Why Does Israel Matter?

I think that I didn't teach Mr. Dunkle everything. We're going to have to teach him the first rule of holes. Stop digging! But then I heard from the song leader that I was probably going to give a good sermon. So I've got to do my best, really, to come up to that one. And it is beginning to smell quite nice around here. So I know that it's going to be a trial for you folks to listen to the sermon here with all the food that's working its way downstairs. Anyway, we will work through that all. Hopefully you'll stay with us here. My wife Debbie and I are glad to be out here with you. This is the first time we've been to the Portsmouth congregation. And we brought some friends along with us, some that you know, Jonathan and Esther, already. And the young man on the front row here is Mr. Al Mishnick, who came out with us. We thought we'd show him a little bit of the southern Ohio countryside on this trip. He's been staying with his daughter and son-in-law Gerald and Connie Sealing. And in Cincinnati, we'll be there through Thanksgiving here in a few weeks. So I know Mr. Mishnick is a fellow minister for a number of years. He goes back to the 1950s as a member and then a longtime elder and pastor in the church. And it's good to see him with us every day. He's coming in every day and kind of working in the mail processing area with his daughter. And we thought we'd bring him out here on this trip here that we made here today. So it's good to have him along as well. So I hope you get a chance to talk with him. He's got a few stories that he can tell and pass along about his experiences in the church as well. I too will say hello to all of you on the hookup down in Pressonsburg. As Mr. Dunkel mentioned, Debbie and I spent two years in the 1970s down in Pikeville, where the church was located at that time. So I would assume that the Bumgardners are present and perhaps even the butchers. If you are, hello. And Ferali Collins is there too. I know Raleigh. Of course, everybody knows Raleigh. And Raleigh is world famous. But anyway, I hope all of you are doing well down in Pressonsburg. Maybe someday we'll be able to get down there and see that part of the country once again.

If you will, please turn in your Bibles over to Luke 12. We're going to begin there today with a statement that Jesus made to us that was well known, but he's one to visit every once in a while and to be reminded about. In Luke 12, he was addressing a multitude of people on a rather lengthy passage here in Luke, beginning in the early in verse 1, a multitude of people who were there, and a few parables and statements. Then he comes down after some very strong teaching and statements, and he says in verse 54, he also said to the multitudes, whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say a shower is coming, and so it is. Most of us amateur weather watchers, we can look up into the sky, and if it gets really ominous and dark, we too can pretty well tell if it's going to rain and something is going to come, and so it's a common matter that Christ referred to here. And he said, when you see the south wind blow, you say there'll be hot weather, and there is. Again, common matters that pertain to any locality, we can pretty well know what type of wind is going to come up and what that may mean, and certainly clouds in terms of the weather. But then he made a direct statement here in verse 56. He said, hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky. You can look up in the clouds, you can tell if it's going to rain, you can tell if it is going to be hot or cold or snow. You can see the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?

This time. And as he spoke to this crowd in front of him at that time, part of the problem was they could not understand his message and who he was, and they did not accept it as the Son of God, as the Messiah. And they had not recognized that among them had come the long-anticipated Messiah. That time had come upon Israel, Judah, at that point. They couldn't understand it. Many of the crowds didn't. They were wondering, is he, what about his message? But they couldn't fully discern that particular time. Christ's statement here fits any group of God's people, any age at any time, and it fits you and I today. Because we live in a time. We live in what can be called the time of the end, the time closer to the return of Jesus Christ as the King of Kings than they were ever during this time of the first century. And for you and I, living in our time, it's important that we look at this message and we discern our time. That we look into the sky and we look at our times and the events and where this world is. As we can do, as we watch, as we try to understand the age and the period in which we live. And from that, as we look at the Bible, gain a perspective of urgency and understanding that can help us in our relationship with God. And so, with that statement here as a background, I'd like to bring us down to our own time and ask all of us to look very carefully at our own time. We, as a church, have always focused upon Bible prophecy. We have understood the broad outlines of Bible prophecy through the years. And in our recent years, I think, in the United Church of God, I've had a chance to be a part of, let's say, writing and speaking and teaching about prophetic matters through our media efforts in the church. And one of the things we have always worked to do in the United Church of God is to be very responsible with prophecy, not irresponsible. And by that, I mean we don't set dates. We don't try to match up certain figures from the Bible with certain individuals, necessarily, from the world seen at any particular time and proclaim so-and-so to be the modern fulfillment of a particular figure from Scripture. We have worked very, very carefully to avoid that and certainly of setting dates, while at the same time keeping in mind the broad outlines of prophecy that Christ gave, that the Bible teaches, and to keep us aware of that. One of the reasons we ever started the publication that we had called World News and Prophecy about 15 years ago was in order to provide for the church a balanced, responsible teaching, or we could say diet, I suppose, of prophecy for the church. At the time, we were not really focusing upon it, and members were hungry for that teaching. And some of the pastors on which they were feeding, as I noticed, wasn't always that good. And being a good shepherd, wanting to be a good shepherd, some of us decided, well, we need to make sure that our people have a good, sound diet of Bible prophecy, which was one of the reasons we started what was World News and Prophecy. And that approach is carried over in the good news as well as our other booklets on the subject.

