Welcome to part two of my look at the predicament the nation of Israel now finds itself in, in relation to what Scripture tells us about the most significant indicator of the return of Jesus Christ.
DISCLAIMERS AND CAUTIONS
Forgive me for any ugly ads or gaps in this post. It’s a long article: scroll down to sub-headings if you want to shorten it. At the end you can find a list of relevant scriptures gathered under sub-headings in a narrative form. This is the result of my own study. Notice that I do not consider notions such as “blood moons” or eclipses as being signs of our times. The real signs will be far more unusual and dramatic, and far more Biblical. I will be publishing a third part of this article, which will briefly consider other indicators that we may well be close to the Time.
I’ve studied this subject for all my Christian life. My views would commonly be considered those of a “Christian Zionist”, though I wouldn’t call myself that. It seems very clear to me that according to the Bible Israel is to be the dominating indicator of end-times events. That is, events which the Bible says will occur in the years immediately preceding the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory. You can dismiss these observations if you wish, but I say you’d be making a very big mistake, particularly if you’re siding with the world against tiny Israel.
TODAY’S EVENTS
I could go into the details of current events, in which we see Israel’s attempt to dismantle Hamas, a huge terrorist organization funded not only by Iran and other Islamic nations, but by left-leaning Western governments: this is not my focus in this article. The war in Gaza may well be very significant to end-times events, or it may be just one of the many relevant events on the road to that time. One verse in the Ezekiel discussion of end-times events does interest me. It states that the invasion of many nations against Israel, in which one of the participants will be Iran, will come upon a land recovering from war. It’s just possible that the current war could be it-or it may not be. Either way, what’s happening only serves to support the view of end times which I’ve taken here.
In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate (Ezekiel 38:8).
IS IT ALL JUST COINCIDENCE?
If what’s happening to Israel is only coincidentally identical to what the Bible predicts about end times events, then I’m wrong, and sadly mistaken, along with many other observers. But it seems to me that such coincidence is so unlikely it would be foolish not to consider the possibility that what’s going on is what the Bible foretells. When the final events come, they will happen so quickly, and be so radical, and yet to begin with will seem so “natural”, that we will be in the middle of them before we know it. “Be ready”, was Jesus Christ’s own repeated warning to His followers. Billions will not be, and will have taken the wrong and the losing, side, in the last and greatest struggle of all time.
NEVER BEFORE
If you claim to believe the Bible, you need to recognise that some Biblical prophecies have not yet been fulfilled. This is one way we know how to identify things which are yet to happen, along with the observation that these events describe radical and often global phenomena. They also speak of the Lord subsequently reigning over the earth as a result. The events in these prophecies have never yet occurred unless, that is, you believe those who completely allegorize them, and attempt to explain away their fulfillment in past events or in spiritual dynamics. To you I say, good luck-you’ll need it.
BLESSINGS
To others who are open to the truths of Scripture, and most specifically to the gospel of Jesus Christ, I need to say that my talk of end times events is not at all intended to be dark or worrying. By “end-times” we mean the end of our present age in which fallen and corrupt humans rule the earth. It’s noit the end of all things, but the beginning of a beautiful new age of justice, love and peace.
The promises of God include eternal life, mercy and forgiveness to all or us who accept His only Son-Jesus. They tell us that even if we die-by any means-we have an endless and incredible future. For those who shelter in the mercy of God there is mercy, hope, peace, and life, no matter what happens in this fallen world.
NOT A RIGHTEOUS NATION-YET
Again, there’s no mistaking that modern Israel is not a nation of perfection, righteousness or holiness, any more than any other nation on the earth. They will face judgment along with all the other nations. However, they are still a chosen nation, and one which the Lord God has vowed to bless. God keeps His promises: if He didn’t we would all be in trouble. The people and the nations which are coming and will come against Israel will pay a heavy price: don’t be so judged.
THE MODERN ENEMIES OF ISRAEL WERE IDENTIFIED THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO
The end-times enemies of Israel according to Scripture can be easily identified as the enemies of Israel now. You may be tempted to think that’s a natural phenomenon-any nation is likely to have ongoing friction and hostilities with its neighbors. However, while this might be normal, there’s nothing in the world quite like the history of the hostility of Israel’s neighbors. It’s outright hatred, in which enemies even many hundreds of miles away have declared and vowed that they will destroy Israel, and that they will drive Jews into the sea. They claim that the land belongs to them and that it always did. You can argue the ins and outs and the causes, but the fact remains that the Bible correctly predicts the conditions and the attitudes of people in our day.
