Part 2 of 6 – Israel ~ God's Prophetic Timeclock

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

It was an opportunity missed. Many people believed that if Israel would have removed the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and immediately began building their Temple, the Messiah would have shown up right then. But it was not to be.

Instead, Israel disobeyed God. Instead of removing the pagen houses of worship, Israel's government, believe it or not, invited the Muslim WAKF (that's the name of the Muslim authority) back and placed the Temple Mount under their control. Why did they do this?

Two reasons:

1. They feared the international community and what happened if they would actually do away with the Muslim holy places.
2. This is more important ~ The Jewish government was secular and they did not want to ignite a religious revival that they knew would sweep them out of power and bring about a renewal of the nation of Israel as it was in Biblical days.

Consequently, they invited the Muslims back and put them in control of the Temple Mount. They did not do what God told them, which was to drive out the inhabitants from the Promised Land, but they attempted, instead, to co-exist with them.

Here is what the Bible says Israel should have done. It's found in Numbers 33:50-55. This is God speaking to Moses:

“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;

Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures and destroy all their molten images and quite pluck down all their high places. [the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque were the Muslim high places and God specifically said, “You are to pluck those down.]

And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.

And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance; and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.

But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.”

So what happened?

Instead of doing what God said, the government of Israel feared man and they did what they wanted to do. As time went on, six years later, their enemies plotted to reverse the effects of the 1967 War and to destroy the tiny nation of Israel.

1973, on the holiday of Yom Kippur, which is the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Israel. It's the day when most of Israel is fasting. Most of them are not at their military post. The Arab armies launched a tremendous attack against the nation of Israel. They caught Israel by surprise even to the point that it looked like the nation of Israel was in danger. Moshe Dayan, who was the defense minister of Israel at the time, said to Prime Minister Golda Meir, “Golda, I fear for the Third Temple.”

It's interesting that Yom Kippur is the Day of Judgment. That's when the Jewish people believe, even to this very time, that they are to take inventory of themselves on Rosh Hashanah and they are to be repenting and they fast all day on Yom Kippur asking God to forgive their sin. But if they don't repent, according to the Jewish belief, God sends judgment. So God sent the judgment of Yom Kippur War and they came very close to being totally defeated. It happened to them on the Day of Judgment. And it was.

It was God's judgment. Six years after returning to the Temple Mount, when they could have inherited the blessings of God if they would have obeyed God; instead they turned the Temple Mount over to the Palestinians.

Do you realize that the word Palestinian is the same word as Philistine? Can you imagine in Biblical times if the Jewish people had defeated the Philistines and then said to them, “Oh, by the way, we want you to come back and be in charge of our Temple Mount.” Unthinkable!

But that's what Israel did in 1967 and it was unthinkable to God, as well. God, in his anger, judged the people of Israel on Judgment Day, Yom Kippur.

As time went on and events unfolded, Israel sought treaties with her Arab neighbors, even though God said, “Don't you sign any treaties. Don't allow them to stay in the land. You'll not only drive them out.”

Israel did it her way. In 1979, and Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty was formulated. Mr. Jimmy Carter, US President, at the Camp David Accords, there was a peace agreement reached with the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. They reached this agreement. It was the first Israeli Peace Agreement with an Arab State. Israel returned all the Sinai back to Egypt even though it is specifically in the Bible, part of the Promised Land. Israel's not living by the Bible. They're living according to their own intelligence, reason and desires.

In 1993, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed on the White House lawn and it was there that Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin did their famous handshake with President Bill Clinton standing in the background. This Oslo Peace Accords provided for the creation of a Palestinian state and called on Israel to trade parts of the Promised Land for peace.

Was God watching the day they did all this? Was God watching the handshake? You better believe that He was.

The next year, because the peace train was moving, the Israeli-Jordanian Peace Agreement was signed. That was 1994. But this was not without consequence.

