Israel under Attack
Notes
Transcript
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Spiritual warfare
Israel under attack
In our previous messages, we discussed the origins of
Satan, the fallen Lucifer, and the war he's been waging
on God and on the human race ever since he was
summarily ejected from Heaven as a result of his hubris
and vaulting ambition.
We saw that this fall from Heaven was, in essence, a
rebellion against truth - with the result that the onceglorious cherub became the degraded and ignominious
father of lies!
We considered the fact that, as a consequence, his main
weapon against humanity has been deception and lies.
We saw how - after the great flood – Nimrod, son of
Cush and grandson of Ham, established a one-world
godless empire - the dynasty of Uruk - in defiance of
God's edict that man spread over the earth.
This empire was dedicated to the worship of Satan in
the form of Enki, the Lord of the Abyss, who dwelt in
Eridu, the oldest city on record.
The Lord God, as we know, brought this godless
enterprise to an abrupt halt by confusing the languages
at Babel - which many believe was this original
city of Eridu.
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As Genesis 11:9 says:
the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole
earth.
In this message we’re going to discuss another aspect of
the on-going conflict between Satan and God;
specifically: Satan's war against Israel.
Antisemitism, which we can define generally as an
attitude of hostility towards the Jews, is rampant in the
world today. According to the Anti-Defamation League
- in 2015 at least - a total of about 1.09 billion people that's one billion and 90 million people in the world,
harbour antisemitic attitudes.
This total includes 14% of Australians and ranges to
74% of people in the Middle East and North Africa.
Western Europe is at 24% with 22% in Asia and so on.
But why such irrational hatred? It’s understandable (to
and extent) in the Arab world: the Arabs believe that
the land of Israel is rightfully theirs; they believe that
they have a legitimate claim to the promises made to
Abraham, to the land of Israel, and to the holy city of
Jerusalem in particular!
But why the present-day virulent and often apparently
irrational hostility displayed towards Israel on the part
of what appears to be the majority of the nations? Even
those who have little (or even no) contact with Israel?
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When we consider the relentless persecution of Israel,
two factors emerge as clear reasons for its occurrence.
Firstly, even a cursory reading of Ezekiel and Hosea
makes it abundantly clear that Israel's sufferings are
connected with God's judgment on this nation. The
curses for disobedience, pronounced on Mt Ebal in
Deuteronomy 11, have been summarily inflicted on a
people that has, at times, stubbornly persisted in
rebellion and unbelief; on a wife that has been divorced
from her husband (as Ezekiel 3 explains) .
But this doesn't explain the attitude of the nations
towards this little country - and it’s that aspect that
we're going to discuss in this message.
So let's lift the lid a little and get a glimpse from
Scripture into this aspect of the spiritual war that has
actually been raging for well over 3000 years or so!
It all really began with the dispersion of the nations
after the incident of the Tower of Babel. This, according
to the Septuagint, would have taken place in
approximately 2100 B.C. – possibly about 450 years
after the flood - although it must be said that much of
mainstream opinion has placed the flood itself at
roughly 2300 B.C.
Nimrod's godless one-world empire (which we discussed
in our third message on spiritual warfare) had been
forcibly disbanded by the confusion of the languages at
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Babel and so Satan was now forced to adopt a different
strategy.
Genesis chapter 10 tells the story of the development of
seventy language or ethnic groups from the three sons
of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
These groups spread over the world - taking with them
the memories, stories and unfortunately, the mythology
of Nimrod's empire.
So it wasn't a one-world empire this time. Instead, the
Bible seems to suggest that God then permitted the
spiritual government of these seventy nation groups to
be divided up between powerful, fallen angels – or
spiritual world-rulers (as we'll see in a moment).
Now exactly why God permitted this to happen, we
don't really know for sure!
Perhaps Satan claimed that he and his minions could
do a better job than God at handling human affairs.
Perhaps God was simply allowing mankind to have its
way - respecting human free will - even if it was a will
prone to Satanic deception!
Perhaps - as he did with the various so-called
dispensations, God was permitting evil to play its hand
out so that its character and inevitable out-working
could be clearly seen for what they really were.
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Hopefully we'll have a more thorough answer to this
particular mystery in a short while.
So what do we learn from the Scriptures in regard to
this issue?
Well - the Bible has several references to a group of
powerful angel princes that appear to have a particular
relationship with human beings - that appear, in fact, to
have the role of rulers over the nations.
To understand the Biblical references dealing with this
subject, we need to understand that angels (fallen and
unfallen) are called, in Scripture, Sons of God (Bene
Elohim or Bene -ha-Elohim in the Hebrew).
Not, of course, in the sense of the eternal Son of God,
our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact. - quite the opposite! In
Scripture, the term "son of God" - when applied to a
created being, is used to define a creature that has been
directly created by God.
This explains why Adam – the only man created directly
by God - as opposed to the rest of our race - is called a
"son of God" in Luke 3:38.
And in the Old Testament, the term applies particularly
to angels. For example, when the material universe was
created, it says in Job 38:7 ...the morning stars sang
together, and all the angels shouted for joy.
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But in the Authorized Version, it gives the literal
rendering of the Hebrew, which is this:
...the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of
God (the bene ha-Elohim) shouted for joy.
We also meet these so-called "sons of God" in Job 1:6,
where the NIV translates the verse in this way:
One day the angels came to present themselves before
the Lord, and Satan also came with them.
Now the NIV says "angels" but the KJV and the ESV
say:
Now there was a day when the sons of God (Bene ha'elohim) came to present themselves before the LORD,
and Satan came also among them.
Here, as we saw in the passage from Job, the translators
of the NIV obviously understood the term to mean
angels and substituted the word accordingly.
Genesis 6 records how, before the floodis a particular
group of these fallen angels mated with human females:
Genesis 6:2 … the sons of God saw that the daughters of
humans were beautiful, and they married any of them
they chose.
There are several New Testament passages that allude
to the fate of this particular group of rebellious angels.
