CHAPTER ONE

NEWS 108

SYRIA, SIN, JERUSALEM and CHRIST

SYRIA has a new PRESIDENT!
The Middle East has the same LORD!

In this second week of July 2000, this is announced. Hasef Assad has gone from this earth. Son Bashar remains. There was only one candidate, it is reported, the vote in the high nineties, in percentage terms.
 

Things have changed again.  Things remain the same again. Things are tense, things are moving. Movements are stultified. Hopes abound; difficulties arise to meet them like long lost friends. So it goes on, the scrambling surging of the Middle East, where Christ was crucified, and where it is still exceptional to grieve at the loss, rejoice at the resurrection and realise the Messiah HAS COME and that without Him, nothing can be done.

False religions vie, underlying desires for land, or for security, or to obliterate the Jews, or to remove the very name of the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ from the earth as an objective reality, or to get vengeance on people instead, or to show a glorious arm of power or something else, bubble and burst into vapours, and leave the air redolent. Blood spills on the ground. Thoughts arise into the air.
 

A TIME FOR REFLECTION

This is a good time to reflect on the significance. ISRAEL was at war with SYRIA and with Jordan and with Iraq and Iran; and with Egypt. Saudi Arabia also invaded. Six nations to one ... 'nation' newly announced from a dispersal of persons in a State mandated to Britain, now left by that nation, with the Arab Legion able to take over the authority. There WAS a nation. It was not Jewish. As Winston Churchill had indicated, the Balfour Declaration did NOT indicate, to his mind, that the Jewish nationality should be imposed on the inhabitants of that area, but that the Jews from abroad could support a Jewish cultural enclave in the Middle East. (As noted in Wilbur M. Smith's Israeli/Arab Conflict and the Bible, p. 69).

Is that however a 'home' ? It is true that the Balfour Declaration, approved by the British Government in 1917, recognised not a 'homeland' but a 'home', but it is also true that it was to be a 'national home for the Jewish people'. It is also correct that there was not to be something to 'prejudice the religious and civil rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine', but it is difficult to see how a NATIONAL home could stop short of being a NATION! The nation, on that basis, would be tolerant of non-dictatorial religious actions of others, and not strip civilians of other nationalities of civil rights (such as voting); but this would need to be held to the point where the national HOME, the NATIONAL home was home.

When Britain after World War II actively used her NAVY to PREVENT many Jews, in old hulks of shipping from returning home, this appeared a clear breach of contract, not to say of something more moral than that, of heart for the victims of a holocaust the like of which Britain had never even begun to suffer! It would have meant, had it occurred in Britain, something like 25 000 000 British deaths in World War II!

The Jews were not 'there' to have authority handed over to them when the war broke out: it was on May 14, 1948 that the British 'withdrew' and on the same day that the Jews declared their national state, from their meeting in Tel Aviv. BRITAIN ruled, and had rule over an Arab legion. Israel did not 'exist'. Indeed, David Ben Gurion relates in his Recollections (p. 87), that even in the area of March-April of 1948, before the war, water was cut off from the modern sector of Jerusalem by the  Arabs under the Mufti, and they proceeded with great success to attack a Jewish convoy of trucks bringing food and relief. Said the UN representative in Palestine, the Norwegian Colonel Lund, 'Your situation is worse than that of Norway in 1940'. So much for UN sympathy!

Then the British performed one of their most infamous acts, so saliently contrary to the equally noble and notable protection of the Jews in the Balfour years, from 1917 to the thirties (and how they were blessed! for the latter). They not only failed to intervene to protect the near-to-waterless Jews, but "on one occasion in March, they stopped  a Jewish truck convoy, disarmed its members and subsequently distributed their weapons to the Arabs." Thus there was a form of continuity for the Arab activists, but not for the Jews. Their situation was colossally compromised, immensely invaded and wholly hopeless to all appearance. Yet it was the UN which had to intervene to make a truce during the 1948 war, and you could be sure it was not from compassion for the outnumbered Jews. Indeed, J.H. Hunting in his volley of booklets, so informative and instructive in various areas, indicates there was an armed forces disproportion in numbers, of 80 to 1 against the Jews.

Yet they won. It was predicted they would fight so that one was like a thousand (Zechariah 12, the chapter which indicates a subsequent repentance of many Jews, at a huge numerical level, for the death by piercing, of Christ, God as man). They did. God helped them despite their unbelief, just as He indicated in Ezekiel 36 (see Appendix A, SMR, and Ch. 9). IN came the forces of the "JIHAD!" cry. ALLAH, this was the name of the god whom the Arabs indicated would win.

