Rise and Fall of Modern Israel

This is nice out there to have that liquid sunshine coming down. We love that, don't we?

I don't know if you've had a lot of opportunity traveling across the United States. It's been a long time since we have actually been able to drive across the country. But I'll tell you this, if you haven't had that chance, you're missing a lot. Because this country is just beautiful. It's a beautiful country. And I know we talk about, don't we, as people? It seems more so now than ever, about how bad America is and where we're going. And we all, of course, recognize the problems we have in America. But America still is the greatest nation on the face of the earth. You know, we traveled, as I let you know, to Egypt some time ago. And we've been to other foreign countries and other nations. But always, always, it is great to come back to the United States of America. You know, frankly, sometimes you feel like kissing the ground. You know, you maybe understand a little bit what the Pope wants to do when he gets off the plane. I think it's because the Pope is just afraid of flying. But anyway, it's just remarkable, again, how beautiful this country is. And I know sometimes we talk about the negative parts of it, and there are certainly many of them there. You know, a man across the street from Oz, we live in Brentwood, California. You know, he has, you know, a flag, you know, in his front yard. And I met him. I'm not sure exactly what his background is, but I would guess probably he was a marine or something like that in the military. And he's a very patriotic person. I consider myself a very patriotic person. You know, I again love America, and I know all of us are thankful that we can live in this country.

But as remarkable as this country is, it all started 4,000 years ago. You know, most people don't even know that, by the way, that how America came to be started 4,000 years ago. Maybe you never thought of it quite that way. You know, strangely, few Americans and British people know about this part of history, about how far back it goes. Americans know about Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims and, you know, the black shoes and the buckles and all of that. They know about Columbus, by the way. Columbus, of course, who didn't, frankly, discover America anyway. You know, he was down in the Caribbean. He never came to the mainland. But they don't know about the origins of their own people. They don't know why are we called Anglo-Saxon, and for the most part, many people are called Anglo-Saxon-phobiscus. That's what this country's made up of, basically. Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Why is that? Do you know where Anglo-Saxon's even came from?

If somebody asked you that question, could you answer? Who are the Anglo-Saxons? You might be able to, again, figure it out if you begin to, you know, think about it a bit, and certainly it'd be easy today, wouldn't it, with our tablets and our computers and everything else to find out about the origins of these people. But how have, brethren, the United States and Britain come to their greatness and power in the world? How did that happen? You know, we could take some lessons from the first message, the sermonette, by Mr. Coaster, read the book. You know, first time I ever saw that phrase, read the book, I believe John Hill. John Hill wrote an article, and I believe it was in the playing group. And he either that, I think a couple of articles on that, maybe more than that, but read the book. You can't understand the origins of the United States and Britain unless you read the book. And I would add to that, believe the book, what the book says. But their common history of the United States and Britain goes back, basically, to one man, one individual. And the rise of these peoples is the most interesting account, I think, known by very few. Very few even know the story. And hopefully you do know the story. I think a lot of our young people maybe don't know the story about the background of the of the history of modern Israel, as we would refer to it. But let's go over here to Genesis 12 to begin with over here. In Genesis 12, in verse 1, it says, And now the Eternal had said to Abram, Get out of your country. You know, he had, of course, been in Ur of the Chaldees. He says, From your family, he was to depart from his family, and from your father's house, and to a land that I will show you. God was going to start something all over through Abraham apart from his family. Something that you might say that was akin to what happened to Noah. That it would be Abraham's descendants, in other words, and not the descendants of some mixture of those from his father's house.

But going on, it says to a land I'm going to show you, and I'll make you a great nation. So God was going to make him a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all. Now, this here, it says, All the families of the earth shall be blessed. There were two parts, by the way, to this great blessing that God was going to give to him. He was going to give him, number one, national greatness. That would be a physical blessing that God would put upon mankind, but secondarily, he was going to give to Abraham a spiritual blessing that would impact everybody in the world. Both would, you know, again, affect everybody upon this planet. Every human being, eventually, is going to be impacted by it. Let's go over to chapter 17. We go a little further along, and this instruction God had given to Abraham. But in verse 1, and when Abram was 99 years old, the eternal appeared to Abram and said, I am the Almighty God who walked before me and be blameless. You might say, this is when, you know, Abraham was supposed to be converted. He was to be a changed man, like God calls upon us now for baptized to be changed people and converted. But notice, I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abraham fell on his face, or Brahm, and God talked with him, saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. What an astounding thing to say to somebody. Imagine if that was said to you, I'm going to make you a father of many nations. It's astounding. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations, and I'll make you exceedingly fruitful, and I'll make nations of you, and kings shall come from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you. And so God made this promise again to Abraham, and He says, also I'll give you and your descendants after you the land in which you were a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as of everlasting possession, and I will be their God. So God was going to do that again for Abraham. Now on over here in chapter 15, let's go back to chapter 15 here, and to verse 18 here, verse 18.