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Unlike the angels at present inhabiting the heavenly
realms, these have been punished for that particular
crime with confinement in Hades.
For example, we read in 2 Peter 2:4, that:
.....God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent
them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be
held for judgment;
I understand that other people interpret this Genesis 6
passage differently. Some, for example, believe that in
that chapter, the sons of God is a reference to men of
the godly line of Seth while the daughters of men refers
to the ungodly women of the line of Cain.
I’ve explained in a separate message just why I believe
that the term sons of God in Genesis 6, is in fact a clear
reference to a group of fallen angels.
But to return to our theme: how do we know that fallen
angelic (or we could now say: demonic) beings rule over
the nations?
Well, there are several places in the Bible where we find
credible evidence of their presence.
For example, we encounter these
malignant rulers in the book of Daniel.
powerful and
Daniel, you'll remember, saw a vision that scared him
and an unnamed angel had been sent to give the
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prophet its interpretation. But, as the angel explained,
he'd been unable to get through to Daniel for weeks
because, as he said:
..the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twentyone days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came
to help me, because I was detained there with the king
of Persia. (Daniel 10:13)
A little later he adds, in Daniel 10:20,
Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia,
and when I go, the prince of Greece will come;
In our Christian walk, we too, encounter these
malignant beings.
Ephesians 6:12 says this:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
powers of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
The expression: the powers of this dark world is a
translation of the Greek word κοσμοκράτωρ
(kosmokrator) which literally means: "world - ruler".
So after attempts - through Nimrod - to rule over a oneworld empire, Satan appears to be now ruling each
nation-group separately through these powerful, fallen
angel-princes.
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Satan, of course, as the instigator of evil, and the most
powerful of these fallen angels, is, of course, their
commander-in-chief. Accordingly, this fallen world is
under his control (for the moment!) as he rules through
these malignant beings.
Consequently, in John 12:31 & John 16:11, he’s
described as the prince of this world. In Ephesians 2:2,
he's called the ruler of the kingdom of the air, And in 1
John 5:19, we’re told that the whole world is under the
control of the evil one.
That's why, in Luke 4:5-6, Satan could offer Jesus all
the kingdoms of the world if Christ would bow down to
him - and he actually said this: ‘I will give you all their
authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I
can give it to anyone I want to.’
And you'll notice that
at that point because
Satan - through these
andd Eve gave their
garden of Eden!
Christ didn't contest this claim
sinful mankind has worshipped
angel princes - ever since Adam
allegiance to the Devil in the
And from that point onwards, these fallen beings have
been worshipped as gods by their respective nations.
The lesser demons have also been worshipped –
masquerading as lesser gods. Romans 1:23 says that
the pagan world:
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exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
made to look like a mortal human being and birds and
animals and reptiles.
And we know that behind these idols were real beings demonic spirit beings!
In 1 Corinthians 10:20, Paul made the point that:
The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to
God.
And in 1 Corinthians 8:5-6, Paul refers to these demons
- who were worshipped as Gods. He says:
For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven
or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many
“lords”), . yet for us there is but one God, the Father,
etc
So - after the scattering of nations at Babel, all nationgroups were apparently handed over to the control of
fallen angels under Satan's overall command.
An interesting side-light here! The ancient Canaanites
originally worshipped one God whom they called El the name for God that's so familiar to us. And that's not
surprising since all the nations started out with a
monotheistic conception - acknowledging that there was
only one God. We, of course, use the plural of El Elohim - indicating the plurality of beings in the
Godhead.
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But the nations deserted the true God as Satan
insinuated into their belief systems, the polytheistic
worship of these fallen, demonic beings.
And how did he do it?
He did it firstly through the various mythologies which
then developed into world religions. Here’s how it
generally worked:
A nation began with monotheistic beliefs. This was
inevitable at the beginning – particularly following the
flood. But as the family of men scattered over the earth,
they began to weave stories around the one, true God.
They attributed a wife or spouse to him and described
how the two of them subsequently had children. These
second (or sometimes, third) generation of so-called
gods were usually related to one another - some of them
forming what became known as a pantheon – a word
which literally means: all gods.
These gods were, of course, fallen angel beings. And
they became the ones who, in the mythology of the
nations, interacted with mankind.
As they did so, the original god ( the real God whom we
worship), was pushed more and more into the
background – became increasingly irrelevant or otiose
(as scholars would describe him today).
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Take, for example, the Hellenistic nations. If you recall
from Greek mythology, they conceived of the universe
effectively beginning with Ouranos (conceived of as the
sky) and he subsequently mated with Gaia (the earth).
They had children (the Titans) and these Titans, Cronos
in particular, produced another generation which
included several of the gods of Mt Olympus. And it was
these third-generation gods (if you will), who interacted
with human beings. We’re all familiar with their
names: Zeus, Apollo, Mercury, Hades, Athene,
Aphrodite etc.
And who were these so-called ‘gods’? Demonic rulers!
Angel-princes and demons!
The Canaanites were no exception in this regard. In
their mythology they ascribed to the great God, El, a
spouse called Asherah - whose worship is mentioned
often in the Old Testament - usually in reference to the
Asherah poles.
According to Canaanite mythology, El and Asherah had
seventy children. These seventy second-generation gods
were placed in charge of human affairs. They bickered
constantly among themselves and their intense rivalry
worked itself out through the nations they commanded.
Maybe that’s one explanation for history’s incessant
wars.
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And in the meantime, El withdrew himself from direct
involvement with the world – certainly a typical (and
colourful) explanation of how rampant polytheism came
to replace the worship of the one true God!
Now if we read Genesis chapter 10, we find an
interesting corollation in that there are exactly seventy
nation – groups: Shemites, Hamites and Japhethites
that developed after the flood from Noah’s three sons.
Could the reference to the seventy sons of El and
Asherah then be a reference to seventy fallen angels
placed in charge of these seventy nation-groups?
Seventy world-rulers of darkness? And if so, is it
conceivable that Satan could have revealed this to the
Canaanites?
