So God, we thank you for this morning. Thank you for bringing us here today. Thank you for what we can learn about your plan for the future and who is involved, how they are involved. And just pray that you would help us to just love you more because of your faithfulness that we will see on full display today and help us to learn together. We give this time to you. We pray all in your name. Amen. William F. Albright, who is a professor at John Hopkins University, said, quote, no other phenomenon in history is quite so extraordinary as the unique event represented by the restoration of Israel. At no other time in world history, as far as it is known, has a people been destroyed and then come back after a lapse of time and reestablished itself. It is utterly out of the question to see a parallel for the recurrence of Israel's restoration in human history." Ladies, we may not realize how incredible the existence of Israel truly is, because probably most of us were born after 1948, So we are used to seeing Israel on the map. And what makes this even more amazing is that the existence of Israel was predicted over and over and over again, centuries before, in the Bible, and that's why many Bible scholars and prophecy teachers call Israel the super sign of the end times. And it really is. The existence of Israel is the super sign. for many reasons, but I've listed two on your sheet. One is because of the sheer magnitude and impossibility of Israel coming into existence merely by chance or historical coincidence. The odds are astronomical for this to have ever happened. And the second reason why many call it the super sign is that All other end times prophecies, that's your blank, all other end times prophecies hinge on Israel being in existence. God's plan for the end times cannot unfold if you don't have the nation of Israel. So we're going to talk about Israel's past, Israel's present, and Israel's future today because we need to understand the Jews, we need to understand the nation of Israel to fully understand end times prophecy. So turn with me to Genesis chapter 12. We're going to see the very start of the Jewish nation. There's a man called Abraham, the Abram, who God calls to move from Ur of the Chaldees and takes him to the promised land at that time, which was called Canaan. And we see the very beginning in Genesis chapter 12, the first three verses. It says now God said to Abram go from your country and your kindred in your father's house to the land that I will show you which is modern-day Israel and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing I Will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed So this is the start with Abram. This is the start of the Jewish nation. This is Abrahamic Covenant and in which God promised Abraham three things. He promised him, these are your blanks, he promised him land, he promised him offspring, and he promised him blessing. Here you go, Nancy. Thank you. Yep. Move to Genesis chapter 15. A couple pages over, Genesis 15, we're going to see kind of how this covenant takes effect. Genesis 15, starting in verse 5. And he, this is God, and he brought Abram outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them. He said to him, so shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Earl of Chaldeas to bring you to this land to possess. But he said, oh, Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? He said to him, bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. So half on one side, half on the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Skip down to verse 17. When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces, so the pieces of the animals. On that day the Lord said, on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, Refrim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gerushites, the Jebusites. Okay, so we see this covenant that God actually makes with Abram and it is an unconditional covenant. That's in your blank. The Abrahamic covenant was an unconditional covenant. That means that only one party agreed to do something and that party was God. God was the one who passed through the animals cut in half. Abraham didn't. So God is saying in this covenant, because sometimes they would use this between two people, if you pass through these animals and you promise to do something, the other person has a right to make you like those animals. So if you don't keep your end of the deal, this is the consequence. This is how serious this covenant is. Abraham did not go through. Only God went through. Meaning only God has to keep this deal. Abraham has to do nothing. So we know then that Abraham fathers Isaac, Isaac fathers twin boys, Jacob and Esau. God chooses the younger one, Jacob. During a famous wrestling match, he changes his name to Israel. We see that in Genesis 32, 38. He says your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed Israel has 12 sons and from then on all those descendants are the people of Israel and Israel is a very appropriate name for the nation because Israel means he struggles with God and We see in the rest of the Bible and we see throughout the history of the Jewish people that their story is one of struggle with God and Because of disobedience, because of hard-heartedness, because of their lack of faith, their lack of repentance, and their lack of submission to God. Now go with me to Exodus chapter 19. This is another covenant that God makes with the Jewish people. And this one is the Mosaic covenant. So this is where Moses has led the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt. He is bringing them back to the land. He brings the law to them, and he wants to make a special covenant with his people of Israel. And so Moses presents this to the people. We start in, let's start in verse 3. Actually just there, Israel encamped Before the mountain Exodus 19 verse the end of verse 