And it says in chapter 15 verse 18, and it says, On the same day the Eternal made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants I've given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. And you know, so here this land was, by the way, possessed by other nations, and He proceeds to name these nations. So this involved, brethren, a physical, as I mentioned, a physical and spiritual blessing that was far-reaching, in fact extended all the way to the millennium, and they were going to possess lands that were occupied by nations even at that time. Far bigger than the little tiny nation of Israel in the Middle East. Now we come to a time when God makes His promise to Abraham unconditional after He tested him. Over here in Genesis chapter 22. Let's go over to Genesis chapter 22. In Genesis 22 and verse 10, you know the account, how God told Abraham, I want you to go and I want you to sacrifice your only Son. It's almost like God was rubbing it in, you know, because it was a test. Sometimes when God does test you, it does seem like that, doesn't it? It's like God's sort of rubbing it in. Maybe to test our attitude. What our attitude is. I remember when I was a trainee, you know, sometimes the minister would ask me to mow his lawn. You know, and then I, it would test my attitude. You know, here I had just graduated from college. In fact, I had previous college besides that. But here I am. I'm out in the field ministry, not been ordained or anything, but, and all the whole time you're mowing the lawn. You're thinking, you mean I trained to do this? I did this at Ambassador College. You know, I mow lawns and use the old yo-yo, you know, to cut things. And I had my attitude tested all through Ambassador College. But sometimes God tests our attitude. What is our attitude going to be? Because what He's going to give to us is far greater than we could even imagine. And you know what? Your attitude has to be right. Or He's not going to bless you. Just plain period. He's not going to bless you. Going on, though, here, here Abraham takes Isaac. Isaac's probably 16, 17 years of age. And he takes him to Mount Moriah. And he wants Abraham to sacrifice him. But notice, Abraham carries through. He's got the wood there. He's got his son. And he's got him ready to do it. And Abraham stretches out, verse 10, his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

So here he was about to do this very thing. And he said, do not, in verse 11, and the angel of the eternal call to him from heaven said, Abraham, Abraham, so he said, here I am. And he said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, and since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. What an attitude Abraham had here. Frankly, what an attitude Isaac had to be willing to be submissive to his father. But God was testing Abraham here in this, and God said, now I know. Now, how about you and me, brethren? When does God know about us? What are you willing to endure for the kingdom, the pearl of great price that God has given to you? Let's go to verse 15. Then the angel of the eternal called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, says the eternal, because you have done this thing. And have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So you want to look for in our time, the seed that has blessed the earth more than any other in this time that we're living in, to understand who the descendants of Abraham are. They're going to have to be in that premier position. So God gives him a physical and a spiritual blessing, as I mentioned, you know, in Genesis 12 there. God blesses, in fact, Abraham's descendants with seagate, strategic gates, that would give them a military and an economic advantage in the world. And these promises, brethren, were unconditional, that God was going to give to Abraham. It would not be based upon, in other words, whether the descendants obeyed God or not. God was going to fulfill these promises, ultimately, that he made to Abraham. And God said he would do it, and he would simply do it. He would accomplish. And those gates, brethren, have been very, very important.

A gate, by the way, is a narrow passage. In the world, transportation, of course, was usually by boat or, you know, by donkey or by some other means. You had to go through barriers. For instance, the Panama Canal is a great example of that. The Suez Canal. These were became available to Britain and the United States. These were strategic, you know, points that gave us not only military advantage, but it gave us economic advantage in the world. The Panama Canal, by the way, gave us access to commerce to the Pacific Rim countries of Asia. You know, people were seeking a way, remember, to India. And, you know, Teddy Roosevelt basically said, here's your way right here, right through the Panama Canal. And he dug it out.

And only imagine how difficult that must have been for them to do that, to accomplish that.

The Khyber Pass, by the way, controlled the interest way to the subcontinent of India.

Hong Kong, you know, was possessed by Britain and gave us direct access for Pacific Rim countries. But all of this, brethren, conspired and came about to allow the United States of Britain to have unprecedented economic growth and military might in whatever we needed we had, basically. Now, that's what you call a blessing.