Mr. Yitzhak Rabin was being praised by the world, but not by God.. November of 1995 he was assassinated by Yigal Amir. He was a right-wing religious advocate who believed you absolutely had to kill a person that was giving away the Promised Land, so he pulled the trigger and Yitzhak Rabin was killed by that assassination.

As events moved on to the year 2000, President Bill Clinton, again, wanted to try to bring peace to the Middle East. His pastor, when he was just a young man, said to him, “If you're ever President, you need to make sure that you always stand by Israel.”

President Bill Clinton promised that he would but apparently he didn't fully understand what that promise really entailed because now he is trying to facilitate a peace where Israel had part of the Promised Land, but not all of the Promised Land.

President Clinton, Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister of Israel and Yasser Arafat, the President of the Palestinian Authority, met together for 14 days at Camp David. They tried to push to a final peace agreement. President Clinton strove with all of his might to do it, but it simply was not to be. When they reached the issue of the Temple Mount, “What are we going to do with this?”

Arafat said, “Sorry, that's our third holy site. We will never give it up. We have our places of worship there.”

Ehud Barak said, “But you have your first holy site in Mecca. You have your second holy site in Medina. We Jews don't even have our first holy site.”

Arafat said, “Sorry. We can't give it up.”

Barak said, “My people will never allow me to give it up.”

President Clinton said, “Well, just share it. There's enough room there for everyone. We all can worship there together. I'm sure God will be pleased.” [Even though God would have not been pleased, but yet, that was Clinton's idea.]

Remember when you saw it in the paper: “Clinton proposes sharing of Temple Mount”? You were reading something prophetic because in the Bible it says that in the coming peace agreement, the Temple Mount will be placed under a sharing arrangement. Revelation 11:1-2:

“And there was given me a reed like unto a rod; and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

But that court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”

John was told to measure the Jewish Temple. Don't measure the outer court of the Temple because it will be trodden down by Gentiles. It paints a picture 42 months before Armageddon of the Temple Mount under a sharing arrangement. That's exactly what was proposed at Camp David in the year, 2000.

We're actually experiencing the prophesies of the Bible right now. If we don't realize that, we're missing one of the most exciting aspects of the day in which you and I presently live.

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.

Part 1 of 6 – Israel ~ God's Prophetic Timeclock

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

Our subject is Israel ~ God's Prophetic Time Clock. Believe it or not, God does have a time clock.

The prophecy we're going to be looking at is a prophecy with a date on it. Most prophecies don't have a date, but this one does. The minute you see the prophecy called the Confirmation of the Covenant come to pass, you'll know that we are seven years from the Battle of Armageddon and seven years from the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That's what is so outstanding about this particular prophecy and so important. Without understanding this prophecy, we won't really be able to perceive God's time clock for the time we live in right now.

In our last lesson we studied the history of the nation of Israel and learned why the land called Israel became the Promised Land. We learned about the father of the nation of Israel, Abraham; the God-ordained borders of the Promised Land. We saw in scripture where God placed His Name on the Temple Mount, that place called Mount Moriah. We learned about the First Temple, it's destruction in 586 BC, and then Israel's first Exile of 70 years. We also learned about the Second Temple, it's destruction in 70 AD and Israel's Second Exile of 1,878 years.

The nation of Israel was finally reborn, like it is prophesied in the Bible, on May 14, 1948. And then, finally, the Temple Mount was reclaimed by Israel in the 1967 Six Days War.

We want to take a moment right now to talk about this very important event called the Six Days War. It was stunning. Israel defeated all of her enemies in six short days. Israel captured the Sinai Desert in the south from Egypt, the Golan Heights in the north from Syria and the Biblical area of Judea, Samaria, from Jordan, including the entire city of Jerusalem. All of these territories were a part of the Biblical Promised Land. The crowning event was the capture of the city of Jerusalem, and in particular, the Temple Mount where Almight God said 37 times in the Old Testament, “I will put My Name there.”

Remember, this was the place where Abraham raised the knife over Isaac. This is the place where God told David, “You go buy the threshing floor of Araunah.”