Thus Amos Elon in his The Israelis,  p. 202, notes that in 1948 "Egyptian planes dropped leaflets upon Yad Mordechai calling upon the kibbutz to surrender. 'In the name of Allah, the Almighty God who always speaks the truth,' the Egyptians announced, 'it was not our intention to begin a war. It is your resistance which has caused us to attack you' ." If they had only be supine and unconditionally surrendered, why, no fight at all! Such marvellous kindness from the aggressor!

In the name of Allah ? Alas for Allah he is no match for the actual Almighty, whose word IS truth and is demonstrated to be such constantly, in the simple phenomenon, so customary in science, of having it verified every time. The defeat of what would defeat the chastened, disciplined and still unbelieving Jewish people, was forecast. Its GLORIOUS and unmatched, all but incredible defeat against immense odds was clearly shown in Zechariah 12-14. It happened. Jihads had to unhappen in results. That is the way of the word of the God who is.

But who attacked Israel, poor, scarcely alive, war-tortured, blood-bathed, Fascist remnant Jewry on this illustrious occasion ? Egypt, Jordan and Iraq gave them, from their settled establishments and gathered arms, the treat of invasion. This was not enough. They were later joined by  SYRIA! Indeed Iran an Saudi  Arabia hurled to the fore, their favour and forces. Six inspired Moslem peoples hammered the word of God, via Israel, that is, the Bible (as in Zechariah 12). It stood, and of course, so did those whom God, having disciplined^*1 with precision (as in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26) to the uttermost as predicted from the first, delivered also according to His word, as the end of the Age approached. Indeed, the liberation of Jerusalem BY the Jews is one of the most marked and utterly unique features which categorically and past any question, identifies the end of the Gentile times. Here was a deliverance started in 1948 and completed geographically at least, in 1967: here came  announcement concerning the end of the period for those nations which also now have had their innings, as the wheel of history turns. To what however does it turn ?

It turns to a vast Israel conversion (Zechariah 12:10, Romans 11), and to a daring assault on Israel by a multi-national force from the North, to come. The combination of Muslim religion and regional instability in the Caucasus, as well as the power of Russia to the North points to fascinating explosive possibilities (cf. SMR pp. 516ff.). And then ? The word of God forecasts the return of Christ (Zechariah 14), that greater Jew, whose crucifixion preceded that of the nation, and was in no small measure the reason and ground of it, since they killed their King, who, in addition, was destined as the light for the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6) in the sphere of global operations!

But Jew or Gentile, the time has come: it is the time of judgment approaching, when no nation or set of nations is the case or the point. Each has had its time. It is the end of time as an approach, the beginning of time as a culmination and consummation, and for judgment of all. The approach shot to the green is over; the putting is now in place. The flag is waving. The collection of peoples is at hand. ALL are participants.

We were reminded by Iraq so demonstratively in the 1991 Gulf War that it was STILL at war with Israel, since 1948 indeed. However, in God's providential protection for the Jews, something powerful intervened on their behalf. It was not for that PURPOSE, but it had that RESULT. Many nations participated in that war which dismantled the operational power of a major and intense enemy of resurgent Israel, namely Iraq.

After all, 'the time of Jacob's trouble' - Jeremiah 30:7, of 'the voice of trembling', had been sufficiently severe! (cf. The Biblical Workman Ch. 1).  It was no small one, removing some 50% of that traumatised race in the World War II epoch. Following their return, things marvellous began, not at all unlike those predicted for the end, in Micah 7:15, for those who had had to say,

• "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy;
• When I fall, I will arise!" - Micah 7:8.
   

SYRIA too had entered in 1948 into the fray, and the staggering deliverance of the dispersed Jews, here and there amid the Arabs in the land, without government until war, with war even before government when Jerusalem was assailed by the Arabs and nearly brought to its knees, indeed under intolerant rule: this proceeded in a combination of little things and major victories. At all times, it seemed worse than hopeless, hapless and premature. When it is recalled that as well as all of these almost ludicrous impositions and disadvantages, this tiny and scattered group of individuals now in Israel, in 1948, were actively impeded by one of the great nations, Britain at this stage: then it should be realised that this victory occurred in the manner of miracles.

There are miracles of wonder and miracles of marvel; but there are also many predicted miracles. These are like scientific theories, on the basis of which certain results are forecast, and then the event delivers, favourably or adversely, so that the theory then falls ... or stands. In science, it is a matter of the constant operation of settled and established, indeed created principles, which are so just for that rational ground. In history there is a woof and weft of circumstances, almost unending and intertwining, a polyglot pattern of words and works, attacks and counter-attacks, philosophies and dedications, courage and cowardice, insight and obfuscation, in this now, and in that party then. To predict it is of another genre entirely.