THE WORLD AGAINST JERUSALEM
This phenomenon goes much further even than simple friction between neighboring people groups. Scripture speaks of an end-times hatred of Jews extending across the earth, so that once the people of Israel are back in the land and prospering (presumably a period of several decades) all nations will mount a concerted effort as one against that tiny nation of Jews:
“In those days and at that time,
when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will gather all nations
and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:1-2).
Multitudes, multitudes
in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision (verse 14).
The Valley of Jehoshaphat lies just outside Jerusalem. Incredibly, the central bone of contention between Israel and its enemies is the city of Jerusalem. Despite all the historical and archaeological evidence that the Jews inhabited Jerusalem long before the time of Christ, its enemies claim that the city always did belong to them, and that they will “liberate” it from Israelis. In our time most of the world agrees with Israel’s enemies, as is reflected in all the pronouncements of the United Nations, the European Union, and now university faculties around the West. The world claims to want to be fair. to give half of Jerusalem to the Palestinians and so solve the entire problem. The truth is that no such division could bring peace. Here’s what God through Zechariah had to say:
“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations (Zechariah 12:2-3).
Zechariah wrote that Jerusalem will indeed be divided before Messiah comes. How coincidental!
I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle (Zechariah 14:2-3).
God in Scripture speaks of the land of Israel as His land, and of Jerusalem as His city. God has given is city to the nation of Israel, whether you agree or not. Opposing Jerusalem is opposing God, and you cannot win.
Again, if you don’t know where Israel is on a map of the globe, you’ll have a hard time finding it-it’s so small. Why such hatred for a tiny nation just trying to survive? It must be, fundamentally, a spiritual hatred.
NOW AND THEN
The nations identified as Israel’s end-times mortal enemies are the nations most opposed to the existence of the state of Israel now. Can this really be coincidence? Name any European nation, for example, whose very existence is and has been denied and threatened by surrounding nations-nations which were predicted in some ancient writing to do so.
Scripture uses ancient names for those nations, not modern names. This makes sense when you realize that Scripture was written for those ancient peoples as well as us. In Scripture God often identified nations and ethnic groups by naming their ultimate or most significant progenitors. For example, He sometimes identified Israel as “Jacob” because Jacob was a father or the nation (see Isaiah 14:1). Ezekiel speaks of “Persia”- a name which stemmed from the land or people known as “Parsa”, and so which was used at the time of the Greeks by scribes passing on the Scriptures. Persia was to Israel’s east. In 1935 the name “Persia” was replaced by the name “Iran”. The change of name is of no consequence: what matters is that it’s the same nation-the same land-intended in the prophecy. And remarkably, it’s the nation which today most verbally and actively hates Israel.
Iranian leaders have for decades vowed to destroy Israel. Iran is fuelling and funding anti-Israel and anti-West terrorism and political action in our day, although it must be said that this hatred comes mainly from the Islamic regime there, not from the bulk of the people.
Another nation in the end-times invasion of Israel, according to Ezekiel, would be to the far north of the land. On a map of the world you will see Russia to Israel’s furthest north. Russia is allied will Iran and other nations in direct opposition against Israel, and provides them training and weapons. Other nations in the coalition Ezekiel names can be identified today as Islamic enemies of Israel today, such as Turkey.
ALL NATIONS
Unfortunately, even nations which have traditionally been friends of Israel, such as the United States, will ultimately betray it. You can see now the hatred building in Western nations. News reports are consistently skewed on the side of Israel’s mortal enemies, and public opinion is being turned against Israel. Even if Trump is elected this year and defends Israel, his term will only last four years.
TIMING: INVASION AFTER REGATHERING
Prophecies of the restoration of Israel indicate that end-times attacks on Israel from all nations will occur soon after Israel’s regathering-but long enough after it to allow the people to prosper and to grow in number. This is an indicator of the timing of end-times events (without date-setting). If these attacks are to seem “recent” in regards to Israel’s rebirth and regathering, we can have a rough idea of just how long we may have to go. Ezekiel’s prophecy says that the invaders will be aware the nation of Jews was regathered recently, after a long period when the land was largely unused:
…against a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate (Ezekiel 38:8).
