Rabbi Schneider - Through the Lens of Prophecy
We have to understand, beloved, that when God said to Israel that He chose them out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, that the covenant that He made with them is irrevocable. Despite Israel’s unbelief, God said to Israel, The gift and calling upon you is irrevocable. This is recorded for us in the book of Romans. Growing up as a Jew myself, growing up, I was surrounded by Jewish people. So I lived in Jewish neighborhoods, had Jewish friends, and so I didn’t really know anything else with being Jewish.
But as I aged, as I grew older, I began to get experiences beyond my own community, beyond my own friendships. And the older I got and the more anti-Semitic the world became, the more I recognize how unique the Jewish people are and how they’ve been hated by the world from the time that they were birthed as a nation, beginning, of course, with Pharaoh’s persecution of them, the killing of the firstborn. And we could go on and on and on, looking at anti-Semitism over the course of world history. And as we do that, we see that anti-Semitism is a disease, it’s spiritual, and it gets down to the fact that the devil hates God. The devil’s the opposite of everything God is. He’s the reverse of God. He’s the anti-God. And God loves the Jewish people. He loves Israel with an irreversible love.
I remember just recently, up close and personal, how I experienced such vile hatred from an anti-Semite. I had some work being done on my property, and as I had this work being done on my property, I began to talk with one of the workers there, and I began to share the gospel with this worker. And this person that I was sharing the gospel with, obviously knowing I was Jewish, because of my payot and because of just things that he learned about me through the course of working on my property, he began to vent his hatred for Jewish people with such an utter violence. I’d never experienced the poison so up close and personal before. He began to say, «Israel is doing to the Palestinians what Hitler did to them».
And I can’t even share with you in the same spirit that he was coming at me with. And he just went on. And it was just incredible. Israel, beloved, plays a key role in the end times. Not only do they play a key role from the time that God chose them, as recorded in the early pages of Scripture, but Israel continues to play a role in the end times. And so we see, recorded in the book of Jeremiah, a Scripture that speaks to us about a time that’s coming that Jeremiah calls Jacob’s trouble. But before we get into the words of Jeremiah, I just want to lay a foundation.
We’re looking at Deuteronomy 7:6. The Lord says here to Israel, «For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be His special people, treasured above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth». So from the very beginning we see that there’s something unique about Israel. And just as there was something unique about Israel from the beginning, okay, the whole history of salvation is traced through the Jewish people, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. From Jacob, we have his 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of Israel. Then from the tribe of Judah we have our Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth. Yeshua says to the Jewish people, «You’ll not see me again until you’re saying, Baruch haba b’shem Adonai».
In other words, Jesus isn’t coming back until the Jewish people are saying, «Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord». That’s the English translation of Baruch haba b’shem Adonai. Paul said that Yeshua’s return, all Israel will be saved. So salvation begins with the Jewish people. And God’s culmination of His plan of salvation, the return of Messiah will culminate with the Jewish people coming to faith. But in between that time, we know that the Jewish people rejected Messiah Yeshua, at His first coming. Yeshua will return when there’s enough Jewish people that believe in Him and are calling upon Him to return, that their call upon Him to return will usher in His return to the entire planet.
The Jewish people were chosen not just because they were to remain unique in the earth as the only people that were treasured by God, but the Jewish people were chosen to be God’s vessel of blessing to the world. And even at Messiah’s return, the Jewish people will play a role of the world being blessed because it’s the Jewish people’s call upon Him to return that will usher in His return, that will manifest the fullness of his salvation to the entire world. Are you hearing what I’m saying? Let me summarize it again. Why did God choose the Jewish people? He chose them because He loved them and because He was keeping the oath that He made to Abraham: «Through your descendants, Abraham, all the peoples of the earth shall be blessed».
And so God chose Israel because he loved them. He uniquely loved the descendants of Abraham. He was keeping His word to Abraham. But God also chose the Jewish people to be His channel of blessing, beloved ones. If you’re a Gentile now, to you. God chose Israel to be his conduit or channel of blessing to the entire world. And so God says here, for example, in the book of Genesis chapter 22:17–18, these words. «I indeed will bless you and I will indeed multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven…» God is speaking to Abraham. So He’s speaking about Abraham descendants. «I will multiply them as the stars of the heavens and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gate of their enemies».
Now listen to this. «Through your offspring…» Get this now. «Through your offspring all the nations of the earth…» Get it now. «Through your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed…» And so God chose Israel to be his channel of blessing to the world. When Abraham obeyed God, God made up His mind… He had made up His mind beforehand because He knows everything in advance, but He declared, Abraham, because you’ve done this, your descendants now are going to be my channel of blessing to the entire world. We see this illustrated in the life of Yeshua. When Yeshua came to earth, who did He go to? He went to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
So we read, for example, in the book of Matthew chapter 10:5-6, Yeshua is saying this. When a Canaanite woman came to Him looking for His help, Yeshua said, «I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel». Paul, when he went into a city, the first place he would go would be to a synagogue. It wasn’t meant to stay in Israel. It wasn’t meant to stay in a synagogue. But as Paul said over and over again in the book of Romans, it’s to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Even as God chose Israel from the beginning, we’ve learned that His return is tied up to a critical mass of Jewish people, enough Jewish people that have come to faith that they’re calling upon Him to return.
