(Continued)
Even the tremendous yields that the Israelis boast of on their newly reclaimed land are nothing to be compared with that which God has promised them. Think of verses like these: "There shall be a handful of corn in the earth [perhaps 'land' meaning Canaan] upon the top of the mountains; and the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon" (where the majestic "cedars of Lebanon" grew). Psalm 72:16. But this is predicated upon: "Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him.... Daily shall He be praised.... His name shall endure forever... and men shall be blessed in Him.... Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things." And in Amos 9:13 we read: "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed." In other words, the crop will be so abundant that while they are still reaping last year's crop the man plowing for this year's planting will catch up with the reapers. Is there anything to compare with that on the earth today? Israel or elsewhere?
Some Christians have failed to notice that all the future blessing promised for that land is dependent upon Israel's restoration to God. Isa. 35, from which we have quoted about the abundant water, verdure, and fruitfulness, also says, "They shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God." "Your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you." "And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it." "The redeemed shall walk there." Verses may be multiplied from other portions which speak of Israel's blessing in that day. The most careless reader or the most superficial observer should not fail to see that while Israel may now boast of its great achievements, these are not the fulfillment of God's promises to that people and that land. There is much trouble for them to pass through before that time of blessing comes. We should have compassion on them, for they are "beloved for the fathers' sakes," but let us keep a clear perspective.
While the moment approaches for the completion of the "times of the Gentiles," it has not yet come. These times began with the overthrow of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, when God withdrew from the active government of the earth through Israel. After that, God is not called the God of the "earth," but of "heaven" (see Josh. 3:11, 13 and Dan. 2:18, 28; 4:37); and Israel is called "Lo-ammi," or "not My people." This period of Gentile supremacy will not end until the Lord Jesus comes "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel." 2 Thess. 1:8. He will then smash the Gentiles and return a converted remnant of Israel to their own land in peace and security; but until then the Gentiles are to tread Jerusalem under foot, even as our Lord said: "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Luke 21:24. While the Jews have now made Jerusalem their capital, they still do not possess the city of which the Lord spoke, but only the "new city." A Mohammedan mosque still defiles the temple site. So in this sense there has been a continuity of fulfillment of the Lord's words, from the destruction by Titus in A.D. 70 until this moment.
We would not for a moment make light of the dedicated efforts of the Jewish people to regain that land, nor of the fortitude, perseverance, and hard labor of those who have accomplished great things; nor would we be unthankful that a downtrodden people, among them survivors of the outrages committed in Germany, have at least a respite. But 0 that they would get their eyes opened to see who Jesus of Nazareth really was! Their real restoration and future b 1 e s sing depend on this, and will surely come; they will then look on Him whom they pierced, and will mourn over what they did; but what an awful doom awaits the rejecters of Christ!
Today, as Israel looks back on its decade of progress, it may well ponder the years ahead. Their enemies are daily becoming stronger, and the whole Middle East stirs with strong anti-Israel sentiment, while Russia promotes Arab hostility to the Jews in the hope of controlling the Middle East to the discomfiture of the West. But with the clouds of uncertainty hanging over the Jews, is their hope and trust in God who is over all? Are they counting upon Him who so marvelously helped them in days of old? The following quotations may well indicate the prevalent Jewish feeling: "The first decade has established a home for almost two million Jews throughout the world.... There are still many danger points ahead, including the threat of Soviet economic and even military antagonism." This was taken from the Los Angeles B'nai B'rith which then continues, and quotes Premier David Ben-Gurion from the New York Times: " 'To those Jews in free and prosperous countries we present a new type of Jew. A Jew who depends upon himself for his security.' " And David Horowitz in the B'nai B'rith says: "It [the consolidations and mergers of Arab states] may still hold many surprises for the world in which Israel, always on guard, must work out its own destiny." And ex-president Truman is quoted as saying, "The Israelites will take care of themselves as they always did in historic times." (Emphasis ours.)
