Discerning the True Israel, Part 2

Well, last week, if you recall, we talked about discerning the scriptures and discerning the times that we live in. And we live even as you watch the news this week and you see the things that are going on. It's more and more important that we understand the times we live in and understand Bible prophecy and look at the times that we live in and realize these prophetic milestones that we come along as God has given us a map toward the return of the Son Jesus Christ. And we can see those things in the pages of the Bible. And if you remember, last week we turned to Luke 12 and we talked about Jesus Christ telling the people of His time that they should have discerned the times, that they should have known who He was. But they didn't. They let that time pass right by Him, by them. And they put the Messiah to death as a result. And He tells us in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 to be aware of what's going on around us, watch ourselves, and be ready that we shouldn't be taken by surprise by the things that happen in the world like so many in the world were taken by surprise not too long ago. And Britain voted to exit from the European Union. Shouldn't have taken those who know Bible prophecy by surprise. And the things that are going to happen in the years ahead of us may be initially surprising when they occur because we've known about them for a while. But it shouldn't take us by surprise because God's given us the blueprint of what is going to transpire between now and the time that Jesus Christ returns. So we talked about some of those things and we looked at some of those verses. I want to open up with a few more verses that talk along that line. Let's go over to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5. Let's begin in verse 1. 1 Thessalonians 5.1 says, Concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. It will take people by surprise. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them. As labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they won't escape. So there's a time when you'll hear around you, peace and safety, everything's subject control, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. God says then sudden destruction comes. But He goes on to say, Paul in verse 4, But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night and now are of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do. But let us watch and let us be sober. Let's keep our eyes open. Let's look at the world through the eyes of God, through the eyes of the Bible, through the eyes of the prophecy He gives us. And let not that day take us unaware.

Because if it's our shame on us, it means that we haven't been using God's Holy Spirit to teach us, guide us, lead us in the truth, and we haven't been studying the Bible the way that we should be so that we understand what He has to say. Let's look at a couple other verses. We talked about one component of discerning the times and how important it is to know the identity of this nation known as Israel in the Old Testament, because we showed last week that that nation of Israel would appear in the last days, and that it would be a viable, wealthy nation at that time. But let's look at Isaiah 5, and let's look at a few of the scriptures that Isaiah writes about on things that we can be looking at as well as we discern the times we live in. And maybe as we read some of these verses, they're a little clearer today what the Bible is talking about. Then a year ago or two years ago, let's pick it up in verse 11.

Get a picture of the times that Isaiah is talking about here, because in this chapter he says he's got a lot of woes. Woe to the people who do that. We're not going to read through all of them. Let's look at verse 11. Woe to those who rise early in the morning. That they may follow in toxicating drink. Who continue till night, till wine inflames them. People who are just enthralled with entertainment, the things that make the day, and they don't really pay attention to what's going on, and they live their lives that way. The harp and the strings, the tambourine and flute and wine are in their feast, but they don't regard the work of the Eternal, nor consider the operation of His hands. It's far, far from them. What God does is of the least amount of concern to them. It's just about what they want to do, their entertainment, and the things that matter to them. And He says in verse 13, therefore, my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge. They don't know what the Bible says. They don't know God. They don't believe or even understand that God blessed this nation. And you can read down through those verses, but let's look at verse 20, because I think it really does show the world that we live in today, more so than even we would have thought two, three, four years ago. Woe to those, He says in verse 20, who call evil good and good evil.

And we live in that world today, don't we? The things that the Bible says are evil. The world around us is saying, it's good. It's good. It's right. Yet with the times, all of you who are falling at evil, you're the ones off base. Those are those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Oh, we live in times like it talks about here with these woes and that woe. And what God says about a people who live that way certainly is something we as a people should look at and understand what's going on. Let's look at one more over in Isaiah 3.

Isaiah 3, and we will look at verse 8. We'll read down a few verses. Isaiah 3, verse 8, For Jerusalem stumbled, Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against God. The reason nations fall is because they turn against God. They forget about Him. They do their own thing rather than doing what God's will is. Because their tongue and their doings are against God, to provoke the eyes of His glory, they look on their countenance, witnesses against them, and they declare their sin is fathom. They don't hide it. Woe to their soul, for they have brought evil upon themselves. Again, we can look at the world around us, and what we see on TV, what we see in the newscasts, tells us this is the time we're living in. Say to the righteous that it will be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Keep on being righteous. Keep on doing those things. Let the world envelop you. Don't give up. Woe, verse 11, to the wicked.

It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. As for my people, God says, children are their oppressors.

And these next few verses can be family matters, but realistically, they're governmental matters as well. Children, certainly we live in a land that we can look at children, and sometimes the children of the world look like they are ruling the houses, and they are the oppressors of their parents. It can also mean people who are inexperienced in governmental positions and positions of authority. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.

Isn't that an interesting verse in the day that we live in? That just a few weeks ago, or about a month ago, I guess now, Britain has a female prime minister who really came out of nowhere, whoever heard of Theresa May before, and the former prime minister just resigned and quickly moved from office. Of course, England has had a queen ruling over them for decades now. Here in the United States, we have the prospect of a woman becoming president. So, for the first time in history, if we understand who Israel is, you could have women ruling in all those positions. Women rule over them. God goes on to say, O my people, those who lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths.

