Proof the Last Days are Upon Us: Israel

From the time of Abraham and his grandson Jacob (Israel) the focus of our bibles is the nation of Israel, its people, their covenants with our Creator, their land promise, their blessings and their curses, and, of course, their descendants. We Christians are adopted and grafted into their blessings due to the fact that our faith in Christ gives us an inheritance as He (Jesus) is the promised Seed. (Galatians 3:29).

The fact that Israel even exists today as a sovereign nation is an absolute miracle fulfilling many prophecies. Not only does she exist, but after nearly 2000 years of dispersion to the other nations of the world, since 1948 she is back in her traditional homeland and her capital city of Jerusalem that dates back 3000 years to King David, today speaking revived Hebrew, her ancient native language. Observant Jews have always known the land promise of God through the Abrahamic Covenant as well as many other prophecies that foretold of their regathering in the last days to their homeland in Zion where God chose to place His Name. Throughout the diaspora for the last 2000 years Jewish Passover seders ended with the phrase “next year in Jerusalem”. They never gave up hope and in our day that hope is realized. The path that resulted in the modern Jewish nation is simply miracle after miracle after miracle. I won’t go into detail here, but there is little doubt that God is orchestrating events fulfilling His prophecies along His timeline. It’s not been an easy road for the Jews due to the fact that they are a “stubborn” people though chosen by God as a conduit to bring forth universal salvation. Throughout their history they have strayed from the directives of God resulting in strong discipline. Their many wars, captivities by other nations, pogroms, Hitler’s holocaust, rampant antisemitism, etc. are some examples of discipline from God. And it’s not over. The “time of Jacob’s trouble” or the “tribulation” is in our near future. This current Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran war resulting (unbelievably) in wide-spread antisemitism is leading into an end-time scenario where Israel will find herself alone without political allies in this world. She does have two allies however, real Christianity that understands Israel’s place in history and the most important one, God Himself. All of biblical history attests to the fact that when the Jews turned fully to God as their standard bearer, their success was assured. That is what their nation and their leaders need to do today, if they want complete victory in all their battles.

As Christians, we need to be praying continually for peace in Jerusalem and for knowledge of Jesus as their Messiah to spread in Jewish communities. We need not align ourselves with all their political and moral shortcomings, but we do need to support the existence of the Jewish state based on God’s covenants and make known our disgust of the rampant antisemitism pervading our societies. We know how this all ends as stated by Paul in this message to Christians; “For I desire, brethren, that you should not be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the gentiles has come in. And so, all Israel will be saved as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’ ” (Romans 11:25-27).

The fact that today a sovereign nation called Israel abides in our midst is proof positive that we are living in the end-times. Keep following the drama surrounding Israel and you will stay abreast of what God is doing to prepare for the second coming of His Son.

Maranatha, Jim