Israel and Endtime Prophecy? - Thoughts, Comments, Concerns...
At the York House of Prayer something that we pray for on a regular basis is the nation Israel and the Jewish people. This is something that I have believed we needed to be praying for as I knew that they need to see Jesus! However I think God has been showing me recently that its a lot more than just that there are many endtime prophecies concerning Israel both in the New and Old testament pointing to the lastdays. I am a little new to this as I have not been led to this until recently. I would like your input into all of this and your beliefs.... I am going to post a few things from the Word that I believe has yet to be fullfilled:
Romans 11 I will post a few key verses here feel free to look it over yourself
1 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”[a]? 4 And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”[b] 5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
7 What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, 8 as it is written:
11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!
25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way[e] all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
So basically from what I understand a part of the endtime prohecy in the bible is that once "the full number of gentiles has come in" or turns to Christ they will intern reachout to the Jews who will repent and beleve in Jesus and become a literal nation on earth ruled by God.
Deuteronomy 30:1-10
1When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, 2and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3then the Lord your God will restore your fortunesa and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. 5He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. 7The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. 8You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, 10if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
So in the book of Deuteronomy there are a set of curses for rebelling against God and blessings/promises for repetence that leads obdience for Israel.
Throughout the OT the above was fullfilled to the letter ex. eatting own childrens flesh (cf. Deut.28:53, Lam 4:10).
We see a pattern of rebellion-->discipline/judement of God -> repentence --> forgiveness, restoration and blessing on the land once again...
The last Nation wide "Revival" or repentence of the Jewish Nation is recorded I believe in the book of Haggai, Ezra and Nehemiah. From that time one there were a few prophets and then nothing to the point where Israel once again fell into rebellion in the time of John the Baptist and Christ. Some people did repent but the nation as a whole did not soooo my conclusion is that the curse from all the way in the book of Deuteronomy is still in effect for Israel because they are still in rebellion to God. However I believe the promise for restoration still applies so that Israel will once again be a strong ruling nation under God and more specifically under the Kingship of Jesus Christ.
These are just a few verses and passages that have to do with Israel and endtimes so yeah if you have anything else please share
Monday, September 26, 2011
Achan
So I was listening to the book of Joshua and the Holy Spirit gave me this really awesome insight/ revelation. I hope this edifies you guys....
God is HOLY!
25And Joshua said, "Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today." And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. Joshua 7:25
So imagine that at your church things are going amazing people are coming in and hearing the Word repenting and growing in faith, when you guys worship the presence of God is there and the whole congregation is edified. God is blessing your evangelism efforts, every time your church goes out to evangelize people get saved, healed, baptized and go bring all their other friends and family to hear the gospel. No one in the church is in need of anything because everyone is caring for on another. The fellowship you share with your brothers and sisters is sweet and rich. You look forward to regular meetings with the saints.
One day all that just stops. The pastor isn't getting any insights from scripture, the worship is dead and monotonous, people are apathetic to the gospel and feel sorry that your a Christian, discouragement and fear come over the whole church, people stop going to regular meetings, the church starts to enter in debt...
And you guys pray God help us and He answers THERE IS SIN IN THE CONGREGATION.
You guys quickly start to find out who it is.....and you find out that its your best friend. He was secretly stealing money from the church.....
God says He must die stone him and his family and then burn him and all his possessions...
You guys all take him outside the church along with his family and you VIOLENTLY STONE HIM. You are crying and mourning. THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING YOUR KILLING YOUR BEST FRIEND or even your own BROTHER OR SON......
But deep inside this you know this is right. There is a cry inside you that screams: this is good, this is just, this must be done. God is Holy and the sin must be purged from among us......
So the above is a little bit of a stretch I admit and its not a good representation of what the Israelites were really going through during that time as a whole. The point of it was to try to help us understand the reality of the situation in the passage.
