ISRAEL, 06.06.2017

Radioprogram, Israel, 06.06.2017

 

Announcer 01: In several previous programs we spoke about Israel, and we will do it in several coming programs as well. The reason is, it is impossible to speak about the Middle East without mentioning Israel. We can say that Israel is the heart of that region, that brings to life the prophecies proclaimed by the prophets of the Bible.

Announcer 02: Of course, Israel is strategically important for Christians.

Announcer 01: Oftentimes Christians have two different countries of Israel in mind. One is the biblical Israel, and the other is today’s Israel… However, today’s Israel is the same country the prophets spoke about. Ann, can you remember a prophecy proclaimed in the Bible that speaks about our times as well?

Announcer 02: Oh yes, in the Books of Prophets, there are many passages that speak about our days. For example, in Isaiah 66:6-8, we read the following,

“The sound of noise from the city! A voice from the temple! The voice of the Lord, who fully repays His enemies! ‘Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.’”

One can think, “Lord God, what did the prophet mean?” So let us remember a historical event that took place in the 20^th century.

After the World War II, all the world thought that everything was over for the Jewish nation. They thought the Jewish nation no longer existed, and the Nazi ideology and holocaust put an end to the Jewish history. But then, on May 14, 1948, by a resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the State of Israel was proclaimed.

Announcer 01: Yes… and this happened after almost all the countries refused to grant asylum to Jewish people to rescue them from the holocaust of the Nazis during the World War II. Suddenly, after the terrible and torturous massacres, during which the Jews were even afraid to tell their nationality, in a short time the subject of establishment of the Jewish State was raised, and a resolution was passed by the majority of votes. Can’t we say that this is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 66?

Announcer 02: After proclaiming the State of Israel, thousands of assemblies were held to discuss whether it was a right decision. Was it right to call the Jews back to their homeland, from which they had left hundreds of years ago? For centuries, various warlords, Muslim invaders and Christian crusaders had been driving the Jews out of their territories. Was it right to open a way for the Jews to return to their own country when they had finally managed to empty the territory of the descendants of Abraham, Isaak and Jacob?

Announcer 01: The comeback of the Jews to their fatherland caused jubilation in some and rage in others. Some said of course they needed a country after the loss of 5 million people, and that no nation was treated with that much cruelty; others confronted by saying that it was their punishment for crucifying the Messiah; yet others said the Jews drove out the local population to create their own state. 

Announcer 02: Actually, no local population was driven out; the fact is, when the State of Israel was proclaimed, all the Arab countries around were against it, because no one wanted to have Israel as their neighbor. So they very quickly started to make nomadic Arab-speaking tribes settle there.

Announcer 01: Yes, actually the whole territory was a marshland, because no one had lived there and worked the land for centuries. And no one would like to settle in a place full of mosquitoes, with bad climate and uncultivated land. However, the nomadic tribes started to settle there very quickly. In some instances, when the ships with the Jews who came back to settle in their promised land from other countries, the nomadic settlers did not even let them reach the harbor. They opened fire at the ships and sunk them.

Announcer 02: Oh my! That just shows how much opposition Jewish people had.

Announcer 01: Yes, and in fact, the opposition was against the plans of God. Israel was chosen to be the place where God’s plans would be fulfilled. The attacks against the Jewish people were demonic, devised by the enemy of mankind. In the history of this people, opposition can be seen at any turn.

And so, they tried to prevent the immigration of the Jews in any possible way. Even today, as in the past, the problem of migrants still exists in this region. There are constant discussions about why the Jews shall or shall not live there. However, the answer to all the questions is that it is God Who has given the land to the Jews. We find the testimony about it in the Scriptures, and it is an undeniable fact; God gave the land to them ‘forever’.

Announcer 02: So what is the reason of such hatred toward this people? What do you think?

Announcer 01: The reason is pretty much the same. During previous centuries, hatred toward the Jewish nation was to prevent the birth of the Savior, the promised Messiah.

If you noticed, in Genesis 15, when Abraham had to enter into Covenant with God, he brought to Him carcasses of certain animals cut in half. Those were necessary for making the Covenant, and fire from heaven had to pass in the midst of them. Suddenly vultures came down on the offering, but Abraham drove them away. Everything in the Scriptures is written for a reason; even the offering Abraham brought was attacked. All the resistance from the demonic world is aimed to confront the salvation plan for mankind. 

