Introduction:
In 1948 after almost 2,000 years Israel was reborn as a nation in God’s sight. It was declared a sovereign nation by the League of Nations now called the United Nations. Immediately following the announcement of the independence of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948 the Arab-Israeli War broke out when five Arab nations attacked Israel. On the eve of May 14, the Arabs launched an air attack on Tel Aviv, which the Israelis resisted. This action was followed by the attack on Israel by Arab armies.
Though the United Nations brokered two cease-fires during the conflict, fighting continued into 1949. Israel and the Arab states did not reach any formal armistice agreements until February 1949. Under separate agreements between Israel and its neighbouring states of Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Syria, these bordering nations agreed to formal armistice lines.
Actually Israel was attacked by a coalition of five Arab nations: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, following Israel’s declaration of independence. Even though the Israelis were outnumbered and did not have many weapons they were victorious over five well equipped armies! God Himself was fighting for Israel! Ezekiel the Hebrew prophet foretold this event (Ezekiel 37:1-8). Likewise the prophet Isaiah foretold their restoration as a nation that was reborn in a day (Isaiah 66:7-9).
In 1967 in the six-day war Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, capturing significant territories including Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. The Israelis regained East Jerusalem including the sight of the Temple Mount. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separate, international city under the 1947 United Nations partition plan, but it was divided by the 1948 war that followed Israel’s declaration of independence.
However, Biblically, as far as God is concerned, Jerusalem is the capital of the nation of Israel His Covenant people and any attempt by the Gentile nations to divide the city, or to carve up the real-estate of Israel, will be judged by God (Zechariah 12:2-3; 14:2-4) (Joel 3:2-3). The nations today calling for a two state solution are bringing themselves under God’s judgement.
In 1973 Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel during Yom Kippur; the conflict which Israel repelled cost many Israeli lives. It was an unprovoked attack which came against Israel unexpectedly but Israel survived and prevailed. Then in 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from its territory.
Lebanon was part of the land God gave to Abraham and to his decedents through Isaac and Jacob by cutting a blood covenant with Abraham concerning the land of Canaan, which today is the Land of Israel, to be for the Jewish people “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:7-8).
Then in 2006 Israel was engaged in a second war with Lebanon with the terrorist organization Hezbollah, another war that Israel had to fight to defend the Israelis on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Then on October 7, 2023 Israel was attacked by the terrorist organization Hamas accompanied by many Gazan Arab citizens which saw a slaughter and butchery of 1,609 Israeli citizens, with 3,400 civilians and soldiers wounded during the Hamas attack. Additionally, 251 individuals were abducted, with some later confirmed dead.
At present Israel is fighting against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran the axis of evil, the Houthis in Yemen, and also starting to engage the forces of the despotic dictator Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, also known by his a pseudonym Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the so called president of Syria, whose forces have been attacking the Druze and the Christian minorities in Syria which Israel is defending. The Druze people are the decedents of Jethro, Moses father in Law and the Israelis consider them brothers.
Added to this, the United nations, the European Union and many other nations are now turning against Israel big time, something that God is allowing, not to destroy His people Israel, but to bring them to the Messiah, their Passover Lamb, whose blood was shed on the cross to atone for, and to cleanse them from their sins in order to bring them back into a living relationship with the Lord Jesus, He who died and arose again, a reunion still to come in the future as foretold by the prophet Zechariah.
This reunion at the end of this present age was exemplified in the Book of Genesis where we see the reunion Joseph had with his wayward brothers who had betrayed him, a foreshadow of Israel’s complete spiritual and national restoration to come when they encounter their brother in the flesh the Messiah our Lord Jesus at His Second Coming (Zechariah 12:10-13:1) (Genesis Chapter 50).
There was a time when the nations of the world knew that there was a God in Israel, however, over time, due to Israel’s disobedience, unbelief and rejection of the Messiah, they have suffered more than any other nation in history, and they no longer were a light to the Gentile nations. However, God has not finished with His people, neither has He abandoned them forever. The New Covenant cut with the blood of Jesus was made with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, not with a gentile church (Jeremiah 31:31).
God always remembers His covenants and because of what the Messiah did over 2,000 years ago at the cross to save His people from their sins which will become a reality for the nation of Israel when the Messiah returns and His feet once again touch the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:3-4).
Concerning Israel, our Triune God has bound Himself to His covenant oath to restore Israel both spiritually and nationally. As we read in the Word of God; “He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth. He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance,” (Psalm 105:7-11).
