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Well, I’m sure that I don’t have to review what has happened recently in the past, and also what is going on in the present in the Middle East. But let me take a few moments to frame my message. As you know, on Saturday, October 7th,
Israel was violently attacked. 1,500 Hamas terrorists penetrated the security fence around Gaza and entered into Israel. They entered Israel on motorcycles, on jeeps, and paragliders through the skies. They brutally, barbarically killed all sorts of individuals, who were just enjoying the day at a music festival. They abducted and attacked these
Jewish individuals in the worst mass murder of Jewish people since the Holocaust. And then these same people went through the local kibbutzim. They raided the area along the Gaza border. Now, the thing to keep in mind is that these terrorists, these Hamas terrorists, really did
Not care who it was that they were killing. They indiscriminately came into the area and picked off whoever they could. They indiscriminately killed all sorts of victims. It didn’t matter to them if they were killing off-duty soldiers or if they were killing mothers or grandmothers
Or even babies. The latest count is over 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered in cold blood. They were shot. They were knifed. They were burnt alive. They were beheaded. You have heard the stories; I don’t need to repeat them and all the gruesome details that are part of that,
But they were brutal. They were barbaric; and, the only words really that can describe what they carried out is pure evil. Evil. That’s exactly what it was. Now, people these days are going around and they are saying that this was Israel’s 9/11.
But this is often what is not being said: the population of Israel is approximately 7 million Jews, and the population of the United States has around 330 million Americans. Based on that, when we take into account the number of Jewish people who were slaughtered on their 9/11 in
Comparison to the people who were killed on our soil here in the United States on 9/11, the damage was 30 times greater in proportion in terms of the number of people who died. 30 times! Let that sink in for just a few moments.
Well, after this vicious attack by Hamas terrorists, how did Israel respond? For the very first time in 50 years, since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel officially declared war. Of course, many people really don’t want to check in on the news these days;
It’s depressing, it’s heartbreaking, it’s difficult, it wears on us all—the pain and the suffering and violence that are going on. But let me tell you something: it’s imperative that we keep our eyes on Israel. You say, “Why is that so essential?
Why is that important?” Well, it’s important for many reasons. Think about this with me. We need to keep our eyes on Israel because Israel is God’s prophetic time clock. If you want an idea, if you want to have a sense, if you want to learn what is going on in terms of
Where we are on God’s timeline during these end times, then you have no need to look any further than God’s prophetic timepiece—the epicenter of prophecy. Israel is God’s prophetic time clock. Why else is it important for us to keep our eyes on Israel? Well, very simply stated,
Because Israel is inseparably linked to the Bible. That’s right. The holy place points us to the holy book—the Bible. When you stop to think about it, it is really a book all about Israel. The scripture records historical events in Israel, and the scripture records prophetic
Events that will take place in Israel. So, it’s all going to be going down in the Holy Land. There’s another reason why it’s so important for us to keep our eyes on Israel, and that is because Israel is the homeland of the Messiah. It’s the homeland of the Messiah himself. You see,
God sent the Messiah to Israel. His name is Jesus, Yeshua. Jesus was born in Israel. He lived in Israel. He taught in Israel. He carried out miracles in Israel. Jesus died in Israel. He was raised from the dead in Israel. It was from Israel that He ascended to the Father, and it is
Back to Israel that Jesus is coming; and, He will set up His earthly Kingdom in Israel. And so, we cannot separate the fact that this precious real estate is the homeland of the Messiah Himself. And I want you to think about this: God sent a Jewish savior to the world. That’s right. Not
Only is our savior Jewish, but the prophets were Jewish. The Apostles were Jewish. The Bible was recorded by Jewish people. They were entrusted with the oracles of God. Romans 3:2 tells us that. No wonder Jesus Himself says that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).