The Lord of Hosts made this Covenant with Abraham as He knew that Abraham would command his children after him to follow the living and true God. It is written in Genesis 18:19, “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”

God did not just promise a child to Abraham; He also showed Abraham Jesus the Savior Who would save mankind from their curse. The Lord showed Abraham the day of His coming, as Jesus said in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

Announcer 02: I would also like to mention the conversation of Abraham and Isaak, when they were going up to the Mount of Moriah to do the will of God. Abraham had to bring his only son Isaak, the son of promise as an offering. And when Isaak, unaware of it, asked him on the way, “Father, where is the sacrifice that we shall offer to God?”, Abraham replied, “God will provide a sacrifice for Himself”.

Wow! These words of faith came right from the Spirit of God! They were prophetic. Yes, even then our Father knew Who would be that Sacrifice, and Who would shed His priceless blood to bring back the sinful mankind.

Announcer 01: That is why there was so much hatred from hell toward the People of the Promise. This hatred from the demonic spiritual realm has always been manifesting itself, and in different times it took place under different guises.

In the first place it is hatred toward the seed of Abraham, but under the guise of it is the war against the salvation plan for mankind. For this very people had to bring the commandments, plans and vision of the living God, the Creator of the whole world to the mankind. Salvation and the Savior were to come from this nation.  

Announcer 02: Have you noticed that there are individuals among the nations, even among Christians who reprovingly ask why God chose the Jewish nation, and not any other nation like Germans, Arabs, Russians or Americans. Such people forget that God did not choose a nation; He looked for a faithful person who revered the Creator.

Announcer 01: In Genesis 18:17-19, the Lord said,

“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord…”

God chose a man, – Abraham, – whose descendants would keep the Law and the commandments of the Lord and eventually would bring the Savior to the world to fulfill the salvation plan of God the Father.

Announcer 02: And that people had to have a country, which they received with great difficulty. So many nations came against them when they went to inherit their Promised Land! But it was the land where Abraham, Isaak and Jacob lived, purchased properties and had children. It was the fatherland of the Israelites…

Announcer 01: Yes, the nations hate and envy Israel as well, because Israel is not counted among other nations… The first person who mentioned it was Balaam. He was a prophet, and even though he was not Jewish, in Numbers 23, he said what he saw in the spirit.

Verse 9 says, “For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him; there! A people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations.”

And verse 21 says, “The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them.”

The King in this verse is the one whom Kind Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. Daniel 2:44 that contains a portion of its interpretation, says, “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”

Daniel 2:34-35 shows how that will happen, “…a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces… And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth”

The image represented four empires that would rule the world and the nations, and the stone was the promised Savior, the Messiah and His Kingdom. It has become a great mountain and filled the whole earth!

Announcer 02: Suren, let me quote a passage from Isaiah that confirms this,

Isaiah 2:2-4 says, “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; he will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

Announcer 01: This is so powerful! So wonderful when you read prophecies that were proclaimed in different times but speak about the same thing… and by this God reminds again and again that what He says will be fulfilled in its time…  

Announcer 02: I think that discussion on antisemitism will especially help us to understand the wars waged against Israel today.

God’s presence was among His people, and it revealed the activities of the spiritual powers around them.

Even when the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt, the hatred of Egyptians toward them started to grow. Along with formation of the nation of Israel, the first plan of their annihilation emerged. They were enslaved, and Egyptians tried to kill all their newborn boys. Later, when they went out of Egypt, they were still persecuted from all sides.  

Announcer 01: Yes, other nations saw a great danger in Israelites. Many nations went against them to destroy them. When Israelites were strengthened in the power of God, they overcame; when they forsook God and lost their strength, they were persecuted; however, the struggle never stopped.

Announcer 02: It is going on even today. The reason is, there is a spiritual struggle behind it; it is demonic hatred and opposition to God’s salvation plan for mankind. Again and again, the enemy tried to stop and destroy the Jewish nation so that the prophecies about the Messiah and His kingdom would never be fulfilled.

This is the purpose of the spirit of antisemitism. 

Announcer 01: A time came when the children of Israel were exiled to Babylon because of their disobedience. They had no security in exile. At all times and in all places, this people received the same accusations. We can find these accusations in Esther 3:8, uttered by Haman, the enemy of the Jewish nation.  

The first one was: “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom”, so they could influence others;

The second one was: “Their laws are different from all other people’s”, which means they were different;

And The third one was: “They do not keep the king’s laws”, that is they were against reforms and were unabiding citizens.  