Now they are back to this Temple Mount where the First Temple stood, where the Second Temple stood, and where the Bible says the Third Temple will soon stand.

When the Israeli soldiers finally made it up onto the Temple Mount, the Arabs ran for their lives. That's when the guns fell silent. The people, the soldiers that had been killing one minute, all of a sudden, the tears began to roll down their faces. They were all weeping like babies. Here they were back to the place where God said, I will put My Name there.” The site of the First Temple; the Second Temple. Here they were. Many understood it was the Day of Redemption.

The amazing thing was that not only did the people who believed in God and the Bible weep, but there were young soldiers there who were raised on the Kibbutz. They'd been taught Marxism. They'd been taught Atheism. That there was no God. That the Bible is a myth. But they were weeping. So why were they weeping? This place means nothing to them. The reply was, “We don't know why we're weeping. We can't help it. There's an awesome feeling here right now.”

It was an amazing day because it was part of the fulfillment of God's promise to the people of Israel. The world watched this stunning victory in awe and when the announcement went around the world, “The Temple Mount is in our hands,” even Kings and Presidents instinctively knew they were witnessing an event of Biblical proportions.

There is one more thing that happened that night. Mr. Shlomo Goren was the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defenses and he was there when the Temple Mount was taken. The commanding General was General Uzi. Rabbi Goren turned to General Uzi and said, “Now's our time. Take this dynamite. Blow up the Dome of the Rock. Blow up the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Purge this holy place of the heathen shrines.”

General Uzi said, “Rabbi, enough.”

But Shlomo Goren was not to be deterred. He said, “You'll go down in history if you'll do it. This is the moment of redemption.”

General Uzi said, “If you don't stop, I'll take you to jail.”

Rabbi Goren bowed his head and walked away silently. It was an opportunity missed. Many people believed that if Israel would have removed the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and immediately began building their Temple, the Messiah would have shown up right then. But it was not to be.

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.

TODAY'S, JULY 29, 2013, NEWS about Israel ~ God's Prophetic Timeclock

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

Most prophecies don't have a date, but this one does. The minute you see the prophecy called the “Confirmation of the Covenant” [which is the signing of the Peace Treaty] between Israel and Palestine, come to pass, you'll know that we are seven years from the Battle of Armageddon and seven years from the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That's what is so outstanding about this.

Sunday, July 28, 2013, Foxnews.com reported that the Associated Press contributed to the following report:

Israeli Palestinian Leaders to resume long-stalled peace talks Monday in Washington.

Israeli and Palestinian Leaders will resume face to face peace talks on Monday [July 29, 2013] in Washington, the State Department said Sunday. The restart of the long stalled talks is being attributed to Secretary of State, John Kerry's, 6 months of frenetic shuttle diplomacy. Agency spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said both sides had accepted invitations from Kerry to come to Washington to formally resume direct final status negotiations that are scheduled to begin Monday evening and continue Tuesday. Psaki said in a statement that Kerry, on Sunday, called Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and that the leaders agreed that the talks would serve as an opportunity to develop a procedural work plan for how the parties can proceed with the negotiations in the coming months.

Kerry said in the statement both leaders have demonstrated a willingness to make difficult decisions that have been instrumental in getting to this point. “We are grateful for their leadership.”

Kerry had announced on July 19, 2013, in Amman, Jordan that negotiators from the two sides would be coming to Washington in a week or so after having agreed on a basis for resuming negotiations after a five year break. However, he warned that the agreement was still being formalized.

The carefully worded statement, Sunday, offered no details of the framework for the resumption of the talks that broke down five years ago, though both sides of the position are well known. One possibility is the so-called two state solution that establishes an independent Palestinian State along side the State of Israel. The statement was released shortly after the Israeli cabinet agreed to release 104 long-term Palestinian prisoners convicted of deadly attacks meeting a long-standing Palestinian demand.

“This moment is not easy for me,” Netanyahu said. “It is not easy for the ministers. It is not easy, especially for the families, the bereaved families, whose heart I understand. But there are moments in which tough decisions must be made for the good of the country, and this is one of those moments.”