How different is this self-confident spirit from that which is expressed in the Psalm as the language of a faithful Jewish remnant in days of tribulation still to come. In many psalms are cries which indicate a dependence on God and a calling on Him for refuge and strength in their trouble. The middle verse of the Bible is found in the 118th Psalm: "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man." v. 8. The poor Jews will yet have to learn this.
Although the present restoration of almost two million Jews to Palestine is not what Scripture speaks of as God's calling them back, nor is their amazing achievement of providing water by irrigation what God meant when He spoke of giving them an abundance of water, yet it is evident from Scripture that when the Lord Jesus comes to put down His enemies and reign triumphantly there will be a nation of Jews in their land, with a sovereign ruler. So it is necessary that they be back there before the end of this age. And doubtless God has allowed all that has taken place there in His all-wise and overruling hand. They have gone back in unbelief, not to receive their true Messiah, but to receive a false Christ—the antichrist.
All that has been accomplished so far in the restoration of the land and the people, may come to nothing at the hands of the Arabs. There will be some cause for the head of the great Western confederacy—the beast—to come to the Jews' rescue and give them a temple at Jerusalem and help them re-establish the Jews' religious worship. He will make a covenant with the mass of the Jews in Palestine for their guaranteed protection for seven years. He will make this deal with them through their leader (the antichrist).
The time of the contract's inauguration may be the moment for the fulfillment of Isa. 18:1-3, when a call goes out (really "He," and not "Woe") to a great maritime power to bring the Jews back. At that time Numb. 24:24 may be fulfilled, when the owner of Western ships afflicts the old enemies of Israel—Asshur and Eber. But whether it is the self-propelled immigration from sixty or more nations to the land of Palestine, as the past decade has witnessed, or the massive forces to be put at the disposal of returning Jews by the Western coalition at the beginning of the seven years of trouble before the Lord comes to reign, it is of man and not of God. The Jews are going back there with a reviving of intense nationalism, rather than with repentance toward God, at His call. They are going back for the worse and not the better, for the steps to acceptance of "the antichrist" are being trodden with accelerated pace.
When the Jews rejected their Messiah at His coming, He said unto them: "I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." John 5:43. He also said: "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth.... The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep." John 10:11-13. So they are to have a ruler who does not come in God's name, but who will be a false shepherd who will leave them and flee to save himself in their hour of deep trouble. This is also borne out in Zech. 11, where prophetically the Lord Jesus is commissioned of God as the true shepherd of the sheep, and then rejected by them; then God says: "For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the idol shepherd [or shepherd of nothingness] that leaveth the flock!" vv. 16, 17. This man that is coming will be the very antithesis of the Shepherd who came to them, who was also the owner of the sheep, and who "gave His life for the sheep."
This false shepherd whom the Jews will receive is also called "the king"; he may be known by some other title, but the "king" of Scripture designates him as the ruler. In Isa. 30, the future enemy of the Jews on the north of Israel is referred to as "the Assyrian," for he shall have some of the same features of that former enemy of Israel, and be somewhat similarly located. So the last verse of the chapter says, "For Tophet [evidently referring to the lake of fire] is ordained of old [that is, for the Assyrian of the future]"; then God adds, "yea, for the king [also] it is prepared"; that is, for the antichrist. This is borne out by a word in Rev. 19:20, where this same "king" is referred to as "the false prophet" who will be taken by the Lord when He returns and (with the head of the revived Roman Empire—the beast of the same verse) cast alive into the lake of fire without trial for his rebellion against Christ when He comes to reign. He is also called "the king" in Isa. 57:9: "And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes,... and didst debase thyself even unto hell." The returned Jews will render homage to that man who assumes to take the place of the Messiah, but they will reap the terrible consequences of their doings.
