What's Happening To Israel
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14 “ ‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, 15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. 17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you. 18 “ ‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. 19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. 20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit. 21 “ ‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. 22 I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted. 23 “ ‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, 24 I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. 25 And I will bring the sword on you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. 26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied. 27 “ ‘If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, 28 then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you. 31 I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. 32 I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. 34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it. 36 “ ‘As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them. 37 They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies. 38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you. 39 Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their ancestors’ sins they will waste away.
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Why will this happen to the Israelites? Verse 14 tells us.....
‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, 15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you:
What covenant is God speaking about?
Verse 46 tells us......
Leviticus (4) God Will Remember (26:40–46)
46 These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the LORD established on Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelites through Moses
State:
Israel is still experiencing the reprecussions of their rejection of this covenant
This is the Mosaic Covenant (Conditional)
The Mosaic Covenant is a conditional covenant made between God and the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai
If Israel obeyed God’s laws and regulations, they would prosper
If they did not, they would be subject to punishments
This punishment happened
Ten tribes of Israel were exiles in 533 BC (Assyria)
Idolotry / immorality / willful sin and disobedience
Two tribes of Judah were exiled 597 BC (Babylon)
Same issues
Remaining Jews scattered throughout the world in AD 70
Rejected their savior (The New Covenant)
31 “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. 33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
Israel rejected this New Covenant also
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
State:
To this day Jews are receiving the consequences of their rejection of God’s decrees, laws and his son, their messiah.
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But there is hope for Israel
Let’s return to Leviticus....
Leviticus 26:40–45 (NIV)
40 “ ‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, 41 which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
Judah did this and returned to rebuild the 2nd temple (Cyrus) 515 BC
goes on to say
I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God. 45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”
State
God’s dedication to Israel is not because of them.
God’s dedication is because of his promise he made to their ancestors.
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What covenant/promis is God refering to that was made with their ancestors?
Abrahamic Covenant (Unconditional)
In this covenant, God promised He would make Abraham’s name great (Genesis 12:2),
2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.
This has been fullfilled -David / Solomon / yet to be fullfilled
That Abraham would be the father of a multitude of nations (Genesis 17:4-5).
4 “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! 5 What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations.
This has been fullfilled through the list of nations : the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Edomites, Amalekites, Kenizzites, Midianites and Assyrians (Arabs)
God also made promises regarding creating a nation called Israel.
Genesis 12:7 (NLT)
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
State:
God confirmed it with a fire ceremony ( known in the far east at that time)
Genesis 15:9–21 (NLT)
9 The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. 11 Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away. 12 As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. 14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. 15 (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) 16 After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.” 17 After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. 18 So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—19 the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
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The importance of this is:
if either of the parties making this agreement do not fullfill their promise, then what has happened to this animal will happen to you.
But God did not have Abraham involved
God was promising he would do it by himself and if he did not, then may this happen to God.
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Another provision in the Abrahamic Covenant is that the families of the world will be blessed through the physical line of Abraham
3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
This was fullfilled in the first coming of Jesus....
The Jews rejected Jesus though.....
State:
Israel is absolutely going to get the land that God promised 3000 years ago.....
BUT!....THEY ARE STILL IN DISOBEDIENCE AND REJECTION OF THEIR GOD.
This has caused 2000 years of being dispersed amongst the nations of the world
And judgments that are consequences of their rejection of their messiah
1 Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you! 2 I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.
This is yet to happen, but will happen....(Some say it already happened)
The Lord’s foot will touch down on the Mt of Olives
State:
God will sovereignly change Israel’s heart
All Israel shall be saved....
26 And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say, “The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness.
How will this happen....?
God will bring about a national repentance in Israel...
10 “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.
20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord. 21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.