Part 5 – Israel's God-Given Destiny

Equipping God's Saints (Believers of Christ) through the Prophecies of the End Times …

Now here's the promise. Remember, God promised Abraham, “In your seed, the whole world is going to be blessed.”

Jesus Christ was born.

Jesus became the greatest Man who had ever lived. He started the greatest religion that more people adhere to today more than any other religion. He wrote the Book that is the best seller of all other books ever written and still is today, 2,000 years later. Here God is fulfilling His promise to Abraham, “In your Seed (speaking of the Messiah) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

Most historians say that Herod the Great died in 4 BC and we know he was alive when Jesus was born. That's why we think Jesus was born in 5 or 6 BC, if all these dates are accurate.

Herod the Great, when he heard about the birth of Jesus from the wise men who came to find Jesus, Herod said, “Well, tell me when you find Him. I too want to worship Him.”

But he didn't want to worship Him. He wanted to kill Him because they had asked the question, “Where is this one born King of the Jews?”

God warned Joseph in a dream. “You have got to get the Child out of here because Herod the Great wants to kill Him.”

Joseph and Mary take Jesus. They travel into Egypt and they stayed there until Herod died in 4 BC.

As we continue on, we know what happened. In spite of all the miracles and in spite of all that God did, Jesus was rejected by the Jewish people. John writes about it in John 1:10-12 of his gospel when he says:

“He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.

He came to His own, and His own received him not.

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:”

Jesus even in His rejection, He loved the Jewish people and so, He prophecies to them just before his death. He looks over Jerusalem. Luke 19:43 gives us the account and Jesus is now prophesying over the Jews, over Jerusalem:

“For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side.

And shall lay thee even with the ground [your Temple is coming down; the pride of your nation is coming down], and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

So, you didn't hear the voice of God. You were disobedient to God, consequently, you're going back into exile.

The prophecy came to pass. A few years later in 70 AD, the Roman armies came against Jerusalem led by General Titus. They destroyed the city of Jerusalem, burnt the Temple to the ground and not one stone was left upon another. This prophecy was so thoroughly fulfilled that today the Jews still don't know for sure where the Temple was located on the Temple Mount.

With the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, that began the Second Exile. God is doing exactly what He said. “If you persecute Me, if you disobey Me, then I will drive you into exile.”

The First Exile was 70 years. This exile is going to be 1,878 years. What so terrible did the Jewish people do that they are going to be exiled for 1,878 years? They rejected the Promise; the Covenant; the Seed of Abraham; the Messiah; the Savior of the world; God manifest in the flesh. That's the reason their punishment was so extreme.

We jump ahead to the end of the Second Exile. Now let's look at the prophecy in Ezekiel 37. He's prophesying of the rebirth of the nation of Israel after the Second Exile. In this prophecy, Ezekiel said that God took him out and saw a great valley and this valley was full of dry bones and the Lord said to him, Ezekiel can these bones live?”

Ezekiel said, “I don't know, God. This is terrible.”

What was Ezekiel really seeing? I believe he was seeing Hitler's Holocaust. Have you read the stories of them stacking the Jewish bodies up while they were killing six million Jews during the concentration camps? I believe that Ezekiel saw a picture of the concentration camps. And the Lord said, “Can these bones live? Can this nation ever come back together?”

Ezekiel said, “I don't know.”

And the Lord said, “Prophesy to them.”

As Ezekiel prophecied bone came against bone. If you read the rest of the prophecy, it says, “I will bring the children of Israel from the north, the south, the east and the west. I will gather them back to their own land.”

It happened. After World War II they came together. It's so amazing, the story, because after World War II on November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to create the the nation of Israel, and for the land of Palestine.

The Israelis accepted it, the Arabs rejected it and started a war the very next day. That was when the Third Temple Era began ~ Israel reborn on May 14, 1948. The vote was taken November 29, 1947 but Israel declared here independence on May 14, 1948.

42 million Arab peoples launched a war against this little nation of Israel. They only had 600,000. 42 million against 600,000. Most of the nations of the world thought Israel was not to survive, but amazingly, God helped her and when the treaty, when the Armistice was signed in 1949, Israel controlled more land than the United Nations had given her, but yet, the Promise of Abraham was not fully restored. They still didn't have Jerusalem.

In 1967 Nassar said, “We're not going to let this Jewish nation survive. Let's go back against them again. They launched a war once again against Israel. Amazingly, Israel defeated all of her neighbors in six days and they came back to the Temple Mount and the great message was sent around the world, “The Temple Mount is in our hands.”

Instead of building their Temple, they were afraid. They feared the world community. They feared the United Nations.

Our next lesson is entitled “Israel ~ God's Prophetic Timeclock.” God's not done with this story. We've heard the past, now in our next lesson, we're going to hear the future. You don't want to miss it because it's still happening right now.

Resources: The anointing of the Holy Spirit and God Almighty, who I am accountable to. I have prayed diligently and am led to follow and support the teachings of Pastor Irvin Baxter from Endtime Ministries and his teachings of Understanding the End Times. I encourage you to visit his website at endtime.com.