The Israeli's will be represented by Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molcho. The Palestinians will be represented by Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat and Mohammad Shtayyeh.

Part 6 of 6 – Israel's God-Given Destiny

Equipping God's Saints (Followers 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 prophesied 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 a 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 is 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.

Part 5 of 6 – Israel's God-Given Destiny

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

In our last lesson, we learned that God sent this Prophet by the name of Jeremiah. His prophecy was that the King of Babylon was going to come. God was going to send him. He would invade the land at Israel and the children of Israel would be carried away into captivity for 70 years.

Well, it happened. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Israel around 606 BC. Daniel and the three Hebrew children who believed the Prophet Jeremiah went with the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, because the message from Jeremiah was if when I send your judgement you will cooperate with it and if you will go without resistance into the land of Babylon, I will bless you even in your captivity.

You know, God can bless us where ever we are as long as we walk with God. If the entire nation is under judgment, that doesn't mean we have to be under judgment, but we can be blessed, even in our time of judgment.

So Daniel and the three Hebrew children go into Babylon, however, the king of Israel, the king of Judah at the time, was a man by the name of Zedekiah. He didn't believe the preaching of Jeremiah, so he decided to resist. Because of his resistance, the Bible says, if you resist, you are going to be destroyed. Because of his resistance, Nebuchadnezzar brought all of his sons before his face and killed all of them before his eyes. Then they put Zedekiah's eyes out and carried him away into Babylonian captivity.

While Zedekiah was in a jail cell, blind with his eyes poked out, Daniel and the three Hebrew children were climbing in the hierarchy of the Nation of Babylon. They ended up being high up in the rulership because they obeyed God and they did what He said. But don't forget, Israel was exiled for not hearing God's words.

The 70 years began in 606 BC at the first invasion. Zedekiah fought and Nebuchadnezzar had to come back. That's when the Temple was destroyed in 586 BC. By this time Daniel and the three Hebrew children were already down in Babylonian captivity and God was fulfilling His promise to them.

Daniel, down in Babylonian captivity, began to be known for his walk with Almighty God. It's prophesied in the Bible that this captivity would last for 70 years.

Just shortly before the expiring of the 70 years, the kingdom of Babylon was overthrown. As a matter of fact, the night it was overthrown, a king by the name of Belshazzar, who was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, threw a big feast and he did things he shouldn't have done. He took the golden and silver vessels which his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, had captured in Jerusalem and had never dared to use. He knew they were precious. He knew they were sacred. So he had never dared to use them.

But Belshazzar took them. Had his big, impious feast that night and God was so displeased with what he did that the forefinger of God began to write on the wall in the plaster. And Belshazzar was so frightened by this supernatural event that he began to look for someone to tell him what the handwriting meant.

Daniel was the only one that the people knew could hear from God. They brought Daniel in and Belshazzar said, “Can you tell me what this means?”

Daniel said, “Well, yes, I can King, but it's not good for you.”

Belshazzar said, Tell me anyway.”

Daniel said, “Well, what it says is thou art weighed in the balance and you're found wanting. And this night your kingdom will be divided between the Meads and the Persians.

Right at that time the army of the Meads and the Persians came in and conquered the Kingdom of Babylon. You remember that Babylon ruled the entire world during that day. So the Meads and the Persians pushed Babylon out as the ruler of the world and took its place.

It was during this time that a very special thing happened. Daniel, because of his spiritual reputation, went right from the Kingdom of Babylon right on into the leadership of the kingdoms of the Meads and the Persians. King Darius was over the Meads. Cyrus was king and Co-Ruler with Darius.

Darius was a confidant of Daniel. They were working together. It was at that time that someone came to Darius. These people wanted Daniel's job. They wanted to displace him but they said, “We'll never find anything wrong with Daniel. He's so faithful. He's so honest. His character is so high that we'll never find a way to displace him unless we find something wrong with his religion. He is so devout.”

