Let’s consider the astonishing influence of the nation of Israel, the light and heart of God’s plan for this world. From Abraham to Moses, David, Jesus, and the Apostles, the Jews are intricately linked to humanity’s ancient past, this present day, and the future End Times. Put another way, God used Israel in the distant past, employs them currently, and they will be the focus of world affairs in the Last Days. While everyone is watching, Yahweh will protect them from imminent disaster. (Ezekiel 38:7-9, 16) God has caused a scenario where any insight about world history, current events, and the Last Days must include the Jews and Israel.

In this Blog, we’ll discuss how Yahweh created the nation of Israel from Abraham’s seed. God intended His people to be a blessing to all the nations. He covenanted with Abraham and promised to watch over him. What’s more, God’s plan has been, and is, to uplift the whole world through Israel. He told Abraham that all the families on earth would be favored through him. (Gen. 12:3). God said He would make Abraham and his wife Sarah the father and mother of many nations, and kings of nations would be among their descendants. (Gen. 17:6, 17)

The Jews have been missionaries to the world, even though Christians don’t always fathom it. Even the Jews don’t always quite comprehend what their leaders have prayed for.

Psalm 67:2-4 May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere. 3 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. 4 Let the whole world sing for joy, because you govern the nations with justice and guide the people of the whole world.

The purpose of this Blog is for Jews and Gentiles[1] to perceive Israel’s extraordinary significance to the world. Let’s delve into the Jews of yore to uncover God’s reasons for raising Israel. Let’s proceed with a view of Yahweh’s intentions for the nations throughout history, and as long as this world endures.

“The everlasting nature of the Abrahamic covenant means that national Israel must remain in their unique relationship with God as long as the earth and the universe exist. [2]

No Antisemitism, Just Facts

Israel’s Purpose

Our worldview is not at full capacity without a valid perspective of how the nation of Israel fits into Earth’s entire historical narrative. For instance, “Israel is the nation elected by God through which Jesus was born to fully restore humankind back to God.” [3] Jesus rose out of Jewish culture, making the church’s very existence the result of God birthing the nation of Israel.

Moses revealed God’s purpose for choosing the nation of Israel to be His people.

Deuteronomy 14:2 You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.

God set the Jews apart for Himself so they could have a remarkable relationship together. People are not the only ones who get emotional about Israel. As God’s special gemstone, Yahweh has deep emotions for Israel, as a protective parent does for a dearly loved child.

From Israel’s beginning, God purposed to reach out to all of us through the Jews. As a nation with a small land mass the size of the US state of New Jersey, they are the largest nation in terms of spiritual importance. In the long run, Yahweh used their experience as a nation to unfold the relationships between other nations.

God’s very nature has been revealed by the Jews, who are on exhibition to the world in their relationship with Yahweh. By watching their experience, other nations will realize God’s love, mercy, kindness, and knowledge.

Israel has also displayed God’s wisdom to all the nations. (When they stayed close to God.) By the instruction of God’s laws and decrees in Israel, other nations have also learned from them.

Deuteronomy 4:6 Obey [the laws and decrees] completely, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, ‘How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!

Jesus was born in the lineage of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), and He reached out to all humanity. Our Savior first went to Israel to spread His light, and then to all the nations.

Luke 2:32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”

God put the Jews on center stage among the world’s population. How they navigate during the Tribulation will be a necessary component of the End Times, with the second coming and Millennial Reign of Christ as the climax.

The Roots of Israel

To prevent extinction, Noah was chosen to rescue humanity and the animal kingdom from the Great Flood. Then, the Tower of Babel incident threatened our world with another wave of wickedness. God decided to produce different languages, which confused communication. It cut-short tyrannical one-world leadership and encouraged nations to form.[4]

About that time, Yahweh forged His own, new nation, choosing His friend Abraham (Isaiah 41:8) to be the foundational patriarch of the Hebrews. The Lord’s motive was not to bless the Jews only. His perpetual goal has always been to win back the rest of the nations from evil intentions by uplifting His chosen people of Israel.[5]

Close to 4,000 years ago, while Abram lived in Canaan’s Land, God promised it to his (Gen. 12:7) descendants as a permanent possession. (Gen 13:15) Later, a worldwide famine caused Abraham’s offspring to go to Egypt for grain as about a 70-member family.[6] The family grew into the population of a nation while there. But eventually, they were forced into slavery by the Egyptians.

The Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land gave them their freedom again. It was the Lord’s mission for the Twelve Tribes, to give them a place among the nations. Yahweh brought them back to the land He had pledged to them. He would also reach the rest of the world through their accomplishments, but not without some struggles.

In the process of giving them the land He had promised them, God performed mighty actions and great miracles. From the beginning to the end of the travail to Canaan, the world would hear of the supernatural acts of Yahweh. He intended for the rest of the world to know Him as well.

As an aside, just think of all the Gentile Sunday School children who learned of God’s greatness by hearing of the supernatural acts of God during the Exodus! That’s just one minor way He reached out to the world by maintaining a relationship with the Jews and being faithful to them.

The Davidic Covenant

Yahweh promised Abraham, David, and the nation of Israel that He would do specific long-term things for each one. He will uphold all the Scriptural promises made to them. For instance, “God promised David that someone from his house or dynasty would sit on his throne and rule over his kingdom forever.” [7] God told David:

2 Samuel 7:16 Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.

Being David’s son by lineage, Jesus fulfilled this promise when He came to earth. (Luke 1:32-33) But to keep His promise to David literally, God will also have a descendant of David on the throne during the Millennial reign. That will be Jesus Christ, the one who is worthy of the status.

Ezekiel 37:24-25 My servant David will be their king, and they will have only one shepherd. They will obey my regulations and be careful to keep my decrees. 25 They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived. They and their children and their grandchildren after them will live there forever, generation after generation. And my servant David will be their prince forever.

Just to be clear, David’s throne need not be occupied continuously to fulfill the promise. The necessary feature is that King David’s lineage will never be lost.[8] When Jesus returns and rules in the Millennial kingdom, He will raise David from the dead (Dan. 12:1-3, Jer. 30:9, Ez. 37:24), and David will have a place among the leadership of Israel.

Warning From Moses

The Lord has worked and struggled with Israel for millennia. He resolved to be faithful to the promises He gave them and their leaders since their beginning. When they followed Yahweh’s values and morals, they became strong. But whenever Israel fell from His ways, He could not endorse their conduct. Therefore, He would allow other nations to misuse or persecute Israel.

Deuteronomy 28:45-46 If you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed. 46 These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever.

And yet, true to His commitment to them, Yahweh has also promised to be merciful. He allowed their exile more than once, but He also brought them back, restoring them to the land of their ancestors.

Jeremiah 30:3 For the time is coming when I will restore the fortunes of my people of Israel and Judah. I will bring them home to this land that I gave to their ancestors, and they will possess it again. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Through Israel’s acts, Jews and Gentiles can all fathom God’s faithfulness, love, and kindness to a greater extent than we would have otherwise known. All the experiences are intended for us to know God more fully. A perspective of Israel’s history is absolutely needed to interpret the End Times.

Parental Love and Discipline

Truly, Israel has had some incredible successes in fulfilling God’s hopes for them. Just a few that come to mind are: gaining their freedom by leaving Egypt and crossing the Red Sea on dry land. Marching on Jericho as God caused the walls to crash down. Entering the Promised Land and overcoming the Nephilim. Kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 4:34), including the Queen of Sheba, (1 Kings 10:1). Their various successes could fill books.

On the flip side, it grieves me to say the Jews have also been a stubborn and rebellious people. (Duet. 31:27) They caused God to get angry and want to change His plan to bless and use them. Yahweh was so frustrated with them that He threatened to start from scratch and make Moses a nation. (Ex. 32:9-10) Fortunately, Moses asked God to change His mind, and He did. (Ex. 32:12)

I would never intend the appraisal above as an antagonistic criticism toward the Jews. It’s just that Yahweh needed to discipline them numerous times. In their defense, what child doesn’t need discipline from a loving parent because of willful behavior?

Jeremiah 31:20 “Is not Israel still my son, my darling child?” says the Lord. “I often have to punish him, but I still love him. That’s why I long for him and surely will have mercy on him.”

We must all realize it’s natural for parents to love their children but still be impatient or frustrated with them at times. Although they cherish their children, parents must discipline them now and then for their own benefit. Similarly, any time God has punished Israel, we can be sure it was done out of His parental love and affection.

It may help to know that all the other nations of the world have been rebellious too. Some of them have been so wayward that God destroyed them, and they’ve been long forgotten. But because Israel is God’s special child, the Lord watched over them, and they endured, never becoming an extinct nation as some have. That being said, Israel has indeed been scattered at various times, as we’ll see.

