God condemned the Jews to wander until the Messiah came but blessed all the other tribes of Israel with a national heritage? Makes sense? Is God fair? Is Israel much more holy than Judah? Or could it be, as Herbert W. Armstrong taught in The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, that the punishment of Israel was to last 2,520 years (Lev. 26:21)?
After that time, around AD 1800, because of Abraham’s obedience, God decreed that He would bestow His blessings. Did those 2,520 years of punishment apply only to the Northern Kingdom of Israel? Does God have double standards? Once God removed the Kingdom of Judah, wasn’t it His responsibility? restore at the appointed time?
Did the Anglo-Saxon and European peoples take these prophecies into their own hands? Were they able to create their countries without divine mandate, signs and wonders, or prophetic leadership?
For those with eyes to see, the Biblical countries came into being by divine command, as only God determines the rise and fall of nations. Many of our founding fathers were inspired by God, despite themselves, to achieve our Manifest Destiny. God’s overall plan is bigger than any individual man.
God prompted Theodore Herzl to inspire the Jewish people with the biblical idea of having a Jewish state again. He wrote and spoke extensively about it, planting the seeds of holy imagination in Judah’s mind.
Later, during the British Mandate, the British began to “look favorably” on the establishment of an independent Jewish homeland, watering that sacred seed. The Balfour Declaration was part of a divine mandate to restore Judah to “Palestine” (a satanic word the Romans used in an evil attempt to wipe the name of our father Israel off the map – Ps. 83:4).
God used political Zionism for his purposes, just as he used America’s rebellion against the English throne. On the surface, neither was so special or fair, but both were instrumental in fulfilling the prophecy.
As for the treatment of the ancient inhabitants of the lands God decreed for His people, whether they be Arabs or Indians, I am sure the Canaanites would offer scathing condemnation, but others would see that God’s purpose is being fulfilled, however imperfectly. for limited human vision. God addresses any injustice in His own way and in His own time (2 Samuel 21:1-14), but dismisses charges that exaggerate or exploit them to deny our basic Biblical right to the lands He has chosen for us (Acts 17:26).
Just as the Greeks are representatives of all Gentiles, the Jews are representatives of all Israel. It is to Israel, specifically to the Jews, that God has entrusted the “words of God” (Rom. 3:2). The oracles of God include the DIVINE COVENANTS AND PROMISES (Rom. 9:4-5). The Jews hold, in trust, Biblical title/covenant to the Holy Land for all the Twelve Tribes.
GOD MADE AN LAND COVENANT WITH ISRAEL (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; 26:3; 28:13; 35:12). Not once did God promise the Holy Land to the “Palestinians,” so Bible believers must reject their illegitimate claims. Those who try to justify the foreign occupation of our land or the terrible treatment of our people because of our sins are condemning themselves before God (Isaiah 47:6; Jeremiah 50:7; Zechariah 1:15).
There are many Scriptures that speak of a REPRESENTATIVE AMOUNT OF JEWS living in Israel prior to the return of King Messiah, Yeshua. Shamefully, God’s ministers, and consequently God’s Church, have often been blind to what God is doing in Israel today. We have not been able to see the wonders that God has worked, the guy that announce greater things to come.
We have been ignorant of the Biblical principle of duality and they have scrutinized the prophecies demanding all or nothing. With that limited vision, we would have argued with Peter on Pentecost/Shavuot about the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. However, it certainly was – partly (Acts 2:16-21).
Consider the following:
God promised to “save Zion and build the cities of Judah” (Ps. 69:35). (He does not refer to them as “Palestinian” cities.) God has faithfully done so by rewarding Jewish efforts (Annuit Coeptus) and respecting their blood, sweat, and tears (Isa. 61:4; Ps. 102:13-14). God has used the Jews to make the desert bloom like the rose and protected them during this conversion process, just as Moses requested (Deut. 33:7).
I praise God for blessing me, from Toledo to Jerusalem, to have lived on eight kibbutzim (collective farms) across Israel that have helped fulfill these pioneering prophecies, including during Operation Desert Storm.
God clearly prophesied through Zechariah chapters 12-14 that the Jews again they would be living in their old capital of Jerusalem, with their own rulers, and that the “United Nations” would oppose them and ultimately be defeated.
Zechariah also shows the long-awaited recognition of Yeshua by the Jews as the Son of God and the Firstborn of Judah and the sincere repentance of the political (House of David) and religious (House of Levi) establishment. In fact, Yeshua said that the Jews in Jerusalem would never see him again. until they had this necessary change of heart (Matt. 23:39).
Zechariah also reveals that the Jews would once again be a tremendous military power in the Middle East with God working in and through them. many israelis know that God has been his true General and has performed many miracles in his favor. I have heard Gershon Salomon, president of Temple Mount Faithful, recount many times his miraculous experience of divine protection on the Golan Heights.
It is important to note that God has inspired the holy prophets to write about real Jews living in Israel, not Jewish impostors.
Because? Because those who suffer from the disease of anti-Semitism are willing to sow doubt and confusion about Israel’s Jewish identity. They publish slanderous hate literature that attempts to poison the minds against Jews by promoting quack racial theories and Nazi propaganda.
It is nothing less than Satan’s desperate efforts to deny that God has the power to fulfill prophecy. Bible believers reject his bitter lies knowing that God’s Word is true.
Zechariah also agrees with New Testament prophecies that reveal Jerusalem as a prosperous Jewish city that will suffer under harsh Gentile occupation just before the Messiah arrives (Rev. 11:2; Zech. 14:2).
Yeshua will liberate Jerusalem and secure it as His headquarters. Jerusalem, the site of David’s Throne, will be the seat of God’s government. Yeshua, like the prophet Daniel, foresaw that the Jewish-Christians would live and work in a Jewish State. They will witness the historic restoration of animal sacrifices and its abrupt cessation by an evil European force, quickly followed by the “abomination of desolation” that unleashes World War III (Matthew 24:15-16; Dan. 12:11).
In the meantime, the Church of God (or select individuals if the Church continues to shirk its responsibility) must ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE CITIES OF JUDAH (the prophecy it’s not refer to them as “Palestinian” or “Israeli-occupied” cities) that the Messiah is about to appear!
We must boldly offer Judah the hope and comfort that TRUE PEACE is coming and prepare for it (Isaiah 40:1-3). We must help prepare Israel for the impact of a GLORIFIED YESHUA FINALLY REVEALED (vs. 5) and lead them to expect an audience with a DIVINE KING whose ROYAL RADIANCE will illuminate all nations.
We must identify Yeshua as the “Son of Man” from Heaven that Daniel anticipated (Dan. 7:13-14), and emphasize that Zechariah gave an “eyewitness account” of this same DIVINE SAVIOR descending from Heaven to reign as LORD. from Jerusalem. over all the earth (Zechariah 14:3-4, 9, 16).
Remember that this is not a small task and it is quite controversial, since the Jews are still waiting for a human leader who will save them from all their problems.
The Two Witnesses will be the most influential in reaching the cities of Judah from Jerusalem (Isaiah 40:9; 52:7-8), effectively knowing their mindset and culture (unlike so many others), but God’s Church has yet to do what we can now.
These exciting Scriptures clearly prove (they are not assumptions) that nothing is impossible with God: the Jews would again be living in an independent Israel, risen from the dust of history just before the coming of the Messiah, with Jerusalem as its capital, complete with a effective fighting force, having been restored to their ancient cities and energetically transforming the land from arid desert to productive fields – all with God’s blessing (Ezekiel 37:1-14).
These Scriptures glorify God as faithful and we should praise Him because His Word is good and true. Amen.