Moreover, to predict  it for a nation which is to cease, geographically to EXIST, for two millenia, this is the next escalation of power required, of knowledge in any forecast. To predict it for a region which is to be invaded multiply by many nations, empires and powers, to be scene of endless Crusades and of the outthrust in its adolescent strength of a religion which in martial power threatened the whole world, and came near to overcoming Europe itself, in the wake of which another, Britain would come to rule in the land concerned: Israel - this is something quite deliciously abandoned in complexity! To have a 'little' thing like the holocaust kill around half of the Jewish race in the immediate preliminary, and then long term from 500 B.C., before Rome extended her power to this region, and before even the day of Alexander the Great, to predict the Jewish post-crucifixion presence in the land, in a region of time where the Messiah is soon to come, flush and blessed in power, and where such amazing, seemingly counter-credible results of triumph will accrue to Israel, this is in the dimension of miracle.

To do so in a way including the DIVISION of Jerusalem into TWO parts during the wars (Zechariah 14:1, fulfilled in 1948, with the Mandelbaum gate division^*1A) is the work of plenary inspiration.
 
 

THE THINGS THAT WE HAVE SEEN AND HEARD

And all this ? It has happened. We are witnesses of these things. We are a generation which is without excuse. As in the days of Jesus on earth, so now: there is no hiding.
 

• As to the war

 

• with such magnificent weakness,
• in such fabulous disarray,
• coming without even a preliminary government in the land, for the Jews, in a region where the Arabs had been in explicit co-operation with the British, and in authority;
• in a site where the Jews had been in no small measure rounded up and brought in from being treated as worse than scum, impoverished, dispersed, with many languages and much cultural variation, from the world and from Europe:

 

• it would be won.

 

• As to the UN, it was adverse:

as to God, however, His intention was on record, and favourable in this outcome!
 

It had in 1947 already made INTERNATIONALLY clear that Jerusalem was NOT for the Jews, was NOT to be its capital. The whole world seemed against Israel, whether in the plenipotentiary diplomatic unity of the United Nations,  or the whole scope of surrounding nations, whether in the religious antipathy of the Moslem environment or in the treatment just accorded to the Jews in Europe. The claims or clamour of antipathy, of alien religion dismissing the very Old Testament as the word of the living God,

 

	these were to be found in Syria,
	not a little in Lebanon, in Iraq, in Iran, in Jordan,
	in Egypt likewise,
	not to mention in wider surrounds in Algeria, Morocco, Libya,

 

	and stretching up to the Caucasus,
	in various USSR regions as they then were:

 

and as to the Jewish people they were without support even from former protector of the region (of Palestine), Britain for whom they had fought, and against whom they now came to be fighting, in its new post-war White Paper policy implementation.

 

Harassed, harrowed, with ground furrowed in advance oratorically for their demise, as a last post and placement, the predicted race of returnees awaited their multiple onslaught.

In fact, as noted already, it was in the very face of  active adverse force from Britain that the nascent nation had to act. Then in Israel, Britain at last departed, war broke out. Jewish Government for Israel  broke out on the same day. It was none too soon! As Isaiah described the event some 2600 years before, in 66:7-10:
 

• "Before she was in labour, 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 labour,
She gave birth to her children.

" 'Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery ?' says the LORD.
'Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb ?' says your God.
Rejoice with Jerusalem,
And be glad with her,
all you who mourn for her..."

Israel was then to be extinguished! It was announced, clear, inevitable in the burden of mighty affairs. But that is to reckon without the Lord, without His word, without His works. As to Him, in this post-crucifixion arena as depicted in the end of Isaiah, when animal sacrifice is now OUT, for the Messiah's sacrifice has COME (Isaiah 66:3; 52-53), when the end of the Age is in progress leading to its culmination, we see quite clearly in the second verse division made above, "Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery ?" So this divine action, forecast and depicted in splendour both here and in Zechariah 12 is seen in our times. Making it to the moon is like potato chips compared with an elegant banquet, compared with this divine forecast. The heart in it, the emotion, the adoption, the defence, the part in the divine plan, all is there. The air is electric with power, throbbing with intent, flashing with purpose. The word of God has been written with words; it is now verified in history. The sky is the limit. No roof is over this lecture theatre. No restraints obscure vision in this operation.

Israel ? It COULD NOT be stopped, since the word of the Lord had said it. Nor was it stopped. This generation is surely one of the most privileged and blessed to see not once, but twice, yes thrice in 1948, 1967 and 1973 the LORD do what millenia ago, He promised. What has the dawn of the new millenium to offer compared with that. Indeed in 1991 He showed the force of Zechariah 12:2 once again, at the expense of the rampaging against Israel of 'still at war since 1948' Iraq!

