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The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, “Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel, saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you. For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’ ”
Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah.
“For thus says the Lord:
‘We have heard a voice of trembling,
Of fear, and not of peace.
Ask now, and see,
Whether a man is ever in labour with child?
So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins
Like a woman in labour,
And all faces turned pale?
Alas! For that day is great,
So that none is like it;
And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble,
But he shall be saved out of it.
Jeremiah 30.1-7

#ChurchLeadership #Israel #jesus #Messiah #salvation #SignsOfTheTimes

https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/israel-and-the-middle-east/israel-in-prophecy-the-last-days/

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00:00Amen. So the last Sunday in the month we're doing the This Month in Prophecy talk.
00:05I'm going to begin with some thoughts about what's happening in Israel and the Middle East,
00:11then some thoughts about what's happening in this country and our part of the world.
00:18So as you probably know from coming to my talks, the events surrounding Israel and the Middle East
00:24are significant in the light of Bible prophecy.
00:26Some have called Israel the epicenter of prophetic events
00:31and that the things which are happening in the last days
00:35center around the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.
00:41Told in the scriptures that they'll return, implied in unbelief,
00:45that they'll go through a time of trouble when the nations round about will try to
00:50push them out of the land, make an end to the land of Israel.
00:54Psalm 83 speaks about a group of nations coming down from the north in Ezekiel 38 to 39.
01:02And then it's seeking to remove the people from the land.
01:05It speaks about global powers dividing up the land in Joel chapter 3 and verse 2.
01:11Jerusalem is a burdensome stone burdening all nations.
01:14In other words, the focal point of attention of the United Nations and the world events
01:19in Jerusalem in Zechariah chapter 12, leading to the events of the second coming,
01:26the last battle, return of the Messiah, the end of what we call the times of the Gentiles,
01:32and the setting up of the Messianic kingdom from Jerusalem when Yeshua, the Messiah, returns.
01:37There's one passage I want to look at in a little bit of detail before we get into looking at what's happening
01:45at the present time.
01:46That's in Jeremiah chapter 30.
01:49If you go to Jeremiah 30, Jeremiah 30 and 31 are two chapters in the book of Jeremiah
01:56which form a unit on their own, particularly dealing with events which lead up to the last days
02:03and the events which will come, according to the Hebrew scriptures, before the day of the Lord.
02:10In Jeremiah 30, verse 24, there's an interesting verse in Hebrew which says
02:15which means in the last days you will consider it or understand it.
02:22So Jeremiah is focusing this passage in chapter 30 to 31 on the last days of this age.
02:29And it begins with the passage about the return of the Jewish people.
02:32It ends actually with a statement in chapter 31 of the new covenant coming,
02:37a new covenant in which God is going to write his law in the hearts of people.
02:42They're going to know God, know that their sins are forgiven,
02:45and that points us actually to the new covenant which was made through the Messiah, Yeshua.
02:50And the implication is that in the end of days then the Messiah himself is going to come back
02:54and restore Israel, not just physically but also spiritually, to God through faith in him.
03:00And Jeremiah 31 also implies that as long as the sun and the moon and the stars are shining in the sky,
03:07so long will Israel be a nation before me, says the Lord.
03:11In other words, no matter what happens in terms of dispersion of the Jewish people,
03:16of persecution, of attacks on the Jewish people,
03:18they're going to survive as a nation and eventually come back to their land.
03:22And indeed, one of the amazing stories of history actually is the dispersion of the Jewish people,
03:29and yet in dispersion they haven't lost their identity,
03:31they've continued to be an identifiable people,
03:34they've kept their faith, they've kept together as a nation,
03:37and in our time, despite all of the things that are thrown against them from persecutions
03:43in the name of, unfortunately, Christianity,
03:46leading to the terrible events of the Holocaust,
03:48the Jewish people have gone back to the land of Israel,
03:50and it's been restored in the same land from which they came,
03:55speaking the same language,
03:57with the same capital, Jerusalem, in the land,
04:00which is all very remarkable if you look at history.
