THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL IN PROPHECY…JESUS IS COMING…
Israel is a nation built on a promise God gave to Abraham 4,000 years ago. God made an everlasting covenant with Abraham. His promise was both physical and spiritual. Physical, because God promised Abraham he would have children, and they would possess all the land of Canaan; spiritual, because one seed of Abraham would bless the entire world. This was a prophecy about the Messiah, the savior of mankind, who would come through the lineage of Abraham.
God gave Abraham a son named Isaac. Isaac’s birth was miraculous, because Abraham and Sarah, his wife was barren, and very old. God commanded Isaac to go to Mount Moriah, and there sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Abraham was obedient to God, and brought his son to that place to offer him as a sacrifice to God, by faith knowing God could raise him from the dead.
A thousand years later, King David captured that same area, which was then a Jebusite city named Jerusalem. He made it his capitol city.
David sinned by choosing to number the children of Israel against the laws of God. Gad, the Prophet, came to him with the Word of The Lord, with the choice of three punishments. David said, “It is better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of man.”
So, for three days, Jerusalem was ravaged by a terrible plague. The strong men fell down in the streets and the women died at the mill. The little children perished from the breast and the aged were smitten down with a stroke. For three days the fatal disease had spread among the people, when suddenly the angel of the Lord, who had caused this slaughter, appeared before David.
David beheld the messenger of judgment standing in bodily form on the threshing floor of a man called Araunah. David was summoned by God to draw near the angel—and when he approached, he saw him with the sword drawn in his hand—as though he were about to smite even till the going down of the sun!
David, moved by the Spirit of God, slayed a bullock, piled up an altar, kindled a fire and, as the smoke of the bullock ascended to Heaven, the angel who was visible before their eyes, to the joy of every one of them, thrust back the sword into its scabbard, saying,
“It is enough.”
The Hebrew words the angel used were the same words spoken by Jesus at Calvary,
“It is finished…”
It is no coincidence that on this very spot Abraham had, many generations before, drawn the knife to slay his son, Isaac. It is no coincidence that upon that very spot, King Solomon built the first Temple of God, where sacrifices were made for the sins of Israel, where the Passover was celebrated every year.
Solomon dedicated the Temple with an incredible amount of sacrifice, and the Shekinah Glory of God filled the Temple. God placed His name there, and chose two dwell there in the Holy of Holies between the two cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant.
It was not a coincidence. The Lord God of Israel had chosen Zion, His name for Jerusalem, calling it the City of the Great King.
Psalms 132: 13, “For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.14This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.15I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.16I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.17There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.”
After the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, Judah and Israel. Israel the Northern kingdom, under the reign of Jeroboam sinned against God, forming a new religion contrary to the laws of Moses. God sent prophets to warn them of their sins, but year after year, Israel fell deeper into sin.
Finally, God allowed the enemy of Israel, Assyria to conquer her, and to capture her people, dispersing them among the nations.
The nation of Judah, whose Capitol was Jerusalem, whose kings were of the line of David, fell into the same sins of Israel. God sent them prophets as well, warning them to return to the way of The Lord, or suffer the same fate as Israel. But Judah did not listen. They worshiped false gods in the High Places. They committed the terrible sin of human sacrifice, burning their own children in the hollowed out belly of one of their idols.
Finally, God used the Emperor of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar to punish Judah. He sent the Prophet Jeremiah to declare His word, that they would be taken captive and carried away to Babylon for a period of 70 years. Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, tearing down the walls of the city, destroying the Temple, and taking with them all the holy things of the Temple.
Psalms 137:1, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.3For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.4 How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?”
But God did not forget Jerusalem. More than 100 years before the exile, He had prophesied through the Prophet Isaiah, saying, King Cyrus, a man who would not be born for 150 years after Isaiah’s prophecy, would make a decree causing the rebuilding of the temple. Just as Isaiah said, when the 70 years were completed, Cyrus overthrew Babylon and made a decree the Jews could return to rebuild the temple.