Now, for these reasons and other reasons, as a church, we wholeheartedly and unequivocally are standing with Israel and the Jewish people. We don’t apologize for that. We are taking a stand for Israel, for the chosen people of God, the apple of God’s eye. Having said that,
It’s important for me also to say that this does not mean that we agree with everything that is conducted in Israel or by its leaders. We don’t necessarily agree with everything that is carried out by their government. Just like all governments, there are flawed individuals,
Who are at the helm; and they, at times, make mistakes—sometimes significant mistakes. I also want to say that just as there were some sensible Germans during the 1930s and 1940s who opposed Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, so it is that there are
Some sensible Palestinians who oppose Hamas and terrorism. And to these Palestinians, we say to you, “We stand with you also; and, we pray for you. You’re not the enemy.” And so our prayers are for these individuals who are trapped by Hamas in that area.
Now, in case you’re not standing with Israel, my prayer, my strong earnest desire for you would be that would be your conviction before the end of today, that you would adopt the conviction that Israel, in fact, has a right to defend herself against
These unspeakable atrocities that have been perpetrated against her. We should support Israel. We ought to support the Jews not because of politics, but because of prophecy. It’s not that we’re trying to be political; it’s that we need to be biblical. And so,
We want to take a stand where God takes a stand, and He takes a stand for Israel in His word. By the way, did you know that Israel is mentioned over 2,000 times in the Hebrew Bible, and over 70 times in the New Testament? The Old Testament tells us that Israel was chosen
By God. Israel is the apple of God’s eye; they are to be God’s representatives to the world. They are God’s chosen people; they are God’s instrument to represent God to all the nations. Now, with this background in mind, I invite you to open your Bible to the
Very first book of the Torah, also known as the Pentateuch, the Law of Moses, the Book of Books—the Bible. So if you would turn to Genesis 1, I don’t want you to take my word for the fact that we ought to be taking a stand for Israel and the Jewish
People. I want you to see for yourself with your own eyes what God says about His people. The current crisis that we’re considering today goes back a long, long time. Yeah, we’re in the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. It goes all the way back 4,000
Years. We know that God handpicked one particular individual from the entire world at the time. His name was Abram; later, he was renamed Abraham. God chose him out of all the nations in Genesis Chapter 12. I’d like for us to do a little survey of several passages in the Book of Genesis alone.
In Genesis 12, the first two verses, we’re told the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father’s house to the land which I will show you. And I’ll make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great,
And so you will be a blessing.’ There we discover that there’s this unique blessing of God’s hand upon this particular individual. He is going to bless Abraham; he is going to cause, through his seed, the world to be populated with a special blessing that’s going to take place through him.
Then if you were to skip over to three chapters later in Genesis Chapter 15, we discover not the Abrahamic blessing, but the Abrahamic Covenant. God establishes an eternal unconditional covenant with Abraham in Genesis Chapter 15. He gives Abraham and his descendants
The title deed to the land. This is what we can call a land grant. The land of Israel, as you can see based on our map here, is significantly showing a geography that is much larger than present-day Israel. It actually extends from the Great River in
Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River. This is a massive area that God has promised His people, yet to be entered into in terms of their enjoyment of the land. From Genesis Chapter 15 and the covenant that is established there,
I’d like you to turn over to the next two chapters, to Chapter 17. That’s significant because God chooses to extend this covenant not through Ishmael, his firstborn, but through Isaac. You can read it for yourself in Genesis 17:19-21. So,
This covenant that God gave to Abraham was now passed along to Isaac. From there, if you would turn to Genesis Chapter 22, as we are surveying how God has handpicked a man, this man’s son, and then we see this further development take place in Genesis Chapter 22, where it teaches
Us that Abraham went up to Mount Moriah to offer up his son Isaac. And God gives promises to Isaac and then to Jacob. God can see Abraham’s faith, the father of faith, and he says, ‘Hold off;
I see your faith and know that you are willing to even not withhold your son from Me.’ And so, God blesses Abraham and his faith because he did not even hold back that which was precious to him.
