SERMON FOR SUNDAY JUNE 15, 2003

The Role of Israel in the Last Days by John Stensrud

Matthew 24:32-39

The Role of Israel in the Last Days

A sermon delivered at Immanuel Baptist Church of Elgin, Illinois on December 9, 2001 by Pastor John Stensrud

Matthew 24:32-39 “Learn a lesson from the fig tree: When its branches become green and soft and new leaves appear, you know summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. I tell you the truth, all these things will happen while the people of this time are still living. Earth and sky will be destroyed, but the words I have said will never be destroyed. When Will Jesus Come Again? “No one knows when that day or time will be, not the angels in heaven, not even the Son. Only the Father knows. When the Son of Man comes, it will be like what happened during Noah’s time. In those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving their children to be married, until the day Noah entered the boat. They knew nothing about what was happening until the flood came and destroyed them. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes.

Last week we learned that the bible teaches that the end of the age will involve 3 plans:

1. God’s plan for the church,
2. God’s plan for Israel
3. And finally God’s plan for the Gentiles or non-Jews.

Regarding the church, there will be 3 important events that must precede the Second Advent of the Lord:

A. The establishment of a Universal Worldwide Counterfeit Church

B. Widespread doctrinal and moral apostasy or falling away, or defection from the Christian faith

C. The preaching of the Gospel to all nations.

We also looked briefly at God’s Plan for the Gentiles or Non-Jews. Daniel chapters 2 and 7 reveal that in God’s plan there were to be 4 Gentile world empires to be succeeded by a 5 empire which would be the Kingdom of God upon the earth. The first 3 of these empires named in Daniel are Babylon, Media Persia, and Greece. The 4th empire, although unnamed, seems clearly to be identified with the Roman Empire.

The last stage of this empire, however, as portrayed in Daniel, was never fulfilled, and I believe that it will be fulfilled in the period just preceding Christ’s second coming. It’s described in its earlier stages as the revival of the ancient Roman Empire, but according to Revelation 13:7 8 it becomes an empire which sweeps the entire world in its power in the last few years just before Christ’s return to establish His Kingdom.

The stage is set for the time of the end in that the revived Roman Empire is foreshadowed in the establishment of the European Union.

Finally we talked about the three stage migration of Jews to the land of Palestine. This is the most important aspect of biblical prophecy.

John Walvoord, who was probably the finest scholar of biblical prophecy that ever lived has said, and I paraphrase his words since they are a bit academic: “Of the many events that have to do with biblical prophecy in our generation, few of them can claim the importance of the return of Israel to the land. It is a key sign in preparation for the end of the age, the setting for the coming of the Lord for His church, and the fulfillment of Israel’s destiny as predicted by God’s Word. The restoration of Israel is God’s “super-sign” of the end times, is a clear indicator that the time is short.”

We know that the 1st migration of Jews to Palestine of course occurred during the Jewish exodus from Egypt led by Moses and Joshua predicted in Genesis 15.5-7 “Then God led Abram outside and said, “Look at the sky. There are so many stars you cannot count them. Your descendants also will be too many to count.” Abram believed the LORD. And the LORD accepted Abram’s faith, and that faith made him right with God. God said to Abram, “I am the LORD who led you out of Ur of Babylonia so that I could give you this land to own.”

The 2nd migration back to the land was fulfilled in Jeremiah 29:10 where Israel would return from Babylon after 70 years. This is what the LORD says: “Babylon will be powerful for 70 years. After that time I will come to you, and I will keep my promise to bring you back to Jerusalem. I say this because I know what I am planning for you,” says the LORD. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. Then you will call my name. You will come to me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will search for me. And when you search for me with all your heart, you will find me! I will let you find me,” says the LORD. “And I will bring you back from your captivity. I forced you to leave this place, but I will gather you from all the nations, from the places I have sent you as captives,” says the LORD. “And I will bring you back to this place.”

The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah record unmistakable fulfillment of prophecy where the Jews returned to the land and rebuilt the temple and restored the city.

Israel would be scattered again to all nations of the earth and would be re-gathered from all the nations of the earth as prophesied in Amos Chapter 9. “The kingdom of David is like a fallen tent, but in that day I will set it up again and mend its broken places. I will rebuild its ruins as it was before. Then Israel will take over what is left of Edom and the other nations that belong to me,” says the LORD, who will make it happen. The LORD says, “The time is coming when there will be all kinds of food. People will still be harvesting crops when it’s time to plow again. People will still be taking the juice from grapes when it’s time to plant again. Wine will drip from the mountains and pour from the hills. I will bring my people Israel back from captivity; they will build the ruined cities again, and they will live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them; they will plant gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant my people on their land, and they will not be pulled out again from the land which I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

The 3rd and final Jewish migration prophesied in Amos 9 to Palestine resulted in the establishment of the modern state of Israel. But because Israel rejected Christ, God allowed the Romans to destroy Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and the Jews were dispersed among the Gentile nations of the world. Since then they have wondered from nation to nation suffering bitter persecution. However, in the late 1800’s a remarkable thing started happening. In large numbers, the Jews began returning to Palestine, and in 1887 they made formal statements that they intended to REPOSSESS THEIR HOMELAND!