THIS, the RESULT which we see, it is a date of the fulfilment; THAT, the occurrence, it was an epochal and long predicted deliverance on a miraculous scale, also predicted. Here is MOUTHED MIRACLE, PREDICTED SCENARIO, what in itself is past all prediction of man, and apparently past all performance; but it happened with precision. The very language of Zechariah 12 in its ecstasy of wonder at the scale of the deliverance, the magnitude of the disparity in human forces, the amazing triumph to be given to so few against so many in such a vexation of international forces concentrated on it, with the very 'nations' in conference against the freeing of Jerusalem for the Jews: this is all fulfilled. The emotion, it is as stated. The disparity, the same. The geographical detail of split Jerusalem, as declared nearly 2500 years before.
 
 

GOD HAS SAID

God has SAID this miracle, and then, after waiting millenia, when the predicted murder of His Son (Psalm 2,22, Isaiah 53-53, 49:7) occurred, and the predicted dispersion of Israel as in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28ff., and the mockery and homelessness of Israel for so long as predicted, and the Gospel as pre-stated in Isaiah 52-53, and the Gentiles as noted to be the next recipient of concentrated grace during the demise of Israel for its time: when these were all complete, GOD ACTED. He acted as stated. He delivered as promised.

Cunning has not been victorious. Aggregates of Gentile power have not been victorious. International policy has not been victorious. The word of God has been victorious. The Jews have not been glorified^*2; for their time is amidst deep national striving and uncertainty, self-incrimination and sometimes deeds of violence. The Lord has been glorified. The land despite all this has blossomed (literally to the tune of millions of exports) like the rose, the forests have come to clothe it as a sign, as forecast. The whole Middle East is as stated. The Gentile world is as stated in Matthew 24, it would be in this terminal epoch. It is ready; the curtain is about to go up for the end of the Age.

But Syria ?

Syria was defeated roundly in 1967, when the Golan Heights were taken with immense courage and brio, on their huge upslope, by Israelis. No more would Galilee be so readily bombarded, farms assailed 'from above'. Their huge armament capacity did not defeat the Jews either then or subsequently. In a moment, ONE nation could, with too much apparent difficulty, overcome this narrow-necked little colony of Jews in Israel, in their pitifully limited and exceedingly small vestige of territory, in the midst of huge land resources on the part of Allah proclaimers, whose jihads were like fire hoses, when the fire was out.  Nor was it so simple a case with the Palestinians who left to near 100,000 in 1948. While there is some dispute about who said and did what, it seems clear that there was no general Jewish policy to expel. Indeed, Ben Gurion (op.cit. p. 83) indicates this:

"... in 1948 it was the Arab powers and not the Jews who exhorted the local Moslem population to leave their homes and their land. We asked them to stay and help us build a modern country. Those who left did so far more in fear of Arab threats of reprisal against 'disloyalty' than of their Jewish neighbours. In confidence they emigrated across the frontiers to the Arab nations which demanded they come. They ended up in the foul conditions we know of."

Interestingly he further notes: "Transjordan, later Jordan, did in fact profit from the situation in 1948 by grabbing a goodly piece of land along the river Jordan's West Bank, that it was supposed to be preserving for the much talked of but constantly ill-used Palestinians. Far from giving this land to its so-called 'blood brothers' of Palestine, Jordan stuffed the latter into concentration camps and kept the land for itself."

Not indifferent to the Palestinians' need, Ben Gurion indicates that this is nevertheless the reason why he is indifferent to the Arab nations' outcry for 'independence' for the Palestinians. We are reminded of Ezekiel 36:5 as we reflect on the various moves, UN and other, to dissociate from Israel and to associate where they will, the appointed territories.

In terms of the Balfour Declaration of Great Britain, the promise of the nation to become the protector of Palestine until 1948, Palestine was to be a national home. Now a home ? Yes, it could be merely a cultural enclave, like a China Town. But a NATIONAL HOME must house a NATION. This is what has happened. Ben Gurion points out that the prosperity position of Arabs in Israel, where they HAVE settled and remained in the nation, is of the first order, world class. There have been considerable efforts to allow for their religious sensibilities and though much is not as it might be, the threat of take-over is an harassment. The world about is full of land in Moslem control, congenial religiously, culturally, to the Palestinians. When the West Bank was seized, Ben Gurion indicates, it was not used for them. It IS part of what was Palestine. The land of Israel IS tiny and utterly vulnerable humanly, almost like a grain of  dust in a handful, in the region, compared to the vast, surrounding Islamic territories. Moreover, the remaining position of a MOSQUE on or about the temple site remains one of the attestations that there has been much restraint!