In this passage, God gives promises not just to Isaac, but then to Jacob. But we’ll get there in just a few moments. Now, in a case of historical revisionism, Islam comes along and says, ‘No. It was not Isaac who Abraham sought to offer up on Mount Moriah; it was Ishmael, and
The Jewish people have it all wrong. Ishmael was the one who was offered up there.’ Now think about this for a few moments. Moses penned the Torah, including Genesis, in approximately 1400 BC. Okay, now Muhammad comes along 2,000 years later in 600 AD and he says, ‘No, no, no. It wasn’t Isaac,
Who was offered up there on Mount Moriah. It was Ishmael.’ But that was 2,000 years after the fact. Wouldn’t you think that is not the most reliable way of understanding what took place? Listen, the origin of the conflict goes way back in time between the descendants of Isaac,
The Jewish people, and the descendants of Ishmael, the Arab people. And since then, there’s been ongoing conflict. Would you turn to Genesis Chapter 26? We see this reestablishment once again of this covenant with Isaac. Just so there’s no confusion, God says to Isaac in Genesis
26, starting in verse 3, He says, ‘So turn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. For to you and to your descendants, I will give all these lands. Who does the land belong to? It tells
Us right here—from Abraham to Isaac. This is where the covenant is established. He says, ‘And I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. Verse 4 says ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and will give your descendants all these lands.’
In the previous chapter, Genesis Chapter 25, Jacob receives Esau’s birthright. He received it through trickery, but nevertheless, he was a recipient of the birthright, and the birthright was an honor that gave the heir the right to the inheritance of the land and the privileges
Associated with the father’s estate. Now look at Genesis Chapter 28. We’re just surveying this one book where we find the answers to the question: who does the land belong to biblically? In Genesis 28:3,4, Isaac is blessing Jacob, and we’re told, ‘May God Almighty bless you
And make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. May He also give you the blessing of Abraham to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings which God gave to Abraham.’ See,
There’s really no confusion that needs to be there in terms of who God has given this land to; it’s clear . . . through Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob. While you’re still in Genesis Chapter 28, notice with me verse 13. God says to Jacob,
‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give it to you.’ Who’s God talking to? To Jacob. ‘I’m not just going to give it to
You,’ He says in Genesis 28:13. ‘I will give it to you and to your descendants.’ Do you remember in Genesis Chapter 32, there is a wrestling match? What an interesting wrestling match that had to have been, where the angel of the Lord is wrestling with Jacob,
And Jacob is relentless. And God touches his hip socket, and he develops a limp from that day forward. And we’re told that God gives Jacob a name change. The name change is not a small thing that we just give a passing look at; it’s something that we need to consider. Could that
Weigh in on the importance of Israel belonging to the Jewish peoples? Look at Genesis 32:28. God says, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob.’ And then, if you will turn to Genesis Chapter 35, and starting in verse 10, we’re told God said to him, that is to Jacob, ‘Your name is Jacob;
You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.’ So, He called him Israel. Verse 12: ‘And the land,’ don’t miss that, ‘the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.’ And
A great cross-reference to this would be 48:4. Now, when you put all these verses together, it should be abundantly obvious to all of us that God gave the land to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to Jacob, and to the Jewish descendants that would come after Jacob.
But there’s more. Before we even leave the Book of Genesis, we need to understand that Jacob had a whole lot of children. He had many sons, and before he passed out of this life, he blessed his sons. I’d like you to check out one of the particular sons whom Jacob blessed greatly.