It has been that way for Britain and America for a long time as one people. They say that Britain and America are separated, are common people, separated by a language. Perhaps that's true. You know, I know I've listened to some Brits I could not understand, and I'm sure they couldn't understand me either. But Britain and America are brothers, like brothers. In fact, they are brothers and very much related. Sometimes people don't understand, by the way, the relationships in the world. You know, why do we care about, by the way, the Jews over in the Middle East? Why do we care about the Jews in Africa? Why? Because they're our brothers.

They're related to us. Have you ever noticed about families? They like to stay together.

Families like to stay together. You know, they like to... Don't you enjoy seeing your family? I think all of us do, don't we? That's just a fact of life, a fact of nature, what happens. And the descendants of Abraham have tended to stay together in families. In fact, a family, you know, basically a nation is a family that's grown large.

I know today, you know, we have different peoples that make up, you know, the melting pot of the United States, but all of those are incorporated again into the family. Well, let's go to Genesis 24 over here. Genesis 24 and verse 60. Genesis 24 and verse 60. Now, this is a story, by the way, of Abraham's direct descendant Isaac. But in verse 6, and it says, they blessed Rebecca and said to her, Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and may your descendants possess the gates of those that hate them. So these again were the descendants of Isaac. This blessing was conveyed to Isaac from Abraham, the same promise that God had given, you know, to Abraham was passed on to Isaac. And Isaac and Rebecca's descendants. Chapter 26 over here, just again to try to skate across this, to show you how God has worked in the past, beginning with, again, Abraham, 4000 years ago. Abraham was about 2000 BC, by the way. So you can again see it's over 4000 years ago. But going on here, chapter 26 now down to verse 3. Dwell in this land, I will be with you and bless you, and for to you and your descendants I give all these lands that I will perform, the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. So you see here God is telling Isaac you dwell in this land because I'm going to perform what I said to your father. And I'll make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven. I will give to your descendants all these lands and in your seat all the nations the all the nations the earth shall be blessed. Why? Why is this the case? Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. So the reason why God is going to do that is because Abraham did what God said. He believed what God said and he did it. And God blessed him tremendously. Chapter 27. Chapter 27 over here. In verse 26.

Then his father, this is of course the time when in fact Jacob was of a certain age and Isaac was getting old and he was going to pass on these blessings that his father had passed on to him.

And Jacob was the one who was going to receive these blessings. Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near now and kiss me my son. And he came near and kissed him and he smelled the smell of his clothing and blessed him and said, Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren and let your mother's sons bow down to you.

Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless you. So the same thing that God said to Abraham was passed on and said to Jacob. God made these promises and the birthright promises, in other words, were passed on to Jacob. And of course, the promises were passed on subsequently from Jacob to the descendants. So the descendants of Jacob, the twelve sons that he had, were going to be blessed beyond all those upon the face of the earth. And those descendants would have a premier position in the world. And interestingly, I'm not going to go over there, but over in Hebrews 11, verse 18, it says there, and you can read it yourself, that the descendants of Abraham would be called by Isaac's name. They would be by Isaac's name. They wouldn't be, in other words, Reubenites. They would not be known by other names, but they would be Isaac's sons. Isaac's descendants. Now, it is quite interesting to me that among the descendants of Isaac are the Saxons. And the Angles, for the Angles, depends how you want to say that. But remember, when the Sumerians of the northern kingdom of Israel, anciently, turned from God during the time of Jeroboam, that they were taken into captivity by the Assyrians. And the Assyrians actually transplanted the northern kingdoms. There were, you know, there were 10 tribes to the north that broke away. Remember, under, you know, the apostasy of Jeroboam, they began to keep, in fact, the feast in the eighth month. And we believe they were keeping sun worship on Sunday as well and had turned to paganism. But they were taken into captivity 721 to 718 B.C.

