APPLE OF HIS EYE

We’re exploring the miraculous survival of the Jews. Are they really the apple of God's eye or has it gone rotten?

 

Everybody seems to despise the Jews - Christians think the Church has replaced Israel, Muslims call them 'descendants of apes and swine’...

Not everybody. At the other end of the spectrum there are some Christians who think their future hope lies with Israel and there are Messianic Jews who say: “Gentile Christians who recognize that they have joined Israel, not replaced it, and Messianic Jews who identify fully with both the Jewish people and the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, are now working together to heal the split between the Church and the Jewish people.”

It’s almost as if everybody thinks they’re ‘Spiritual Israel’…           

…an expression that isn’t even in the Bible! These people promote the idea of paying pilgrimages to Israel with your cheque book, celebrating the feasts and being baptised in the river Jordan. They seem to forget that their Saviour was dead in the tomb with the temple veil ripped apart, so now our only hope is resurrection to a heavenly destiny.

Come on – enough confusion…what does God think of Israel?

Moses tells us that: “…he kept him (Jacob) as the apple of his eye” and… here is what God said through Isaiah:

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands…” (ch49)...and later on…

“For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer…. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” ch54                                                            

…said after the annihilation of the kingdom of Israel!

Well God could hardly have spoken more affectionately but isn’t He just saying ‘gone but not forgotten’ in a nice sort of way?

Before Israel even entered the Promised Land Moses told them:

“(For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.”

…and this is what God said through Jeremiah:  

“Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is his name: if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the Lord; if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.”             ch31               

Okay then! That spells it out loud and clear.  So what did God actually promise Abraham and his family?

                                            

NEXT: Promises, promises…

Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/promises-promises.html

Acknowledgements:   

Stern D, Complete Jewish Bible, Jewish New Testament Publications, Clarksville MD, 1998 

Photo credit: ezedictionary.com 

 

 

 

SO WHO IS TOP DOG?

We’re exploring the miraculous survival of the Jews but have they been replaced by the Church anyway?

That whole story about Hosea and his cheating missus is confusing. It seems to be saying that, no matter what, God won’t give up on Israel and will buy her back even if she’s not really ready to be a faithful wife.

What’s so confusing about that?

Most Christians seem to believe that God has finished with Israel and replaced her with the Church, bought at a great price. She might have wandered from the faith but will be brought back to her inheritance.

So how do you explain the modern revival of Israel in Palestine?

Oh that’s just regarded as a political struggle.

Well before we go any further…who wrote the Holy Bible?

The Jews did, except for perhaps Luke, although he was probably a Jewish proselyte. 

Okay, starting with the Catholics...

Their Catechism states: “…their assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God as his holy people. By calling itself ‘Church’, the first community of Christian believers recognised itself as heir to that assembly…”

…as if Christians - read Catholics - have taken over. What about Protestants?

You’ll find that most protestant clergy believe in what is called ‘amillennialism’ although you probably won’t hear them teach it – if they teach anything; in other words: the Church is ‘it’ while the return of Israel to Palestine is of no spiritual consequence – the 1000 year reign of Christ is just another spiritual symbol.

No wonder I’m confused! How long has this ‘amill’ thinking been around?

At least since Augustine in the 4^th century.  Don’t worry, some even believe in Preterism: God finished with the Jews in AD 70 and Christ will not return again because all prophecy has now been fulfilled. They’re on the scrapheap.

Well that doesn’t give me any hope - at all!  Alright then, what about churches like the Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons…

The Adventists claim to be ‘the remnant church’ – originally comprising ‘the families of faithful patriarchs’, then the nation of Israel.                             
Jehovah’s Witnesses obviously claim that they are the witnesses that Isaiah addressed when he wrote ‘concerning Judah and Jerusalem’ – figure that out!                      
Mormons claim to be descendants or adoptees of the tribe of Joseph. You’ll find their doctrines change over time as they try to blend Judaism, Christianity and even Freemasonry, with Joseph Smith’s notions.

 What a mess...I’m more confused than ever!.…they all seem to carry some Catholic baggage without realizing it, while trying to be top dog.                                                                    

By the way, what about Muslims…why are they so against the Jews?