They knew that Daniel prayed three times a day, so they decided they would flatter King Darius if they would create a law that no one could ask any petition of any other God or any other King except him for 30 days. They told him this would teach the people that you're in control. You're the new ruler here. Darius was so flattered, he said OK, and he stamped it with his seal; the seal of the Meads and the Persians, which is unchangeable.

These enemies of Daniel knew exactly what they were doing. Daniel knew this was happening. He couldn't stop it. The Bible says, “When Daniel knew that the decree was signed, he opened his window toward Jerusalem, just like Solomon had taught them to do, and prayed as he always did.”

Daniel knew he was signing his own death sentence, but his relationship with God was more important to him then life, itself. He would rather die than not have his daily prayer with Almighty God.

When the people that were after Daniel had heard him praying, they quickly went to King Darius and they said, “Oh, you know the man that you sat over the realm. This man by the name of Daniel, the Jew. He is down praying. He has violated your law.”

And the Bible says King Darius was very sorry because he had not thought about Daniel and his devotion. Consequently, Darius actually, personally went to Daniel and said, “Daniel, the Lord God that you serve continually, He is able to deliver you.”

They throw Daniel into the den of lions and that night Darius was so upset with what had transpired that he refused to eat anything before he went to bed. Normally, he had an orchestra in to play him to sleep, but that night King Darius said, “No music.” And he stayed up walking the floor, fasting, praying, “God, save Daniel.”

Daybreak, King Darius makes his way down to the lions den. He pulls the lid off of the lions den. He cries out, “Oh, Daniel, is the Lord God that you serve continually, able to deliver you?”

Now Daniel's down there and I imagine he went to sleep because God had sent His angels down to lock the lions jaws. He may have had his head on one lion for a pillow and he may have had his feet on another lion, propped up.

Daniel hears this commotion and again, King Darius calls out, “Oh, Daniel, is the Lord God that you serve continually able to deliver you?”

Daniel thinks, “Oh, how nice the king is worried about me. He really didn't want to do this to me.”

Daniel gets up and he calls back, “Oh King, live forever. He is able.”

Darius lets the rope down and pulls Daniel out of the den of lions and as they are walking back to the palace, Darius was so overwhelmed with the power of Daniel's God that he served continually, he said that, “From this day forward I'm making a decree that if anyone makes any petition of any other God other than your God, then he will be cast into the den of lions because your God is the true God that has the power to answer.”

Daniel walked with God and because he was faithful to God and didn't fail the test, one night in the lions den paid cash for the building of the second Temple. Reversed the captivity.

Remember that Cyrus was the other ruler in the kingdom of the Meads and Persians? It's interesting that God moved on the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 44:28 and prophesied about Cyrus before he was even born. There are very few prophecies in the Bible where a man is prophesied about by name, but this is one of them. Isaiah 44:28 says:

“That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the Temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”

Daniel knew this prophecy and since he was familiar with Darius, he undoubtedly also had access to Cyrus. He had occasion to say to Cyrus, “Do you know you're in the Bible?”

Cyrus said, “You're kidding me. I don't even believe in the God of Israel. I'm a heathen king. You're saying I'm in the Bible?”

Daniel showed him the scripture, Isaiah 44:28 and he said, “Isn't this amazing. This is saying that I'm going to build the Temple.”

Daniel told him to story that they were in exile for 70 years as the Prophet Jeremiah said.

Cyrus said, “Well, what year is it?”

Daniel said, “Well, this is about year, maybe, 68.”

Cyrus said, “Well, it's time for us to fulfill the prophecy then.”

Cyrus gave the commandment in 538 BC, in the 68^th year, that all who cared about the Temple and the House of God in Jerusalem should go back. The first wave of Jews went back in 536 BC. This was exactly 70 years after the exile had began when Daniel and the three Hebrew children were first carried down.