Now, what is important is where they were taken to. They were taken to captivity along the shores of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian Sea, by the way, is right eastward from the Black Sea. So that's where they were taken into captivity. And there is a corridor that goes right up along the Caspian Sea, you know, over to Europe. You have, of course, all the way up into Ukraine and some of those nations. Romania, Yugoslavia, you know, some of those other, you know, nations that are up there in that particular area. But what happens is, you know, these people are settled along the Caspian Sea. But you, of course, we know history, that the Mongols came across the Asian continent, and a lot of people were forced westward. And by the way, the Saxons, by the way, were not the only of the descendants of the Siberian tribes of the north. But they, along with the Angles or the Angles, were pushed westward into Europe. And many of those people were pushed into what became what was Germania, which was in Europe. Of course, we in that area have Germany today. It's very interesting to look into that, you know, the Huns, also that were, at that time, you know, people speak about the Hun. They were expert at horses and, you know, making a warfare that way. So were the Mongols, for that matter. But the Saxons and the Angles were pushed to the west. And many of them settled, by the way, up in Germania and were thought to be actually German, as what happens, of course, if you settle into a particular part of the world. I'm sure they were Jews that were settling in Russia, would have been considered Russia. Some of them would have been. Some of them, of course, not. But they would have blended in, you know, to that area. But eventually, what happens is these, the Angles or the Saxons aren't go up into Britain. And they're settled in the southern part of Britain. And along the shore. Many of them were pushed to the shore, by the way, in Europe, in Belgium, and in those areas as well. And so that's how, by the way, the descendants of Abraham ended up in Europe. It's how they went on up into Britain. And in fact, eventually, you know, some of those that were in Britain, of course, went over to America. They came to America. And, you know, much of that happened from Belgium area. Some of the history of that. And I'm sure that you've read a little bit about that. But interestingly, you know that the, as I mentioned, you know, that the Saxons have a name that's kind of interesting because it's very much relates to Isaac. Isaac. Or Saxons, the sons of Isaac. Also very interesting, brethren, I found it quite interesting, is the name Saxon means the people of the dagger. Now, this is my speculation, by the way. But if they were going to be known by Isaac's, as Isaac's descendants, it is very interesting that a key part of the story of Isaac is the dagger that almost lit his throat. The people of the dagger. They're interesting to me. And again, that's my speculation. I am going to say that a couple of times so you'll know. I haven't heard this before, but I think it's very interesting. Why the Saxons would be called the people of the dagger. But these blessings, by the way, for that God had made, you know, to Abraham, as we mentioned, were not only physical, but they were spiritual in nature. It was much more spiritual, I think, than most people realize. It didn't just apply, brethren, to Jesus Christ coming along, but having to do with our spirituality.

In other words, whether we had faith, whether we had belief in God, do we believe in Jesus Christ? You know, Jesus Christ, of course, who is the great sacrifice that made possible for us salvation. But, you know, God intended and has given to the world blessings, brethren, untold because of the descendants, you know, of the Anglo-Saxon people, which, you know, again, I mentioned, were in Britain, eventually came on over to the American, North America, and began, you know, to develop, eventually became, of course, the 13 colonies. Kind of interesting when you see the similarities there as well. You know, there were 13 sons, 13 colonies. Kind of interesting, you know, some of the recurrence of 13.

The reason there were 13 is because, of course, Joseph had two sons that were considered a part of the sons of Jacob, Ephraim, and Manasseh. But the descendants, by the way, who were the Anglo-Saxon, that ended up making up Britain and Britain that began to expand and became a commonwealth, and the United States, of course, that has grown, you know, incredibly, you know, since the establishment of the nation in 1776. You know, it's quite amazing, brethren, when you look at some of the GMPs of countries around the world. I encourage you, by the way, very easy to do.

All you got to do is go up and type, uh, GMP of U.S., and you start writing down the figures. If you add up all of those that we feel are Anglo-Saxon derivation in the world, those Anglo-Saxon people have, you know, something like 25 trillion.

I added up just in a cursory manner, uh, 25 trillion in GMP in the world. And the closest person to the United States in terms of GMP is China, by the way.

And I'll give you just one guess who made China great. But frankly, brethren, blessings on the world, too, have come as long as they worked with and cooperated with Britain and America. I'll give you some examples. Germany, Japan, South Korea, China. I could go on naming countries that have been blessed incredibly. In fact, the United States has made these countries into financial powerhouses. I don't know whether China is going to surpass us, but we were talking about this prior to services, that even though China, you know, has a GMP of 16 trillion, and the United States has a GMP of 17 trillion. We have to keep in mind we have 300 million people in this country.

China has, you know, what is it, over a billion people. I don't know whether it's a billion and a half or what, but I'd a whole lot rather divide 17 trillion by 300 million than 16 trillion by one and a half billion or whatever it is. But blessings have been incredible, at least physically, to the world because of the blessings God bestowed upon, you know, Britain and America and Britain's Commonwealth nations, the nations that the United States has dealt with as well.

But, you know, as I mentioned, the blessings are spiritual in nature as well. And they don't only include Abraham's descendants. As other nations came in contact with Abraham's descendants, they were blessed incredibly. And the same is going to be true, by the way, from a spiritual perspective, you know, in the sense of when the world of Arro begins, though that the, in fact, the Israelite-ish people are going to be the instance to the world, and of course Jesus Christ himself is going to be king of kings and lord of lords sitting on a throne in Jerusalem, you know, taking care of the responsibility of being the ruler of the world.

