“And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.” (1 Kings 14:24)
Hi Brothers and Sisters
According to a report in the Jerusalem post last Friday in Tel Aviv some 250,000 people turned up for Tel Aviv Pride event with the parade showcasing 14 floats with people celebrating their sexuality. Voted the world’s “Best Gay City” by GayCities.com and “The Most Gay-Friendly City in the World” by Wow Travel, Tel Aviv’s Pride parade is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading LGBTQ events, attracting thousands of visitors from around the globe. In solidarity with the event, the US Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv decorated its building with rainbow flag banners. A photo of the building decked out in two rainbow banners and rainbow streamers was published on the US Embassy in Jerusalem’s official Twitter account last Thursday. “Sodom and Egypt” is widespread today even beyond the boundaries of Israel.
Jeremiah the prophet put it this way when he spoke to backslidden Judah; “How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done—a restless young camel running here and there, a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.” (Jeremiah 2:23-25)
Today in the nation of Israel we see this happening again with the Pride event. As we see the last days rapidly heading towards the climax of this age with the return of the Lord Jesus, God’s covenant people are still blind to their true spiritual condition before the God of their forefathers of faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even though they are back in the land as prophesied by Ezekiel, the people of Israel, by and large, are still away from the LORD. The Pride event clearly reveals acts and pursuits that are akin to a wild donkey in heat with an unrestrained appetite for sexual pleasure. Donkeys are not known for their wisdom but are rather dull and insensitive creatures. The wild female ones in the wilderness know no restraint sexually when they are in heat. Any other male donkey that finds them can satiate its sexual lust on the female donkey that gives itself to the male without restraint.
God created sex to be mutually enjoyed between a man and a woman within marriage, not only for procreation but for the pleasure experienced by the married couple. Let’s be clear, God is not against sex or sexual pleasure for that matter but against its misuse. Satan will always try to pervert and destroy those things that God calls good and were created for man’s spiritual and physical well-being. Through the media and through political policies and many politicians Satan is seeking to pollute that which is wholesome and good.
When we see the Pride event we see a perversion of the sexual relations that God intended to be enjoyed between a husband and his wife. As someone has said “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” According to the Bible sodomy is one of the sins of the flesh and God lists it along with the other sins of idolatry, adultery, theft, greed, drunkenness, abuse and swindling (1 Corinthians 6:9) When God’s people backslide into the Egypt of this world they end up sinning with more passion and vigour than the unsaved who are already living it up in the fleshpots of this world. As one of my Bible College lecturers used to say many year ago; “when a believer backslides everything seems greased for the occasion.”
Many people flock to Israel and the tourist trade is booming and many Jews are coming back to Israel to live and to work there and many more are yet to come. However, are they being regathered for a blessing? Yes, the ultimate blessing will come when the Messiah has returned and rules from Jerusalem and Israel is the head and not the tail in the nations. (Deuteronomy 28:13) However, before this happens Israel as a nation must pass through the time of Trouble for Jacob. (Jeremiah 30:7a) The attacks we see on Israel from Iran by proxy through Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and from the Palestinian Arabs is all a precursor to what is coming upon Israel in the near future. Jeremiah also tells us that the people of Israel will hear a cry of panic, of terror, and no peace with every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labour and every face turned deathly pale, and that it will be a time of distress for Jacob unparalleled in their long and troubled history. (Jeremiah 30:1-7a) (Matthew 24:15, 21-22)
Terrifying events occurred for the Jewish people in 586 BC at the hands of the Babylonians, and in 70AD at the hands of the Romans. Then in 135 AD the bar Kokhba rebellion was ruthlessly suppressed and destroyed, it was a blood bath for the Jewish nation also at the hands of Rome. In the last century we have seen the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis. However, in these tragic events we see a pattern of what is to come at the end of this age for Israel because of their wilful and persistent violation of God’s Word and above all else because as a nation they reject their Messiah.
The prevailing attitude of multitudes of Israelis today is; “ for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go!” The “foreigners” are those who do not belong to God and are pagans living in violation of God’s laws and commandments and practicing hedonistic living, materialism and idolatry. When we see 250,000 people turning up at the Pride event in Israel it speaks volumes about the nation’s real spiritual condition. It also exposes the works based righteousness of the religious Jews that cannot bring deliverance over the flesh, neither can it cleanse the heart and conscience from dead works nor turn a sinner from their ways.