2 there there Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God The Lord called him out the Lord called to him out of the mountain saying called to Moses Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. I Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. Okay, the Mosaic Covenant spelled out, these are your blanks, spelled out blessings for obedience and consequences for sin. You can read the details of that in Deuteronomy chapter 28. He's very specific about some of the blessings they will receive and some of the consequences they will receive for disobedience or blessings for obedience. And we see in verse 8 that we just read, the Jews voluntarily agreed to this arrangement. They said, we will do what the Lord said. That made it a conditional covenant. This one was conditional. It was an agreement that bound both parties and both had to agree to fulfill certain terms. And if one party failed to meet their responsibilities, then the covenant is broken and the other party doesn't have to do their part because the first party already broke it. We know that the Jews were chosen by God to accomplish at least three purposes. We could probably list more, but these are the ones I've listed for you. The nation of Israel became God's chosen people to be a testimony to the nations. It's one of your blanks. To be a testimony to the nations of who the true God is and how they could know him. Second, they were to be an example to the nations of how to live in a way that pleases God. They were to be a holy people, set apart. Their rituals, their traditions, their laws for morality were different from everybody else's. To be an example of how you live in a way that pleases God. And third, they were to be the nation through which the Messiah would come. So really, the Jews were to know God and to make him known. to the nations around them by being different. And it worked for some. There were women like Ruth and Rahab. There were men like Nebuchadnezzar who, because of influence of the Jews, came to know the true God, even though they themselves were not Jews. That was God's purpose. However, the Jews, as would have any people group, failed miserably in keeping their end of the bargain. And things deteriorated to the point where their sin became even worse than those of the pagan people who had lived in that land before them, that God told them to drive out. So God did what he said he would do in the Mosaic Covenant. He brought the punishments that he said would come. And if you've got your timeline of Israel, this is kind of that light green part where As we talked about the other week, that the North went to Assyria, the South got taken by Babylon, by Nebuchadnezzar. And really, when the South was conquered and Jerusalem fell to Babylon, the times of the Gentiles began. I've got this in your notes. The times of the Gentiles was a phrase that Jesus used. He said it in Luke chapter 21 verse 24, they, meaning the Jews, they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive among all nations. Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled. The times of the Gentiles is a timeframe beginning with the rule of Nebuchadnezzar and ending with the return of Jesus. So this is the time of the Gentiles. It goes for a long time. from Nebuchadnezzar to the return of Jesus when Gentiles would have authority over Israel and especially over Jerusalem. And this is not to be confused, if you have your notes from last week, this is not to be confused with the fullness of the Gentiles. We talked about that last week. The fullness of the Gentiles is the church age. Where once that last Gentile is saved and the church is complete composed of Gentiles and Jews there are Jews in the church who have trusted Jesus as their Savior, but The last mostly we it is made up of Gentiles. The vast majority of the church is Gentile that's the fullness of the Gentiles, but the times of the Gentiles is when the Jews will be dominated by Gentiles and especially Jerusalem So It is true that then in our dark green part here, the Jews eventually do go back to their land, they leave the Babylonian captivity, they rebuild their walls, they rebuild their city, they rebuild the temple, but they never again, never again have they ever reached the level of freedom and autonomy that they enjoyed under the reigns of King David and Solomon. which really, when David and Solomon were king, that was the pinnacle of Israel's history. And they've never gotten back to it in all these thousands of years. They were always oppressed by nations around them. Even when they went back, they were still under the rule of Medo-Persia. They were under the rule of Greece then. Then they came under Rome. And that culminated in 70 AD, in our light green there. where they were utterly destroyed by Rome. Rome sieged Jerusalem. They killed over a million Jews. They captured 100,000 more Jews to sell as slaves. And they wiped Israel off the map for almost 1,900 years. That's a really long time. I mean, we kind of think of it as our nation being around for a long time. We're just 200-some years old. Over 1,900 years, there is no Israel. As far as Jerusalem is concerned, Jerusalem was destroyed twice, once by Babylon, once by Rome. Jerusalem has been subject to at least 188 conflicts. It has been captured at least 40 times, and it has been besieged at least 23 times. It is arguably the most fought over city in human history, Jerusalem. As far as the land was concerned during all those years, of those 1900 years, nobody even really wanted it that bad. Occupiers came and went. It often changed hands. It was ruled by the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Turks, the British, all of them really caring nothing about the land, cutting down forests, polluting water, neglecting the soil. What had once been a sacred and beautiful place was reduced to diseased swamp