God (YHVH) refers to Israel as the ‘apple' or pupil of His eye (Zechariah 2:8b). The part of the eye which is called the pupil, regulates the amount of light that enters the eye. This affects the person's focus. Israel, therefore, is in fact God's focal point. It is the very thing which affects His focus and should also be what affects ours. God never takes His eyes off Israel (Deut. 11:12) and He set up the boundaries of the nations according to Israel (Deut. 32:8). The history of the Jewish people is the witness to the God of history - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
To be able to see and understand what God is doing, especially in these last days, we need to see things as God sees them. Israel is to be our focal point, so that we see things in their right perspective. All that God has ever done and all that He will ever do will be in the light of His plan for Israel. This is why any form of replacement theology is so dangerous, because it changes our perspective and puts us on the wrong track.
Israel's prophetic clock is about to strike the midnight hour. The following twelve ‘end times' prophesies, of which nine have already come to pass, show us how close we really are to the end of the age and the return of Messiah Yeshua.
1. The dispersion of the Jewish people: For the last 1900 years, the Jewish people have wandered throughout the earth in fulfilment of this prophecy. They have been harassed and persecuted wherever they went.
“Then the LORD will scatter you among the nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods - gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life.” Deuteronomy 28:64-66.
2. The Promise of Preservation: God promised that he would not forget His people and that regardless of their dispersion and suffering, the Jewish race would be preserved. Wherever they went, the Jews took God's laws and ordinances with them. Although at times they tried to assimilated among the nations, the very fact that the nations rejected them was the very thing which preserved them.
“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 the waves roar - the LORD Almighty is his name: Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the LORD, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.” Jeremiah 31:35,36
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands...” Isaiah 49:15,16
“I tell you the truth, this generation (race) will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” Matthew 24:34
3. The Time of Jacob's Trouble: Many say that ‘Jacob's Trouble' is yet to happen, but this scripture clearly says that it happens in a distant place, in a place of exile. If you continue to read the rest of the chapter, God says that he will regather the Jews back to Israel after this awful time and that they will not be uprooted again. The time of ‘Jacob's Trouble' was the Holocaust, and as Jeremiah says,”no other day will be like it.” To expect something worse than the Holocaust, would mean that more than 6 million Jews would have to die. There surely will be trouble and war in Israel in the days to come, but nothing to compare with the horrors of the Holocaust. Jacob is now in the land. Jacob has once again become Israel.
“Cries of fear are heard - terror, not peace. Ask and see: Can a man bear children? Then why do I see every strong man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labour, every face turned deathly pale? How awful that day will be! None will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it.” .... “I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their exile. Jacob will again have peace and security, and no-one will make him afraid.” Jeremiah 30:5-10.
Ezekiel gives us a description of what was left after the Holocaust - graves full of bones; a people without hope. Yet God says that he will bring life back to them and regather them to Israel. Soon after the Holocaust, the nation of Israel was reborn and the remnant of remnants returned.
“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.... He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”.....Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.” Ezekiel 37:1-14.
4. The Regathering to the Land of Israel: God promised the Jewish people that he would regather them to ISRAEL. Not Canaan or Palestine, but ISRAEL. As of the end of the last century, Jews began to make their second, (and last) Exodus home. In 1897, the first Zionist congress was held in Basel, Switzerland, where Theodore Hertzl, father of the Zionist movement, set in motion an official regathering of the Jewish people to what was then still called Palestine. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Jews from the four corners of the earth have returned home - thus beginning to fulfil the greatest of last days prophesies.
