Good morning,
It’s finally here, another year! What makes this year so special is that we have begun this year with a world wide declaration that Israel must be controlled according to the standards of their sworn enemies. What also makes this year so different is that the one country that has been big and strong and supportive of their existence since 1948 has openly decided to join the rest of the world in telling them what to do. No longer is America big and strong and the Western world finds itself overwhelmed with millions of refugees that have compromised the security of their countries and citizens. Once more Israel, God’s favorite country, finds itself surrounded by powerful bullies, big and small, who are determined to get rid of these hateful people. Israel’s present situation reminds me of what happened 2,500 years ago when Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem to repair their broken down walls. Their ungodly neighbors, who saw themselves as the real owners of the land, were determined to control this new leader, Nehemiah, by bullying and falsely accusing him of rebelling against the king. I love Nehemiah’s answer. "The God of heaven will help us succeed. We, his servants, will start rebuilding this wall. But you have no share, legal right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.”(Neh.2:20)
What God’s hate filled enemies refuse to accept and religious peoples ignore or refute is that the land of Israel is a very special part of God’s plan from the time of Abraham to the end of time. Both the Old and New Testaments are full of references to God’s people and land as part of the end times prophecies. The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel clearly wrote about this issue in chapters 37 to 48, as well as Isaiah and many other prophets in their writings. Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39 makes it very clear what God will do and the prophet Zechariah summarized what God was going to do when he wrote, "This message is from the LORD, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the human spirit. I will make Jerusalem like an intoxicating drink that makes the nearby nations stagger when they send their armies to besiege Jerusalem and Judah.(Zec.12:1,2) Our Creator God is about to turn a corner in time on how he deals with our sinful rebellious world. He goes on to say, On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves.(v.3) In the same book he writes, I will destroy all the weapons used in battle, and your king will bring peace to the nations. His realm will stretch from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.(9:10) Again he writes, And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one LORD–his name alone will be worshiped.(14:9) Of course Jesus and the Apostles as well as the book of Revelation clarify what God is up to next. So why should we be so excited? As C.S. Lewis wrote in his Narnia Tales, “Aslan (Jesus) is on the move.” We are certainly living in exciting times!!
Nehemiah 2:19 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab heard of our plan, they scoffed contemptuously. "What are you doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" they asked. 20 I replied, "The God of heaven will help us succeed. We, his servants, will start rebuilding this wall. But you have no share, legal right, or historic claim in Jerusalem."
Roy Wisner