The day is coming when the Gentile nations of the whole world will know that there is a Triune God in Israel who will return to Israel in the person of His eternal Son the Messiah our Lord Jesus, to rule and to reign over the nations with a rod of iron, to establish His Messianic rule sitting on David’s throne at Jerusalem, a throne established on the foundation of righteousness and justice (Psalm 2:8-9) (Isaiah 9:6-7) (Psalm 89:13-15). With these things in view let’s now look at this Psalm of Asaph which is prophetic in nature…
Psalm 76: Exposition:
(Vs.1-2) “In Judah God is known; His name is great in Israel. His tent is in Salem, His dwelling place in Zion.
Here we are told that our Triune God is known in Judah and that His name is great in Israel. Biblically and historically after Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel was divided into two separate kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south, due to the harsh policies of his successor Rehoboam, which led to discontent among the northern tribes. This division marked the beginning of a period of turmoil and conflict between the two kingdoms.
Jeroboam became the first king of the Northern Kingdom, and his reign set a precedent for idolatry and disobedience to God. Jeroboam erected golden calves at Bethel and Dan, leading the people into sin (1 Kings 12:28-30). This idolatry became a recurring theme throughout Israel’s history, as subsequent kings continued to lead the nation away from the worship of Yahweh.
The division saw ten tribes of Israel join Jeroboam in the north with its capital in Samaria while the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained with Rehoboam in the southern kingdom called Judah. In 722 BC the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians and in 586 BC the southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians. From that time on the tribes remained divided and for the most part exiled from the land.
Now in the text we are told that our Triune God is known in Judah and His name is great in Israel, and that His tabernacle is located in Salem, being Jerusalem. This is where His presence dwelt in the Temple before the first coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus who was Himself the living tabernacle of God manifested in a fully human flesh and blood man. The physical temple and all of its contents was all about the Messiah our Lord Jesus and pointed to Him as the Passover Lamb who would shed His blood to atone for sin once and for all time, a sacrifice never to be repeated. The Book of Hebrews tells us this!
The apostle John tells us in his gospel that in the beginning when the earth and the universe were created that the eternal Word of God Himself, the pre-incarnate God the Son existing from all eternity, was with God and that He was God and that He existed with God from the beginning and as the Son was the co-creator with the Father, and that the Word Himself became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:1-3, 14). The Word Himself was the living Temple of God in a flesh and blood body (John 2:19).
After His death and resurrection He ascended to the Fathers right hand where He ever lives to intercede for His redeemed people. As it is written; “But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely (to the uttermost) those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens” (Hebrews 7:24-26).
And again it is written; “But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:2-3).
On the Day of Pentecost the Triune God of Israel became known in Judah and His name great in Israel through the spread of the gospel of the Kingdom. On the day of Pentecost there were Jews at Jerusalem from all over the land of Israel and from other neighbouring countries including some from the Northern kingdom whose decedents were not taken captives by the Assyrians in 722 BC. The ten tribes were never lost but dispersed among the Gentile nations and the same occurred for the people of Judah after the sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70AD by the armies of Rome.
Then after the Bar Kokhba revolt against Rome (132–136 AD) the revolt was ultimately crushed by the Romans, resulting in the near-depopulation of Judea through mass killings, widespread enslavement, and the displacement of much of the Jewish population. The Romans renamed Judea to “Syria Palaestina” following the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt.
This name change was intended to sever the Jewish connection to the land and was part of a broader effort to impose Roman authority in the region. This was the origin of the name “Palestine” a name invented by the Romans taken from the name “Philistine.” The ancient Philistines were Israel’s implacable enemies. The same territorial principality that controlled the Philistines is the same one that controls Hamas in Gaza today. The truth is that God gave His people the name Israel through the patriarch Jacob (Genesis 32:28-30).
Until 1948 when the nation of Israel was reborn after almost 2,000 years of exile, the Jewish people started to come back to the land, but many chose to stay in the nations where their forebears had been exiled to. The Holocaust was the catalyst that started to see Jews returning to Israel after 1948. Having said this, Israel today has been back in their land now for 77 years and many Jews are coming home to Israel.
Anti-Semitism is raising its satanic head today all over the world and even within wider Christendom, and the time is rapidly approaching when multitudes of Jews will be forced to go back to Israel. God is permitting this because He has an appointment that His Covenant people cannot avoid, a reunion in Israel with the Messiah our Lord Jesus!