We look at our time. Someone sent me yesterday a clipping off of a website dealing with World News, an article that was bringing together a number of different quotes and perspectives from religious leaders who are focusing upon this time as the end time. And one of the chief names on that particular list was Billy Graham, who was up in his mid-90s, still preaching, still talking, but still also talking about the times in which we live. And I don't think any of us would argue that we are living in some very challenging, ominous, and difficult times. Going back to Christ's statement, it is important that we learn to discern this time. And I would like to focus in my message here this afternoon on one particular area that is one of it is well known to us in the church, but needs a little bit further definition and, I think, perspective for Christ's entire message here of discerning the times. The message I want to focus on is the question of why does Israel matter? If you want a title for my sermon today, Why Does Israel Matter? is my title.

Now, as I am going to talk about Israel, we're going to talk about the modern state of Israel, which exists in the Middle East, the Jewish state of Israel. And I'm also going to be talking about the Israel of God, the Israel of God. But for the beginning part of this, let me ask a question about Israel in terms of the Jewish state of Israel, that if we watch news and pay attention to what's taking place in the world, we see it quite often in the news. And right now, Israel is under the threat of a continued threat from its Arab neighbors, in particular, particularly the nation of Iran that has been building a nuclear weapon and has pledged in essence to use it against the Jewish state to drive it from their presence from the Middle East. Last month, the United Nations gathered in opening its General Assembly, as they do in every September, and it fell this year while we were at the Feast of Tabernacles. All the world leaders come into New York City, and they all give speeches to the General Assembly of the United Nations. President Obama, the President of the United States, always goes and makes a speech and other world leaders. And this year, again, the President or the Prime Minister of Israel, a man by the name of Benjamin Netanyahu, also addressed the General Assembly. And his was the only speech I paid any attention to this year. His speaking is always worth the time to listen to, and certainly was available off of the Internet. Let me give you just a little bit of a setting of what Mr. Netanyahu said just last month in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly. I'll read opening lines, and we won't go very far in this, but he has a way of speaking very clearly to the point. He opened by saying to the General Assembly, I feel deeply honored and privileged to stand here before you today representing the citizens of the State of Israel. We are an ancient people. We date back nearly 4,000 years to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We have journeyed through time, we've overcome the greatest of adversities, and we re-established our sovereign state in our ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel. The Jewish people's odyssey through time has taught us two things. He said, one, never give up hope, always remain vigilant. Hope, he said, charts the future, vigilance protects it. I thought that was an interesting statement. He said, our odyssey has taught us two things. I'll repeat, never give up hope, always remain vigilant. Hope charts the future, vigilance protects it. Today, he said, our hope for the future is challenged by a nuclear armed Iran that seeks our destruction. All right? One thing about Benjamin Netanyahu, a Harvard-educated statesman, he's very clear, and he understands the danger to his nation, and he is not shy about letting other leaders in the world know exactly what these people are saying and what they mean. Near the end of his speech, he made one more statement that I'll read. He said, I will never compromise on the security of my people and of my country, of the one and only Jewish state.

They have a clarity of focus that they don't bend from. And I think that what Mr. Netanyahu said is a good lesson for us as I go through this topic here today. He said, we understand the threat and we will never let our vigilance down. One of the things about the state of about the Jews throughout history is that they have had to be utterly ruthless to preserve their state. Utterly ruthless. How many of you have watched over the last 10 years or so that is the television series NCIS? Okay, good. We're in good company here. It's been one of the top rated shows for 10 years.

NCIS, if you recall, those of you that know, has one of its recurring characters who left the show this year, a lady who was an agent from the Mossad. Mossad is the Israeli secret agency for security and intelligence. And as you saw in her character, and if you've read anything in real stories about the Mossad, they are ruthless. They are ruthless. In 1972, when Palestinian Arabs attacked the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich and killed a number of them, the Mossad was ruthless in hunting them down and killing them. The Mossad was ruthless in hunting down the surviving Nazi officers in South America, primarily, who were responsible in part for the Holocaust. They were ruthless. Their stories are legend, and many of them are known. Most are not known.

