SLIDES

The History and Future of Israel and the Middle East

Part 2

Introduction

In our last meeting we discussed five events that have contributed to mess that the Middle East is in today. They are:

1.  Genessis 3:15 – God putting enmity between Satan and Israel.

2.  The promises made to Abraham and his descendants, the Jews, in the Abrahamic Covenant and its sub-covenants.

3.  The birth of Ishmael and the promises God made to him and his descendants.

4.  Isaac receiving the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant rather than Esau. The promises God made to Esau.

5.  God changing Jacob’s name to Israel. From him, the first Jew, came the twelve tribes and the nation of Israel.

I.   The History of Israel and the Middle East

B. From the Birth of the Messiah to the Birth of Israel

After Israel returned from Babylon and rebuilt the Temple, there was a silent period of 400 years in which no inspired Scripture was written.  Then, as Galatians 4:4 tells us that, “… when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law…” The Messiah that was prophesied in Genesis 3:15 four thousand earlier and by the prophets of Israel who prophesied His coming for fifteen hundred years had finally arrived. Most Jews of the day thought the Messiah would be born in the King’s palace of a Davidic King. But that was not the case. Even though His’ mother and adopted father were descendants of King David from the town of Bethlehem, they were poor. His adopted father was a tradesman. He was born into a poor family. It just so happened that the Messiah was born in an animal’s stable. His mother and adopted father were to go to Bethlehem to register for a required census. Since there were many families in Bethlehem to register for the census, all rooms were booked. The Messiah’s mother, Mary, went into labor while in Bethlehem, gave birth to Him in a stable and then placed in feeding trough.

His ministry started when He was 30. He demonstrated through His’ teaching, His’ miracles, and the fulfillment of prophecy that He was the Messiah. But as prophesied in Isaish 53, most of the nation and its leadership rejected Him. As also prophesied in Isaiah 53, He died for the sins of not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles. Jesus told His disciples that He would be rejected as the Messiah and be put to death. Because of this and because of Isarel’s continued to be disobedient to the Law of Moses, Jesus predicted in Luke 21:20-24 that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed, thousands would be killed, and that Israel would be scattered to the four corners of the earth.

20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near.

21 “Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city;

22 because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.

23 “Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people;

24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

This is considered a near/far prophecy. The near aspect of this prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70 when General Titus and the Roman army destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem. The word desolation means uninhabitable, devastation, destruction, and depopulation. This brings to my mind what has been happening in Gaza since October 7. 2023.

During this time thousands of people were killed. Jesus warned the population of Jerusalem to flee to the Galilee area to try to avoid the destruction and carnage that would take place by the Roman army. Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote that 1.1 million people were killed during the siege. Most biblical historians today, however, think that number is too high. He also gave the number of people who were taken captive as 97,000 and who would eventually be taken captive and be scattered around the world.

The far aspect of the prophecy will be fulfilled during the second half of the Tribulation Period. We are now only concerned with the fulfillment of this prophecy in 70AD refer to God’s inflicting punishment on the nation of Israel for their continued failure to obey the Law of Moses and their rejection of the Jesus the Messiah during what Jesus called “the time of your visitation” in Luke 19:43-44. Consequences would follow for not accepting Jesus the Messiah on their time of visitation”.

43 “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side,

44 and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

In verse Luke 24:22, Jesus made it clear that the Days of Vengeance on the nation of Isarel was to fulfill Scripture in the Torah. The Days of Vengeance were predicted as part of the Land Covenant as seen in Deuteronomy 28 that began in AD 70 and lasted 1900 years. It refers to judgement and punishment God meted out for disobedience to the Torah and the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. We will read those verses a little later.

