by David Brenneman
Have been in Ezekiel for a number of weeks in both my BibleGateway reading plan and in general the same path in my Life Principles Daily Bible.
This morning, however, a thought struck me...how big is Israel SUPPOSED to be? Not how big the United Nations 'graciously' granted them, but how big did GOD say it was to be?
To say 'astronomically different' wouldn't be far from the truth.
It took quite a bit of digging online but various Jewish sources hold to a map that is quite different from what the world chooses to call Israel. Most in various nations have colluded in wanting to indeed push what is even modern day Israel into the sea. Their words. They want to wipe the nation off the map. Out of existence. Coincidentally that's exactly what Satan is after.
What kept baffling me had been actually the land area that should the New Jerusalem from Heaven actually sit on the Earth, where would it sit?
It may indeed not touch the Earth considering it's entirely holy and the Earth, until the very end of the book of Revelation would not be purified from the sin curse from Genesis.
What I also found interesting in my search is that at the time Israel became a nation again, 70 years ago, at this very same time a new Israel Bible was made. Am tempted to get one just to compare it to what we use today that the Spirit has validated as the Word of God. If it's as I suspect, it's not going to include anything of the New Testament and will likely be in a different order than what the Old Testament has been for centuries.
But the surprise!
We often look at the book of Revelation in wonder because of the apparent heaviness of the judgments of God in it. These are to put an end to sin. At the end of the thousand year reign of Christ sin WILL have been ended in all physical senses of the word. It already WAS put to an end spiritually, at the cross of Jesus Christ when He defeated sin once and for all.
What's an incredibly difficult concept for me is that for every man, or woman, to be without excuse in the day they stand before Jesus means more than quite a few centuries for all possibilities to have happened for excuses.
There will be nobody who can say "but wait! what about..." before Jesus. Every excuse will be accounted for.
Oh the surprise the world will have when Jesus Himself tells the world the size and shape of Israel. There will be no discussion. There will be no debate.
Jesus will not need nor use anything of a so-called United Nations forum when He rules from Earth Himself.
While the book of Revelation has a great many perplexing things in it...the important part of this here, this now, is to NOT be here when those things begin.
People across this world debate on what the nation of Israel should or shouldn't be permitted to do concerning the Temple Mount. Jesus will end that debate.
Whether or not it's just before or just after the Rapture of the Church, the 3rd Temple WILL be rebuilt. Israel will either be emboldened by the events of the Rapture and the defending of Israel by Jesus Himself against the coalition of forces that threatened to attack her...and by some other means they WILL begin building that Temple. What most do not know is that the materials have been on standby for decades. In even the last 20 years of my looking into it...many things have already taken place that most aren't aware of.
They went from very few to many certified Red Heifer's to sacrifice to purify the new Temple.
Jewish people have for a few decades now been getting training on how to perform the Temple services as required in even this same ONLY 70 year old Jewish Bible.
Jewish people have no explained reason over the last 70 years to 'come home' from wherever they have been in this world.
Yet we read in the Bible that the Lord Jesus will have caused all of this in preparation for His return. You look at the consequences of the questions the Disciples asked in Luke about the signs of Jesus coming. In their time there WAS a Temple...but Jesus said something that they probably weren't ready for until decades later when John wrote Revelation and it's ties to Old Testament prophecy. That THAT particular Temple would have to be razed to the ground in order to have a 3rd built in it's place. Daniel 9 prophecy says it will be built again in times of distress with plaza and moat.
The world will find it cannot thwart the plans of Jesus. The world, as it is today and has been, under the influence of Satan cannot thwart the plans of God.
In the Bible we do read of rhetorical questions...of who will ask of the Lord why has He done this? There is but one reason for why all of history to be played out the way it is...the name above all names...the Name of Jesus.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
It is Jesus who is the Righteous Judge.
It is Jesus who does what we read in Revelation and in the fulfillment of the Old Testament Prophecies.
It is Jesus to whom the Father has put all rule and authority.
My hope is that all who read this will realize that the time is at hand in their lives to turn to Jesus now for salvation rather in judgment later.
There's no one good not one...that's from Jesus. Our idea of 'good' is filthy rags. Our morality is filthy rags. Our thoughts on what God ought to accept, what Jesus should allow, is filthy rags.
While the world will be in a much deeper shock and surprise at what the promised 7 year Great Tribulation will be...God's not surprised. He wrote it over 2,000 years ago and He will bring it to pass. Every knee WILL bow, willingly or unwillingly, as He's written.
We thought the events of the last 70 years held great moments of shock and horror. My Friend, much much worse is coming. We thought the loss of life in two world wars and countless smaller ones, the famines and earthquakes, tsunami's that have taken millions of lives were greatly horrifying...try billions dying.
The math of the book of Revelation is not exaggerated nor is it deceiving in any way. You just do not want to be here, your thoughts on right and wrong before a Holy God do not matter.
At a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, millions if not maybe upwards of a billion people will vanish...the true professing Church of Christ Jesus will not be here for those 7 years. Sadly, incredibly sadly, THAT will be the only time millions of people will get and understand that the need for salvation in Christ Jesus alone will happen. We read that millions will be martyred for the sake of the Gospel in those 7 years. People will betray people because they do not worship the Antichrist. Beheadings will be the norm during those 7 years after he demands the world worship him.
My Friend, take the seriousness of this hour for what it is. We indeed, as the Bible says, do not know the day nor the hour. However one thing is extremely clear concerning the return of Jesus Christ. It began 2,000 years ago with 1 person believing...and will end at some point with the last person to believe before that door is closed. Indeed it may be YOU. There is that chance that Jesus is waiting on you to come to Him before He returns.
My prayer is that if surprise is to happen it's not going to be on the part of those who do believe. That those who are Believers are ready to be with their Savior Jesus Christ.
Nothing takes Jesus by surprise. Nobody will ever be able to demand an answer of Him as to why He's done what He's done. He by no means desires anyone to perish to Hell, and the subsequent Lake of Fire judgment but that all would come to Him for salvation.
Jesus is coming...are you ready?
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