As we remember the horrors of the Shoah it’s good we reflect on the Jewish people in greater depth than the one case of WW 2. There have been many genocidal acts in the nations during mans history. Be it by the Cambodian Pol Pot, the Chinese Mao Tse Tung, the Russian Stalin, the “Young Turks”and the CUP party of Turkey on the Armenians. The list goes on of mans inhumanity towards his fellow man.
Nothing though begins to come close to the irrational, maniacal, arrogant ongoing treatment meted out to the Jewish people. Be it the Syrian and Babylonian attacks, the Roman destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, the inquisitions, the pogroms and the multitude of other sufferings. The physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, since escaping Pharoah and their slavery in Egypt, have faced the most vitriolic, persistent, and illogical hatred known to man. Nothing can justify their suffering at the hands of the Gentiles. Nothing. So what is the reason? There is only one explanation – it is a spiritual attack birthed in hell itself. This Satanic hatred has to do with our Creator, and Satan’s determination to “be like the Most High” and usurp His throne. It is all about the existence of the one true God, YHWH, and His sovereignty. The Protector and Keeper of Israel. Israel defies all odds and continues to exist, not only validating and lending veracity to the Bible, but gives clear evidence to Gods existence. Ultimately they fulfill Gods purpose on the earth, and the restoration of mankind to the Edenic state enjoyed by Adam and Eve. They exist to be led by God into the Millennial reign of Messiah from Jerusalem as the “head of the nations”. His purposes in the earth will not fail even as He will not fail them. His Name and His Words are inexorably linked to their very existence.
“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day
And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar;
The LORD of hosts is His name: “If this fixed order departs From before Me,” declares the LORD, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever.””Jeremiah 31:34-36
Until the Millenium though, which from a prophetic perspective looms ever nearer, the madness of the Gentiles continues. Apart from a handful of believers in Yeshua who pray and offer support, yes, admittedly viewed with a jaundiced eye due to historical realities, they stand pretty much alone. As does any Gentile, to a lessor degree, who has truly come to know their Messiah, and through that relationship identifies and stands with Israel
This acerbic spirit, presently and in particular represented by the surrounding Muslims, though not entirely confined to them by any means, is reflected in this verse. It will continue until they, Israel, with one voice call on their Messiah for deliverance. This is the teaching of their Nevim, their Prophets.
“They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant.”
Psalms 83:4-5
To make a covenant, more accurately to cut one, means the shedding of blood. The nations are that determined to see the demise and extermination of the Jewish people, and nothing will placate that bloodlust. No land for peace, no promises of shalom. No matter how just, kind, decent and humane the Israeli society is. Nothing short of Gods merciful hand will put an end to this wicked injustice perpetrated against one people
Moses made this prophecy.
“”For the LORD will vindicate His people,
And will have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their strength is gone,
And there is none remaining, bond or free.”“’See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.”
Deuteronomy 32:36 & 39
Israel remains firmly in the hand of the Lord, it is He who “neither slumbers nor sleeps” who watches over Israel. Even when the prophets spoke some very harsh and difficult words. As does Hosea here.
“For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols.
Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.”
Hosea 3:4-5
They will seek “David their king?” Yes. Although David had long since departed when this was written, some 300 years earlier, Hosea is referring to the Greater Son of David, Messiah Himself.
To understand this long-suffering one must look to Gods words for answers. Rationale precludes and never arrives at an adequate explanation. I, along with many Jewish believers through the ages, believe that this “Messiah ben David” is none other than the “Messiah ben Yoseph”, the Suffering Servant. The idea of two Messiah’s and identifying them as coming once, misses the truth of One Messiah coming twice. This is one of those errors that could be made since there is no definitive teaching on two comings. The first and second coming of Messiah were very often breathed into the same verse. It is only in retrospect that the clarity emerges. That He comes once as Redeemer, and secondly as King. My library is full of books, many written in the 1800’s by Orthodox Jews who came to believe that Yeshua is the despised One of Isaiah 53. The One who wept over the City understanding that the Nation would stand in ruins for rejecting His Messiahship. And it is unsurprising, with the Nation reestablished on the Land, that we are seeing a spiritual awakening among Messiah’s “lost sheep of the House of Israel”.
Joseph’s brothers rejected his dreams, that of having the family bow down and honor him. They sold him into slavery and considered him dead. Yet God took that terrible situation and turned it around so that Joseph would eventually be the savior of his people. As Joseph said to them, stop weeping, “What you intended for evil, God has turned it for your good.” The brothers were shocked to see this Egyptian, this deliverer, was none other than the one they despised, rejected and had left for dead.
Yeshua came in this character of Joseph and now waits for His own to call out to Him. These are His words to the Nation.
“For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'””
Matthew 23:39
Yeshua was quoting from the Hallel comprising of Psalms 113 – 118. This verse is from Ps 118:26. There is another passage in Hosea which I believe refers to Messiah and supports the prophecy of Moses.
“I will go away and return to My place
Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face;
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
Hosea 5:15
THE NATIONS HAVE NOT LEARNED THEIR LESSON.
The nations have not learnt their lesson concerning the Jewish people. As the “end of times” scenario continues to develop the surrounding Muslim nations have one determined thought. To wipe out this people who stand as evidence against the lie of Islam. As long as the Jewish people exist Islam cannnot remain passive. The very existence of Islam is bound up in the utter destruction of Israel and the Jews. The Jewish people stand as evidence against an arrogant “church” who believe they’ve replaced Israel. They stand as evidence against a secular world who would deny them their God given right to live as a people set apart to their God. Obadiah gave the nations a warning.
“For the day of the LORD draws near on all the nation
As you have done, it will be done to you.
Your dealings will return on your own head.“Because just as you drank on My holy mountain,
All the nations will drink continually.
They will drink and swallow
And become as if they had never existed.”Obadiah 1:15-16
The Jewish people bear His sign and He will vindicate His great Name through them.
“So they will fear the name of the LORD from the west
And His glory from the rising of the sun,
For He will come like a rushing stream
Which the wind of the LORD drives.”Isaiah 59:19
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