So too, beloved, as we’re thinking about the book of Revelation and end times, we know that the end times are going to involve something that the church is used to calling the tribulation. But the tribulation is hinted at in the Hebrew Bible through the prophet Jeremiah, where Jeremiah alludes to a time that he calls the time of Jacob’s trouble. Reading now Jeremiah chapter 30:5-7. «For thus says the Lord: I have heard a sound of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, can a male labor with child»? In other words, can a male give birth? «Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale»?
God is describing men holding their groin section as if a woman is focused on that area when she’s giving birth. God is saying, why are men doing that in fear and trembling in pain as if they’re a woman in labor? Then he continues. «Alas! For that day is great, so that no one is like it…» There’s no other day like this day that’s coming. And the day of the Lord in Scripture is both a single day and a season, a period. It’s used both ways. It’s a single day, and it’s a period- a small period, connotating all the things that will happen at the time of Yeshua’s return. «Alas! For that day is great, so that no one is like it; that is even the time…» Get it now, church. Hear it. «So that it’s even the time of Jacob’s trouble».
Jacob’s trouble is a prophetic code word for the great tribulation. It starts with Israel. And think of what’s going on with Israel right now and the trouble that they’re experiencing and the threats on all sides. The danger there, how the whole country there is petrified. It starts there, and then it spreads to the entire world. «…it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it». God’s remnant in Israel will be saved, and those that have been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel from all the nations of the earth, Gentile believers will also, in like manner, be saved.
Now, as I indicated earlier that the Hebrew Bible has a lot to say about the tribulation and the last days. We know the tribulation from the New Testament, but the Hebrew prophets spoke a lot about this. Jeremiah named it, but listen to what Daniel said. And by the way, Yeshua referred to Daniel’s teaching on the last days. Jesus referred to Daniel’s, get this church, Jesus quoted Daniel in Matthew 23 in describing the last days. Jesus said, «As Daniel said,» and then Jesus talked about the last days.
Listen to what Daniel said, Daniel chapter 12:1. «And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even so to that time…» In other words, Daniel’s saying there’s going to be a time of trouble and there was never a time like it before, nor will there ever be again. Daniel continues. «…And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who shall be found written in the book». He’s talking about the Lamb’s book of life here. So we have these prophetic visionaries, these seers, these Hebrew prophets that saw into the future, they saw what we call the Great Tribulation, they saw how it would start with Israel, and it would quickly spread to the entire world.
We’re more familiar with Matthew chapter 24. Jesus is speaking here. And Yeshua says, «For then there will be a great tribulation, such as not happened since the beginning of the world until now, nor shall there ever be». That’s exactly what we just got done reading in Daniel’s words, right? Yeshua continues. «Unless those days were shortened, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened». And Yeshua continues to give us insight into when this time would happen. And the first insight that I want to reference is when Yeshua compared the time on earth that would be… that described what life on the world would be like during the time preceding… immediately preceding His return, He alluded to Noah.
So in Matthew 24, Yeshua said this. «As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days of Noah before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man». So what was it like during the days of Noah? Yeshua said it was going to be like it was during the days of Noah. What was it like during the days of Noah?
Again, church, we have to go to the Tanakh, to the Hebrew Bible to find out. The Hebrew Bible teaches a lot about the last days. Here’s what it was like during the days of Noah, Genesis chapter 6. «Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was continually only evil. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart. The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence. God looked on the earth and saw it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. So God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh is come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I’ll destroy them with the earth.'»
Corruption and violence. I mean, you just think about corruption from the top of governments all the way down through the corporations and the businesses and the way people deal with one another and violence. Let me ask those of us that are calling ourselves Christians right now, when was the last time that you watched a movie on YouTube or on television or on streaming that was filled with violence? How many of today’s blockbuster movies are filled with violence? Sex and violence is what sells. The next thing that Yeshua quoted was in the days of Lot.
What was the days of Lot like? A culture and society that was filled with sexual immorality. We are living in the last days immediately preceding Yeshua’s return. I’m going to be talking more about this, but for now, I just want you to understand that Yeshua’s return it’s not far away from us. Yeshua said he’s going to come like a thief in the night, but we’re not in the darkness. Those of us that are believers we can see what’s happening.
And I want to ask you right now, if you’re not fully committed to the Lord, if you don’t realize, if you don’t realize that you’re going to stand before Him and give an account for your life, I’m going to sincerely ask you to get on your knees, turn to Him right now, ask Him to forgive you, sincerely being sorry for your sin and grieving about it. Turn to Him. Repent. Give your life to Him. And by His grace and by His power, make up your mind, my friend, right here and right now to live for Jesus, from this day forward, to pick up your cross, deny yourself, and obey Him, and when He does return, which is sooner than you think, you will be saved.