Is The World’s Problem With Israel?

Transcript

GRM 965
7/30/2006
Is the World’s Problem with Israel?
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


We have to talk about today—Israel. It’s on everybody’s mind. What we’re going to do is look at the matter of prophecy but not prophecy generally. I want to look at just the matter of Israel and some foundational matters. And we’re going to have to do this in two parts.

These are crucial days and things we need to be aware of, we need to understand what is going on in the world today. And tonight I want to talk a little bit about, since we’re not going to get to it today, God’s plan for the salvation of Arab nations. We sometimes are familiar with God’s promises of judgment on them in passages like Ezekiel 38, but there are specific millennial promises for salvation of countries like Jordan and Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the Old Testament. So I’m going to be saying some things today, but I want you to keep in mind the whole picture hasn’t been given and we’ll be doing some of this tonight as well.

Background for everything. You know you turn on the news and this is all that’s been in the news and all of us have probably been enthralled and captivated by what is going on. And we're just reminded—you cannot get away from Israel. No matter what is going on, no matter where it’s going on in the world, something happens there and everybody’s attention is drawn back. And you can’t get away from the fact the Jews are a problem. I’ve been interested listening to some commentary, even some that we might say have a conservative bent in a variety of areas, who are saying the problem is the Jews. And our problem in the United States is that we have sided with the Jews and we don’t really need the Jews. And it’s not really in our benefit to be viewed as just the Jews’ ally. Now I realize the United States has been a friend of the Jews, but I have to agree the Jews are the problem. And that is the issue.

So in one sense these people are right, the Muslims are right—the Jews are the problem. But their reasons are not the right ones. The reason the Jews are the problem in the world today is God chose them to be His people. And when He chose them to be His people that means that they have become the center of the hatred of satan, the enemy of God. And there is no resolution to that problem because satan is unwilling to compromise on this, and of course God will not compromise anything.

Turn to Revelation 12. You want to summarize world events, do it in two statements—God chose Israel, satan hates Israel. Now we’re going to go to Revelation 12 because before we go to the Old Testament I want to carry you to a yet future time, and nothing is going to change until Jesus Christ personally stands on the earth again. We need to keep this in mind, all of us. As we watch the news, as we read articles we find ourselves getting emotionally worked up. We say, why don’t they do this, why don’t they do that, why did they do this, why did they do that? You understand there is a sovereign hand behind it all. God is moving all things toward His appointed end. When you come to Revelation 12, we’re going to come to events that take place in the yet future. There is a 7-year period of time, as most of you are aware, we can’t go back and review all these, 7-year period of time left to complete God’s program with the nation Israel in preparing them for the kingdom that Jesus Christ will establish on the earth. At the end of that 7-year period Christ will personally return to earth, establish His kingdom, and Israel will be the heart of that kingdom, Jerusalem will be the capital of the world. We have not yet entered into that 7-year period, don’t misunderstand me. But when we read Revelation 12 we’re reading a yet-future event.

Note how Revelation 12 begins. A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet. And on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was with child and she cried out being in labor and in pain to give birth. I was watching a person being interviewed on the news this week and he was some kind of religious figure, you could tell by his garb, outfit. And he was saying, well part of the problem is so many religious people want to take the book of Revelation literally, it was never intended to be taken literally. It’s just a figurative account of the relentless battle between good and evil in the world. Well I beg to disagree. The book of Revelation is meant to be taken literally. Well we read Revelation 12:1 and say, what do you make out of this? A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and on her head a crown with 12 stars. How are you going to take that literally? Well when you interpret the Bible literally you still have symbols and figures of speech. You interpret them literally. We’re having fire problems in our country. We had them in California, we’re having them in Nebraska. We use expressions like that—spread like wildfire. You say what do you mean by that? Oh I think he meant he’s going to the Dairy Queen to get a blizzard. That wouldn’t be a figure of speech that would make any sense. You can’t use that kind of figure of speech. We understand that when something spreads like wildfire, it has a definite, literal meaning.

Now to understand Revelation 12:1 you just have to have some Old Testament background. Understand approximately two out of every three verses, it’s really more than that but that’s close enough, two out of every three verses in the book of Revelation contain a reference or an allusion to the Old Testament. The reason people have such a hard time with the book of Revelation is that we’re basically ignorant of the Old Testament. I was surprised in my Bible with its great marginal cross references doesn’t have a reference for the symbol used in verse 1—Genesis 37:9-10. Go back there, we’re only doing this one, the rest of them you have to take my word for.