They are dedicated to the survival of the Israeli state today. And they have learned that. Every year, when the Israeli Defense Force bring in new recruits, they take them down into the Judean desert on a mountaintop in a place called Masada, where Jewish zealots held out in 72 AD against the Roman legions, and rather than surrender, they committed suicide on this remote, bare mountaintop in the Judean desert. And every year, they take new recruits down from the Israeli Defense Force, and they take them on top of that mountain, and they swear them into the Israeli army. And their motto is, never again. Never again. Well, they submit themselves and their people to tyranny. So when you read a speech like this, you understand where we're coming, where they're coming from. And I think that that has a point of clarity for all of us in the church, as what we go through here this afternoon, I hope, will bear up. We have to be spiritually ruthless ourselves in our efforts and our journey toward the Kingdom of God. We need to be spiritually ruthless in overcoming, resisting sin, and resisting our enemy. If we're not, we will be overcome. We will be undermined. And we have a spiritual enemy. And so, to go back to my question, why Israel matters, it matters a great deal. And the understanding of that, I think, is something that we can learn from, what the Bible tells us, and in doing so, come to even more deeply appreciate God's enduring faithfulness to His Word and His promises to us. So let's go back, and I'm going to go through five points here in the time that is remaining to me, to define and to answer this question, why does Israel matter? Point number one, Israel matters because it is a key to understanding end-time prophecies, and particularly the state of Israel today, a Jewish state that exists there in that ancient land. It matters because it is a key to end-time prophecies. A little bit of history. The present Jewish state came into existence in May of 1948, when they declared their state. The first president, a man by the name of David Ben-Gurion, held the reins, and immediately after they declared their statehood, they were attacked by Egypt and by Syria, Arab armies. The 1948 war was immediately on, and the young Jewish state was in the midst of a fight for its survival. The United States at that time, and the president was Harry Truman, was the first nation in the world to recognize officially this new state of Israel. Harry Truman kind of imagined himself as a modern-day Cyrus. And if you remember the biblical story, it was Cyrus, who was the king of Persia, who, after defeating Babylon, where the Jewish captives had been, Cyrus issued a proclamation that allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, 70 years after its destruction, to begin to rebuild the city, which took place. And then the story of Ezra and Nehemiah occurs during that period of time. Cyrus was a great liberator, and Harry Truman, our president, imagined himself because he read history that he, by recognizing this new Jewish state immediately, was like Osiris. And so the connection between even America and the Jewish state is something that, and actually Great Britain itself, because the fact that there was a Jewish presence in Palestine to even become a state was because back in about 19... I don't have my date, may not have it right, about 1916-1917, Great Britain issued a declaration called the Balfour Declaration, which pledged a homeland for the Jews in that area and allowed them to begin to migrate into Palestine. And then in 1948, they declared their statehood. And they have been under attack and fighting for that, and it is still a part of the headlines today. But in 1948, with the establishment of a political state there, it was the first time since 70 AD that there had been a Jewish state in Jerusalem and in that area.

And it is a key to understanding certain end-time prophecies. If you will turn back to Daniel chapter 9, I'll just briefly touch on what is a very intricate and detailed prophecy called the 70 Weeks Prophecy in Daniel chapter 9, a prophecy that begins in Daniel 9 and verse 20 that is a prophecy that is quite intricate and quite detailed. And it would take far more of the time than I have today to go through this. And the chicken and the corn and the sauerkraut and the mashed potatoes downstairs would long since have burned up. So we don't want to do that. I'm not going to go through the 70 Weeks Prophecy, except to point out the fact that this long prophecy, which ultimately culminates at the coming of Christ, so it's our time, begins early, has a gap, ends in our time. For this prophecy to be fulfilled would require that there be certain matters in Jerusalem, in that ancient land, such as that only, let's say, a Jewish state could provide. In verse 24, it says, 70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, the only holy city that the Bible can refer to and mean would be Jerusalem.

To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know, therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem until Messiah, now this has reference there to restore and build Jerusalem to the time of Cyrus, to allow them to go back, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks, and the street will be rebuilt in the wall in troublesome times. And after 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and not for himself, and the people of the prince who has come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, the end of it with a flood, until the end of the war declarations are determined. The language that I want to point out here is this, that a sanctuary, a city, a sacrifice.

The only way that that can be fulfilled would be for the presence of a people to whom the city was holy in that sense, along with sacrifices according to God's pattern and God's time for sacrifices. This prophecy could only be fulfilled with that having been established within the Middle East. And so when you understand that, as well as other statements that are made in chapter 11 of Daniel, in verse 31, there's another reference in the midst of another long prophecy here of the removal of daily sacrifices and the abomination of desolation. Verse 31 of Daniel 11 says, forces will be mustered by him, this political power that would come into the land. They will defile the sanctuary, again a reference to either a temple or at least, at the very least, an altar upon which sacrifices would be given, and they will take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolation. This is that type that Jesus referred to in Matthew 24 in verse 15. When he and his prophecy, the Olivet prophecy, referred to the prophecy of Daniel right here in verse 31 of an abomination of desolation. Christ himself said that when you see that take place, then those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Christ was referring in Matthew 24 back to this as the type of one that would be at the very end of a removal of sacrifices and an abomination set up once again. So here's the point. For these prophecies to be fulfilled in the time of the end, there would have to be a Jewish presence in the Middle East, in the Holy Land, in the Holy City, and for them to be fulfilled in whatever form they will be fulfilled. We did a Beyond Today program just recently that aired for the first time that talked about the answer to the question.

