SLIDES

The History and Future of Israel and the Middle East

Part 5

Introduction

To review, the five major events that are causing Israel and the Middle East to be in turmoil are:

1.  God put enmity between Satan and Israel.
(Genesis 3:15)

2.  Ishmaels’ descendants, the Ishmaelites, were prophesied to constantly cause Israel problems, do not exist today as a nation or people. However, their descendants continue to cause problems as they were absorbed into the Arab nations.

3.  Israel’s title deed to the land promised by God to Abraham and His descendants forever is found in Genesis 15 continues to demonstrate that the land belongs exclusively to Isarel and the Jewish people. In the Old Testament God reiterated to Isarel at least 18 times that In the Old Testament God reiterated to Isarel at least 18 times that He gave the land to them as an everlasting possession.

4.  Jacob received the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant instead of Esau. The descendants of Esau, the Edomites, have constantly caused Israel problems along with the Ishmaelites. In Psalm 83:5-8 we find that the Ishmaelites and the Edomites made a covenant with other peoples and nations at that time to destroy Isarel.

5.  God changing Jacob’s name to Israel. From him, the first Jew, came the 12 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

Remember there are four prophesied distinct periods in God’s plan for Israel during the diaspora as part of the Leviticus 26 and Land Covenant found in Deuteronomy 28 - 30. They are dispersion, preservation, restoration, and reconciliation. These distinct periods cover a period of approximately 2000 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. We have discussed the dispersion and the preservation aspect of God’s plan for Israel in the diaspora. Now, we are going to discuss the restoration aspect of God’s plan for Israel in the diaspora.

Restoration

God not only promised Isarel that He would scatter them to the four corners of the earth for not being obedient to the Torah and that preserve then through the horrific times they would face, but He also promised He would restore them to the promised land.  Restoring them to the land is called The Regathering of Isarel.  There are two segments to the regathering of Israel.  Both segments are seen in Ezekiel 37:1-13.

1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.

2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry.

Ezekiel 37 about the dry bones were made famous by song the Dry Bones. The lyric for the first verse goes like this:

Ezekiel cried dem dry bones
Ezekiel cried dem dry bones
Ezekiel cried dem dry bones
Now I hear the word of the Lord

The dry bones represent Israel being regathered into the land with most being in a state of unbelief. God caused the prophet to walk throughout the valley to see the bones. A simple glance would have been sufficient. The length of time it took to walk all about would sink the scene’s significance deeply into Ezekiel’s comprehension. Second, this walk confirmed the first impression—there were a lot of bones representing a large number of dead individuals. Third, there was no rotting flesh left, just dry bones. The dry, dead bones represent Israel in a state of spiritual unbelief.

 We see this in  Ezekiel 20:33–38:

  33   “As I live,” declares the Lord God, “surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you.

  34   “I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out;

  35   and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

  36   “As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord God.

  37   “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;

  38   and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the Lord.

In this passage Ezekiel draws a similarity between the Exodus and the first segment of the future return. At the Exodus the entire nation of Israel was brought out of the land of Egypt into the Sinai Desert.  Next, they were to enter the Promised Land. Because of the rebellion at Kadesh Barnea, which was at the border of the Promised Land, God entered into judgment with Israel and condemned them to forty years of wandering until the entire generation, from the age of twenty upward, except for two men, Joshua and Caleb, died out in the wilderness. Forty years later a whole new nation, a nation born as free men in the wilderness and not as slaves in Egypt, was able to enter the land under Joshua. That historical frame of reference is the backdrop for the future. But this time, Ezekiel prophesies that God will regather His people from all parts of the world. It should be noted that it is a regathering out of wrath, and a gathering for wrath. They were gathered out of the wrath of the Holocaust. The events of the Nazi Holocaust, when six million Jewish people died, created the world stage for Israel to become a state, for the regathering in unbelief. The phrase” I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples.” represents Israel being in the land that is spiritually dead where the dry, dead bones are. This, of course, is the spiritual state that the national of Israel has been in the land since May 14, 1948, when they officially became a nation again after 1900 years.

The gathering that Ezekiel is writing about is the gathering that is not in faith, but in unbelief, is seen from the fact that this gathering is with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out. This phrase is repeated twice and is found in verses 33 and 34. God’s goal is that of Messianic Kingship, but the means of attaining it will be by wrath and judgment. This is a gathering both out of wrath and for wrath. This regathering in unbelief occurs after wrath has been poured out on the people.

But because it is a regathering in unbelief, it is a regathering for a future time of wrath during the Tribulation Period that will last seven years and is called the Time of Jacob; s Distress or in the KJV the Time of Jacob’s Trouble as we see in Jeremiah 30:7.