This coming head of the Jewish people in Israel is also called "the king" in Dan. 11:36: "And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself [what a contrast to the true Shepherd 'who humbled Himself'], and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers.... But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things." vv. 36-38. This man will put himself in league with the corrupt and violent head of the revived Roman Empire in order to secure his support against the Arab world. This Roman head will be actually energized by Satan, and be his tool; he is called "the beast" in Rev. 11:7; 13:1-10; 14:9, 11; 17:3-17; 19:19, 20. How solemn to think that all this auspicious return of two million Jews to their homeland is only a forerunner of their acceptance of an ungodly, profane, and defiant false prophet and king who will be in league with the "beast" of the Roman Empire, and with Satan himself. This apostate Jew is also called a "beast" in Rev. 13; but he is the second "beast" in the chapter.
Because they rejected their Messiah, the true Shepherd of Israel, the Jews are going to receive and worship this antichrist, who will be in league with and will worship the Roman beast, called in Dan. 11 the "God of forces"—the head of all the vast materiel of war of the Western world, and who will not hesitate to use the most lethal weapons at his disposal. The Psalm often speak of a deceitful and a violent man—the former is the false prophet in Israel, and the latter is the Roman beast. These twin characters marked the world since the fall, and corruption and violence were rampant before the flood. They will reach their peak in these two beasts of the future.
We also learn that at least seven years before the true Messiah comes back to "make His enemies His footstool," the Roman beast will make a solemn covenant with the Jewish antichrist to give the Jews their land and protect them for seven years. This can be found in the last verse of Dan. 9 That verse explained would read something like this: And he [the Roman beast] shall confirm a covenant [not the new covenant which God will make later with Israel] with the many [or the majority of the Jews in Israel under the leadership of "their king"] for one heptad [or a period of seven years]; and in the middle of those seven years he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease [this indicates that the Jews will have a temple and have re-established their religious service under the beast's protection] and for the overspreading of abominations [or for the placement of an image of the beast
in the holy place of the temple (see Matt. 24:15)] there shall be a desolator, even unto the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (The covenant will be broken after three and one half years to the extent that the Roman beast will suddenly stop the re-established Jewish religious ritual, and seek to blot out the mention of God.)
Perhaps an all-out Arab attack on the Nation of Israel, aggravated by Russian assistance, may help to force the formation of the revived Roman Empire and bring its future violent head to the rescue of Israel. If this be so, there would be a serious setback for Israel not too far in the future; then with the Roman Empire's backing they would feel secure for seven years; but at the end of those seven years, the Arab world—called in Dan. 11 "the king of the north" and alternately with "the king of the south" (Egypt)—will wreak untold havoc against the Jews in Palestine (Dan. 11:40). Isa. 28:14-20 describes the awful time of the incursion of the Arab world against Israel, seemingly secure with their contract (or covenant) for protection by the Roman Empire, only to find it fail. So terrible will be the destruction of life in Israel at the end of those seven years that, "It shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third part shall be left therein." We might well weep over that people, not merely for what they have endured for those fateful words, "His blood be on us, and on our children," but for the extremity of trouble that is still in store for them. And if the loss of life and destruction of property will be so great, it will easily be seen that a new restitution of land and people will be needed, and it will be God's work. When He cleanses and brings "the third part through the fire," and refines them as silver and tries them as gold in the crucible of affliction, then it will be true, "They shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people [reversing Loammi]: and they shall say, The LORD is my God." (Zech. 13:8, 9.)
When the Son of Man returns in the clouds of heaven with "power and great glory," He will come to a largely devastated land of Israel. A godly remnant of the Jews who refused to acknowledge the antichrist or worship the beast or his image will have fled from the land according to the Lord's instruction to the Jewish disciples: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation [the image of the beast], spoken of by Daniel the prophet [Dan. 12:11], stand in the holy place [that is, in the temple],... then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." Matt. 24:15, 16. These faithful Jews are also spoken of in Rev. 12:6 as "the woman" who fled into the wilderness for 1,260 days, or three and one half years—that period of the time of "Jacob's trouble" (Jer. 30:7), "the great tribulation." They will then return and welcome Him for whom they were waiting.
