Footsteps of Messiah. Okay, so if you go to 415, we'll just kind of briefly talk about these things and move through this as quick as possible, because it's just a lot of the same information. If you move to page 415, Isaiah talks about Israel and their call back into the land. Isaiah 27 says, and it shall come to pass in that day that Yahweh will beat off his fruit from the flood of the river unto the brook of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one. O ye children of Israel, it shall come to pass that a great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come that were ready to perish in the land of Syria, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem." So that passage obviously is talking about the totality of Israel one by one. Each individual is moving back into the land. Let me add an additional note so you can understand the importance of land before we move on. To our mentality, we don't see what the big deal is about land. Because we're Gentiles and we're not anchored to a particular location that has been given to us by God himself And what you have to keep in mind about land because this is all about the land it's in the Abrahamic Covenant, which you'll see in just a bit and It's given to them. Okay You can acknowledge that and you're like, okay, I got that but you have to understand you got to go beyond that This is basically a cosmic turf war A cosmic turf war. Well, what do you mean by that? Well, It comes from the Tower of Babel when he divided the nations. And they decided, these people at the Tower of Babel, to worship a foreign god through Nimrod, right? And they were worshiping the celestial beings, basically, the fallen angels. And if you look in Deuteronomy 32, and I think I've mentioned this before, that God set the boundaries of the nations according to the sons of God. It'll say it's a mistranslation according to Israel. It's not according to Israel because Israel didn't exist. the translation is the Banah Elohim, the sons of God, which means this, that because these people had rejected God and rejected his mandate, he scatters them, okay? And they're given over to their own deities that they will worship. And so what ended up happening, according to Deuteronomy 32, that the nations that came from the Tower of Babel started worshiping a particular deity or several particular deities, not simply made up but really deities as far as spirit creatures who we call fallen angels or are called sons of God or the Banaha Elohims and they became the God of that particular nation of that land notice what I said the God of that land yes the what now? the Pantheon Yes. Yeah, that's where the idea of the Pantheon, the Greek gods came from, is that you had Zeus, which really is a corruption of Yahweh, and that he's the head god, and then you had all these other council of gods. Well, there is a council, and the council under God is angelic creatures. Well, In the Old Testament, you'll sing songs and you'll see the Psalms and different passages say, there is no God like Elohim, or that God is the most high God. Most high compared to who? To the other gods. So what they did in the Old Testament, and you have to understand the nomenclature, Anytime it refers to a spirit creature Like an angel or even a fallen angel. They're called gods little g That's why satan is called the god little g of this world We would say they're spirit creatures And god is a spirit being so anytime god created spirit beings They're called gods. That's how they refer to them. So a lot of people get that messed up and say, well, there's only one God. Yeah, we understand that. There's only one supreme, most high God, but there are lesser gods or lesser spirit creatures who were created by this one God. And these lesser creatures then were started to be worshiped by these other nations. Now there were fallen angels, obviously, but those fallen angels became the gods of those nations. whether it was Satan himself or the princes or the powers of the air that became their gods, okay. So then what happened was that particular fallen angel or God became a territorial or a geographical ruler of that particular area. So for instance, if you go to Daniel chapter 10, he prays for 21 days, Gabriel finally gets there and what does Gabriel tell him? The prince of Persia withheld me. A human prince? Who is he referring to? He was referring to a demonic prince who has territorial reign over that area. Then he goes, I have to go and now I gotta go fight the prince of Greece, he said. So what did that tell you? Right there is a clue. And it's a reference to Deuteronomy 32. that these fallen creatures, and Paul calls them powers, principalities, right? Have territorial or geographical rulership over Gentile nations. Does that make sense? Hence, that's why Daniel is talking to Gabriel and he's saying, I'm fighting these different princes over territorial regions. Okay. Therefore, when God spread out the nations, and they worship their own territorial demon or territorial god. God said, fine, you can have your demonic gods, but I'm going to create a new nation. And this nation is going to be my nation loyal to me, and I will cut out the territory on planet Earth for them. You can have your territory, but I'm creating my territory. And through them, I will convert your territory through them as they spread who I am into their territories. So then he cut out this piece of land we know as the promised land or Israel and told Abraham, I'm giving this to you. And so with that being said, what you're looking at is a cosmic turf war. It's more than just the Jews going back into the land. It is a spiritual battle between God and the demonic forces over territory. Now, let me give you an example so you can kind of grasp this. David was freaked out about getting kicked out of the land. He didn't want to personally sin to where he would actually get kicked out of the territory of Israel. He didn't care if he had to be banished from being close to the ark or Jerusalem or anything like that. He cared more about being banished out of the land. And he indicates to us, that hint right there, that he understands that the land is holy. And to get off the territory of Israel is