“In that day the LORD will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people..... He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” Isaiah 11:11,12
“'I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,' says the LORD your God.'” Amos 9:14,15
“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.'” Zechariah 8:7,8
5. The Rebirth of the Nation of Israel: On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was reborn - against all odds. At one minute past midnight on May 15 - less than eight hours after David Ben-Gurion had proclaimed the State of Israel - seven Arab armies attacked the newborn State. Israel had literally nothing to defend herself with, except that the Captain of the Hosts (Yeshua Adonai Tzva'ot) was fighting for her! When God says that Israel will never again be uprooted or destroyed, he means it! Since that day, Israel has defended God's land against Arab attacks five times. Each time, little Israel has been victorious against Goliath, because YHVH Elohim is with her.
“Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labour than she gives birth to her children. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the LORD. “Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God. “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her.” Isaiah 66:7-10
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.” Matthew 24:32,33
“Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” Deuteronomy 1:29,30
“On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them. On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.” Zechariah 12:8,9
6. The Restoration of the Land: By 1917, after almost 1900 years of Jewish dispersion, Israel (called Palestine) was nothing more than malaria infested swamp land. Only 15,000 trees were left in the land; the forests and animals were gone. The land was under a curse, as God said would happen. However, since the Jews have begun to return, God's promises of restoration are being fulfilled and the curse is now lifted. The Jewish people have planted over 300 million trees, the annual rainfall has increased by 300% and the animals have also returned to the land.
“This is what the LORD says: ‘You say about this place, “It is desolate waste, without men or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither men nor animals, there will be heard once more the sound of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank-offerings to the house of the LORD.” Jeremiah 33:10,11
“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On the day I cleanse you you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.” Ezekiel 36:33-35
“The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom... Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunt where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.” Isaiah 35:1 & 7
7. The Restoration of the Hebrew language: The Hebrew language as a daily language of communication died out 1900 years ago. Since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, Hebrew was only used in prayer and in the Synagogues. Today, Hebrew is the language of modern day Israel. In 1881, Eliezar Ben Yehuda, went to Israel and dedicated his life in making Biblical Hebrew the tongue of the Jewish people. Of course, after 1900 years, words had to be invented for every historical event and every technological development. Words such as radio, automobile, airships, hearing aid, the camera, postage stamps, electricity, and countless other inventions and events. Then there was the task of convincing people to learn and speak the language after almost two millennia. Ben Yehuda did not transliterate words into Hebrew, but based these new words upon the roots of Biblical Hebrew. What a calling! Again, against all odds, in 1948 Hebrew became the official language of the State of Israel. After less than 50 years, most Jews today speak Hebrew.
“For then (changing their impure language) I will give to the people a clear and pure speech from pure lips, that they may call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one unanimous consent and one united shoulder (bearing the yolk of the Lord.". Zephaniah 3:9 (Amplified Bible)
8. Re-occupation of Jerusalem: On June 7, 1967, Jerusalem, after almost 2000 years, was once again in Jewish hands. After a brief war of only six days, Israel defeated the three Arab nations which had launched their attack. For two thousand years, Jerusalem has been trodden by the Gentiles, as Yeshua said it would in Luke 21:24: “They (the Jews) will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
The next three prophetic events have not (as of the time of writing this) taken place. Neither are they necessarily in order.
9. The Dividing of Jerusalem: The ‘times of the Gentiles', are not quite over. The book of revelation states that once again Jerusalem will be partially controlled by the nations, but only for a period of 42 months. At the time of writing this, we are already very close to seeing Jerusalem divided and possibly internationalized. During these 42 months, the Bible tells us that the Anti-Messiah will seat himself in Jerusalem, in God's Temple, proclaiming himself to be 'God'. Soon after the end of this period, Messiah Yeshua will return and claim the everlasting Throne of David.
“I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, ‘Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshippers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.” Revelation 11:1,2
“He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and a half a time.” Daniel 7:25
“He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4
10. Israel's Spiritual Restoration: The days have begun when the Kingdom is being restored to Israel and she will become a Messianic, Torah nation - a light to the Gentiles. Although for 42 months Israel will undergo deception and perilous times, the work of the ‘two witnesses' and thousands of Torah observant, Jewish believers in Yeshua, will bring Israel to repentance. According to Scripture, Yeshua will sovereignly reveal himself to his brethren as Joseph did to his brothers.