The Lord as the Son of Man will then "send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect [the dispersed of Israel—not of the two tribes only] from the four winds." None but truly "born again" Israelites will enter into the land in that day, for He will meet them in the wilderness and cause them to "pass under the rod," and bring them into "the bond of the covenant." He will further purge out the rebels from among the returning Israelites, "and them that transgress against Me." (See Eze. 20:34-38; 36:25-30.)
Just who and where the ten tribes are is still a matter that is not clear, and over which many have speculated. We do know that when the remnant returned from Babylonish captivity in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, they were almost entirely of Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites. The ten tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians at an early date, and as far as we know never returned. Stragglers were no doubt among the Jews who returned, for Anna the prophetess was of the tribe of Asher (Luke 2:36). The ten tribes may have lost any characteristic feature and the consciousness of being of Israel, but the Lord knows who and where they are, and will bring them back. It was not necessary that they have a mark on them, as the Jews did, for they were not guilty of the crucifixion of their Messiah. That all twelve tribes will have their places in the millennial kingdom of Christ is abundantly clear from Eze. 48, where the future alignment is given. Isa. 11:12, 13 speaks of "the outcasts of Israel" and "the dispersed of Judah" being brought back, while the envy between the ten and the two tribes will cease. And from Eze. 37 we learn that God will bring both groups of tribes back into their land, and they will be "one nation," and they will never be "divided into two kingdoms any more at all" (vv. 18-22).
So when we see Israel back in their land in unbelief, looking for some sort of Messiah, we understand that they are readying themselves for the false Messiah and all the scourging that will follow his reception. The moment is fast approaching when all these things will be fulfilled. As another once said: "If you want to know what time it is, just look at Israel and see where they are, or look at the nations and see if they are getting together for the mergers of both East and West; then look at the Church and see the ruin." Today the hands of the prophetic clock are almost at the appointed hour. The coming of the Lord for the Church is not a part of the prophecy concerning the earth, but we must be off the scene before the great end developments take place.
Israel as a nation is often spoken of as a "fig tree." And the Lord said, when addressing the disciples as a figure of a godly remnant of the Jews which will be here after the Church is gone: "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." Matt. 24:32, 33. If the budding of the "fig tree" is to be a sure sign of the coming of the Messiah to reign, to be understood by the godly remnant at that day, shall we close our eyes to the budding of the fig tree now? And in Luke 21:29, the Spirit of God speaks of the fig tree, and then adds, "and all the trees"; that is, the other nations will likewise show signs of coming events. It is not only that Israel is already back in their land, with natural fortitude doing amazing things, but they are morally and spiritually ready for the advent of the antichrist—any leader who will promise great things may be the man of the hour to them.
To point up the ease with which the Jews could accept a man as their Messiah today, we need only call attention to the feeling of some of their number toward Premier David BenGurion. The Los Angeles Times correspondent reports that "Ben-Gurion... is sometimes jokingly called King David II."
The article also says, "A lot of the Yemenites... actually believe that Ben-Gurion is the Messiah.... Political opponents of the Prime Minister charge that he does not discourage this Messiah theory, though not notably orthodox himself." Truly he has done great things for his young state, but at his age he is not likely to be the man of whom Scripture speaks, although the man to come may be on the scene today.
As a further indication of the time at which we have arrived, we should remember that the nations of the Middle East are moving and stirring, the nations of the West have been experimenting with consolidations, while Russia and her satellites are also readying themselves for their part, which will be enacted after Christ has established His kingdom in righteousness (see Eze. 38 and 39). He will not put down all enemies at once. Surely the signs that will be recognizable by a godly remnant of the Jews who will, at the risk of death, refuse to do obeisance either to the Jewish antichrist or to the Roman beast or his image (Rev. 13:14, 15), are already becoming discernible. If the remnant of the Jews are to then look up in anticipation of their redemption by power, then the coming of the Lord for His saints cannot be far removed. Let us look up and rejoice, for the coming of Jesus draws nigh.