Focus Point #13

Well friends (and others) if you've been reading your Bible and if you've been reading the newspapers for the last 50 or 60 years and if you've been watching the TV news, you just might be convinced that after all they've been through, God still has a plan and a purpose for the Jewish people and the Nation of Israel.

Let's see, first there were the Egyptians. Isn't it strange how the critics of the Word of God try to tell us that where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea it was a shallow area called "The Sea Of Reeds." (Their way of explaining away the greatest miracle in the Old Testament). I wonder how they explain that shallow area being the same waters where the Egyptians and their horses all drowned?

After the Egyptians, came the Amalekites. They're gone! Then the Assyrians, then Syria, then Phoenicia, then the Philistines and then....Rome! The whole bunch - history!

Rome was the big shot, smart aleck bunch that could do no wrong in their own eyes. (yeah, right!) They ruled the Jews from 63 BC until 320 AD - 383 or so years. Guess what took them out? Their own rotteness, filth and debauchery. Along came the Byzantines. They were from the area of Turkey, and the Greek Orthodox church. Many of the religious sites in Israel date back to these people. Finally in 636 they were defeated by the Arabs. They held control of the land until about 1070. The Arabs were then defeated by the Seljuks, also Turks, but from a different "flock of turkeys." (tee hee.) They lasted only about 30 years when along came the famous Crusades. I should say the "Christian Crusades." These Christian Crusaders were nothing but a bunch of unemployed marauders who headed for the Holy Land, killing and raping on their way to rid the land of Palestine of the Arabs, the infidels. How many Jews they raped, robbed and murdered on the way will never be known this side of Heaven. When they arrived on the scene in Israel in about 1099, they rounded up all the Jews they could find, put them in the Synagogues, locked the doors and gates and set the places on fire. Men, women and children! Burned alive! They, my friend, were the so called Christians, cleaning up the Holy Land. They held control for about 100 years and the Turks came back strong and mean.

From the time the Turks came back until the return of the Jews, not one group of people - not one - none of those controlling groups had ever formed a government with laws, financial structure, all of the entities that make up a government. No infrastructure was known. No military. Not until the Jews did it in 1948. To be exact, Friday, May 14th, 1948. All during those previous years - the 17, 18 and 1900's, there was no Palestinian government. And get this, they don't have one now. (Getting close.) The land we now call Israel was never without Jews living in the land. Can you even imagine the treatment they received all during those hundreds of years? Again, we'll never know this side of Heaven.

We also know some about what happened to the Jews who lived outside of those God promised borders.
In 1096....over 12,000 were killed in Germany.
In 1290....all Jews banished from England.
In 1306....all Jews thrown out of France.
In 1492....110,000 expelled from Spain. They wanted Spain to be 100% Catholic. (The infamous inquisition)
And to cap off this tragic list ....Hitler - six million destroyed! 6,000,000! The Holocaust. (Greek word "Holos" (WHOLE) "kaustos" (BURN)
Just think of it! All those countries, nations that hated and tried to destroy the Jew. All of them either defeated or destroyed. They are no more! But NOT God's chosen people. They remind me of that little battery operated rabbit....still going. But that's all history!

The real hard core evidence of God's future plans for the Jew is not in any of the things I've mentioned. The real evidence is in the Word of God and it's found in the verses that deal with the events that still lie ahead.

But before we go there, let's go back two thousand or so years and look at the Messiah Prince, the Son of the Jewish carpenter and his virgin mother, Mary. Jesus had no more made His arrival in the world - in the world HE had made (Colossians 1:16) and immediately the Jews were attacked in the angelic conflict. There reigned in the City of Jerusalem, a Satan infested man named Herod, who, because he had heard that a king was born in Bethlehem, had all male children two years and under brutally murdered. These senseless murders took place not only in Bethlehem, but in the whole surrounding area. Well, that didn't work. Joseph and Mary won a free trip to Egypt, paid for with the gifts the Wise Men gave them.

The next shot Satan had at Jesus was when - get this - the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted in His humanity by the Devil himself. This was after Jesus had fasted for forty days. But Satan failed. It wasn't long after that when Jesus had started His public ministry in His home town, in the City of Nazareth, when the crowd got angry with Him and His message and tried to throw Him off a cliff! But it was not to be. Luke 4:30 "But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way." Obviously, we could go through the life of Jesus and trace the angelic conflict blow by blow and count victory after victory by our precious Lord. He NEVER FAILS - and He won't!
But Israel - that's a "whole nuther" story. She not only failed in the Old Testament, but she failed during the earthly ministry of our Lord, even as the chosen people of God. She has failed for these last 2,000 years and she will continue to fail. She failed in Egypt - but God didn't. She failed in the Sinai while Moses was on the mountain - but God didn't. She failed under the Judges - but God didn't. She failed under the leadership of Saul, David and Solomon - but God didn't. She failed in Assyria and in Babylon - but God didn't. She failed during the closing years of the Old Testament and the 400 years in between the Old and New Testaments - but God didn't.

The Lord Jesus Christ made His entrance into the human race - but Israel failed to see it! Wise me saw it, shepherds saw it - but not Israel - she failed!

Israel failed to see the ministry of the prophets, failed to hear their message, failed to see their miracles and failed to observe their fulfilled prophecies...but God didn't fail. His own family failed Him. His disciples failed Him.....BUT JESUS DIDN'T FAIL!

Until next time,

Blessings,
Bro. Bob