The History Of Israel In Prophecy…jesus Is Coming…

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.