land and barren wilderness that nobody wanted. As far as the Jews were concerned, they were scattered among the nations. Nations where they were slandered, discriminated against, persecuted, and murdered throughout the centuries. It is most definitely the times of the Gentiles. The time when the Gentiles have dominion over the Jews. But not only was there a political and geographical shift in regard to the Jews, there was also a spiritual shift in God's plan. Because the start of the church, we talked about this a little bit last week, the start of the church flipped the script. So in the Old Testament, God is using the Jewish nation to point people to God. Then the church comes into play. The Jews crucified Jesus. Now we start the church. The church is mostly Gentile. And now God's using the church to show the world who he is. And if you look at those three purposes of Israel, you can kind of see the church in that. You can see that, you know, the church is to be a testimony to the world of who the true God is and how people can know him. The church is to be an example to the world of how we are to live in a way that pleases God. The church is not to be the nation, but we are to be the entity, not through which the Messiah comes, but through which the Messiah is proclaimed. Basically, we're to do what Israel did. We are to know God and we are to make him known. Not by being a nation and then people looking to us, but by going among the nations and telling everyone who Jesus is and what the gospel is. Now, some people look at that and say, ha ha, I see what God's doing here. I'm tracking with you. I'm picking up what you're putting down. The church has replaced Israel. No, we haven't. No, no, no, a thousand times no, we have not replaced Israel. It is better to understand that the Jews are in time out. Paul said this in Romans chapter 11. He says, I ask then, has God rejected his people? Because he's talking about the church. So then the natural question is, well, then has God rejected the Jews? Because they used to be his people. Paul says, by no means. God has not replaced the Jews. God is always at work and is still working in the nation of Israel. As far as the job of reaching the world with the truth of God, yes, the church has picked up that job. But the church is the church. Israel is still Israel. And God has amazing plans for both. And I talked, we had the Old Testament, we flipped the scripture, the church to the Gentiles. But once the rapture happened, like we talked last week, God's flipping it again. And we get to the tribulation and the Jews are going to be the ones that God uses again to reach the world with the truth of who he is. He hasn't, he is not done with the Jews. But unfortunately, replacement theology, which is the belief that the church has replaced Israel, has been around for quite a while. And it's taught and believed by many. This is kind of a reformed theology. So if you come from a reformed background, maybe this is what you grew up with. Maybe this is what you believe. I would encourage you to search God's word, and not necessarily take my word for what I'm going to say today. But read God's word and see what it says about this issue. I think that, and there's probably more reasons, but I do think there's at least four reasons why so many believe this replacement theology. And the first reason is a failure to believe God's word. And quite honestly, I kind of get it for those 1900 years that Israel didn't exist. And we've already talked about how utterly impossible it would ever have been for Israel to be reborn. So there's these people who live 1,900 years, there is no Israel, and yet they're reading the Old Testament and they see there's unfulfilled promises that God made to Israel and he hasn't made good on it yet. And now we're thinking, oh my goodness, God has really painted himself into a corner. We need to bail him out. Right? Because Israel's not around and Israel never will be around. I got it. The church replaced Israel. So now all those unfulfilled promises that God made to the Jews, he's going to fulfill them to the church. I bailed God out. Yes, I saved him. Because surely a literal nation of Israel back in the Old Testament land of Canaan is too much even for God. Yet, lo and behold, 1948 rolls around. We have a literal nation of Israel back in the Old Testament promised land of Canaan. He didn't need us to bail him out. And if you grab one of those sheets that had all these verses on it, and this is just a small sampling of verses. Actually, that goes to our next point, so let me get there first. I went ahead of myself. So I do believe that there's a lot who fail to believe God's word. Even though that's what he says, that's what he's going to do. Second, I think there's a failure to understand God's word in this to correctly understand it. So that sheet I gave you, and that is just a very, very small sampling. And it's just verses that I obviously put on the sheet. Always read verses in their context. Always go back to the chapters they're in. Go back to the books that they're in to get the full context. But all of those verses are talking about the Jews. All of those verses are talking about Israel. Every single Old Testament prophet, with the exception of Jonah, mentions that the Jews are going to be back in their land and they're going to be restored by God. And I think a lot of the reason why we fail to understand this is because, in my opinion, the least read and understood parts of the Bible are the Old Testament prophets. We just don't read that part. We don't understand it. But they all talk about it, and not just the Old Testament prophets. You know, Paul talks about it, too. But there are so many verses where God says, I'm going to bring the people back. I'm going to restore the Jews. And a lot just haven't taken the time to read it and understand it. A third