And indeed, as we look at the world around us, we can see that. If we were to follow the world's leaders, if we were to follow the world's teachers, the university professors, they cause us to err. They don't teach the ways of God. They teach a way far, far, far different. When the nation and people depart from God, the Bible is very clear what happens to them. So, let's go back and see what we just do a brief recap of what we looked at last week. And you remember we were going to look at just one of the components of discerning the time, and that is, what is the identity of Israel? What is the identity of Israel in the New Testament times and the times we live in? And we showed we were going to do it purely from the Bible, not using outside sources, not using any other books, not tracking people through various areas over years, but just looking at the Bible and seeing if we from the Bible can identify who is Israel in prophecy. When Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos all talk about Israel, who are they talking about? So, last week we saw this. We learned and we refreshed ourselves, I should say, that Israel and Judah are two separate nations in the Bible. They separated at the time of Rehoboam. The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin became part of the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern, the other ten tribes became part of the northern kingdom of Israel. Two distinct nations. So, when God says Israel after the time Israel and Judah split, he's talking about the northern ten tribes. We remember from Genesis 48 that Jacob put his name, his name had been changed to Israel, he put his name on Joseph's sons. And when he had his hands crossed, he put his name on Ephraim and Manasseh. And he said in Genesis 48, I think it's around verse 16, let my name be on them and the name of Abraham and Isaac as well. Remember that Israel under Solomon was the greatest nation on earth. As you read the accounts of the Bible in 2 Chronicles 9 and the first kings that it talks about what Israel was like under the time of Solomon, it was simply the greatest nation on earth. It had more wealth. Solomon was wise in his early days. People were enthralled. They were around the world.

The world that they knew at that time in commerce and trade, they were the greatest nation on earth. Solomon, though, departed from God. He no longer paid attention to those admonitions of the kings in Deuteronomy 17. He multiplied for himself, horses. He multiplied for himself, wives. He began to become enamored with the gods and set up shrines in Israel for his wives to worship other gods.

Because of that, God allowed the nation to be split in two. And Israel never returned to God. They never had a king that followed what God said. They went into captivity and never returned to the Promised Land.

We read Ezekiel 6. We read Leviticus 16 or Leviticus 26 last week. And we talked about the prophecies that God said for nations that don't follow him.

Many of those things happened to the ancient nation of Israel, but not the prophecy about cities laid waste. That God talks about in Leviticus 26. That's repeated by Ezekiel in verses 3-6 there, where Ezekiel, who lived after the time Israel went into captivity, again made that prophecy. It never happened to ancient Israel. And we looked at 2 Kings 17 and 24, where Assyria put their own people into the Assyrian people, into the cities of Samaria after they conquered them.

We looked at verses that said Israel will return to the Promised Land. They haven't yet. The world says they don't know where Israel is. They're lost. They're hidden. No one knows. They just sort of vanished into thin air. But the Bible clearly says Israel will return to the Promised Land.

And we read in Genesis 49 where Jacob, before he died, called his 12 sons together, and he said, Let me tell you what is going to befall you in the last days.

The world would say Israel ceased from existence in the last days. Israel is a factor in the affairs of earth.

So, let's take up from where we were last week with those things behind us and look at some of the other things. Oh, the other thing that we read last week. In fact, let's just read two verses from that. Let's look at Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31.

And look at verse 7. These are one of the last scriptures we read last week. At the end time, Jeremiah, again, remember, is the prophet who lived after Israel was taken into captivity. And as he talks about Israel in these prophecies, it's a time when God is going to gather them back to the land that He promised their fathers because the promises and the covenant that God made with Abraham was an eternal covenant. It wasn't something just that was going to last Abraham's lifetime or Isaac's lifetime, but it was an eternal covenant.

Genesis, or I'm sorry, Jeremiah 31, verse 7. Thus says the eternal, See with gladness for Jacob, not just Judah, Jacob, all twelve tribes, and shout among the chief of the nations, Proclaim, give rise, praise, and say, O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the North Country and gather them from the ends of the earth. And then it talks about the type of people who will be brought back. We talked about we can get an idea of where the people are today by where God calls them back from. Let's drop down to verse 10. Here the word of the eternal O nations declared in the isles afar off and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.

So we've got the two clues we talked about last week from the North, from the isles afar off. Let's go over to Isaiah 49. Look at one more, then we'll proceed on. Isaiah 49. Isaiah 49 verse 1 talks about coastlands. Listen, coastlands to me, as God talks about the people from afar. And down in verse 12, he says that he talks clearly about a time when they are going to be gathered back together, and he brings them back. He says, surely these will come from afar. Look, these from the North and the West, and these from the land of Sennim.

And I don't think I mentioned or elaborated on the land of Sennim last week, but if you look at many of the commentaries, they will identify and they'll say, we don't really know where the land of Sennim is, but they will say it could be China, could be the far east nations.

But there is a version of the Bible, the Latin Vulgate version, that the Hebrew Midrash website talks about what that name means. And that name, they say, is of the Aramaic land of the South. Listen to me, O coastlands, I will bring those from the North and the West, and these from the land of the South. The Latin Vulgate version of the Bible identifies that, and the Hebrew Midrash website says and translates that, Australia. Listen, I will bring you back from the land of Australia. Well, God knows what that really means, but certainly Australia is a land of the South.

And as we begin to identify where this group of people known as Israel are today, that's in the end time, we can think about that. So, with that, you remember last week we looked at this map, and we said that Israel was over here, or Jerusalem is over here in this area. And if we put the things together, God's going to call the people from the North of Jerusalem, from the North and West of Jerusalem, to the Isles of Far Off, not the Isles of Cyprus and Crete down here.

Those are not known as the Isles of Far Off. But you can see the Isles that are up here in the Isles and the rest of the world as well. So, we began to see a clue of where Jeremiah the prophet said these people would come from when Christ returned to earth, and he began to bring the people back.