It was during this time a man named Zerubbabel was raised up by God to lead the effort to rebuild the Temple; to build Israel's second Temple. It was such a momentous task and they had so little to work with, I'm sure there were terrible times of discouragement for Zerubbabel and that's the reason the prophet Zechariah was sent to deliver a message straight from God to him. In Zechariah 4:6 it says:

“This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying, not by might, nor by power [Not by strength. It's not because you've got access to a lot of money.] But by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”

This was the word of encouragement from the Lord.

They did work. First of all, the decree was made in 538 BC. The built for a while. They got the foundation laid. Then enemies came. They stopped the building for a little while and then it was started again. Finally, the building of the second Temple was completed in 516 BC.

It was a wonderful time for the people of Israel. The Second Temple Era had begun.

The second Temple wasn't very beautiful. It was nothing like Solomon's Temple. They simply did not have the resources in order to do it.

However, Herod the Great, who ruled over the Jewish people under Rome around 19 BC, wanted to earn the pleasure of the Jewish people, so he decided he would enlarge their Temple and make it much more beautiful, which he did. It was so beautiful that people said, in that era of time, “He that has never seen Herod's Temple has never seen a beautiful building in his life.”

We are watching all of this transpire. That was in 19 BC when the Temple was made much more beautiful. Harod the Great continued to rule. Then Finally, Jesus Christ was born.

Next we will move into the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messaiah.

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.

Part 4 of 6 – Israel's God-Given Destiny

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

In our prior lessons we learned about Abraham and his special calling. We learned about the Promised Land and the Promised Seed and that covenant is still in place today. We also found that God especially chose Mount Moriah which is now the Temple Mount, to place His Name there forever.

Now, we will witness the destruction of the first Temple and learn of Israel's first exile, the 70 years foretold by the Prophet, Jeremiah. We will also witness the supernatural events that enabled the building of the second Temple. Finally we will learn about the destruction of the second Temple and the beginning of the second exile.

Let's go to Solomon's prayer. Solomon finished the beautiful temple on the Temple Mount on Mount Moriah. He prays this dedictatorial prayer to the Lord in 1 Kings chapter 8, stating:

“If your people are scattered throughout the world because of their disobedience and their rebellion, because of their idolatry, God, I am asking you today, if in their captivity, if in their exile, they repent and turn their face to this place, I'm asking you to hear their prayer and to gather them again.”

After Solomon finished this wonderful prayer, it's time to offer the sacrifice. The sacrifice is placed on the altar and the scripture tells us that fire supernaturally came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the house so much that the priest could not even minister and the children of Israel, when they saw the fire fall and they saw the glory of the Lord, they put their foreheads to the pavement. They bowed and they worshipped and they magnified God.

This was something that the nation of Israel has never forgotten. Even to this day as they are thinking of building their third Temple, they believe when they dedicate it that the Glory of God will again come and the fire of God will again fall as a sign of God's approval on what they have done.

So this caused the Temple Mount and the Temple to be the center of Jewish life. The heart and the soul of the Jewish Nation and the center of their worship unto the Lord.

God warned Israel way back then about what would happen if they were disobedient. He said to them in 1 Kings 9:6-7:

“But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be proverb and a byword among all people.”

God said this is what's going to happen to you if you fail to walk with me, love me and to worship me.

Why does God drive Israel into exile?

Remember, there is the first Temple era, then the first Exile. The second Temple. The second Exile. The second exile today is over and we're in the third temple era.

It's important for us to know how God thinks. They were driven into exile because they forsook the Lord. 1 Kings 9:8-9 says:

“And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and to this house?

And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.”

They've gone; they've worshiped other gods. This shows how God dealt with Israel through time. Now we will move from the First Temple Era.

We know that Solomon completed the building of the first Temple in 968 BC and it stoood for the next 400 years. At the end of this time period called the First Temple Era, Israel was in a horrible state of backsliding and finally God said, “I can't take it anymore. I'm going to drive this people out. I'm going to drive them into exile. I'm going to take them to the bottom until they can get all of this junk they've accumulated in their heart. Until they, somehow, can be driven to a place of repentance.”