04:04History doesn't work like that,
04:06and it shows that God is at work in this people, in this event.
04:10But let's have a look at the verses from Jeremiah chapter 30,
04:14and read the first 11 verses of chapter 30.
04:18Comment on them.
04:20The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord,
04:22saying, Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel,
04:23saying, Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.
04:28For behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
04:29that I will bring back from captivity my people Israel and Judah,
04:33says the Lord.
04:34And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers,
04:37and they shall possess it.
04:38Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah,
04:43for thus says the Lord,
04:44We've heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
04:49Ask now and see whether a man is ever in labor with a child.
04:52So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins,
04:55like a woman in labor, and all faces turn pale?
04:59Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it,
05:02and it is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
05:06For it will come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts,
05:08that I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds.
05:12Foreigners shall no more enslave them, but they shall serve the Lord their God,
05:15and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
05:19Therefore do not fear, O my servant Jacob, says the Lord,
05:22nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from afar,
05:25and your seed from the land of their captivity.
05:28Jacob shall return, have rest, and be quiet,
05:31and no one shall make him afraid.
05:32For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you,
05:35though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you,
05:38yet I will not make a complete end of you,
05:40but I will correct you in justice,
05:42and will not go altogether unpunished.
05:45I'm not going to do a detailed study on that.
05:49I will do sometime, because there's a lot you can get out of that particular passage,
05:52but just to bring out a few major points,
05:55it says here that there's going to be a return of the Jewish people.
05:59I'm going to bring back from captivity my people.
06:02I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers.
06:05They shall possess it.
06:07Ask yourself, who are the fathers?
06:09The fathers are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
06:12with whom God made a covenant that he would give to the descendants of Abraham,
06:16Isaac, and Jacob, a multitude of descendants,
06:18as many as the stars in the heavens and the sand on the seashore.
06:22In other words, they would come out of Abraham's loins,
06:25a people who would be identifiable,
06:26and who would continue to be identifiable from generation to generation,
06:31even to a thousand generations.
06:33It says there that the Lord will keep his people to a thousand generations,
06:36which is, how many is that?
06:38About 30,000 years or more.
06:40Anyway, they're going to be preserved as a people.
06:44And also in chapter 15 of Genesis,
06:46God made a covenant with Abraham.
06:48He gave to him the title deeds of ownership,
06:49upon which he was a stranger at that time.
06:53And he would renew that covenant with his son Isaac,
06:56and with his grandson Jacob.
06:58So the covenant would go through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
07:02Not through Abraham's other son, Ishmael.
07:04Not through Isaac's other son, Ishmael,
07:07but through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
07:10So that's the covenant which God made with the fathers.
07:13And we know that this has actually come to pass.
07:17And remarkably, we've seen it happen in our time,
07:19that the Jewish people have been scattered to the nations,
07:21and in our time have gone back to the land of Israel,
07:25rebuilt the ancient cities.
07:26So you have Tel Aviv, Beersheba,
07:28and of course Jerusalem,
07:30and other ancient cities from the Bible,
07:32being rebuilt in modern times.
07:35And we see the Jewish people back in the land,
07:37speaking the language which they spoke, Hebrew,
07:39and back in the land,
07:41and in the land that God gave to their fathers.
07:47Chapter 4, verse 4,
07:49it goes on to say that God is going to speak
07:50concerning Israel and Judah.
07:52And here he speaks about some less good news.
07:55He says they're going to hear a voice of trembling,
07:57of fear, and not of peace.
07:59Implication is they may be looking for peace,
08:01but instead of peace,
08:02you have a time of fear and of trembling.
08:05And this is going to be so great
08:07that it'll be like a man being in labor with child.
08:10And why do I see every man with his hands on his loins
08:13like a woman in labor,
08:14and all faces turn pale?