In fact, of course (SMR pp. 822-832), this fact is a divinely arranged irony, it would seem, since it is precisely the TEMPLE which has been FULFILLED in Christ (as in Hebrews  8-10), He the sacrifice (as in Isaiah 52-53, 66:1-4), He the priest, He the sinless splendour of nobility and coverage. Hence the temple is not NEEDED. Hence the abomination, in terms of the Temple days, is not effectual; but it is merely symbolic. Another 'faith' is using the historic site! Let it. It does not touch the religion of Israel as cast  in the Old Testament, substantiated in the New Testament.
It DOES touch it - if it be misunderstood, and anachronistically conceived!

But that! It is error and the error is on public display, like the striking of some footballer, caught on TV and judicially reviewed. ALL can see it. The LORD lets them see it! It is a divine rebuke, this 'temple' or mosque on the Mount; and it will soon be seen to be such, when the vast reconciliation to Jesus the Christ on the part of much of Israel, as predicted in Zechariah 12, occurs. HE is the Temple, and we who are His, WE are the stones within Him (I Peter 2:4-9). No one can invade that.

So the erring, striving parties continue. The Lord remains. His word is performed. History merely moves like commanded troops to its next point of terminus, the assault on Israel and the return of Christ. Then there is the PREDICTED OUTCOME (Zechariah 14, Ezekiel 37ff., cf. SMR pp. 510ff.).

But in the interim ?
 
 

PEACE IS REVIEWED BUT NOT ACHIEVED

 The peace process is again reviewed, then, in Syria, as a new ruler comes to power. There have been many and some rather amazing actions in this 'process' (cf. SMR *6, pp. 835-6). The Lord has supervised the matter entirely. It is the Prince of Peace who has apportioned the land to Israel, and the time for its repentance likewise: He has a way with Him, of doing what He says, Syria or no Syria, and sin or no sin, whether with Jew or Gentile.

It is well to listen if you want peace. There is no other. HE paid more than even the Jews, who suffered with such anguished agony. He paid NOT as a penalty, but as a penalty provider (Galatians 3:1-13). He paid not as a sinner, but as a sin-bearer. He paid not in the place of all, but 'on behalf of' all (literally, I John 2:1-2, cf. Isaiah 53, where it is those who are the 'we' in fact healed by His stripes, delivered by His suffering, put right by His plight, who are the people, 'us all',  whose iniquities are laid on Him!).

INIQUITY IS THE ISSUE; HEALING IS THE BALM OF PARDON. STRIPES ARE THE VEHICLE OF PENALTY TRANSFERENCE. By these, says the prophet Isaiah, the redeemed is healed.
The Messiah, the Lord Himself, has occupied this galling and grinding  place for those who receive Him, and for them ONLY is the sin borne! Otherwise it is retained (John 8:24). It is kept by the doer! That those who come in faith and repentance to the Christ, the Lord's Christ: that these are covered, whoever they may be, Jew or Arab, Britisher or  German, this is the wonder. God did not invent a sinless being to bear the brunt; for the need is for millions, and the offence reaches to the heavens of purity, which are affronted by sin.

From those heavens of infinite purity and undimmed scope, to this earth in its limitless squalor comes not a secretary or creation, but God Himself, for as He says, "They shall look upon ME whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12:10), and again, of Him, "Your throne O God is forever and ever", and "His goings are from everlasting" (Psalm 45, Hebrews 1, Micah 5:3, cf. Philippians 2, John 8:58, 10:30-33 cf. Isaiah 48:16).  Peace that ignores such a price, such a privilege, such power, such purity! Hardly. Does it look like it ? It does not, cannot, will not, while the world whirls on to its shame. Not in the United Nations or the fabled religiosities of the flesh is the solution to be found. If the nations will not receive it, then the individual must do so.

Christ crucified, yea rather risen, who will return in just such a way as He departed, having done His holy task, and confronted arrogance with vulnerability, death with yielding, life with invincible power and the grave with evacuation. There is the glory of God, the wonder of love, the principle of grace. THAT, it is the path to peace. In HIM there is access to the God who speaks and does (Ephesians 2:11-16, 18, 3:12). Without Him, in the end, there is only regress into ruin.
 

• "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one...For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father."

From HIM is peace in the hearts of mankind. It is found, however, not in wars and propaganda, but in pardon and vicarious sacrifice, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. When we are there, and are at peace, it is well to listen to what He says. His word rules, and HIS is the majesty.

Not only does He DO it, but He commands it, for Christ is a leader  and a commander, yes Lord (Isaiah 54:4), though so many of both Jews and Gentiles have failed to realise this simple fact.
 
 

HISTORY HAS NOT MUCH LONGER
TO WAIT TILL IT SEES THE PRINCE

• "Of the increase of HIS government, and peace, there shall be no end" (Isaiah 9:7);

and

• we must beware! "HIS" means "HIS" and not the 'Holy See', or the scimitar, or the sickle. HE paid, but you need to be sure of this, that you are covered. The squalor of sin dwarfs that of the worst of the Palestinians, and the most tortured of the Jews under Hitler; for their lot includes many elements; but the lot of sin is intense, concentrated, and its dereliction is irreparable; for outside the ONLY SAVIOUR (Isaiah 43:10, Acts 4:11-12), there IS no salvation, and for the one rejecting Him, the only destiny that remains is hell. God is God! what does one expect. HE is indispensable. Without light, there is darkness.
   