Genesis 37. How do we know what this woman is and so on, what’s the representation? Joseph has had some dreams, he’s telling his dreams to his family. That will increase the animosity between Joseph and his brothers. Now note, we’ll pick up with the second dream in verse 9. Now he had still another dream and related it to his brothers and said, Lo I have had still another dream. And behold the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars were bowing down to me. That sounds like Revelation 12:1. A woman clothed with the sun, the moon and a crown of 12 stars. And here you have the sun, the moon and 11 stars, Joseph is the 12th, but he’s relating the dream, so it’s about his 11 brothers. Well what does it mean? He related it to his father, to his brothers. His father rebuked him, he understands perfectly what the dream is about. What is this dream that you've had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground? The sun, the moon and the 11 stars represent us—your father, your mother and your brothers. Who are they? Jacob. What was Jacob’s name as God changed it? Israel. Who are the 11 brothers, and then you have Joseph to make 12. They are the 12 patriarchs of Israel. The woman clothed with the sun, the moon and the 12 stars represents the nation Israel. I mean it’s not as hard to know, like scratch our head and say I wonder it means. We read Revelation, but if we go back to the Old Testament reference it’s clear, it’s even interpreted for us . And any Jew would recognize it. The descendants of Jacob through the 12 patriarchs, his 12 sons, that’s Israel. We have the 12 tribes of Israel, who come from the 12 sons of Jacob.

So Revelation 12:1. John sees a sign in heaven and it refers to Israel. And this woman is about to give birth to a child, and the child will be Christ. He was born a descendant of Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob. Then another sign appeared in heaven. Behold a great red dragon having 7 heads and 10 horns and on his head were 7 diadems. You see the book of Revelation is a mysterious book, you just can’t understand it. Why not? The great red dragon. That sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Well it’s a symbolic representation of a fierce personage. I know who it is, it’s the devil. How do I know? Come down to verse 9, then the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and satan and who deceives the whole world. So there is no mystery, the great red dragon refers to the devil. I didn’t have to have a special revelation from God, I just had to read on. You read what went before and read what went after and usually things come together. So here you have satan.

Now I want you to note something, behold a great red dragon having 7 heads and 10 horns, and on his heads were 7 diadems. Remember I told you we’re just going to go back to the Old Testament on the first reference, we can’t go back again. If we were going back we’d go to the Daniel 7, and there we could find the significance of the 7 heads and the 10 horns and the 7 heads wearing diadems, because there we would find out the 7 heads refer to 7 earthly empires. There are diadems on them because the diadem is the crown of a ruler. The 10 horns as we find out both in Daniel 7 and as we proceed through the book of Revelation refers to the final form of western world government. The tail of the dragon sweeps away a third of the stars of heaven. And we’ll read on in a moment in chapter 12 and the reference will be to angels who joined satan in his rebellion against God and are going to be cast out of heaven.

The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. What happened here is the devil’s desire and attempt, when Jesus Christ was born, to destroy Him. And we’re all aware of the account of the birth of Christ and then Herod’s attempt to slay Him by having the children in Bethlehem under 2 years of age killed. And satan thought he could thwart God’s plan, the Messiah is crucified, but then we read in verse 5. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God and to His throne. What happened? Christ was crucified; Acts 1, He ascends to heaven. Now between verses 5-6 there are almost 2000 years. How do we know? Then the woman fled into the wilderness, Israel, remember, is the woman, verse 1, where she had a place prepared by God so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days. 1,260 days. A year in prophetic scripture is rounded off to 360 days. So you divide 1,260 days by 360 and you have 3½ years. And if that doesn’t clarify it for us, when you get to Revelation 13:5, the last statement says he has authority to act for 42 months. How long is 42 months? 3½ years. In chapter 12 the end of verse 14, it will be called a time, 2 times and a half time. All this goes back to the end of the book of Daniel, is not new material. In Daniel 9 we find out that God has a plan for Israel that will encompass a total of 490 years. The Messiah is cut off after 483 years, according to Daniel’s prophecy. That’s what we have in Revelation 12:5. The first 483 years are the first 69 weeks, which are weeks of years, not weeks of days—sixty-nine sevens. There is one 7-year period left, that’s what the book of Revelation is about from chapter 6-19. That 7-year period is divided into two 3½ year segments. That’s done for us at the end of Daniel 9 where we’re told about events that will happen in the middle of that 7-year period, which is 3½ years into it, with 3½ years to go. We’re now talking about what’s going to happen over the last 3½ years.

