How does all this happening in Israel right now fit in with end times and Jesus’ return? We’ve had a lot of people discipled by Tim LaHaye.
I’m going to make this super fast and then I’ll let you talk. Okay, Asher Intrater of Tikkun Global says this: there’s three requirements for the return of Jesus. This isn’t exhaustive, this is just things he sees with predominance in scripture. One is we know that in Matthew 24, Jesus says, the gospel will be preached to all the ends of the earth and then the end shall come, right The Gospel has to be shared basically to every tribe, nation, and tongue. The second is that we know in Revelation Jesus is not going to come back for a stained and dirty bride, that there’s a marriage between the King coming and the bride of Christ, the church, that the church has to be ready. The church has to be purified. The church has to be ready to receive its bridegroom, right? That’s the second. The church has to be ready. The third that almost everybody overlooks in this seminary is probably one of the only seminaries in the whole world that gets this, that the Jewish people have to cry out for their king to come. Matthew 23:39, Jesus is overlooking Jerusalem. He says, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
So in order for Jewish people to cry out to Jesus, they probably should have faith in Jesus. In order for Jewish people to be living in Jerusalem where Jesus said, Jerusalem, you won’t see me again, they have to live there, right? There’s a lot of things that are in alignment here. So yeah, we’re close because we now have a remnant of Jewish followers of Jesus who are literally praying right now in Israel, we bless you, we welcome you, come, Jesus, come. So we’re moving towards that, but that last element is usually very overlooked by most eschatological frameworks. That’s why we’re still here. God wants his family to be a part of it, not just the Gentile family, the Jewish family. We have to work together and it’s going to be delayed until we can come into that togetherness. Yeah.
Something I’ve been thinking about when you, from a Jewish perspective, a lot of Jewish rabbis have been teaching for thousands of years that there’s two Messiahs. There’s Ben Joseph, which means son of Joseph and Ben David, son of David, and there’s a lot of different interpretation of what these two Messiahs are going to do if they’re going to come at the same time. There’s some that talk about that they reign together that Ben Joseph is killed because Ben Joseph is a suffering servant. Ben David is this warrior king. And some believed, a lot of Jewish people to this day believe, that you’re going to get one if Israel is obedient, then you’ll get Ben David, if they’re disobedient, you get Ben Joseph – all this kind of stuff. I say that to say there’s tension here, and when it comes to Revelation and Ezekiel, there’s a level where you just say like, man, I don’t know. I read it. I don’t know.
And I know a lot of people that have read it way more than me and gotten things wrong, so I don’t want to proclaim that this is what’s going to happen. But what I am aware of is that when Jesus came the first time, did he come as Ben Joseph, the suffering servant, or as Ben David, the Warrior King? As Ben Joseph. What were they all expecting him to come as? Ben David. And they were mad at him for not being Ben David. And sometimes we look at scripture where the disciples, they ask Jesus, post-resurrection, are you now going to establish your kingdom in Jerusalem forever? And Jesus goes, no. And we think disciples didn’t even get it. He was doing something bigger, but they were so foolish when in actuality they were asking a very valid question because they knew Ben David and Jesus actually doesn’t say no. He says no, the time has not yet come for that.