 The controversy over Palestine goes back nearly 4000 years to Sarah telling Abraham: “Cast out this bondwoman and her son (Ishmael): for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.” The recently deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood called Israelis: ‘descendants of apes and swine’, based on the teachings of the Qu’ran.

Do you know what?...it’s a sad state of affairs and I’m feeling sorry for these people of Israel – of no consequence, not wanted, replaced, ‘apes and swine’.…no wonder they’re defensive after all the crusades, pogroms, inquisitions, and the holocaust. They have certainly paid dearly for the rejection of Jesus as their Messiah.

So let’s find out what God really thinks of them.                           

 NEXT: Apple of His eye
Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/apple-of-his-eye.html

 Image credits:

flag/evenatthedoors.com

dogs/smallbusinessjobs.blogspot.com

BUY HER BACK??...HOW?

We’re exploring the miraculous survival of the Jews. So God loves them...but how much?

You were telling me that Hosea had to buy back his wife after she cheated on him but you never told me what his name meant.

Would you believe?...‘Jah is help’.

Uhh, that’d be right!...if it was me I’d be blaming God for this marital mess.  Now I suppose you're going to tell me that God still loves Israel and will graciously buy her back? I guess that wouldn’t be with military strength and bullets.

Not long after this God used Jeremiah to declare a New Covenant in chapter 31...

....the Mediator being Jesus?

Yes Jesus, who sealed the New Covenant with His own blood. Hosea refers to Him when he wrote: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt", recalling the Hebrews being rescued by God from Egypt after the first Passover was sacrificed.

…and Jesus was taken as a small child to Egypt for refuge wasn’t He?

Yes, then He was taken back to Judaea to become the ‘Lamb of God’ sacrificed at Passover.                

So the buy-back has already been paid – in blood, nearly 2000 years ago!...but the wayward missus is not really faithful yet.  All I can say is that God has a lot more patience than me - I'd have just dragged her home and taught her a lesson long ago.                                                                     

In the meantime God has graciously included us Gentiles but notice He declared to Hosea at the outset:

"Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel."

and later He says:

            "And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God."

So Israel's back on the map, just like Hosea predicted and bristling with armament.

Well they're not out of the woods yet. Modern Israel is just a fraction of the original kingdoms and they still survive on their wits and fire-power. They don’t yet say:

“…Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.” ch14vv2-3

I think you’ll find that Asshur refers to the ‘anti-Christ’ soon to appear on the scene and just while we're looking at Hosea, probably the most well-known passage is:

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (4: 6)                                                 

Ah, so God held the leaders responsible for failing to teach the people of Israel!...but what about Christian leaders?...what have they been teaching people, especially about Israel?  
Are we destroyed for lack of knowledge too?

Let’s find out.

NEXT: Who is top dog?
Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/who-is-top-dog.html

Photo credit: acpr.org.il

HOSEA'S RED-LIGHT BRIDE

We're exploring the miraculous survival of the Jews but does God really love them?

 I was amazed to learn that the Israeli airline 'El Al' takes its name from the book of Hosea in the Jewish Bible.  Who was Hosea anyway?  Surely he wasn't a pimp, was he?                                                                                 

No way - he was a god-fearing Jewish prophet about 750 BC, who God ordered to marry a prostitute.

You're joking aren't you?  Marry a whore??  Come on now...God must have been really hard up to order that!

Yes, God was so bent on illustrating His dire warning to Israel that Hosea had to go look for a bride in the red light district.

But wasn't prostitution taboo in Israel?

Absolutely!...from Deuteronomy 23 verse 17, and it was especially taboo for a priest to marry a whore. However the place had become like a brothel so….. desperate situations call for desperate measures!

Yea, but this could be just a bit of a sordid yarn....

...not when we're given full names. Hosea was son of Beeri and he picked Gomer daughter of Diblaim who bore him three children, named by God -

- a son, Jezreel, meaning 'God will scatter'                                                                             

- a daughter, Lo-ru-hamah, meaning 'no mercy'                                                                  

- another son, Lo-ammi, meaning 'not my people'...just nobodys

Wow!... that really spells it out!  "You've been behaving like a whore in a brothel so I'm going to toss you out - without mercy - and disown you!"  Was he for real?