Now I want you to note something in the context here. Satan is always opposed to God and His plan. God sovereignly chose Israel for Himself, we’re going to look at the passages in a moment and how they relate to the Arab nations as well. That means that Israel is the object of satanic hatred and opposition. We saw that with his desire to destroy Christ, now with his desire to persecute Israel. Look how this goes on. There is war in heaven. Now we’re halfway through the tribulation or the 70th week of Daniel, that last 7-year period because we have 1,260 days to go. There is war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels lose, verse 9, the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. So what does it mean that his tail, verse 4, swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to earth? Well if I read down to verse 9 I’d find out that in the midst of the 70th week of Daniel, 3½ years before its end, satan loses his access to heaven. He’s already lost his position, but he still has access. We see that in the book of Job, for example, among other passages, Job 1-2. When satan loses his access those angels that we refer to as demons who joined in his rebellion, now also lose their access to heaven. They are thrown down to the earth—a third of the angels joined satan in that rebellion. There is rejoicing in heaven because they know that we are now almost to the climactic point of the return of Jesus Christ, which will be recorded in Revelation 19.

Verse 12, though, says there is rejoicing for some people but there is woe for others. For this reason rejoice oh heavens and you who dwell in them. Why? Because the victory that Christ died to bring about and the ultimate establishing of the kingdom over all creation will occur shortly. To be precise it’s only 1,260 days away, 42 months. But woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you. He’s now come down to earth, heaven is closed to him. And note here, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. The devil is aware of God’s timetable. When this event occurs, he’s read the book of Revelation, for example. He knows he only has a short time, he has great wrath. And so what did he do? Verse 13, the dragon saw he was thrown down to earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. Who is that? Israel. Verse 17, so the dragon was enraged with the woman. But you find out here that satan’s hatred of Israel and opposition to Israel will come down to the end of this time as we know it, it will go on to the very end. Only the return of Christ will bring it to a close.

Now with that you’ll note, come back to verse 3, this great red dragon has 7 heads and 10 horns which represent the earthly world empires, and not just general earthly world empires but specific. And I won’t try to name the 7 because I might get stuck, but we’ve gone over them before. You have the earthly empires that have impacted Israel, climaxed with Rome and begin with Egypt. And then the final form of the revived Roman Empire, the 10-nation confederacy, climaxed with the leadership of the antichrist. You’ll note the dragon is the power behind these earthly empires. Why does Israel get beat up by this nation, this nation, down through their history? Because satan is the god of this world and because God has chosen Israel, satan hates Israel and all of his followers join him. Now I realize there are unbelievers who have been kind to Israel. Our country has been a friend of Israel, we’ve experienced God’s blessings, I think, partly because of that. But generally the pattern for Israel has not been good. We see the attitude of the world—why doesn’t Israel stop what they’re doing. And why does so much of the world hate us? Well part of it is, we’re a friend of Israel. Remember what Jesus said? If they have hated me they will hate you. We’re going to see Israel is in a doubly difficult position. So it oughtn’t to surprise us, the nations of the world are going to turn against Israel.

Now we’re not going to go into these details, but for Israel there is a time of false peace. Daniel talked about that, where the western world ruler will finally sign an agreement with Israel. Were you struck watching the news in the last week or so that when Condoleeza Rice was in Rome meeting with world leaders, who chaired the conference? The leader of Rome. Who read the summary of their results and introduced the 2 speakers, one of whom was Condoleeza Rice? I won’t ask you to raise your hand, but I did my last hour and nobody could raise their hand and I can’t either. What was the name of that Roman leader? Who is he? Who knows? Italian leaders, they come and go, he’s not important, not important. But remember Daniel’s prophecy, chapter 7? A little horn will arise from among the western federation of nations. I’m not saying that’s the antichrist, don’t go out of here and say, Gil said, who was that guy? He’s the antichrist. No, no, no. I’m just saying, I couldn’t help but think, that’s almost like seeing prophecy unfold, because Daniel 9 says that this final leader of the western world and ultimately the world before Christ comes will be Roman. How do I know? Well Daniel said he is of the same nationality of the people who will destroy Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The Romans under Titus.