reason, I think, for replacement theology is resentment about the Jews' chosenness. Well, I just kind of shake my head at this one, especially if it's coming from believers. Because quite frankly if a believer came up to me and said what's so special about Israel? I Would be tempted to counter with what's so special about you? Because if you're saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and you're part of his church you're chosen to and Quite frankly if you gave me a choice You can be chosen to be part of the church or you can be chosen to be an ethnic Jew. I'll take the church all day every day Because that means you're saved Now, ethnic Jews, yes, they can be saved, but just because you're an ethnic Jew, that's not an automatic in. They have to trust Jesus as their Savior just the same as everybody else. So I just don't understand this resentment of like, what's so special about the Jews? What's so special about me? I'm chosen too. But really, when we boil this all down, Replacement theology. I really believe we can boil it down to really a pretty basic underlying reason and our main reason main explanation for me is anti-semitism Which is hatred for the Jews? Now hear me hear what I am saying to you if you know people out there or if you are one who maybe believes that the church has replaced the Jews I'm not saying you're a Jew hater Okay, that's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying everybody who adheres to this hates Jews. What I am telling you is that replacement theology has its origins in antisemitism. That's a historical fact. We're going to get to it in just a little bit. And we have to understand that antisemitism is real and it is rampant and it is from the pit of hell. Satan has poisoned the minds of men against the Jews and we must understand Antisemitism in order to fully understand both history and prophecy Because our past our present for sure if you just watch the news and our future has been is being and will be shaped by hatred for the Jewish people and Satan has tried over and over and over to wipe them out. He's tried with the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Nazis. Right now he's trying it with Hamas. Satan wants to thwart God's plans and he knows that God's plans in the end times revolves around Israel. So if he can wipe out every Jew on the planet, guess what? God's a liar. Because now God can't keep his promises. He wants to thwart God's plans. The bottom line is the world hates Jews because the world hates God. And tragically, many in the church throughout the centuries have bought into this hatred as well. In general, from about the fourth century on, the Christian church has consistently treated Jews with prejudice, distrust, contempt, injustice, and barbarous cruelty. Now I'm in saying this a lot of people who named the name of Christ aren't necessary believers Okay, a lot of people say they're part of the church and maybe are not but I think there are legitimate believers We'll get to it in a minute who did buy into some of this and have bought into some of this There were some in those early centuries in the early church who developed this warped story Form of theology that said the jews were solely responsible for the crucifixion of jesus. It is all the jews fault nobody else While conveniently ignoring the facts that it was a gentile leader named pilot who passed sentence on jesus It was gentile soldier soldiers who nailed him to the cross And it was a gentile system of capital punishment that allowed the jews to kill jesus in the first place But on the basis of this bad theology, that only the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus, many in the church felt that they could show their loyalty to God by expressing hatred for his murderers. And so we see in the Middle Ages that the Jews were blamed for all kinds of things. They were blamed for the bubonic plague. They were accused of blood libel, which was the kidnapping and murdering of Christian children because they said they were using their blood in Jewish rituals. There was a Crusades slogan that said, kill a Jew, save your soul. And these baseless accusations and conspiracies led countless Jews to be thrown in jail to have their property confiscated. Entire villages of Jews were wiped out. Many were thrown into rivers and drowned. Sometimes whole families were thrown into public bonfires. We move down the road of history to the Protestant Reformation, and we look at heroes like Martin Luther. And I am very grateful for Martin Luther. I believe he knew the Lord, and he wanted people to know that they need to be saved through faith in Christ. He did many great things, standing up to the corruption that was in the church at the time that nobody else would speak out about. However, he was guilty of being deceived by anti-Jewish ideology. This is something that Martin Luther wrote. Quote, the Jews deserve the most severe penalties. Their synagogues should be leveled, their houses destroyed. They should be exiled into tents like the gypsies. Their religious writings should be taken from them. The rabbis should be forbidden to continue teaching the law. All professions should be closed to them. Only the hardest, coarsest work should be permitted to them. Rich Jews should have their fortunes confiscated and the money used to support Jews who are willing to be converted. If all these measures are unsuccessful, the Christian princes should have the duty of driving the Jews from their lands as they would rabid dogs." End quote, Martin Luther. We continue down the road of history. And I think most of us are at least somewhat familiar with the Holocaust that happened under Nazi Germany. What you may not know is that Adolf Hitler used those very words from Martin Luther to justify his actions and to propagate hate against the Jewish people. Because he said, look, this is what