Well, let's go and look more at the Bible and see what the Bible says. Not any secular sources, but what the Bible says about this nation of Israel that figures prominently in history, and see some of the identifying characteristics that it talks about.

Let's go back to Genesis 35. You remember last week, as we went through God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that were then passed on to Joseph and his sons, we said that God will often say things two and three times, just to make sure that it's clear that He hasn't changed His mind, that He's sure about what He's doing. And such is the case of what we read about in Genesis 35, verse 11 as well.

Let's read that verse, 35. This is the occasion where in verse 10 God has changed Jacob's name to Israel, the name that now lasts on His descendants. Verse 11 of chapter 35 says, Also God said to him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.

Oh, we know the stream of kings that in Judah that we've been reading about in 2 Chronicles, as we've been reading through that locally, kings did come from His body, but He said a nation and a company of nations will come from you.

It's a prophecy, or that was not fulfilled in the time of the Old Testament. Israel was a nation. Israel was the greatest nation on earth at the time under Solomon. Israel divided into two nations, Judah and Israel, but they were never a nation and a company of nations.

Never happened. So if we are going to believe the Bible, then this is going to happen sometime in order for the Bible to be, for us to look at the Bible as correct and the prophecies of correct. Let's go over to Genesis 48. Genesis 48. This is where Jacob, Israel, is laying his hands on the two boys, the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. You'll recall he switched his hands and put his left hand on the older son and his right hand on the younger son, crossing what would normally have happened. Joseph called his attention to it, but Israel was doing exactly what God led him to do. In verse 19, responding to Joseph's request, put your hands in this way, Father. His father refused and said, I know, my son. I know he will also become a people, the older boy, Manasseh, and he also shall be great. But truly, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.

He'll be a great nation, but his younger brother will be greater. He will be a multitude of nations. Again, something that didn't happen in the time of ancient Israel, just reading the words of the Bible and what God recorded for us. And as we come up with an identifying characteristic of where Israel is in the end time, we can put all the pieces together that we did last week, and we can add to these. They will be a nation and a company of nations, something that didn't happen during their initial time before they went into captivity. You're in Genesis 48. Let's go over to Genesis 49 and add more to the puzzle that we have here, putting the pieces together to see the identity from the Bible of who God is talking about and why we need to know who Israel is if we're going to understand prophecy and not be taken by surprise in the end time, as many, many, and most in the world will be surprised because they don't understand and they don't have the blessing from God of understanding His scriptures. Genesis 49, verse 1, Jacob says, Gather together, so that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days. And then he talks about the twelve sons there. Let's look at verse 22 where he talks about Joseph and see some of the blessings that he says Joseph will be like. Joseph, the sons being Ephraim and Manasseh, what will befall them in the last days? What will their life be like? What will their nation be like? Chapter 22, verse 22, Joseph is a fruitful bough.

Well, fruitful is one thing we can list there. Fruitful means that it's a well-blessed area. If you have a fruitful tree, you're very happy with the tree that it produces and produces. And Jacob, or I'm sorry, Joseph will be a fruitful bough. He'll be a branch. He'll be out there, and he's going to be doing very well. He's going to be noticed. God is going to multiply him. He's going to be there. And remember, one of the promises was, In you all nations of the earth shall be blessed. I will bless you. I will bless you above all nations. And in you all nations of the earth will be blessed. So he's a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well. So we know that water is part of the prophecy. By water is an asset. And if you look at a nation like Egypt, you can kind of see how not having water is a detriment. The Nile is a great river, but it only runs right through the middle of Egypt. And most of the population lives very close to the Nile River because without being a well-watered nation, it becomes something that is just dry and arid and useless. But Joseph is going to be a fruitful bough by a well. It will be well-watered. And as you look at the map of the United States and you see the river system that's there, you look at England and you look at the river system that's there, you see the heartland of America is so well-watered. Nothing that any man did. God blessed the land that it is by water, and it is a tremendous asset. So when we look for Israel in the last days, we can look at someone who's quite fruitful. Someone that has a lot of water by water can also mean that it has the borders and a lot of water on its borders as well. Going on, his branches run over the wall. He's so fruitful that the garden just can't contain him. There's so much that they just run over the wall. He's so fruitful that there is more than he can just keep within his own country or in his own boundaries. And so they spread out to other other nations. Verse 24 or verse 23, The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him, and hated him. In the last days, this nation that's richly blessed, that's blessed with all the waters that irrigate the land, is a nation that's hated by others, a nation that is a blessing to other people. Other nations hate them, and they will fire at him. They will want that nation destroyed. So when we look at Israel in the end time, there are some nations that have been a blessing, but have some of these characteristics that other nations hate and want to see destroyed. Verse 24, But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong, not because of his military might, not because of the cleverness and the strategy of the generals that were there. He was defended by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. It was God who protected that land. It was God who kept it together. And as you read it through the history of the United States, you see even many people who were involved in the wars in the past who will attribute to God what happened. Many incidents in World War II were because of God's hand that were there, that kept the nation safe, and that allowed it to become the nation that it is.

Verse 25, By the God of your Father who will help you, and by the mighty Almighty who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb, blessings from above, the rain that waters the area so well, from blessings of the deep that lies beneath the seas that are on your boundaries and in your land, and of course the natural resources that lie under the deep that allow the country to prosper and have the industry that it has. And blessings of the breast and of the womb, you will be a fruitful people that will multiply on earth so much so that your borders aren't going to contain. They will spread out and they will cover every other areas of the earth as well. Verse 26, The blessings of your Father have excelled, the blessings of my ancestors, remember Jacob is talking in the last day, the blessings of your Father have excelled, the blessings of my ancestors. As great as Israel was then, it will be greater in the last days.