The coming time is included, it seems, in the writings of Zephaniah. In this prophecy, Gaza is also mentioned as a target of God’s justice:
Gather together, gather yourselves together,
you shameful nation,
before the decree takes effect
and that day passes like windblown chaff,
before the Lord’s fierce anger
comes upon you,
before the day of the Lord’s wrath
comes upon you…
Gaza will be abandoned
and Ashkelon left in ruins.
At midday Ashdod will be emptied
and Ekron uprooted (Zephaniah 2:1-4).
HOW MANY RETURNS FROM EXILE?
In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people…he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth (Isaiah 11:11-12).
In the Bible only two returns from total exile are predicted. Isaiah’s “second time” (above) may possibly translate simply as a repeat, but the principle remains. There has to be a final return to a land which had long been desolate, and which had been claimed by surrounding peoples. To date Aliyah has provided a partial return, with the nation’s population having grown to almost ten million. Millions of Jews remain in other countries. It seems that the ultimate return of all exiles will come once Christ returns: when the people of that nation have repented of their sin and rejection of the Messiah. However, the return spoken of by Ezekiel, Joel and others-the return which immediately precedes end times events-is of a nation which has not yet repented or come to its senses.
THE FIRST RETURN FROM EXILE
The first return in the sixth century BC occurred after ancient Israel-the northern kingdom-was destroyed by Assyria, and then after Judah was invaded and carried off by the Babylonians. Read about this return in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Some try to claim that Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in Nehemiah’s day, but there are two huge problems with this view. First, they have to explain away a lot of God’s promises in this passage, and secondly Scripture makes clear that the exiles returned the first time specifically from Babylon:
Now these are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive to Babylon (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to their own town) (Ezra 2:1).
THE SECOND RETURN FROM EXILE
In contrast, the Isaiah return-the second return-is:
…from the four quarters of the earth (Isaiah 11:11-12).
Likewise, the Ezekiel account of the regathering of Israel is from all nations, not just Babylon:
In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety (Ezekiel 38:8).
God’s promises to the nation of Israel upon their second return include complete and permanent peace and security. That has not happened in any past event, unless you wrestle and twist Scripture to replace the state of Israel with the Church.
A FAKE RETURN FROM EXILE?
The second return to the land began in 1948, when the United Nations officially allowed for a new state of Israel in the ancient homeland. Claims of some that the present-day state of Israel and the current regathering is bogus and that the real one refers to the Church, or is yet future, don’t fit the facts or the rest of Scripture. If the miraculous events of the past several decades, and the struggles between Israelis and their neighbors and the world, and the claims over Jerusalem by both sides are not those prophesied, they’re an incredibly realistic and detailed dress-rehearsal for what the Bible says will happen immediately before the coming of Messiah.
Also, believing that the real return is yet future demands, according to Scripture, that the current inhabitants of the land are to be driven out by some huge war or other disaster and sent back into exile to all nations of the world. The land would have to be invaded and claimed by enemies again, and then left empty and waste for a very long period of time. How long can a tiny nation survive such determined attempts to destroy it over many centuries? How many times can such an incredible set of events occur, all the time being concurrent to other prophesied events and conditions around the world? I’m saying that this cannot all be just coincidentally similar to the prophecies.
How many times in the course of human history can the incredible set of events prophesied actually play out, in such an amazing series of what would have to be “coincidences”, as they have over the last several decades? It seems to me that either the 20th/21st century restoration of Israel-the current one-must be the second regathering spoken of by Isaiah and by Ezekiel, and by Joel, or we would have to accept that these prophets and others were wrong, and therefore didn’t speak the word of God at all. In that case, no Biblical scripture could be trusted. In that case Jesus was also wrong to quote Isaiah as much as he did, and was mistaken and so a charlatan. We would in this case be without a savior.
