In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of the time of Jacob's trouble, which refers to a period of great suffering and judgment for Israel and the Jewish people. The speaker emphasizes that this judgment is not God's final word, but rather a necessary step towards their salvation and transformation. The speaker references Isaiah chapter 6, where the prophet Isaiah is called by God to deliver a message of judgment to the people. The speaker suggests that the church needs to understand and accept the severity of God's judgment in order to fully grasp the significance of Jacob's trouble.

Maybe I'm just shrinking from an unwelcome task to give a kind of comprehensive overview of the time of Jacob's trouble. It's a painful survey of the sufferings for which that are still future for Israel, for the Jewish people worldwide. I think that the church needs to have an understanding that it will not be offended at the lengths to which God will go in dealing with Jacob, that he might become the Israel of God. So I've made allusions to it over these days, flight, expulsion, but unless the Lord yet is going to give me another signal, I'm just going to condescend to review a paper that I've composed about the time of Jacob's trouble that touches the significant scriptures, that will give you a framework of understanding. The Lord did this in Sydney, and I can't remember where else, but I think that it's a consideration that must come to the church. So we could begin in Isaiah chapter 6, where the prophet saw the Lord high and lifted up, and cried out, woe is me, I am undone. And then heard the Lord say, after he had applied the coal from off the altar to his lips, agreeing with him that he's a man of unclean lips, who shall go for us? And Isaiah's answer, send me. And then he receives the most fearful mandate, that his going and his speaking is not so much to bless as it is to judge, fearful judgment. So let's just review that, because I believe that that judgment is still in fact now, extent now. So in verse 9, go and say to this people, keep listening but do not comprehend. Keep looking but do not understand. Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears and shut their eyes, so they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed or be converted. What a remarkable thing that the word of God through the prophet is not to bless but to judge, and to seal Israel in the consequence of her sin, that she cannot hear, cannot turn, cannot be saved. And so the prophet rightly asks in verse 11, how long, O Lord? Because he knows God well enough that judgment is not God's final word, it's the penultimate word, it's the next to last. So he knows that this must come to an end at some time, and this is where we need now to concentrate. How long, Lord? And the Lord said, until. Cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate, until the Lord sends everyone far away. And vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land, even if a tenth pot remain in it, it will be burned again. Like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled, the holy seed is its stump. In my opinion, Israel nationally is yet under this judgment. Anyone who has been a missionary to the Jews knows the remarkable resistance of this people in general toward the gospel. Paul calls them the enemies of the gospel for our sake. There are Jews, a remnant of which Paul said exists in every generation, but nationally there is this judgment and curse yet over the people, until the until is fulfilled. And what is the until? Until a vast devastation comes upon the nation, that its cities lie waste without inhabitant, houses without people, the land is utterly desolate, and the Lord sends or expels everyone far away. Vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land, and so on. Though only a remnant remains, it also will be burned. So I believe that here is an initial statement that indicates that there's an until yet not fulfilled, and that when it comes, it will require this devastation and this desolation in the land itself. And that is in keeping with other scriptures that I will be citing, but that this is in the midst of the land, so it requires a presence in the land to suffer this judgment and this devastation, and that this is confirmed by other prophetic scriptures that when the Lord brings back the first function that awaits them is the rebuilding of the cities that lie waste, the ruins and the desolate places. So there are many scriptures in the prophets to corroborate and are supportive of this devastation, which is the until of God. Until this happens, there was no loosing of Israel from its blindness, from its deafness, or its hardness of heart, that this judgment must first take place in the midst of the land. I believe that that's future, and that the cities that will be rebuilt upon the return that the Lord himself will affect are not the cities of antiquity, but the present modern cities of Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Tiberias, and so on. Other scriptures, you can cite these in your own notes and look them up at your own convenience. In Isaiah 28, that speaks about an overflowing scourge. Isaiah 10, verse 15, the desolations that are determined, and Revelation 11, that indicates a 42-month trotting down by Gentiles, and this quotation from Ezekiel 36, verses 33 through 38, thus says the Lord God, in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the waste shall be builded, and the desolate land shall be tilled. And they shall say, this land that was desolate is become like the Garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities become fenced and inhabited. This can be confusing, and we can say, well, isn't that taking place now, and hasn't it been a restoration and a rebuilding? But the desolation is the result of violence, and the rebuilding is in keeping with the time when I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, which in my opinion is yet future. The devastation is future, the restoration is future, and the scripture indicates the time. It's the time when I will have cleansed you also from your iniquities. So this is not a reference to the times of the past or any of the past desolations, but yet a future one that is yet before Israel in her experience. Another confirmation from that same section of scripture in Ezekiel is that at that same time that the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places and plant that which was desolate. Here's another telltale sign that yet awaits fulfillment, that the heathen round about you, seeing both the desolation and the rebuilding, will know that I the Lord build the ruined places and plant that which was desolate. There's a knowing that is yet future, and the statement that are left round