The Day Approaching -
Wendy Wippel - http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=7814
I don't get Christians who dismiss prophecy (it is, after all, just watching God keep His promises). Maybe they don't get prophecy, because the key to understanding prophecy is that God's promises were made primarily to the Jews. Some are being kept now, before our very eyes. And those promises say we're almost home.
Isaiah explains that God's prophetic energies focus on His chosen people;
"I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come- yes, let him foretell what will come. Isaiah 44:6-7 NIV
The prophet Amos echoed that truth:
"Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, ..."You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities....Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. Amos 3:1-2, 7 NKJV
Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 19:10), and Jesus was a Jew. God revealed the future of the people chosen to produce the Messiah. He revealed it from the beginning through the end.
He took them as His betrothed;
When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine, says the Lord God." Ezekiel 16:8 ESV
He warned them against adultery:
"when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ...- then beware... You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and ... You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you (for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you.) Deuteronomy 6:11-15 ESV
But He also promised that they would, in fact, be unfaithful:
And the Lord said to Moses: "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Deuteronomy 31:16 NKJV
And they did. They worshipped all the Gods of all the surrounding countries.
God then promised the northern kingdom, Israel, that, repentance absent,
"Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled. . ." Hosea 10:13-15 KJV
And they were. The Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser conquered Israel in 740 BC and marched his captives through the Khyber pass and into slavery. They became the "lost" tribes.
God promised the southern Kingdom, Judah, if they didn't repent, they would also be conquered:
Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the Lord. II Kings 20:17 NKJV
And it was. The entire Temple's treasures and the majority of the population of Israel were carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.
God promised that the Jews would eventually be thrown out of the land and scattered around the world. (Deuteronomy 28:64-66)
He promised that they would live a long time without their own rulers, and without the ability to practice Judaism the way God instituted it in the Temple and with the prescribed sacrifices. (Hosea 3:4-5)
He promised that they would be scattered over the entire face of the world, and have no place to set up stakes and live securely. (Deuteronomy 28:64-66)
And they were. From 70 AD, when Rome destroyed Israel and the people were exiled, the children of Israel were scattered into every country on earth, and persecuted wherever they went.
Europe is a good example. Jews were forced to wear a mark as early as 411 in Spain, and were thrown out of nearly every country they inhabited. England in 1290, France in 1396, Austria in 1421, Spain in 1492, Portugal in 1497, you get the idea. That was just in Europe, which wrapped up with the Holocaust, when more than 6 million Jews died.
But God made another promise. He promised that their banishment would not last forever. He promised that eventually, the land would be restored to them (Ezekiel 11:17) The divided kingdom would be reunited. (Ezekiel 37:21-22)
And it was. On May 15, 1948, against all odds, the nation of Israel was reborn. Undivided.
God promised that the wasteland they regained, after thousands of years of their absence from the land, would be restored to fruitfulness. (Ezekiel 36:30)
And it was. Israel today produces an amazing variety of fruits, vegetables and nuts. The abundance produced revealed most by what is shipped out of the country. Agricultural exports, in 1950, (two years after their return to the land), were $33 billion in 2013. He promised that the ruined cities would be rebuilt and inhabited. (Amos 9:14-15 and Ezekiel 36:10)
And they have. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jericho, Hebron (and many more), in 1945, lay in ruins. Now they are rebuilt and inhabited.
Last, but not least, God promised that He would return the Jewish people, scattered throughout the entire world, back to the land he had given them.
"I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive." Jeremiah 29:14 KJV
And that's what's been happening over our lifetimes. Right in front of our eyes, and at a furious pace.
But largely, completely under the Christian radar.
It started pretty much as soon as the nation was re-established. Israel's victory against its Arab neighbors in their war of independence didn't, as you might image, do much to endear those Arab countries towards their Jewish citizens (of which there were many, courtesy of the Babylonian captivity and the exodus from Israel after 70AD.)
The surrounding Arab countries, in fact, pretty much emptied out of Jewish citizens immediately (with the help of some emergency airlifts assisted by American planes).
Once home to hundreds of thousands of Jews, Yemen now has < 200, Morocco < 300. Iraq is down to five; Afghanistan, one.
The last Jew in Libya, Esmerelda Mechanagi, died in 2012. (Certain Israeli groups keep track). Russian Jews, once five million strong, now number under 200,000, and are increasingly seeking to return.
Those lost tribes of the Assyrian captivity, with the help of genetic testing, have been found, and whole tribes returned to the land of their fathers en masse. The last group of Ethiopian Jews, who numbered in the millions in medieval times and who were preceded by nearly 30,000 Ethiopian Jews airlifted by US planes in the 80's and 90's, finally joined their relatives in Israel just last summer. All the Ethiopian Jews are home.
And the Jews of the Ukraine have petitioned the land of their fathers for repatriation and are preparing for a hoped-for return as you read this.
So... let's sum this up. Africa is pretty much emptied of its Jewish population. Ditto for Asia. Europe, decimated of its Jewish population early on, has had a sharp uptick recently in hostility hate crimes against Jews (whose Muslim population has grown astronomically). That, and the significantly better economy in Israel, has many European Jews now moving home.
In fact, the only place where Jews exist in any concentration outside of Israel is in the U.S. And, (as the more religious elements in Israel recognize that the Bible speaks of a return to the land before Messiah comes) Israeli Jews travel to the US (primarily New York,) on a regular basis to try to persuade their American brethren to come home.
The persistent American presence of their American brethren an impediment to Messiah's appearance, in their view. And they are making their point: emigration to Israel ("aliyah") is increasing. In the U.S as well as Canada.
Here's where it gets interesting. The Scriptures clearly describe most of the regathering as occurring before the tribulation:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out My fury on you.'" Ezekiel 22:17-22 NKJV
The tribulation is the crucible, and the metal in need of refining will be brought to the heat.
And if that's what has to happen before we all go home, it would seem that we're right on the doorstep. Right?
"Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." Luke 21:28 NIV
In the words of SpongeBob, "I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready..."
PLEASE VISIT MY OTHER WEBSITES:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.