In yesterday’s edition of Israel Today online an article appeared concerning the current situation facing Prime Minister Netanyahu. For the first time in Israel’s history, a sitting prime minister has been indicted for corruption of varying degrees, from the severe charge of bribery to the more elusive accusation of breach of trust. However, it seems that this is more of a ‘witch-hunt’ rather than a genuine investigation with substantial charges, much like what is happening to President Trump in America.
It is interesting that at the end of the Book of Judges we read; “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” In the Book of judges we see God sending foreign aggressors against His people when they turned away from Him and then when they repented and turned back to Him He sent them judges to deliver them from their enemies. However, at the end of Judges we see the Book end with a civil war between the Israelites leaving the nation leaderless. God, in His care for His covenant people raised up Samuel the prophet who was the forerunner of King David as John the Baptist was the forerunner of Israel’s true King and Messiah our Lord Jesus. Saul came before David but Saul was the people’s choice because they had demanded to have a King even though Samuel had told them that the LORD was their King and also that the king they chose for themselves would prove to be disastrous for the nation. (Judges 8:6-21)
However the people wanted to be like the other nations and so God granted their request. Samuel warned the people that the king they wanted would in the end not be the right one but they insisted so God raised up Saul. He was a military man, the kind that people would follow and head and shoulders above any other man in Israel, but he lacked spiritual fidelity and integrity. However, God already had His man for Israel hand-picked and had been training him for the task of shepherding His people, a shepherd boy who loved God and loved the Torah and one whose very name David means “beloved of God.” After Saul had disobeyed the LORD, rejected Torah and taken Israel down the trail inevitably leading to disaster God gave them King David, “a man after God’s own heart.”
Today we see disunity in the government of Israel. Prime Minster Netanyahu was placed in office by God’s sovereign providence. (Daniel 2:20-22; 4:35) Prime Minister Netanyahu has done a very good job for the people of Israel, a man who carries the welfare of his people on his heart including the many non-militant Arabs who willingly work and live side by side with Israelis in Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu reads and studies the Bible. When faced with a choice in the Book of Judges the people demanded a king according to their own perception and desires and God gave them what they wanted but in the end it was a disastrous choice.
Israel as a nation are still far from the LORD today and multitudes of secular Israelis have no time for the Torah and the prophets and more so for the Messiah our Lord Jesus or for the teaching of His apostles who wrote the New Testament. Prime Minister Netanyahu believes that the Land of Israel is their Biblical inheritance from the LORD. At present Benjamin Netanyahu is the man God has placed in power. Like all humans Prime Minster Netanyahu is far from perfect and has made his mistakes but a man who has a real heart for his people as King David had. Saul was of a different mindset. Personally I am convinced that a ‘witch-hunt’ is going on in Israeli politics right now at a time when Israel’s leaders need to close ranks and there are those who want to remove Prime Minister Netanyahu to satiate their own lust and greed for power!
If Prime Minister Netanyahu is removed from office what will be the mindset of his successor? Who will replace him, a ‘Saul’? In the end Israel’s only hope of survival will be the Messiah King our Lord Jesus who will return in the character of King David. He will not be David of course but the one prophesied to sit on David’s throne forever. (2 Samuel 7:15-16) (Isaiah 9:7) Whoever is elected, God will be sovereign over the matter but may well give the people what they crave. As a well-known Jewish evangelist and Bible teacher has said, “People always get the leaders they deserve.” However, there can be no lasting peace in Israel or Jerusalem for that matter until the Prince of Peace our Messiah the Lord Jesus returns and reigns from Jerusalem.
If Prime Minister Netanyahu is removed from office what will be the result? Will history repeat itself in that “everyone did as he saw fit”? Will God give them another Saul? In a very real sense this is the mindset of the majority of Israelis today in Israel. God is going to bring the nation into His refining crucible and out of this refining fire will come a purified people. (Zechariah 13:8-9) (Malachi 3: 2-4) These Israelites (Israelis) who have been spiritually purified will indeed accept and welcome with open arms David their King, not the historical David of course, but our Lord Jesus, the all-conquering Messiah King who will return in the character of King David. He will be the one who will reign forever over the house of Israel and the house of Judah after He has destroyed all of Israel’s enemies and inaugurated His Messianic reign on earth.
There is yet another “time of trouble for Jacob (Israel)” that seems to be rapidly approaching but “he (Israel) will be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:1-8) We are also told that “they will serve the LORD their God and David their King whom God will raise up for them.” (Jeremiah 30:9-10) Personally I am persuaded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the right man for the top job in Israel and while not a perfect man he has proven his ability to shepherd his people whom God in His sovereign purposes for Israel has placed under Benjamin Netanyahu’s care. Whether he recognizes this fact or not himself Prime Minister Netanyahu is on his way to embracing his Messiah the Lord Jesus and he does read and study the Bible and we know that “faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
If Prime Minister Netanyahu is removed from office will Israel have another Saul, a military commander of prowess maybe but one, who, like King Saul, has no time for God or for His laws and commandments? The people of Israel are at the crossroads concerning their choice of a man to lead the nation. What will they decide? Will he be a shepherd who leads God’s people back to the Torah, to the prophets, to the apostles teaching and to the Messiah or will it be “the worthless shepherd” who has no regard for the God of Israel, for the Torah, for the prophets, for the apostles teaching or for the Messiah of Israel our Lord Jesus? (Zechariah 11:16-17)
Politically speaking the whole nation of Israel stands at the crossroads but which path will they choose and choose they must? If only they would choose the Messiah! As God said to His backslidden people through the prophet Isaiah; “Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like waves of the sea.” (Isaiah 48:17-18)