Actually, we raised the question, will a temple be built in Jerusalem?

And we took an approach where we raised the issue that people have, Jews, Christians, others, about the rebuilding of a temple in Jerusalem to make a larger point about Jesus Christ himself and a relationship with him. The bottom line is we have taught and understood from these scriptures and others in the church for a number of years that whether or not a temple has to be built is not clearly stated in Scripture. What is clearly stated is that there are sacrifices, and a sacrifice could be given only upon an altar that may be dedicated to that purpose with a functioning priesthood should that come to that point. But you don't have to have a large temple building out of edifice to fulfill these prophecies. So that's a little side point to that. But the prophecies do speak to sacrifices. And again, Israel matters. The nation of Israel today, for that reason, number one, that without it, certain key prophecies would not and could not be fulfilled. The second reason Israel matters is because the Jewish nation is a part of the story, but not the whole story. The Jewish nation is a part of the story, but not the whole story.

And this is something that we have long understood in the church. The world has not focused on fully to understand, even among evangelical Christians today who lobby for and advocate for and support the Jewish state of Israel because of, again, these prophecies. They have an understanding of these prophecies themselves. And that's why you see many evangelical ministries supporting Israel. If you ever go to the... How many of you have ever been to Israel and taken a tour over there at some point in the past? See one hand back there. Christian groups go to Israel all the time, and you can turn on to some of the other televangelists, some of the prominent ones, and they are very actively supporting with money, millions of dollars of money, the state of Israel. Because they feel that these scriptures have to be fulfilled, and by doing so, they are supporting Israel of the Bible, and they are helping to pave the way for the coming of the Messiah in their mind and according to their understanding of prophecy.

But what they don't understand is the real story, the total story, of Israel, the Israel of God, the Israel of the Bible. And that is why I say that the Jewish state is a part of the story, but not the whole story. When you go back to what we find in Scripture and understanding what Israel was and what the Jewish nation is today, it's very clearly laid out in Scripture. It's not something that is not rocket science, and it's not anything that is unclear. I think we all know the basic story of Israel. In Genesis 32, there is the episode of the patriarch Jacob wrestling all night with an angel who is God, the one who became Jesus Christ, as it appears here. He wrestles with God. And after wrestling all night, Jacob has his name changed.

And if you look in verse 28 of Genesis 32, God here, this being says, "...your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." He asked for a blessing after wrestling all night. And so the blessing was the change of his name to one who struggles with God and who prevails Israel.

So Jacob, the son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham, has his name then changed here by God to Israel. Now, you know the story of Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons. And that whole story, as it fills out in the book of Genesis, is quite strong. Judah was only one of his sons. Judah was the one nation that became the tribe of Judah, from which the Jewish people historically have developed and to this very day. But there were 11 other sons, Reuben, Gad, Zebulun, and Naphthaliah.

They were the sons who gave rise to the children of Israel that when we come into the book of Exodus, we find in slavery in Egypt, and they are led out by Moses at the hand of Moses, brought back to the land where Abraham went and was promised by God, and they conquered that land and a nation was set up, the nation of Israel. But the nation of Israel in that day was composed of 12 tribes under Joshua when they conquered the land to really condense the story. Telescope it all into just a few places here. And then eventually, under the Judges, they had their story of Joshua and Judges, but then eventually they wanted a king. God, through the prophet Samuel, gave them a king.

Saul, being the first who disqualified himself, and he was replaced by, of course, David, King David. David united the tribes, established his capital at Jerusalem.

David died. His son Solomon then even took the nation to greater heights of glory and wealth and prestige and expanding the borders. And then Solomon died. And his son, Rehoboam, then lost it all.

Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, became king, and there was unrest because of high taxes and political intrigue and other issues that the books tell us. And it led to a split because it was not handled properly, among other things. And the nation of Israel that David had united became two separate nations. Ten of the tribes became what is known in the Bible as the nation of Israel to the north of Jerusalem, while two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, remained loyal to the house of David in Judah and Jerusalem, and they formed the southern nation called the Kingdom of Judah. You have the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. And that story is what we find in the Bible when we come down to 2 Kings chapter 6, where for the first time we find the word Jewish mentioned. In the New King James it is Judah, 2 Kings chapter 16. But what is interesting to note here is that it is the Kingdom of... it is the nation of Israel, at this point in the story, who is at war with the Jewish state of Judah to the south. And what's important about here, this here in 2 Kings 6 and verse 6, is what it tells us in regard to this very fact that it is the separation.