This was not like any other blessing which God, through Jacob, blessed this individual. It’s the greatest blessing of royalty that was given to this one particular son. Genesis chapter 49, look there if you would, In Genesis 49:8, Jacob is blessing his son Judah. It says, “As for you,
Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Don’t miss this. Your father’s sons, in other words, your brothers, shall bow down to you.” What this tells us is that Judah was given the place of greatest prominence, superiority, even over his
Other brothers, the most important inheritance and place in the family. Then in verse 10, it says, “The scepter will not depart from Judah nor from the ruler’s staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” Now, notice if you will, the word
“scepter” and “ruler’s staff”. Those items are symbolic; they symbolize royal command. And it was through Judah that King David eventually would be born. It was through Judah that King Solomon would eventually be born. And it was through Judah that the King of Kings would be born. And so,
It is by no mistake that this blessing is going through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, and then through Judah. By the way, the shortened form for the word “Judah,” take a wild guess, is what? It’s “Jew”. And throughout time, people have wondered, “Well, who was the first Jew?” Well,
If by Jew, you mean the tribe of Judah, then Judah was the first Jew. If by Jew, you are referring to someone who is a Hebrew, then Abraham was the first Jew. If you say, “By Jew,
We have to refer to people who are first referred to as Jews in the Bible,” then you would have to look at Second Kings to discover that there are all of these unnamed individuals who are called
Jews. But the point that I want to make here is this: because God has given the land to the Jewish people, because they are to be the owners of the land, they are not the occupiers. That’s a phrase
We keep hearing in connection with the Jewish people. “They are the occupiers. They don’t belong there”. But they’re not the occupiers. They’re the owners of the land. And if you know your history, you’re aware of the fact that the Jewish people are the indigenous people of this particular land,
The Holy Land. They were living in this land 2,000 years before anyone was ever called or referred to as a Palestinian. They were in the land thousands of years before Islam was ever a religion. Now, for those who don’t embrace the Bible, for those who don’t perceive the Bible as the
Word of God, as a historical record of the fact that the Jews were living in the land thousands of years before the Palestinians were recognized, before there was a person called a Palestinian, or thousands of years before Islam, then at least look at the archaeological evidence. We
Know historically and archaeologically that there is what is known as an Egyptian stele. An Egyptian stele is an ancient stone slab which has markings on it. You could hop online and do a check on Google, and you would discover that there are many different images of Egyptian stelae,
Ancient stones with markings on them. The ancient Egyptian stele goes all the way back to approximately the 13th century BC; and, it speaks of the name “Israel” by name as the land. Also, there is an ancient Canaanite stele from the 9th century BC, which refers by name to King David as
The king of the land of Israel. So, if you don’t want to believe the Bible, at least believe the historical evidence, the archaeological evidence that has been made available to us. Regardless of what your faith happens to be, for thousands of years, it has been a well-documented fact that the
Jews lived in this land that God gave to them. They’re not the occupiers; they’re the owners. Now, there are some people who would come along and say, “Yeah, but we need to understand this goes back pretty far. We need to understand that “This is our
Land because dating all the way back to 586 BC, during the time of the Babylonian exile, when the Jewish people were exiled from the Holy Land, they were besieged until 1948, which is when the Jews asserted the right to the land. Between those two time frames, 586 BC to 1948 AD,
In that large span of time, those 2500 years, the Jewish people were in the land. And that’s true; they were scattered, especially after the Romans came along and they destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. The Jewish population was scattered from the land; they were dispersed
Throughout the world and persecuted. And so, that argument is true that between 586 to 1948, the Jewish people, by and large, were not the main people who lived in the land. The Jews who managed to stay alive in their homeland were dominated by other world empires, and here’s the list of them:
“the Babylonians, then came the Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans, then the Byzantines, then the Arab Islamic Empire, then the Catholic Crusaders, then the Mamluks, then the Ottomans, and then the British Empire.” And so, as a result of all these various world empires coming on the
Scene and dispersing the Jewish people throughout the world, these people groups would say, “It’s not their land; it is our land”, and they would claim the land for themselves. But again, we have to look back at history and realize that the Jews were there before any of them.
It’s true that the Jews have not always occupied the land. Why is that? Because there were times when the people of Israel, the Jewish people, were in rebellion; they were disobedient, and God disciplined them. He is the one that allowed them to scatter;
He put them out of their own land. But even though they haven’t continually occupied the land, they’ve always had ownership of that location. They have ownership of the land of Israel because of an inalienable, eternal promise that God gave to Abraham and to his descendants.
