“Thus
says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the
moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves
roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: “If this fixed order departs From before
Me,” declares the LORD, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From
being a nation before Me forever.” Thus says the LORD, “If the heavens above
can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I
will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done,”
declares the LORD." Jeremiah
31:35-37 NASB
Although
I doubt very much they would pay much attention to this word from God, it would
appear to me that all of those peoples and nations who believe the world would
be a better place without Israel should read this passage and sit up and take
notice. The truth is, God makes it
perfectly clear that the nation of Israel is His, and only He and He alone will
determine their fate. The God of this
universe has chosen and set apart a people of His own and placed them on a
particular piece of land for them to possess with the promise that He will be
with them and bless them as long as they abide by the covenant He made with
Abraham.
“On the
same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants
I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River
Euphrates” Genesis 15:18 NKJV
“And I
will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in
their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your
descendants after you. “Also I give to you and your descendants after you the
land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting
possession; and I will be their God.” And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you
shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their
generations.” Genesis 17:7-9 NKJV
Of
course, as we all know, several times they have violated the covenant and as a
result been “temporarily” evicted, but true to His Word, God has always
restored them. This might be the part of the story that those nations who
oppose Israel’s existence should pay more attention to because over the course
of history, events have proved without a doubt that God always keeps His
word. Unfortunately for those who oppose
Israel, they have chosen to ignore or deny the role that God has played, and
will play in Israel’s future when the nations will again try to erase Israel
from the map.
“You
will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will
be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the
nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.” Ezekiel 38:16 NKJV
We
know that the time is very close when what has been prophesied for Israel’s “latter
days” will come to pass. God
intends to use His people to send a message to the world, but truth be told
there will be a time of judgment against the nation of Israel that begs the
question just what other parts of the covenant have they ignored to prompt God
to act in the manner He has said that He will?
If you are familiar at all with His covenant with Israel it seems
apparent that there are at least two major transgressions that His people have
chosen to ignore, prompting God to act as He has said He will. The first is the attempt to bring about peace
with their enemies by giving away parts of the land that according to the
covenant is not theirs to give, and the second is their failure as a nation to
worship the one true God.
In
Genesis 17 God tells His people that the covenant He is making with them is an
“everlasting” one. I wonder if the word
everlasting was put in there because God knew the time would come when Israel
would start giving away part of the land to their enemies in an attempt to buy peace
instead of trusting God to protect them as He has done in the past. Did you notice
as well that part of the covenant was an affirmation that He was to be their
God? As we see Israel giving away parts of God's gift of the land, obviously in
violation of the covenant, the natural next question is are they in violation
of the other part of the covenant as well? From His own words, it seems evident that God
thinks so.
"Therefore
say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "I do not do this for
your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have
profaned among the nations wherever you went. ”And I will sanctify My great
name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in
their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD," says the Lord
GOD, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.” Ezekiel 36:22-23 NKJV
The
word in Ezekiel 37 for "hallowed" is “qadash” which literally means to be set apart, or be consecrated.
The time is coming when God will use the nation of Israel in such a way as to
show the world that He is the only true God. We know that the events found in
Isaiah 17 and Ezekiel 38-39 are next on Israel’s prophetic timeline. God will
defend His land, and sanctify His name by reminding Israel of the terms of this
"everlasting" covenant. The severity of this judgment will result in
Israel finally acknowledging Him as their God and Savior and they will
"set Him apart" from all others.
“if My
people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My
face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will
forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV
“I will set My glory among the nations; all
the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I
have laid on them. “So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD
their God from that day forward.”
Ezekiel 39:21-22 NKJV
Keep
watching.
Just an additional
note. It seems from the comments I have received that many others have noticed
the “coincidences” that keep occurring and which I have mentioned a time or
two. With that in mind, I thought you
might another. Isaiah 17, the destruction
of Damascus, appears to be the next event on Israel’s prophetic calendar. The Bible mentions another city which became
a “heap of ruins” at the hand of Israel which I am sure most of you have heard
of. I’m talking about the city of
Jericho. The destruction of Damascus
foretold in Isaiah 17 will be, by most accounts, the result of a nuclear strike
by Israel. I was reading an article just
last night on the attack this past week in Syria “supposedly” by Israel, which
is assumed because Israel has a policy of never revealing their missions. This article spoke of the fact that the
attack was by surface to surface missiles rather than by the air force, which
has been their favored method in the past.
The article goes on to mention that in the case of launching a nuclear
attack as far away as Damascus, Israel only has one missile in its inventory
capable of successfully carrying out that attack. It’s called the “Jericho”. Keep watching.