I'm sorry, it's 2 Kings 16 and verse 6. I think I said that to begin with, didn't I?

And then I said 2 Kings 16 and verse 6.

We'll just read this. At the time Rezen, the king of Syria, captured a lout for Syria. This is a town at the southern edge of the nation of Judah. And drove the men of Judah from Elot.

Then the Edomites went to Elot and dwelt there to this day.

Rezen, the king of Syria, is in league with the nation of Israel. Verse 3 and verse 5, they came together against Jerusalem to make war into B'Sij, Ahaz, and they are at war. Now it says in verse 6, they drove the men of Judah from Elot. If you look, the new King James puts it this way. The original King James of 1611 does translate Judah as the Jews.

And at least my King James Bible on my shelf at home last night when I was looking at this, says that this is the first reference to Jews within the Bible. And it's true. What is notable here for this is it shows that the nation of Israel, the ten-tribe nation, was at war with the nation of Judah or the Jews.

And it shows that there's a distinction between the two. The tribe of Judah was only one of the twelve tribes that originally was part of the descendants of Jacob, forming this nation of Israel. And that is an important key to understanding the Bible story and also prophecy and the modern setting. Because, again, if you look at how the Jews tell their story, and if you look at the modern state of Israel, it is called the state of Israel, but it is a Jewish state.

Now that's well understood and well recognized. But the world looks at them as Israel in that sense. And because when the nation of Israel was taken captive by Assyria after about 200 years of having an existence, they became lost to history. And that's why they are called the lost ten tribes.

That story is another story that can be pieced together from extra-biblical and historical material to give us certain understandings about the reality of those tribes, but also from the Bible we find in the book of Revelation that at the time of the end there are people sealed from every one of the tribes of Israel, which tells us that God knows where those descendants are to this day and is important for that particular note.

But the Jewish state that we see today is part of the story, but it's not the whole story. And when we put it together here and at least bring it down to our present time, at least we can understand the distinction. And it's always important that we do this. We did a television program about a year, a year and a half ago, called Why the Ten Tribes of Israel Matter. And my title of this sermon here today takes a little different twist off of that about Israel as a whole to incorporate the modern scene and time of the Jews.

But this nation of Judah that we read about here in verse 6, they continued on after the nation of Israel was taken captive. They were eventually taken captive sometime later by Babylon. As I mentioned, they came back and reestablished a presence in Jerusalem.

And it is that presence that we see in the New Testament story when Jesus came among as a Jew, among his people and where the church began from the Gospel and Book of Acts account there in the first century. It is among a Jewish state that was being essentially managed as a vassal state of the Roman Empire at that time. And it lasted until 70 AD, as I mentioned earlier. When in 70 AD, because of a rebellion that the Jews themselves instigated, they were set upon by the Roman legions of Vespasian.

And after a siege of Jerusalem, the city was sacked. The temple that was built at that time, the second temple, was destroyed. And for all intents and purposes, the Jewish presence in the land and at least a sovereign Jewish state ended. There was another Jewish war in the year 125. And at that time, finally, the Roman Empire just wiped the Jews completely out of the area. They were tired of them.

They were pesky. They didn't like the Jews. And because of that, you find in the story of the church, anybody keeping the Sabbath in the Holy Days and anything connected with Jews was suspect. And the church, as it was at that time, began to move away from the Sabbath because they didn't want to be considered Jews. Any of you ever been called a Jew? I have. Yeah, because I keep the Sabbath.

And in high school, when I went to the feast of tabernacles and came back afterwards and gave her my pink slip, one of my teachers, and said, I was at the feast of tabernacles. She looked at me and she said, I didn't know you were Jewish.

And I said, well, I'm not. I just went to the feast. Had a good time, you know.

Lots of girls.

That's what the feast was all about in those days, wasn't it?

I haven't forgotten. I'm not that old.

And I haven't forgotten.

But you'd keep the Sabbath, you keep the Holy Days, you're considered by the world Jewish. And that's not always good. Well, that's what happened. They didn't like the Jews in the first century to second century, and they just removed them from the land. And the Jews remained out of Palestine or the land until 1948, as I said, when they reestablished their sovereign state, the current state of Israel. It's nearly a 2,000-year gap. And again, that's important.

That does matter. And when we read about these threats and what's going on in Israel today in the Middle East and the antagonism there, it matters for a lot of reasons. It matters, point number three, because it helps us to understand the modern identity of Israel as a whole, the Israel of God. The modern identity of Israel as a whole, the Israel of God, not just the state of Israel. When you go back to Genesis again, and the account with Jacob, if you go back to Genesis 48, remember, as we said, Jacob's name was changed to Israel.