A verse in Deuteronomy chapter 32 may well be a
reference to this. It says in verse 8 of that chapter:
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for
the peoples according to the number of the sons of
Israel.
The Masoretic text here says "sons of Israel" but the
Septuagint reads "sons of God" - that is -angelic beings.
Were they seventy in number?
This becomes even more interesting when we read in
Luke chapter 10 that Christ sent out seventy disciples on
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a gospel mission. Some translations say 72 disciples but
the A.V. says 70. These disciples had been sent out - in
the words of Jesus - as lambs among wolves but they
came back rejoicing and saying, in verse 17:
‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’
Was this warning shot across the bow for Satan and his
empire? The Lord's way of saying: ‘I'm coming to get
you!’
Anyway - what we know for sure is that angelic princes
- or world rulers - are in charge of human affairs and
that they've made a pig's breakfast of it!
Wars; cruel injustice; sin run rampant and so on.
God actually confronted them on their appalling
mismanagement! Remember what Christ said on one
occasion in John 10:34-35? These were his words:
“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are
“gods” ’ ?
A lot of Christians have been puzzled by this reference
and have tended to avoid the passage. But what Christ
appears to be referring to, was an occasion in the great
assembly in Heaven when God rebuked these fallen
angels.
Let's read what happened - it's found in Psalm 82. And
it starts off like this:
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v1 God presides in the great assembly; he renders
judgment among the “gods”:
The so-called gods here are, of course, the fallen angels maybe 70 of them - who were (and are) in charge of the
pagan nations - and the state of the world is a testament
to their mis-management and so God begins with an
accusation:
In v2 - he asks the question:
‘How long will you defend the unjust and show
partiality to the wicked?’
He then goes on to tell them what they should do:
v3 Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause
of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the
needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
But in their wickedness they are incapable of doing the
right thing! So in v5 God concludes that:
‘The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the
earth are shaken.’
Then, in the next verse, we have these angels - direct
creations of God - being once again referred to as 'sons
of God'.
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v 6 “I said, ‘You are “gods’ ; you are all sons of the
Most High.’
As we’ve already said, these fallen angels were gods to
the people who worshipped them and were also
described as sons of the Most High because they were
direct creations of God. And of course, as sons of the
Most High, the greater was their responsibility to rule
over the nations justly and wisely!
But they failed to do so – and now God passes
judgement on them and pronounces their doom:
v7 But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like
every other ruler.”
These fallen princes would eventually be destroyed along with their commander-in-chief, Satan.
The cry then goes up in v.8:
…..Rise up, O God and judge the earth, for all the
nations are your inheritance.
A very significant statement - and we'll return to it a
little later.
So these fallen angels - these so-called gods, were given
the chance to prove themselves. And God allowed them
to have their way and to do their best (or their worst) virtually unchallenged - for over a thousand years!
Then, around 2000 B.C., he stepped in!
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He did so by showing them how it should be done!
He would expose their evil mis-management that we’ve
just read about in Psalm 82!
He would have his own nation! And in sharp contrast to
Satan’s minions, he would rule over that nation in
justice and righteousness!
And through that one nation – his nation – he would
would bring salvation and blessing to all the nations.
So let’s go back again to Deuteronomy 32:8-9.
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for
the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
We’ve already discussed this verse. But it’s the next
verse we now need to focus on! It’s one that’s often
quoted, usually glossed over – and rarely understood!
Yet it’s a statement of incredible significance for our
purposes!
v9 For the Lord’s portion is is people, Jacob his allotted
inheritance.
….the Lord’s portion is his people
How often have we talked about the Lord’s portion
without recognizing the meaning of the word?
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One’s ‘portion’ means a part of a whole. It suggests that
the remainder belongs to (or has been allocated to)
some-one else.
In this case - to the fallen angels! The false gods who
had inherited all the nations which developed after the
flood.
But now God would have his share. His portion of the
nations would be Israel. The verse goes on to confirm
this thought: Jacob his allotted inheritance.
The fallen angels had received their nations by lot. As
we read in verses 8 & 9, the nations were carved up, if
you like, among the sons of God. But now Jacob, or
Israel, would be God's allotted inheritance – his ‘slice of
the pie’, if you like!
The reference to Israel as God’s inheritance is made
over and over again in the Hebrew Scriptures.
In Exodus 34:9, Moses asks that God take Israel as his
inheritance; in 2 Sam.20, Joab was accused of trying to
swallow up the Lord’s inheritance; we read in 1 Kings 8
that Israel were the Lord’s people and the Lord’s
inheritance whom he brought out of the iron-smelting
furnace of Egypt; and Psalm 33:12 says this:
Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh – the people
he chose for his inheritance.
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So we can sense the outrage in the cry of Psalm 79:1,
O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they
have defiled your holy temple; they have reduced
Jerusalem to rubble.
But we must remember that there was no favouritism
involved on God’s part: no selection in that sense. God
didn’t choose an already-existing Israel from among all
the other nations.
The fact is that all the nations were spoken for. They all
had their own so - called "gods" and they were already
corrupted and sunk in sin. So God had to make a new
beginning. As he’s done with each of us, personally, He
had to start from scratch, so to speak, and did so by
creating and developing his own nation through one
man – Abraham (and his wife, Sarah).
So in Deuteronomy 32:6 we read this:
Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and
formed you?
The Lord took his chosen couple out of Ur - the then
capital of Sumer - and a centre of evil - dedicated to the
worship of Nanna, the Moon god.
And so concerned was he to make a fresh start with his
own nation, that he ordered Abram to leave his family
behind.
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Not only this, but Sarah was sterile: she couldn’t
conceive naturally. So what did the angel of the Lord
say to Abraham in Gen.18:10? I will surely return to
you about this time next year and Sarah, your wife, will
have a son.
Rebekah, too, was childless until Isaac prayed for her in
Gen.25:21; and in her turn, Rachel was sterile until God
enabled her to conceive – according to Gen.30:22.
So the three matriarchs of Israel all needed
supernatural assistance to conceive. Surely this was no
co-incidence: it sounds very much like God was putting
his stamp well and truly on this nation – claiming it as
his own.