Remaining Strong in the Lord

Jewish history is a narrative of many cycles of them loving and serving God, rejecting Him, and returning to Him. Sometimes, their return was in a weaker condition than the previous round.

That was not the case after they were in the wilderness for forty years of hardship. The grueling decades tested their mettle, and they gained strength of character. Many of the first generation that entered Canaan were stalwarts, intent on serving Yahweh above all.

Judges 2:7 And the Israelites served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the leaders who outlived him—those who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.

But when they settled in Canaan’s Land and became prosperous, they forsook self-discipline and didn’t make it their business to know the Lord; they became easily tempted by the enemy. (This is not unique to Israel; it happens with all nations, and some of them fall apart, never to come back.)

Judges 2:10-11 After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. 11 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal.

From when Israel entered the Promised Land until the ten northern tribes were taken captive by Assyria,[9] it was almost 700 years. For the southern kingdom of Judah, they endured in Israel for more than 800 years until they were deported to Babylon.[10] As time passed, both kingdoms fell away from God occasionally and rejected the light He had given them. That was why God allowed them to be taken over and exiled at various times. [11]

I mention the many centuries the tribes of Israel remained in their land for perspective; to show that they were no fly-by-night nation. The people of Israel have endured over the course of time.

John the Baptist and Jesus

The last book in the Old Testament is Malachi, and the last verse of that book is a prophecy about John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus. It was written about 460 years before John the Baptist enthusiastically did his preparatory service for Jesus.[12]

Malachi 4:5-6 “Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. 6 His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

Mary birthed Jesus in Bethlehem six months after John the Baptist was born. As an overview, it had been roughly 1,400 years since the Israelites had entered the Promised Land. According to God’s plan, John the Baptist and the Messiah came when the Romans had political authority over the Jews.

As a point of reference, consider that Americans are just youngsters, now about 250 years from the Constitutional founding. And we’re only about 400 years from the founding of Plymouth Rock Colony.

When John the Baptist went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, Israel had seen better days. Now under the Romans’ thumb, people hoped to see the Messiah come and begin His kingdom. It’s true the King was about to arrive, but not to rule on earth. Rather, He would be rejected and crucified by His own people. They expected a king with power, not a humble servant.

God was moving to draw people to Himself. Both John and Jesus intended to renew Israel spiritually, not to begin an earthly kingdom yet. Accordingly, John preached that people should be baptized to show repentance for their sins and to ask God’s forgiveness. (Luke 3:3) John was highly aware Jesus was God’s Son, and he prepared the way for Him.

By the time Jesus began His ministry, Israel had formed 1,400 years of traditions. By then, the religious Jews had twisted God’s ways and His law to fit their own agenda. These are some of the errors Jesus pointed out to the religious leaders among the Jews during His outreach on Earth.

Luke 11:39-42 (Selected Portions) – You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God.

Luke 11:46-49 Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden. 47 What sorrow awaits you! For you build monuments for the prophets your own ancestors killed long ago. 48 But in fact, you stand as witnesses who agree with what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you join in their crime by building the monuments! 49 This is what God in his wisdom said about you: ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them, but they will kill some and persecute the others.’

Before any of us are too critical of the Jews because of what Jesus said about their mindset, consider America again. We’ve had only 250 years since our Constitution was ratified. Do our traditions align with the original intentions our Founding Fathers worked to bestow on us? Or have they changed?

What would George Washington or Thomas Jefferson say about whether Americans do or don’t honor the Constitution of the USA? Might there be arguments and friction over what to believe?

Similarly, the state of affairs among the Jews was quarrelsome and confrontational. There were various opinions from different views. The traditional Jews were not sold on what to believe about Jesus. But they could have known had they believed and followed God’s prophecies in the Scriptures. (Similarly, we can be cognizant of the prophecies in the Scriptures, too, to know what God is doing.)

Ax at the Root of the Trees

John the Baptist and Jesus had to provide them with a warning. The Jewish leadership of Jesus’ day dealt with skepticism, doubt, and disbelief, as spoken by Jesus in Luke 11 above. But He pointed out that God expected them to produce good fruit.

As His people, God had given the Jews a culture that had the potential to produce many spiritual blessings (which made life better). But overall, they had left God out in the cold. John told them not to rely on their status as physical offspring of Abraham for their spiritual welfare.