Up to the utmost found are the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.

And of course, you remember the history of Joseph. He was sold into slavery in Egypt when he was just very young, 13 years old, and he was separate from his brothers for so long until they were reunited when the family came to Egypt. Separate from his brothers. And again, if we go back... Well, I'm not going to go through all that and go back to that map. If you remember the aisles afar off that we have, we see some nations in the world that are separate from some of the others, that are sort of set apart by boundaries. And we can add that to our list of identifying characteristics of who Israel is. So, Chapter 49, without going into a lot of detail in verses 22-26, tells us a lot about this nation in the last days. Of course, God repeats it and talks about the blessings of the nation in the end days as well. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 33 and see what Moses said about Joseph in the last days. I won't elaborate on this, but you will see a very similar prophecy to what we just read about the nation would be at that time.

Chapter 33 begins, So, he received these words from God Himself before He died, before the nation, the 12 tribes, under the Promised Land. In verse 13, it says, Of Joseph, he said, Blessed of the Eternal is his land, with the precious things of heaven, with the dew, and the deep lying beneath, with the precious fruits of the sun, with the precious produce of the months. He will be a fruitful nation. He will be able to supply himself. He will be a blessing to all nations. You remember, with the best things of the ancient mountains, with the precious things of the everlasting hills, with the precious things of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of God, who dwelt in the bush, or him who dwelt in the bush. Speaking of YHWH, the God of the Old Testament who Moses saw in that burning bush. Let the blessing come on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers. His glory is like a firstborn bull, and his horns like the horns of the wild ox. Together with them he shall push the people to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

So you can see in Moses' words a very similar list of blessings that would be fall Joseph, or Israel, upon whom God placed his name in the end times.

Okay, we're keeping a list. Let's go back and add one more to it. Back in Genesis 22. As you read God's blessing, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, you can see him adding defining characteristics of that nation as each generation passes. Here we find in Genesis 22, verse 16, another one that God says. Let's begin where God begins, where he says, by myself. Him speaking, by myself I have sworn. He says the eternal, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son. He's talking to Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice Isaac to him because God commanded him to. Because you've shown me, you are loyalty to me because you've shown me that you will always do my will, Abraham. Blessing, I will bless you. Multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. And he repeats in verse 18, in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. Your seed will possess the gate of their enemies.

Now, the gates of our enemies are the doorways or entries. You know, we don't possess our neighbor's gate. We possess our own gate to our own home. But to possess the gate of your enemies means you are a very powerful and a very viable nation and group of nations at the end of time. And God gives this identifying blessing to Israel. Now, Israel in the old days, even at the height of Solomon's reign, they never possessed the gate of their enemies. They had a very viable nation. It was the greatest nation on earth. They didn't possess the gate of their enemies, though. But God says, Abraham, your descendants will possess the eight gate of your enemies.

And to even further validate what he said, he repeats it again in Genesis 24, just one chapter over. And this time the words come from a most unlikely source when you consider it, but they certainly were a God who put the words in the mouth of these brothers who said this of Genesis 24. And let's pick it up in verse 58 and read down through verse 60. Rebecca is going to leave with Isaac, and her brothers say, well, they call it Rebecca and said to her, Will you go with this man? She said, I'll go. So they sent Rebecca with their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servants and his men, and they blessed Rebecca. And they said these words to her as she was going off to marry Isaac. Now, as you bless your sister or your children, they got married, you know the words that you said. Listen to the words that they said to Rebecca, our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them. What man would ever think to tell his sister, daughter, when they're going away, may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them? Words, surely, from God. Now, Rebecca's descendants would possess the gates of those who hate them. And as we look down through the pages of history, if we look at it now, several thousand years past the time these prophecies were done, 2,700 years from the time that Israel went into captivity because they didn't possess the gates of their enemies back in the time of the 700s BC, the time before they went into captivity, we can see some of the gates that a few of the nations on earth have possessed over the course of the last few centuries, something that no other nation or group of nations has possessed in the history of the world. And some of those are listed for you on there. You know the Suez Canal, a very important gate, controlled and conceived by one nation until it was handed over to Egypt. The Straits of Gibraltar, kind of a lookout post for the Mediterranean, still controlled by a nation all these years, what nation wouldn't want to have and be able to look out over what's coming into the Mediterranean and guard that area and have it as the lookout. The Straits of Hormuz, down by Iran. Anyone could say a lot about Iran. They would never say that they're a friend, despite any recent treaties that we've had. The Straits of Malacca and Singapore, off of the Malay Peninsula. The Falkland Islands, down in South America, still controlled by a nation, I believe. The Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of Africa. The Kabul Pass in Afghanistan. Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. And the Panama Canal. It's a gateway through the North and, or the Central and South American continents. All controlled by two nations. All controlled by two nations until they gave them away in many cases. The gates of their enemies.

Only two nations in the history of the Earth can boast that. Let's add to that something else that has happened with one nation that is unparalleled in history. And the number of military bases that a nation has around the world. Even in the lands of its enemies. That is part of the spoils of World War II, were able to establish military bases around the world on land that was granted to them.

Even down in nations that hate them. Like down in Gitmo, on the nation of Cuba.

Spain doesn't hate us, but there's a military base there. Military bases around the world, your seed, God said, will possess the gate of their enemies.