God’s Word tells us that Israel would become a nation again in the last days and that the Jews would be gathered again to the land but gathered in unbelief in the Messiah (Ezekiel 37:1-8), that they would be spiritually restored as a nation in the Land (Ezekiel 37:9-14), and the remnant of those who come to faith in the Messiah will enter into the Messianic kingdom as one nation under one king. No longer will the tribes of Israel be divided (Ezekiel 37:15-28). Indeed in that day God will be known in Judea and His name great in Israel and His Tabernacle established at Jerusalem and His residency in Zion, being the gathered corporate assembly of His redeemed people. And then we read…
(Vs.3-6) “There He broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war. Selah” You are resplendent with light, more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. Valiant men lie plundered, they sleep their last sleep; not one of the warriors can lift his hands. At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both horse and chariot lie still.”
In 701 BC, King Sennacherib of the Assyrian Empire laid siege to Jerusalem, the capital of the Kingdom of Judah, during a campaign to subdue rebellious vassal states. This siege was part of a larger military effort against King Hezekiah, who had refused to pay tribute to Assyria. Sennacherib’s forces besieged Jerusalem after capturing other fortified cities, including Lachish. Hezekiah prepared for the siege by fortifying Jerusalem’s walls, constructing additional defences, and blocking external water sources to limit Assyrian access.
Hezekiah sought the LORD, encouraged his people, and consulted the prophet Isaiah, who assured him of God’s protection. Never the less, in an attempt to appease Sennacherib, Hezekiah offered a substantial tribute of 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold, stripping the temple and royal treasury to gather the required wealth. Despite the tribute, Sennacherib continued his assault. His field commander, Rabshakeh, attempted to demoralize the people of Judah by mocking their faith and boasting of Assyrian victories over other nations and this also included the Northern kingdom with the fall of Samaria its capital.
After Hezekiah and Isaiah cried out to God in prayer the LORD sent an angel who killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight, which led to Sennacherib’s retreat to Nineveh and his death at the hands of his sons (2 Chronicles 32:1-23). There at Jerusalem the LORD broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords and the weapons of war.
In the Bible the kings of Egypt, Assyria and Babylon all typified the future Antichrist to come especially seen in their attacks against Israel and seeking to force the Israelites to worship false gods. In the account of Hezekiah we see the king of Assyria with his armies surrounding the city of Jerusalem which is what is going to happen at the very end of this present age.
In that day it will be the armies of the nations of the world arrayed against Israel covering the whole land like locusts tightly packed together (Joel 1:1-4; 2:1-11). This army will have been sent by the LORD to bring Israel back to Himself and to be saved by faith in the Messiah when they see Him returning in the clouds of heaven to rescue them.
When it looks like Israel as a nation are about to be annihilated the surviving remnant of Jews at Jerusalem will repent and call out to the LORD and He will hear them and send the Messiah back to rescue His people and destroy all of the armies laying siege to the city (Joel 2:2-12). In that day the LORD will be jealous for His land and take pity on His people Israel. He will send them the nutritious grain of His Word, the new wine of joy and the oil of the Holy Spirit to dwell in them and rest upon them in power making them fully satisfied and no longer subject to the scorn of the Gentile nations (Joel 2:18-19).
Then the LORD will drive the northern army far from them, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the Dead Sea and those in the rear into the Mediterranean Sea and its stench will go up and its smell will rise (Joel 2:20).
As for all of the remaining armies arrayed against Jerusalem they will be annihilated on the mountains of Israel by fire from heaven and the carrion birds will feast on their fried flesh (Ezekiel 38:21-23; 39:1-6, 17-20) (Zechariah 14:12-13). On that day the Antichrist and his armies will become toast!
On that day when the nations are judged the Messiah will be arrayed resplendent with light, more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey, the prey being the hordes of the Antichrist’s armies that were resplendent in their numbers, refinery and weaponry but now piled up everywhere, having been roasted in the fire from heaven and the food for the birds, and their glory and splendour gone forever.
Indeed we are told in the book of Habakkuk that; “God came from Teman (located in Saudi Arabia in ancient times, the heart of the Islamic world today), and the Holy One from Mount Paran (located today near Mecca in Saudi Arabia). Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and His praise filled the earth. His radiance was like the sunlight; rays flashed from His hand, where His power is hidden. Plague went before Him, and fever followed in His steps” (Habakkuk 3:3-5). It never pays to mess with our Triune God or with His people!!!