During John’s ministry, many in Jewish leadership had not been responsible with God’s truths and insights for abundant life. Yahweh was prepared to reduce their prestige as Abraham’s children unless they changed. John the Baptist told the Jews they needed to repent from their error or else.

Luke 3:8-9 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

John baptized many, called them to repentance, and expected them to bear fruit. He meant they should learn God’s ways and follow His teachings. If not, the ax was at the root of the trees. Individuals who would not repent missed God’s movement in the world. Times, they were a changin’.

After all, the Jews had the revelation of God, the prophets, the Scriptures, and the precious covenants of God. But some of them had become apostates – rejecting and ignoring the faith God originally asked of them. Many had been irresponsible as God’s own special treasure.

Fruit on the Fig Tree

Jesus was not any easier on the Jews than John the Baptist had been. He pointed out that their religion had morphed into a system of unimportant and fruitless human traditions.

Matthew 15:6b-9 …Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8 These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.

God had intended to reach out to the Gentiles through Israel. But sadly, the Jews had been ineffective in carrying out His plan for themselves, let alone the other nations. They denigrated the real truth and sincerity of the Law and Prophets. They invented their own manmade rules that served themselves. They didn’t do what was right or influence the good God wanted for His people and all humans.

Jesus told a parable that revealed God’s displeasure; the nation of Israel was no longer bearing the fruit God expected of them. The vineyard owner (God the Father) expressed to the vineyard keeper (Jesus) that He had been looking for fruit on the tree (Israel), but He had not found it.

Luke 13:6-9 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?”

8 “Sir, the man [Jesus] replied, leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.

The three years in Luke 13:7 are significant because that’s the amount of time John the Baptist and Jesus called Israel to repent and bear fruit again. The vineyard owner (God) was ready to cut the tree down rather than waste the soil on an unproductive tree (Israel) that bears no figs (repentance). However, the vineyard keeper (Jesus) asked for more time to cultivate and fertilize the tree.

Jesus continued His teaching and miracles, even raising Lazarus from the dead. Then Jesus broke the power of death by resurrecting from the grave. These are just a few of the amazing works Jesus did to bring about repentance and a fresh, new relationship between Him and the Jews.

Showing His typical patience, the vineyard owner (God the Father) allowed more time and waited for the tree (Israel) to bear fruit. The vineyard keeper (Jesus) agreed that if it does not produce fruit the next year, cut it down. Some Jews repented, but eventually, more Gentiles believed than Jews.

This is why history, after Jesus’s resurrection, came to be called the Times of the Gentiles or the Church Age. The Gentiles accepted Jesus as God’s son, but most of the Jews did not.

In my next Blog, we’ll discuss the AD 70 Roman destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus founding the church, the scattering of Israel worldwide, and the Rebirth of Israel. And we’ll pay attention to the signs of the times, even though Jesus will come when we least expect Him.

Thanks for subscribing. I always enjoy hearing your thoughts. Feel free to email me at Glenn@GlennLMarx.com.

Until next time, all the best to you.

Glenn

[1] Gentiles – all people other than Jews.

[2] Paul N. Benware, Understanding End Times Prophecy (Moody Publishers, 2006) p. 109

[3] Paul N. Benware, Understanding End Times Prophecy (Moody Publishers, 2006) p. 105.

[4] Glenn Marx, Roots of the Kingdom (Manasota Key, FL: Valley Warrior Publishing, 2022) Chapter 21

[5] Glenn Marx, Roots of the Kingdom (Manasota Key, FL: Valley Warrior Publishing, 2022)  p. 283

[6] Genesis 46:27, Exodus 1:5, Acts 7:14 (Genesis and Exodus say 70 people, whereas Acts states 75 people.)

[7] Mark Hitchcock, The End (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2012) pg. 90

[8] Mark Hitchcock, The End (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2012) pg. 91

[9] https://www.gotquestions.org/lost-tribes-Israel.html (Accessed 2024-12-18)

[10] https://www.gotquestions.org/Judah-conquered-by-Babylon.html (Accessed 2024-12-18)

[11] https://www.cfi.org.uk/downloads/Historical%20Timeline.pdf (Accessed 2024-12-12)

[12] Timothy Paul Jones, Bible Time Line Pamphlet (Torrance, CA: Rose Publishing, 2001) Dates are approximate.