The Watchman’s Call

Narrator: Standing at the intersection of the Word and the world, there is a clear sound for uncertain times. Welcome to The Watchman's Call. Join us as we stand on the ramparts of scripture to examine the intersection of biblical prophecy and modern culture.

The headlines are changing, but the blueprint has already been written. Listen as Pastor Andy Woods uncovers the prophetic significance of the world we live in. The Watchman's Call starts now.

Dr. Andy Woods: We are back as we continue our look based on Revelation chapter 12 into what we would call the mystery or the source of anti-Semitism. Why is there so much anti-Semitism, Jew hatred in our world and in history? We are starting to see an explanation of that in Revelation chapter 12.

And we focused thus far on verses 1 through 5, where the dragon or Satan stood in front of the woman or Israel to prevent the birth of the son, or in this case, Jesus. And Matthew 2 simply tells us that Herod was very insecure over his own throne, and he did not like the competition and the idea of a coming Messiah, and he figured out where the Messiah is going to be born. And he had all the babies, you will remember, in Bethlehem killed.

So that becomes the part of the Christmas story that most people are aware of, but there is a whole another dimension to it as revealed in Revelation chapter 12, verses 1 through 5, where we have learned that it was actually Satan standing in the way of the birth of Jesus by using Herod's insecurity over his own throne to kill all of those male children born in Bethlehem, so that this Messiah could never be born.

And this is actually part of a long-standing tactic or strategy of Satan. As you go through the Old Testament, what you will discover is there are many, many attempts to snuff out the Messianic line leading to Jesus Christ.

Satan, as we have studied, works preemptively. He has a mindset where he says, "I am going to take you out before you take me out." He is on notice thanks to Genesis 3 and verse 15, the first Messianic prophecy of the entire Bible that a Messiah is coming to crush his head. And he works in history to stop the birth of that Messiah.

That gives us a great deal of insight into why the Messianic line leading to Jesus Christ in Old Testament times came within a millimeter many times of extermination or elimination. For example, in the very next chapter after Genesis 3, we have Cain murdering Abel, Genesis 4. Why did that happen?

You remember that Abel's sacrifice was accepted, Cain's was rejected. Satan probably reasoned, of course, that the Messiah was coming through Abel's line rather than Cain's line. And so he had Cain murder Abel. First John chapter 3, verse 12, is one of those verses that tells us that Satan was influencing Cain. But this was an attempt to stop the coming Messiah that has been announced in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15.

God, of course, got around this through the birth of Seth. And then you go to Genesis 6, and you read this strange story of fallen angels procreating with human women. The sons of God and the daughters of men begetting the Nephilim. And that is another attempt by the devil to stop the birth of the Messiah.

Because the Messiah must come from the seed of the woman and must be fully human. So what better way to prevent the birth of the Messiah than to create a race of people that are not fully human? They are fallen, Nephilim. And then, of course, God in all of these events at the last minute gets around it. In this case, he got around it through the protection of Noah and his family in the ark.

And then you read the story of Exodus chapter 1, how Pharaoh began to abuse and enslave the Jewish people, how he began to drown the children there in the Nile. And of course, God gets around it through Moses being set adrift and his little basket that he was in happens to come across Pharaoh's daughter. And Moses was brought in to royalty and enjoyed a great education. And God got around this attempt to stop the Messianic line through his work in and through Moses.

Now, there was a time in history where Satan almost pulled it off. It is in Second Chronicles chapters 22 and 23. That is when there was only one remaining Davidic descendant left on planet Earth, a little baby named Joash. And a wicked usurping queen named Athaliah began to exterminate all of the royal offspring of the house of Judah. Judah, of course, being very important because according to Genesis chapter 49, verse 10, the Messiah must come into the world through the tribe of Judah.

And had it not been for the intervention of Jehoiada, who took baby Joash and hid him in the temple until Athaliah's rampage was completed and she had passed on, had that not happened, there would be no Davidic descendants left. And the lineage leading to Jesus would have been shut down.

And then you go to the book of Esther, where we get the whole idea of Purim and the Feast of Lots, where the wicked and diabolical Haman developed a plot to exterminate the Jews. And yet God got around it through his activities, through Esther and Mordecai, etc.

And then you move into the intertestamental time period where these are prophecies given by Daniel, in Daniel chapter 11, verse 31, where there was a wicked Seleucid ruler who desecrated the Jewish, the rebuilt Jewish temple and began to outlaw Jewish prayer books and banned the practice of circumcision and persecute the Jews. And yet God, of course, gets around all of that in the intertestamental time period through the miraculous revolt, known as the Maccabean Revolt.