All right. So we oughtn’t to be surprised. What’s the problem in the world? It’s the Jews. If we could get rid of the Jews we would solve the problem. Why? Well this is all true except their understanding of it. The only way you can oppose the Jews is to oppose God and His plan, and you can’t win. Satan is the great counterfeiter, he wants the glory for himself that God says He will give to no man. Satan wants to establish his own kingdom with his own ruler, which ultimately worships satan, not the living God. That’s why in the kingdoms of the world religion becomes important. What unites the people that are opposed to Israel over there? I mean why do the Arabs join with the Iranians in opposing Israel. There is no love lost between them, you know the Iranians are not Arabs, they’re Persians. But what unites them? Why does Egypt join with the Arabs and on we go. Well there is religion, there is something that supercedes it all, and there is what? A billion Muslims in the world. You know it’s interesting. I was reading some statistics, these are by memory so I’m not accountable. A person was noting that Israel is about the size of the state of New Jersey. I’m from New Jersey, I have an idea of how big it is, you could look on a map. The Muslim world encompasses an area twice as big as the size of the United States. The Muslim world encompasses and area 672 times as big as Israel. There are 4-5 million Jews living in Israel, there are a billion Muslims in the world. And yet all the problems of the Muslim world would be resolved if we could get through this…………….. I was going to get a map and just put up here in color the Muslim world and then show the little speck of Israel. If we could just get rid of them, all out problems………. You know why? Satan knows if he could annihilate Israel all the promises of God would collapse, He could no longer be God. I realize that’s an impossibility, but it doesn’t bother satan. What does satan do when he realizes he has a short time left? Turns up the heat to try to destroy Israel. He says I’d better repent. It’s never even a thought, not a possibility.

I bring this up because I want you to know there is no resolution to the conflict, no real resolution. We’re going to have a peace that I think will take place after the rapture with the signing of an agreement between the western world and Israel. We see that going on now. And we’re talking about the United States cannot be the one to do this because there is too much hatred toward the United States and its bias toward Israel, and you find Europe getting involved and playing key roles. And it is the Roman prince who will act to sign this agreement. That will mark the 7-year period, so we’re not in that 7-year period.

All right come back to the Old Testament, Genesis 12. Now we interpret the Bible at Indian Hills, I interpret it literally, as I mentioned. I don’t think there is any difference between interpreting the facts of salvation, that Christ died on the cross, He was buried and was raised from the dead. Those are literal facts. And just so the promises and prophecies of God are literal facts. There are figures of speech, there is symbolic language—that’s true of language all the time. We recognize it, we interpret it clearly and understandably. Why is there a difference among believers? Because some follow a dual hermeneutic. They think you interpret the Bible literally except for unfulfilled prophecy, prophecy yet to be fulfilled. Because they have to agree, prophecies that were given in the Old Testament that have been fulfilled were fulfilled literally. Christ had to be born in Bethlehem according to Micah the prophet. Where was He born? Singapore? Would it matter if He had been born in Tokyo? I’m just using modern names. He had to be born where? Well what if He had been born in Hebron? He had to be born where? Bethlehem. Where was He born? Bethlehem. When Isaiah wrote his great majestic prophecy in Isaiah 53 about the suffering and death of Messiah, how was it fulfilled literally? And when Isaiah said hundreds of years before it happened that he would have his burial with a rich man even though He dies with criminals, how did it happen? Exactly literally. So what basis do we have the audacity to say that everything that has yet to be fulfilled, we can’t take that literally. We’re not concerned about these things but God is.

So let’s look at Genesis 12. Four times God repeats His covenant promises to Abraham. We don’t have time to do all the Old Testament, I just want to draw your attention to these four statements of God, promises of God, and note the place the land plays in this because that’s the issue in our world today. All right, Genesis 12:1, the Lord said to Abraham, go forth from your country, from your relatives, from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, the one who curses you I will curse. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. So God spoke to Abraham and told him he was going to be a mighty nation. Abraham is 75, his wife is 65, they have no children, Sara is barren. Abraham just does what God says. Got a poor start, no children at 75. Verse 7, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said, to your descendants I will give this land. Abraham arrives in Canaan, God says, it’s yours. Your descendants, to them I will give this land.