So as we begin to add up all these things we're talking about, simply from the pages of the Bible. Not looking at any secular sources, not looking at any encyclopedias. We will look at some encyclopedias in a minute for the aftermath of some things, but looking just at the Bible, because our purpose here is the Bible interprets itself. We don't have to rely on outside sources to learn these things. We can just look at the Bible, and if we're willing to learn, if we're willing to listen, if we let God open our mind and we accept what He has to teach, then we can understand some of these things. So let's do a summary. Let's do a summary of where we are right now. Israel in the end time. Because we know Israel is going to exist at the end time, even though they were taken into captivity somewhere around 720-723 BC. But the Bible clearly shows Israel will exist at the end time. Jesus Christ is going to call them back to the Promised Lands. He identifies where they're going to come from. They're going to come from the coastlands. They're going to come from the north and west. They're going to come from the isles. They're going to come from the land of Sennim. We know at the end time that they're going to be nations that are greatly blessed, greatly blessed, and that the blessings at the end time are even greater than they were at the time of their former status. There will be a great company of nations, followed by a very great nation. The Bible says the younger will come first. The older will come second. He gives us the order. Company of nations, followed by a great nation. These, the descendants of Israel, will possess the gates of their enemies. We can look around and see where that happens. They'll have a close relationship. They are brothers, and they will have a close relationship if we want to take it that far. As we look at our list, we have several things. Let's look at another thing that might identify the time, the time that these nations of the end time will appear. So let's go to and we talked about that. Let's go back to Leviticus 26.

Leviticus 26. We looked at Leviticus 26 last week. We talked about how God told Israel in the Old Testament, if you will simply follow me, if you will do the things that I did, I will continue to bless you. I will continue to look out for you. I will continue to be your rock, your fortress. You will continue in the land I've given you. And indeed, Abraham did that. But Israel, and then 140 years later, Judah went into captivity because they turned from God. They lost their blessings. They lost their lands because of disobedience. Leviticus 26, also in Deuteronomy 8, God says that if you obey me, you will continue. But down in verse 14, Leviticus 26, He tells them what's going to happen because, remember Amos 3.7, God doesn't do anything unless He reveals it first to us. There's no secrets, no surprises. And He tells them, if you don't obey me, if you don't observe all these commandments, if you despise my statutes, if your soul abhors my judgment so that you don't perform all my commandments, but break my covenant, I will do this to you. And then beginning in verse 16, He lists things I will appoint terror over you, wasting disease, fever, which will consume the eyes and cause sorrow of her heart. I will set my face against you. You shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.

God says, I will sign and send the warning signs. I will punish you. You will see what's going on, and if you won't listen to me then, I'm going to intensify that punishment because God's not willing. He doesn't want anyone to die. He doesn't want to punish, but He will punish to get our attention, to get a nation's attention, to turn back to Him. In verse 18, He says, and after all this, after all those things happen, you kind of have your eyes closed and you're not paying attention to what's going on. If you don't know me, I'll punish you seven times more for your sins. Seven times more. Now, seven times more has to do with intensity, doesn't it? If I say, I'm going to punish my children over here, I'm going to punish you seven times more, back years ago they would have like wilted, I hope, but we I don't know, they would have been like seven times more. That's intense, right? And God says seven times more, the Hebrew bears this out. It's an intensive thing. Again, we don't have to use our own speculation. We don't have to interpret it. The Bible interprets all this for us. We can look at the Hebrew and we can see what it means, but God uses the same analogy. So it's crystal clear to us back in Daniel. Back in Daniel 3. Do you remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? They refused to yield to King Nebuchadnezzar's orders, and that infuriates him. It infuriates him so much that he says, throw him into a furnace. So, verse 19 of Daniel 3 says this, Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually he did. Heat that thing up really well. You intensify that heat. It's not enough, the normal thing, seven times more for these guys who are defying me. God says to Israel, if you won't pay attention to the warnings I send you, I'm going to turn up the heat seven times more. Seven times more. Because I want you to get the message. I want you to be able to stay in the land you're in. I want to continue to bless you, but you have to obey. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't have your will and God's blessings. You have to have God's. Follow God's will. So, if we go back to Leviticus 26, we see God saying that. As we read down through the verses of Leviticus 26, how he will intensify the punishment on the nation, breaking the pride of their power, sending droughts, spending their strength in vain. Verse 21, he comes down to the next level of what happens. If you won't pay attention to this first set of punishments, if you won't pay attention to the second set, verse 21, he says, if you walk contrary to me and are not willing to obey me, I'll bring on you seven times more, plagues according to your sins. I'm going to keep warning. I'm going to keep punishing. I want you to turn back to me, get the message, get your head out of the sand, listen to what's going on. And he lists those down in verse 23. He says, if by these things you are not reformed by me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. Not seven times more, but seven times.

Now we've moved in from intensity of punishment to duration of punishment. Seven times I will punish you for your sins. Now, I know everyone here knows when the Bible talks about times what it's talking about. We can go back to Revelation 12, where it talks about time, times, and half the times. And we know that that's three and a half years. Time equals year. Time, times, and half a time. It even tells us 1260 days. So there's no doubt of what a time is when it's talking about in the Bible. The same thing is there in Daniel, in Daniel 12, when he talks about time, times, and half a time. That indeed, God is talking about a duration of time and not a time, not an intensity of time. So he says, if you don't listen to me these three times, and I turn up the heat, and I turn up the heat, and you won't listen, I'm going to punish you seven times for your sins.