When World War I began in 1914, there were 80,000 Jews living in Palestine. England’s Balfour Declaration of 1917 gave strong approval for the Jews to establish a national homeland, but England reneged due to Arab pressure. Nevertheless, 400,000 Jews had settled in the homeland by 1939.

Satan saw what was happening. He knew that the Lord was re-gathering the Jews for a reason, and he knew the reason: the Second Coming of Christ. So Satan used Adolph Hitler to murder six million of God’s chosen people as an outright act of hate and revenge. This massive slaughter created enough sympathy for the Jews that the United Nations granted 5000 square miles of Palestinian land to them after World War II. Then in 1948 Israel became an independent nation for the first time in 19 centuries! The Arabs have fought viciously to destroy Israel, but with no success. God wants His people IN PALESTINE. and they will not be pulled out again from the land which I have given them,” says the LORD your God” as recorded by the prophet Amos in verse 15.

Jesus likens Israel unto a "fig tree" in Matthew 24:32-34, and He likens the restoration of Israel unto a fig tree putting forth leaves. Jesus said to His disciples “Learn a lesson from the fig tree: When its branches become green and soft and new leaves appear, you know summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. I tell you the truth, all these things will happen while the people of this time are still living.

Did you hear that? He said that He would return during the same generation which witnesses Israel putting forth leaves as a nation. We are living in that generation! You may be asking, “How long is a generation?

The word for “this generation” in the Greek is genea aute, Most people agree that a generation is defined as the period between a parents and their children. Generally, that can be anywhere from 18 – 44 years. However, according to the Discovery Channel’s Canadian in late 1996, get this, A 63-year-old woman gave birth late 1996 to a healthy, 6-pound, 4-ounce baby daughter, making her the oldest woman in modern times to give birth, say physicians at the University of Southern California (USC). She delivered the baby by cesarean section after undergoing in vitro fertilization using donated eggs and her husband’s frozen sperm. When the woman was first treated at the at the USC’s Program for Assisted Reproduction she claimed to be 53 years old. She revealed her true age to her obstetrician after entering her third trimester. Had she revealed her true age she would not have qualified for treatment at the clinic since the cut off point for fertilization therapy is 55, says Dr. Richard Paulson, director of the program. The woman, who is a resident of Southern California, has been married to her 60-year old husband for 16 years. The couple have no other children. To protect her privacy, the patient has been unavailable for comment and her identity has not been disclosed.

On the other side of the equation, according to Conception / Prevention Magazine the youngest mother whose history is authenticated is Lina Medina, who delivered a 6½-pound boy by cesarean section in Lima, Peru in 1939, at an age of 5 years and 7 months. The child was raised as her brother and only discovered that Lina was his mother when he was 10. And you thought teenage pregnancies complicate matters.

The best way, of course to gauge the length of a generation is to look at God’s Word. The bible nowhere limits the period of a generation simply to twenty, thirty, or forty years or if we subtract 5 years, 7 months from 63 roughly just under 57 ½ years. According to Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins in their book, “Are we Living in the End Times?” the one place in the bible where a number is equated with a generation can be found in Genesis 17:15 God said to Abraham, “I will change the name of Sarai, your wife, to Sarah. I will bless her and give her a son, and you will be the father. She will be the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will come from her.” Abraham bowed facedown on the ground and laughed. He said to himself, “Can a man have a child when he is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth to a child when she is ninety?” So either 90 or 100 is a legitimate number in defining a generation.

Psalm 90:10 tells us Our lifetime is seventy years , if we are strong, eighty years. Therefore, the Second Advent of the Lord can come as late as 2048. But remember that the bible tells us not to set dates. My interpretation of scripture could be wrong. Thus, search the Scriptures for yourself and find out for yourself.

But I submit to you that His Second Advent will come sooner than later. Here is my rationale:

1. Back in 1967, during the Six Day War, Israel virtually destroyed the Egyptian Army and Air Force. Jerusalem was captured

Years before the war, hostilities between the Arab nations, and the Jews had already been at a high point. The Arab nations refused to accept the fact that Israel could be a Jewish state, and so, President Nasser of Egypt called for the destruction of Israel. At first, there were just attacks on civilians once and a while, but the attacks became more and more ferocious, until it came to Israeli villages being heavily shelled by Syrian troops from the Golan Heights. Israel had warned Syria, but Syria came to Egypt for help, and by then, Egyptian forces were packed into the Sinai Peninsula. Nasser then closed down the Atrait of Tiran, which was a very important trading link between Israel and the other countries of the world. Such an act was an act of war, but what they didn’t know was that Israel would react with full force.

