Are we awake yet?
The war of 22 months already remains the quandary that it has been from the beginning. If it weren’t for the faithfulness of YHVH God to His covenants, and His total sovereignty over the whole world, we would be in total despair. If evolution, as generally understood, were true, there would be absolutely no hope. Who could say that what is happening in the world, sinking into the amoral and immoral lawless abyss, isn’t just “evolution”? And with that, hopeless despair. If the Lord Yeshua the Messiah/Jesus Christ were not coming again to judge and to rule this world, evil and the devil would “win”, since the whole world now lies under the sway of the evil one. Only Yeshua will bring the Kingdom of Righteousness, and, with that being GOD’s, genuine and lasting peace and Holy Spirit joy.
As I was reading the Bible recently, Yeshua’s/Jesus’ words about everyone who leaves everything for His Name’s sake — homes, family, lands — shall receive a hundredfold, with persecutions, and inherit eternal life, spoke to me (not for the first time) about Jews making aliyah (immigrating) to Israel. (Mt 19:29; Mk 10:29-30) This is certainly a daunting challenge for many Jewish people, including the believers in Yeshua among them. God is certainly making many, if not most, Jews around the world uncomfortable and insecure, lacking peace. The Jewish State of Israel [for especially Jewish people] has become a lightening rod, perhaps even a litmus test, for Jewish identity: as in Ps 137, do Jews in the diaspora/dispersion/galut/exile identify with the nation and the land and the city as being theirs, or do they identify more with being citizens of whatever Gentile country that they live in? Even for Jews living in Israel, do they remain because they know that it is home, or do they wish that they could leave, as many already have? I spoke with some Jewish friends back in Richmond, and some Gentile Christians, as well, who are very nervous about supporting Israel these days.
Our “world view” about the “end of the world as we know it” will greatly affect our position regarding Israel and the Jewish people. If our hope is to make lasting peace in this world — as if we are capable of bringing that to a satisfying reality ourselves — we will be more likely to expect the Jews and Israel to “get with the program” and stop being so stubborn, making things so difficult for everyone else. If American Christians think that the USA must remain the “head, and last hope, of the nations”, then they will expect Israel to “tow the line”. If Christians think that people just live their lives, and then go either to Heaven or to Hell, then they have no vested interest in God’s covenant promises to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to their physical descendants. If Jewish people give up faith and identity in the significance of Israel as a nation to them, then they will much more easily want to “please the Romans/the Americans”, so that the whole nation might not be left all alone to be destroyed.
As I have written many times before, Israel has not been allowed to win this war by defeating Hamas [like the Allies defeated the Nazis in WWII). The Nazi spirit is reviving strongly in the jihad of Islam in all its grotesque forms, with the same stated intent gaining worldwide acceptability: kill all the Jews and the Jewish nation. This is the Devil’s “heart”. Not the Jews only, but also the Christians: both groups are YHVH’s representatives in the world. And not content to stop there, jihadis are demonically driven to kill off as many human beings, even themselves, as possible, since they are created in the image of YHVH God, and have been chosen to rule and to reign with Christ/Messiah in His Kingdom when He returns. Human will judge the angels (of which Satan was one), whatever that might look like. All the antisemitism, all of the Christian massacres taking place in Nigeria, etc, are all spiritual assaults against the Creator Himself, and His Anointed One. The world is falling in line to take sides with the devil’s murderous hatred and very bitter root against the sovereignty and goodness of the one true God.
About a month ago, the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee — a genuine friend and supporter — wrote a strong letter urging the Israeli Interior Minister to ease up on the difficulties for granting visas for [evangelical] Christians to volunteer in Israel, even sometimes to visit. I am aware of those difficulties, and also against Messianic Jews to immigrate. Some people, even believers, have taken that issue to use in an antisemitic way against Israel. Friends, brothers and sisters, do not be led by emotions, or by anti-Christian attitudes and actions of Jews, and by the nation state of the Jewish people: the Apostle Paul writes that Israel is the enemy of the gospel, and this is that more Gentiles might be saved, and come to the reality that they were saved by grace and mercy, and that God is faithful to do the same for His own special treasure, the Jewish/Israeli people, who will “in that day” bring praise and glory to His holy Name. Gentile Christians have been given the call and ministry to both provoke the Jews to jealousy for what you have that they need; and also to show mercy to them while you are also doing that. (Rom 11) Despite the Interior Minister and the Ambassador both saying publicly that the matter is being resolved, we have a family in our congregation who are here on a clergy visa who are being told to leave the country. We pray that that decision will be reversed. They are a blessing not only in our fellowship, but also in serving another ministry to Bedouins in our area. Despite Israel’s many failures, God remains committed to His Word, meanwhile bearing much reproach, but looking to the “end product”.