Look over in chapter 13, context of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and God tells Abraham what He is going to do. Verse 14, the Lord said to Abram, after Lot separated from him, lift up your eyes and look. Lot and Abram separate and then Lot is going to go toward Sodom and Gomorrah and that will culminate in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward. For all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your seed, your descendants forever. I will make your seed, your descendants, as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Now, get up and walk about the land, I will give it to you. Some people say these promises are fulfilled in the church. You want to walk over to Israel and walk around there and say, it’s mine? It’s not what God promised. Do you think Abraham thought well He doesn’t mean my descendants. How many times does God have to say it? Verse 15, the end of the verse, to your seed, your descendants, forever. Verse 16, I will make your descendants, your seed. The end of verse 16, then your descendants, your seed. What are we talking about here? We’re talking about Abram. Does it matter if it’s Abram’s descendants or not? The whole veracity of God Himself depends on it. God can’t fulfill that in me, I’m not a Jew. Most of you do not have a Jewish lineage. Can’t be fulfilled in us, has to be fulfilled in Abraham’s descendants.

Go to chapter 15. Time is moving on but Abram and Sara still don’t have any kids. Abram is getting discouraged and he says, I’m childless, God. I know you keep saying I’m going to do these great things but I don’t have any kids. You know I can’t have descendants that can’t be numbered unless I can start at least with one. Maybe it’s my trusted servant, Eleazer, and it will be his kids. That’s what happened in that time. If you died and didn’t have any descendants, your trusted servant may well become your heir to inherit your things. The Lord said to him, verse 4, this man will not be your heir, but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir. Do you think God is concerned about whether it’s physical descendants or not? Let me tell you, He is, from the beginning. It has to be one who comes from your body. I don’t come from Abraham’s physical body, I’m not a physical descendant from Abraham. Neither are most of you. We are Gentile. Now look toward the heavens, count the stars. If you are able to count them, he said, so shall your descendants be. He believed the Lord, God reckoned it to him as righteousness.

What happens now, they are ready to cut the covenant, formalize it. A biblical expression in the Old Testament as we’ve considered before, to make a covenant literally means to cut a covenant. So if you literally translate it, some of your margins will say, literally, cut a covenant. Because what they did was they took the appropriate animals and they cut them in two and they laid the halves across from each other and left room for a path in between them. And then the parties to the covenant would walk through those animals, binding themselves to the provisions of the covenant. So that’s what happens, an instruction to divide the animals and lay them out. Now in verse 12, the sun was going down and a deep sleep fell upon Abram. Remember that, Abram is in a deep sleep. And God comes to him in that deep sleep. Know for certain your descendants will be strangers in a land not theirs, they’re going to be enslaved, oppressed, for 400 years. That’s the Egyptian bondage. But I will judge the nation they’ll serve, they’ll come out with abundant possession, and so on. He’s not ready to give them the land of Canaan because the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. People become ripe for judgment. We say why doesn't God do something. It’s like somebody who wants to go through a grape vineyard and starts to pick the grapes. You say, wait, they’re not ripe yet. Why can’t we do it now? They’re not ripe, they’re not ready. We get frustrated, why doesn’t God do something. Time is not ripe, people aren’t ripe. He’s ripening the earth for judgment.

It came about when the sun had set, it was very dark. Behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch. This represents God in a visible way to Abram. Now note here, Abram is asleep, and the smoking oven and the flaming torch pass between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your descendants, to your seed I have given this land, from the River of Egypt as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. You know what? God establishes the covenant with Abram, but the covenant totally depends upon God. Abram didn’t walk through the animals, God obligates Himself totally and alone for the fulfillment of this covenant. Now that doesn’t mean there will not be obligations upon Abram’s descendants, but the fulfillment of this covenant cannot be dependent upon Abram’s descendants, because God Himself went through. And so He alone ultimately is obligated and responsible for its fulfillment.