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” Zechariah 12:10
“Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labour gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.” Micah 5:3
“I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles...” Isaiah 42:6b
“When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.” Ezekiel 39:27-29
“Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.'” Romans 11:25,26
“A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.” Revelation 12:1,2
God has allowed a time span for the Gentiles to accept Yeshua the Messiah and be grafted in to the Commonwealth of Israel. This time is coming to a close as it overlaps with the Kingdom being restored to Israel. We are sometimes told that the Jews are apostate and that the 'Church' is now the ‘new Israel'. But let us not forget that Israel was only hardened, or blinded, in part - the part that has to do with Messiah. The Jewish people are still YHVH's Covenant people, and as Paul says in Romans 11:24: “..how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!”
11. The Return of Messiah Yeshua and the Establishment of God's Kingdom on Earth: Yeshua will soon return and establish the Kingdom of YHVH on Mount Zion, which is Jerusalem. For one thousand years, Yeshua will reign from Jerusalem. God's Torah will go forth from Zion and His word from Jerusalem. During this Millenial, Messianic Era, the whole earth will be restored to the knowledge of the LORD, for the "Torah will go forth from Zion" (Isaiah 2:3).
“...And there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Daniel 7:13,14
“Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.” Zechariah 14:16
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14
“For the LORD himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God's shofar...” 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (JNT)
“In the last days, the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.' The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” Micah 4:1,2
“This is what the LORD says, ‘I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem.' Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.'” Zechariah 8:3
“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” Matthew 24:30,31
12. The Last Battle: After the Messianic Era has ended, there will be an attack launched on the nation of Israel, instigated by the lands of the north. This is known as the battle of Gog, Prince of Magog, the demonic power who once again attempts to deceive the nations and gather them for battle against Israel and the LORD. But, of course, fire comes down from heaven and consumes them. Some people never learn.
The Bible does not tell us how long this war will last, but it does tell us that the nations which attack Israel will be destroyed on the mountains of Israel. The Bible also tells us that this attack will take place at a time when Israel has no boundaries and is living in ‘peace'.
“When the thousand years are over, Satan will again be released from his prison and will go forth to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth - Gog and Magog - to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand of the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down and consumed them.” Revelation 20:7-9
“Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal...” “In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had long been desolate....” “On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. You will say, ‘I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people - all of them living without walls and without gates and bars...” “I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal... On the mountains of Israel you shall fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you.” Ezekiel 38:1-3; 7-11; Ezekiel 39:1-6
There are varied opinions as to whether there will be an attack also from the north before the coming of Yeshua. This is a great possibility. If Israel is placed in a position of surrendering her boundaries to Arab neighbours, then she will be in danger of attack. If this happens, Yeshua himself will fight with Israel and destroy her enemies.
Israel's borders are the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip. Most of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and the Gaza Strip have already been handed over to the Arabs. Even now, the Golan Heights, Israel's most strategic military point, is being negotiated with Syria. When these borders are no longer protected by Israel, the doors will be wide open for an attack. The Bible says in Ezekiel 38:5 & 6, that the attackers will come from Magog or Rosh (Russia), Meschech & Tubal (Turkey, Syria), Persia (Iran), Cush (Ethiopia), Put (Egypt), Gomer (Ukraine and Germanic countries), and Beth Togarmah (the uttermost parts of the north). Interestingly enough, these are the very countries from which the Jewish people have left in this second Exodus. Just as in the first Exodus from Egypt, the spirit of Pharaoh will come in pursuit of the Jews, and just like the armies of the first Pharaoh, God will destroy these armies.
“Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozra, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this robed in splendour, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? ‘It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.' Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress? ‘I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no-one was with me...'” Isaiah 63: 1-4
“Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem....” Zechariah 14:4
Alan
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