And so, like all direct creations, Israel, the nation, is
described as a "son of God."
Exodus 4:22,
‘This is what the Lord says: ‘Israel is my firstborn son,’
That’s what made Pharaoh’s refusal to release the
Israelites from Egypt such an offence and affront to
Yahweh.
Listen to what the Lord says in Exodus 4:22-23 as He
gives instructions to Moses:
Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the Lord says: Israel
is my firstborn son, [23] and I told you, “Let my son go,
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so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go;
so I will kill your firstborn son.' ”
And this, of course, accounts for the dreadful night of
the last plague!
So having secured its eventual deliverance from Egypt,
God then took this fledgling nation and nurtured and
cared for it.
Deuteronomy 32:10-11, He shielded him and cared for
him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an
eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them
aloft. The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with
him.
The other nations may have been claimed by Satan -but
not Israel! - Israel was God’s portion - God's inheritance
– his share of the nations in respect of headship and
rule.
So - before bringing the Children of Israel out of Egypt,
God introduced himself to Moses in the burning bush.
The account of this is found in Exodus chapter 3.
There, God identified himself as Yahweh and declared
that he, Yahweh, the God of Israel, was the very same
God who had developed and cared for this nation from
the very beginning.
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In v6, he tells Moses that he is, in fact, ‘the Elohim of
your fathers – the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of
Isaac and the Elohim of Jacob.’
And having identified who He actually is: the great
eternal God, the ‘real thing’, the Lord now tells Moses
that, although he is the great God, in his capacity as the
national God of his own nation, Israel, he is to be known
as Yahweh.
In Ex.3:6, he says to Moses: ‘I am Yahweh,’
and in v15 He adds: ‘This is my name forever, the name
you shall call me from generation to generation.’
The Babylonians had their Marduk, the Sumerians
their Tammuz, the Tyrians had Melquart, the
Sidonians, Eshmun, the Phoenicians and Canaanites
their Baal and so on.
The personal name of Israel’s God was to be Yahweh!
This is a point poorly understood by many Christians –
and this vagueness in regard to the names of God is not
helped by the translators of the Hebrew text, who, for
some reason, translate the name Yahweh as ‘LORD’.
This creates a problem - in that most readers miss the
real significance of many of God’s declarations to his
people.
Take, for example, Deut. 7:9, where the Lord declares:
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‘Know therefore that the Lord your God is God;’
What is God actually saying here? To most believers,
the statement means not much more , really, than: ‘God
is God’ – which seems to be an unnecessary repetition.
But what is the Hebrew literally saying? It’s this:
Know therefore that Yahweh, your god, is God!
Paraphrased, it would go like this:
‘I want you to know that Yahweh, your national god,
isn’t one of the many national gods you see in these
other nations around you. he is, in fact, the Elohim – the
genuine, one and only great God!’
And having made this point, Yahweh goes on in v9 to
further emphasize the difference between himself, the
only true God, and the devilish imposters controlling
the surrounding nations.
v9 ‘He is the faithful God (Elohim), keeping his
covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who
love him and keep his commandments.’
The other objects of worship were frauds – imposters
and fakes! Yahweh was the real deal!
For the other nations, there was no personal, on-going
and developing relationship with their gods. Israel was
unique – because only Yahweh, the true God, the
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Creator of mankind, could enter a genuine covenant
relationship with a nation - because he alone, could
know (and control) the future! He alone could establish
an eternal covenant because he alone was eternal! The
false gods were not eternal Beings, neither had they any
influence over the future.
As well as this, Yahweh alone could establish a covenant
of love because other so-called gods not only did not
love their subjects but – as followers of the fallen
Lucifer – they must have actively hated the people over
whom they ruled!
And they would have deeply resented Israel! Because
Israel’s very existence must have served as a constant
rebuke to their immorality and often-unrestrained evil
– seen particularly in their worship of Moloch,
Chemosh, Baal and so on!
But there was still more reason why Satan would want
to either corrupt or destroy Israel.
Once Yahweh had produced his own nation - and
identified himself as the God of that nation, his good
name, his glory, was bound up in that nation! Yahweh
had literally put his own reputation ‘on the line’ with
Israel!
If Israel failed, their God, Yahweh, had failed! If Israel
was defeated, then Yahweh was defeated. If Israel was
honoured, their God was honoured – and so forth!
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This was a commonly-held assumption throughout the
ancient world!
In fact, so closely was a nation’s god identified with his
nation that if one nation was defeated by another, the
god of the victorious nation was commonly regarded as
stronger and more worthy than the God of the defeated
nation.
Listen to the scorn in the voice of Sennacherib, the
Assyrian king, when he communicated with Hezekiah:
2 Chron. 32:17
He wrote letters ridiculing Yahweh, the God of Israel,
and saying this against Him: Just as the gods of the
peoples of the other lands did not rescue their people
from my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue
his people from my hand.
Remember that at the time Yahweh brought out his
own nation, the world was rampantly polytheistic. Each
nation-group acknowledged the existence of the gods of
other nations but believed that their gods were stronger.
In this context, Yahweh was regarded by the pagan
world as just another god. A powerful one, to be sure one who had parted the Red Sea - but still just another
god!
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An incident recorded in the book of Samuel, gives us a
clear insight into the polytheistic outlook of the world
at that time.
There we read the story of the hijacked Ark of the
Covenant. If you remember, Yahweh showed himself
superior to Dagon when Dagon’s statue collapsed before
the Ark of the Covenant.
And look at the Philistines’ reaction!
1 Sam.5:7 When the people of Ashdod saw what was
happening, they said, “The ark of the god of Israel must
not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us
and on Dagon our god.”
A little later, we read in 1 Samuel 6:2
the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and
said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell
us how we should send it back to its place.”
And they did so- having added to it various tributes and
offerings.
Now all of this seems confusing: especially their use of
the word ‘Lord’!
But this wasn’t a faith reaction. They weren't
acknowledging God's lordship over them.
