Jesus said to the Samaritan woman:
"You worship what you do not know,
we know what we worship,
for salvation is of the Jews."
John 4:22
Many people who are not familiar with the Bible might be surprised to hear that Jesus was Jewish, and his mother Mary was Jewish. The twelve apostles were Jews. God's story from Genesis to Revelation is all about the Jews. It began with the Jews and it will end with the Jews.
We're approaching the last of the last days, and Israel is now in the news daily. Imagine it - a nation that was destroyed two thousand years ago and its people dispersed throughout the world - is now back in our news media daily, two thousand years later.
History shows us that when a nation is conquered, after a couple of generations it has been completely assimilated into the conquering peoples. When was the last time you heard of Amalekites, Perezites, Hittites, or Jebusites? They all disappeared from history, having been absorbed into the nations that conquered them.
Not so with the Jews. How could a people survive 2,000 years of dispersion into every country on earth, yet remain a people - AND - be brought back to the very land from which they were dispersed two thousand years before, and speaking the same ancient language long forgotten - as though they had never left? Impossible!
How could a people become as modern as the most modern city in America or anywhere else - in just 77 plus years? The nations surrounding her have been there for thousands of years, yet they have not accomplished in those thousands of years what God has accomplished in Israel in just 77 years!
What does God mean by all of this? What is he trying to show us?
God called out a people, the Jewish people, to demonstrate many truths about himself through them. And one of those truths is his faithfulness to his Word. He swore a covenant oath to them that after enduring his judicial punishment for those 2,000 years, HE would bring them back to the land of their fathers and totally restore them, and that all the prophecies of "the last days" would come to pass through them.
Do not think that the Middle East conflict is accidental. No, God has DELIBERATELY brought Israel back to the land that Satan has DELIBERATELY surrounded with enemies brainwashed to hate her and ceaselessly planning to destroy her. God will demonstrate his power over every enemy and God's name will be glorified.
"But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up,
that I may show my power through you
and that my name may be declared in all the earth."
Exodus 9:16
Back when Israel was scattered, there was no Islam. Mohammed wouldn't be born for centuries to come. Islam is the last-days creation of Satan - who has succeeded in surrounding the nation of Israel with Muslims whose Satanic religion demands that they kill the Jews and drive Israel off the map. Today, Israel's enemies outnumber her 500 to 1. Does she have a chance against those odds? Not unless her God gives her the victory.
The day after Israel was born in 1948, few in number, weak survivors of the Holocaust, she was attacked by five surrounding Arab nations who had been established for centuries. There is no way imaginable that she could survive it. Yet she did. Because the God of Israel gave the victory.
This story is not so much the conflict between Ishmael, the father of the Arabs, and Isaac the father of the Jews. No, this is Satan against God. And God has laid it out in such a way that SATAN HAS EVERY ADVANTAGE, the purpose being that God's faithfulness will be undeniable when he brings to pass the total restoration that he promised Israel and which the prophets of the Old Testament foretold over and over and over again - before Israel was ever even scattered.
God shows himself as knowing the end from the beginning, prophesying beforehand what will be the outcome. Imagine the prophets back then, prophesying the end - when the scattering of the Jews throughout the world hadn't even taken place yet. No other god could even come close to accomplishing this.
No other religion contains prophecy, because Satan does not know the future, except what is revealed in the Word of God. The God of Israel, and ONLY HE, proves himself by the fulfillment of ancient prophecy which was given thousands of years before.
And therefore we know he will be faithful to the promises made to US as well, through the atonement made for us in his Son, Jesus Christ. God's Word is faithful. God's Word stands forever.