Sure. The kingdom of Israel by then was independent of the kingdom of Judah, so the corrupt family of king Ahab was annihilated in Jezreel and finally Israel was wiped off the map by the Assyrian Empire in 722 BC, confirmed by Assyrian records held in the University of Chicago. The land was deliberately repopulated with Gentiles and Israel has never been the same since.

Well that's that! It wasn’t just a yarn - God finished with most of Israel in 722 BC.

Not quite. Hosea's wife got bored and had an affair, as they say, with his friend.

Huh, friend!? What did Hosea do?...go and stone them? I bet he felt like it!

He had to go and buy her back with 15 pieces of silver and some barley - the price of a female slave and...wait for it...love her again!

Aw, come on now!…your missus, who had a checkered past, cheats on you with your mate and then you have to buy her back?...and love her as if nothing happened??

Urr, not exactly. It looks like Hosea put her on a long probation of celibacy – not even intercourse with Hosea, who promised to remain faithful too. Oh and by the way, Gomer’s name is said to mean ‘heat’.  

This is almost unbelievable!...you can just about feel the tension!

Just like between God and Israel ever since:

“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim…

Mmm…so even though they’re back in Palestine, they’re still like that today.                                
Okay, take back a cheating missus - but why pay up too?

Next: Buy her back??
Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/buy-her-back.html

 Photo credit: xiaxue.blogspot.com

'EL AL'?...WHO??

IOPNA explores whether Israel's survival is miraculous:

What a jumbo of an embarrassment!

Embarrassment??                        

That’s just a regular Boeing 747 on approach from Tel Aviv in Israel.

Precisely! Israel is on the map again.

Well it always has been for as long as I can remember but I guess it is kind of remarkable, all things considered.

Just remarkable hey? You would have to be over 80 years of age to clearly remember the miracle of the re-establishment of the State of Israel after 1,878 years. Unfortunately today’s world leaders are all too young to have seen it.

But this is a common sight around here – just another scheduled flight. 

Come on……an Israeli airliner is hardly an embarrassment.

You don’t think so??  Check out the signwriting on the upper deck.

Well that’s just the airline name - ‘El Al’ - with a few squigggles thrown in for good measure.

What other airline, anywhere in the world today, has a quotation from the Holy Scriptures plastered all over their aeroplanes, uniforms and service vehicles?...and not only that, they have written it in Hebrew as well, their own language now revived after centuries.

You’re kidding aren’t you?...surely not a quotation from the Bible??

Sure it is! This is from that sacred book that science is supposed to have proved to be full of myths, about a God that is not supposed to exist! Hosea 11 verse 7 says: “…they call him to (el) the Most High (al)…”

So the Jews have survived and returned, and whether they realize it or not, their God and their Holy Book is now flaunted on the sides of their national airliners….I see what you mean…quite an embarrassment!

The sad thing is that it has suited them to pick out a couple of words from their sacred Tanakh which have been taken to simply mean ‘upwards’ or ‘skyward’, and ignore what Hosea was actually saying:

“And my people are bent on backsliding from me: though they (the prophets) called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.”

Mmm…who are these people anyway?...where did they come from?

The Jews?...they trace their ancestry back to Abraham, nearly 4000 years ago – in fact, even back to Noah then Adam.

Wow! they sure are survivors!

Yes, they kept their identity by avoiding marriage with Gentiles and by constantly hoping – “Next year in Jerusalem”.                                                
Look at the world’s empires fallen into the dust of history in the meantime: Egypt…Babylon…Persia…Greece…Rome….

Weren’t they the empires that tried to dominate the Jews or take over Palestine?

That’s them, and even in modern times we have seen the collapse of empires that didn’t learn from that history – the Ottoman Empire, the Third Reich of Germany, the British Empire, and now the U.S.S.R.  In fact, if you watch televised news you can see that Russia and Iran (Persia), still haven’t learnt their lesson.           

Okay, I can see El Al is definitely an embarrassment – it tells the world that Israel is still on the map while all those empires have crumbled.