Let’s now take a minute to discuss “the times of the Gentiles.” “The times of the Gentiles” is a period of history that began in 722 BC when the ten northern tribes were taken into captivity to Assyria. It is a period of time in which the Gentiles domination and control over Jerusalem and Israel. This continued in 586 BC when Jerusalem was overrun by the Gentile Babylonians and their subsequent destruction of the Temple. The Tribes of Judah and Benjamin were taken into captivity by the Babylonians and shipped off to Babylonia. This, of course, includes the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70 and the scattering that we just read about. This Gentile abomination will continue through the Tribulation Period under the leadership of the antichrist, who will be a Gentile. It will end at the second coming of Jesus the Messiah when He will rule over Jerusalem and Isarel.

 Deuteronomy 28 and 30 lays out four distinct periods in God’s plan for Israel during the diaspora as part of the Land Covenant. They are dispersion, preservation restoration, and reconciliation. These distinct periods cover a period of approximately 1900 years. These periods prophesied by Moses in Deuteronomy and fleshed out in secular history contributed to Israel History and her becoming a nation after 1900 years. Let us now discuss each of these prophesied periods in God’s plan for the nation of Israel.

Dispersion

The dispersion is commonly called the scattering or the diaspora.  As mentioned before, at the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, 97,000 were taken captive and began to be scattered to the four corners of the earth as prophesied in Deuteronomy 28:58- 67. Let’s read these verses.

       58 “If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to afear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God,

       59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses.

       60 “He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you.

       61 “Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you until you are destroyed.

       62 “Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the LORD your God.

       63  “It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it.

       64 “Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.

       65 “Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.

       66 “So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day and shall have no assurance of your life.

       67 “In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see.

Moses’ description of this period of time leaves one with no doubt about how horrible this time would be. True stories abound in that 1900-year period that help describe the horribleness of the antisemitism and the atrocities that occurred was prophesied and fulfilled as Moses predicted in Deuteronomy 28. Of course, the culmination of this horrible time period was the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were murdered. We will discuss the Holocaust in a couple of weeks.

Judaism vs the Way

After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, a faction of Judaism,

the Way, began to grow. The Way probably comes from John 14:6 when

Jesus proclaimed. “I am Way, the Truth, and the life, no one comes to

the Father but through Me.            

The Way was first made up of all Jews, but as Christianity began to

Spread to other parts the known world, Gentiles began to be added to the

Body of Christ. Since the Temple waw destroyed and sacrifices could

not be made for the atonement for sin, the Rabbis designed a man-

made system. So now, Jews had two options concerning worshipping

God - a man made system called Rabbinical Judaism or the Way. The

Jews who chose Rabbinic Judaism continued to be led by false teachers

as described in Jeremiah. Of course, most Jews then, now, and

throughout 1900 years of the diaspora choose Rabbinical Judaism.

Many did choose to trust in Jesus as the Messiah. However, they also suffered during the siege of Jerusalem and many of them were led into captivity.

Those Jews who were not led into captivity moved to northern towns in the Galilee. Around 200 CE the Sanhedrin was moved to Tsippori. The Head of Sanhedrin, Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi (Judah the Prince), compiled the Jewish oral law, Mishna. The commentary on the Mishna is called the Gamora. The Mishna and the Gamora together are called the Talmud. The Talmud has been the basis for Rabbinical Judaism.

The Roman-Jewish Wars

From 66 AD to 135 Ad, the Jews attempted three wars against the Romans. They are called the Jewish-Roman wars. The first lasted from 66 to 74 AD. This is the one in which the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, thousands of Jews were killed, and thousand were captured to be sent into the Diaspora. This one is called the Great Jewish Revolt and the one in which the Masada standoff with 960 Jews occurred. The Romans built a ramp and breached the wall in AD 74. The Romans found 960 dead bodies.

The second Roman- Jewish War erupted in 115 and ended in AD 117 in which thousands died. The third and last endeavor to overthrow the Roman army is called the Bar Kokhba revolt led by a self-proclaimed Messiah named Simon Bar Kokhba. It lasted from 132-135 AD. After this defeat, Rome renamed Isarel, Palestina after the Israel’s enemy the Philistines to try to remove as much Jewishness to the area and to embarrass the Jews. Thousands of Jews were also killed in this revolt as well.