the church teaches. God's done with the Jews. They deserve anything that's coming to them. because they killed Jesus. And we don't always realize that when you say to a Jewish person the word Christian, the bad connotation that has in their mind. When you say Christian to some Jews, what comes to their mind is stories that have been passed down from grandparents and parents. Stories of concentration camp Jews or concentration camp guards who beat, starved, tortured, and murdered Jews during the week and went to church on Sundays. But lest you think that baseless accusations and conspiracies against the Jews no longer exist, history repeats itself all the time. In 2020, the height of COVID, an Oxford University study found that 19% of the public in Great Britain believed that the Jews were to blame for COVID. When we saw the death and all the riots that happened because of George Floyd, there were Americans who blamed the Jews for the death of George Floyd because they said that kneeling on a perpetrator's neck was a technique taught by the Israeli Defense Forces. I mean, it's kind of whacked, right? Or what in the world? And yet people buy into this stuff all the time. And we see it even now, this current war that is happening in the Middle East, where Hamas attacked Israel on October the 7th, with horrific brutality that exceeded even the Holocaust. As far as the butchery, and the barbarism, and the brutal— I mean, have you educated yourself of what happened that day? It is horror upon horror upon horror. I could tell you story after story. They went into a home of a young couple. They tied up the husband and forced him to watch them rape his wife over and over and over until they finally killed her. And while they were doing that, they turned up the oven as hot as it would go, and they put his six-month-old baby in it. And they needed an archaeologist to identify remains. It's insane. They found a Hamas terrorist who had done all this attack and was trying to get back to Gaza and they captured him and they killed him and they found tucked inside his jacket the head of a Jewish baby because he wanted to take it home and use it as a trophy in his case to show what he had done that day. And these atrocities are not in dispute. Some people are saying, well, this is just Israel telling us that this happened. Of course, they're going to make Hamas look bad. This was the most documented massacre in human history because Hamas documented it. They went in there, and they filmed it, and they were on their phones to their parents bragging about the fact that they just killed a bunch of Jews. It is the most documented massacre in history, and there's still people saying that the Jews are at fault. It's unreal. Hamas has made it more than clear that their objective is to kill every last Jew on planet Earth and yet we look at the violence in the Middle East and is the world blaming Hamas? We're blaming Israel. Riots, protests, international court hearings, blaming the Jews. Israel seems to be the only nation on the planet that has to justify their existence and That for some reason has to justify like we should have a right to live Unless you think I exaggerate when I say history repeats itself That top photo was taken in Germany 1940 The bottom picture was taken in Rome two weeks ago and And by the way, hatred and spiritual warfare, Satan has no intention to stopping with the Jews. One of Hamas's mottos is the Saturday people first, meaning Sabbath, because the Jews celebrate on Saturday, that's their holy day is the Sabbath. They say the Saturday people first, the Sunday people next. Satan hates the Jews and he hates Christians. And he will do anything in his power to cause the world to hate the Jews and to hate us. So let's go to Israel's present, and I'm defining that as 1948 until now. Because that is when Israel came into existence, was May 14, 1948. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 32, no, 37. Ezekiel 37. It says, Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones. Maybe you know the song. This is a vision that God gave to Ezekiel. Ezekiel 37 verse 1 the hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley it was full of bones and he led me around among them and behold there were very many on the surface of the valley and behold they were very dry and he said to me son of man can these bones live and I answered oh Lord God you know Then he said to me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a sound and behold a rattling and the bones came together bone to its bone and I looked and behold there were sinews on it and flesh had come upon them and skin had covered them but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet in exceedingly great army. Who are these bones? God leaves no room for doubt. He's going to tell us. 11 Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are indeed cut off. Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, that I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord. You know, there are a lot of Bible scholars who believe that this text is talking specifically about the Holocaust. And I can kind of see it. I mean, did you see pictures? Have you ever seen pictures of Jews coming out of concentration camps? They're skeletons. So there's a lot who think this was talking about the Holocaust because it was actually something as horrible as the Holocaust that caused the rebirth of the nation of Israel. Because the world was so shocked by it that at least for a short period of time there were enough people in powerful places and the world community was sympathetic enough to the Jews that they said they need their own homeland. So they gave it to them because of the Holocaust. Now, I'm not saying that I can see it. I could see that passage talking about the Holocaust. My word to the wise is on the back of your sheet, just so you see it. When