Alas! for that day is great,

There is none like it;

And it is the time of Jacob’s distress,

But he will be saved from it.

In that future time of wrath, God will once again enter into judgment with His people. In Zecheriah 13:8 we learn that two-thirds of the Jewish people in Isarel will die during the Tribulation Period. Those who remain will turn to the Lord as we see in Zecheriah 12:10 and Romans 11:26. At that time they will be brought into the bond of the covenant; specifically, the bond of the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31–34). They will be brought into a national salvation. Then it will be a new nation, a regenerated nation, that will be allowed to enter the Land under King Messiah for the final restoration. We will talk about that more when we discuss the reconciliation of Isarel with God.

Therefore, in these verses, Ezekiel clearly describes a worldwide regathering in unbelief, from wrath and for wrath, in preparation for a specific period of judgment that will then lead to a national salvation, and in turn to their final restoration.

Did Israel long to return to the land of their ancestors? We see they have always had a desire to return to the Promised Land as see in Psalm 136:1-6 when they were exiled in Babylon.

137:1 By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down and wept,

When we remembered Zion.

2   Upon the willows in the midst of it

We hung our harps.

3   For there our captors demanded of us songs,

And our tormentors mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

4   How can we sing the Lord’s song

In a foreign land?

5   If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

May my right hand forget her skill.

6   May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

If I do not remember you,

If I do not exalt Jerusalem

Above my chief joy.

The Jews after AD 70 in the midst of the Diaspora would declare their desire to return and would proclaim at the end of each Passover in every home, what every country they were in,

(לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בִּירוּשָלָיִם), L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim ,“Next Year in Jerusalem.”

Second, this underlying hope is memorialized today each time Israel’s national anthem, Hatikvah, is sung.

So long as still within breasts

The Jewish heart still beats true,

So long as still towards the East

To Zion looks the Jew.

Son long our hopes are not yet lost-

Two thousand we cherished them-

To live in freedom in the land

Of Zion and Jerusalem.

One of the writers of the 1972 Facts about Israel (Keter Publishing Jerusalem) states, “Upheld and fortified in dispersion by the Messianic vision of the ultimate return, the Jews never forgot or forsook their ties with the homeland. This imperishable hope of redemption gone then fortified to endure discrimination and persecution…”

It was just a dream to return to the land until the end of the 19th century. Then, God’s orchestrated events began to occur that gave them hope. As God prophesied in Jeremiah 16:14-15.

  14   “Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

  15   but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

Do you realize that during most of your lives that biblical prophecy has been being fulfilled by God almost every day in the regathering of Isarel to the Promised Land? Did you realize, the ones of you who have been to Israel, that biblical prophecy was being fulfilled right in front of your eyes?  Whether in Israel or not, do you realize that God fulfilling the regathering of Israel from the Diaspora into the land He promised them helps to demonstrate to Israel and the world that the Bible is true. It helps to demonstrate that the God we worship is the One true God. And it helps to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah who died, was buried, and was resurrected to give eternal life and forgiveness of sin to those who believe on His name?

Before we discuss some of the people God raised up and some of the events God orchestrated that shaped the first aspect of the return of the Jews to their homeland, the rebirth of a nation, and a language that had not existed for 1900 years that was revived by the efforts of one man. First,  I want to explain a few terms relevant to our study.

Zionism

Zion was a citadel of Jerusalem, taken by David from the Jebusites (2 Sam. 5:6–7). It was probably situated on the eastern ridge of the city, south of the site of the Temple. The name came to signify the mount on which the Temple stood, ‘God’s holy hill’ at Jerusalem (Ps. 2:6); eventually the term Zion signified Jerusalem itself (Is. 1:27), and allegorically the heavenly city (Heb. 12:22, Rev. 14:1). In the late 19 century Zion was a term to designate the entire land of Israel. Zionism is a term that describes a Jewish nationalist movement that has had as its goal the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine.  A Zionist, then, is one that had a Zeal for the Jewish people to return the land of their forefathers. One of Jesus’ disciples was called a Zealot. His name is Simon. But does anyone know who the first Zealot is who is identified in Scripture? The answer is found in Joel 2:18.

Then the Lord will be zealous for His land…

How Zealous? Joel also gives us this answer in 3:1-2.

1 “For behold, in those days and at that time,

When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will gather all the nations

And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.

Then I will enter into judgment with them there

On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,

Whom they have scattered among the nations;

And they have divided up My land.

Do you think that anyone who advocates having a two-state solution should consider the ramifications of doing that? We’ll talk more about the two- state solution in one of our future lessons.