Marcus Mecum - Israel and God's Time Clock - Part 1
I wanna get right to the message, and as I'm preparing for that, you know, if you look at the world events right now, if you look at what's happening in the Middle East, this message in many ways is a current event message and I feel like it's appropriate that we spend some time talking about it for a little bit, why this matters to us, why this is important to us as God's people, as Americans as well.
And so, I wanna talk to you about how Israel and God's time clock work together. Now, inside of this message, I'm gonna do a couple things, one of them is I'm gonna help you, kinda, pull back the veil and see the spiritual side of what's happening right now in the Middle East. We do know that there's an invisible, unseen arena, that the devil is real, that satan is real, and that darkness is, without any question, behind the scenes working inside of anything that's... satan's mission statement is what? "He comes to steal, kill, and destroy".
So we know that that's there in what's going on. And then the second thing is Israel plays an important role in end time prophecy. The Bible is very clear that no one knows the day or the hour, but it does give us sign post if you will. Thirty verses in your New Testament speak to the return of Jesus, the return of Christ. That it's something that we're to be looking for. And so, if I had a goal in this message, it would be that. It would be, as a pastor holding up my responsibility to prepare you for the soon coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who will return as he promised.
Now, you may be saying, "Well, how do you know it's soon? Everyone has always said it's soon". And I want you to hang on to that way of thinking because we'll get to that as a result of what we're gonna talk about. Now, I wanna up front say God loves everybody. Everybody say, "God loves everybody". God loves the Arab nations. And so, I want to be very clear up front, in no way am I speaking against any people group. You can be pro-Israel and not anti-somebody else.
So, we're not anti any people, we as a church are not anti anybody. You cannot be a Christian and be anti anyone. However, we are called to stand for peace, we are called to stand for peace in every way including the peace-loving Palestinian people that are there, and unfortunately, Hamas is dragging them into so much of this. So, we do hate evil, we do hate sin as God called us to, and this issue that I'm gonna be helping you look at is not the political issue that people are trying to make it into, but the biblical issue. There is a biblical side of this that I want you to consider. If you're to trace back some of the current strife and contention in the Middle East, you would go back to Abraham.
You might remember God promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a promised child, and Abraham and Sarah were impatient and so they came up with the idea for Abraham to, kind of, help God by bringing Hagar into the bedroom, and Hagar ended up getting pregnant with a child by the name of Ishmael. Ishmael was born and we would know that that was not God's promised child. That Sarah, who was barren, in old age, was to be the one that would bring forth the promise that God had given Abraham and Sarah. Isaac ultimately is born and the final picture you really see, I guess, the most contentious place that you see is when Isaac begins to grow up, they're at the dinner table and this picture is given of Ishmael antagonizing Isaac.
This began to create a strife in the family, Hagar and Ishmael went one way, Isaac and Sarah and Abraham went another way. And when you go back to this moment, God stated that Ishmael and the descendants of Ishmael would be like a wild donkey, that they would always, and that refers to the Arab nations, and that the same antagonistic attitude you had of Ishmael towards Isaac at that table, you continue to see that the Arab nations are antagonistic towards the nation of Israel.
So, what I'm saying is, when you look at the problems we're seeing in our world, you could go back to the father of our faith, Abraham, and you can blame him for it. So when we get to heaven, we can find Abraham and kick him as hard as we can in the shins for some of the issues we're dealing with today. The story that I want to pick up with giving you some understanding of the spiritual aspect of what's going on is the story of mount Sinai. Mount Sinai is one of the most biblically significant places in history, it's one of the most exciting landmarks in scripture.
And God brings Israel out of Egypt, you remember the story, after 400 years of being enslaved, brings them out of Egypt and they camp out at the base of mount Sinai. They're at the base of mount Sinai, this is the same place according to acts 7:30, that Moses had spent 40 years before he went back to call the people of Israel out of Egypt. He would have received the burning bush experience right there in the same area. So, Moses is familiar with this area. The children of Israel are now encamped at the base of mount Sinai, when the same voice that spoke to Moses through the bush now is speaking to Moses to come up to mount Sinai.
Moses goes up to mount Sinai, there him and some of the key leaders in Israel are given the Torah, the first five books of your Old Testament, and they're given the schematics of the temple as well. This is important for us to see because Israel, the Jewish nation, is both the receivers and the distributors of the scriptures. God entrusted them with the scriptures. The scriptures were not for them alone, for the Jewish people alone. Isaiah 49:6 explains this to us that, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept".
So, what God's saying is, "What I'm doing through Israel is bigger than just Israel". Watch this, "I will make you a light for the gentiles," that's us, "That my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth". So, God gave Israel the scriptures that they would be receivers and distributors of that to the whole world, that the whole world might know God and his plan of salvation. And so, God wanted to make the nation of Israel a nation of priest. This is why we hear scriptures like, "You're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood". A priest is someone who receives the word and then he communicates the word or delivers the word to people.