While studying the tragic history of Anti-Semitism, we encounter the same accusations again and again.

Announcer 02: There is a global misconception about the Jewish people.

Anti-Semitism can be Iranian, Greek or Roman; it can come from Christians, Muslims or Nazis; it can be religious or worldly, but it always has the same accusation, “Jews are not like others; they are dangerous, they have hidden agenda and are unreliable citizens”.

Announcer 01: No matter what kind of hatred they show to the chosen people of God, it leads to enmity with God.

It’s not that the Jewish nation has no sins and makes no mistakes,and always does what is pleasing to God. Not at all! We by no means urge to kind of adore this people. Rather, we urge to have a right attitude toward them, as God held up them as an example for other nations.

The major part of the prophecies in the Bible are rebukes to the nation of Israel that expose their sins and disobedience. Even while reading them one can wonder how they could be so ungrateful to the loving Father?

However, let us remember that the Bible is the mirror of man’s spirit, soul and body. It is also the mirror of human societies and history. When we read the Bible, we see ourselves, our hidden sins and our secret thoughts. We also hear the cry of our spirit and recognize that we need peace in our hearts.

Announcer 02: God has held this nation as an example for all the other nations. In the Bible, you can see everything that happens from birth to death and afterwards, which is common to all humanity. You will see the examples from the lives of Jewish kings, priests, prophets and even the people that happen in your life as well. That’s where we learn how to overcome challenges, how to view different things, and how to act in certain situations in our lives. God gave them laws and commandments that became the ‘traffic rules’ of our lives.

In the history of the Jewish people everything is related truthfully; the treacheries and mistakes are not concealed; the dates, events, facts, victories and the accounts of rises and falls of the Jewish nation are related faithfully.

Announcer 01: You can notice that no nation, no people presents its history so plainly as they do. As a rule, other nations show the best pages of their history and relate their victories. In the recent years we even see some nations writing heroic tales about themselves…

God has separated this nation not only for priesthood, but also for going through hardships. This nation has gone through many days of sorrow and death to give us Christians our King of Peace and the Savior of our souls…

Announcer 02:  Many remember the accounts of the wrongdoings of the rulers of this nation, but they forget that Israel also had people who were faithfully and sincerely following God. Because of faithfulness of these people, today we have the Bible – the Book of the peace of our souls, the Book of the rules for our lives, and its interpretations. There we have the New Testament that contains the revelations of the last days…

Announcer 01: With this we will end talking about Biblical Coverege about Israel for todays program. We hope that the message was clear and was a blessing to you.

Announcer 02: Dear Listeners, if you should have any questions please visit our website at lahairoiministries.org that is L-A-H-A-I-R-O-I ministries.org and find “Contact Us” there you will be able to post your question or make a comment.

Announcer 01: And Now it’s time to hear the word of the week. Maybe you need to receive a biblical word and this could be your chance.

 

Word of the Week

 

Announcer 02: Without God’s armor, a believer has no protection or victory. Why? Ephesians 6:10-13 says,

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

Here is what kind of armor God gave us. Verse 11 says that you are the one who is to put on this armor in the same way you put on your clothes. This is our duty. Usually we just put on our clothes without even paying much attention to it, as dressing up has become a habit.

It is necessary to put on the whole armor of God. It is as important as preaching the full Gospel. One of the most effective means the devil uses to weaken the Body of Christ is taking out some truths from the Gospel. In this way, he has succeeded to lead astray many committed Christians. No matter how committed and excited soldier you are, if you haven’t put on your armor, you can easily be wounded. Commitment does not ensure your protection. Anointing won’t help you as well. The fact you have strong commitment does not mean you will not be attacked. The anointing and the ministry gifts will not protect you from defeat, wounds and even death.

Many leave their homes without the armor on them. And when they are wounded, they complain to God.

Some say, “Well, if God allowed such a thing to happen to a Christian friend of mine, is it worth to wait for my own healing, as I am not as committed as he is”. The devil brings unpleasant memories, “God’s power did not work in your friend’s life, which shows it does not work in anyone’s life.” But if your friend had put on the full armor of God, he would have never lost the battle against the devil.

If you understood the importance of the whole armor of God, you’d live in a different way. 

Dear brothers and sisters, we exhort you to have God’s armor on all the time to can stand against all the wiles of the devil.