Wut?
The Jews are not God's All Stars?
Blasphemy!
They are God's all-stars in the sense that HE chose them and THAT is what makes them a special people. But the situation is more complicated today than it has ever been, and it was never simple!
- At Mount Sinai, the people of Israel immediately broke God's covenant with them. The appropriate metaphor, here, is that the wife cheated on her husband
on the wedding night, sleeping with an old beau from back in the day! People often misunderstand why God is so angry -- he's literally doing the thing that
every single atheist says that God should do if he wants people to believe in him... a collective, mass, supernatural manifestation to the entire congregation of Israel, demonstrating to them his unequivocally divine power and nature, to the point that they are literally scared to death of God! (Exo. 20:19) And in
that context, they choose to make a golden calf and worship it, right in the sight of the mountain on which God's glory rests.
- In the Wilderness, the Israelites rebel against God several times, the worst of which is when the 10 spies return with a report that there are giants (Nephilim) in the land of Canaan. At this, they decide to call it quits and resolve to return to Egypt. Moses stops them but God sentences all Israelites over the age of 20 to die off there in the Wilderness (except Joshua and Caleb), which is why they wander for another 40 years. Only the new generation is allowed to enter (this is important for the present subject, so remember it).
- After entering Canaan, they are ruled by judges (Moses and Joshua being the first two judges) for a time and they devolve into various kinds of idolatry. Finally, they resolve to have a king. Samuel warns them that the king will abuse them:
Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king.
He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.
Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."
But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. (1 Sam. 8:10-19)
(Notice that last phrase. Ring a bell? "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!", they shouted.)
- After God establishes the kingdom of Israel, it remains united through Solomon (Saul, David, Solomon), then it splits. The northern tribes are taken captive to Assyria. Much later, the southern tribes are conquered by Babylon and taken into exile. The southern tribes return to Israel 70 years later, the northern tribes are "lost" (also an important point but not one we will go into here).
- 430 years after the return from Exile, Messiah is born. That is the beginning of the church Age. That is when the Jewish rulers make the fateful choice to murder the Son of God on false charges, handing him over to the Romans to be executed in the most brutal fashion possible. That is when God shut the door on his chosen people, this time permanently, that is, until the end of time (Matt. 21:33-46).
- Nevertheless, the prophetic role of the children of Israel is
not over. It can't be over, because what makes Jesus different from any other supposed savior is that he alone is of the descent of Abraham, of the line of David, the Messiah of the Israelites who was prophesied centuries, even millennia, before his appearance in history. Nobody else can claim that, not one single person. No other human defeated death, either, or has even claimed to. It's a claim so preposterous that nobody could believe it
unless it actually happened. Thus, the people of Israel still matter in prophecy, because
Jesus matters. There is more yet to come.
- The current State of "Israel" is not. It is founded on
false-zionism, and it proves this on a daily basis by mistreating the foreigners living in its midst, (Lev. 19:33,34, Deut. 10:18,19). The prophetic significance of the State of "Israel" is undeniable, because God would not allow that name to be used on the global stage unless he had a prophetic purpose in it. But it is not the Israel of end-times prophecy, at least, not the righteous Israel of end times prophecy (see Ezek. 16 and compare to Rev. 18 to see who the false-zionists really are).
- When the Antichrist begins the 7-year tribulation of the saints (the church of Jesus), the Jews will believe that he is a good guy, in fact, every indication of prophecy is that they will receive
him as the real Messiah, instead of Jesus (see John 5:43, etc.) After 3 1/2 years, the Antichrist will break the covenant of peace with them, and will seat himself in the rebuilt temple, proclaiming himself to be God and openly blaspheming the God of the Bible. This moment will be the "come to Jesus" moment of the lost Israelites, those who have been duped by this false-zionism. Then, they will have their eyes opened, and they will see clearly for the first time in thousands of years that Jesus of Nazareth was
always their Messiah, that he indeed sacrificed his life
for them, and that he is the
only way back to the heavenly Father, just as he said 2,000 years ago, John 14:6. While not all of them will be saved, there is good reason to believe that the vast majority of them will be (Rom. 11:26). This will be the living generation who does not die in the spiritual Wilderness of the church Age!!
- As to salvation, Jesus is the
only way to salvation. Everyone, Jew or Gentile, must believe that Jesus is the savior, that he is the Messiah of prophecy, that he came in the flesh, that he rose from the dead and has ascended to the right hand of the Father. All must turn from sin and receive the washing of regeneration from the Holy Spirit whom Jesus will send to them. There is no "other way". There is no "second path". There is just one path, one Shepherd, one Lord, one baptism -- ONE WAY. It is this very fact which will bring about the great cataclysm which we call the Apocalypse. There is no middle ground between these two things. Either Jesus is Lord, or he is not.
JESUS IS LORD (Phil. 2:5-11)
