Posted on 02/23/2016 4:57:08 PM PST by pastorbillrandles
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.(Zechariah 14)
There are multiple places in scripture in which God promises to restore Israel after a long, painful night of exile , scattering and persecution. Israel would be brought back into the land in unbelief, and undergo a terrible worldwide siege, but will ultimately be restored and re-instated as a Kingdom of Priests. But first She must acknowledge her offense against the LORD.
I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.(Hosea 14:15)
Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.(Jeremiah 3:12-15)
One of the uses that the LORD will make of the three and a half year period called “The Great Tribulation†will be to bring his backslidden nation to repentance.This is what it will take to bring the prodigal Son home, nothing less.
Israel is currently being surrounded by her traditional foes, the hostile, Muslim middleEast, Iran, Iraq, the Saudis, Jordan, Syria, and the North African Nations. But the West has turned its back on the only western democracy in the Middle East as well, even Canada and the United States have taken an oppositional stand against the chosen nation, in spite of the large population of evangelicals in those countries.
The West for the most part is now ruled by Oligarchs, and leftist demagogues, Corporate Prostitutes who sell their own populations down the river, flooding their once cvil societies with Muslim savages, calculated to break down any resistance or accountability demanded of the so called “political classâ€.
It is as though the hedge of thorns Hosea prophesied of has come up around Israel, and her lovers have departed from her, leaving her alone, isolated and in need of her GOD,
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.(Hosea 2:7)
What is it that finally brings Israel to repentance?
As we stated in the last article, in the siege, when all seems lost, and the opposition is overwhelming, and Jerusalem herself is over-run by savages, with Judea having to flee out into the wilderness, and many of Israel seemingly being rounded up for the final catastrophe, the last holocaust, God reveals himself to the nation in an unprecedented way-
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.(Zechariah 12:10-14)
With their back against the proverbial wall, and the enemies closing in for the kill, and the nation abandoned by her former friends and lovers who she trusted in, suddenly HE, the LORD comes to them, showing himself…
…They shall look upon ME, whom they have pierced…
The salvation of Israel(And of the world) is a recognition of a figure they thought they already knew, and had long ago rejected…Like Joseph’s brothers in Egypt, they thought they were looking at an Egyptian, they didn’t realize it was there brother until he revealed himself to them. Then they looked upon him whom they had sold into slavery and left for dead…They shall LOOK UPON ME…when did you pierce the LORD Israel?
Can you imagine the sad mixture of recognition, remorse, horror, and revision of everything you thought you knew about your entire past?
They shall mourn for him as for an only Son…Isn’t salvation always a recognition that all of our sins were against God himself, and doesn’t it always include profound mourning? King David sobbedâ€Against these, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight…â€.
I used to look at a crucifix in a Catholic church and wonder what it was all about. Why did HE have to suffer? I know He loves us but what are we supposed to get out of this? What should my response be? Should I feel guilty? Should I go out and suffer? I didn’t get it!
But one day God revealed to me, that the man hanging on the cross hung as a substitute for my sins, My sins put him there, and He was dying to take the punishment which was mine! This is what will soon happen to Israel, they will see Jesus for who He is and always has been!
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:(Zechariah 13:1-4)
On that day, God will save Israel, and commence the resurrection of the whole world.First a fountain shall be opened to them which we gentile Christians are already well acquainted with for we sing of it often-
There is fountain filled with blood,
drawn from Emmanuels veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that flood,
lose all their guilty stains…
Gone is the national sin, the stain is cleansed, the Holy Nation is restored,and finally re-instated to their position as a Kingdom of Priests. And the fountain shall also have another profound effect upon Israel, for it shall quench the spirit of false prophecy which has bedeviled the nation all these years.
All who Love God long for this day, because they know that when God resurrects Israel, he will commence the resurrection of this whole sin damaged world! MAranatha!
For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?(Romans 11:15)
Israel has nothing to repent or apologize for. islam, on the other hand has much to be eliminated for. Let it be so.
Uhmm everyone needs repentance, except maybe Trump because he said he never has asked God to forgive him for anything.