about you indicates a kind of a regional disaster that Israel may invoke by its own use of its atomic ability, but that this is clearly a statement of that which is yet future that culminates in the nations themselves, recognizing God in both the desolation and the rebuilding. And that this concludes with a reference to a millennial blessing that is yet future in the same text, as the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, this is at the end of chapter 36 of Ezekiel, so shall the way cities be filled with flocks of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord. So I can't think of a time in my own experience where a scrutiny of scripture and attention to the detail of it is more significant than now, to indicate whether something is being described that is past or something future. And if we read the scriptures carefully, it's clear that though there have been judgments in the past, though there has been desolation in the past, though there has been expulsion, if this has been the characteristic pattern of God's judgment on Israel's sin, this is a future and a concluding one, because it ends with both the nations round about and Israel herself knowing that I am the Lord. No previous desolation or ruin has ever eventuated in this knowledge. So the scripture itself indicates that we're speaking about a future time. In Amos chapter 9, another supportive text, I will bring again verses 13 through 15, the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the way cities and inhabit them. In that same text, by the way, it says at that time I will rebuild the ruins of the tabernacle of David that has fallen down. And a brother asked me after the morning session, is this a reference to a form of worship? Because in his own church movement and largely in the charismatic movement, the interpretation of the tabernacle of David is to some form of worship that is now current in charismatic and Pentecostal and other circles, and my answer is no. The reference in Amos chapter 9 to the tabernacle of David is not to a form of worship, but to a form of government. How can you tell that, Ark? Because the scriptures that follow, if you look at it, speaks of an Edom and all the nations that are called by my name will come under or be submitted to or affected by the restoration of the tabernacle of David, which is not that they will be dancing new Hebraic dances, but they will come under the authority of the government that has been raised up at that time. So with Israel's restoration is the restoration also of the establishment of the kingdom of God, the Davidic kingdom, which we know is still future. The word Edom is a symbolic term that refers to Gentile nations. Isaiah 44, verses 26 and Isaiah 49, 19 make a reference of the same kind, for thy waste and thy desolate places in the land of thy destruction shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. There's a language being used that indicates not only a defeat of Israel, but a humiliation, swallowed you up. Isaiah 51, you can read at your own leisure, Israel is not only trapped, the young men at the head of every street as antelopes in the net, but the enemy says lie down and we will walk over you, and they walk over you. So it indicates not only a defeat, but a humiliation, which makes sense now in the context of present events themselves, that the enemies of Israel, this Islamic hatred, is not satisfied with mere defeat, but wants and desires an ultimate humiliation of Israel, and the text supports that. And this is not uncommon, that we often have to wait for an understanding of a prophetic text when we come closer to the time of its fulfillment. There are lots of things that have been mysterious. This reference in Isaiah 51 is in the scriptures seven centuries before the advent of Christ, but now in this present hour, with the threat to Israel and the kinds of enemies that are surrounding her, and the vitriolic hatred of Israel, and the Islamic need for vengeance, this scripture then comes into a focus that has waited for this time to make it clear. So this is a way of reading and understanding scriptures that have been positionally there, and have waited for a proximity to the time of the events to become more clear. Jesus in his own Olivet Discourse, when he's asked by his disciples, what are the signs of your coming and of the end of the age, gives, as one of the pronounced signs, a time of trouble that shall come for the nation, that shall exceed any previous trouble in its history, and that nothing will ever again be like it, and if this time were not cut short, no flesh would survive. But for the elect's sake, this time is cut short. He refers in that statement to the abomination of desolation. Let those who read understand, quoting from Daniel, that speaks of an Antichrist coming to desecrate the temple, make the oblations and the sacrifice to cease, and require the worship of the nation, having made with them a covenant of death that has brought a seeming peace for a short period of time. All of this is clearly future. There has been no such event in the history of Israel that has eventuated in an explosion of violence against them in their refusal to condescend to this Antichrist figure, who has affected a seeming peace for a short time through negotiation that finally makes Israel to know they've made a covenant with death and with hell. We can see that the stage is being set, and I think that there's a reference in the prophetic scriptures that this Antichrist figure ratifies a treaty, implying that it's not so much as one newly made, but taking one already existent and making it effectual. Something like the Oslo Accord that has failed to be implemented for the want of a figure whose authority could be recognized by both the Israel and the Palestinian sides. So this is a sign of the end and of his coming that must take place in the land, even as we read in Isaiah chapter 6, that this is a desolation in the midst of the land, which gives every reason why there needs to be a preliminary Jewish existence in the land, which is today's state of Israel. Not that it's intended to fulfill the millennial intention of God for the nation, but set in motion those tensions and conflicts that require this devastation, humiliation, and expulsion that gives God the opportunity also to affect their restoration, their return, when the cities that have been laid waste shall be rebuilt, and in such a way that those nations that remain roundabout shall know that I am the Lord who has spoken and done this. The same reference of Jesus in his Olivet Discourse is the citation in Jeremiah 37, with a phrase, the time of Jacob's trouble is invoked. Alas for that day is great so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Part of my controversy with