And Israel, again, will play a very big role. But let's go over here to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4. But through Israel, God was going to bless the entire world, not only physically, but spiritually. But going on, Romans 4 verse 13, it says, For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham, or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if those who were of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made is of no effect. Because the law brings about wrath, for where there is no law, there is no transgression.

Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. See, here's the spiritual element. See, it just didn't include the descendants, the physical descendants of Abraham. Quite frankly, I look at this audience right here. I don't know which of us are the direct physical descendants of Abraham. I don't know what I am. I think most of us are sort of like a mixture, aren't we? I know my mother has Indian blood. My father, I'm not sure exactly what his blood was, but I think some had a relationship with Germany. So I really don't know. And I think probably all of us are in the same boat, aren't we? But it doesn't have to do with just that. It has to do with whether or not you have faith in Jesus Christ if you have the faith of Abraham.

Those of the church, brother, that God is calling now must be spiritually circumcised. And in order to be Abraham's seed, to truly be Abraham's seed. And these, ultimately, brethren, are going to inherit all things. These will inherit all things. But again, God is going to still nonetheless in the millennium work through Israel. That's what the Scriptures tell us. But the ascent, again, of the United States and Britain, in the world, of the peoples who were the descendants of Abraham, are again quite remarkable. When Jacob was old and his eyes were dim, he passed the birthright promises on to the sons of Joseph. Let's go over here to Genesis 48. Genesis 48.

This is God's plan, brethren. And as much as the world doesn't want to believe God's plan, it's what the Word of God says. In Genesis 48, Genesis 48, in verse 1, it says, it came to pass that after these things that Joseph was told, indeed your father is sick, and he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. And so he goes up to visit with Jacob. And Jacob was told, look, your son Joseph is coming, and Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed.

And here Joseph had his two boys that were apparently small enough to be between his legs, in other words, they were fairly small boys. But let's go over here to verse 11. And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face, but in fact God has also shown me your offspring. Verse 12 of chapter 48 of Genesis. So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim and Manasseh, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right hand and brought them near him. And then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger. And his left hand was on Manasseh's head, guiding his hand knowingly for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph and said, so when he conveyed the blessing, it was to Ephraim and Manasseh, but it was to Joseph and Joseph's children. He said, God, before whom your fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel redeemed me from all evil. So bless the lads, let my name be named upon them in the name of my father, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. And so he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. So Manasseh was the firstborn and should have received the birthright promise, which would mean he would be blessed. Basically, the firstborn was given a double portion. But here, notice what he did. He did it again knowingly, I think it says in the King James, wittingly. And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head. And his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people and he shall be great. But truly, his younger brother shall be greater than he. And his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. Now again, think about this, brethren, in this time that we're living in right now. What peoples have fulfilled this more, you know, than Britain, United Kingdom? What peoples have fulfilled it more? I don't think you could think of anybody else that even can match Britain's wealth, first of all, so that the economic blessings were there and the fact that, in fact, it used to be said that the sun did not set on British Empire. It had holdings all over the world, you know, all over the continents.

So he blessed them that day, saying, you know, that you, Israel, by you, Israel, will bless, saying, my God, make you as Abraham and as Manasseh. And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your Father. So, of course, at that time they were in Egypt when this blessing was conveyed again to these little boys. One would become the greatest Commonwealth nations, or the, you know, Commonwealth of nations, the other would be the greatest single nation that ever existed. And again, look upon the earth rather than today. And because it's very important to know who is great right now. Again, I think you look at the economic powerhouse of America, and Britain even now is still quite astounding, probably far bigger than we can even imagine yet. And I have, I frankly think, 25 trillion is probably low, very low.

It is remarkable. The birthright promises were given, and the United States has been the greatest single nation. And truly, Britain has been greater than the United States has been. And, you know, we believe that in fact Britain and the British Empire was Ephraim, and that the United States was Meet Manasseh, that single greatest nation, and, you know, United Kingdom, the greatest Commonwealth of nations. But remember, this hadn't even begun yet. It was just a prophecy that was given by, you know, Jacob to those boys at that time that came and was fulfilled. How is God going to bring this about? How is He going to do that?