we're talking prophecy, it's just throwing it out there. Be very careful about believing or claiming that specific modern day events are the fulfillment of specific Bible prophecies. While it's certainly possible, we often need the insight gained by hindsight in order to see how all the pieces of prophecy will eventually fit together. So if this is a prophecy about the Holocaust, it is a prophecy, like we talked about if you were here the first week, that is yet fully fulfilled. There's been a near and a far fulfillment. There's a, there's a partial and later a full fulfillment because it says, and yes, he's bringing them into the land, but the Jewish people do not have God's spirit within them. The Jewish people have not turned to Jesus as their Messiah. So there are parts of this prophecy that are not fulfilled, but we can see it coming. God's setting the stage for these things to happen. God had the right people in the right place at the right time, so that on May 14, 1948, the British mandate over Palestine expired. At 4 p.m. local time from Tel Aviv, which was the first capital of Israel, the first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, read his brand new Declaration of Independence that they barely had time to write, because all of this happened so fast. And I do believe that that was a fulfillment of Isaiah 66 verse 8, where it says, who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in a day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children. That is how fast Israel came into existence. It was seemingly overnight. So Israel's present against impossible odds. Israel is once again a sovereign nation. May 14, 1948, they became a sovereign nation. Guess what? Four hours later, Egypt started bombing. On May 15, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon joined the party. There were only 650,000 Jews living in Israel at the time. There were 50 million Arabs surrounding them. United in a common goal of wiping Israel off the map because they didn't want him there and Most of Israel's military was made up of untrained Holocaust survivors. I This was such a good book, it's called the miracle of Israel it's by Gary Frazier and Jim Fletcher so many amazing stories about how God brought the nation of Israel back into existence, how the odds were always against them, conflict after conflict after conflict. And yet, miraculously, they win. I love this one story. This was from a war. This was from the Yom Kippur War, which happened in 1973. There was a time when Israel seemed like it was over. There was a battle going on. It was seven Israeli tanks against over a thousand Syrian tanks. And they were sure that they were done and that Israel was going to be wiped off the map. This is what it says. The Syrian tanks, over a thousand, they only have seven Jewish tanks there, suddenly stopped in their tracks, the Syrian tanks. Momentarily the hatches opened and the tank crews came climbing out and took off running. The Jewish tank crews were in shock. What was happening? They immediately began to advance against their enemy and capture many of the Syrians who held up their arms in surrender. Granted this story that I'm about to tell you is one that's pretty wild and most might question it However, as the tank crews were being interrogated individually each one told the exact same story And this was their story. They're there in their tanks They're ready to take over Israel when suddenly it seemed as if a horrendous pressure Built up in the cockpit of the tank to the point that they felt their ears were going to burst They opened the hatch, and as they looked out, they saw what seemed to be a hand from heaven pressing down on them. They became horrifically frightened as they climbed out and ran for their lives. And it was the same story told again and again and again and again by these soldiers, even though they had had no opportunity to talk to each other. Does God still have a plan for Israel? Yes, He does. It's really a sovereign nation. But do the Jews have control really over Jerusalem? Because you might think, well, you just said we're in the times of the Gentiles. Aren't they their nation now? Don't they have Jerusalem now? Well, if you would ask the average Jew today, do you feel like you have absolute and free autonomy over your land? Or do you feel the burden of Gentile oppression? I guarantee what their answer will be. If your colored handout, the Palestinian time, if you just read through that, it's times of the Gentiles all over the place. U.S. tells them what to do. The U.N. tells them what to do. International courts tell them what to do. Rioters and protesters try to tell Israel what to do. It's the times of the Gentiles. And if there's any doubt about that, here's the view of Jerusalem. What stands out to you in that view? The Dome of the Rock, that's an Islamic mosque sitting in the very place where the Jewish temple should be. Israel has never regained self-rule and dominion over all of their land that God guaranteed them, that God promised them, ever since Nebuchadnezzar defeated them millennia ago. And there's stark reminders like that mosque right there. And unless they want to start World War III, there's nothing they can do about it. But we also see in Israel's present, number two, the Jews are returning to their homeland from all over the world. In 1948, there were only 650,000 Jews there in Israel. Today, there's over 7 million. Many are returning because they feel drawn to their ancestral land. Many are returning because they feel like it's crazy. Because we know what a hotbed in the Middle East is, but there are some Jews who feel like Israel is the only safe place they can go. Because while their neighboring nations might want them dead, at least their next-door neighbor doesn't want them dead. Like, they feel they can go to the store, or they can go to