Where the temple area was taken back from Seleucid rule and rededicated. This is where the Feast of Lights, Hanukkah, all of that comes from in Judaism. And what I am trying to explain here is Matthew chapter 2 is just another saga in this long story. And here Satan is using Herod and his insecurity over his own throne to kill all of the male innocent infants in Bethlehem so that the Messiah can never be born.

And so the Christmas story, what is it all about? It is about all of Satan's preemptive strikes to prevent the birth of Jesus Christ failed, and our Messiah was born into our world.

And now that we have examined verses 1 through 5, which basically is a record of Satan's past strategy that has failed, we are now moving into Revelation chapter 12, verses 6 through 17, where we learn about his strategy, yet future, involving the second coming of Christ, that is destined to fail. And as we study this, we will see very clearly where anti-Semitism comes from.

We have to go back to Genesis chapter 12 and verse 3. God in Genesis chapter 12, verse 3, really verses 1 through 3, made very specific promises to the patriarch Abram, whose name would later be changed to Abraham. And one of the promises that he made to Abraham is he said, "Through your descendants, the world will be blessed." And you will find that in Genesis chapter 12 and verse 3. God says this to Abraham.

"In you," that is the nation of Israel, "all the families of the Earth will be blessed." God has purposed to set aside the nation of Israel and to bless the world through the nation of Israel. Israel is blessed to be a blessing to all of planet Earth by the design of God, by the decree of God. And certainly such a prophecy has been fulfilled in many respects, has it not?

Had God not worked sovereignly through the Jewish nation, the nation of Israel, we would have no scripture. Romans chapter 3, verse 2, of the nation of Israel, says, "To them has been given the oracles of God." And here we are holding in our hands a Bible, 66 books, and every single writer of scripture is a physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The only possible exception that is even debated anymore is Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts, but every other writer of scripture is unmistakably Jewish. Had God not worked through the Jewish people, we would have no Bible.

And beyond that, had God not worked through the Jewish nation, we would have no Savior. Jesus was Jewish. You will see that described in Romans chapter 9, verse 5. You will see it described in John chapter 4 and verse 22, where Jesus tells the woman at the well, "Salvation is of the Jews." You will see it described in the genealogy of Matthew. Where Matthew traces Christ's record genealogically, first of all, back to David, and then back to Abraham. Jesus was as Jewish as they come.

In fact, there are about five times in John's Gospel where Jesus travels to Jerusalem to participate in the various feasts. There were certain feasts of Israel that were mandatory. All Israelites, all Hebrews had to attend them. And Jesus is making regular trips in John's Gospel to Jerusalem to participate in these various feasts because this is who he was. This was his culture. This was his heritage. This was his ethnicity.

In fact, Jesus had a ministry that went about three and a half years, roughly, a little over three years perhaps. And his entire ministry, in fact, his entire life, he never left the borders of Israel that we know of. He went on no missionary journeys. He never traveled to a foreign country. Of course, the apostles would later do that. Paul would later do that. But here we are talking about Jesus, his whole life and ministry took place within the borders of Israel.

And so my point is if God had not worked in history supernaturally, providentially, not only would we have no scripture, we would not even have a Savior. And certainly Genesis chapter 12, verse 3, has been fulfilled very, very literally. But the interesting thing about the nation of Israel is the nation of Israel is the gift that keeps on giving.

There is another blessing on the horizon called the coming millennial thousand-year kingdom. And that kingdom will not manifest on planet Earth, and it could not manifest on planet Earth without God providentially and sovereignly working in and through the Jewish nation, the nation of Israel.

We learn in Isaiah chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, that the headquarters of that millennial kingdom will not be San Francisco or Washington D.C. or Brussels or any other famous political city of Gentile nations, but it will be none other than the city of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 2, beginning in verse 1, says of that time period, "The word which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, 'Let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'

"And he will judge between the nations and render decisions for many peoples. And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn of war." A passage like this makes it very clear that the headquarters, the nerve center of the future 1,000-year millennial kingdom will be none other than the city of Jerusalem.

We see the same prediction over in the book of Zechariah chapter 14, verses 16 through 18. It says, "It will come about that any who are left of all of the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up year for year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the Earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, there will be no rain on them. If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them. It will be the plague which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths."