08:17If you follow through Bible prophecy,
08:18you'll see that the image of the woman in labor
08:21is one which is used frequently in scriptures
08:23of the end of days,
08:25the troubles which come upon the end of days.
08:27I've said this before,
08:28but when a woman goes into labor,
08:30she experiences a series of shocks,
08:31which are contractions,
08:32which become more and more intense
08:34near as she gets to the birth of the child.
08:37And once that process has begun,
08:39it can't be reversed until the child is born.
08:42And so when you see a certain sequence of events
08:45taking place, which are painful events,
08:47which become more intense
08:49and become more frequent
08:51as they get nearer to the birth of the child,
08:53then you know that the end time sequence
08:56is taking place.
08:57It doesn't only apply to Israel, actually.
08:59Jesus referred to this passage as well in Matthew 24,
09:02so there are certain events taking place
09:03in the nations which will correspond to this.
09:06And you see that they are taking place
09:07in our time as well.
09:12It says,
09:12There shall also be a time of trouble
09:13that is great,
09:15so that none is like it.
09:17And it is the time of Jacob's trouble,
09:18but he shall be saved out of it.
09:21Again, a time of trouble with none like it.
09:24You have that phrase,
09:25similar phrase in the book of Daniel,
09:27chapter 12,
09:28concerning the end of days.
09:30And in Jesus' own prophecy in Matthew 24,
09:32where he speaks about a time of great tribulation,
09:34unlike any that has been before,
09:36nor ever shall be.
09:37And unless God cut short those days,
09:39no flesh will be saved.
09:40But for the sake of his elect,
09:42he will cut short those days.
09:44So there is going to be this time of trouble.
09:46And that's the bad news,
09:47which people don't want to hear,
09:48but it's in the Bible,
09:49that there's going to be a time of trouble
09:51as we get nearer to the end of days.
09:53And if God didn't cut short,
09:54then it would be the end of life on earth.
09:57And the implication also is it would be the end of Israel
09:59if God didn't cut short this time.
10:01So God is going to do something
10:02to save his people out of the time of trouble.
10:05And we read on in chapter 30,
10:09it speaks about the Lord breaking the yoke
10:11from off your neck,
10:12bursting your bonds.
10:13Foreigners shall no more enslave them.
10:15So the source of trouble is going to be
10:17from the non-Jewish world,
10:19from the opposition to Israel.
10:20And God's going to break the oppression,
10:23which is over them,
10:24and set them free.
10:25And in the end,
10:26they're going to serve the Lord their God
10:27and David their king,
10:28whom I will raise up for them.
10:30So the end result of this intervention of God
10:33is to bring the people to the point
10:35of worshipping the Lord their God
10:37and worshipping David their king.
10:40No, not worshipping King David,
10:42but I think that David their king
10:44is a type of the Messiah.
10:47Jewish people speak about Mashiach ben David,
10:49Messiah, son of David.
10:51Also speak about Mashiach ben Yosef,
10:53Messiah, son of Joseph.
10:54And those two expressions of the Messiah
10:58actually correspond to two comings of the Messiah
11:00in the Hebrew Scriptures.
11:02In the Bible, you have prophecies
11:04concerning the coming of the Messiah.
11:06Isaiah 53, which speaks about
11:07a suffering servant Messiah,
11:09one upon whom the Lord would lay
11:10the iniquity of us all.
11:12He'd be wounded for our transgressions,
11:14bruised for our iniquities,
11:15chastisement of our peace would be upon him.
11:18Be despised and rejected of men,
11:19a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.
11:21And the Lord would lay upon him
11:23the iniquity of us all.
11:25That prophecy, of course, applies to Yeshua,
11:28Jesus the Messiah.
11:29It's already happened.
11:31Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 53 to the letter
11:33in all its details.
11:36And in his death and resurrection,
11:38he provided the necessary atonement
11:40for the sin of humanity,
11:42whether you're Jewish or Gentile.