Well, as God prospered Joseph, He would prosper Ephraim and Manasseh. Remember Joseph when he came into Egypt? He came in as a prisoner, basically, or as a slave, I should say, with Potiphar. He rose to be over Potiphar's house. Then he was thrown in jail because Potiphar's wife made advances toward him, and, you know, Joseph would not acquiesce, and he was thrown in prison. He became in charge of the prison. And, you know, then, of course, the Pharaoh had a vision. You know, the seven, you know, lean calves and the seven fat, you know, cows, and Joseph interpreted it. God inspired him to interpret it, and he was put in charge under the Pharaoh over all of Egypt. And this caused Israel to flourish. So God began to bless Israel and the sons of Jacob here.

Later, the birthright promises were rehearsed by Moses, in fact, before the children of Israel.

They were told, you know, in Deuteronomy 33, by the way. I'm not going to go over there, but you can read it in verse 13 through 16, that God was going to bless them abundantly, agriculturally.

You know, Joseph was given firstborn privileges. He received a double portion, as it were. So God blessed them economically. He blessed them agriculturally. And God has done that with Israel for a long time, modern Israel, for a long time. You know, it's interesting. It mentions about the blessings that God was going to give to Joseph. And some of the symbology, you can look at the symbology, by the way, of the unicorn that is mentioned over there in Deuteronomy 33. The horns of the unicorn, if you look at the great seal of Britain, there is a unicorn on the front, on the great seal of Britain. You know, you see a lot, again, of these little things that indicate. And, of course, that we refer to is British people. And this is, of course, something we have talked about in the church for quite some time. The word Britain, or the word British, I should say, means the covenant people.

So there's a lot of things, you know, that are there. We could talk about, again, some of those things. But I just want to, again, to point out, you know, just a few of these things. We can look at some of the research of it later. But no two peoples, brethren, in the history of fulfilled the Genesis 48 prophecy. You can think of somebody who has, I'd like to hear about them. I've heard people say, by the way, that the United States is Gomer.

No, I didn't know that Gomer Pyle had any... Of course, I mean that in a comical way. But I'm not exactly sure what they mean by that. Maybe they're talking about Jose and Gomer. But, you know, I don't think God made the same promise to Jose that He made to Abraham or to Isaac or Jacob. So some of these things, I think, are really reaching, you know. But we, of course, are going to decline, sadly. And prophecy actually says that. As it prophesies of meteoric rise of the descendants of Abraham, you know, in fact the Bible predicts its downfall as well. But in coming up, as a nation, you know, of Israel in a modern-day sense here in Manasseh or the United States, we started out with, again, few people. Just a few million people, in fact, that were part of the 13 original colonies. And, frankly, the territory that we had was not that great on, you know, the North American continent. But interestingly, in the 1800s, the United States really began to take off and emerge. Britain, you know, was at its acme in the 1800s. It was at its zenith of power.

And, frankly, if you were to talk about the 1800s, you would say that the 1800s belonged to Britain.

I mean, they were all over. Britain was everywhere in the 1800s. You know, why did the United States and Britain rise at this time in history?

It's quite interesting, you know, I don't know if I, time-wise, have enough time to go to it. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 26 over here. All of us are familiar with the blessings and cursings chapter.

You know, God says He knows the end from the beginning. And when Israel was coming out of Egypt into the Promised Land, He knew what was going to happen at the end. And God knew that if they obeyed Him, that they would be blessed immeasurably. And, frankly, the history of Israel from the time they entered into the land of promise, as long as they obeyed God, they were blessed immeasurably. Now, let me tell you, the same is true for you and me in our lives. As long as you obey God, you will be blessed. There's no question about it. But when Israel turned from God, away from God, as they did, unfortunately, things went terribly wrong. In fact, the judge's history is Israel would cry out and God would send a judge, and He would rectify the situation. People would turn to God, and things would go well for a while. And the people would go back to their own ways again. And then they get back down again, they cry out to God, and God would send another judge. Just shows something about human nature, doesn't it? We are hard-headed, human-ate. It's just a horrible thing sometimes. What God has given to us, you know, this choice that we have, we all have a choice.

But God told, excuse me, in chapter 26 here, God told Israel, look, if you obey me, you'll be blessed when you come in, you're going to be blessed when you go out. In other words, you can do no wrong in terms of what you're doing. God says, I'm going to bless you. In verse 3, it says, he said in chapter 26 of Leviticus, if you walk in my statues and keep my commandments and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season. The land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last till the time of your vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing. You will eat bread to the full and dwell in your land safely. You know, God said, I'm going to make this a safe place. Again, look at what's happening in the Middle East right now, and you see there's some problems here, right? And I will give peace in the land, and you will lie down, and none will make you afraid. I'll rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not be through your land. And you will chase your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight. Your enemy shall fall by the sword before you.