other prophetic spokesmen who claimed that this time is past and that the time of Jacob's trouble was the Nazi Holocaust, is answered by the fact that the time of Jacob's trouble does not have its inception in Europe, but in Israel itself, in the land. And so therefore it indicates something that has not yet taken place, but the stage is being set for that eruption and that expulsion. Verse 10 of Jeremiah 30 says, and Jacob shall return and shall be in rest and be quiet and none shall make him afraid. Here's where we have to be attentive to the details of the prophetic scriptures, because if Jacob's trouble has already taken place and the return has taken place, then Israel should be experiencing a condition in which none shall make him afraid. On the contrary, present Israel is riddled with fear, riddled with terror, riddled with apprehension and anxiety, not knowing when the next human bomb is going to explode at a shopping mall discotheque. So here's a clear evidence that the time of Jacob's trouble is yet future, or else they would now presently be in a place of peace where none make them afraid. The fact that they are afraid clearly indicates the time of Jacob's trouble is future. So we're not speaking about some small matter. How do I say this? I'm giving you a prophetic interpretation or assessment as I read and understand these scriptures. Other men are offering another view, which I don't believe is tenable for the reasons that I'm just stating, because they're not attentive to the detail of the scriptures. So I've had an in-office debate with one of the leading prophetic figures in Jerusalem, I've known this brother for 30 years, showing him from the scriptures that Jerusalem itself, it says in Jeremiah 30-31, shall be rebuilt upon its own heaps. And he said, well Art, look out the window, it's happening right now, there's the earth moving equipment. I said, but you dear man, be attentive to the detail of the scripture. It says it shall be rebuilt again on its own heaps as unto the Lord. This building that is taking place now is unto man and will constitute the heaps upon which the millennial rebuilding of Jerusalem will take place. So which of these prophets then is right? Because it's not a matter of opinion that can amuse us or be a subject for our little coffee time clutches. Because if I'm giving a false warning of a devastation to come, then I'm right in the rebuke that I'm receiving from men like that, that I'm bringing a harassment to the church and giving aid to the enemy. Whereas if they are wrong and that Jacob's trouble is yet future and they are not giving warning, then the nation is going to suffer a sudden devastation without warning. But not only the nation, the believers within the nation will equally be nonplussed and undone at the thing that comes which they do not expect. So for the first time in my 38 years as a believer, an issue has surfaced of such moment that makes the question of who is speaking for God, who is a prophetic voice that is giving a right interpretation of prophetic scripture, because I believe that God gives to those who hold the office of view of prophecy that is not given to others. So the whole issue of true and false prophets has come into focus in a way that I have not seen it in all of the years past, and has become a critical issue for the church and its ability to discern, recognize which of these voices is indeed speaking the counsel of God. Historically, false prophets are always the ones that have said, peace, peace, when there is no peace, and have healed the wounds of my daughter lightly. The true prophets have always been the ones that have been the harbingers of doom, of coming devastation, and of judgment that the nation has not wanted to hear, so their voices have been shunted away and have been unpopular. So far it seems like that same alignment and reality is true to this day. Don't you think I take any delight in being a prophet speaking of future devastation as if I'm enjoying it. It's painful. Maybe that's why I've shucked off having to speak this tonight, hoping against hope the Lord was going to quicken some other alternative. I don't even like reviewing the coming catastrophe. How am I going to like observing it? And as tough as you may think I am, and speak this with a kind of clinical detachment, as if this is just a Bible study review, when the devastation comes, when Israel will be ravaged, when the women will be raped, when two-thirds will have perished and one third brought through the fire, when my Jewish people will be in fight for their lives in this time of Jacob's trouble that will affect Jacob everywhere. Yes, it has its inception in Israel, but it will not be contained there. But it's an eruption that will pursue Jacob wherever he is in the world. I wondered how that would take place. How could events that have their inception in Jerusalem affect Jews elsewhere in the world? Well, I happen to have been in Montreal, Canada, at the very time when the days of rage erupted last September or October the second intifada. I woke the next day and picked up the local newspaper. That night, six of the Montreal synagogues had had their window smashed, doors broken in, graffiti written tombstones overturned. And then I realized that there is an Islamic presence throughout all the world, and the events that take place in Jerusalem or in Israel will have its reverberation and its consequence everywhere where they are, for they are ruled and moved by exactly the same vitriolic hatred and spirit of violence against the Jew. So it will have its initial eruption in Jerusalem, but it will not be contained there. It will pursue Jews wherever they are, for the enemy has seen to it that now they are as dispersed in the Western worlds as Jewish communities themselves. In fact, just as a little note of personal irony, my mother who grew up in the east end of London, Whitechapel Road, for anyone who knows that formerly Jewish neighborhood, had only two blocks from where she lived, the Brady Street buildings, the Whitechapel mission to the Jews. And I said to my mother, did you ever visit that place? She said, I didn't even know it existed. I myself have played ping-pong in that mission. And so the last visit that I made to East London a few years ago, the whole mission was boarded up, and right across the street a brand new mosque had risen. And so it is. These mosques and Islamic presences are all over the world, and will afflict Jews in every place where they are. For it is the time of Jacob's trouble, and wherever Jacob is to be found. And it is so great a day that there is none like it, but he shall be saved out of it. And when he's saved out of it and returned, none shall make him afraid. So to assure Israel that this has come, when it is yet future, and