Friday, January 21, 2011

Does God Love Modern Israel And Have A Plan For Their Existence?

By Helena Lehman
Pillar of Enoch Ministry
http://pillar-of-enoch.com


As a Messianic who was first a Christian, I believe that the religious Jews who are crying out to their Ha Shem Adonai today in Israel are truly crying out to Yahweh Elohim, the triune God of Israel whom Yahshua our Messiah addressed as His true Father and our spiritual Father through the Messiah. Yahshua Ha Mashiach, a.k.a. Jesus the Christ is part of that triune godhead, so though many Jews do not realize it yet, they do worship and pray to our Messiah Yahshua, and He has not and will not ever forsake them completely. Yahshua loves His Jewish brethren just as much as He loves His Bride the mixed Israelite and Gentile Church.

According to several Scriptures I will quote in a moment, the Jews have lost their exalted place due to their position of unbelief. However, this was done so that mercy and salvation could also be extended to the Gentiles, whom the Jews despised and refused to allow into the kingdom of God unless they converted to Judaism. They had forgotten that their ancestor Abraham did not have the Law of Moses, and yet God loved him and called him a friend. Later, God also established a covenant with Abraham and all of his descendents based only on friendship and fellowship with Yahweh and the faithful worship of Him, to which the rite of circumcision was added later as a sign of the covenant.

Due to the unbelief of the Jews, there is a temporary rift between the Houses of Israel consisting of the House of Judah, or the children of God by natural birth, and the House of Ephraim, or the children of God by adoption. This rift has caused much regrettable and violent enmity to form between Jews, Lost Israelites, and Gentiles that God is deeply saddened by. This enmity shows that neither House of Israel is acting with the love, compassion and merciful forgiveness toward one another that Yahshua proclaimed as the Law of the New Covenant. Love, mercy, forgiveness and compassion are therefore the emotions and actions that are at the heart of God's Universal Law for mankind.

In order to heal this breach between these Two Houses of Israel, God will eventually lead the Jews to salvation through Christ. After this, God the Father will perform a sacred marriage between the Jews, the Gentiles and Lost Israelites at the Wedding of the Lamb of God in Heaven. At that time, Yahshua, who is a Jew in the line of King David and who represents all of the Jewish people, will marry His mixed Gentile and Israelite Bride. In doing so, Yahshua will symbolically unite Jewish and Gentile believers into one new congregation or man united in love and solidarity around their Husband, Messiah and King:

Ephesians 2:11-22 - “Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh-- who are called Uncircumcision (i.e. Gentiles) by what is called the Circumcision (i.e. Jews) made in the flesh by hands-- that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances (i.e. the Law of Moses), so as to create in Himself ONE NEW MAN (the union of Jews and Christians together as one family) from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

As a people still beloved by God though under judgment at the moment for rejecting their Messiah Yahshua and His Gentile brethren, the Jews also have a specific role to play in the End Times. As a sign that the end of this world is near, Yahshua pointed to a fig tree as a symbol of the re-birth of Israel as the beginning sign. In fact, Israel is alluded to by the fig tree that Yahshua cursed in Mathew 21:19 to symbolically reflect the past destruction of Jerusalem that came in 70 AD. However, Yahshua then spoke of the nation of Israel being re-born via another fig tree in Matthew 24:32 that would bring forth new leaves in anticipation of producing fruit for a spiritual harvest:

Matthew 21:18-19 - “Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, ‘Let no fruit grow on you ever again.’ And immediately the fig tree withered away.”

Matthew 24:32-33 - “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near-- at the doors!”

All the people who recognize the modern state of Israel as the fig tree that Yahshua referred to above are the figs or the good fruit that will be gathered in the coming soul harvest to be carried out at the Rapture(s?) and during the Tribulation period. Meanwhile, all those who don’t see modern Israel as a budding fig tree will be judged. Israel is the fulfillment of Yahweh God’s promises in the Bible that He would re-gather His people Israel back to the Promised Land before the Day of the Lord arrived. There are many Scriptures proclaiming God’s purpose for modern Israel. These state that God Himself will ensure that the Jews will be re-gathered to the Promised Land from all around the world in the Last Days:

Amos 9:14-15 - “ ‘I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,’ says the LORD your God (Yahweh your Elohim).”

Leviticus 26:44-45 - “Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God (Yahweh their Elohim). But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD (Yahweh).”

Deuteronomy 30:3-5 - “that the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.”

Ezekiel 28:25-26 - “Thus says the Lord GOD (Yahweh Elohim): ‘When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am hallowed in them in the sight of the Gentiles, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob. And they will dwell safely there, build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they will dwell securely, when I execute judgments on all those around them who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God (Yahweh their Elohim).’ ”

Jeremiah 31:8-10 - “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the one who labors with child, together; a great throng shall return there. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. Hear the word of the LORD (Yahweh), O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’ ”

Jeremiah 32:37-40 - “Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.”

Hosea 1:11 - “Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint for themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel!”

In the establishment of modern Israel, this re-gathering of the Jews to the Promised Land has begun so that Yahweh our God can judge the nations on how well they follow Yahshua’s commandment to love God and one another fully, just as He loves us. Many Scriptures tell us that God will do this by using the nation of Israel as an allegorical anvil upon which the Gentiles will be tested. In this way, the Gentile nations that come against Israel in the Last Days will be judged not only by how they treat the Jewish people residing in Israel, but also the Jews and true Christians scattered around the world both before and after the Rapture:

Joel 3:1-2 - “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.”

Zechariah 12:2-3 - “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.”

In addition to using Israel as an anvil or heavy stone upon which God will smash His enemies, Yahweh our Elohim has plans to bring all the Jews who survive the coming world conflict over Jerusalem to know and love their Messiah Yahshua. The prophet Zechariah tells us that, when the remaining Jews see Yahshua in all His Glory at His Second Coming, they will realize that the Messiah whom they rejected thousands of years before was truly the One they sought to lead and to prosper them, and they will mourn the loss that arose from their stubborn refusal to recognize this truth sooner:

Zechariah 12:9-10 - “It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”

When speaking of the salvation of his Jewish brethren in the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul made it clear that the rejection of Christ by the Jews allowed salvation to come to the Gentiles. Paul also said that the eventual salvation of the Jews will one day bring even greater blessings to the whole Body of Christ. God’s plan has always been to extend His mercy and love to the Gentiles through the disbelief and disobedience of the Jews. But His plan also includes extending His mercy back again to the Jews so that all might have the opportunity to be saved in the end:

Romans 11:9-12 - “And David says: ‘Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.’ I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!”

Romans 11:25-32 - “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”

These Scriptures make it clear that Yahweh God loves both Houses of His people Israel, both the Jews and the Gentiles and Lost Israelites that call upon Yahweh and Yahshua for help and salvation, and also that He will judge all the nations that hate either branch or House of His Chosen People. So, as believers in Yahshua, we need to stand with modern Israel and see all religious Jews as our brothers in this time of testing. Furthermore, we need to tell others that those who do not do so will be working at cross-purposes with God and they will be destroyed.

It’s time for all of us to take sides and choose whom we will serve. Will it be Yahweh God and Israel, or the Gentile Nations and the Antichrist working with Satan to destroy Israel whom you will serve? Choose now, and know that your decision will have everlasting repercussions!

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