So maybe you’re wondering to yourself, where did the Palestinians come from? Because that seems to be really where the battle is. Does the land belong to the Jewish people or to the Palestinians? Should it be Israel? Should it be Palestine? So let me give you some additional
History. In 135 AD, the Jewish people were in rebellion against the Roman Empire. They were having it up to here with the oppression that was being meted out to them. And so during that time,
The Roman Emperor of the land was a man by the name of Hadrian. Hadrian hated the Jews; he got sick and tired of their rebellion, and he wanted to put down the rebellion once and for all. And
So he had the Jewish people dispersed in 135 AD. You can look back through the historical records and discover that is the case. Not only did he have the Jewish people scattered away from the promised land, but he also renamed Israel with a Latin name, “Palestina”. And that word, Palestina,
Is linked to the Philistines. And the reason why Hadrian renamed this land Palestina or Palestine is because he knew that the Philistines were the archenemies of the Jews. Just to stick it to the Jewish population, just to agitate them, and to try to cause them to be a memory of the past,
He renamed Israel “Palestine.” Now, even though in the Bible, it’s called “Israel,” the land was known as “Palestine,” which is a false name that Hadrian gave to the region, again, to agitate the Jews and to try to blot out their memory. That’s where the name comes
From. Arabs living in the land were known as Palestinians. And so the land of Palestine, from 135 AD all the way up until 1948 AD, that land was called “Palestine.” And then in 1948, the Jews come along; they take back the land and they give it its rightful name, Israel.
Now, there are some Palestinians today who will tell you, “Oh, this goes back even before all the stuff about the Roman Emperor Hadrian. This goes back, it predates even Abraham.” There are some Palestinians who will say that they are descendants of the Canaanites. Now,
That’s not true. But even if it were true, God put out the Canaanites and had the Jewish people be the new residents of the land. So they’re wrong in neither account. Listen, the Palestinians, while we can certainly pray for them and love them, and we ought to,
We should have no anger, no animosity, no hatred in our heart toward Palestinians. That said, the Palestinians may make historical or political arguments in terms of why they should be there, but they have no biblical right to the land. The title deed was given to Israel,
To the Jewish people; the land was given to them by God. The land is theirs. And so, that’s one reason why we support Israel and why we support the Jewish people. God made promises that He never revoked. These are irrevocable promises that are not to be
Broken. You say, “But Jeff, what about a two-state solution? That seems like a good way to resolve this. Just allow both parties to come together, sit down, and come out with a two-state solution. That will take care of all of this.” Listen, that was already tried in 1947. The United Nations came
Up with a partition plan by which Israel would be considered part Israel, part Palestine. That was the plan, and the land was partitioned between those, who were living in the land at the time, as well as the Jews, who came back to the land out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Well,
The Jews accepted the plan, but the Arab at the time rejected it. The reason the Arabs rejected it is because the issue had nothing to do with the size of the land that would be given to them,
Or the size of the land that would be given to Israel. The issue had to do with the existence of Israel at all. They didn’t believe that there should be an Israel; they opposed the very existence of Israel. And so, in their thinking, you can shrink it
Down as much as you would like, but you can’t really shrink it down small enough for them. Now, I want you to think about this: the Arab nations, and there are quite a few of them, possess more than 300 times the land compared to the size of Israel. They have 40 times the
Population that Israel possesses. And yet, so many within the Arab nations do not want to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and they believe they should be wiped off the face of the earth. Not only do they believe that Israel should be non-existent, but they don’t think Jewish people,
Whether they’re in Israel or anywhere, should exist. They think that whether it be Hamas or someone else, the job of exterminating the Jews needs to still take place. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to discover that we are living in a day and age in which
Anti-Semitism is burgeoning; it’s growing; it’s mushrooming. It’s perhaps the worst that people have seen since the days of the Holocaust itself. People all around the world are maintaining the belief that Jewish people, not only do they not have a right to Israel, but they don’t even have a
Right to exist, and that the job of exterminating the Jewish people, which Hitler tried to carry out, needs to be finished. Now, where is all this anti-Semitism coming from? Why is there so much Jew hatred out there? Well, that’s a big question, and for that, you’ll need to come back
Next time. We’ll just hold off until then. But in the meantime, let me just say in closing, God has a special plan for Israel. He has a special love and plan for the Jewish people. And I want to make sure I’m not misunderstood. God loves Palestinians. God even loves people who
Are part of Hamas. He hates what they’re doing, but the Lord sent His Jewish Messiah to die for Jews and Gentiles. Yes, we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We also need to pray that
The Prince of Peace will enter into the hearts and lives of those who have not met Him yet.
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