Many people have asked me, “How was your trip to Israel?” I
reply, “Very, very good.” What we saw and learnt, makes it all so clear, that
what we have been reading is all true, the places, the history, whatever God said he would do. The most
important thing I learnt about the trip to Israel this time, is that God is
such a great God, that He is the one that loves people, each person, one by
one, and saves people, reconciling people. We hear so many testimonies of Jews
and Arabs who came to the Lord in such miraculous ways, and we hear ex drug
addicts, alcoholics, people without hope, who have found forgiveness and life
in Christ. It is about God, coming down to touch people. We can see and are
told that it is hard work, it is Christ in us changing people, changing
society. Though we can see the big
picture…what God is doing in Israel, and the nations of the world, Jews and
Gentiles, it still boils down to the lives of each individual.
For me, it has been a learning process, it is like building
the foundation of the entire Word of God, and I begin to see clearly from God’s
Word what He is doing in the world. I have found that as we open our hearts to
the Lord, He will reveal, just like in last week’s sermon, when Jesus asked :
Mat
16:13 And coming into the parts of
Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say Me to be,
the Son of Man?
Mat
16:14 And they said, Some say,
John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
Mat
16:15 He said to them, But who do you
say I am?
Mat
16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said,
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Mat
16:17 Jesus answered and said to him,
You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My
Father in Heaven.
The Lord wants to know WHO WE SAY THAT HE IS. And only God can reveal
who Jesus is to us. So what we learn of Israel and how it relates to us is also
through God the Father revealing to us. Some things may take some time to sink, as we continue to search and the Lord reveals to us.
1. GOD DOES WHAT HE SAYS
God is a covenant keeping God.
What is prophecy?
1. God says it and it is in the Bible for all to
read
2. God’s action in history (by watching and
praying and be involved in the world)
3. Prophetic event – God creates an event, need
revelation to see it and participate in it.
When Jesus was born
and throughout his life here, it was always about the fulfilment of Scriptures
in the Old Testament. Some verses in Matthew :
Mat 2:14
And he arose and took the young child and his mother by night and
departed into Egypt.
Mat 2:15
And he was there until the death of Herod; so that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the LORD through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have
called My Son."
Mat 2:23
And he came and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene."
Mat 4:13 And leaving Nazareth, He came and lived in
Capernaum, which is on the seacoast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali,
Mat 4:14 so
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying,
Mat 4:15
"The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by way of the
sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations!
Mat 8:17 so
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying, "He took on Himself our
weaknesses and bore our
sicknesses."
Mat 12:17 so
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying,
Mat
12:18 "Behold My Child whom I have
chosen; My Beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased. I will put My Spirit on
Him, and He shall declare judgment to the nations.
Mat 13:35 so
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
"I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been
kept secret from the foundation of the world."
Mat 21:4
All this was done so that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophet, saying,
Mat 21:5
"Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King comes to you, meek,
and sitting on an ass, even a colt the foal of an ass."
Mat 27:35
And they crucified Him, dividing His garments, casting a lot; so
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, "They
parted My garments among them, and they cast a lot for My clothing."
Throughout the Bible, it is about
God’s covenant and dealings with the nation of Israel :
1st mention of Israel :
Gen 32:28
And He said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for
like a prince you have power with God and with men, and have prevailed.
'Israel' from Strong's Concordance No. 3478 ישׂראל yiśrâ'êl means 'he will rule as God'.
Israel is mentioned in the Bible 2571 times
200 verses with the phrase of God of Israel.
607 verses with the phrase sons of Israel
Genesis 12:1-3
Abrahamic Covenant –
first mention of God’s purpose to have a nation that will bless the whole earth.
Exodus 19:5-8
Mosaic Covenant –
where God says He will make Israel a Kingdom of priests and holy nation, where
He is their King, and He wants them to be an example to the world of God’s rule
in their lives – every aspect of their lives. The meaning of 'Israel' shows that Israel was meant to be a country that shows forth the rule of God.
There are many Prophetic passages
on what God would do (and a large
portion, at this time has been fulfilled) in Israel, but here are a few :
Ezekiel 34:11-31,
36:8-38
Ezekiel 37 – the
bones have life again (for the Jews after the destruction of the of the first Temple,
and most recent the Holocaust)
Book of Zechariah
Isaiah 66 (verse 8 – fulfilled when
Israel became a nation in a day on 14 May 1948)
When Israel became a nation in 1948, it
was said that you could count only 15 believers, then it just grew, as the Jews
made aliyah, and the gospel went back to the Jews. The gospel went out from the
Jews (Jesus was a Jew, all the disciples were Jews) and the gospel is going
back to the Jews. There are at least
15,000, some say 20,000 Messianic Jews in Israel.
2. HE WANTS US TO RESPOND TO WHAT HE SAYS
Please go to my posting ONE NEW MAN
for further study on the following :
Ephesians 2:11-22, Romans 11
Some people have voiced
their anger towards Israel for displacing the Palestinians, and other matters
that the world is upset at Israel. I do understand that some of this anger is
valid, and many more are lopsided. On every side, someone has been hurt, someone has their reason to be to angry and fight each other. I begin to understand that as human beings, and without
God, we would do many things that cause destruction and destroys human
relationships. Only God can restore and bring reconciliation. As individuals
find forgiveness and peace in Yeshua their Messiah, He will bring that
restoration and reconciliation amongst people that most times would be
literally impossible without the forgiveness, hope and life that comes only through
the Lord! And that is what I see God is doing….what is past, what made us hate
and destroy each other no longer matters. What we see happening is God
repairing lives, and where we can find hope in Him, and people obeying God’s
Word to see the ONE NEW MAN.
As I was
writing this, and listening to an online Open Hebrew Class discussion that I am
joining for the first time (because my normal class at 6am today was cancelled and this
discussion is at the same time), the teacher was talking about (at the moment I
was typing the above!) Ezekiel 37 about the dry bones, and the fact that you
can look in many ways what this all means…but the fact is that nothing was lost
and the bones came together and God breathed into them and they were alive
again! He said, “Nothing was lost as all
are connected to the Lord, and because we want to be connected to the Lord.”
How profound! Yes, at the end, despite what has happened in the past, whatever
problems, whatever sin, God gives us hope as we connect to Him. Then we are
able to forgive each other and see that it is God who brings the healing and
reconciliation. All we need to do is respond and receive what Christ has done for us.
It is amazing that the national anthem
of Israel is THE HOPE, HaTikvah (Ha = The, Tikvah = Hope)
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