It has been said that Israel and the Church are like two sides of the same coin, separate yet one. They are connected spiritually and having a common destiny. A few days ago a headline appeared in the online publication of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that read; “22% of hate crimes in Europe in 2019 were against Jews, report shows.” In the article it stated; “(JTA) “Anti-Semitic incidents accounted for 22% of hate crimes recorded last year in the pan-European region, though Jews comprise less than 1% of the population there… In one anti-Semitic incident recorded in the report, a woman had her hair and hat pulled violently from behind while speaking Hebrew on the bus in Berlin, Germany. In another, an Iraqi Muslim man wearing a kippah and carrying several concealed knives was intercepted by guards attempting to enter an Antwerp synagogue in June. The man had used anti-Semitic insults at Jews before the incident.”
It is very clear in these last days that Satan is targeting the People of the Book (the Bible). There are two people groups that Satan hates more than anyone else on this planet and that is Jews and Christians.
1. Satan hates the Jews because Salvation for the human race was provided by the Messiah our Lord Jesus who was Jewish and who destroyed Satan’s power through His atoning sacrifice on the cross and put Satan and his cohorts from Hades to an open shame! We are told what the Messiah did to Satan. “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:15) Satan wants to destroy the Jewish nation because he knows that the Second Coming of the Messiah to set up His Messianic Kingdom on earth depends on Israel’s survival. Just look at the Holocaust. We know from Deuteronomy Chapter 28 in the Torah that there are blessings and curses attached to the Law of God, blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience.
At the cross the Lord Jesus bore the curse of the Law by becoming that curse Himself. As it is written; “The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He (the Messiah) redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in the Messiah Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” (Galatians 3:13-14)
Since 70AD the Jewish people have laboured under the curse of the Law and even today they are still under that curse. However, when any Israeli turns to the Lord Jesus for salvation that curse is broken over their lives. We also need to keep in mind that all of us have sinned and fall short of God’s divine standards and have by our rebellion and sinful ways forfeited our rights to enter His eternal kingdom. By His death at the cross and through His atoning blood, redemption and God’s very own righteousness has been provided for all who repent and believe on the Lord Jesus to save them from the power and the eternal consequences of sin, whether they are Jew or gentile for that matter. (Romans 3:28-30) It is God’s standard of righteousness, not received by trying to keep all of His laws and commandments in our own strength, but His righteousness received through faith that results in obedience. (Romans 3:19-26) (Romans 1:5; 16:26)
2. Satan hates born again, blood washed, blood redeemed Bible believing Christians because they preach the unadulterated Gospel of the Kingdom exposing his works on earth and his foothold in the hearts and minds of the unsaved. Satan hates the fact that through the power of the Holy Spirit faithful Bible believers (Jews and Gentiles in the Messiah) are pulling down his spiritual strongholds in the lives of their fellow believers and in the lives of the unsaved. As the Apostle Paul writes; “For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to the Messiah.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
The prophet Daniel foretold that in the last days both faithful Jews and by extension and inclusion into the Commonwealth of Israel, faithful Bible believing Christians will be persecuted by the empire of the Antichrist, who, for three and a half years by the Jewish calendar, will “wear down the saints of the Most High” until the Lord Jesus comes back and puts an end to the Antichrist and his beast empire. As Daniel writes; “He will speak out against the Most High and oppress (wear down) the saints of the Most High, intending to change the appointed times and laws; and the saints will be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time. But the court will convene, and his dominion will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. (Daniel 7:25-26)
God is purifying His people both Israel as a nation and the faithful Church spiritually grafted into Israel. Troubled times for Israel and the faithful Church are coming on a global scale and what happens to Israel will also happen to the Church because they are one even though they are two separate entities. Through the atoning sacrificial work of the cross the middle wall of partition has been broken down between Jew and Gentile and the two are made one new man through saving faith in the Messiah. (Romans 11:15-18) (Ephesians 2:11-22)
Having said this let’s be clear that the Church has not replaced Israel. As clearly revealed in the prophets at the end of this present age the nation of Israel will be fully restored nationally and spiritually after the Messiah has come back and removed all opposition to His sovereignty and Lordship. At present Israel has experienced a partial national restoration as prophesied in Ezekiel and the hardness of their heart towards the Messiah our Lord Jesus in a partial hardening, but their spiritual restoration is yet to come in the future. (Romans 11:25-27)
In the Messianic Kingdom Israel will have been completely restored spiritually and nationally and “possess their possession.” (Obadiah 1:17) Both Israel and the faithful Body of the Messiah are heading for very troubled times. The rescue will come! However, faithful Jews and faithful Christians will go into the time of the Big Trouble but be saved out of it at the very end of it. (Jeremiah 30:1-10) Some will come out of it as martyrs. (Revelation 7:14; 20:4) Faithful believing Jews and gentiles will experience great tribulation (Original Greek language – thlipsis) but never experience the wrath of God. (Original Greek- language – orge/thumos) Tribulation is not wrath. Persecution will come at the hands of the Antichrist and his beast empire but the time will come when God will say to Satan and his man of sin and the false prophet; “enough is enough, this is as far as you go and no more!” and then God will send the Messiah our Lord Jesus back to rescue all who have remained faithful to Him and to save the world from annihilating itself. (Matthew 24:21-22, 29-31)
We are going to see Anti-Semitism increase globally and many more Jews flocking back to Israel especially from Europe as Islamic persecution increases. It will be in the Land of Israel that the nation will pass through God’s refining crucible that will bring forth a purified, glorified and saved remnant. (Zechariah 13:8-9) (Malachi 3:3) For the faithful Body of the Messiah (the faithful Church/Assembly) they too will enter the same crucible through persecution as well, and a faithful, believing remnant will come forth sanctified, purified, totally redeemed, glorified and fit for the Masters use. In that day there will be one shepherd and one flock co-reigning with their Messiah, Lord and Saviour at Jerusalem over the nations that have survived the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. As the Lord Jesus said; “I have other sheep (Gentile believers) which are not of this sheep pen (Jewish believers). I must bring them also (into the sheepfold of a redeemed and restored Israel). They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
In that day in Matthews gospel we are told by the Lord Jesus; “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 8:11) In Luke’s gospel the Lord Jesus says; “People will come from east and west and north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:29) The greatest Marriage banquet ever seen on earth will occur after the Lord Jesus has returned and established His Messianic Millennial Kingdom. What a grand sight it will be to the surviving nations. What a splendid event it will be to the multitudes of God’s heavenly council and the multitude of creatures dwelling there where God sits on His glorious throne beholding all that is happening down here at that time.
The angels who are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation will wait on the tables I imagine. If we would be a part of that great marriage celebration then let’s keep the oil of the Spirit burning brightly in the lamp of our spirit as wise and faithful spiritual virgins, so that when the trumpet call comes announcing that the bride groom has arrived, we will go out to meet Him and then accompany Him into the grand marriage feast. (Matthew 25:1-13)
Source: https://www.jta.org/quick-reads
Source: https://honestreporting.com/ibn-20202611-iran-trump-uae-bahrain/#bullet4