indeed imminent or near, is to leave her wholly unprepared for both the suddenness and the extent of the catastrophe. To warn of its inevitability is to encourage as many as will into the arc of safety, which is the knowledge of the Messiah. It's interesting that the most prominent Christian presence in Israel has as its platform not to evangelize Jews, but to show itself friendly, the Christian embassy. So I don't know that we have the luxury to show ourselves friendly by not disturbing them with the issue of the gospel and of salvation, but if there's a destruction imminent, and there's a place of safety that can be found even now in the arc of safety that Jesus himself is, we have every incentive now not to relax the gospel, but to promote it. So here's one of the most significant practical questions arising from how do you read the prophetic scriptures and understand those things that are future for Israel, will determine what your present stance and posture is toward the nation. Whether to withhold a disturbing gospel or to press it in the hope that some will come into that place of safety and be saved from the devastation that will fall all about their ears. Another great question is, is this a time to send Jews to Israel? There are any number of organizations, Ebenezer, I don't know the names of some of them, my heart goes out to them, well-meaning, I understand their humane concern, but I believe that they are, if I'm correct in what I'm expecting in the devastation of Israel, the worst thing that you can do is encourage Jews to go to the very vortex of violence, and there's probably greater safety in their nations than to be sent there where the explosion itself will occur. But men have so committed themselves to this that to retract or stop and acknowledge that they may have been in error, however well-meaning their intentions, is a humiliation that many are unwilling to pay. And so there's a real tension right now. When I was in Odessa, the Black Sea port in the Ukraine, I heard myself saying to the Pentecostal Church in a totally unrehearsed way when they were boasting to me that they had sent Ukrainian Jews to Israel through their Black Sea port, I said, well don't boast because I think you took an especial delight and relief in sending your Jews to Israel, but the spiritual requirement is yet before you, namely to receive them back in terror and in flight when the devastation falls, and that will be the test of your true spirituality, not the mere sending. They said, we've never heard this before. All we heard was that Israel is the place of greatest safety when the fact of the matter is, in my opinion, in my understanding of Scripture, it's the place of greatest danger. And I've had face-to-face confrontations and lunches with numbers of Messianic pastors and leaders in the Ukraine over this one question, and the Lord has given me a grace to persuade them that this view that I hold is God's, and that they need to redress what they have been doing till now, and think more in terms of finding places of safety and refuge for Jews in flight within their nation, than to send them to the vortex of violence, which may likely be their end. Another remarkable statement in that Time of Jacob's Trouble text in Jeremiah chapter 30 is that they will be saved out of it, and they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up to them. This is identical to the promise given in Ezekiel 37, after the dry bones are raised up, and raised out of their graves, and the Judah and Israel, the two branches, are united, I will raise up their King David, who will rule over them. So here's another aspect that needs to be considered in the whole review of scriptures that speak of devastation and return, that there is a millennial conclusion that the King himself, David, Jesus, is raised up to rule over the nation now being restored, and whose ruins are being rebuilt. For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee, though I make a full end of all nations, whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a full end of thee. Verse 11 of Jeremiah 30. So here's another sign. What is the effect of God's judgment on nations that are employed to bring the chastisement to Israel? God says, I will make a full end of them. The fact that we have not seen a full end indicates that the chastisement is yet future, and when it takes place, these nations invariably go beyond God's intention, and take in a special delight in bringing dimensions of suffering and humiliation to Israel beyond God's intention, for which reason they themselves suffer judgment, which is yet future. I will make an end of them, though I will not make an end of thee. So I think that some of the nations that exist today will have lost their identity when God will fulfill the judgments of which he speaks, that are yet future, in Jeremiah chapter 40. Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured. Swallowed up and devoured is very strong language. It's not some minor discomfort or even a defeat, but devoured and swallowed up shows the vehemence, the bitterness, the total dominance that Israel's enemies shall have over them in this time of Jacob's trouble. All they that devour thee shall be devoured, and all thine adversaries, every one of them, indicates a severe judgment on those nations that is yet future. And they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all they that pray upon thee I will give for a prey. Verse 16 of Jeremiah chapter 30. So this will precipitate an expulsion of Jews out of Israel, but out of all nations as well, in fulfillment of Amos chapter 9, I will sift you through all nations. And as I have mentioned, I think, previously in these days, Ezekiel chapter 20 verse 33 through 44, I will meet with you in the wilderness of the nations. There's already something being presently prepared by the Lord in many nations of the world, and that I myself for 26 years have been called to our present location in the wilderness of North America to prepare such a place of refuge. And as I mentioned in the other day, if Jews will be in flight in North America and need places of refuge there, in what country then will they be safe and not be in flight? And the answer is nowhere, because God says, I will sift you through all nations. At the end of the statement in Jeremiah 30 31 comes the millennial blessing, the restoration. Ezekiel 36 talks about when you will abhor yourself for your own sins after your return. Jeremiah 31 13 says, then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance both young men and old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice for their sorrow. The word mourning and sorrow. The redeemed of the Lord shall return with mourning and sorrow or sighing fleeing away indicates clearly