to get into an unclean land by a demonic force, by a demonic creature who rules that area. And so he doesn't want to get off the land. That's why Joseph wanted to have his bones buried where? When you guys go back, I want you to take my bones out of Egypt and put it in the land, because I don't want to be buried in another territorial demon's location. I want to be buried in the location that Yahweh has destined for us, because that area is holy, which means separated, set apart, and I want to be buried in the land. Now, if you remember another scene, a Gentile by the name of Naaman was healed of leprosy by Elisha. If you remember that scene, he was the only Gentile to be healed of leprosy in the Old Testament. He gets healed of leprosy and he becomes a convert to Yahweh. And you know the interesting thing people don't pick up on this. He wants to pay Elijah and Elijah, no, you don't have to pay me. He goes, well, let me do this. Let me take dirt back with me. As much as I can load up on the carts with my horses and mules or whatever, let me take as much back that I possibly can with me. And you think, why do you want to take dirt, dude? Because Naaman understood territory. If he's going to worship Yahweh in a foreign country, he wants to do it on the very land, the very dirt that Yahweh has segregated to be holy. So, I don't know what he did with the dirt, whether he spread it on the temple of that foreign god, or he spread it in his palace, or he put it in his living room. I don't know. But he took dirt back with him so he could worship Yahweh on the dirt. This is how big of a deal land is to them. That even a pagan understands the issue of having the dirt from Israel in his foreign land to worship Yahweh with. So that brings us back to what you're reading. You think, what is all this big deal about land and Israel wanting to go back to land because it is a territorial battle. And hence, the idea is this, that Israel's job was to spread the territory and make the whole planet back into the Garden of Eden. But they failed. They failed to spread the word of Yahweh into other territories. In fact, they wouldn't leave sometimes. Hence, the Messiah then has to come, reclaim everything that they lost, and then has to create the church, not by accident, to do what? To spread the good news about God through all the nations, to restore, eventually, Eden when he comes back. And when he does come back, he restores Eden, and the entire planet will be his. It'll be Eden restored, but the entire planet is Eden, not just a piece of land. So at the end of the day, he, like Psalm 110, he says, he tells the Messiah that, I am going to put all your enemies under your feet as a footstool. What does that mean? It's a territorial thing. I'm gonna destroy every territorial spirit, every territorial human that controls every part of the land because I'm gonna give it back to you. And you said you would share the land with your believers, didn't you? Blessed are the meek for they will inherit what? the earth, the Haaretz, the land of the entire globe. So when you're looking at Israel coming back in the land, what you have to keep in mind, this is a cosmic battle. The fact that the Jews are returning back to the land incites demonic activity, incites demonic opposition. The demons don't want that because they know what eventually happens. Through their restoration, all their territory is taken away. All their demonic holdings are gone. So is there a territorial prince that is over the United States? Yes. Over all the nations, Satan has deposited his own princes over these nations. So when you see the way America's going, or any country for that matter, rest assured that satan has a territorial spirit that's governing as a prince and then there's lesser authorities and rulers under that governing this area maybe there's definitely one protecting israel michael so i can tell you this it might be satan himself i don't know because the greatest threat to the satanic kingdom is Israel. So I would make sense that maybe it's Satan, that's why Michael has to be there because at the end, who are the two tangling with? Okay, who tangled over Moses's body? Satan and Michael, right? The valley that Moses was buried in by Mount Nebo, hardcore demonic territory by the way. Hardcore that was what the ancients knew and so a lot of why they were fighting over Moses's body because God was depositing Moses's body in the very territory of this high demonic activity and It's almost like I'm gonna plant something here I'm gonna use later or whatnot and that was an affront and so Satan actually confronted the whole deal and and he had to be backed down and through God's authority say, no, he's going to be buried here and you need to leave it alone. Well, that was an affront to the spiritual reality of that valley. When you study that valley in Old Testament history, it's a hardcore demonic activity valley. So is up north in the area of Basham. Basham, northern area of Syria and different parts like that, hardcore demonic activity. You just have major, major hotspots, basically. Best way I can... Yeah, you have something like that. You have these hotspots, you know, that like, you know something's not right here. And then you go to the other areas and you don't feel the same way. It's light. You feel like a sense of brightness there. But then, man, there was places like, whoa, something's wrong. Yeah, and it doesn't take much to destroy a community. If you can mess with the families... then you've got a community. And basically, it's real simple. Dismantle a family, you'll dismantle the culture and the society, and that's exactly what he's done. And you can do it through sexual immorality, you can do it through drugs or whatnot, and just tempt people with just simple vices, and they'll destroy themselves. Tempt them with sexual immorality, tempt them with drugs, tempt them with alcohol, tempt them with whatever. And if that society has no biblical standards to say no, then they have nothing to protect them. And so Satan's got them. They have nothing to hold them back. There's no anchor. And so that's what ends up happening, these slums that you see in certain cities that are just, you know