The only exception is that the Roman Empire didn’t disappear but fragmented and since 1958 reviving as the European Union, just like the Bible predicts.

The Bible predicted that??    So it’s going to get interesting hey?...with Israel and a Gentile empire both back on the map together.                                                   

How about we check out this guy, Hosea and see what he was on about.

NEXT:  Red light bride
Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/red-light-bride.html

Acknowledgement: forward.com

Photo credit: afropersian.blogspot.com 

COMING...READY OR NOT!

IOPNA concludes our conversation with a skeptic about the Rapture:

Let’s wrap this up by looking at the second half of Matthew 24.

Good idea.  Jesus now shifts gear to explain to His Jewish disciples what He has just foretold as a Jewish prophet (21:11).                                                               

He uses the fig tree approaching summer as an illustration, having already cursed a fig tree for not producing fruit in 21:19 (&Mk 11) and given a parable about an unfruitful fig tree in Luke 13:6-9, while the failure of the Jewish fathers to be fruitful as a fig tree in Hosea 9:10 would be understood. Fruitful or not, the fig tree sprouts leaves approaching summer just as Israel revived by declaring statehood on 14 May 1948 – the unfruitful fig tree is no longer dried up so the end is getting close!  

How close?                          

This generation that sees the revival will be around to see it.  A 5 year old child in 1948 is now 70. (Also I understand the Jews consider 100 years to represent a generation and Jerusalem was liberated from Turkish rule on 11 December, 1917 by the British Army.)                                                                      

No matter what happens we can rely on what Jesus has prophesied. He didn’t know the date at this stage – only the Father knew – and most people alive at the time won’t know that the Son of Man is about to come, just like people engaged in legitimate but godless pursuits in the days of Noah were taken away (airo: take away) in judgment by the Flood.

That’s amazing stuff. I had no idea how Jewish this chapter is.  

Notice how most scientists today pooh-pooh the idea of a Great Flood but not Jesus.                                                         

No prizes for guessing who’s right about that one!                                                   

Now here’s an interesting bit that you will hear all sorts of interpretations on -   
Two in the field or two at the mill – one ‘taken’ (paralambano: received near) and one is ‘left’ (apheimi: forsaken). In other words, one is chosen to be received but the other is left behind.                                                       

Hey, that sounds mighty like the Rapture!

It sure does and what a wake up that will be for many left behind especially godly Jews who did not believe on Jesus Christ as their Messiah.                                                                      

The chapter ends with two illustrations to show the need to watch and be ready. 
Christians need to watch and be ready but our expectation should be for Jesus to come FOR us, whereas the Jew’s expectation is for their Messiah to come to His house (Jerusalem). At the moment it is ‘left desolate’ until they say: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” (23:38-39)  In the meantime the Jews will accept an evil bondman who comes in his own name: anti-Christ.  
John 5:43       Daniel 11:37   2 Thessalonians 2:4

Well that concludes our study on the Rapture
                                                                                                                                                        
...that they told me is not even in the Bible!                                                  

One day we might look at Paul’s 2^nd letter to the Thessalonians that refers to the Rapture but its theme is really the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ – His return in glory to judge the world that rejected Him. Paul also takes a dim view of people who cause trouble with false teaching about the Rapture.    

Okay, I think I understand the teaching but believing in such an ‘out there’ happening is a different matter.

Well, apart from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Rapture will be the greatest event in all of history since Creation. There’s a lot at stake and our Saviour God “desires all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth”. 1 Timothy 2:4

Do you remember what we called out when playing ‘hide and seek’ as kids?

“Coming….ready or not!”             

…yep, you got it!....so Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:22 - “Anathema Maranatha”

…which can be translated: (If you don’t love the Lord Jesus Christ)…curse on you –

He’s coming anyway!

WHEN? WHEN? WHEN?

IOPNA continues our conversation with a skeptic about the Rapture:

Come on now, how are you going to fit Matthew 24 into this plan?

Not a problem but first of all let’s remind ourselves that the Bible is a Jewish book written by Jews – even if most of them won’t accept the authority of the B’rit Hadashah (New Testament)…..yet.  In particular Matthew was once a Jewish tax collector who obviously wrote his account for Jewish readership.