by the frequency of those words that Israel's last experience in her history, even as everlasting joy now comes upon their heads, is the memory of mourning and sighing, of sorrow. What will occasion that? Because it has not been descriptive of any return to Israel since the advent of the state in 1948, but it will be descriptive of the return that will come in the expulsion to the nations that is precipitated by the explosion of the time of Jacob's trouble. They will return with mourning and sighing fleeing away. God's promise in many places, you'll no longer sorrow, you'll no longer be afraid, you'll no longer experience terror, indicating that right to the very last, the last historical experience of Israel, both in the nation and in the world, is fear, terror, violence being devoured, being swallowed up, and a mourning and a sighing. How will we understand that? If not the loss of the state in which they had hoped they would have found at last a security, but a lack in the last, like the death and the crucifixion of the Lord to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, a disappointment in the failure of what they had hoped for as a place of safety in the world. Mourning and sighing must precede the rejoicing in the dance, both young men and old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow. God is explicitly the agent both of the expulsion and the judgment as well as the return and the comfort. Why is that necessary? Because Israel must know that I am the Lord who has spoken and done this. Your comfort is not going to come from some slap on the back or some human kind of thing. I myself will turn you from sorrow to joy. You will receive, how does it go, and the redeemed, the Lord shall return. And they will obtain gladness and joy, and mourning and sighing shall flee away. Obtained from whom? From the God who is comfort, from the God who is joy. Israel must know God in this totality, both in the severity of their expulsion and in the gladness and joy of their return, when they will obtain it and not fabricate it or make it themselves. Zechariah 13, 8 through 9 shows of last day's violent siege and devastation in the land that brings the Lord's own coming, when we shall see him whom we have pierced, and the depth of repentance that I've spoken of earlier in these days that requires every family apart. A Hebrew Christian scholar, David Barron, writes this at the turn of the 20th century, long before the advent of the State of Israel. He knew from Scripture that there would be some preliminary return, there would be some kind of political entity or a state, it would require its expulsion again into the most distant, farthermost points of the earth, a restoration and a return affected by God himself in a supernatural way, and then a rejoicing. And he writes, long before the State of Israel was created, when once this great but godly sorrow shall have accomplished its blessed end in working a repentance never to be repented of, he shall pour his consolations into their broken hearts, and give unto them the oil of joyful mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. The ultimate literal fulfillment of it lies yet in the future, in the day for which we watch and pray, when our Lord Jesus shall, according to his promise, appear in his glory, and the Jewish nation shall literally look upon him whom they have pierced, and be, as it were, born in a day. What makes this all the more cogent and penetrating is that it is written so long before the advent of the State of Israel itself, yet predicts this return out of this devastation and the depth of repentance that comes to the nation that is itself a grace from God, because he says, I will pour out upon the city of David and the heavens of Jerusalem the spirit of supplication and of prayer. If that had not been poured out, Israel herself, even in the seeing of the Lord, would not have been capable of the depth of the repentance that then takes place. God is so jealous not to allow Israel to be an agent in its own restoration or even in its own repentance, that even their capacity to repent is contingent upon the spirit that he pours out upon the city of David, that they'll never be able to boast even in that, because Israel represents man and man's self-sufficiency, and God has got to once and for all demonstrate through Israel that in man is no good thing at all, that he is all in all and must be the God of their restoration as he is the God of their judgment. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee. I will save her that halteth, that is, crippled or lame, and that was driven out. I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you, for I will make you a name and a praise among all the people of the earth when I turn back your captivity before your eyes. I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. Why is he so insistent? Because Israel needs to know and to compare her previous return, largely the result of her own human prowess and ability, this Zionist state, and that which is affected by God out of his own power. I will, I will, I will, I will. So to assure, to give Israel now an assurance of millennial peace and security before the time when there is yet a future devastation within the land is not to do that people a service, but to direct Israel's hope to the great salvation that will come out of it and to the everlasting covenant that will be granted them is a more appropriate message that needs to be brought. After that, it says, shall the city be rebuilt unto the Lord and shall be holy unto the Lord. It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down anymore forever. That promise is given in Jeremiah 31, 33, and in Amos chapter 9, you will not again be uprooted and cast out. It's the last of your expulsions and that's why the one chapter of Amos chapter 9 describes being sifted through the nations, the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David, the restoration of the kingdom rule, and then the reaper and the sower being on each other's heels, that such a millennial blessing comes to the nation that before one harvest is in, the seeds of the next are already being sown and Israel shall flood the earth with her fruit. And then the final promise is, you'll rebuild the cities that have been laid waste and made desolate and you will not again be plucked up and cast out. Isaiah chapters 49 through 51, I've already made reference to lie down that we might walk over you. Your destroyers and devastators in chapter 49 will depart from you. Those who swallowed you, there's that word again, will be far away. Who made you barren and exile and the wanderer and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued. I will contend with them who contend with you and all flesh will know that I