Look down to Genesis 17:7. Now Abram is 99 years old, 24 years ago he received a promise in Ur of the Chaldees, believed God and went to Canaan. 24 years. Now he’s 99, he couldn’t have children when he was young. At least, God, you would have had a better chance if you had gotten ahold of Sara at 75 and 65 and produced them. Someone has said, God is sometimes slow but never late. It seems like it just goes on and on and on in our minds, but He is always on His schedule. 99. Now God appears to Abram and said, I am God Almighty, El Shaddai, walk before me and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between Me and you. I will multiply you exceedingly. Your name is changed now to Abraham, you’re going to be father of a multitude of nations, not just Israel. He’s the father of the Arabs, Arab nations. Furthermore, with his wife after Sarah dies in Genesis 25, he’ll father a number of other children who will father descendants who become nations. But there is only one nation that is the object of the Abrahamic covenant’s specific promises.

I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, verse 7. Verse 8, I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. I will be their God and then you have circumcision instituted as the sign of the covenant. Now in this you have Ishmael. We have to mention Ishmael. Sometimes we think God is in such a difficult spot, the best thing we could do is help Him out. So Abraham and Sarah have a plan, and it’s not an off-the-wall plan. It seems to us in our society, but in biblical times it wasn’t. Sarah couldn’t have children, so she could have her servant have a child with her husband so that that child would be hers and they could have a child of the family to be an heir and so on.

Well that’s what happened in Genesis 16, and we skipped over that. You’re well aware of the account. Abraham fathers a child with Hagar. Why don’t you turn back to Genesis 16. And when Hagar has this son, she begins to despise Sarah because in biblical if you don’t have a child you’re a barren woman, and that’s the worst scenario. So Sarah can’t take it, so she starts to mistreat Hagar who is still a servant. So Hagar flees. The angel of the Lord, who is the preincarnate Christ, meets her in the wilderness there by a spring. And he says to her in verse 9, return to your mistress, submit yourself to her authority. Note verse 10, moreover the angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count. You will bear a son, you will call his name Ishmael. Verse 12, he’ll be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, everyone’s hand will be against him, he’ll live to the east of all his brothers. He’s going to live to the east of Isaac and his descendants, which is true of the Arab people, basically. And this is a miracle, Hagar sees the Lord. I’ve seen the Lord, He has spoken to me. You’ll note there are real promises here. Ishmael is going to be a might nation, little did Abraham and Sarah know. All right, we stumbled, no big deal. Just means we have another kid, that’s nice. But it’s going to be problems from day 1, but who would have thought. Abraham lived about 2,000 years before Christ. We live approximately 2,000 years after Christ. Who would have thought 4,000 years later, turn on the news, what’s the problem? Ishmael and Isaac, they can’t get along. There is conflict, there is difficulty. And try to control Ishmael’s descendants. The description in verse 12 is accurate and continues down.

So what is the root of the conflict? We say we all know that. I saw a Jewish rabbi on there being interviewed a week or two ago on TV. What did he say? Well all this conflict goes back to Ishmael and Isaac in the Old Testament. He’s right. Too bad he doesn’t believe really all that the scripture says.

Turn over to Genesis 17 again. Look at verse 18. Abram is concerned about Ishmael, rightly so. We’ve got a problem here. Ishmael is Abraham’s son, Ishmael is not Sarah’s son. So now we have a promise from God for a son that will be born to Sarah, but what about Ishmael? I love him, Ishmael is 12 years old. Well he prays, verse 18, oh that Ishmael might live before you. Now Abraham intends here to help God out, I’d be happy if you’d just fulfill your promises in Ishmael. God says, no, Sarah will bear you a son. You’ll call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will bless him, I’ll make him fruitful, I’ll multiply him. He’ll be the father of 12 princes, he’ll be a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac. So there’s the promise, there’s the provision. The covenant is established with Isaac.

Now you know how the Muslims get around this, and particularly the Arab Muslims. They say that the Jews corrupted the Old Testament account, and it was really Ishmael that God said He was going to bless, it was Ishmael that was offered up on Mt. Moriah, Ishmael was the son of promise. But the dirty, deceptive Jews replaced Ishmael’s name with Isaac and corrupted the Old Testament. They have an answer for it, it just is contrary to the scripture.