I'll look upon you favorably, and make you fruitful, multiply you, and confirm my covenant with you if you do these things. But you know what happened? Again, Israel didn't do those things. But here in chapter 26, God says, look, if you don't do what you're commanded to do, you know, seven times are going to pass over you.

And it's kind of interesting that the usage of seven times—a time, by the way, and Bible prophecy is a year. How many days are in a year? Well, in the Bible, basically 360.

You know, 360 times seven, in fact, is 2,520 years.

The northern kingdom of Samaria, or they were called Israel at that time, went into captivity 721 to 718 BC by the Assyrians.

And when they went into captivity, God withheld his blessing from them for 2,520 years.

The blessing was going to give to them as a result of Abraham. And if you subtract 2,520 or 718 from 2,520, you know what you come up with?

1803. What happened in the United States in 1803?

Well, Thomas Jefferson, you know, saw France actually, and Napoleon had these ambitions to build an empire on the North American continent. And so, Thomas Jefferson sent, you know, to France, James of Arro, and Robert Livingston, to inquire about purchasing the land that was owned by France. And it just so happened that Napoleon was in war, and he needed some money. Do you think that was just an accident, by the way? That he needed some money? And we bought the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million. And you know, that one act more than doubled the size of the United States. That one thing did it. And other parts of the country were added, you know, as obvious blessings. Alaska, or called Seward's Folly, was bought from the Russians in 1867 for $7.2 million. You know, they made fun, in fact, of Seward when he suggested we go ahead and buy Alaska. They thought it was just not maybe just a frozen popsicle up there. Can you imagine the gold and the oil, the resources that come out of Alaska? We bought it for $7.2 million. Incredible! Of course, Washington changed their tune about Seward. They called it Seward's Folly, like I said, after the gold rush. Again, increased the size of this country. U.S. grew by leaps and bounds.

We also added the Gatsden Purchase. You know, by adding New Mexico and Arizona, later it was, California was added. And when that happened, when those things were completed, this country was, again, from sea to shining sea, as the song goes, that God had blessed us. Remarkable!

And like I said, in the 1800s, brethren, the British ruled the world, basically.

They were the world cop, as you look at it, basically. They were the policemen of the world at that particular time. Now we fulfill that role.

And the United States is very pivotal in the world as the greatest power, superpower, in the world. I know we hear about Russia. Russia doesn't have, really, the resources we have, but we ever want to crank up. Here in this country, I don't think it's going to come down to that. I think we're going to be blindsided when it does happen to us, by the way. But we have been a blessing. This country, brethren, has been a blessing to the world. So, as was Britain, a blessing to the entire world. The United States has defended the free world in World War I, World War II, the Korean conflict, you know, the Vietnamese conflict, which, of course, unfortunately didn't turn out so well for the United States. We began to lose face there. And the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq and other things that have happened since, we've lost even more face. Because some of the choices that have been made and the ways that they've been done. But basically, you could say that Britain and America have dominated for the last, you know, 200 years. Dominated the world.

And we were blessed, brethren, on the cooktails of Abraham. God removed, again, those cursings that were upon us and we were blessed.

But, you know, we continue to live contrary to God's law. We are going to be punished for our sins.

During the time of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of great tree that provided sustenance to the whole world. And remember, in that particular dream, in fact, the tree was cut down. It was shewn down. And an iron band was placed about it. It's over in Daniel 4, if you want to read about that. But seven times were pronounced over, by the way, Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. Babylon fell in 539 B.C. And we've already shown that seven times, or seven prophetic years, are 2520. Interestingly, when, in fact, you know, the 2520 year anniversary came about, it brought us to around 1800 or 1980 something.

And it was at that period, by the way, when Europe began to coalesce and began to come together.

And that's important because that will be the final Babylonian empire, that God will, in fact, have to confront, you know, when Jesus Christ returns a second time. Let's go to Revelation 17. Revelation 17, over here.

Revelation 17.

And verse 7.

Here's the mind, which has wisdom, the seven heads and seven mountains, on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. And the beast that was and is not is himself, also the eighth. Now, if you have not studied, by the way, about the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, this will be foreign to you.

But as we've explained in the church, there are seven successive resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire. And if you consider just the time when it was the Roman Empire, there are eight.

But there are seven successive resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire. And we've gone through six already, and we're waiting for the seventh.