Israel was going into a battle against the Egyptians, the Jordanians, and the Syrians. Because of this, Israel decided to fight in Arab territory rather than have the battles in Israeli territory. On June 5th the Israeli Air Force made the First Strike on Egypt. That strike caught 309 of the 340 combat aircrafts belonging to Egypt. Then, Israel moved in their ground forces to complete the attack, leaving heavy Egyptian casualties, but very minimal casualties for Israel. Israel’s first strike in the war was amazingly successful.

Israel had asked Jordan not to join in on the war, but President Nasser of Egypt called Jordan and told them that they had won the previous battle between themselves and Israel, although they really had not. Because of this, Jordanian troops attacked the Israeli half of Jerusalem. Israel didn’t have to worry about Egypt anymore, so they turned their attention on Jordan. By the next morning, Israeli troops seized the other half of Jerusalem that they did not yet own. Just one day had past, and already the Egyptian air force had been eradicated, as well as the Jordanian forces suffering heavy casualties. Israel continued it’s operations against Arab air force bases, raising the amount of fighters destroyed to 416! With almost total control of the skies, Israel’s fighters and bombers were able to protect the tanks and artillery on the battlefield below. They prevented Jordanian reinforcements from reaching Jerusalem, and at 10:00 AM, Israel had taken control of the Western Wall! By the next day, Jordanian forces were pushed back to their side of the Jordan River. That day, the Jordanians arranged for a cease-fire. The first group had surrendered.

On June 8, Israeli forces had reached the Suez Canal. After they had taken over the Sinai, Israel turned its forces on the Golan Heights, which is where the Syrians were shelling Israeli villages from. The next day Israeli soldiers began the difficult assault up steep terrain against the Syrian forces. The balance of power soon shifted in Israel’s favor, and by 6:30 PM, Syria had surrendered and signed a cease-fire. Israel then controlled all of the Golan Heights. The war with the Egyptians didn’t formally end until 1979, when the two countries finally made peace.

Israel’s victory was extremely devastating to the Arabs, who expected victory for themselves. The fact that the war took only 6 days shows that Hashem is with Israel. The Arab forces lost almost their entire air forces, and much of their armed weaponry. 10,000 Egyptians were killed in Sinai and Gaza alone, compared to the 300 Israeli casualties on that front. In all, Egypt lost about 11,000 troops, Jordan lost about 6,000, Syria lost about 1,000, and Israel lost about 700. Israel gained all of Jerusalem, The Golan Heights, Sinai, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.

But something strange happened after this incredible military feat. General Moshe Dayan placed the Israeli flag on the Muslim Dome of the Rock where the ancient Jewish Temple was constructed. This made the religious Jews very happy—but then he took down the flag in a political move to placate the Muslim Arabs. I submit to you that if he would have demolished the Dome of the Rock Mosque it would have created a Holy War.

And that leads us to the events this past week. That is pretty much what is happening in Israel right now. Militant Islamic suicide bombings in Israel last weekend that killed 25 people and wounded more than 200 in what has been described by many newspapers as the worst civilian violence in decades.
In response to the violence, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon — with the apparent blessing of the Bush administration — is now targeting the symbols of Yasser Arafat’s power — his airport in Gaza, his personal helicopter, his offices in the West Bank. The message: Either you use your security apparatus to crush the extremist Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, or Israel will take apart your ruling infrastructure and leave you to your fate.

Israel: At least if the Hamas were in control, at least we would know who are enemy was.
Israel is dealing with what American dealt with during the Vietnam War. Who is their enemy?
Israel is probably trying to conquer and divide. Hoping for civil war among the Palestinian factions.

One senior Israeli minister has suggested that even a government run by Hamas would be preferable to Arafat’s leadership. Speaking on Israeli Television as air-strikes began Monday, Finance Minister Silvan Shalom said that if Hamas took over the Palestinian Authority, at least the world would know who Israel’s adversary truly is.

With the Bush administration and European leaders backing the new Israeli approach, the Arafat has launched what he says is a serious crackdown on Islamic militants. On Wednesday, he placed Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin under house arrest in Gaza and rounded up scores of other militants. But it’s a matter of the fox in charge of the chicken house. How hard could Arafat be looking to punish his own brothers who want to wipe Israel off the map. The fact of the matter is according to the Associated Press, Arafat has been looking the other way in the last 14 months where Islamic militants and even his own followers have killed more than 230 Israelis with guns and bombs.

If Arafat were to lose a power struggle, be driven into exile by Israel or die, it is far from clear that Islamic militants would immediately take over the Palestinian Authority. In such a scenario, most observers anticipate a many-sided battle among Arafat’s loyalists, Islamists and other armed factions.

Back in the late 1970s, when Israel was trying to create political alternatives to the then-outlawed PLO in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, military officials encouraged and supported the Islamic organizations that eventually morphed into Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with their suicidal military wings. At the time, the West Bank military governor, Gen. Ephraim Sneh, issued a prophetic warning to Israeli leaders. “You can negotiate with Arafat,” he cautioned. “You can’t negotiate with the Prophet Muhammad.”

This is a time to stay tuned and watch current events ever more closely. We have entered a different world. Peace and security will never be quite the same.

As the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 13:11, “now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”