So, God literally came down on mount Sinai, and he looked at the nation of Israel, and he said, "Do you want to be the receivers and distributors of my word? If you say yes," he said to them, "You will be my people". And so, there on mount Sinai, Moses and the children of Israel accepted that responsibility, they said yes to the task of receiving and distributing the scriptures to the world. They never took that task lightly. And it's very important that we look at a few aspects of this, and I'm gonna just touch on the surface. I wish I could go really deep into this, but I don't have the time to.
If they were to copy the Torah, the way that they would transmit the Torah was through handwritten scrolls, and the way that they would be intricate with this is by hand, they would do it letter by letter. In the Hebrew language, one dot on a letter would make a word say something completely different, one Mark would make the entire phrase, the tone of the phrase be something completely different. Then once they were done, they would count every single letter on every single line, then they would count every single row as a result, to look at the accuracy of what was being written down and ultimately distributed. Accuracy and the intricacy to make sure that it was accurate was of the utmost importance.
For example, a scribe, when he would get to the point in a text where he would write the name of God down, which is considered unspeakable to the Hebrew people, the priest would first go baptize himself and them write his name, the name of God down as "Hashem" which just is "The name". In other words, they didn't even wanna write "Jehovah" down at the time because they were so reverent towards the name, they had such a godly fear towards the name, they would just write in that spot, "The name".
Jesus would say concerning the scriptures that the Hebrew people delivered to the world, which is us as well, "Not one jot or tiddle," a jot and a tiddle in the Hebrew is the smallest letters in the Hebrew alphabet. He said, "Not one of those smallest most insignificant dots or tiddles, line or Marks, would ever fall to the ground". The transmission of the text that you have in your hands, or you have in your home or wherever you have it like this, the transmission of it was so intricate so God's purity of his word could be given to you and given to me.
So, the intricacy of what had to happen to get us the scriptures cannot be overstated in any way, shape, or form. How reverent and holy they look at the scriptures is not just something of times past, it is still carried over to today. For example, if you were to take a copy of any page of your Bible and give it to someone that's Jewish, they would never throw it away, they would never put it in a trash can, they would never burn it, they would actually take that piece of paper, if they didn't want to hold on to it, they would take it to the synagogue, the rabbis put those things in a Wooden box and bury them, but for no reason ever do they destroy the word because of what it cost them to get the holy scriptures to us and to the people of the earth.
So, we are Judeo Christians. We are not just Christians, we are Judeo Christians. Jesus was not a Christian, Jesus was Jewish. He celebrated the Jewish customs, he went to the Jewish synagogue, he grew up in a rabbinical school, and unless you know where you come from, you misunderstand most of the scriptures. It's called, "Pretext before context". The understanding of our Hebraic history is what gives our faith shape and color. Without an understanding of Judaism, we miss the full scope of the message.
Now, this is not just my opinion on it, Paul understood how he would have to go to the church and correct New Testament believers for thinking that Israel was irrelevant, that they could just miss, that no longer care about Israel. In Genesis, God said he'll bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse. Curse is not what we would think, curse just means those who take it lightly, those who disregard her as unimportant. In other words, God says "If you treat them as unimportant or you disregard them, then I treat you as unimportant and I disregard you". They are the center piece of everything that you read about in the scriptures, and God said, "Do not disregard them. Do not take them lightly".
Then you get to Romans 11 and Paul does the same thing with the New Testament believers. He says this, and you can read the whole chapter, it's very good, but I'm just gonna read about ten verses here. "If some of the branches have been broken off," this is referring to Israel. "Though, and you, though a wild olive shoot," that's referring to the gentiles, "Have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root," that's Jesus. "Do not consider yourself to be superior to the other branches". So, just because they were cut off and we were grafted in, we're not superior to the other branches. "If you do, consider this: you do not support the root, but the root supports you".
In other words, that's where our roots are. So, "The roots are important. Do not say that they're not important," is what Paul is saying. "You will say then, 'branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in'. Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness," this is Romans 11, "Sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness". Selah. Pause, breathe, think about it.
"Provided that you continue in his kindness otherwise, you'll also be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief," this is referring to Israel, "They will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, you were cut out of an olive tree that was wild by nature, and contrary to the nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree," that's the scriptures, we were brought into it, we weren't raised in it, that's not where we come from, this is not our history, this is not our background, but yet we were grafted into it. And God says, "How much more readily will these, the natural branches," those who have been given the scriptures, been receivers and distributors of the scriptures, "Be grafted into their own olive tree"!
Verse 25, "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery," this is a mystery, but Paul's saying don't be ignorant of it. When you look at the whole world's eyes are focused on a piece of dirt the size of New Jersey. The whole world, the news every day, focused, what would be the reason? What's the point? He said, "Do not be ignorant of this mystery brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part," no, they don't believe in the Messiah for the most part. No, they don't believe Jesus is the Messiah, "They've been hardened in part until the full number of gentiles," that's you and me, "Have come in".