>Uhmm everyone needs repentance
That’s a matter of opinion. Repentance is relative to ones own conscious.
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh [them] shall have mercy.”
Prov. 28:13
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;â€
Romans 3:23
“He that is not God who judges me for sin is out of their domain.” -me
That’s a dangerous postion. The gospel cannot be savingly believed until there is genuine repentance.
Christ insisted, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” - Luke 13:3
That’s just one of many such passages that demonstrate the critical nature of biblical repentance.
Judging and witnessing about a judge are two different actions.
Check into the credibility of what is being witnessed to all you choose or don’t choose, but he comes with a mighty reputation, not just rumors.
I’ve lived a dangerous life. I follow the good and God in my soul and will continue down this path...wherever it may lead.
These eyes have seen a lot of seeing ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crerPAFkKwM&list=PL9IaUsK1Wex7Ts0JjMBzm9frI4sF3IOIk&index=114
Agreed!
Beat me to it. Israel has nothing to apologize for.
Technically, for the purpose of entering into such repentance.
This is where the destining power of God comes into play, i.e. that the narrow door (Christ is that door, the entry by faith) does not, and never will, lead into a blind alley. One cannot lose a battle badly enough after consenting to pass through that door, to be unable to win the war. Christ never abandons His enlistees.
This was a hangup with earlier (incomplete) Jewish ideas of repentance. It was without an explicit completion promise, and at least when men got hold of the concepts, pretty soon our dear Pharisees were telling people about hoops to be jumped through that sometimes did not even apply.
I can count that my entry into eternity will succeed in showing up at heaven’s gates because it went in through the narrow door and is being visibly kept on a narrow path bearing the signature signs of the Shepherd (Psalm 23 and more). People of the world might look at me and say lucky duck despite a lot of trials, but luck is world think. Grace is God think.
Worry based theologies are as old as the fall in Eden. “Do not be anxious/do not be afraid” theologies came with the sealing power of Christ.
God begged to differ and always has. Israel was no exception to membership in sinful mankind.
Non-charitable Christian takes on this problem have proven to be exceedingly unhelpful, however. God’s destining power is also in play here, although tracing a different road for a certain ways than the church has traced.
Not.
If you are testifying that you have accepted salvation and are now reaping the benefit, this is a different matter. If, in fact, you are. But then, Christ won’t be a stranger to you. He will be the factor that is constantly making a difference between going down forever in flames and being ushered into heaven.
Thing is to me is that other nations have more to repent than Israel; it’s what those nations have done to Israel as a nation and to Jews in particular that is worse.
Whether or not that is true (God made reference to Israel as the most rebellious of nations, and it would actually make sense due to the goal of proving His overarching grace is what wins) — surely we aren’t in a situation where Israel proposes to hide behind the world?
The only entity it can hide behind is God Himself by accepting the repentance and grace offer. The same offer that came in the form of explicit Jesus Christ to the whole world.
G-d chose Israel over all other nations is because Israel was the only one who listened to G-d. That’s why Jews/Israel are called The Chosen Ones.
And Israel has done a lot to drill holes in its own boat. That’s just biblical and historical reality, and its survival does not trumpet its inherent merit but the merit of its Savior God. Name a sin and somewhere, somehow, part of Israel at some time found a way to do it big. Look at where lefty Judaism is going right NOW in the world. Be honest! Privilege can tempt to contempt.
None of which lets the world hide behind Israel, either. The sauces for goose and gander are the same. Nor should the world even be fighting Israel. Its boats and the world’s boats are in turn part of a larger ship, catamaran fashion maybe if we have to make an illustration.
Hopefully this clears the question up to everybody’s satisfaction. Everybody is responsible to God. Everybody is offered the salvation choice needed. Not everybody accepts it. Israel is a soecially orchestrated picture of God’s care in the face of sin.
That is a Jewish rumor, self-glorifying but the sin of being that way never overrode the promise of God.
The truth as backed up by prosaic scripture was that the Jews claimed they could follow the law even though Moses, speaking for God as inspired prophet, warned them they could not. And though God took them up on it, nobody could, till Jesus.
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