The Watchman
Last week, I started a series of articles on the end times and how they relate to Israel and to us today. To see my viewpoint, you must believe the Bible is the infallible word of God, given to holy men as the Spirit of God led them to write.
Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” So, if you believe this, God is the author of the Bible.
Let’s start with Isaiah 46:9-10. Verse 9 says, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.” Verse 10 says, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done.”
That’s why we have prophecy. If true prophecy comes from God, it will come to pass. If it does not come to pass, it’s not from God.
The Bible says in Titus 1:2 that God cannot lie. In Romans 3:4, “Let God be true, but every man a liar.”
Did you know that when Jesus walked on the Earth, he said in Matthew 5:18 that not one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled? Jesus said the Old Testament was right. So I believe the New Testament is also right, and the Scripture I gave you tells us that God gives us insight from the beginning to the end concerning his plan for planet Earth and Israel, and his plans for the future.
To understand the future, we must go back to the very beginning. So, let’s go back to Genesis chapter three.
In Genesis chapters one and two, God created the heavens and the Earth, man and woman. Genesis 1:27 says God created them male and female. Genesis 2:21-25 says God takes a rib from Adam and makes a woman.
Verse 24 says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”
This is the beginning of marriage and its purpose, as God said in Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion.”
This brings us to chapter three, the fall of Adam and Eve and the introduction of sin. God drove them from the Garden of Eden and gave a prophecy.
In Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Who is the seed of the woman?
Remember, God sees everything from the beginning to the end, and I believe we are the end-time generation. We, too, can see through God’s word and history.
Who is the seed of the woman who shall bruise the head of the serpent? First, a woman does not have seed; only the male does. So, what is this scripture referring to?
This is the first prophecy concerning Immanuel (Jesus). Isaiah 7:14 says, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,” meaning God with us.
God became man. John 1:14 says, “And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Romans 5:12-19 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
Verse 19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
But God had a plan from the beginning, in case his creation failed and sinned. In Revelation 13:8, Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Hebrews 2:9 says, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”
God had a plan to save the human race — those who would believe. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
In these verses, you see the words, “He, God the Father, gave his only begotten son” to fulfill Genesis 3:15, the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent.
So, for God to carry out his plan for redemption, he needed a people to complete it, and that people was Israel.
Deuteronomy 7:6-7 tells us, “The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”
Verse 7 says, “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people.”
In this scripture, we see God’s attributes and characteristics: he is meek and lowly in heart, as Matthew 11:29 says.
James 2:5 says God has chosen the poor of the world, rich in faith. God hates pride and arrogance; read Proverbs 6:16-19.
God gave Israel their name. Genesis 32:28 says, “And he said to him, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God and with man, and hast prevailed.”
In Genesis 15:17-21, God made a covenant with Abraham. Verse 18 says the land runs from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the Euphrates. Genesis 17:7 records it as an everlasting covenant.
Psalm 89:28-36 records a covenant God made with his chosen servant David. Psalm 89:28 says, “My covenant shall stand fast with him.” God said in verse 35, “Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.”
Psalm 89:28-34 says: “My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
“If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
“Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break, nor alter the things that are gone out of my lips.”
At this time, God is dealing with their transgression, but soon he will visit them with his loving kindness.
There is a scripture in 1 Peter 5:10 that says, “After that ye have suffered a while, I will make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle you.”
We owe a lot to Israel and the Jewish people, from whom God sent his son, Jesus.
More to come.