But we know that a time is a year. And we know that there's 360 days in a biblical year. We know from Daniel 12, we know from Revelation 1260 days, three and a half years. Multiply that out by 360, you come up with 1260 days. So we know that. We know that from Daniel 4, 32. Let's go back to Numbers 14. Let the Bible interpret itself again on what God is doing here, because there's another time in Israel's history that He punishes them for disobedience and disloyalty to Him, for not believing Him, for turning against Him. And that is, of course, the time when the spies are sent into the Promised Land, they come back with a bad report. Only two, Joshua and Caleb, come back and say, God's capable of delivering this land to us. The other ten said, there's no way, there's giants, there's fortified cities. God has led us here to a mess that we can't conquer. And they are buried down on what God has done. And God punishes them for that attitude that they've done for turning against Him and not obeying Him. Numbers 14, verse 32. As He's speaking to the ten who defied Him, He says, as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and your son shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the fruit of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. Verse 34, according to the number of days in which you spied out the land forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know my rejection.

Forty years, you're going to wander in that wilderness of punishment because you didn't pay attention to me. You rejected me. And God says to the nation of Israel, when you reject me, when I sent you warning after warning after warning, and you buried your head and just kept doing the same thing, I will punish you seven times. Seven times. A year for a day of your punishment. That's the standard that He gave when He punished Israel for rejecting Him, as He says, when the spies went in there. A year for a day, forty years, you will wander in the wilderness. If we multiply out seven, three hundred sixty-day years, we come up with two thousand five hundred twenty years. Twenty-two thousand five hundred twenty years, God will reject Israel. God will withhold His blessings from Israel. The covenant was an everlasting covenant, but Israel could forfeit some of that by their disobedience. So, for two thousand five hundred twenty years, God says, I'll punish you. You reject me, I will reject you. The nation of Israel, when in the captivity in seven twenty-two BC, between seven eighteen and seven twenty-three BC, most commentaries will say seven twenty-two.

If we take the two thousand five hundred twenty years of punishment, because Israel, remember, the northern tribe of Israel never came back to the Promised Land. The world will tell you that Israel has disappeared. No one knows where they are anymore. When they say that the little nation of Israel in the Middle East is Israel, it is not. It is not. It is Judah. It is not all ten tribes. But for two thousand five hundred twenty years, God will withhold His blessing from them. So, if we take the time that Israel, the northern ten tribes, when in captivity in seven eighteen to seven twenty-three BC, and we add twenty five hundred twenty years of punishment or rejection by God, it would mean that if we're looking at these nations to reappear on earth, it would happen somewhere, and the blessings would be reinstated somewhere between seven nineteen ninety-seven and eighteen oh two eighteen oh three AD. Somewhere around eighteen hundred AD, God would say. And that's just taking it from the Bible. Using what the Bible said, using the same terminology that He said, using the sermon interpretation of the Bible, not any of my speculation, not anything of another man's speculation, simply what the Bible says. No other resource. That these nations would occur or reappear sometime after eighteen hundred AD. If we take the Bible for what it says. Well, if we look at all of the...

Now let's do this first. Now we'll look at history. Now we'll look at history a little bit, because we're two thousand years after the death of Christ, we're two thousand seven hundred years after Israel was taken captive, more than the two thousand five hundred twenty years. So we have the benefit of looking back on history now and saying, what exactly? If we take all that laundry list of the characteristics of Israel and then we add to it, these nations won't appear until after eighteen hundred AD. If they appear to twelve hundred AD, eleven hundred AD, nine hundred AD, then Bible prophecy is wrong. We don't have to pay attention to it. But all these nations that we're talking about wouldn't reappear if Bible prophecy is true and the interpretation that God has given us of prophecy, they wouldn't occur before eighteen hundred AD. Now this comes from the Encyclopedia Britannica. This is what they say. If you read through the history books, if you look at every history of every nation on earth, there is a company of nations that did occur after eighteen hundred AD. Let's read this. Let's read this from the Encyclopedia Britannica. Following the defeat of the Napoleonic France in eighteen fifteen, Britain enjoyed a century of almost unchallenged dominance and expanded its imperial holdings across the globe. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and for over a century was the foremost global power. By 1922, the British Empire held sway over 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population at that time. The empire covered more than 13 million square miles, almost one-quarter of the earth's total land area. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, the phrase, the empire on which the sun never sets, was often used to describe the British Empire. It didn't come into prominence until after eighteen hundred. It became the greatest empire of all time, covering a tremendous area greater than the Roman Empire that we all think of as a great empire. It had immense wealth. It was a blessing to the nations. They didn't do everything right. You can go through any history. You can go through the history of any nation. They didn't do anything, everything right. But you know, where they were, they left the nations better off than they were before. They were a blessing to the people they came from, and that can be evidenced by what happened after they withdrew from some of those areas. Here's a map. Here's a map of the British Empire at its height. The red and the pink show the scope and the breadth of what they were at that time in the 1800s and 1900s. From one end of the world to the other. When it said the sun didn't shine, it said on the British Empire, that is indeed the case. Up here in the green, here's the Roman Empire. That's the Roman Empire at its height. But you can see the extent of the British Empire, a company of nations, a multitude of nations, all under one throne, occurred after 1800, the only empire like it that occurred after 1800, the biblical timeline that was set. Now, following the decline of the British Empire, the Bible says that there will be a company of nations and then there will be a great nation that comes after that. So, if we look at what's emerging around 1800 in the world, we see the British Empire, but we also see another nation beginning to emerge. And some notable things happening around 1800 with that nation that today is called the greatest nation on earth. Around 1800, you have George Washington completing his first term of presidency or his terms of presidency in the United States.