And in chapter 48, Jacob is an old man, and he's near death, and he calls his beloved son Joseph to his bedside, and he passes on the blessing that he had been given to Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And that takes place in Genesis 48. And verse 15, he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel who's redeemed me from all evil, blessed the lads, Ephraim and Manasseh. Verse 16 is the key thought. Let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. In verse 16, Jacob repeats the essence of the promise given first to Abraham, passed to Isaac, then to himself. He now passes it on to his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. He says, and he says, let my name be upon them. What is his name? Israel. Israel is his name. And so he passes on the blessing, and he crosses his hands. And we're not going to go through all that story. That's told in our booklet on United States and Britain and Bible prophecy, but he crosses his hands and he puts the blessings upon those two sons. And it is repeated in chapter 49 of Genesis when Jacob calls his 12 sons around again his bedside to tell them in verse 1 what will befall them in the last days. This is a critical prophecy out of the book of Genesis as the book ends about the sons of Israel and what Jacob says to them in the last days. And what is said to Joseph in verse 22 of Genesis 49 is a critical piece of the understanding. Joseph is a fruitful bow, and Joseph, remember, is collectively representing Ephraim and Manasseh here because the blessing was upon his two sons. Joseph is a fruitful bow by a well. His branches run over the wall and the archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him, and hated him. The statement about Joseph is a marker and his descendants to help us to understand Joseph in the last days and through Ephraim and Manasseh. And he says they will be a fruitful bow. Their branches will run over the wall and giving the indication of the fruitful prosperity that Joseph represents going over a wall and extending beyond its parameters, beyond its horizons, as a fruitful entity.

And that story, those blessings, are critical in this statement here to helping us to understand where we are to look for the sons of Jacob, Israel, and the recipients of this promise in the last days. When you fast forward history and you come into our modern period, and you begin to look for any nation or group of nations, according to these prophecies of Genesis 48 and 49, and the collective promises of blessing first given to Abraham, and you look for a modern fulfillment in modern history, the inescapable conclusion is that they have been fulfilled among the English-speaking nations of the world who have been prominent in this age.

First being Great Britain, and secondly, the United States of America, and Canada, and Australia, and other English-speaking peoples. It is a phenomenal story that when it is fairly unbiased, without bias, examined and told, even by historians, it is a remarkable story. And you and I set smack dab in the middle of that inherited blessing in the wealth and the life and the culture and the style of living to which we have been accustomed all of our lives, and we have. And the poorest among us, the poorest among us, are wealthy beyond measure by world standards today and certainly historically. It's a wonderful story to always be reminded of, particularly at this time of year, the Feast of Tabernacles, and as we wind ourselves up to the national celebration of Thanksgiving that we have in a few weeks, and we begin to think about, again, the abundance that we have and to be able to be thankful about that. I'm I'm always thankful for what God promised to Abraham, and that he that man was first faithful.

Because of that, I've got my iPhone.

And you've got how many cars sitting in your driveway? How much money is in your account?

What kind of a life do you and I live? You know, we don't we can buy our food at the grocery store and not have to worry about it being tainted, unless it comes from China. You want to be careful there. But we have standards of quality and sanitation in the United States of America, and advancements in science that keep us alive. All right, the drugs that we are on have extended our lives and our health and has given us equality. And all of that is a part of this blessing that the English-speaking nations have been up to the world. There's a reason why people are still trying to get into this country. They're not going out. They're coming in still.

On the southern border and in other places. Every time I go to Africa, I see people who would love to come to America, but don't get those opportunities because of the opportunity for advancement and a better life. And that is so much a part of this story here that we should be aware of. And that is a result of God being faithful to his promises. But we understand that, and it is an important part of the story to always keep in mind. There are prophecies that talk to our peoples today that warn us to repent. Those same prophecies also warn the entire world to repent.

The message of warning is not just to this descendants of Abraham, but when you really look carefully at the statements of Christ and the statements about repenting, they go to all nations. God desires that men everywhere repent. And the message of the repentance to believe the gospel that Jesus brought in Mark 1, verses 14 and 15, to repent and believe the gospel. The kingdom of God is at hand. When you read what the book of Acts expands on, that message of repentance is for all nations today to ultimately repent and to change and to acknowledge God the Creator. And so it's not just necessarily a message to our own peoples, the English-speaking peoples, although we above all the nations of the earth have been blessed.

And as a part of Israel, the modern Israel, and that does account and that is important.

But when we look at the prophecies and we look at the statements, we look at this story. We recognize that the modern state of Israel is not all that there is to the story of Israel.