Daniel was among the captives taken to Babylon. You will remember him from the lion’s den. Daniel prophesied the fall of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman Empires. Over 100 prophecies by Daniel were fulfilled. Many of his visions were to be sealed up until the time of the end. Daniel was given a prophecy by Gabriel concerning the future of Israel. It had a definite timespan, pinpointing the coming of the messiah to Jerusalem.
Dan. 9:24, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
The word for weeks here means seven. Seventy sevens are determined upon your people Israel. A week is equal to seven years, that’s 490 years.
“From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks.”
That is sixty nine sevens, or 483 years. Daniel wrote that from the time the commandment was given to restore Jerusalem, the clock would start ticking. Artaxerxes gave that command to Nehemiah on March 14, 445 BC. About 483 years later, a man by the name of Jesus rode into the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem, called the Golden Gate, riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey.”
He was the rightful King of Israel by the lineage of David. But he was not riding into Jerusalem to be made king. He had another purpose. For part of Daniel’s prophecy foretold he would be cut off.
“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself…”
He would die for others. Isaiah also wrote about Him, saying in Isaiah 53,
“Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.”
As he rode upon the young donkey, hearing the praises of the people, crying blessed is He who comes in the name of The Lord, He knew His true purpose. He knew He had not come to be made king, but to die for others. He wept, not for himself, but for Jerusalem.
Luke 19:41, “And when he drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it,42 saying, If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.43 For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,44 and shall dash thee to the ground, 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.
Jesus had prophesied the same thing earlier.
Matt. 24:1 “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. 2And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
Then, on Passover, the 14th day of the month Nisan, at around 3 PM, at the same time the Passover lamb was being sacrificed in the
Temple, a large mob gathered around a hill on the ridge of Mount Moriah, within sight of the Temple, where two thousand years earlier, Abraham had offered Isaac.
Remember Abraham had told Isaac, “God will provide himself a lamb.” And he called that place Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Will Provide. But The Lord had not provided a lamb that day. Remember God called to Abraham and stopped him from sacrificing Isaac. And Abraham looked and saw a RAM caught in a thicket. He sacrificed the ram instead of Isaac. Now there is a difference between a ram and a lamb.
But there, on that same ridge of land, exactly 483 years after Artaxerxes gave Nehemiah the command to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, on a hill called Golgatha, the place of the skull, Jehovah Jireh, God, provided a lamb.
The Messiah had come to Israel. He had come unto His own, but they received Him not. Instead, they took Him by wicked hands, and turned Him over to the gentiles, who crucified Him.
There, He cried out, “It is finished!”
Their time of visitation had come, but they had not recognized it. Because of this, He had prophesied in Luke 21:24:
“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
In 70 A.D, about forty years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Jews rebelled against their Roman masters. Titus, a Roman General, marched with his troops to lay siege on Jerusalem.
Outside the city camped the Romans who would crucify any man, woman, or child caught fleeing the city. They cut down nearly every tree in order to make crosses, leaving the area around Jerusalem barren.
After a four-month siege, on the 9th of the Jewish month of Av (then the 10th of August), the anniversary of when the Babylonians had destroyed the first Temple, the Romans stormed the city, slaughtering thousands left inside, and completely destroying the city and the Temple with fire. It was said that so many were slain on the Temple mount that the stairs to the Temple flowed with blood.
As the fire set by the Romans in 70 AD raged through the sanctuary in the Temple, quantities of silver and gold, which had been placed there for safe-keeping, and a crown of gold that decorated the outside of the Temple, melted and ran down between the stones. Roman soldiers tore apart the stones to retrieve the gold and silver, literally leaving “not one stone left upon another” as Jesus had foretold forty years earlier.
This began the period of the second Jewish exile, one that would far outlast the first. For the next 1,900 years, the Jewish people would be scattered throughout the earth where they would endure relentless persecution.
Jesus had prophesied that Jerusalem would be trodden down by the Gentiles until the time of the gentiles be fulfilled.
Over the next 1,900 years, Jerusalem would change hands at least eight different times in continual cycle of war and conquest. In the end of the 7th century, Muslim conquerors built the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, where it remains to this day.
The words of Jesus had become a stark reality: Jerusalem was trodden by the Gentiles.