THE INVASION OF A LAND RECENTLY REGATHERED
Prophecies in Ezekiel, Zechariah Joel and even Revelation foretell an international assault on Israel and the Middle-East in general, ending in God’s clear and decisive intervention, after which the whole world will know there is a God who is still the Protector of Israel. This assault is said to come, in the eyes of the invaders, soon after the return from exile. The attackers say to themselves:
I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land. (Ezekiel 38:12).
God says through Ezekiel that they will come:
…against a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate (Ezekiel 38:8).
The Ezekiel invasion is, therefore, not long after the return from exile, but long enough for the nation to proper and grow in population. Today Israel is blooming, prosperous, and filling up with Jews and converts from all over the globe.
MY SPECULATION: HOW LONG IS “RECENT” IN SCRIPTURE?
The above Ezekiel passages and others indicate that Israel will be invaded by nations who recognize that its regathering is recent. Therefore the very large question is just how long a time period, scripturally-speaking, could be considered recent? Here’s my theory. Please don’t take it as gospel: I may be wrong. This is a “seems to me” type of speculation.
Israel, says the prophecy, upon regathering from the nations of the world, would grow rapidly in population and in economic success, and the land would bloom (Scripture references given below). Something like this would naturally take decades. Aliyah has continued apace. You can find online compiled annual figures for Aliyah (return to the land).
In the Old Testament ancient Israel (and people from northern tribes who had joined with Judah) was expelled from its land for seventy years in the first exile (Ezra 1:1). God had told Isaiah that Ephraim (often a term God used for Israel) was “about to” be judged by Assyria (Isaiah 8:7 NIV). That “about to” period was sixty-five years (7:8).
The two ideas of something in human history being “recent”, and “thousands of years”, don’t fit together well to us mortals, and the invading force of end-times in Ezekiel chapter 38 certainly wouldn’t see an event thousands of years previous as being recent. God’s words, “sixty-five years” were meaningful as a relatively short time-period to Isaiah, and perhaps to us, but thousands of years or even hundreds are not. The idea of a short time period in Ezekiel must be seen as being truly recent to humans-not thousands of years long.
I’m not setting dates by saying that sixty-five years is the time period we must look for, but it seems logical that it’s a “ball-park” number. It could actually be fifty, or seventy, eighty, or more. Or it could be less.
At what point would the regathering of Israel not be considered by its invaders to be recent? When exactly would the “prophetic clock” for this prophecy start ticking: 1948-the rebirth of the state? 1967-when Israelis re-conquered all of Jerusalem, their ancient capital and centre of worship? Perhaps it would start when the majority of Jews had returned from the nations- the year 1990, or 2010 or 2025?
We could cautiously create a maximum time of fulfillment so that, for example, seventy-five years from the dwindling of returnees to the land from the nations would take us to the year 2085. This would be the very latest date we could reasonably expect the prophecies of Ezekiel to be fulfilled. Alternatively, if we add sixty-five years to 1967, the year Israelis regained their ancient capital which figures so highly in last-days prophecy, we get the year 2032.
The Ezekiel invasion of Israel and the Middle-East must take place in a time period reasonably soon after Israel’s regathering, in human terms. The alternative is that Bible prophecies regarding end-times are either greatly allegorized and impossible to make clear sense of, or are simply untrue and therefore not the Word of God.