In other words, God's still winning souls, he's still winning the lost. That's why we're here today, that's what we're all about, that's why the church does what we do. The point is, we're gonna continue to gather the end time harvest, but in the end, verse 26 says, "And in this way, all of Israel will be saved". God is not done with Israel and it's important for you to know that. So, Paul corrects New Testament believers in the early church, for in some way or another rejecting their roots. And so, we also should consider the message that we owe our entire spiritual inheritance to the Jewish nation.
Not just the scriptures, but John 4:22 reminds us that salvation is of the Jews. They not only gave us the scripture, but they also gave us Jesus, our Messiah, and the devil hates the scriptures and obviously the devil hates Jesus because the devil hates God and he hates anyone that's gonna be a receiver and a distributor of the message that God would send his only son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that through him, the world would be saved.
So, let's look at it like this and I'm gonna hopefully be able to say this in a decent way. So, go to mount Sinai, imagine it with me for just a minute. Moses is there, the children of Israel are there, and God decides he's going to give them the Torah, he's going to give them the scriptures. I want you to see it like this that God hands them the football. Well, we know a little bit, right, that whoever is handed the ball immediately starts to run towards the end zone, right? And the opposing team is supposed to do what? It's not a trick question. Tackle, right? Stop the person with the ball.
So, Israel receives the word, they get the scriptures, they say, "Yes, we will do it. We will carry your word and be a light to the world". They get the scriptures, the enemy is doing everything he can to tackle those people who are considered people of the book. The whole world considers Israel people of the book, first enemy, number one Israel. Enemy number two, western civilization, the United States is considered by them, also people of the book, enemy number two. It's not about you, it's about the book. We would know that America is no longer a Christian nation, but the rest of the world still sees us as a Christian nation or as a nation of the book. So, the battle is over, not dirt, the battle is over the book, and the God of the book.
Now, since deicide or killing God is not possible, the devil targets his representatives, he targets those people that are carrying the ball, carrying the book, if you will, and this is not new to our generation, every generation has had its enemies of the book and its enemies of God and the goal has always been "Kill the messengers and you kill the book". You could go back to Pharaoh, kill all the male children under the age of three, kill 'em all. Why? Because God was sending a deliverer, God was sending a message to the world, and you gotta kill the people and then you kill the message.
Herod, when Jesus was coming into the planet, "Kill all the children," why? Because if you can kill the messenger, you kill the message and you dismantle the Bible which is our primary way of knowing who God is, what he's about, how he is, his nature, his character, all the things we learn about God are through the scriptures, and the devil wants to do everything he can to rip the scriptures away from us, his people, including the Jewish nation.
So, Hamas is not the first, Hamas won't be the last. You had the Romans, you had the Assyrians, you had the Egyptians, yet Israel is still there because this is a spiritual battle. This is not just a natural battle. We see it in the natural, but God calls us to the spiritual side of it, that we battle not against flesh and blood, not against ethnicities or creeds, we battle against a spirit that's not flesh and blood, right, but against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness. What are these demons trying to do? They're there to oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they'll do anything they can to oppose people from being saved and hearing the message of Jesus Christ, and demons work through people, that's how demons work.
You say, "What are you saying"? I'm saying the devil's never gonna show up at the end of your bed in the morning with horns and a pitchfork saying, "I'm the devil and I wanna destroy your life". What the devil does is he looks for people that are against the scriptures, against the book, against the inherency of scripture, against the authority of scripture, against the trustworthiness of scripture. And this is not just happening in the Middle East, this happens in our churches. And so, the enemy, if he can find an area of your life that you are not in agreement with God's word, there's a crack in your life, he can begin to get in there and work an ideology a mindset, a way of thinking that opposes the gospel, opposes God's plan in the earth, opposes the scriptures, ultimately dismantling God's plan for us to also be a light to the world.
Ephesians 2 explains how this happens. "This is how you used to be before you got saved," and it goes on to say, "Following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air". So, the course of this world, what's it following? The course of the prince of the power of the air, that's a name for satan. "The spirit that is now at work," not on its own, "He's at work in the sons of disobedience". When people are disobedient to scripture, disobedient to God's way, what happens, it opens them up to a spirit that can work through them to attack, insult, degrade, persecute, murder, kidnap, rape, whatever it takes, stop the message, kill the messengers, kill the message, stop the people from carrying the book. We don't want them to get to the end zone.
This is why we have the armor of God, right? That we wouldn't be ignorant that we're in a spiritual battle. So, we put on the helmet of salvation, we put on the breastplate of righteousness, we put on feet, shods of peace, we grab the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. We're to be on the offense, that's what's happening right now. I'm not cowing in fear, "Oh no, what will people think"? No, I got the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God, that is my armor. That is your armor, to fight against the demonic attack on your family and in our nation and world.