Look at Genesis 21. Now what happens, comes time to wean Isaac and you’re aware, you have this teenager, 13-year-old Ishmael. And he’s making fun of Isaac, tensions there beginning, and so Sarah can’t have that. She’s waited 90 years for this kid. You don’t think I’m going to have my servant’s teenager making fun of him and making life difficult for him, do you? So she tells Abraham that he’s got to go. Now Abraham is torn apart. I mean he loves this boy, he’s 13 years old. How would you like it as a father to be told, now your son has to go, pack him up and send him off. Put his mother and some water on a donkey and they go. I can’t do that. Well God tells Abraham, you do it. Verse 12, God said to Abraham, do not be distressed because of the lad and you maid. Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her. You know, we sometimes forget the man is in charge, he’s the leader. Sarah called Abraham, lord, Peter says, but at the same time sometimes the better part of wisdom is listen to your wife. Now maybe he shouldn’t have listened the first time, but that’s another story. Through Isaac your descendants shall be named. Of the son of the maid I will make a nation also because these are your descendants. There is blessing that comes to all the physical descendants of Abraham physically, physical blessing, but there is only one physical descendant through whom the promises of the Abrahamic covenant can be fulfilled. And so that’s what is reiterated there.

Genesis 22:16, now note what is said here, then we can move on as we close. Verse 16, by Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord. Underline that. By Myself I have sworn. Remember who passed through those divided animals to establish the covenant? The book of Hebrews picks this up, because He could swear by no greater He swore by Himself. This is a guarantee God has given. If you can’t take this to the bank then you might as well just forget about your future. If the promises to Israel are not solid and irrevocable, you and I are on a sea of despair. By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord. Verse 17, indeed I will greatly bless you, I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand on the seashore. Your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. There are physical promises here to physical descendants. They are guaranteed. I take an oath on Myself, and I can’t swear by any greater.

Now you understand, Israel is in the best of all situations and the worst of all situations. Turn to Deuteronomy 28. They are in the best of all situations because God has chosen this nation as the only nation on the face of the earth for all time that will be His own special people, the people for whom He will build a kingdom. Satan has tried to do the artificial kingdom, remember the tower of Babel. What do they want to do? They want to be united. So what do they need? A center of worship. We mentioned earlier, what unites the peoples of the east in their opposition to Israel, Iran, Egypt and the Arab peoples? Well it’s their Muslim religion. What will unite the people of the world at the end of the 70th week of Daniel? Their worship of the beast. It becomes the center of what is going on.

Israel now is God’s special people, He’s promised them the land, He’s promised them overwhelming blessings if they will obey Him. Satan hates them, but they are under the protection of God, they are under His gracious provision, they are safe and secure. But if they disobey, God will break down the barrier of protection, He will pour out His wrath on them. And now they will be vulnerable to satan. They will not only have satan attacking them, they’ll have the wrath of God being poured out upon them. They’ll be in the worst of the worst situations, and that’s what has happened to Israel.

We just have time to pick up here. You’ll note if you’re in chapter 28, we’re picking up in the middle of a broader section. The blessings at Gerizim and God promises blessing to Israel for their obedience. But then verse 15, it shall come about if you do not obey the Lord your God to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, cursed shall you be in the country, cursed shall be your basket, your kneading bowl, your offspring, your flocks, your produce. You’ll be cursed when you come in, you’ll be cursed when you go out. But you have no escape from my judgment. You’ve been greatly honored and exalted, I have called you to myself as my special treasure. But you understand, that means if you were unfaithful to me, you will become the object of my special discipline.

We don’t have time to read further, jump down to verse 47. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart for the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, in the lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. He’ll bring a nation against you from afar. No respect for young or old. It’s just fierce judgment will be their destiny.

Jump down to verse 63, it shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish, destroy you. You will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. The Lord will scatter you among all peoples. Tonight we’ll talk about the dispersions of Israel, their final regathering in ’48 and what that means in light of today. Verse 65, among those nations you shall find no rest, there’ll be no resting place for the sole of your feet. The Lord will give you a trembling heart. Your life will hang in doubt before you, you’ll be in dread night and day. In the morning you’ll say, I wish it were evening; in the evening you’ll say, I wish it were morning. It’s just a life of fear because why? They did not listen to the Lord.