ISRAEL IN SCRIPTURE: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
THE LAND OF CANAAN WAS PROMISED TO ABRAHAM’S DESCENDANTS…
Genesis 13: 14 – 17
Genesis 17: 8
…THROUGH THE LINEAGE OF ISAAC, NOT ISHMAEL:
Genesis 17: 18 – 21
THE PROMISE IS IRREVOCABLE – IT CANNOT BE CANCELLED:
Jeremiah 31: 35 -37
Romans 11:25– 32
Isaiah 49: 14 – 18
EXILE FROM THE LAND WAS A PART OF GOD’S JUDGEMENT ON ISRAEL’S REBELLION:
Deuteronomy 28, especially v.63 – 65
THE FIRST COMPLETE EXILE WAS TO BABYLON:
Daniel 1: 1 – 2
Ezra 5: 11 – 16
THE SECOND WAS TO ALL NATIONS:
Ezekiel 36: 16 – 19
Ezekiel 36: 3
Matthew 23: 33 – 39
GOD SAID THE SECOND EXILE WAS TO BE THE LAST:
Isaiah 11:10– 16
Ezekiel 37: 21 – 25
JEWS WOULD BE MIRACULOUSLY REGATHERED TO THEIR LAND BEFORE THE LAST DAYS:
Ezekiel 38: 8 – 9
Ezekiel 39 21 – 29
Zephaniah 2: 1 – 3
THE WASTE-LAND WOULD BECOME FERTILE AND DENSELY POPULATED:
Ezekiel 36: 8 – 12
Ezekiel 36: 30 – 38
Joel 3:1-2
ISRAEL’S ENEMIES WOULD SAY THAT THE LAND WAS ALWAYS THEIRS:
Ezekiel 36: 1 – 7
Ezekiel 35
ISRAEL WOULD NOT REPENT OF THEIR REBELLION UNTIL THE RETURN OF JESUS:
Ezekiel 36: 22, 23, 31, 32
Ezekiel 39: 21 – 29
Romans 11:25– 27
JERUSALEM WOULD BE A SOURCE OF ANGER AND TURMOIL FOR THE NATIONS:
Zechariah 12: 1 – 10, especially 2, 3
Zechariah 14: 1 – 19, especially 2, 3
Matthew 24: 14 – 22
Revelation 16: 1 – 2
THE SO-CALLED ‘OCCUPIED WEST BANK’ IS ‘JUDAH’ IN PROPHECY:
Zechariah 12, verses 2, 6 and 7.
Zechariah 14:14
Joel 3:1
Matthew 24:15-22
JERUSALEM AND JUDAH WOULD BE THE DISPUTED TERRITORIES
Zechariah 12: 2-3
ISRAEL WILL BE ATTACKED BY THE WORLD COMMUNITY, AND JERUSALEM WILL BE DIVIDED FORCEFULLY:
Zechariah 12:2, 3
Zechariah 14:2-9
THE ENEMIES OF ISRAEL TODAY WERE PROPHECIED 2500 YEARS AGO
All the nations around Israel: Ezekiel 36 – 39; Zechariah 12:2
Russia: Ezekiel 38
Iran (called Persia until 20th C): Ezekiel 38
Turkey(then Gomer) Ezekiel 38
All nations of the world – see below
ALL NATIONS WILL BE ANGRY WITH THE BIBLICAL GOD AS WELL AS WITH ISRAEL:
Revelation 19 – 19
Psalm 2: 1 – 6
Revelation 11: 18
ALL NATIONS WILL ATTACK ISRAEL (PERHAPS TWO SEPARATE ATTACKS):
Joel 3, especially verses 1 – 2
Zechariah 12:3
Zechariah 14:2
Revelation 16: 14 – 16
Ezekiel 38: 1 – 9
THE ATTACKS WILL BE SOON AFTER ISRAEL’S REGATHERING TO THE LAND (see notes above):
Ezekiel 38:7-9
Ezekiel 39:25-27
BUT FIRST, THERE MAY BE A TEMPORARY ‘PEACE’ OR (MORE LIKELY) SECURITY PACT INVOLVING ISRAEL:
1 Thessalonians 5: 1 – 4
Daniel 8: 25 (esp. see the KJV)
Daniel 9: 27
Ezekiel 38: 14 – 16
THERE MAY OR MAY NOT BE A JEWISH TEMPLE OR WORSHIP CENTER BUILT AT ABOUT THIS TIME IN J:
Daniel 9: 27
Revelation 11: 1 – 2
2 Thessalonians 2: 4 – 6
Matthew 24: 15
PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD WILL BE LIVING ‘NORMALLY‘, UNTIL THE TRIBULATION STARTS:
Matthew 24: 37 – 39
Ezekiel 39: 6
GOD WILL DEFEND ISRAEL:
Zechariah 14: 2 – 5 and verse 12
Zechariah 12: 9
Isaiah 34:1 – 10
Joel 3: 16
Ezekiel 38: 17 – 23
Matthew 24: 30
THIS WILL BE THE END OF HUMAN RULE OVER THE EARTH:
Revelation 19 and 20
Daniel 2: 42 – 45
Isaiah 34: 1 – 4
Zechariah 14: 9 and v 16 – 19
Fuel for Faith 