But notably in 1803, there's the sizable acquisition of land that took America from a slice of the East Coast and multiplied its territory greatly. America made the Louisiana Purchase from a war-wearied and desperate Napoleon, increasing the size of the United States by 140% and adding to it some of the richest land on earth. Napoleon is said to have commented, this succession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States. Soon after he fell to the British when they defeated him in 1815, as we noted a little bit earlier, isn't it interesting that Napoleon himself would say, this affirms forever. This United States is forming. It's going to be a great nation forever. He knew that area of the Louisiana territory. He knew how rich it was. He knew how well watered it was. He knew that adding that to that land was going to make America great. It had the blessings of resources. It had the blessing of water. It had the blessings of natural resources and everything that a fertile land in a country would need. Over the course of the rest of the 1800s, more land was added to it. So, you have a land that went from sea to shiny sea that has coastlands all around it. It has coastlands all around it, just like the British Empire was surrounded by coastlands. You have a nation that today is regarded as the greatest nation that ever was on earth. So, you have a company of nations that occurred after 1800. There's only one that you can identify. The Bible prophecy is true that occurred after 1800. That was the greatest empire there ever was. And one nation that was even greater than the nation that Solomon had. It exceeded the blessings of Solomon that came into being after the company of nations and after 1800. So, let's go back and let's recount our list here of identifying signs directly from the Bible. We have coastlands, isles, and what Christ calls them back to the Promised Land. They will come from the north and west and the land of the new.

These nations, Israel in the last days, will possess the gates of their enemies.

They will be the greatest company of nations and the greatest nation of all time. They came into prime after 1800. If the Bible prophecy is correct, they are through whom all nations have been blessed. And it's just common knowledge that there's been no other nation like the United States that has been a blessing to other nations, giving away billions and billions of dollars to nations that even present themselves as our enemies. And that when we conquer someone or win a war, we go back and rebuild them. So you can go through the pages of history, and I would challenge you, go through the pages of history, find out, find somewhere else that matches all these things that come from the pages of the Bible. Because when you do, it's pretty clear where the end time nations of Israel are when you put all the things from the Bible together. I think you would have to say that Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand, they fit all the definitions of what God said, nations that He has richly blessed.

So we come to the question then, why are we doing this? Because you might say, Rick, we know all this stuff. We have heard about it. Those of us who have been in the church for 20-30 years, nice, but what is the purpose of all of it? Why are we going through all this? We're going through all of it because we have had some notable things happen in our world. One of them that you've heard me say is the exit of Britain from the European Union.

Now, we've talked about the beast power at the end of time. We looked at Revelation. You can go back, and there are sermons on our YouTube channel, sermons on our library that show from the Bible that when the beast arises out of the sea, it's the Mediterranean Sea. It's a land that even people of other religions know where that end time beast power is likely to be.

We know from Revelation 13 that it fills a void on earth. It fills a void on earth. The world marvels out of the sea comes this power, and the whole world looks at it as, who can fight this beast? Who can do anything? They have the economic might. They have the military might of the world. We can ask ourselves, where's America? Where's Britain? Where are these nations that today the world looks to? Well, we know from Jeremiah 30, verse 9, the time of Jacob's trouble. They've turned from God. They have disappeared from earth's history. We know from Mosiah 5, 5, which we read last week, that Israel, Judah, and Ephraim all fall within a new moon of each other because they've turned from God. And he says, when a nation turns from God and I warn them over and over and over again, I will eventually say, enough is enough. And they will disappear from the face of the earth. And when we look in on the end of the world, the three and a half years before the return of Jesus Christ, there is no Israel. There is the beast power and the gentile powers of the earth, the dominating, authoritarian figures that have always been there throughout the earth's history until America. And Britain were there and had a more relaxed or a less autocratic form of government.

But that's back. A government you and I haven't lived under. But that's returning to earth.

They're there because there's been a void left. And the prophecies that God said to a nation and nations that he has richly blessed have come about. They buried their head. They didn't believe it. They scoffed it. They jeered at it. They didn't believe anything they could ever say. The world would look at Britain and that exit from the European Union as, well, that was kind of a surprise. Well, that's kind of a novelty thing. That's going to set things off in a little bit different and see what happens with it. It took the media by surprise. It took Europe by surprise. It shouldn't have taken any of us by surprise.

Because if we know the Bible and if we know prophecy and if we believed in the prophecy of the Bible, we knew that Britain couldn't be part of the European Union by definition. So knowing who Israel is and that it's not just the little nation of Israel over there in the Middle East that every or most other churches are going to tell you it is, they're going to be surprised when Bible prophecy comes about. You and I shouldn't be. It helps us discern scriptures and the prophecy. Bottom line is, Britain could not be part of the end-time European Union or beast power if Bible prophecy is correct. It cannot be.

So, we would look at that as a prophetic milestone. It's been part of the European Union from 1973. The Church has been saying for the last 50-60 years, Britain won't be part of the European Union. It can't be. If Bible prophecy is correct, if our understanding of Bible prophecy is correct, it can't be. So it's important, and what we passed here a month or two ago was a prophetic milestone. But that's not the only reason that it's important, because it tells us something about God, what we see. The fact that Israel was sent into captivity.