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Substitute the name Yahweh for the word "Lord" and it
all becomes clear. Their reaction was normal. They
were wondering what to do with Yahweh’s Ark. They
still worshipped Dagon; they hadn’t shifted allegiance
but now they recognized that Yahweh was the stronger
god. They even make reference to how he had parted
the Red Sea.
This put them into a panic, and eager to placate the
rival god, Yahweh.
So now we can see why the presence and strength of
Israel was a dire threat to Satan and his kingdom of
darkness. The nations, after all, were in bondage to
Satan: his lieutenants ruled over them – and now
Yahweh was once again stepping in to challenge his
authority; as happened in the Garden of Eden when
man was given his mandate to rule over the earth.
A national beach-head had been established by Yahweh
- right in the heart of the Devil’s empire!!
And so Satan’s intentions were clear: he must either
corrupt or destroy Israel! Clearly, if the Israelites
would turn aside to other gods, they would be thus
implying that the gods they turned to, were greater,
stronger and more worthy of worship than Yahweh
himself.
Accordingly, Satan’s tactics were the same he had used
in the garden of Eden. The same lie that we discussed in
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our first message - that God was not alone worthy of
worship! And this lie was again assiduously
promulgated by the evil one.
And so the temptation to idolatry was ever-present with
Israel and Yahweh jealously took every precaution to
keep his people separate and pure – in other words:
sanctified!
He prepared a land for them and instructed his people
to cleanse it of any trace of heathen worship. In Exodus
23:23-24, he says this:
My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the
land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites,
Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. Do not
bow down before their gods or worship them or follow
their practices. You must demolish them and break
their sacred stones to pieces.
No wonder that the first two commandments were:
Exodus 20:3, You shall have no other gods before me
and vv.4-5: You shall not make for yourself an image in
the form of anything in heaven above, or on the earth
beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow
down to them or worship them, for I, Yahweh, your
God, am a jealous God!
As we said, the other nations were polytheistic: they
recognized and acknowledged each other’s gods and
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their gods were more or less happy to share the credit
overall.
But there was to be no such polytheism in Israel: the
nation was to be exclusively faithful to Yahweh –
acknowledging that he was the one and only true God.
As He said in Isaiah 42:8,
I am Yahweh, that is my name; I will not yield my glory
to another - nor my praise to idols.
The Israelites weren’t even to marry outside their own
race. And right at the beginning, in Genesis 17,
circumcision was introduced to Abraham in order to set
his progeny apart from the pagan nations that would
surround them.
In fact, the bond between this nation and their God was
so strong that Israel was portrayed as Yahweh’s wife in
passages such as Jeremiah chapter three.
Sometimes we find it incredible that, given the miracles
they had witnessed: the Passover, the parting of the Red
Sea, the water from the rock, the provision of manna –
and so on, that the Israelites should have – time and
time again – slipped back so readily and succumbed to
the lure of idol worship and false gods. As, for example,
in the case of Israel and the Moabites – recorded in
Numbers 25.
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But we must understand the world of which they were
part: the polytheistic world we’ve just been describing.
We understand that there is only one God; the
patriarchs believed in only one God! But the situation
would have been less clear in the minds of the Israelites
after four hundred years in Egypt - even in the face of the
overwhelming evidence of Yahweh’s power!
Remember that the nation had not long ago come out of
that pagan country and for hundreds of years they had,
no doubt, been in close contact with the many gods of
Egypt. They would have encountered Osiris, Isis, Seth,
Nephthys, Apis, the bull god, the cat goddess, Bast, and
the myriad lesser gods of that pagan nation!
Though initially blessed in the Egyptian territory of
Goshen, it was not long before the Israelites fell under
the influence of these pagan gods – and joined the
Egyptians in their idolatry.
We read of the new Pharaoh who brought the nation
under the yoke of slavery. Ostensibly the reason was
that their increasing size was beginning to pose a threat
to the Egyptians but in actual fact, it was God’s
judgment upon them because of this idolatry.
Listen to the words of Ezek. 20:8, where God says this:
'But they rebelled against me and would not listen to
me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set
their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So
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I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend
my anger against them in Egypt.’
And even when delivered from bondage by a mighty
hand, bad habits died hard and there was a persistent
tendency to slip back into their former way of thinking:
to regard Yahweh as just another god – as did the other
nations.
After all, not long after the ten plagues – followed by the
Passover and the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, the
emancipated Israelites were dancing in a frenzy around
the statue of Apis, the bull-god of Egypt, and the
embodiment of the great Egyptian god, Ra.
And this proclivity to idol worship persisted. Foreign
gods surrounded them and the worship of these Beings
often infiltrated the land.
Take Solomon’s seven hundred wives, for example, for
whom Solomon erected pagan temples in Israel. The
following indictment is damning in its simplicity! Of
Solomon, the chronicler said, 1 Kings 11:5,
He followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians and
Moloch, the detestable god of the Ammonites.
And we’re all familiar with the story of Jezebel, culminating in that spectacular and decisive
confrontation on Mt Carmel between the 450 prophets
of Baal and Yahweh's prophet, Elijah.
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Other prominent deities had also become popular in
parts of Israel. Among these was the Babylonian
goddess, Ishtar, who was previously known to the
Sumerians as Inanna, the so-called ‘Queen of Heaven’.
In Jeremiah 7:18, God asks this of the prophet:
Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of
Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children
gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women
knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen
of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods
to arouse my anger.
These rites to Ishtar are, of course, the genesis of our
celebration of Easter.
And Ishtar had a consort called Tammuz – originally
known to the Sumerians as Dumuzi. Tammuz was a
vegetation god – probably a manifestation of Baal. As
vegetation god, Tammuz was visualized as dying each
year as the crops died in winter and as rising again
when new growth appeared in spring.
Each year, at the dying of the crops, a pagan ritual was
enacted in which women would mourn the supposed
death of Tammuz. This belief – and its accompanying
ritual - had evidently found its way into Israel. Ezekiel
8:14 records how the prophet was brought to the
entrance of the north gate of the House of the Lord and
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there he saw, as it says, women sitting there, mourning
the god Tammuz.