Indeed, this world with its works is to be burnt up (II Peter 3), the elements are to dissolve with great heat and much noise, and there is to be a new heavens and new earth. As Isaiah puts it (51:6):

• "Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
• And look on the earth beneath,
• For the heavens will vanish away like smoke.
• The earth will grow old like a garment,
• And those who dwell in it will die in like manner:
• But My salvation will be forever,
• And My righteousness will not be abolished."

 

• A universe here or there, what is it! It is a creation which has come, and the time comes for it to go. It is like a book: it is not written. Then the author writes. Times passes. The book is no longer on the shelves. Another book is written. Its chapters, in terms of the Middle East and the Gentile yeast are being fulfilled. It is well to read in the book in which the Author speaks in words, in order to understand the book, this universe, in which He speaks in works!
   

Another book is written.
This one is what God has to say to His manufacture, man.

Its chapters, in terms of the Middle East and the Gentile yeast are being fulfilled. It is well to read in the book in which the Author speaks in words, in order to understand the book, this universe, in which He speaks in works! Of ONE of the places  He has written several things.
 

• ONE: it is the place of Christ's death.

 

• TWO: it is the place of Jewish resurgence (as implied in Luke 21:44 with  Luke 19:42ff., and in Zechariah 12 and 14 in terms of Daniel 9, and Ezekiel 36ff., as shown in SMR Appendix A).

 

• THREE: it is the place which will be productive of burdensome wars and contests for a prolonged period.

 

• FOUR: it is the area to be 'treated' by those whose business it is NOT (Zechariah 12:1ff.), for which they will find due cost.

 

• FIVE: it is the place to be imperilled when GOD intervenes (as in Zechariah 12, 14, Micah 7, and implied in Ezekiel).

 

• SIX: THIS intervention will be comparable in scope and magnitude with that in the Exodus from Pharaoh.

 

• SEVEN: it is about this time that there is an exceedingly broad turning of Jews in the land, to the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, who was predicted to die in the vicinity of A.D. 30 (as in SMR pp. 886ff., 943ff.).

 

• EIGHT: it is to be site of the Messiah's rule as in Psalm 2 with Zechariah 14.
• NINE: it is to occur when the JEWS RETURN to their land, and not before, but then, this has happened in 1948, when Jerusalem is at last back in their hands (Luke 21:24) despite the destruction which was to come, did come and has been more than merely physical (Luke 19:42ff., Matthew 24:2ff).

 

• TEN: FIRST HE is to remove the Christians, Jewish in race or otherwise, from the inflamed scene of international revolt from God and warfare upon Him (Matthew 24:29ff.) from a scene so vicious that unless that time was shortened, "no flesh could be spared" (Matthew 24:22). JERUSALEM is the place where HE is to come (Zechariah 14:4,9, Isaiah 11:1ff., Psalm 72). It matters to Him, His word matters to Him and YOU matter to Him. There is however but one way home, which is not surprising when you realise that God made you, and home! Christ is, was and remains the way, the life and the truth (John 14;6, Ephesians 1:10).

To ignore these things is not wise. They are written. Where ?
In God's book....
which ALWAYS is fulfilled, to the last point.
 
 

ONE THING MORE

 

There is but one thing more to say. GOD is going to be glorified. This is scarcely surprising, since HE IS GLORIOUS. NO ONE ELSE WILL BE GLORIFIED, for no one else is glorious.

Christ is going to be glorified because HE IS THE LAMB, of God, for God, to God, equal with God (Philippians 2:1ff., John 5:19-23, 8:58, Isaiah 48:16), who humbled Himself to do the job, the Father sending in love, the Son doing.

There is one question therefore. ARE YOU going to glorify HIM by believing or disbelieving, by receiving or rejecting ? Whatever you do, HE will be glorified. Even the wrath of man serves Him (Psalm 76:10). He is both very deep and very wise; but of love His is the name, the source and the original. Have hate ? By all means, though it is folly: ineffectual and presumptuous. It is also terribly costly. Receive His love ? But of course, its transmission was fearfully costly to HIM (John 3:16, Hebrews 5, Luke 22:39-46 ). However He has paid already for those who He has always foreknown, before the very world with its time! (Ephesians 1:4).