11:43All of us fall short of the glory of God.
11:46All of us need an atoning sacrifice.
11:48And Jesus himself provided that sacrifice
11:51through his death and resurrection.
11:54Following his resurrection,
11:56remained on the earth for 40 days,
11:58for departing, sending to heaven,
12:01and sending out the disciples
12:03with the commission to take the gospel
12:04into all the world.
12:06And we're now living in the time
12:08since the first coming of Jesus
12:09when the gospel is going out
12:11for salvation to the nations of the world.
12:13And the fact that we are here,
12:16a group of some Jewish people,
12:19but mainly non-Jewish,
12:20believing in Jesus is a sign of the truth
12:22of the message of the gospel.
12:24Here we are nearly 2,000 years later
12:25amongst the people scattered all over the world
12:30in great multitudes who believe the gospel,
12:32that Jesus is the Messiah
12:34who died and rose again from the dead.
12:36Praise the Lord.
12:37And the implication of this scripture
12:40is that ultimately Israel itself
12:43is also going to come to recognize
12:44Mashiach, Messiah,
12:47in the person of Yeshua
12:48when he comes the second time,
12:50coming this time as Mashiach ben David,
12:52Messiah, son of David.
12:54And the implication of coming as Messiah,
12:56son of David,
12:57is going to rule and reign as David reigned
12:59as a king ruling over the world.
13:03In the New Testament,
13:04he's described as king of kings
13:05and Lord of lords
13:05with all the power of God at his disposal.
13:08And in Revelation,
13:09it tells us that when Jesus comes again,
13:11the kingdoms of this world
13:12will become the kingdom of our God
13:14and of his Messiah
13:15and he shall reign forever and ever.
13:18So there's going to be a return of the Messiah,
13:20this time not coming as a suffering servant,
13:22this time coming as the all-powerful
13:25reigning king Messiah
13:26with all the power of God
13:28to bring in the messianic kingdom.
13:30According to the scriptures,
13:32the prophetic scriptures,
13:33when he comes again,
13:34he'll bring an end to the war.
13:36There'll be no more wars and desolations.
13:38The nations will beat their swords into plowshares
13:40and also their horrible weapons
13:42of tanks and missiles and drones
13:43and all the other ridiculous stuff
13:45that they've built
13:46and cause the nations to live at peace
13:48with each other
13:49and not study war anymore.
13:51And the Bible says that
13:53Jesus will reign from Jerusalem,
13:55come back to Jerusalem,
13:57come back to the Mount of Olives,
13:58then set up his kingdom from Jerusalem,
14:00which maybe is the reason why Jerusalem
14:04is such a hotspot in the world today.
14:07Because not only does God tell us this,
14:10the devil also knows this
14:11and he wants to stop this from happening,
14:13which is why you have all the action
14:15over the status of Jerusalem.
14:18And because the outcome is a good one for Israel,
14:22God tells Israel not to fear,
14:24not to be dismayed,
14:25because I will save you from afar
14:26and your seed from the land of your captivity.
14:30Jacob shall return,
14:31have rest and be quiet,
14:33and no one shall make him afraid.
14:35Now clearly we're not in that time yet.
14:39Jewish people are back in the land,
14:40but they are very much afraid of what's coming.
14:43So something's going to have to happen
14:44to change that situation.
14:46And in fact, Jewish people here in the diaspora
14:48are afraid of the growing anti-Semitism
14:51and the hostility which they're facing
14:52because of the world situation
14:55and because of the way in which
14:56hatred of Israel is being stirred up
14:59in our nation today.
15:01But there's a time coming
15:02when God is going to cause them to return
15:04and to have rest and be quiet
15:06and no one will make them afraid
15:08because the Lord is going to save you.
15:11He says,
15:11though I make a full end of all nations
15:12where I have scattered you,
15:13I will not make a complete end of you.
15:16So God promises he's going to bring
15:18a resolution to this issue
15:21about the status of Israel
15:23and the Jewish people
15:24which will cause them to continue
15:27as a people identifiable
15:28and going to be blessed by the Lord
15:33and saved.
15:35But just one thing we do have to notice
15:37in verse 11 at the end,
15:38it says,
15:38I will correct you in justice
15:39and not let you go altogether unpunished.
15:42So there's something which God
15:43is going to correct in Israel
15:45in this end time period.
15:50Now you could say
15:51there are a lot of things
15:51which Israel needs correcting for.
15:54A lot of people criticize Israel
15:55for the way they treat the Palestinians,
15:58criticize them for the fact
15:59that it's a secular state,
16:02criticize it for the fact
16:03that it's a religious state
16:04and the religious don't always do
16:05what they should do
16:06as far as God is concerned.
16:07So you can find lots of things
16:08wrong with Israel,
16:09lots of things which God needs to correct.
16:11But there's one fundamental thing
16:13which God wants to correct
16:14not just in the land of Israel
16:16but in the dispersion
16:18in the Jewish people
16:19all over the world
16:20and that is the identity
16:23of the Messiah.
16:25And God wants to correct Israel
16:27from not accepting Yeshua
16:29as the Messiah
16:30to accepting Yeshua
16:31as the Messiah.
16:33If you look in Jechariah chapter 12
16:35it speaks about a time
16:35of Jerusalem being the burdensome stone
16:38burdening all nations
16:38and it says at that time
16:40they're going to look upon me
16:41whom they have pierced
16:42and mourn for him
16:43as for an only son
16:44and grieve for him
16:46and you could ask yourself
16:49who is one who has been pierced
16:50who came as an only son
16:53and following that
16:54it says that there's a fountain
16:55going to be open for sin
16:56and for uncleanness.
16:59Don't have to be a great theologian
17:01to work out that that applies
17:02to Yeshua.
17:04Yeshua is the only son.
17:05He was pierced.
17:06He was wounded for our transgressions
17:07and as we look to him
17:09in repentance and faith
17:10our sins are forgiven
17:12and a fountain is opened
17:13for cleansing from sin
17:16and for righteousness.
17:18And following that
17:19according to Zechariah 14
17:20the nations will gather together
17:21against Jerusalem to battle
17:23and then Jesus will return.
17:26So that's a brief rundown
17:28of the end time days
17:29and as I said
17:30if you go to verse 24
17:31in this chapter
17:32it says
17:34in the latter days
17:35you will consider it
17:36and the phrase
17:37in the latter days
17:38in Hebrew is
17:39be'acharit ha'yamim
17:40and acharit ha'yamim
17:42means the latter days
17:43the end of days
17:44the days to come
17:45also the days
17:46which will lead up
17:47to the second coming
17:48of Jesus.
17:50Also in the Psalms
17:51you'll find it says
17:52when the Lord
17:53shall build up Zion
17:54he shall appear
17:56in his glory.
17:58This is written
17:59for the generation
18:00to come
18:00and says
18:02that when the Lord
18:03builds up Zion
18:04he, the Lord
18:04is going to appear
18:05in his glory.
18:07So how's the Lord
18:07going to appear
18:08in his glory?
18:08That has to be
18:09the glorious coming
18:10of Yeshua
18:11Jesus the Messiah.
18:13And it says
18:13this is written
18:14ledor ha'acharon
18:15for the generation
18:18to come
18:18but acharon
18:20can also mean
18:20for the last generation.
18:22So it's written
18:22for the last generation
18:23so when you see
18:24God building up Zion
18:25and hostility to Zion
18:28then that's a sign
18:29that you're in
18:30the last generation.
18:31Do you see
18:32any of that happening?
18:32which I believe
18:36is the sign
18:37that points us
18:38to the fact
18:38that we are living
18:39in the last days.
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