Now people say, well see God is done with Israel, their destruction is final. One thing we’ll pick up with in our study tonight is the balance by promises to Israel. Look in Deuteronomy 30:1, so it shall be when all these things have come upon you, the blessings and the curse which I had set before you, you shall call them to mind in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you. And you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart, your soul and all that I command you today, you and your sons, the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, have compassion on you, gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. Down to verse 6, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart, the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul so that you may live. Then the Lord God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and those who hurt you and persecute you. The Lord uses the nations of the earth to judge Israel, but He judges them for their sin in dealing with His people.

Remarkable passages, and we’ll look at some of these key passages a little further in our next study tonight. Talk about passages like the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 in the context of the promises of chapter 36, the judgments on the Arabs and their allies in chapter 38, the exiles from the land in Israel’s history, including the coming final exile. All this to prepare Israel for the fulfillment of the promises, then we’ll look at the millennium and we will look at the promises that assure that in the millennium kingdom there will be Arab peoples—Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and so on are given specific promises of millennial blessings. They will be there. So we want to be careful we put this in perspective. We say, it’s not fair, God chose Israel, He didn’t choose Ishmael. No wonder the Arabs hate the Jews. God showed favoritism, He chose one over the other. Well get over it, He didn’t choose my ancestors, either. And looking around at the coloring of most of you, He didn’t choose yours, either. Because He only chose the Jews. He didn’t choose the Europeans, He didn’t choose those from the Far East and Asian countries, and so on, He didn’t choose those from Africa. He chose just one—the Jews. And it is His sovereign right. Why? That’s not fair, why would He choose the Jews? Remember, He’s the potter, we’re the clay. He has the freedom to do as He chooses. All we need to do is study the Word and understand what He has said.

You know all this is remarkable and it’s interesting in light of world events. You go home and watch the news this afternoon,…. Israel ….the other nations here. You come back tonight, we’ll put some of them in proper place. You’d think people would be falling on their face, repenting of their sin and believing in the Savior that God has provided. You say, oh I think war is terrible, the suffering is terrible. The worst is yet to come. And God is the God of mercy, He’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. His desire is that men, women and young people would recognize the awfulness of their sin, the horrible hopelessness of their condition, turn from their sin and trust the Savior, His Son who loved them and died for them. But you know, they are like their father, the devil. They are stubborn, they won’t give in to the very end. They are determined they will fight God. What is God to do but to bring judgment. Even He says now, come unto me all you that labor and are heavyladen, I’ll give you rest. There is a Savior, but you understand there are no other options. Well I’ll take my chances. There are no chances. You either bow before the living God and place your faith in His Son, or you come under the fierce wrath of God that will culminate in hell for eternity. I mean I don’t want to bet on a 1919 World Series, it’s over. Well what God has said about the future is just as good as it’s been done. That’s why the prophets gave many of their prophecies in the past tense, we call it the prophetic past. They speak about something to happen in hundreds of years and they speak in past tense. Why? When God says it, it’s done, it’s settled, it’s set in stone. If you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you will spend eternity in hell. So why disagree with that? You can’t. The devil can fight against Israel to the very end, but you read Revelation 20, he’s going to hell, he can’t win. You can resist God, you can fight against God, you can refuse to believe, but you can’t win. Why would we? The end has been written. God in mercy has provided an escape, He’s provided a Savior. We need to share that with people. If we really believe we are rapidly coming to the climax of this phase of earth’s history, what’s more important than people hear about the Savior? The people hear that there is one who can cleanse them, forgive them, and He wants to, and it’s free. Have you trusted in Him? Do you know that you’re forgiven? Not oh I think so, I have understood I am a sinner deserving of hell and I know there’s no hope. My total hope is in the Savior who died on the cross and was raised from the dead.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, that you are a God of infinite mercy, infinite love, infinite grace. We are dumbfounded as we contemplate the sin of the angels and the relentless rebellion against you. We are even more dumbfounded and in awe as we consider that you would provide your Son to be the Savior of the world, and yet people would reject His salvation, would refuse your love, would trample underfoot the Son of God and consider His death a worthless thing. Lord, I pray the truth of your Word will grip our hearts, that those who have not trusted you might realize their hopelessness and turn to the one who is life. Lord, give us a burden for those lost. As we look at the news, as we see events in the world, as we look at your Word, may we not be satisfied to relax, to take it easy, to be satisfied with the peace that we enjoy, with our affluence, with our being comfortable. But may we have a zeal to serve you and a passion to share Jesus Christ with the lost. We pray in His name, amen.