The land became desolate. The climate and weather patterns in Israel changed. Israel had a time of former rain, then a time of latter rain. The latter rain was seven times greater than the former rain. It was this abundant rain that caused olives and grapes to grow. The latter rain represents the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. When the people of Israel were driven out of their land, the latter rain stopped falling. The land became barren and desolate.
Jer. 3:3, “Thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. 3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.”
The present walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt in 1520. When Jerusalem was in control of the Ottoman Empire, in 1541, a Muslim Sultan by the humble name of Suleiman the Magnificent decided to seal up the Eastern Gate, the Golden Gate by which Jesus had ridden into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He did this in order to stop the return of the Messiah to Jerusalem. The Muslims also placed a cemetery there, to make the place unclean.
Little did he know he was fulfilling a prophecy of the Prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 44:1.
“Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east, but it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me,
“This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.”
Let me tell you. Jesus is coming, and when He does, He will set foot on the Mount of Olives, just outside the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem. He will enter the city with glory and power, through the Eastern, Golden Gate!
For 1900 years, the Jews were scattered throughout many nations. They were abused by their enemies. But something began to happen in the early 1900s. The Jewish people began to feel a pull to return to the land of Israel. Slowly, they began leaving from hundreds of different countries, and returning to Israel.
As they trickled into the land of Israel, slowly the climate of the land began to change. The latter rain, which had not fallen in nearly 1900 years, began to fall, a sprinkle at first, but growing steadily every year.
Joel 2:23, “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.”
Is it a coincidence that in 1906, in Azusa Los Angeles, a group of believers from all denominations gathered to pray in a small house, and the Holy Ghost was outpoured like on the day of Pentecost, setting off a revival that has lasted over a hundred years?
After World War 2, when the world learned of the atrocities of Adolph Hitler, who murdered more than six million Jews, mostly Christian nations decided it was time for Israel to have their nation back, and Israel became a recognized nation in 1948. The Jordanians fought over Jerusalem, however, and kept half of Jerusalem from the Jews. It was the most important part of Jerusalem, where the Temple Mount is located. Israel was a nation again, but Gentiles still trampled Jerusalem.
Let’s talk about the time of the Gentiles.
Rom. 11:25 “I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”
Remember Daniel had prophesied seventy weeks, or sevens, were determined upon the people Israel. Only sixty-nine weeks have been fulfilled. The focus then was on Israel. Since 70 A.D. the focus has been on the Gentiles. This is the age of the mostly Gentile Church.
But now, the focus has shifted. In 1967, Israel fought the Six Day War, and captured the Temple Mount. Jerusalem became theirs again.
No spot in the world causes so much contention as Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim it as theirs. Much of the world refuses to accept it as the true Capitol of Israel.
There are still seven years left of Daniel’s prophecy. It is the last prophecy to be fulfilled before Jesus appears in power, taking judgment on the enemies of Israel, destroying the antichrist. It is the seven years of Tribulation, or Jacob’s Trouble.
We are living in a time where the words “Israeli peace talks” are part of the everyday news. Daniel said the antichrist will confirm the covenant with many for one week (one 7), and will break it in the middle of the week.
I will not attempt to predict who the antichrist is, but I am convinced he is among us already. The stage is set. The last seven years, culminating in the return of Jesus to Jerusalem, is the only prophecy left in the prophecies of Israel.
As I write this, a group of terrorists called ISIS or ISIL are swarming across the Middle East intent on bringing all the Muslim nations under one rule. They are murdering and beheading Christians, even, I am sorry to say, the innocent children. Their goal is to march on Jerusalem and destroy Israel. Jesus is ready to return. He is coming to Jerusalem. When He comes, Jerusalem will be surrounded by her enemies, and nearly destroyed. He will set His foot on the Mount of Olives.
My friends, may I say to you the time of the Gentiles is at an end. God is returning to His people Israel. We are living in the last days. Paul said two things must happen before the coming of The Lord. The first is an apostasy, a “falling away” of the church. The second is the revealing of the antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition. Look around. See for yourself. It is all unfolding as the Bible declared it would.
Joel 2:1, “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.”
Zechariah 12, “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. 11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem.”
2 Peter 3: 10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night…”
1 Thes. 5:2, “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”