the Lord and your Savior, your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. All flesh shall know because God says I'll not do this in the corner. This will be before the face of all nations and all flesh will know both in the severity of my judgment and in the magnificence of my restoration and return and the exaltation that I will grant to the nation that has now been so abased that I am your Savior, your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. This is a powerful reason why we intercessors cannot pray this away. This is not something that's negotiable. God appreciates your heart that you want to see Israel spared from extremity of this kind, but we need to recognize that this is God's last statement to the nations by what is demonstrated in his conduct toward Israel, which is why in Ezekiel 36 he says, I will be sanctified through you, O Israel, before the face of all nations. You have blasphemed my name in every nation where I have driven you. Don't think that I'm doing this for your sake, but for my holy namesake which you have blasphemed in every nation where I have expelled you. Your very expulsion is the statement of a blasphemous kind that your sins demanded this kind of dealing, but I will be sanctified through you. I will be made holy. My name will be rescued and honored again before all nations through my dealings with you that they will recognize that I am your Savior, Redeemer, and Restorer, the mighty one of Jacob. Can this correspond to any past restoration in Israel's history? No, it cannot. There has been the pattern of sin, judgment, expulsion, but never this kind of witness or testimony to the nations or even to Israel's own recognition that I am the Lord. And why is this so necessary? Because the nation has a calling to bless all the families of the earth, and we can't understand the extremity and length to which God will go in this dealing with Israel in painful judgment, devastation, expulsion, and return unless we consider that in the context of Israel's destiny and calling. A nation of priests, the light unto the world, because the gift and callings of God are irrevocable. It must be fulfilled. What then does it mean that God has given this calling? His covenant must be on it. When the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, so all Israel shall be saved as it is written according to the covenant that I have made with them as it is written. The issue of Israel's return is the issue of God. Remember that corresponds to the vacancies that will have been created in the heavenly places by the expulsion of those fallen angels who have been the usurping false rulers of this world, when they will be cast out with Satan from that place according to the last day's battle and demonstration of the church in the earth, and those who have won that battle and through their wisdom that they have displayed as the church and their willingness to suffer in it will themselves be occupying those same places. You will rule and reign from the very places left vacant by the number of fallen angels who have usurped that place and turned it against the purposes of God. So you can see that the whole issue of Israel's deliverance waits on the church when the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. So I'm not saying thus saith the Lord that I have this by any special revelation. It's a kind of educated hunch, numbers, knowing that there's a vacancy being created in the air over nations that must be filled by those who will occupy those places, some ruling over five cities, some over ten in their glorified bodies, both in the stratum above the earth and in the earth, with a restored Israel equally in cooperation with God now being redeemed and returned to Zion. That's the Millennium Saints. That's the glory of God that floods the earth. But it waits not on Israel. It waits on us when the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. What if there's a qualitative aspect to this as well as quantitative? What if the fullness not only means the actual number but a certain quality that God waits for in the church, a certain character, a certain identification with himself, which has to do with our sanctification and the truth of our life and what we are in the representation of him? Then again, both in number and in character, the issue of Israel's deliverance is the issue of the church, just as it was from the beginning, that you should move them to jealousy and that by your mercy they may obtain mercy. Everywhere that Paul points, the church is the key to Israel's final deliverance. I'm sorry? Full stature, yes, unto the fullness of Christ himself. So the phrase, in that day, is repeated throughout many of these prophetic references and always concludes with, I will break off his yoke from off thy neck, will burst thy bonds, strangers will no more serve themselves of him, but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. Again, this statement of millennial rule and the king that has come always is in connection with the last day's devastation, expulsion, and return. So what is the responsibility of the church if these things be true? Do we have an obligation to sound a warning of impending disaster that would otherwise leave the unsuspecting devastated? Will their blood be on our hands if we don't sound a warning of such judgments to come as watchmen on the wall who fail to sound it? Or will be those who give them a false comfort that your troubles will pass and you'll make it okay, you need not be afraid of any future devastation, is the critical question before the church in their response to Israel now at this historical time. To give them an advanced comfort before the time is to disqualify us as the church prophetically in the same way that when Jesus learned that his friend Lazarus whom he loved was sick, he did not immediately rush to the bedside to heal him or to deliver him from his distress, but waited two days longer where he was. Something symbolic of the 2,000 years that must be fulfilled before the third year and two days he will cut us, but on the third day he would raise us up again it says in Hosea. There's a third day and we have to wait on that to give a premature comfort is to disqualify ourselves and to act out of our humanity and if Jesus had done that though he may have healed Lazarus he would have robbed the father of the glory that had come later by the resurrection. So Jesus could say to his disciples this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God and the Son of God and he had to suffer the humiliation of the misunderstanding of his disciples who likely assumed that he was afraid to go to Bethany because it was too close to Jerusalem where his life had already been threatened. It had nothing to do with sparing himself. It