MORE:
God's Covenant With Israel
"For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though he causes grief, yet he will show compassion according to the multitude of his mercies." Lamentations 3:31-32 There are those who believe that all grief comes from the devil. That IS often the case, but sometimes suffering is the result of reaping what was sowed. And in other cases, grief comes because of sins our parents or grandparents sowed. At first, this doesn't seem right - why would God bring grief upon one's descendants? But it becomes obvious when you consider "traits" that seem to go down to the generations. If a man is a thief, oftentimes his children will be like him. If a man is an alcoholic, oftentimes his children will be also. If a woman is promiscuous her daughter may be likewise. Sin oftentimes "runs in families." "The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but he BY NO MEANS CLEARS THE GUILTY, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children TO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION." Numbers 14:18 But there is hope. God is "abundant in mercy." No matter what sin or weakness or "trait" we find operating in us, those who turn to the Lord will find in him forgiveness and a wealth of mercy. When a person is "born again," he or she is made new. And then the Lord begins in him or her the long process of setting him free and healing the wounds and traumas that sin caused. Jesus said: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he has sent me to HEAL THE BROKENHEARTED, to proclaim LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; Luke 4:18 If you have been enslaved by sin, ANY sin, ANY bondage, if you have been traumatized, if you have suffered because of sin - whether your own or that of your parents before you, Jesus is standing there waiting for you to come to him so he can heal your broken heart and bring the end of your captivity. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become NEW." 2nd Corinthians 5:17 Pray this way: "Lord, I am so enslaved by sin, I am so traumatized because of it, I am so hopelessly bound in "traits" that came down to me from my parents. I had given up, Lord, because it was beyond my control. I fought it for awhile but found I just could not overcome it. But I see in your Word that you came to set the captive free and to bring liberty to those who are bound and oppressed, and right now I ask you to bring me into your Kingdom, set me free and heal my broken heart. I give my life over to your Lordship and ask you to become my Savior and the very Lord of my life. I ask for the forgiveness of my sins and pray you to take my broken heart and heal me. Give me that new life your Word speaks of. I surrender all to you. He will!
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy
and where thieves break in and steal;
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust destroys
and where thieves do not break in and steal;
for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-21
When a young person matures, he begins to plan what he wants in life and the path he must take to succeed. There is nothing wrong with this, in fact the wise person will carefully prepare for the future. He spends a lot of time searching out all he will need to do to reach his goal; he speaks with many whose lives are similar to the career he desires, and applies himself to be and do all that is necessary to establish his way. God forbid that he should be like the fool who spends his life eating, drinking, and being merry - what a waste of a human life. No, the wise will avoid those things that can only hold him back from the way he needs to go.
But as in all things pertaining to life in this world, there’s a danger in it. The danger resides in his motives. If the career he plans for himself is purposed to acquire wealth, then he’s missed the point and later will discover that wealth does not bring him the happiness he hoped for. When he has houses and lands and automobiles, and things for recreation, he will realize that he’s missed what’s really important.
Indeed Jesus spoke to this. He taught that wealth is fleeting. Wealth is subject to loss. Things that one loves will grow old and deteriorate. Nothing is certain in this world – absolutely nothing. The Lord taught that this life goes downhill, people and things age, health and wealth are not a sure thing ...and then what?
Jesus taught the wisdom of seeing this world for what it is. Temporary. Very temporary. But, he said, there is another world which all will come to, some to heaven, some to hell. What one does with his short journey through this life will determine the quality of his life in the world to come. Salvation is an entirely separate issue, and one who is born again is safe under the covering of the Atonement Jesus has provided. But once that is established ...what one does with his life while on earth will determine his status and rewards in heaven. And those things will not fade away, they are eternal.
If everything on earth is temporary and passing away, does it not make more sense to focus on the life to come which is forever?
It takes wisdom to understand this, because we’re talking about the world we see now versus the world which we don’t see and know little about. It takes more than wisdom, it takes faith - faith in the words of Jesus Christ who revealed these things for anyone who will believe him. Without faith, one is left to himself in his short and temporary journey. Having thought little about the world to come, which is eternal, he foregoes the opportunity to lay up for himself the treasures that really matter, treasures in heaven which will last forever.
“Our greatest fear should not be fear of failure,
but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.”
-Dwight L. Moody
So. What really matters? What makes up these treasures which will be forever?
The answer to that is that each one must take a good and somber look at himself, take note of the uniqueness of his personality, his makeup, his talents, and seek to know from the Lord how he can INVEST all that he has and all that he is for ...eternity. It takes seeking the will of God for one’s life in prayer, fasting, spending time before the Lord, until the Lord reveals to him his plan for his life, and then applying himself to use all he has for the sake of fulfilling that plan.
How could anything be more important?
Let your treasure be in what really matters. Should you spend your life this way, at the end you will have the fruits of a life well spent, with eternal reward that will never grow old or deteriorate, and that will be joy forever. And then you will hear from the Lord:
“Well done, good and faithful servant;
you were faithful over a few things,
I will make you ruler over many things.
Enter into the JOY of your Lord.”
Matthew 25:21