And the seventh resurrection will be a time when ten kings will gather together and these, by the way, ten kings will make up the beast to which Jesus Christ is going to return, and they're going to fight against Christ. And they will be this world's one last ditch effort to resurrect the Babylonian system, which is, frankly, a way of life. The Babylonian system is also a way of life. But it says in verse 13, These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast, and these will make war with the Lamb. They're going to make war with Jesus Christ when He returns back. And the Lamb will overcome them, for He is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with them are called chosen and faithful. Hopefully that's you and me, brethren. They were called chosen and faithful to God, as God's people.

And so the current, we should understand, the current European unit over there is not the final makeup of those ten kings. We expect that the ten kings are going to emerge out of that, and maybe, in fact, as we felt, that it will be from the east and from the west to make up what is the beast power. And we believe that Germany is going to head them up. They'll be the predominant ones. And, frankly, Germany is the biggest economy in Europe right now, isn't it?

Germany's economy is bigger than Britain's economy. Still not, by the way, that great in terms of economic power, but they have far fewer people, too, don't they? Their power allows them to do some things. But they're going to head it up. Over in Isaiah—let's go to Isaiah over here—Isaiah in chapter 10. So we're looking, again, for Germany to do what we're talking about, what, in fact, the Bible says. We have to read the book, again.

We have to, again, rely on God's Word. In fact, God says, let every man be a liar, but only God be true. With Isaiah chapter 10 and verse 5, it says, Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger. Who was it that, again, took the northern kingdoms of Israel into captivity? Assyria. Who is modern-day Assyria today? Germany. Germany is modern-day Assyria. Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, and the staff in whose hand is my indignation. God's going to use this nation who will head up the beast to punish his people, who have been blessed upon earth far more than anybody else. Well, the United States and Britain.

Look out what's coming. To whom much is given, much is required. And I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of my wrath. And I will give him charge, and I will seize the spoil, take the prey, and tread them down like the mire of the streets. Yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so. But it is in his heart to destroy and cut off not a few nations. And so, you know, we, God is going to use modern-day Germany, Assyria, modern-day Assyria, to punish the peoples of the United States and Britain. So, you know, just as we went up, we're going to come down. It's going to come down pretty fast. Cities of Israel are going to be a late waste according to Ezekiel 6. I know it's not news people love to hear, but it's the truth. It's what's going to happen. It's what's going to occur.

God told, again, Nebuchadnezzar seven times we're going to pass over him.

We find, in fact, that in fact Jesus Christ warned of a time that was going to come. He says, when you see armies, basically Gentile armies surrounding Israel, then know, know that destruction is nigh. Of course, the return of Christ is very near as well.

We're living right on the cusp, brother. A time when Israel is very great right now, modern day Israel. But we're going to go down, and now, if I can put it this way, the Gentile nations are going to come up. The United States is going to go down.

God's bless does a great deal, but other nations are going to dominate at the end of the age.

And yet, like I said, you know, the United States and Britain have owned the last two years, basically. Not going to happen that way. And by the way, 200 years, what is 200 years in history? Not very much, is it? But God fulfilled His promise to Abraham, and God gave man a chance, gave us a chance, but we continue to sin. We continue to do those things contrary to God's laws. Interestingly, brethren, when you look over in the book of Daniel, it talks about the 10 toes that were on the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw. This golden image, you know, that was standing with the 10 toes. The 10 toes represented 10 kings. What does it say over there in the prophecy? In the days of those kings, God said, I will set up a kingdom that will not be left to other people. It says there in Daniel 2, verse 44, but it's going to be given to the sons of God, the children of God. So God's going to take away from the United States and Britain our greatness. We're going to be humbled. And, of course, there's another part of the story that is very important to tell as well, as to what's going to happen to our people in the time of the tribulation.

The Bible does tell us that they're going to repent, by the way. They're going to loathe themselves. And God's going to bring them back into Palestine. He's going to bring them back into the land that the member had promised to Abraham that would extend from the Nile, the river of the Egyptians, to the Euphrates River. And Israel, again, will serve as that insult to the nations. So, brethren, that's the story. That's the story of where the United States came to be. It's a very complicated story in a lot of ways. No small wonder very few people know it.

But remember the overview of the peoples of the United States and Britain and how we came to be. The history tells us where we've come from. And prophecy in the Bible tells us and shows us where we're headed as a people. We know there will be great trouble, brethren, ahead. But beyond that is God's kingdom. Beyond that is the return of Jesus Christ, who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And hopefully, brethren, when He returns, we'll ascend to meet Him and we will be there with Him in Jerusalem as He begins to correct and direct the nations of the earth. But, brethren, it's important for you and me that we be people of faith and endure to the end, be the children of Abraham so that we inherit the earth and that God can fulfill through us what He intended to fulfill through the descendants of Abraham.