The book of Hosea gives a frightening account of just
how much spiritual and moral conditions had
deteriorated in Israel at that point. It had even gone as
far as child-sacrifice, according to Ezekiel 20:31.
So, as far back as the book of Deuteronomy, Yahweh
had denounced his people for their idolatry.
Deut.32:16-17
They made him jealous with their foreign gods and
angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed
to false gods, which are not God - gods they had not
known, gods that recently appeared, gods your
ancestors did not fear.
This was yielding victory to Satan who was operating
through the false god, Baal. It was disgracing the name
of Yahweh, who, as we said before, had laid his
reputation on the line with Israel by identifying himself
as the God of that nation.
So, Israel had to make up their minds! Was Yahweh the
true God – worthy of worship and obedience – or was it
Baal? They couldn’t have it both ways!
The stark choice was presented to them by Elijah and
we can almost hear the frustration in the prophet’s
voice:
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1 Kings 18:21
Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will
you waver between two opinions? If Yahweh is God,
follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
Eventually, as we know, Yahweh had to distance
himself from his own people – the nation that was
bringing dishonor on his name and betraying his love
for them over and over again!
He was forced to divorce both kingdoms (as we read in
the third chapter of Jeremiah) and Israel has
consequently been side-lined as Yahweh works out his
purposes through the church.
But it’s a huge mistake to conclude that Yahweh has
given up on Israel! I believe that such a view is playing
straight into the Devil’s hands!
Israel is Yahweh’s inheritance – the people of his love!
To abandon them permanently as a nation - even in
favor of a glorious spiritual body such as the church would be to concede defeat to Satan – certainly in the
eyes of the nations and their gods!
It would be a deserting of the field of conflict – the very
existence of which has been permitted to demonstrate
and ultimately display to the nations, Yahweh’s
superiority, his glory and his worthiness to rule!
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It would be at least a tacit – if not overt – admission that
Yahweh was fickle and was reneging on his promises
when in Rom.11:29, the Scripture clearly indicates (and
it’s speaking in direct reference to Israel) that: God’s
gifts and His call are irrevocable!
Remember – Satan has been trying to discredit the God
of Israel for millennia and among the nations, he does
so by discrediting Israel – the nation that bears his
name!
And does he appear to have been successful? To the
point that even many Christians are suggesting that
Yahweh has permanently abandoned Israel – in favor
of the church?
Absolutely!~ Because of Israel’s persistent idolatry,
Yahweh was forced to temporarily allow his people, as a
whole, to be swallowed up by the nations in judgment.
Beginning with the Assyrian invasion of 721BC!
Assyria deported the vast majority of the Israelites and
brought in other captive races – so forming the mixed
race of what were known in New Testament times as the
Samaritans.
The Babylonians continued the process with little sister,
Judah, beginning in 606 BC and completing the
deportations in around 586 BC.
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Now of course the Persian king, Cyrus, did allow the
exiles to return to their land from 536 BC and the city
was restored under Nehemiah later in the fifth century
BC. But since that time, with the exception of the
largely Jewish population in the land at the time of
Christ, Israel has largely been scattered among the
nations.
This became especially true of the Jews in the first
Century in the great dispersion (or diaspora) that came
to a head in 73 AD - after the destruction of Jerusalem
and the siege of Masada.
And what does this appear to say about Israel’s God? It
reflects directly on his name! Listen to the prophet’s
anguished plea in Joel 2:17,
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a
byword among the nations. Why should they say among
the peoples, ‘Where is their God? ’
But let’s remember that Satan appeared to also have
won in the garden of Eden. And the sinful state of the
world today seems to testify to his victory – as
righteousness now is in a state of humiliation (just look
at the treatment of the Lord’s people in the world
today!).
It looks as if Satan is winning the spiritual battle with
mankind – right? Evil appears to have won out!
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Yet we know that this is merely the outward
appearance. We know that God is working his purposes
throughout history – working out everything in
conformity with the purpose of His will as Eph.1:11
clearly affirms.
We know that, despite appearances, Satan is a defeated
foe. And that, as Paul said to the saints in Rom.16:20,
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
We know that God is allowing evil today to do its worst:
allowing wicked men - in the words of Rom.2:5 – to
store up wrath for themselves against the day of God’s
wrath when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
Notice that the more man stores up wrath, the more
righteous God’s judgment appears. Remember how, in
Genesis 15, Yahweh told Abraham that he wouldn’t
bring the Israelites out of Egypt until the fourth
generation because, as he said in v16, the sin of the
Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.
So God holds off! As a God of Righteousness, he will
have everything seen in its true light. That is the basis
for perfect justice!
Read the passages concerning the necessity for absolute
transparency in both forgiveness and judgment. Evil
must be seen for exactly what it is – and acknowledged
by the wrong-doer. This applies to our law-courts
today; it applies to our processes of granting parole
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today. Spiritually - it applies to the believer’s daily
forgiveness and cleansing – as seen in 1 John 1:9.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness.
It applies to the Bema judgment of believers’ works –
recorded in 1 Cor.3:13 where each man’s work will be
seen clearly for what it is!
It’s a principle that also applies on Israel’s Great Day of
Atonement described in Zechariah 12:10 onwards,
when that nation looks upon the One they pierced and
realizes their terrible sin in crucifying their Messiah.
And we see the principle also working in the Great
White Throne judgment of Revelation 20 – particularly
v.12 – a passage which describes how the books were
opened and each man is judged according to the things
that are written in those books.
So Yahweh gives Satan and his henchmen every
opportunity to prove themselves. And, in fact, enough
rope to hang themselves!
So Israel is in humiliation today! And it does appear as
if the other nations are winning!
Yet Yahweh will be seen as righteous when he judges
the nations. But notice when it is that he returns to
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execute that judgement. It’s when the chaos, violence,
godlessness and evil has reached its frenzied climax in
the Battle of Armageddon!
