What
we want to pray are those things that will impact the return of Messiah Yeshua.
There are many issues involved in that. Just to name a few today: Israel is God’s
time clock to see where we are on the prophetic time line, as to what is taking
place that God foretold us regarding Israel. A great deal indeed. To really understand God we must understand
His ways with Israel – correctly. We
today have inherited an understanding of much that God had given to Israel that
is faulty, not just about Israel, but in other ways that have strayed from what
God had given to Israel both as how to live in the highest form of life and
relationship with Him than any other people on the earth, but also how He
revealed Himself to and through Israel. All we understand about God, we
understand through Israel.
It is through Israel that God has revealed
Himself ….as Creator, as sustainer, as Lord, as Sovereign over all things, as
ultimate Redeemer. As the One to whom we are accountable. As the God who loves
us (unlike idols or other gods ). How
many other ‘revelations’ of Him can you add here?
Even
Paul’s message to the Gentiles was that of the Hebrew Messiah who lived a Torah-compliant
life in every way. Even that Yeshua died
while being nailed a cross of wood is a fulfillment of all the sacrificial
system represented, including: ” he
that is hanged is accursed of God:” (Deut. 21:23). He took the curse from
all mankind that whoever comes into faith in His doing so, has new life with
the Father.
It
is important to realize the extent to which God has placed Israel at the center
of His Self- revelation to the world and that He continues to reveal Himself
through her, even though not all Israel knows the Lord yet. That He has brought her back into the same
land after 1848 years, although still only portions of it.
Israel’s land today is only a small sliver of the full promised land area and even that is being contested by her enemies. Genesis
15 states the land Abraham’s children will ultimately inherit is a plot of land
significantly larger than the current State of Israel. In that day Yehova made a covenant with Abraham,
saying: ‘Unto thy seed have I given this land,
from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." (Genesis 15:18) This
Biblical prophecy promises the Children of Abraham all the land
from the Nile River to the Euphrates River. This includes all of modern-day
Jordan and Lebanon, the majority of Syria and parts of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and
Iraq.
However, today, we see
that the promise of a wide swath of land in the region is reduced to just the
Land of Canaan. Even so, God is staking
Israel’s claim to that limited land: “And I will give unto thee, and
to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Cannan for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8). It is
even that small portion of the land that is being contested today by the so-called
‘Palestinians’ – a fictitious term, by the way. There has never been a
Palestinian people, language, history or culture. Palestine was a name Emperor Hadrian gave to Israel’s land 335 A.D. in his attempt to eliminate any trace of Israel’s history. Even then, the devil was trying to obliterate God’s covenant promises to Israel, so as to try to make God appear as the liar that the devil is. In Hebrew the name for Palestine was the Greek pronunciation as Hadrian called it. It is pronounced in Hebrew as Plishteem which was also the same name of the Philistines (remember Goliath?) who were Israel’s enemies, and who became extinct. So much for bullies.
However, since Israel was not in her land for many years, the name as Palestine, (which is the Greek pronunciation rather than the Hebrew), remained for the land of Israel for centuries always referring to the Land of the Jews, or Israel. I have in my possession a copy of the Palestinian Post dated May 14, 1946, the day Israel was declared a nation. It later became the Jerusalem Post. Never did that name Palestine or Palestinian have anything to do with her Arab neighbors – until it was co-opted by the likes of Arafat not so long ago. A factoid is a fact that is not true until it is said so ofter than everyone begins to believe it. This is maybe the world’s biggest factoid.
Ancient Romans, as well as modern so-called Palestinians, have fulfilled the prophesy in the Hebrew Scriptures that declares: "They lay crafty plans against Your People... they say: ‘come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more'." - (Psalm 83:3-4). They failed, as did any other nation that tried to destroy them. Israel is still alive. For more on this topic, go to: http://www.imninalu.net/myths-pals.htm .
COVENANT: God’s
covenant(s) with God will always ‘trump’ any attempt to destroy her or
obliterate the covenants. The first usage of the word “covenant” occurs in Genesis 6.18 (cf. Genesis 9.9-17) with God’s warning Noah of
the coming Flood. The Hebrew word for “covenant” is בְּרִית (pronounced
B’reet) and occurs 285 times in the Old Testament. The word for “covenant”
in the New Testament is διαθήκη and occurs 33 times (but don’t ask me to
pronounce it.)
Our highest goal
is to know our God, and the best way to do that, other than personal experience
with Him, is to know what He has said regarding Israel. God established all of
His covenants, with the exception of the Noahic covenant, with the Jews.
Biblically, “covenant theology,” is “Jewish theology” or what might better be
termed “Israelology.” Christianity has no covenants. Thus,
“covenant theology” with respect to Christianity is meaningless. The chart
below illustrates that the covenants God established in the Old Testament
applied almost exclusively to Jews. The covenants are in fact promises. For God
to no fulfill His covenant promises would be to make Him a liar and too weak to
accomplish His promises. We know that’s an impossibility. So we can stand on
His covenant promises.
Note here, please,
that the words “new covenant” in Jeremiah 31:31 are in fact in the original
Hebrew bible, “renewed covenant.” God
was not starting a new covenant with the Gentiles through Jesus. Rather He was
renewing the covenant(s) He had already made with Israel, one they could no
longer break because He would write it on the hearts of all who accepted His covenant, which now the
Gentiles were able to partake or enter into.
Divine Covenants
|
Recipient
|
First Declared
|
Noahic
|
All mankind
|
|
Abrahamic
|
Abraham (Jewish progenitor)
|
|
Mosaic
|
Jews
|
|
Sabbatic
|
Jews
|
|
Palestinian (Land)
|
Jews
|
|
Davidic
|
Jews (Davidic lineage)
|
|
New
|
Jews
|
Thank you for doing this!
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