had everything to do with holding himself in constraint prophetically not to act before the time prematurely by bringing a relief when God had something more in sight for Lazarus than relief namely the revelation of his glory by the raising of him from the dead and I believe that that is a remarkable picture of ourselves with relationship to Israel in the last days. To give them a false comfort now is to disqualify ourselves from standing at their tomb and saying Lazarus come forth because if we go prematurely we lose our prophetic mantle and authority and later on we can say Lazarus go forth till we're blue in the face and nothing will take place. What gave Jesus prophetic authority was his obedience to the father to restrain every humane impulse to go to the bedside of a friend whom he loved and to wait for the moment of God's choosing not just to affect the relief from illness but a resurrection from the dead. Israel is on its way toward that death and if they're to be raised from it it will have to come from a prophetic people who can speak in the authority of God a come forth or address the bones that they might live so it's a critical question how we deport ourselves now with regard to Israel if we act prematurely or out of a humane wanting to comfort we will lose our prophetic ability to be the voice of God to bring about the greater resurrection and the glory of God through it. So a church that shrinks from such an apocalyptic view makes itself a candidate for apostasy when the disillusionment and disappointment of unexpected calamity falls. The Apostle Paul speaks of a great falling away in the latter days and I believe that at least part of this falling away will come out of the disappointment of a church that naively hoped that the present Zionist Israel would be the fulfillment of God's prophetic intention for Israel and that in that failure God will be looked upon as having failed. So this is a critical question to save the church from a falling away and an apostasy of disappointment it's imperative that we have a correct and prophetic anticipation of those things that must necessarily come to pass and not be disappointed when we see the present state dispersed and brought to naught knowing that there's a greater thing in store for which this chastisement is necessary. The hope that the nation can be improved is more of a progressive and ameliorative view of change than it is an apocalyptic view. It's kind of a humanistic to think that there could be an improvement rather than the requirement of an apocalyptic judgment death and resurrection. So there's a there's a remarkable question here of how we understand God and his redemptive work. To believe that something progressive can happen with Israel is a very humanistic view but I believe that even if every present threat to Israel was alleviated they have already crossed the point of no return and have entered into a conduct and policies of such a kind that cannot be retrieved. Violence, corruption, use of torture, the kinds of things that have taken place cannot be regained. There will not be a character for which Israel hoped to demonstrate by the nation to the world what a Jewish state would be. We've gone too far already in response to the threats that we ourselves may largely have provoked to even if the threat is alleviated the character of the nation is already past the point of no return and can never be improved. If that character of that nation can be improved we ourselves do not need our own salvation then we can be improved in our natural condition and don't ourselves need to be brought into death and raised up unto newness of life for it's exactly the same question as it pertains to Israel herself. So the crisis of Israel is God's provision to wake the church from its own escapist sleep and unpreparedness to compel it to return to the apostolic consciousness of the suffering that precedes the glory. The issue is not Israel's success the issue is the glory of God forever and that this return to the principle of the necessary suffering that precedes the glory is the issue of the church that makes the church the church and finally brings us to the kind of recognition of the cross that is imperative for us in the fulfillment of our role toward Israel because it's by what we will extend to them at cost to ourselves that the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. If you want a supplementary text and there are many Psalm 102 it makes another reference to the deliverer coming out of Zion when the set time to favor Zion has come. God is waiting for something not from Israel but someone called his servants when his servants shall have compassion on her stones and pity on her dust the set time to favor Zion has come and the deliverer will come out of Zion and and take away her transgressions and restore her not for anything that Israel does but something that his servants do which is not Israel for if Israel were his servants they would not be requiring judgment at all but in the earth and at that time in Psalm 102 when his servants have compassion on her stones and pity on her dust what is what does that mean what what dust is it the dust of antiquity the stones of ancient cities or is it the ruins spoken of of Haifa Tel Aviv Jerusalem and all the modern cities of Israel that the servants are the believing Christian Church who are so identified with Israel that they are not repelled by her judgments and are identified with her in them and have compassion on Israel in her judgment which is a remarkable thing of the same kind that Jesus identified with us while we were yet in sin and in transgression when we will have an attitude toward Israel when she's in her sin of the same kind that he had toward us while we were in hours the fulfillment for which God waits has come the set time to favor Zion has come for the church the true church has come to an identification with God in in union with him and in his compassion for Israel as he expressed to us and his compassion for us while we were yet sinners to have compassion on her stones and pity on her dust is at the same time that the world will be gloating and rubbing its hands and delight at the devastation that will bring Israel to ruin the Gentile world will love it and they'll be relishing all of Israel's distress and saying that they have it coming they'll only be a small remnant in the earth that does not join this song and this world global chorus of delight in Israel's distress it is the true people of God will have compassion on her stones and pity on her dust when God sees that when God has obtained that the set time to favor Zion has come for the church has come into place of God's intention and now he this is not something that we will be able to affect by sentiment this is an