The closest parallel I could come up with to Achan's sin is stealing money from the church because if you read the passage before all the things were to be devoted to destruction (Joshua 6:21) So as an act of worship.
This story does give us an idea of the HOLINESS OF GOD and how that was a very REAL thing to God's people during that time and STILL is.
We are God's people today and we need to have the same attitude towards God's holiness, however we also have something greater: The revelation of GOD's LOVE through Jesus and how His mercy triumphs over judgement.
God's grace is poured out on us abundantly on us because of Christ so that We (personally) do not need to kill someone in our congregation who sins, however what does happen is that God's blessings can be withheld because of sin both corporate and personal.
I believe that one of the main reasons why we don't see God working the way we read about in the bible is because we are not fully obedient to Him as the church and harbor many other idols above Him.
Just like the Israelites failed in defeating their enemies so we are failing in winning people to Christ and many people are apathetic to God. In fact many sit in the pews week after week without even being moved a little by the love of God or their own sin.
With that in mind let us also remember that when God was moving in the early church in the book of Acts, there was also a case where people in the church were killed for their sin Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1) There have been cases recorded during powerful workings of God that people were also struck down for pretending to be filled with the Holy Spirit when they were not.
God is HOLY!
25And Joshua said, "Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today." And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. Joshua 7:25
So imagine that at your church things are going amazing people are coming in and hearing the Word repenting and growing in faith, when you guys worship the presence of God is there and the whole congregation is edified. God is blessing your evangelism efforts, every time your church goes out to evangelize people get saved, healed, baptized and go bring all their other friends and family to hear the gospel. No one in the church is in need of anything because everyone is caring for on another. The fellowship you share with your brothers and sisters is sweet and rich. You look forward to regular meetings with the saints.
One day all that just stops. The pastor isn't getting any insights from scripture, the worship is dead and monotonous, people are apathetic to the gospel and feel sorry that your a Christian, discouragement and fear come over the whole church, people stop going to regular meetings, the church starts to enter in debt...
And you guys pray God help us and He answers THERE IS SIN IN THE CONGREGATION.
You guys quickly start to find out who it is.....and you find out that its your best friend. He was secretly stealing money from the church.....
God says He must die stone him and his family and then burn him and all his possessions...
You guys all take him outside the church along with his family and you VIOLENTLY STONE HIM. You are crying and mourning. THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING YOUR KILLING YOUR BEST FRIEND or even your own BROTHER OR SON......
But deep inside this you know this is right. There is a cry inside you that screams: this is good, this is just, this must be done. God is Holy and the sin must be purged from among us......
So the above is a little bit of a stretch I admit and its not a good representation of what the Israelites were really going through during that time as a whole. The point of it was to try to help us understand the reality of the situation in the passage.
The closest parallel I could come up with to Achan's sin is stealing money from the church because if you read the passage before all the things were to be devoted to destruction (Joshua 6:21) So as an act of worship.
This story does give us an idea of the HOLINESS OF GOD and how that was a very REAL thing to God's people during that time and STILL is.
We are God's people today and we need to have the same attitude towards God's holiness, however we also have something greater: The revelation of GOD's LOVE through Jesus and how His mercy triumphs over judgement.
God's grace is poured out on us abundantly on us because of Christ so that We (personally) do not need to kill someone in our congregation who sins, however what does happen is that God's blessings can be withheld because of sin both corporate and personal.
I believe that one of the main reasons why we don't see God working the way we read about in the bible is because we are not fully obedient to Him as the church and harbor many other idols above Him.
Just like the Israelites failed in defeating their enemies so we are failing in winning people to Christ and many people are apathetic to God. In fact many sit in the pews week after week without even being moved a little by the love of God or their own sin.
With that in mind let us also remember that when God was moving in the early church in the book of Acts, there was also a case where people in the church were killed for their sin Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1) There have been cases recorded during powerful workings of God that people were also struck down for pretending to be filled with the Holy Spirit when they were not.
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