ALL you need to do is :
 

1) If an unbeliever, repent of your sin (BE realistic! - it is of MANY kinds), believe in, receive and closely follow Christ, the way, the life and the truth: abiding in faith in His presence as those who are His, despite their many imperfections, do. Accept His incarnation, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, infallible word and all powerful presence and serve Him. ONCE you are His, it is HIS business, as in John 10:9,27-28, to keep you. HIS children are NEVER cast out (John 7:47, I Thessalonians 5:9-10, I John 5:11ff., I John 3:9). He DIED for them and will KEEP them (as in Romans 5:1-11).

2) If believing already: praise Him,  continually abiding, obeying, loving, admiring, delighting in your Maker, because HIS is a wonderful nature, a marvellous power, a glorious peace and a love which pays ANYTHING that is pure to receive ... people like us.

3) Vengeance ? Leave all that to HIM! (Deuteronomy 32:35). He is a just Judge and knows what He is doing. Goodness ? Be FILLED with it in spirit and in heart, in word and in deed (II Peter 1:4,6, Ephesians 3:19, Galatians 5:22).
 

See Questions and Answers 6, on Abiding, and Biblical Blessings Ch. 10, on STRUGGLE, as well as The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 10, part I.  You may also want to visit SMR Ch. 7, pp. 570ff., and 611ff..
 
 

 NOTES

*1

GOD HOWEVER WILL be glorified.

This is equally and indeed even more abundantly clear.

HE as the author of the covenants, and God of truth and faithfulness, WILL DO JUST AS HE HAS SAID. He is insistent, always on this as in Isaiah 48, and indeed makes it apparent that no one, indeed no being, entity, alleged god, prognosticator or savant, religion or human potency can even begin to compare with His combination of wisdom, omnipotence and omniscience, faithfulness and knowledge. As Isaiah 19 shows that Israel will not be glorified, thought it WILL be delivered at the time of its repentance (Zechariah 11-14, Micah 7, Ezekiel 36ff.), so Isaiah 2:11 makes apparent this one thing, that GOD ALONE WILL BE GLORIFIED IN THAT DAY.

Indeed, there is coming a time when the human race can forget about its savvy sophistications and enormous powers on which it prides itself in ways so seemingly adolescent as to make many adolescents seem more adult at times. Even Micah 5 assures us of the time when the very idea of human powers per se, as determinants will be as outdated as - to deploy contemporary examples  as parallels - say, the law of Latin Mass or the concept of humanly contrived 'peace' in the Middle East.

When has GOD been asked to the negotiating table, and since when has HE been subject to human wisdom ? HE has stated His wishes in this field, and they will be executed. How many people will execute each other on the way in stultification and unbelief, like a fruit cake of diverse components, all long since stale, remains to be seen. Alas the price of blindness can be high, when it is wilful! In this, the Jews also participate at the present time in this crucial respect (Isaiah 42:19ff.). At least they are in the right place, locally if not spiritually, as a nation. The spiritual action is to come (Zechariah 12:10ff., Romans 11).

Further, never let us forget that the apostles were JEWISH as to race. THIS current difficulty in spiritual sight, it is a NATIONAL affair!

But let us return to the main point:
 

• "Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust,
• for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of His majesty.
• The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
• and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
• and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day"  - Isaiah 2:10-11.

NOTICE the word ALONE!

 

 

*1A

A portion of a 1959 article reminds us of this fact. It is from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

The article then proceeds to an estimate of the situation.

The word of God has proceeded on this point for some 2500 years, indicating, in the context of a time shortly to come (Answers to Questions Ch. 5), when many in Israel would repent of piercing the Lord, when on earth in human form, this division of the city. Indeed, it is important to note that in this same chapter 14 of Zechariah which so declares, there comes in sequence the RETURN of this same Christ, this same pierced sovereign, this same Saviour, this same one who would provide in Jerusalem (there also - cf. Isaiah 49:6, 42:6), a fountain for sin and uncleanness. That fountain is closely correlative with the inscription on the Stone, by means of which sin is removed in ONE DAY (Zechariah 3:9). Symbolically, it could be conceived as one of blood, in that HE was pierced,  and the blood is the cover of the atonement; or of water, in that He cleanses, and the sin He bore, while the pardon He GIVES.
 

*2

God holds in decisive disfavour those who, when He disciplines, add their own two cents' worth; and of course sometimes it is not two cents, but something more like a billion dollars, as we see recently.
Thus in Isaiah 47:6ff., we read:

• "I was angry with My people,

I have profaned My inheritance,
And given them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy;
On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily,
And you said, 'I shall be a lady forever,
So that you did not take these things to heart,
Nor remember the latter end of them."

(Cf. Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28ff., Jeremiah 25:9ff. - the last the famous cup of wine symbolism, signifying the anger of God being taken by the individuals concerned, including Israel, while Babylon as in verse 9, is to act in a punitive way! As we see below, this is just the beginning! As the word of God indicates, there is more than the beginning. There is the end. This too should be considered!)