identification of God's own heart of compassion and pity even in the judgments that are deserved it was one thing to have an affection for Israel when she was cute and fetching but to have a compassion and a mercy and a pity when she's in the judgment for her sins that requires the devastation of her and her expulsion is an identification that is beyond anything that we can perform humanly and religiously it's nothing less nor other than what God is in himself now Lord and his people when he has a church like that the purposes of God had been fulfilled for both the church and Israel the set time has come for God to favor Zion and he will be her deliverer so I'm glad to get this out of my system a statement that needs to be made though it's painful to have to make it they both have a little prayer if you have questions give you a time to compose them if we'll have a chance to answer some of these tonight or tomorrow morning so that we get the full measure out of what God is wanting to us to understand we require a stamina even to consider hard things remember that the Son of Man had to be brought down and out and into the Valley of Dry Bones he had to see the grit of Israel's death before he could address it we shun painful things the whole world and even our Christianity has tended us toward happier scenarios this is not going to be a happy ending it will be a glorious ending but not before first is a suffering that precedes the glory Israel will be a chastised broken nation it will be a permanent aspect of Israel's character that makes her priestly and be able to minister to all of the nations of the world not out of the arrogance that we associate with Jews and Israel today but out of the contrition and brokenness that comes with God severe dealings and chastisement in the Holocaust book I quote a writer who says Israel after God's chastisement because he loves his sons and he chastises every son who is given to him and the first reference to son is Israel in Exodus chapter 4 let my son go that he might worship me this son needs to be chastised and will be not in some arbitrary act from God that is cruel but in exact proportion to the sins that make that judgment righteous but the effect of the judgment this writer says is for Israel to be broken and come with its weeping to lay its head on the shoulders of the God who has afflicted the judgment knowing that this judgment and chastisement is the greatest statement of love we're suffering from a generation of fathers who do not love their sons enough to chastise them God says in Proverbs if you don't chastise your son you hate him you love yourself but you hate him because true love requires the severity of a chastisement God will not withhold that from Israel and Israel will recognize in the severity of God's dealing equally his love for the final and ultimate deepest statement of love is the willingness to chastise a son and so this writer pictures Israel sobbing with her head on the shoulder of the father who is equally in tears for in all of our afflictions he's afflicted yes he has afflicted the chastisement but he has suffered the excruciating pain of it but did not withhold it and something happens in the moment of the son and the father coming into an embrace of tears and brokenness through the chastisement that bonds the nation with the father in a way that it has never known him and we will continue to know him for all of the days of its life this chastisement must come and we must not be offended by it and we must ourselves welcome it as sons or we will not be able to be to them what we must so I want to pray for this scenario Lord precious God what a crummy job what an inadequate statement I'm embarrassed if not ashamed of this helter-skelter rushing through such a last day's statement of Israel's necessary chastisement so I'm praying Lord that you will not have shortchanged his people that we have not missed your mind tonight and have substituted our own subject for yours that this indeed was your intention and that it will not fall to the ground it's hard Lord it's painful to consider humanly we would hope for some other way in which Israel's restoration could be affected we which we would say with Abraham can't Ishmael live but may we submit my God to your wisdom and your requirement may we understand how glorious a destiny this nation has that cannot be fulfilled on any cheaper or lesser terms it must come this way there must be this suffering that precedes the glory of their fulfillment and may we agree with you and be able to express it that when they shall come into the wilderness of New Zealand where a place has been prepared for them where they shall be fed for three and a half years it is not only a physical feeding that they shall enjoy but a spiritual for they will receive an explanation out of the scriptures in those homes and places and communities that have taken them in to explain to them why it is they are suffering this last day's chastisement as it was prophesied in the scriptures and must be fulfilled perhaps it's for that reason that many of them will meet you face-to-face in the wilderness of the nations and come into the bond of your covenant and under the lot of your authority that they may also return as the redeemed of the Lord so I pray my God for those who will receive them in the wilderness of this nation and be able to feed them prophetically with an understanding that will open their hearts to recognize this is not some arbitrary thing this is not an accident of history this is not some failure of Christianity it is the very fulfillment of what has been consistently spoken by all their prophets of what must be fulfilled in the last days and of that Jesus himself prophesied it of the time of Jacob's trouble that that would be worse than anything the nation had ever known and would not again be experienced so my God may they receive the counsel and understanding of this people that tonight is an investment a beginning a setting in motion of a study and of an understanding not only to edify us but that we might in turn edify them so we bless you grant us the stamina to bear hard things help us to understand that we would not have to suffer your rebuke all fools and slow of heart not to believe all that the prophets have written ought not the Messiah ought not Israel to have suffered all these things before it ascends to its glory so we've come full circle Lord and we don't want to say to you what Peter said in his flesh let this be far from Israel for we will have negated the very provision my God by which you shall be glorified forever may we agree with you may we bear the hard thing may we express it my God with a mercy and compassion when these things before this people help us bring us to that place in Jesus name I pray