Woe betides all the nations that come against Israel today!!! Let the leaders of the United Nations, the European Union, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and the whole Islamic world for that matter gang up on Israel and plot their demise as a nation, these Israel haters will experience God’s radiance like the sunlight; rays flashing from His hand, where His power is hidden! These nations that survive this fiery judgement will be numbered among the goat nations (Matthew 25:31-46). In light of these things we then read…
(Vs.7-10) “You alone are to be feared. Who can stand before You when You are angry? From heaven You pronounced judgment, and the land feared and was quiet when You, O God, rose up to judge, to save all the afflicted of the land. Selah. “Surely Your wrath against men brings You praise, and the survivors of Your wrath are restrained.”
When God unleashes His righteous anger no man, no army and no nation can stand before Him when He pronounces judgement against those that have afflicted His people Israel and by extension and inclusion the faithful Church. There will be a silent fear of the coming judgement for all who have afflicted Israel. The plagues recorded in the Book of Genesis that came upon Egypt in the time of Moses are replayed in the Book of Revelation and from these there is no retrieve!
As the psalmist writes; “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One (the Messiah). “Let us break their chains,” they say,” and throw off their fetters.” The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the LORD scoffs at them. Then He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath, saying, “I have installed My King (the Son of God) on Zion, My holy hill (at Jerusalem).” I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He (God the Father) said to Me (God the Son pre-existing in eternity before His incarnation), “You are My Son; today I have become your Father.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him (Psalm 2).
After the final war with Satan and his hordes has been won and victory proclaimed, in the land of Israel all will be quiet, subdued and at rest. As it is written; “The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever. The LORD gives His people strength; the LORD blesses His people with peace” (Psalm 29:10-11).
God’s wrath brings praises to Him by men who have been confronted by His awesome power and those remaining that have been in rebellion and have survived his judgements in the earth are retrained and subdued under His sovereignty as He rules the nations that have survived His Second Coming with a rod of iron, having completely subdued wickedness and rebellion and established righteousness and justice being the foundation of His throne.
As we read; “Mighty is Your arm; strong is Your hand. Your right hand is exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; loving devotion and faithfulness go before You. Blessed are those who know the joyful sound, who walk, O LORD, in the light of Your presence” (Psalm 89:13-15).
In light of this revelation from the Word of God how then should we respond to the LORD?
(Vs.11-12) “Make vows to the LORD your God and fulfil them; let all the neighbouring lands bring gifts to the One to be feared. “He breaks the spirit of rulers; He is feared by the kings of the earth.”
As New Covenant believers in the Messiah our Lord Jesus we have our part to play in this New Covenant we have with the LORD. If we make vows to Him in our own strength then we will surely fail. However, if we seek the strength of God day by day and moment by moment, and by faith believe His promises and in light of them ask Him to enable us to keep them, then, By His Spirit, He will sustain us and keep us.
As it is written; “Unless the LORD builds the house (of our lives), its builders labour in vain; unless the LORD protects the city (garrisons the heart), its watchmen stand guard in vain” (Psalm 127:1). As it is also written; “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of Hosts” (Zechariah 4:6b).
As the Messiah our Lord Jesus also said; “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:24-27).
In the Messianic kingdom Israel’s immediate neighbours and the nations of the world will bring gifts to the one to be feared, being the Messiah reigning on David’s throne at Jerusalem (Luke 1:32-33). He is the one who breaks the rebellious spirit of rulers and the one feared by the kings of the earth, especially applicable to those who will have survived His Second Coming.
As we read in the prophet Zechariah; “On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. On that day living waters (symbolising the life giving water of the Holy Spirit) shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the Dead Sea which will no longer remain dead, and half of them to the Mediterranean Sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and His name one…Jerusalem will be raised up and remain in its place… It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure (Zechariah 14:6-11)...
“…Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.
And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the House of the LORD of hosts on that day” (Zechariah 14:16-21).
Indeed in that day not only in Judah and Israel, but in the nations of the world God will be known as He is known in Judah, His name great as He is revered in Israel. His tabernacle will be at Jerusalem where the Messiah reigns, His dwelling place among His redeemed people, the city where outside its walls He broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war! He who breaks the rebellious spirit of rulers; the one who, when He displays His mighty power, is feared by the kings of the earth! Amen!