2nd Coming, 9of11

~ The Restoration of Israel ~

Introduction  ~  Biblical prophecy is a lot like a giant jigsaw puzzle.  The creators of each have provided a clear picture of the end result.  As the puzzle is being put together, the completion is increasingly anticipated.  However, the placement, sequence, and timing of the remaining pieces is not as clear.  This series of posts would be better entitled Remaining Future Events; however, Second Coming (or Second Advent) is the common terminology which tends to lump a wide range of future events together.

The Promise of God  ~  “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’” (Romans 11:26-27).

Conviction and Conversion  ~   “In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them.  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 pierced.  Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.  In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.  And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves” (Zechariah 12:8-14).  “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness” (Zechariah 13:1).

Return To Their Land  ~  “He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:12).  “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land.  The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob.  Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors” (Isaiah 14:1-2).  “‘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” (Amos 9:14-15).

Reunion of The Tribes  ~  “‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you.  I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out.  And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face.  Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you,’ says the Lord God.  ‘I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel.  Then you will know that I am the Lord’” (Ezekiel 20:33-38).  “‘Then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,’ says the Lord, ‘as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord’” (Isaiah 66:20).  

The Earthly City  ~  “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God,

in His holy mountain.  Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.  God is in her palaces; He is known as her refuge” (Psalm 48:1-3).  “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’  Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!’” (Psalm 122:1-2).  “And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,

half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; in both summer and winter it shall occur.  And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.

In that day it shall be—‘The Lord is one,’ and His name one” (Zechariah 14:8-9).

The Center of Government  ~  “Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’  For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:2).  “In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely.  And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 33:16).  

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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Only One Nation, 2

~ On This 66th Anniversary of the Modern State of Israel ~

This post is about a few major events regarding the survival of the tiny nation of Israel.  It is sequenced in reverse chronological order.

Today’s Troubled Middle East  ~  Almost everyone alive today is well aware of the seemingly perilous position the tiny nation of Israel finds itself.  It is surrounded by much larger and seemingly more powerful nations such as Iraq, which is developing nuclear weapons at an alarming pace and has an avowed objective of wiping Israel off the map.  Meanwhile Israel’s historically most powerful ally—the United States—has been reducing its military capability and sending multiple signals that its historically strong support for Israel could by lessening. 

The Six-Day War  ~  During June 5-10, 1967, the Six-Day War occurred between tiny Israel and surrounding larger Arab nations (Egypt—then UAR, Jordan, and Syria).  Wikipedia summarizes it this way, “Within six days, Israel had won a decisive land war. Israeli forces had taken control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.”

The Re-establishment of Israel  ~  The nation of Israel was officially re-established in their homeland—fulfilling Biblical prophecy—on May 14, 1948.  As a result, the Arab-Israeli War erupted and the tiny nation of Israel defeated a military coalition of surrounding Arab nations. 

The Historical Record  ~  “In all history, going back to the time when God created man upon the earth, search from one end of the heavens to the other to see if you can find anything like this: an entire nation heard the voice of God speaking to it from fire, as you did, and lived!  Where else will you ever find another example of God’s removing a nation from its slavery by sending terrible plagues, mighty miracles, war, and terror?  Yet that is what the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, right before your very eyes.  He did these things so you would realize that Jehovah is God, and that there is no one else like him.  He let you hear His voice instructing you from heaven, and He let you see His great pillar of fire upon the earth; you even heard His words from the center of the fire.  It was because He loved your ancestors and chose to bless their descendants that He personally brought you out from Egypt with a great display of power.  He drove away other nations greater by far than you and gave you their land as an inheritance, as it is today.  This is your wonderful thought for the day: Jehovah is God both in heaven and down here upon the earth; and there is no God other than Him!  You must obey these laws that I will tell you today, so that all will be well with you and your children, and so that you will live forever in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 4:32-40, TLB).

“For you are a holy people, dedicated to the Lord your God.  He has chosen you from all the people on the face of the whole earth to be His own chosen ones.  He didn’t choose you and pour out His love upon you because you were a larger nation than any other, for you were the smallest of all!  It was just because He loves you, and because He kept His promise to your ancestors.  That is why He brought you out of slavery in Egypt with such amazing power and mighty miracles” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8, TLB).

Important Note  ~  The fact that God has a chosen nation does not give them an advantage regarding salvation.  Israelites are individually responsible for coming to God by faith in the shed blood of The Messiah just as Gentiles are (i.e., Hebrews 11).

A related Abundant Life Post, “Only One Nation,” was posted on April 11, 2013. 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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If you would prefer to copy this post, please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight (http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/).

God’s Jewels

~ Differences Between a Pearl and Other Jewels. ~

Do you understand Biblical jewels?

The following is an excerpt from a book.

Jewels  ~  In contrast we find that Israel is God’s chosen and “peculiar treasure,” and the Jews are referred to as “jewels.” For instance, we read at the close of the Old Testament concerning the faithful remnant, “a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. ‘They shall be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘on the day that I make them My jewels’” (Malachi 3:16-17 NKJV). At the close of the New Testament we read regarding the New Jerusalem: “The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone” (Revelation 21:19, emphasis added).

Pearl  ~  There are a number of interesting differences between precious stones and the gem that we call a pearl. We will not take time to develop these but only mention some aspects for your contemplation. Jewels are faceted by man, suggestive of the Law, but anything man does to a pearl reduces its value. Jewels may be observed before their final state or condition, but the formation of a pearl is a mysterious, hidden process, unknown until finished—only a small percentage of oysters produce a pearl, and once removed from the mollusk it cannot be improved upon.

Pearls are gently built, layer-by-layer, as the oyster adds a coating of its very nature to a foreign particle—eventually transforming it into an item possessing the same kind of beauty as that which formed it; the Church is being formed individual by individual, and eventually will possess the beauty of Christ. Jewels are typically formed by intense pressure, heat, or chemical action that transforms what exists into a different form. They are among the most durable and permanent objects known to mankind. The Jewish nation is a survivor; the nation of Israel has throughout history been subjected to greater and more intense pressure from surrounding nations than any other nation on earth.

Pearls are among the most delicate of gems, with a relatively short lifespan of about 300 years; the Church is God’s instrument for a relatively short time in history between our Lord’s first and second comings—after that the Church will be with all the saints of all time in the New Jerusalem.

~ from “ONE PRECIOUS PEARL: God’s Design for His Church, pgs 98-99  (ISBN: 9780741462329)

Learn more about this important book at Amazon, the Publisher, or the Author’s website.

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW