Out of Zion

Guest (Male): Welcome to Out of Zion with Susan Michael, an exploration of the Bible and the land of Israel. From ancient biblical sites to the story behind the stories, join Susan on a journey through the most exciting book on the planet. Hit the subscribe button for future episodes which will deepen your faith and bring the Bible to life. And now here's our host, Susan Michael.

Dr. Susan Michael: Well, hey there. Welcome back. This is the 3D Bible series part six, the people of the Bible, both Jews and Christians. Let's get started. We have a lot to cover today. You know, there's a scripture in Acts that I want to start with because in this verse we see the calling on the Jewish people and the calling on the church come together. And that's in Acts chapter one verses six through eight. Now Jesus has uh been crucified and he has been resurrected and he has spent 40 days with the disciples and Acts it says teaching them about the kingdom and and teaching them and he's now about to ascend into heaven.

They're standing on the Mount of Olives and he says to them uh they said to him actually, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the all the ends of the earth. Now this is very very interesting. The disciples have spent three years at the feet of Jesus and now they've spent 40 days with him teaching them everything he wanted to leave with them before he ascended into heaven.

And the burning question on their mind was, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus did not say, you're all wrong. You got it all wrong. Oh, you know, haven't you been listening to me? He didn't say that. He didn't rebuke them. He didn't correct them. He simply answered their question about the timing and he said the times and seasons are not for you to know. And then he goes on and tells them what they need to know as the church which is that you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit and you will go out and be witnesses for me.

So in this verse we see the calling on Israel and this future physical restoration and we see the calling on the church to go out into all the world and to preach the good news of the gospel. So the um I want to now talk about this calling on the Jewish people. Um you know, to do that I want to give just a little bit of a review of things that we've just recently covered. We know that the story of the Bible is the story of God's plan to redeem the world and that central to that story is the Jewish people and their calling to be the vehicle of God 's redemptive plan.

And so we discussed how that there is no Old Testament story versus New Testament story or Old Testament plan versus New Testament plan. There was no plan A that failed and then plan B and there's no plan A people that failed replaced by plan B people. And that's why we see in this verse in Acts both a referral to the restoration of the kingdom of Israel and a referral to the calling on the church. So uh Israel's story as we've learned it is that to be the vehicles of God's redemptive plan in the earth. And when God chose Abram and he said to him, I'm going to make you a great nation and I'm and so he decided at that point to create a people to work through to bring about his plan of redemption.

And I wanted to review that and I want to stop right here for one really important reason. Today in today's culture, there is kind of an aversion to anyone people group being what we would call exceptional. So we're we have a big battle in the United States against the idea that America is exceptional. And so when it comes to the chosenness of the Jewish people, they're called in the Bible the chosen people. It comes across in today's culture and society as being a little arrogant and um that that this people group is better than the other people's group.

And so that's why I want to review this that um God did not line up all the peoples of the earth and say, okay, I like this people group better than the rest. So I'm going to work with them. That's not what happened at all. God needed a people to work through, so he created them for this purpose. He chose Abram who was unable to have children and said, I'm going to make of you a great nation. And through a miracle Abraham and Sarah were able to then have the child Isaac and the nation was born.

So God literally created this people to fulfill this calling of being his people. And he told Abraham that anyone that blesses them will be blessed because they're helping God's plan. They're siding with God and anyone that cursed them would be cursed. So by putting this spiritual law into operation, God was guaranteeing the survival of his people that there would be those that would bless them and help them and he was going to bless anyone who helped them so that they would survive because there was a lot for them to do and a lot for them to endure.

So as we talked earlier, the calling on them could be seen as a birthing call. And um we have that you know, they birthed into earth these products that we enjoy salvation through. We learn about the the covenants and the promises and the law of God and I mean the very Bible we have came from them. So everything that we hold dear as Christians came from the Jewish people. And um so this is their calling and in order to make them into a nation as we said last time, he would need a land. And so he gave them a piece of land.

Um so but starting then I want to start from here for this week uh after that review is that because of this calling on the Jewish people to be this vehicle of God's redemptive plan, there would be tremendous suffering as a consequence. And um the New Testament confirms this in Revelation 12 and it's it's quite a long um section here. So I'm not going to read it all, but I'm going to jump from a few verses to make my point. Uh here in Revelation 12, the apostle John has a revelation and he sees Israel as a woman, a pregnant woman who uh is clothed with the sun and the moon and 12 stars around her head which uh symbolize the 12 tribes of Israel.

And she's pregnant with a child and she's uh in labor in in pain as about to give birth. Then it says, and then there was another sign and it was this great fiery red dragon. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. So she bore a male child who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron. So she bore the Messiah and her child was caught up to God in his throne. The child was taken to heaven and the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God.

And then this talks about a great war in heaven and it says, now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But it describes how she is kept safe from this. And then it says, and the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. So this woman who birthed the Messiah and is being persecuted for it because God kept her safe, then the dragon goes after the rest that her other children, her other offspring which are Christians.