Hey?... how about you prove that.

Matthew begins with the royal genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham (1:1), who being a young child, is worshipped by Gentile magi as the King of the Jews (2:2). He is taken to Egypt for refuge just like their Hebrew ancestors centuries before (2:14). 

During His public ministry Jesus said:                                                                                                    

“…the Law and the Prophets…I did not come to destroy but to fulfil.” 5:17 

“…Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.”  5:35      

 “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  15:24   

 “…your King is coming to you…”  21:5         

“Are you the King of the Jews?”…“It is as you say”  27:11  
The governor’s soldiers: “Hail King of the Jews!”  27:29                                              

So the real King of the Jews has been mocked by the puppet king Herod and marched out of His city to be crucified under the sign: ‘This is the King of the Jews’. Matthew’s account concludes with the rejected King in Galilee – not in Jerusalem, nor in heaven.  28:16-20

Okay, point proven – now for chapter 24.

Jesus has just told Jerusalem: “Your house is left to you desolate” because the leaders have challenged His authority (21:23) rather than honour Him as King and the people only regard Him as a prophet (21:11). He now walks out of the temple saying that it will be torn down stone by stone and leaves the city, going to the Mount of Olives with His Jewish disciples. 

Jesus sits down where He will stand when He returns in judgment! (Zechariah 14:4)                                                                  

Really??  The disciples must have been utterly bewildered by this turn of events – weren’t they warned by Jesus that He was going to be killed?

Sure, so they besiege him with questions – in fact, 3 at once!   

When will the temple be destroyed?  When will you be coming back (to Jerusalem)?  When is the end of the age?........when? when? when?                                                                        

He warns them to not be deceived by false Christs and to not be troubled by wars.  Wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes will be the beginning of sorrows. But why did He use the word odin (birth pain) translated ‘sorrow’?  It’s as if He has now jumped ahead to the very painful rebirth of Israel as a nation in 1948 after World War II.                                                       

The tribulation commences and if you survive execution and endure despite hatred, betrayal, deception, and lawlessness – you will be saved. Christians have not been hated of all nations. 
Jews have not been hated of all nations for Jesus’ name sake - yet. 

The good news of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the world then the end (of the age) will come. The gospel of the kingdom began with John the Baptist preaching in 3:2, not at Pentecost.                                                          

 

Okay, that certainly doesn’t sound like being saved from going to hell.

No. Now notice how Jewish this next section is (vv15-20) and as we read this I am well aware that I am not a Jew and I live 14,000 kilometres from Jerusalem so this cannot apply to me.                                                    

The abomination of desolation                    Daniel 9:27   

Daniel the prophet (& Jewish prince)         Daniel 1:3-6; 9: 24 
the holy place                                                Judaea
Sabbath day
It’s time to get out of Judaea quick. Why?         

Now GREAT TRIBULATION, like nothing ever experienced in all of history. (vv21-22)

Don’t go darting off after false Christs that could deceive even ‘the elect’ because the Son of Man’s coming will be like lightning. (vv23-27) Notice He uses the Greek word for the Jewish messiah: Christos, and ‘Son of Man’ shows His claim to universal dominion. Daniel 7:13-14

Next, He draws on a Jewish proverb that describes greedy people hovering around someone dying, hoping for rich pickings. (v28)  Is he referring to the nations gathered at Armageddon intent on teaching Israel a lesson they’ll never forget? 

I've noticed in televised news how western nations including Australia, with their rapidly growing Islamic populace, are turning against Israel today. 

Just like the real ‘hot spud‘ in Zechariah 12:3!                                                                

Next there will be darkening of the sun and moon, and shaking of the powers of the heavens before the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds. He sends His angels with a trumpet blast to gather his elect - from the four winds (north, south, east & west on Earth) and from one end of heaven to the other.  All the elect are gathered – from on Earth and in heaven! (vv29-31)

What a sight that will be!                                                                     

I’m beginning to see how Jewish all this is. How about we leave it there...

 

NEXT :    Finally.  Coming…ready or not!

Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/comingready-or-not.html
 

Photo credit:the-eyeontheworld.blogspot.com