college, or they can go to school, or they can go to their workplace without somebody trying to stab them. Because those things are happening all over the world. Anti-Semitic crimes have exploded since the Middle East conflict has begun. And all these riotings have happened. Number three, against impossible odds, the nation of Israel is not only surviving but thriving. Amazingly, but not so amazingly when you know the word of God, when the Jews started to return to the land of Israel and started to work it in the early 1900s, it started to bloom again. Less than a century ago, it was just unwanted swampland and wilderness, but now it is a wealthy, prosperous nation. And they are leading the way in areas like financial technology, agricultural advances, and medical breakthroughs. Israel is a thriving, rich nation, despite being constantly surrounded by people who want them all dead. Number four, the Jews are starting to turn back to Yahweh, the god of their forefathers. Israel is a secular society. Many of them claim to be atheists. But as dangers increase, so does spiritual interest, right? We always see that pattern. And Amir Tsarfati, I follow him a lot. I get my Middle East news from him. So he's the author of our book. He is a Jew. He is a believer. He teaches prophecy in the Bible. His house overlooks the Valley of Armageddon. Uh, and I get my, my Middle East news from him because I trust him more than the mainstream media to say what's actually happening there. And, um, so anyway, in one of his interviews, he was saying that he has been asked more about his faith in Jesus since October 7th than he's ever been asked before. Now, obviously, Israel as a nation has to take the next step. They can't just say the God of the Old Testament, the God of our forefathers. They have to take the New Testament step that Jesus is the Messiah and trust him as their Lord and Savior. The nation is not there yet, but I believe God's setting the stage for it because they're starting to turn back to the God of the Old Testament at least. And that is the first thing that needs to happen. Number five God has and continues to show himself to be faithful to the Jews Why? Why would God be faithful to the Jews? I mean, they completely failed in their covenant relationship with Him. They turned their backs on Him. They put Him on a cross. God had given them chance after chance through the prophets and all this stuff. Chance after chance to repent. They don't do it. Why would God be faithful to the Jews? Because He promised. And for His own glory. Ezekiel 36 22 to 24 says therefore say to the house of Israel Thus says the Lord God is not for my sake O house of Israel God speaking It's not for my sake that I am about to act except for your story except for your sake O house of Israel I'm about to act but for the sake of my holy name which you have profaned among the nations to which you came and I will validate the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the nations to which you came and I read that right? I shouldn't have turned around. The nations will know that I am the Lord declares the Lord God when through you I vindicate my holiness through their eyes. I'm not reading very well from this far away. Maybe I should let you guys read that anyway. God's doing it because he promised. It's for his reputation. It's for his name's sake. He says, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land, not because you deserve it, Jews, but because I am God and I am faithful. And when I make a promise, I keep it. And shouldn't this be an encouragement to us? Because even though Israel has failed him over and over and over, he is not giving up on them. I just do not understand believers and pastors and parts of the church who say they just want to seem to get the Jews out of the picture and get rid of Israel and say we've replaced them. Isn't God's faithfulness to Israel confidence to us that he will be faithful to us? I mess up too. I sin too. Sometimes I look and think, why in the world did God choose me of all people? And yet no matter how badly I mess up, He will be faithful to me. Just as He's been faithful to Israel, not for my sake, not because of my merit, but because He promised. He is continuing to be faithful to the Jews and he has a plan for them and that is their future. We're going to go through these very quickly because this is what prophecy is about, is Israel's future. So we're going to be talking about a lot of these things in the coming weeks. Israel's future. Number one, there will be a mass return of Jews to the land of Israel. The Bible predicted it over and over and over. It's happening right now. So, we are already seeing that there will be more that are going to go to the land of Israel. 2. The Antichrist will make a seven-year peace treaty with Israel. I'm going to talk about that a lot in our next lesson. The Antichrist who will rule the world as Satan's man, but he'll seem like the savior of the world at the beginning. So, they will agree to this peace treaty. 