We must also factor in the modern nations of the descendants of Abraham as part of that to understand the entire story because there are certain prophecies that do apply to us, that will be brought to bear. But we also have within the story the assurance and the knowledge of the Israel of God. In Galatians 6, verse 16, the Apostle Paul ends this intricate doctrinal treatise with a reference that I'll just look to in Galatians 6, verse 16, that helps us to frame this matter of Israel in a complete spiritual matter. Galatians 6, verse 16, he said, In as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Paul really begins to it because he's writing to a group of Gentiles beyond the descendants of Abraham. And as other scriptures bring out, the promise is to all nations.

Paul brings it all together with this reference to the Israel of God, mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. The Israel of God is also a spiritual entity symbolized by the church. People called and drawn from all walks of life, all nations, at all times since the first century. And there is a spiritual dimension of understanding as well that is there. And what you see is that the Bible begins to expand all of this. The fifth point that I want to make here is that, or I'm sorry, the fourth point is this matters because of the assurance of God's faithfulness. Israel matters because of the assurance of God's faithfulness. Now understand that, you've got to understand a very important passage in the book of Romans. Beginning in chapter 9 of Romans, Paul goes through three chapters that form an answer to the question of what about Israel. And in essence, he's giving his first century answer to the same question I'm bringing out here of why Israel matters. Why should it matter to us? Paul answers that here in Romans 9, 10, and 11. And again, we're not going to go through all of it, but it was the great question that Paul was addressing was his own people. What about Israel? Because Paul had shown through Romans that all nations now were recipient of the spiritual promises through Abraham and through Christ, the promises of grace that have been given to Abraham. And all of that has been made possible through Christ. But Israel, having been cast off, Paul says, what about them? In verse 3 of chapter 9, he even said, I wish myself to be a cursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh, the Jews, because they had rejected Christ and engineered his death as according to the prophetic plan. And that is not to put any eternal stigma upon them, but it's the reality of what happened. And Paul understood that. He himself persecuted the church, and then he repented when God opened his mind. And he says, I wish that all my other countrymen, I will leave the church. I'll go to damnation. I'll be a cursed from Christ if it would allow them to be brought into this relationship, is what he's saying. And he's answering the question, what about Israel? All of Israel, including his own people, the Jews. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, but by this time Benjamin and Judah had been amalgamated to be considered just one. In chapter 11 of Romans, Paul comes down and he says in verse 1, I say then, has God cast away his people? Israel, with whom he'd made a covenant?

An agreement of Mount Sinai. He said, has God cast them away? His answer, no, certainly not. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham with the tribe of Benjamin. God, verse 2, has not cast away his people, whom he foreknew. This is at the essence of his argument. No, they have not been cast away. And he spends the remainder of this chapter showing to a group of Gentiles that, though those Gentiles had been grafted on to the olive tree, Israel was going to be regrafted back on. They would be brought back on. And in beginning in verse 11, he says, I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? The Jews? Israel? Certainly not. But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. He's basically saying, you Romans and other Gentiles, you have salvation because they fell. Because they were cut off. They were cast off. Now you have that opportunity. And he said in verse 12, if their fall is the riches of the world for the world and their failure, riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?

Paul knew the prophecies of Ezekiel, the valley of dry bones, and the two nations of Judah and Israel being brought back together under David. He knew that it was going to happen. And he said, it's going to be brought back and their fullness. He said, I speak to you Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. Verse 15, if they're being cast away, is the reconciling of the world, what will be their acceptance? Be but life from the dead.

They will be life from the dead. When Israel is brought back into a relationship spiritually with God through Jesus Christ, he said it will be life from the dead. In verse 26, he says, all Israel will be saved. All Israel will be saved.

That is a remarkable section of Scripture. And here's the point.

I know we all like to get to the point. What's the point of all of this?

Time for mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. I know. Here's the point. The point is this. Paul is showing God's enduring faithfulness.

Even the physical promise is being played out to Abraham's descendants. And as we stand and look at what Paul is writing from our time and our perspective backwards, and we look at this and we see that even God has been faithful even to the time of the last days to fulfill the promises abundance and descendants as the stars of the heaven and the sands of the sea, to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because he's done that. And as I said, because you and I have been born within the richest nation at the richest point in time of all of humanity, because that has been done, God is going to fulfill all of the spiritual promises to all nations.

To all nations. Because he's done it to the nth degree physically, he will do it spiritually as well. God's enduring faithfulness is why Israel matters. And the very fact that we see the presence of a Jewish state in the land of Israel today matters for that reason. It's important ultimately because of God's enduring grace and blessings. And you and I can take it to the bank that we are going to be granted eternal life by the grace of God, and all other nations and all of the peoples have their opportunity for that through all the great plan of God because of God's enduring faithfulness to Israel, to Jacob, to Isaac, to Abraham, because of what took place there. That's why it matters. It matters, point number five, that there is a state of Israel, because there is a state of Israel today, a political nation called the state of Israel. It is like a place marker there in the land, showing us ultimately what will happen.