And Christ clearly said, in the book of Ezekiel 11, that Israel was not alive at the time that Israel was the kingdom, that Israel was the nation back then. Israel had already gone into captivity. So, when we read it through the book of Ezekiel, and we see Israel mentioned, it's talking about a time that didn't happen back then. He's talking about the future of Israel because God always keeps His eyes on His people. He says in Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, "'You're a special people to me, Israel, because of what Abraham did.' What he said in Amos 3, too. "'You, of all the peoples on earth, Israel,' Old Testament Israel, "'I have looked at you because of the obedience of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.'" But here in Ezekiel 11, verse 15, it says, "'The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, saying,' "'Son of man, your brethren, your relatives, your countrymen, and all the house of Israel in its entirety, not just two tribes, all twelve tribes, are these about whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get far away from God, this land has been given to us as a possession. Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God, Although I have cast them off, far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone. Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel, and they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there, and I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh. When they return and when they bring them back, I will put a new spirit in them. The same thing Jeremiah says to the nation of Israel that had already been scattered at the time he prophesied. Why? That they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them, and they will be my people, and I will be their God.

We should feel very comforted that God is going to bring Israel, physical Israel, back to its promised land, because you know what it tells us? After all the disrespect, after all the rejection of God, that physical Israel, the ancient nation of Israel did to God, he still keeps his covenants. He said that he would covenant with them forever. He promised, I will bring them back. I will punish them for their deeds. I will bring them back.

But God says he keeps his word. And that should be a comfort to you and me, because whether we're of Israelite descent or whether we're of any ethnicity or anything on earth, that should give us comfort. If God is going to keep his promise to the physical nation of Israel that so disrespected him, that so rejected him, that went out after every God and sinned more than the Gentile nations around them, He says, that He would still keep His promises to them.

He's going to keep His promises to us. He will return. He will set up His kingdom. He will give us eternal life if we keep His commandments, if we give Him mind, body, and soul, if we yield to Him, if we allow His Holy Spirit to fill us, grow in us, develop us, make us who He wants us to be. Oh, it's important from prophecy. It's important to see what God does that He keeps His word. He keeps His word.

That's physical Israel. That's physical Israel we've been talking about. When we talk about ancient Israel that went into captivity in 722, that's the group of people that were of one nationality. And God's talking about that people at the end time, too, that He's going to bring them back. And when Jesus Christ returns, He'll bring them back to the land of Israel, the physical land of Israel. They will still be physical human beings. They will still live as we do. They will be living by His way of life. They will have His Holy Spirit. He will call them or open their minds, and they will do those things. That is spiritual Israel, and those principles are in place, and God's going to keep those principles. But you and I, we don't know if we're descendants of physical Israel, and it makes no difference because God talks of physical Israel, but you and I are of spiritual Israel. And that is a far, far different group of people than physical Israel. Physical Israel, we call back to a physical land to live the physical life, but spiritual Israel, you and me, it's not our lot to be called back to a physical land of Israel. God has something different than mine for spiritual Israel than it does for physical Israel. Let's go back to Galatians 3. Galatians 3.

And verse, you know what? Keep your finger there in Galatians 3. I wanted to read Psalm 105, and I didn't, but it's an important verse, and I want to read it. So, keep your finger in Galatians 3. Let's go back to Psalm 105 for a moment. When I was talking about God keeping His covenant, I wanted to read these verses. Psalm 105, verse 7. Psalm 105, verse 7, He is the eternal our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham and His oath to Isaac, and 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 allotment of your inheritance. God remembers His covenant. As I said, there it says in the Bible, for a thousand generations God remembers, and He will do that. That should be the comfort to us. Now, let's go back to Galatians 3, and verse 26. That's physical Israel. We're talking, and you and I today are part of spiritual Israel. Galatians 3, verse 26. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Every single one sitting in this room, every single one around the world who follows God and responds to the call, is led by His Holy Spirit. For as many as you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. It makes no difference what background we have. It makes no difference what ethnicity we have. God doesn't care. He's called everyone in this room. We are part of spiritual Israel.

Physical Israel is a different person or a different nation that God's going to keep His blessings to, but He's made promises to you and me as spiritual Israel, for whom all those physical traits mean nothing. What He's looking for is a yielded heart. What He's looking for is a person who has committed and is willing to sacrifice Himself in who He is and His will to God, who is willing to follow Him right to the kingdom. Verse 29, If you are Christ, you are Abraham's seed, and hearers according to the promise. The promise? He promises eternal life to those who follow Him.

Revelation 1. Physical Israel will be brought back to the physical land of Israel, but for spiritual Israel, those who God calls, those who heed that call, who truly repent, who are baptized, He has another future in mind when He returns to earth. Not taking them back to the physical land of Israel, but something more for spiritual Israel. Revelation 1 and verse 4, reading after John, the introduction there with John, Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth, to Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. That's what spiritual Israel is. That's what's in store for us when Jesus Christ returns. Revelation 20. Revelation 20. After the return of Jesus Christ, after Satan is bound, after Jesus Christ has established His kingdom, it says in verse 4 of Revelation 22, spiritual Israel, the people who God calls and who are led by His Holy Spirit, who will be resurrected at the first resurrection if they've died before the time that Jesus Christ returns, it says, "...I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who would be beheaded for their witness to Christ and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." During that time when Jesus Christ returns to earth, during that time when physical Israel is brought back to the physical land. Verse 6. Blessed, blessed and holy, is he who has parked in the first resurrection, spiritual Israel. Over such the second death has no power, and they shall be, or but they shall be, priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. That's where God is taking us.

It's very important for us to know that God keeps His promises. It's very important for us to know the identity of physical Israel so that we understand prophecy and that we can discern the times we live in. We're not surprised or dismayed, but we just see the prophecies of the Bible being fulfilled. It's also important for us, as Christ says in Luke 21.36, to be watching ourselves, watch what's going on, discern the times, see the prophetic markers along the way, know and study and pray and be close to God, but also know what His future for you is as spiritual Israel and make sure that we are working with Him and yielding to Him that we will be there when He returns to earth.