3. The Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Don't ask me how. Don't ask me what's going to happen to the Dome of the Rock. I have no idea how that thing can come down and not, like, set the world on fire. But it's going to happen, because the Bible said there's going to be a temple there, a Jewish temple. Number four, the Antichrist will break his covenant with Israel, and worldwide persecution of the Jews will be the result. If we think that Hamas is bad and the Holocaust is bad and Stalin was bad, the Antichrist is going to make them all look like amateurs when it comes to his persecution of the Jews and of believers who will be on the planet at the time. Number five, Israel will be invaded and miraculously rescued by God. This is an event called the war or the Battle of Gog and Magog. It's in Ezekiel 38 and 39. It's hard to place that one on a timeline. We're going to talk about that event during one of our sessions. So I'm not going to say too much about it, but it's going to happen. The Bible says it's going to happen. And number six, Israel will finally recognize Jesus as their Messiah. They will be regathered, they will be restored, and they will be regenerated. So God's not going to stop by just bringing them to the land. He's not going to stop by just making them a nation, a political nation. They are going to be His people in every sense of the word. They will have the Holy Spirit within them. They will be His people. They will recognize Jesus as their Messiah back in relationship with Him. Ladies, if we don't understand the story of Israel, there is so much of prophecy that you won't understand. Israel is really the key to unlocking end times prophecy. The fact that we can point to Israel on a world map, that is fulfillment of prophecy and a modern day miracle. And you know, isn't that just like God? That is just like God, to bring His people to the brink of impossibility. So that when God does the impossible, everybody should look and say, God did that. Starting at the very beginning with Abraham, he gave him that son of the promise. When he was 100 years old, his wife was 90. So that everybody would look at that and say, God did that. He brought Moses to the edge of the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army hot on his heels. So that when the waters were parted, everyone would say, God did that. We see in David's life, he pits this untrained shepherd boy with a rock against the mightiest warrior in the land. So that when he actually wins, people would say, God did that. And we see Israel. 1900 years of no land of no hope that they would ever return so that when they actually did Everyone should look at that and say God did that Ladies we owe a great debt to the Jews without them. We have no patriarchs and We have no prophets. We have no apostles. We have no Bibles. We have no Savior. Because Jesus is a Jew. There is no room for even a hint of anti-Semitism among believers. And I would encourage you to educate yourself on the Middle East conflict. I really wanted to do a whole week of kind of like current events, but I don't know that we can afford that, especially since we don't even meet next week. We have the annual meeting. I thought maybe we could all sneak in here and have Sunday school, but since the annual meeting's in the gym, they might figure it out, so we better not do that. But I would encourage you to educate yourself, and I would warn you not to land on the wrong side. I am not saying that the government of Israel is always right, okay? They're human, too. I'm not saying they always make the right decisions. I'm not saying their military always does the right things. I am not saying that every Jew just has a path to do whatever they want because we're going to support them because they're Jews. Obviously, we need to be guided by the principles of God's Word in every single situation that we face. But the universe and all that it contains belongs to God, and therefore He gets to give it to whomever He chooses. And the bottom line is that God has given the land of Israel to the Jews, and all who stand in their way make themselves an enemy of God. Because Genesis 12 is still in play. This is not applying to the church. This is the Jewish people. God says he will bless those who bless them. He will curse those who curse them. You know, I seem to have fewer and fewer reasons these days, unfortunately, to say that I'm proud to be an American. But one reason for me at least that will stand out forever above all others is that we have proven to be Israel's best friend. I wholeheartedly believe that at least one reason why God raised up this nation And why we have been so abundantly blessed is because we have been Israel's best friend. And I love this in this book. It talked about presidents, people in just in the right place at the right time. There are many times that nobody else on the planet would go to bat for Israel, but the United States did. Now with our current administration, I think that time is coming to an end. And I don't know what God's going to do in the future. I don't know what elections will hold. But it should come as no surprise, because we do know from Bible prophecy that Israel is going to stand alone. In the end, Israel will be alone. They will have no political allies. They will have no nations on their side. And therefore, at some point, the United States, if we're still around, we will no longer be their friend. That's OK, because they've got the only ally they need. God's on their side. God's going to make sure that his plan is fulfilled Just in case you want it. These are some articles I printed from a website got questions got questions is a great website lots of Bible you can it's a Christian website biblically based it gives solid simple answers to questions You can type in all kinds of like what is predestined? Sationalism if you want or you can say who was Noah and it'll answer the question I love that website. I use it a ton. I've got articles here and How should Christians respond to the Arab-Israeli conflict? What is Hamas? What is the difference between Israel and Palestine? Why do Jews and Arabs slash Muslims hate each other? So if that helps you to kind of start your process of maybe understanding some of this history and what is behind all this stuff going on in the Middle East, please help yourself to any of that in two weeks, because we have the annual meeting. Daniel's 70 weeks. Do not be late. I'm telling you an hour is not enough to talk about this prophecy which in my opinion is the most amazing prophecy in the entire Word of God and on that alone I would believe that this is God's Word because that is how amazing that prophecy is and I'll see you in two weeks thanks