Explaining Israel to the Church

When God called me to the nation of Israel many years ago in an epic dream, he told me that I must stand with Israel when all the nations of the world turn against Israel.

Israel was still popular and considered the underdog, likened to David defeating Goliath, when I experienced that dream after the Six Day War.

But now the tables have turned, as Zechariah prophesies the words of the LORD in Chapter 14: 2-3,

“For I will gather all the nations for battle against Jerusalem. . . . the LORD will go out to fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.”

Part of my Spirt-led mission is to explain Israel to the Church (that is to real born-again believers and not just to the “pretend” Christians who honor God with their lips but their hearts have not been regenerated.)

Because not every church-goer is a real believer, my task requires much discernment. Not every professing Christian is teachable. Trying to convince certain individuals is a waste of energy. The gift of the discerning of spirits saves a lot of time.

However, if a person is a born-again Spirit-filled believer, chances are he or she will submit to the eschatological teachings contained within the Word of God that point to God’s desire to bring the Jewish people home to their own land.

In fact, in Jeremiah 32: 41, God states, “Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.”

Friends, that is strong, emotional language. God says he is going to transplant his people from the nations back into the Holy Land, and he is going to do this not half-heartedly but “with all My heart and all My soul.” That’s big. That’s major.

For many decades Israel enjoyed surprising fresh support from Bible-believing evangelicals, and this has been a respite to many beleaguered Israelis.

However, in more recent times, apologists for the terrorists have managed to convince many Christians that Israel is the bad guy.

A case in point was expressed as a comment on my Facebook wall this week. I’d posted a meme saying that real Christians support the Jewish people to which a professing Christian argued, saying the following:

“Jesus was quick to call out hypocrisy and evil among his own people the Jews and he was quick to challenge their complacency or wrong thinking, for example with the tale of the Good Samaritan. Because he cared about them, he was willing to challenge them. I have no doubt that he would have challenged today’s twisted thinking by telling a similar story but featuring a Palestinian” (rather than a Samaritan).

His suggestion that Jesus would substitute a Palestinian in a Good Samaritan-type parable seems logical, and very current, if all that was needed is for Israel to be chastised.

But these are what the Bible calls the End Times when Israel is, in fact, being restored and misunderstood.

Our day is not the dispensation when the Almighty will continue to chastise his people. This is the time of a prophetic paradigm shift when Jesus will be reconciled with his Jewish family. Jesus doesn’t have harsh words for the Jews. In fact, he forgave them 2,000 years ago, and in Zechariah 13, upon his return, when the Israelis examine his wounds, they will ask him, verse 6, “What are these wounds in your hands?” And he will not speak harshly but will answer, “These are the wounds that I received in the house of my friends.”

Indeed, we are transitioning into the time when nations will be judged while Israel, having paid double for their sins, will be restored. This is the mystery of Israel (Romans 11: 25) but the justice of God. He sees the bigger picture.

This is not the time when Jews are to be upbraided continually. Having passed through the pogroms and the Holocaust and a 2,000 year exile, the time of their punishment and warfare has come to an end according to the Word of God in Isaiah 40: 1-2,

“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double for all her sins.”

Now is the time of Israel’s restoration according to hundreds of Biblical prophecies.

Meanwhile, Israel is in transition in this period from the Church Age to the restoration of the Messianic Kingdom. Presently, but not for long, Israel is a secular state that can make mistakes. However, the Holy Spirit is prophesied to be outpoured upon the resurrected army and nation, as Ezekiel 37-39 prophesies.

“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’ ” (Ezekiel 37: 12-14)

Furthermore Ezekiel 37 speaks of the Israeli army becoming “exceedingly great,” but the next step prophetically is the breathing of the Spirit of God upon them. That chapter also prophesies the resuscitation and reunification of the kingdom of Judah and Joseph (Ephraim), representing Israel, into one nation once again called Israel. In verse 22, God says, “and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.”

I advise all truth seekers to study Ezekiel 36, 37, 38 and 39 because these prophetic chapters read like today’s headline news.

Fighting on seven fronts while the world demands that they always lose a war, the IDF have been the most ethical army possible by alerting civilians beforehand of their campaigns. The Israeli government repeatedly has sent humanitarian aid to their enemy, something not required of other armies or besieged nations.

The amount of aid sent into Gaza versus other suffering peoples who do not receive even a portion of that amount is staggering.

I want to shout it from the housetops: The Lord also loves the Arabs! Bible prophecies predict that the Arabs will come up to Jerusalem during the Millenium to worship King Messiah Yeshua. God will have compassion on all the children of Abraham as he has promised in Isaiah 19, when a highway of peace will extend from Egypt through Israel up to Assyria. We are praying prophetically into this time.

Meanwhile, the resurgence of antisemitism in the world today is demonic and must be countered and condemned by the Church.

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