Someone wrote me a couple of days ago about who is behind the food and starvation crisis in Gaza against Israel. We agreed that it is the Devil and his “wisdom” from below. The whole strategy has been from the evil one, and we can see how he can deceive even the elect, among whom too many are taking his side despite so much evidence that Hamas continues to lie and twist truth. Hamas, with Qatar and Egypt, and even with European and American mediators, they are all scheming to allow this terrible war to drag on by not demanding the surrender of the actual truce-breakers, the actual oppressors of their own people and territory, the actual perpetrators of genocidal intent and breakers of international law, of committers of war crimes, including of how they are treating and starving to death Israeli hostages.
We must be vigilantly watchful and discerning. Whatever sympathies Christians and others may have towards the plight of the Gazans and “Palestinians”, they must awaken to the fact and truth that God’s covenant promises and blessings remain with Jacob/the Jewish people, who also need to come to know the righteousness, not of themselves, but of God. THE WHOLE STRATEGY USED BY HAMAS IS TO TURN THE WORLD AGAINST ISRAEL, and they are doing a very good job at it, since they are expert in lying and deceit as a religious precept.
The devil is the prince of the air, and the world’s media, including sometimes Christian and Jewish outlets, are reporting very unprofessionally unsubstantiated reports and accusations with the immediate affect of turning opinions and emotions against Israel. Every country uses propaganda, but there is enough truth out there to come to a reasonable position with the “right” side. For “good people” to side with the jihadi narrative of the last 77 years of Israel’s legal nationhood is to take the side and sympathy of those who seek the destruction of the Jewish people and of the nation of Israel. It is to take a side against the Holy Spirit, since YHVH has told us that He would bring His Israeli people back to the land which He promised them — while they are still in unbelief and unrighteous! (Ezek 36) He will deal them here to complete the redemption. But everybody expects the the Jews to be angels, and not being so, they then accuse them of being devils!
Just as dominionist Christians want Christians to gain access and control of the “7 Mountains” of culture and society — religion; family; education; government; media; arts, entertainment and sports; and business — so do Islam and Muslims have the same agenda, which is all part of jihad, their holy struggle to gain world dominance. They are succeeding, since until Jesus returns in great power and glory and puts the devil away for 1000 years, he is the god of this world. The Antichrist will be given authority for 3 1/2 years to wreak Satan’s vengeance, and that time will not be shortened, but is itself the shortening of the time for the elects’ sake. The Day of YHVH, the righteous judgments and wrath of God, follows against HIS enemies and the enemies of His people.
Meanwhile, our calling is to take the gospel of salvation and the Kingdom of God to whomsoever wherever, that as many as will can enter the family of God through spiritual new birth, just as we have; and, for us to sanctify ourselves in a world becoming more and more corrupted through lust — whether for wealth, sex, or power — or for all of them. YHVH God does not take a bribe, which perverts justice. These lusts of the eyes, of the flesh, and the pride of life pervert those who are being tasked with bringing an end to the war going on all around us here, and in other places around the globe. The US is even planning now to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon, trying to gain control there before the Russians or the Chinese do! The rulers of this world are preparing for war all the time. Only the Prince of Peace — the Lord Jesus Christ/Yeshua the Messiah, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, who is also the Lamb upon the Throne — He alone will make wars to cease, and no one will teach or learn war anymore. Come, Lord Jesus!
God have mercy on us all, that we will all endure in the faith and be overcomers/prevailers to the praise of His holy Name.
Howard Bass is the congregation pastor/leader of Nachalat Yeshua (Yeshua's Inheritance) in Beer Sheva, Israel.