One thing is certain from Scripture: Satan’s apparent
victories over Israel are no more real and lasting than
his momentary appearance of victory at Golgotha.
Christ’s resurrection brought an abrupt end to any
such fanciful imaginings.
And in the same way, Christ’s triumphant return to this
earth will shatter the nations’ illusions of victory over
Israel.
Psalm 59:8 says this:
But you laugh at them, Yahweh; you scoff at all those
nations.
Listen carefully to the words of Psalm 94:19 which say
this: The Lord (Yahweh) will not reject his people; He
will never forsake His inheritance.
Aren’t the Scriptures clear enough on this matter?
I don’t believer in replacement theology and I don’t
think Satan does either. Else why continue this series of
unremitting and scurrilous attacks on that nation?
Certainly saved Jews and Gentiles are both members of
Christ’s body in the church today, and we know in
Galatians 6:16 that the church is referred to as the
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Israel of God, just as Paul claimed in Rom.11:1 that his
place in the church was proof that God had not
forsaken Israel.
It is also true that we, the church, have become,
according to 1 Peter 2:9, a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession –
something that was conditionally promised, in Exodus
19:5-6, to the fledgling nation of Israel – conditional
upon them obeying the terms of the Covenant that God
was about to establish with them.
But what is this showing?
Not that Israel has been substituted by the church, but
simply that Israel, under law, could not, in the energy of
the flesh, attain to that level of obedience that would
entitle them to these blessings.
But neither, of course, could we! It’s only through the
work of Christ that we have obtained our standing
before God.
So, you may say. isn’t that proving that Israel has been
forever passed over because the flesh can never please
God or inherit the promises?
Well – laying aside all God’s promises for the moment that would be plausible. And however forced the
interpretation, the analogy could conceivably hold – if it
were not for one crucial thing: Israel, as a nation, has its
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great Day of Atonement – when it recognizes its
Messiah and turns to him in repentance.
Because the Great Day of Atonement isn’t just a yearly
feast! If we follow the feasts of Leviticus 23, Yom
Kippur follows closely after the Feast of Trumpets
(Rosh Ha shanah) which signifies the Rapture.
As with the Church, Israel’s restoration, her cleansing,
is, after all, based on the atoning work of Christ. The
so-called 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9, which
encompasses Israel’s separation from Yahweh,
beginning in 445 BC and heading up at the end of the
Great Tribulation, is, in the words of Dan.9:24,
..decreed for your holy people and your city; to finish
transgression; to put and end to sin; to atone for
wickedness; to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal
up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy
place.
So this will take place upon Christ’s return to the earth,
And so we can clearly see the difference between God’s
dealing with the Church and his dealing with his nation,
Israel.
In the meantime, we can certainly see the hand of God
in disciplining his faithless people. But God’s discipline,
as it is with us, is never intended to harm: it is always
with a view to correction, restoration and ultimate
blessing.
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And Israel’s scattering among the nations has actually
helped preserve her from further destructive idolatry.
Yahweh vowed that he would ensure that she would
never again turn to false gods; and that her sufferings
during the ‘time of the Gentiles’ would ultimately serve
to restore her to himself – her former husband.
He says this in Hosea 2:6-7
Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will
wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will
chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look
for them but not find them. Then she will say, 'I will go
back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off
than now.'
So, over the last two thousand years or so, we’ve had
the bizarre – or at least entirely unique situation – in
which Israel, though scattered and sown among the
nations over the centuries, and in spite of having no
active relationship with her God, Yahweh (for she is still
in rejection of Christ), nevertheless has never
assimilated into those nations. Nor has she ever
subscribed to any other religions.
How much more evidence do we need that Yahweh has
further plans for her; that he is actually protecting her
from herself and preserving her for their eventual
reconciliation and reunion.
Hosea 3: 4-5 sums up this period of time in this way:
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For the Israelites will live many days without king or
prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without
ephod or household gods.
But now listen carefully to the next verse:
v5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the
Lord their God and David their king. They will come
trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last
day.
Not the church here – Israel!
On the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty in
Malachi 3:17 they will be my treasured possession.
Israel may be separated from her Lord right now - may
have experienced the punitive withdrawal of his love
and mercy - as Hosea tells us - may have experienced a
temporary hardening in part because of her
disobedience, as Romans 11 points out, may have,
through the centuries, been scattered and sown among
the nations until recently (that is the meaning of the
name: Jezreel)- but Yahweh has promised her ultimate
restoration and blessing
But in the meantime, the attacks on Israel continue because Yahweh’s reputation is still on the line! His
ability and right to rule are still in question – have yet to
be ultimately, universally and triumphanly resolved.
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So the powers of darkness are still in assault mode!
They’ve been unable to seduce Israel into idol worship
since the Babylonian exile, so their only recourse today
is to destroy her or even not recognize her as a nation
at all!
After all, prophecy must be fulfilled exactly, and if
there’s no nation of Israel, then there’ll be no throne for
Christ to occupy – from which he may rule the nations.
So just as the cleansing and occupation of the land
under Joshua’s leadership would have been a chilling
foretaste of the inroads that the enemy would make into
Satan’s already-established empire back then, so
Israel’s re-establishment in the land at present, serves
as an ominous portent for Satan and his empire – one
that presages his imminent undoing.
The false gods are now clearly panicking! No wonder
there’s a frenzied increase in their attacks on Israel;
attempts to neutralize the threat before it’s too late for
the prevailing powers of darkness.
Yahweh has identified himself as Israel’s God, and
therefore his victory must entail the victory of his
nation over their nations! Which, in turn, involves their
destruction and that of their satanic leader.
That is the essence of the spiritual war! Accordingly,
their efforts to discredit or destroy Israel have
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redoubled and we can clearly see their resentment and
spite bubbling to the surface.
For instance, notice how the nation of Israel seems to be
blamed for all the world’s woes. In the Second World
War, Hitler blamed the Jews for all Germany’s (and
indeed the world’s) social and economic problems.