This spiritual attack is actually against the male child. That's the whole point. It was to destroy the male child, but the dragon wasn't able. So he goes after the the woman and then after her her offspring. And so the the tactic of this spiritual warfare against the woman Israel is to number one wipe her off the face of the earth because if if the dragon can get rid of her, then God's plan through her would come to an end. For sure, if we can just keep her off the land, then all of God's promises and his plans would not come true.

And it's very very interesting here that we as Christians then also suffer this spiritual attack because we also have a role to play and that is the calling that's on the church. And so the Christians today are the most persecuted religious group on the earth. And there have been more martyrs in the last century than in all the previous centuries added up together. So obviously this persecution of the dragon is in full force and it is not just against Christians. It is against the woman against Israel. Now uh there's a very interesting verse in in Psalm 83 that describes this pursuit of Israel, of the Jewish people.

And it says here in Isaiah uh sorry, in Psalm 83 it says, oh God, those who hate you have said, let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of Israel would be known more. So it's a battle between the forces of hell and God himself. And they hate these forces hate the people of God, the Jewish people and the church. But when it comes to the persecution of the Jewish people um it is very clear that there's a relentless spirit after them to destroy them. And when we look at the history of the Jewish people and we see the influence of antisemitism generation after generation after generation and uh one day in a future episode we'll just talk about antisemitism because it is it's it's just an astounding story of the evil pursuit of the Jewish people.

And we can look at history and we can see the threats of annihilation and the attacks to wipe this people off. Just a summary of this history uh it began. We read about it in the Old Testament in the story of Esther and the the evil spirit behind evil Haman that wanted to wipe out the Jews. Uh the Jews of the Persian Empire were the Jews of the world. The Persian Empire was so big. That would have been the end of the Jewish people had Haman succeeded. But we have the story of Esther and how she interceded and God intervened.

But after that we have uh after the time of Jesus we have the rise of Islam out of Arabia and it tried to wipe out um the Jewish people in the lands uh that were in their way in their pursuit. And then the Jewish community thrived in Spain and then we had the Spanish Inquisition and just wiped out the Jews of Spain. Either they had to flee or they had to convert um or they uh were killed. And and then we have the growth of the Jews in Europe. And we know uh the devastating um tragedy of the Holocaust to wipe them out.

And now today the the largest community of Jews now is in Israel. They've just barely about to pass the one half mark. And uh it's no coincidence that we have evil powers in Iran threatening um to annihilate Israel. So it's it's a pursuit of the Jewish people that there's no explanation for it except a biblical explanation, a spiritual explanation. But God promised in Jeremiah 31 36 that they would never cease to be a nation before him. And surely they have survived all of this miraculously. You know, there's a famous quote by the uh German Chancellor Bismarck who is said to have been speaking to the German Kaiser.

And this is back in the 19th century, but he said, you know, the German Kaiser asked him. He said, Bismarck, can you prove the existence of God? And Bismarck said, the Jews, your majesty, the Jews. Their survival is such a miracle and such a testament to God's promise that they would never cease to be a nation before him. So now in our day they have not just survived, but they've returned home. God's birthing people have returned to their land. And as we covered in a previous episode, Isaiah 11 11 said that God would bring them back a second time.

The first time being under the Persians and then we had the second exile. This is the second return and it is foretold in Isaiah. But the very nurse very next verse in Isaiah says something very very interesting that in this return that God would raise a banner to the nations. He says here that then the Lord will set his hand again a second time to recover the remnant of his people. And he will set up a banner to the nations and will assemble the outcast of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

So the return of the Jewish people to their homeland is a banner to the nations. Well, what does that mean? What is a banner? Well, a banner is a sign. It carries a nation. It carries a sign of of victory in a battle. But I believe in this instance it carries a message to the nations and it's a message that is twofold. It's both positive and negative at the same time and it's it's a it's a message that proclaims, I am a faithful God and I am fulfilling my promises. I am gathering my outcast back and he's getting the attention of the nations that this is what he is doing.

Well, for you and I we're believers. We we rejoice in that. I rejoice in the faithfulness of God to the Jewish people and what he's doing because that means he's faithful to all of his promises and and I can believe in him and trust in him because he is a faithful God and his promises are true and his word is true. So I can rejoice in that. But if you're not walking with the Lord and if you're actually opposed to him and what he's doing, it's a message of warning that I am a faithful and true God and I'm fulfilling my promises.

I'm gathering my children as I promised and there's a day of reckoning coming for the nations that oppose them. So it is a word of warning to the nations. You could say that Israel the regathering of Israel in a way is a test. It's a test of the nations. In um Joel chapter three God says here, for behold in those days and at that time when I bring back the captive the captives of Judah and Jerusalem I will also gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people, my heritage Israel.