It's a place marker. They're holding a place for all of the tribes of Israel, and ultimately for the entire plan of God. In Amos chapter 9, beginning in verse 11, Amos 9, 11, On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down and repair its damages. And I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it, as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord. Behold, the days are coming, and the plowmen will overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him who sows seeds. And the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of my people Israel. They shall build away cities and inhabit them, plant vineyards, drink the wine from them. They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God. President Prime Minister Netanyahu read that passage in his speech to the United Nations last month. And in his mind, this is being fulfilled literally. This verse is literally being fulfilled through their presence there today. I wouldn't argue with that, except to say that there's an even larger fulfillment that this is pointing to in the millennium and beyond. When all the nations, when all the Israel will be regathered, and then the nations will come up to Jerusalem to learn the way of God, as Isaiah the prophet once said.

And so, why does Israel matter? For all of these reasons that we've gone through here today.

And the state of Israel today, the Jewish state, as I said, is like a place marker there for us to be reminded of God's enduring faithfulness. There's a quote from a historian, Paul Johnson, who wrote a book called The History of the Jews.

Paul Johnson wrote about the Jewish people, and he said, The Jews discover that they must be ruthless simply to survive in a hostile world. They have learned they must be ruthless to survive in a hostile world. He wrote that in his book, The History of the Jews, and I referred to that earlier.

And that is true. The Mossad, their eternal vigilance to keep their hope alive physically in that land today, regardless of the mixture of beliefs that they have in among themselves. The mixture of beliefs that they have in among themselves. You go to Israel today, you've got Orthodox Jews who will not even open a refrigerator door on the Sabbath. You stay in a hotel in Jerusalem on the Sabbath, and first of all, there's no Jew working there. They're all Arabs. They hire them to work there at the desk on the Sabbath. And the elevators don't work normally. They keep stopping at every floor. So you basically want to walk the staircase on the Sabbath, because you cannot enter the elevator and push the button. You're kindling a fire, according to their interpretation of the law. So you can't go to floor three directly. You have to stop at two and then three. If you're on the 10th floor, you're going to be there half a day getting there. And then you've got Jews who don't even, they're not observant. They don't keep the Sabbath, and they're in constant conflict with the Orthodox Jews. That's the state of Israel today. It's a fascinating place to go to and to study. So they haven't yet fulfilled all aspects of this, but they are vigilant to preserve their hope. And the lesson for us is this, that we must be spiritually ruthless as well in our lives, to ward off the attacks that come against us spiritually.

It's interesting, when you look at the story in Revelation 12, there's one more episode about Israel that is told here in the Bible, chapter 12 of Revelation, which actually begins in verse 1 with this sign that appears in heaven of a woman clothed with a sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a garland of 12 stars, which by interpretation is referring to the 12 tribes of Israel.

And it's Revelation 12, as you know, is a sweeping story of the church from the time of Israel, the Old Testament, the birth of Christ, and his death, all the way down to the time of the end, the church being taken to her place, as it mentions here. But at verse 17 of Revelation 12, the dragon, Satan, is enraged with the woman who is the church and goes to make war with the rest of her offspring, the remnant, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Again, an identifying sign of the people of God at this end time is God's people will be keeping the commandments. And the dragon, the serpent, is going to go and make war with those of the church who are identified by keeping the commandments, which includes the fourth commandment, the fourth commandment, which is the Sabbath day. And also when it makes you Jewish in the eyes of your family, friends, or otherwise, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. This story of Israel, and a prime minister named Netanyahu, who stands before the world leaders today, is really an important matter for you and I to be aware of. Here's why it matters.

Here's a man, leader of a nation, a remnant of Israel, who are eternally vigilant to keep their hope alive. And he's standing before the leaders of the world today, and he's telling them, and he's telling them, we take seriously any threat to our existence, i.e. Iran, and their threat to use a nuclear weapon to drive us into the sea. We take that seriously. In a sense, I read something like that, and I say, you know, I wonder sometimes, this is my own private speculation, do men like that issue a warning? I think they do. A warning that should be taken seriously, not only for the nations of the world, but for those who are the disciples of Jesus Christ, who stand before him as those did in Luke chapter 12, and who were called hypocrites by Christ, because they could discern the weather outside and see when it was going to rain or get hot, when it was going to snow or get cold, that couldn't discern their time. I take that as a warning for you and I to discern our time in which we live, and to let that be a prod to righteousness, to good works, to the type of Christians that we should be, to put those things behind that Mrs. Call was echoing in the song that she sang to us today, leave certain things behind, put it all behind, and move forward in our relationship with God and Jesus Christ, because we discern our times and that these days are imminently before us. Israel matters if it matters to no more make us vigilant and determined to keep our eyes on our hope and vigilant in our efforts to make the kingdom of God.