Thus was Babylon rebuked, and in the end, for all her own sins, her grandeur and glory, majesty and power, wealth and height of spirit were abased in the most SINGULAR fashion! These 'miserable Jews' as they might have conceived them, were to be crushed; for as the LORD Himself predicted, their God was taking them to task for their idols and their follies.  So Babylon intended and did. She was agent in discipline.

Then God virtually eliminated Babylon, self-aggrandised and impudent in her own right,  so that its very site became a matter of archeology. You see the predicted and actualised result in Isaiah 13:17ff. (see Isaiah 13 generally also). The city as a sovereign entity, the empire as a thing of note, it went. It was no more! The parties God specified for its destruction, such as the Medes (13:17), these duly arrived and Babylon's own destruction was sudden indeed. It was also vast, amazing, total.

Jeremiah, as we have indicated above,  likewise adorns the tale of divine displeasure in those who allow their own tempers and intemperance, lust or pride, to take effect on what HE is disciplining. They do not escape HIS attention. Thus in Jeremiah 50:6ff., we read:

• "My people have been lost sheep.

Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place {cf. Isaiah 11:10, 30:15-16}.
All who found them have devoured them;
And their adversaries said, 'We have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice,
The LORD, the hope of their fathers.' "

So he  indicates  the beginning,  and the action of Babylon,  by  divine provision but not without limits, on Israel. What was to be the result of the WAY in which Babylon acted ? This.
 

• "Move from the midst of Babylon,

"Go out of the land of the Chaldeans...
For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon
An assembly of great nations form the north country,
And they shall array themselves against her,
From there she shall be captured.

"Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior;
None shall return in vain...
Because you were glad , because you rejoiced,
You destroyers of My heritage,
Because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain....
Because of the wrath of the LORD
She shall not be inhabited,
But she shall be wholly desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified
And hiss all her plagues."

(Colour is added.)

From these things, we find:
 

1) God was angry with Israel for her intemperate and prolonged intolerance of His word and His prophets and His will (as in II Chronicles 36, Hosea 12:10).

2) He acted in covenantally due, and very due, punishment.

3) His glorious show-case of praise became polluted past remedy, so it was smashed.

4) He appointed the smashers.

5) They took advantage of the situation and glorified themselves and their ways.

6) God predicted before they even did this, that they would, and what He would do to them.
7) Prominent in this connection, the chief empire involved, was Babylon.

8) Its destruction for its proud arrogance, joy in the slaughter and destruction, severity and cruelty, this was to be so famous, so fabulous as to constitute a proverb and a warning.

9) These elements and items all happened, just as stated; and
God acted just as stated, in every respect as stated.
 

This, God's way, is highlighted by His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, in Matthew 5:17-20, in connection with EVERY JOT AND TITTLE of the law and the prophets being FULFILLED! Why some people try to make it appear that BEING FULFILLED is the same as ABOLISHED, when Christ indicated the purpose was NOT to abolish but to FULFIL is a singular question. The word of God is very stable. It is done, or fulfilled. It does not lapse.

We may in conclusion note that the world itself is to be rebuked for its follies in its time, and this in a style of appropriate magnitude (as we find in Matthew 24 later, from the lips of Christ).
Thus:

• "I will punish the world for its evil,

And the wicked for their iniquity,
I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
 And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible" (cf. Joel 2:28ff., 3:14ff.).

However, the mercy of God is the same,  from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 90), and as in Psalm 100:5, Micah 7:19, His mercy is everlasting.

Yet the day of its reception is not forever! (John 3:36, I Corinthians 6). It is  while the day of mercy lasts,  available with just the same rigour and certainty, as always, in the Lord and in His righteousness only and altogether, in the Messiah Jesus Christ (Isaiah 54:17, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Isaiah 53, 55, 45:22-25, 44:3ff., Jonah 2:9, Romans 3:23ff., Galatians 3:13-14,18, 2:21, Romans 10:1ff.). The ROCK is still GOD ONLY as always (Psalm 62:1-3, II Samuel 22:32), and with equal and profound clarity, THAT ROCK is CHRIST (I Corinthians 10:2-4, Isaiah 48:16, Psalm 45, Micah 5, Isaiah 43:10-11, 53). There is ONLY ONE. He is the one; and that ONE, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, is not subject to change.

He is from everlasting to everlasting the same, and what He says He will do, count as done! He has duly come (as in Psalm 102) the first time; and will arrive as in Zechariah 14, Matthew 24, the next time, risen and triumphant, to rule. Who rules you now ? If it is He, rejoice. If not, repent and receive Him. There is no one even comparable with HIM!