And God sent this Prophet by the name of Jeremiah. His prophecy was that the King of Babylon was going to come. God was going to send him. He would invade the land at Israel and the children of Israel would be carried away into captivity for 70 years.

Coming up we are going to meet the great Prophet Daniel. We will see how the prophecies he foretold came to pass and we will recount his adventure in the lions den.

As we know EVERY prophecy in the Bible will be fulfilled. You need to understand this concept because we are living in the end times right now. If you are not ready, you need to evaluate your standing with Almight God. Time is running out!

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.

Part 3 of 6 – Israel's God-Given Destiny

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

Skipping ahead 1,000 years after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived. After the 12 Tribes of Israel were born. After Israel was established by God.

1,000 years later, another prominent figure in the plan of God and in Jewish history was born. His name was David. David was the second king of the nation of Israel. God loved David. He killed the giant. He became a deliverer to the people of Israel.

However, as time went along, the spiritual climate of Israel began to deginerate and God became angry with Israel. Scripture says God moved David to number Israel. God had told the kings of Israel not to number the people. God said, “I don't want you relying on your numbers. I want you relying on Me.” But, God moved David to number the people, so David did it. His General Joab tried to talk him out of it, but he went ahead and did it, anyway.

After he did it, his heart smote him. He knew he had sinned against God. He knew he was in trouble so he inquired of the Lord. He sent for the prophet, Gad. He said, “I have sinned terribly. I know judgement's coming for my iniquity. What do I do?”

The prophet said, “You have three choices.”

1. You can run from your enemies for 3 months
2. You can have 7 years of famine in the land
3. You can have 3 days of terrible pestilence from God

David decided to fall into the hands of God because he knew God is merciful, so he took the 3 days of pestilence.

The pestilence hit Israel. 70,000 people died and it wasn't stopping. David cried to the Lord, “I did this. Not the people. And You're taking this out on the people. Please, if you have to judge, judge me. But stop this. How do I stop this?” 2 Samuel 24:18 says:

“And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

Then in Samuel 24:24 it says:

“And the king said unto Araunah, nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price:”

What had happened was Araunah said he would give King David the threshingfloor. He would give him the oxen for the sacrifice. Anything King David needed, Araunah would give him for the sake of the nation of Israel. But King David said in Samuel 24:24:

“And the king said unto Araunah, nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”

David did not want to worship God at no cost to himself. He wanted to give of himself. David loved God.

The Threshingfloor of Araunah is the same as Mt. Moriah and the same as the Temple Mount. There is a huge dispute in our world going on today as to who actually owns the Temple Mount. The Muslims say it should belong to them. The Jews say it should belong to them. The Catholic Church and Christianity sometimes says it should be ours. The true answer is: David bought it for the nation of Israel. He bought the threshingfloor of Araunah.

2 Chronicles 3:1 tells us:

“Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.”

Solomon, the son of David, began to build the first Temple. David wanted to do it but God had said, “No,” because David had killed too many people. God told David his son, Solomon, would do it.

Notice how it says it's in the Mount Moriah and it's the threshingfloor of Ornan. So God takes Abraham to that specific mountain to offer Isaac 1,000 years prior. He again chooses this particular place because Almighty God intended to have a place on this earth where He, Himself, would place His name. It actually says in 1 Kings 9:1-3:

“And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do. That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.

And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.”

God said He will put His name there, forever. In This place. He had chosen Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is a small, relatively insignificant city, yet there had been more wars fought over Jerusalem than any other city on the face of this earth. Why? There's been 40 wars so far fought over this little city of Jerusalem.

It's not important militarily, economically or agriculturally, yet it seems every world leader has to go there. Why is that?

Because Almighty God said He is going to put His Name there. The Battle of Armageddon will be fought over this 35 acres. It's the most disputed real estate in the world.

Next, we will be talking about the first exile, the destruction of the first temple and the second temple.

It's an important story that has everything to do with the third temple that is getting ready to be built in the very near future. It's all the prophecies of the past of Israel, the present of Israel, and the future of Israel. It's going to affect you, me and the entire world.

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.