What many unsaved Jews in Israel cannot see, or do not want to see, especially among the religious Jews who reject their Messiah, is that there are curses for disobedience attached to the law as well as blessings attached for obedience to the law. (Deuteronomy 28) Israel as a nation is under the curse of the law and the city of Jerusalem is in spiritual bondage and slavery to sin even to this day (Galatians 4:25). The orthodox religious Jews are going about seeking to establish their works based righteousness which can never meet the moral and spiritual requirements of the law. Only through faith alone in the Messiah can the righteousness that comes from God be received. (Romans 3:19-31; 10:3) It is only the blood of the Messiah can purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14) Having said this, the Jerusalem above that is free from slavery to sin and to the flesh are the saints in the Kingdom of God. (Galatians 4:26) These are all those, both Jew and Gentile alike, who, through faith in the Messiah, have been circumcised in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, whose praise is from God and not from the approval of man. (Romans 2:28-29)
The bad news for backslidden Israel is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, however, the good news for Israel is that the curse of the law was born and broken by the Passover Lamb Jesus the Messiah who, at the cross, took upon Himself that curse of the law and its consequences. (1 Corinthians 5:7) (Galatians 3:13). We see this clearly revealed when Jesus died in the place of Barabbas. As the apostle Peter writes; “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18) This is why the Jews must hear the gospel first before any others, because they are still God’s covenant people. It is to the Jew first! (Romans 1:16)
While the curse over the Jewish nation has been broken the unsaved people of Israel must still repent and believe on Him who shed His blood for their sins and for the sins of the whole world. (John 1:29) If they do not repent and believe in the Messiah our Lord Jesus they will die in their sins. (John 8:24) Having said this, when any Jew or Gentile repents of their sin and unbelief and trust in the Lord Jesus to save them, the curse of the law over their life is broken. Their atonement is received by faith in the Messiah and their sin cleansed by His blood. (Zechariah 13:1) (Romans 5:10-11)
Now Satan wants to destroy Israel in his attempt to stop the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus because Satan knows that the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus is dependent on the survival of Israel and upon God’s prophetic plans and promises made to the Jews through the prophets. Satan’s diabolical ambition is to make Israel ‘play the harlot’ to the point where God will have to punish the nation. Satan’s desire is to wipe them off of the map as a nation. Satan knows that if he can destroy Jerusalem and the Jewish people then he will in effect have stopped the return of the Messiah or so he thinks in his twisted and perverted logic.
Of course this will never happen because Satan knows that his time is short. He knows that he will be bruised under the feet of the Lord Jesus when He comes back to inaugurate His Messianic Kingdom on earth. The troubles afflicting Israel today are instigated by Satan because Israel by and large as a nation are violating Torah law and have brought down upon themselves the curses of not obeying the Word of God. At the trial of the Messiah the Lord Jesus, the people of Israel cursed themselves and their children and the ramifications of this have been clearly seen down through history even to the present day. (Matthew 27:25)
The Pride event is the end result of the spiritual adultery and fleshly debauchery that has penetrated and permeated Israeli society at almost every level. Indeed it has become Sodom and Egypt! Zechariah the prophet tells us that when the Time of Trouble comes for Israel that in the whole land two thirds will be struck down yet again and perish at the hands of foreigners yet one third will be brought by God into the fire to be refined like silver and tested like gold and that this third in their extremity will call upon the name of the LORD and be saved out of it and God will answer them saying “they are My people, and they will say, the LORD is our God!” (Zechariah 13:8-9) Indeed Jeremiah goes on to say it will be a time of trouble for Jacob but he will be saved out of it! (Jeremiah 30:7b)
In that day God will break the yoke of sin off from around their necks and will tear off their bonds of slavery to sin and to the appetites of the flesh and no longer will they be enslaved to foreigners. Instead they will serve the LORD their God and their Messiah in the character of King David for time and eternity, the all-conquering king whom God will have raised up for them! (Jeremiah 30:8-9) There is nothing ‘gay’ about the sin of Sodomy among the people of God! His word is clear; “And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.”