there's demonic activity there. Prostitution, whatever, absolutely. And so I think you have to really understand that in certain parts of even our country, like we've talked about, there are high demonic activity, high demonic activity. Absolutely. Jim, you're absolutely right, because the way Jerusalem is sectioned off, it's four quarters. And you have the Jewish section, the Christian section, Armenian section, and then you have the Muslim section. And he's absolutely right. The minute you step into Muslim territory, you know you're in Muslim territory. And you don't have to see a Muslim. You walk across the boundary, like Jim's saying, and boom, it hits you. There's something dark, menacing, and evil, and wants to thrash you. And yeah, it's dirty. It's another sign. It's filthy. Well, the average commentator says, well, because he wanted to use Moses' body as a piece of idolatry for Israel and they would worship Israel. The real issue is not so much he wanted Moses' body, it's where Moses' body was buried he didn't want. Because Moses was buried outside the land in a demonic area. And it was almost like God was putting his own stake in a territory that says, I'm going to take this territory. And by putting Moses' body in there, it's an affront to the territorial spirits, primarily Satan. And see, that's a big deal. And we don't grasp that. And so I think that's the better interpretation of why it wasn't he wanted to do anything with it. He didn't want him buried there. Because that's the same thing that Daniel saw, that Daniel prays and his prayers are delayed in the Babylonian area because Babylon has territorial spirits that were preventing, at least the Persian spirit was preventing communication from Gabriel getting to Daniel. Yeah, on a personal level, the beachhead that Paul talks about in what, Ephesians 4 or 27, is the territory Satan tries to gain on the individual believer. See, it's all a turf war. It's all about a turf war. And if Satan can get an inch on you, in your soul, that's what he'll take. And he'll establish an attack right there, and you don't know what's going on. And he will stay hidden for years, but control you through the beachhead. And you won't know what's happening. You'll think, well, it's just because I just don't get it, or I just don't understand. I'm not praying hard enough, or I'm not serving hard enough, or I'm not doing this enough. I just don't get it. And it's not because you don't get it. It's because a demonic creature has established either influence, suppression, or oppression on a beachhead in your soul. And it's typically tied to a prolonged, protracted sin that you simply can't get rid of. And he's established that beachhead there, and that's where you're attacked. So it's all turf war. Even in your own body, it's a turf war. We don't, but he wasn't permitted to go into the land. So we assume he's buried outside the land, close to Mount Nebo, where Mount Nebo, that's Jordan. That area, there's a valley there. And if he's buried somewhere in that valley, because we don't know. I mean, I don't imagine that God just picked him up and said, I'm going to bury you in China. You know what I mean? It stretches credulity, or he buried him somewhere in California, and we just don't know where he's at in the Sierras. He buried him close to the promised land, but he's not in the promised land. So if he was the last spot that we saw in Moses was Mount Nebo, Then by deduction, by your best estimation, most theologians say he was buried somewhere outside east of Israel, which would be in Jordan. Somewhere in there. But that valley, and I can't remember the valley's name, hardcore demonic area. Hardcore. Well, God did. And so God plants him in there, wherever he buried him, and then what ends up happening? Satan is like, no. You're not doing that. I'm gonna dig up his body. Then Michael has to come and stop him. And says, I'm not telling you to stand down. The Lord, Yahweh, the Most High tells you, stand down, leave him alone. Satan knows where he's buried. But he was told, don't touch him. I want him there. It'd almost be like implanting something that doesn't belong in that territory. No one does, only God does. Michael does, Satan does. Yeah, but Jude picks up the rest of the story and tells you what ended up happening, that whoever finished Deuteronomy, because Moses was dead, doesn't tell you the rest of the story. But apparently something went on, and I think that's the better commentary of why there was a dispute over Moses' body. It has to do with the land and where he put him. I think. I don't think it was about idolatry. I don't think that. Israel had already learned that lesson with the golden calf. I just can't imagine, you tell me, I mean, maybe you can think, this makes sense to you. Satan gets his body, produces it for Israel, then Israel starts carrying it around, and it's the corpse of Moses, and then they start worshiping it. I just don't see that. That's not what they even did with the golden calf. The golden calf was not a foreign deity. The golden calf represented Yahweh. They were wrong in representing Yahweh that way, but they still were worshiping Yahweh. It was a corruption of that. So I just can't see them making that trek over and say, I'm gonna start worshiping Moses. They didn't stop worshiping foreign deities until Jezebel introduces it into the land. And that's way later on, that's hundreds of years later. So I don't think at that point they would have done that. So I think the best thing is it's because of the territory that he's in, he's being put in. I don't know. But that's what the land is about. I want to share that with you to make you understand or help you understand there's something bigger than us Gentiles we just don't simply get. That there's territorial spirits and they're fighting over territory and there's wars about territory and that's what the big issue about the land of Israel is about. Why do the demons not want Israel in the land? Or the Jews in the land? Because it spells their doom. It's their doom. They know that Yahweh's gonna work through them to establish and take back all the territory one day. That they were given. That they were given. That they were given.