So see warning. It's a warning that judgment is coming to the nations on how they treat and have treated his people. Now Jesus also said that when he returned, he was going to judge the nations based on their treatment of his brethren the Jewish people. We have this in Matthew 25. It's a long passage. I won't read it, but he describes gathering the nations before him that when he returns he's going to sit on the throne of judgment and he's going to gather the nations as the sheep and the goats. And for those that uh were good, he's going to bless them.

And for those that are the goat nations, he tells them. He says, because of what you did to these the least of my brethren. Now many times we hear this verse as though it's applied to the needy or the poor. And okay, Jesus does care about the needy and the poor, but we've got to read this scripture in its context to understand what he was really describing here. The Old Testament context is that judgment would come to the nations based on their treatment of the children of Israel. So when Jesus says that they will be judged based on their treatment of his brethren, he's talking about the Jewish people, the children of Israel.

Now I believe that you and I as Gentile Christians were grafted into that tree. And spiritually this also applies to the church because we are also Jesus's brethren. We are a part of his family and there will come judgment on the nations, I believe, for their treatment and for their persecution of the Christian people as well. But nevertheless Jesus here was talking about his physical brethren uh the Jewish people. So the calling on the church is what we read in the very opening in Acts that we were to go out into the world and witness to Jesus.

Uh there were different descriptions of that great commission, but it said that we were to go out and to teach the nations, to disciple the nations. We were to baptize. We were to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons. We're to teach all that Jesus them teach the nations to observe all that Jesus commanded them. That's the great commission on the church. We are to go out individual by individual person to person, people to people and bring the good news of Jesus to them. But the calling on the church on the on Israel is quite different.

The calling on Israel is to be that physical people in that physical location that brings and welcomes the physical return of the Messiah. He's going to come to that place and to that people as he comes to establish the kingdom of God to the world. And that's why they are their return is a banner to the nations. It's a warning. He's coming. The king is coming. So get ready and be warned of judgment if you're on the wrong side of the equation. So the calling on the church and the calling on Israel is very different, but yet they overlap.

They uh complement each other, I should say. They complete each other. So when you hear someone say that, well, God no longer works with the Jewish people. He now works with the church. The church has replaced the Jewish people as the people of God. This shows you no way. The calling on the church is not the same as the calling on the Jewish people and it is still in place. And the calling on the church is very much still in place and very important. You could say that the calling on the church is to go out and proclaim the wonderful news of what God has brought to the earth through the Jewish people.

This great salvation that we're proclaiming came through them. So their role is one and our role is another. That's why we understand the significance of the Jewish people and their return to the land and why we need to stand with them and we understand that it is uh something opposed by the very powers of the devil, of hell. And therefore they need our prayers. They need our support. They need our encouragement and our love. And I think that the the perfect verse to describe the kind of prayers that we need to be praying in these days as the church is found in Isaiah 62 verses six through seven.

And it says here, I've set watchmen on your walls, oh Jerusalem, and they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, keep not silent and give him no rest until he establishes and he makes Jerusalem a praise in all the earth. The day that Jerusalem is made a praise in all the earth is the day when that new Jerusalem comes down and is married with the old Jerusalem takes over the old Jerusalem that the kingdom of God comes to earth and the nations are going to come up to Jerusalem.

They're going to learn war no more and they're going to be taught of his word and truly the word will go out from Zion. So Out of Zion is where you are now and I hope that this word has been a blessing to you as you understand the great calling on the Jewish people, the calling on the church and how God is working in the physical and in the spiritual all at the same time. So we have a link in today's show notes. I invite you to become a part of our Isaiah 62 prayer initiative.

If you will sign up every month, we're going to send prayer points. They come out from Jerusalem. They go all around the world. We have Christians all around the world praying with us every month. We pray for Israel. We pray for the Middle East. We pray for current events. We pray for the ministry of the ICEJ there in Israel. And I ask you, I invite you to become a part of that Isaiah 62 prayer initiative. I also have a book that we can recommend that we're going to link to in the notes. It's a it's kind of it's not a theological book.

It's not about scripture, but it's about the people of Israel because you know, there are a lot of lies, a lot of propaganda against Israel. And the purpose of it is to make the people of Israel look so evil and look so bad that no one would support them. And this book is called Thou Shalt Innovate. And it's about 10 Israeli people and their stories, how that in their quest to help someone or to help some people somewhere in the world that they invented some new innovative technology or product, something that's saving lives all around the world, something that's blessing people all around the world.

Why? Because of the goodness of the people of Israel and their desire to bless others and to help others, to be a light to the Gentiles as the Bible said that they would be. So Thou Shalt Innovate will introduce you to some of the people of Israel just so you can get to know them on a personal level. So we link to it in our show notes. I hope that you've learned something this week. Join me back here next time. We're going to talk about the God of the Bible and then we're going to wrap up our 3D Bible series and what does it mean for you?

I'll see you then. Until then, God bless.

Guest (Male): We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael. Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, pray.com, Salem One Place, Salem Life Audio. Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA. All rights reserved.