished, Israel will be spiritually cleansed, and she will be God’s chief nation on earth, the nation God wanted her to be from her earliest days. However, before earth’s governments are restored, they will grow increasingly worse….

Shallow #6

Sunday, October 27, 2013

“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:34 KJV).

If the professing “Church” is to impact our culture as the Lord Jesus Christ intended, then it had better recognize today’s Scripture as applicable to it!

Adam deliberately rejected God’s Word—so did Cain, Noah’s generation, and the post-diluvial (“after the Flood”) human race at Babel. For 2,000 years, God has attempted to use mankind in the earth for His glory, but mankind has audaciously and willfully rejected His Word and will. Dear readers, secular humanism is nothing new!

So, in Genesis chapter 12, God finds Abram, a pagan Syrian, and through this one man—whom He will later rename “Abraham”—He will create a group who will accomplish His will in the earth (which Adam and all of his descendants up to that point had failed to do). According to the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:1-3), God created that nation, Israel, using Abraham’s son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob and Jacob’s 12 sons (heads of the 12 tribes of Israel).

About 500 years after the Abrahamic Covenant was instituted, God through Moses leads Israel (now about two million in number) out of Egyptian bondage. In Deuteronomy 4:1-49, Moses cautions Israel not to reject God’s Word to them (the Mosaic Law). They are to obey His every command when they arrive in the Promised Land. “For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?” (verse 7). The wayward nations (Gentiles) were to see the wisdom of the Creator God demonstrated in Israel’s behavior and lifestyle (verse 6).

Alas, as the centuries passed, Israel went deeper and deeper into apostasy. Circa 700 B.C., JEHOVAH chided Israel: “There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land” (Hosea 4:1). Rather than knowledge of God’s Word in Israel’s land, there is idolatry, lying, murder, stealing, adultery, and violence (verses 2ff.). Like the billions before them, they too have intentionally rejected God’s Word and will for them (verse 6)….

The Great Things The Lord Jesus Hath Done #6

Friday, October 11, 2013

“And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel” (Mark 5:20 KJV).

Who is this man, and what “great things” hath the Lord Jesus done for him?

While the story of the exorcism of the Gadarene (today’s Scripture) was indeed literal and should be believed as historical fact, it should also be understood as typical of (illustrative of) redeemed and restored Israel (prophetic fact). Whenever Jesus Christ cast out devils during His earthly ministry, it was literal, physical, visible proof for all Israelites to see and recognize as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Remember, “for the Jews require a sign” (1 Corinthians 1:22a). In Israel’s program, the preaching of God’s Word was accompanied by miracles that validated those words of God.

The Bible says the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles preached, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17; Matthew 10:7; Mark 1:14,15). This was “the Gospel of the Kingdom” (Matthew 9:35), and miraculous demonstrations—casting out devils and healing the sick—followed its proclamation (Matthew 10:5-8; Mark 16:17-20; Luke 8:1; Luke 11:20; Acts 2:22; Hebrews 2:3-5; Hebrews 6:4,5). In that earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ, there would be no sickness or evil spirits.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land” (Zechariah 13:2). When Israel’s Messiah would come, He would rid her and her land of satanic captivity. Every time Jesus cast out devils, He was evicting Satan’s minions (although Israel rejected Jesus’ efforts; Matthew 12:24-32; Mark 3:22-30). Since Israel rejected Christ at His First Coming, and refused to let Him cleanse them and their Promised Land the first time (just as the Gadarenes asked Jesus to leave), Zechariah’s prophecy will not be completely fulfilled until Christ’s Second Coming (Revelation 20:1-3).

Let us now conclude the narrative and see Israel’s (future) restoration to her God….

The Great Things The Lord Jesus Hath Done #3

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

“And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel” (Mark 5:20 KJV).

Who is this man, and what “great things” hath the Lord Jesus done for him?

Notice how Jesus addressed the unclean spirit in the Gadarene, “What is thy name?,” and how the spirit responded, “My name is Legion: for we are many” (verse 9). There are actually many unclean spirits within this man, so his condition is very serious.

Verse 10 is particularly noteworthy: “And he [the unclean spirit] besought him [Jesus] much that he would not send them [all the unclean spirits possessing the Gadarene] away out of the country.” Again, the unclean spirit admits that they prefer to stay in the land of Israel. If Jesus is to cast them out of the man, they at least want to possess the swine of the land. Those unclean spirits know the torments of hell, and they do not want to be thrown into it! In the companion verse, we read: “And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep” (Luke 8:31). Understandably, they do not want to go to hell, but why do they want to stay in Israel?

Pay attention to how that chief evil spirit addressed Jesus as “thou Son of God most high” (Luke 8:28) and “thou Son of the most high God” (Mark 5:7). The title “most High God” implies “possessor of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14:19,22). Satan originally desired to be “like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14)—the devil wants to rule heaven and earth. In order to prevent Jesus Christ’s kingdom from being established on earth, Satan has possessed the nation Israel (which was to be God’s chief nation on earth; Exodus 19:5,6; Deuteronomy 7:6,7; Isaiah 2:1-4; et al.). Hence, Jesus Christ told apostate Israel, “But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you” (Luke 11:20).

So, now we begin to see that the Gadarene is a picture of the nation Israel in satanic bondage….

Mercy and Not Sacrifice? #3

Sunday, September 8, 2013

“But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day” (Matthew 12:7,8 KJV).

What did our Lord mean in today’s Scripture?

Genesis 2:1-3 and Exodus 20:8-11 explain that Israel’s Sabbath-day keeping was connected with the creation week. The writer of the book of Hebrews elaborates:

“[3] For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. [4] For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. [5] And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. [6] Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: [7] Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. [8] For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. [9] There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. [10] For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. [11] Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Hebrews 4:3-11).

Quoting Psalm 95:7-11, which describes how most of Israel rebelled against JEHOVAH under Moses’s leadership and thus could not enter the Promised Land (the “rest,” God’s kingdom on earth), the writer of Hebrews cautions Israel during the (future) seven-year Tribulation not to repeat their forefathers’ mistakes, so they may enter Christ’s millennial kingdom.

Both Adam and Israel under Moses fell into sin, delaying God’s earthly kingdom connected with the Sabbath “rest.” Regarding today’s Scripture, Jesus the King, is now on earth, ready to bring in Israel’s kingdom if she would trust Him….