What does that mean? There’s going to be a time where that’s going to come. Ben David and Ben Joseph, we see now, and we have to give grace, it’s easy to see retroactively. He came the first time as Ben Joseph. He’s coming again as Ben David. What I’m concerned about is we’re all going to be expecting Ben Joseph and just like they got mad that he wasn’t Ben David, we’re going to get mad that he’s not Ben Joseph. He’s coming in Revelation on a white horse holding a sword. That kind of makes us feel uncomfortable because it says that his robe is dipped in blood. He’s a warrior. And so I think I say that to say, not that I have all the answers. I say that to say we need to really hold in tension what scripture’s actually saying and not proclaim that man,
we know exactly how it’s going to go down. Because the rabbis were studying for hundreds and thousands of years, and many of them missed the Messiah. So I don’t want to be prideful in saying, I know exactly how this is going to go down, this Ezekiel 38, and these wars are going to get involved and boom, it’s going to happen. Why are we confused? We’re confused because there’s a lot going into it. And I think what Nick has really helped me over the past year is let’s orient ourselves towards what we know God is doing. And if we see God moving a certain way, then let’s just orient ourselves there. It doesn’t mean we need to know exactly what the trail’s going to look like, but we know God’s moving this way. And if one way is saying, we’re going to love Israel and the Jewish people, and the other one is saying, we’re going to hate Israel and the Jewish people, I’m going to orient myself this way because I know God is this way. I don’t need to know the details of every roadmap, but I am going to orient myself towards where God is moving.
If you were to just in 30 seconds say, this is what we want you to hear, because there’s been a lot, what would you say, Nick?
I would say that you want to understand, help God show you where in your theology maybe there’s some lacking, some ways you’ve thought about some things. Just prayer. I pray all the time Psalm 1:39, Lord, point out any offensive way within me and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Let God take a flashlight to your mind. Say, God, I’m giving you my mind. Take a flashlight. Where in this topic do I have unhealthy thinking?
Secondly, let him take a flashlight to your heart. God, where’s my heart on this? Am I so pro-Israel that I have made room for hatred for any other person or created a barrier where no other person can come in – an exclusivity of love for the Jewish people that isn’t inclusive of a love for other people as well? Show me, Lord. Show me any place in my heart where that’s the case. And then act on it. Do something. You can pray, you can donate, you can reach out to a Jewish person. Just Google a synagogue and just get their email address and send ’em a note. Hey, I’m a local Christian. Just want you to know we love you. We’re praying for you. Anything we can do for you? Let us know. Something as simple as that. So we like to just call it pray, learn, act. And so I think that’s it. So I think we should pray probably right now.
Yeah, can we just do that? Pray for just Israel and also pray for our Arab brothers and sisters and just you hear revival that’s happening in Arab nations all over the world. Amen. Jesus is appearing to them and saying, I am the Messiah because he loves them too. Yeah.
Yeah. So somebody asked me, what do I pray? I know Psalm 1 22:6 says pray for the piece of Jerusalem. And I felt like the Lord showed me this. Matthew 6, Jesus says that this is how you pray. Your kingdom come, your will be done. When we join him and pray that prayer, what are we saying? We want your kingdom to come. Where’s His kingdom going to come? In Israel. It’s going to come in Jerusalem and it’s going to extend out. There’s going to be rivers of peace and love and justice from that place.
So Lord, we just thank you for this time. I thank you for every person that’s been here. I pray, Lord, that this information isn’t just information, but it’s revelation and it helps us to understand who you are, what’s in your heart, and how you want each one of us to play a part in it. So show us, Lord, show us what step to take, even as we leave a little step, Lord, illuminated in our minds and our hearts, and align our feet to take some action, Lord. Just show us, we’re entrusting it to you, Holy Spirit. And then we just want to say, Lord, that we love what you love. We love the Jewish people. Lord, we pray for peace for Jerusalem. We pray for peace in the Jewish state of Israel. We pray for the peace in every home, and we pray your kingdom would come in Israel, on earth as it is in heaven. We pray your kingdom would come, Lord, in Gaza, on earth as it is in heaven, in the Arab world, on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, may you, Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, the king of Israel, the head of the church, may you extend your lordship into every heart in the Middle East, Jew or Arab, or any other ethnicity. Lord, we’re praying right now, God, to break the power of the enemy, Lord, break the power of terrorism. Lord, break the bondage of terrorism. In Jesus’ name. God, we’re declaring freedom. We’re declaring victory, Lord, and we’re declaring wisdom for every leader, Lord, to be used by you to bring justice on the earth. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Amen.