Just his year (2015) the Palestinian foreign minister
presented documents to the international criminal
court, claiming that Israel should be investigated for
war crimes – and reports indicate that the United
Nations is currently contemplating this action.
Are these attitudes and accusations justified?
Absolutely not!
Ridiculous? Certainly! Insane?
Possibly!
Understandable? Well, actually – yes - when we take
into account the history of spiritual warfare, and the
nature of the enemy.
Remember that fateful meeting between God and the
fallen angel-rulers in the great assembly? It was then
that they were roundly condemned for their
mismanagement of the nations and Yahweh’s
judgement was pronounced upon them for that reason.
So this seems to be retaliation on their part! It’s payback! ‘You accuse us of making a mess of things, so
we’ll see to it that you get the blame! We’ll make sure
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that your nation (Yahweh’s nation) is held responsible
for society’s ills.’
We need to understand this: the demise of Israel – in
any form – would bring shame and dishonour upon the
name of Yahweh, their God.
In this context, and given the history of this warfare, he
would be discredited – and shown to be weaker in his
ability go govern, to protect and to preserve than the
false gods of the rival nations in this world.
But it’s simply not working for Satan! His problem is
the same he’s faced since Eden. It’s that all his efforts
have backfired. Particularly in Christ’s crucifixion; he
entered Judas to betray Christ – only to find that in
doing so, he had brought about the very thing he was
trying to prevent: a victory over sin and death,
accomplished on the cross – and triumphantly
announced by Christ’s resurrection.
As Peter said at Pentecost, in Acts 2:23
This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate
plan and foreknowledge.
It’s little wonder that upon the Son of God rising from
the dead, Satan and his cronies were sickened. In
reference to the wisdom of God in this regard, Paul says
in 1 Cor.2:8,
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None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they
had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
And it’s the same with Israel. For example, the
holocaust only served to bring about the very thing
Satan was trying to prevent: it led to the reestablishment of Israel as a nation after two thousand
years; as well as the instilling of a national
determination that nothing – and nobody – was going to
do the same thing to them ever again.
So the demonic world-rulers (and their master) can see
God slowly but surely working, through Israel, his
inexorable will for the nations.
And that can mean only one end for them!
Upon his return, Israel’s Messiah will be vindicated!
His right to rule over the nations will be universally and
unquestionably established.
As we pointed out, the foretold destruction of the false
gods in Psalm 82:7, was followed by the cry:
Rise up, O God; judge the earth - for all the nations are
your inheritance!
And Yahweh has answered – and will further respond
to this cry.
The first phase of this judgment was executed at
Calvary where, according to Colossians 2:15
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having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a
public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the
cross.
The next stage is a matter of clear prophecy. The Lamb
of God will begin the process of reclaiming his
inheritance by opening the 7-sealed book (the title-deeds
to this earth) in Daniel’s 70th week (or heptab) - the
final group of 7 years.
And Rev.11:18 says this:
The nations were angry and your wrath has come. The
time has come for judging the dead and for rewarding
your servants, the prophets and your people who revere
your name, both great and small, and for destroying
those who destroy the earth.
And so the war against Israel will end! It will end with
the destruction and defeat of the evil ‘sons of God’ –
together with the subjugation of their nations to
Yahweh’s nation – bringing to a triumphant conclusion
the spirit-mediated war of the nations that has raged
over the millennia.
Revelation 12:5 says that Yahweh comes to:
rule all the nations with an iron scepter.
Revelation 19:15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp
sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will
rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the
winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.
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On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
king of kings and lord of lords.
On the day that Yahweh returns, all the nations, indeed,
the entire universe, including all the false gods and
Satan himself, will be forced to acknowledge his
supremacy.
Philippians 2:10-11
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.
And so we thrill to the triumphant words of Revelation
11:15
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of
our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever
and ever.
Notice that it’s not just in his capacity as our Lord that
he returns but as Israel’s long-rejected Messiah; the
separation will be over; the long exile concluded!
And on the Great Day of Atonement, after much
weeping and mourning, according to Zechariah chapter
12, there will be national restoration and joy.
And in all of this, Yahweh will be glorified; he will be
vindicated and established in his rightful place – not
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just as the inheritor of Israel but as the great God, Lord
of Lords who gathers unto himself all the nations as his
rightful inheritance.
Ezekiel 28:25-26
This is what the Lord, Jahweh says: When I gather the
people of Israel from the nations where they have been
scattered, I will be proved holy through them in the
sight of the nations. Then they will live in their own
land which I gave to my servant Jacob. They will live
there in safety and will build houses and plant
vineyards. They will live in safety when I inflict
punishment on all their neighbors who maligned them.
Then they will know that I am Yahweh, their God.
On that day, Yahweh’s triumph will be Israel’s triumph
and Israel will be his jewel among the nations.
Isaiah 60:3-5
Nations will come to your light and kings to the
brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look
about you; all assemble and come to you; your sons
come from afar and your daughters are carried on the
hip; then you will look and be radiant. Your heart will
throb and swell with joy; the wealth of the seas will be
brought to you; to you the riches of the nations will
come.
In closing, I’d like to make one crucial point.
Satan has all sorts of reasons to hate and destroy Israel,
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and paramount among these has got to be the fact that
Israel were never to be the sole beneficiaries of God’s
grace! They were to be the conduit through which his
blessing flowed to mankind.
Through Israel, all the other nations were to be blessed!
As God said to Abraham in Gen.12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses
you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you.
A blessing first realized when Israel produced the Seed
that crushed the serpent’s head on Calvary. A blessing
fully realized when Israel, Yahweh’s nation, is finally
established at the head of the nations.
He will rule the nations from David’s throne and his
people, Israel, will be his jewel among the nations.
As we read a moment ago in Ezekiel 28:25 and I repeat:
This is what the Lord, Jahweh says: When I gather the
people of Israel from the nations where they have been
scattered, I will be proved holy through them in the
sight of the nations.
May God bless his precious Word to each one of us.
Stephen Smith
© 2015
www.emmauspathway.com