It is very clear, biblically speaking, that there is coming upon the Earth a glorious 1,000-year time period called the Millennial Kingdom. And the headquarters of that Millennial Kingdom will be none other than the nation of Israel. Do you see how literal Genesis chapter 12, verse 3, is? God called Abram aside and he said, "I will bless the world through you."

Today we are holding in our hands the Bible that came to us through the nation of Israel. We have been embraced by the Savior, Jesus Christ himself, who came to us through the nation of Israel. And Israel is the gift that keeps on giving. The Kingdom Age itself is coming into our world through the nation of Israel. Now, it is this third blessing that the devil hates. He perhaps hates this blessing more than any other blessing because once the kingdom comes, his days are over.

According to Revelation chapter 20, verses 2 and 3, during this glorious 1,000-year Kingdom Age, headquartered in Jerusalem, Satan will be incarcerated in a place called the Abyss, the bottomless pit for 1,000 years. And at the end of this Millennial Kingdom, once this kingdom runs its course, he will be cast forever into the Lake of Fire. And you see that in Revelation chapter 20 and verse 10. And so any talk of the kingdom, Satan hates because that means his defeat is certain.

And let me tell you something about Satan, he does not want to concede ground. He does not want to give up territory. He enjoys being the illegitimate usurper and ruler over planet Earth. He has been that ever since the fall of man in Eden. Countless scriptures teach this. Job chapter 1, verse 7, and chapter 2, verse 2, where God asks Satan where he came from and he said, "From roaming the Earth, going to and fro over it."

In Luke chapter 4, verses 5 through 7, he offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world on a silver platter if Jesus would give him a moment of worship. In John 12, verse 31, chapter 14, verse 30, chapter 16, verse 11, he is called the prince of this world. In Zechariah chapter 4, verse 4, he is called the god, little G, of this age or this world. In Ephesians 2, verse 2, he is called the prince and power of the air. First John chapter 4, verse 4, he is called in the world. First John 5, verse 19, says, "The whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one." Do you think Satan wants to give up this terrain through a coming kingdom? Absolutely not.

There are many, many titles used of Satan throughout scripture: Prince of this world, God of this world, Prince and power of the air. He is the one that roams about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. First Peter 5, verse 8. "The whole world lies in his lap." First John 5, verse 19. And because we are living in Satan's domain, we as God's people must put on the full armor of God. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of this dark world." Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12.

Satan enjoys ruling planet Earth. And so consequently, he does not want the kingdom to come. Now, here is how we connect the dots with anti-Semitism. He knows that God has obligated himself to bless the world through Israel. The kingdom is coming to the world through Israel. Satan works in history preemptively. And so in his mind, he thinks he can stop his dethronement by stopping the kingdom, by stopping the instrument through which the kingdom will come, which in this case is the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.

So just as he tried to stop the birth of Christ, Revelation chapter 12, verses 1 through 5, what is now happening in Revelation chapter 12, verses 6 through 17, now that strategy A has failed, is he thinks he can blot out the nation of Israel so that the kingdom can never materialize and so that he can remain forever as the illegitimate ruler over planet Earth. And that is why beginning in verse 6 of Revelation 12, going through verse 17, we see his second strategy in play.

So let us pick it up there in verse 6. It says, "The woman," remember who the woman is? It is Israel. "The woman fled into the wilderness." Many people believe that the wilderness is modern-day Jordan, east of the Jordan in what is called the Transjordan. It says, "The woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared for her by God so that she would be nourished for 1,260 days."

This place in the wilderness prepared for her by God, many people believe is a place called Petra. And this is a place where God is going to supernaturally protect the nation of Israel in the second half of the Tribulation Period. You will notice here this reference to 1,260 days. You have to understand that in the Jewish calendar, they had 30-day months. And so 1,260 days adds up to exactly three and a half years.

It is a synonym for 42 months. It is also a synonym for "a time, times, and a half a time." A time is a Jewish year. Times plural is two Jewish years. Half a time is half a Jewish year. You add it up, it is all three and a half years. And this is basically dealing with this 42 months, this 1,260 days, this time, times, and a half a time. It is dealing with the second half of the Tribulation Period.

And it is a description of what is going to happen to the Jewish people in the second half of the Tribulation Period. As will be explained in our next show, Satan midway through the Tribulation Period, the moment the beast desecrates the temple, will plunge to the Earth, knowing he has but a short time, three and a half years or 42 months or a time, times, and a half a time.

I think it is at that point that he will actually enter, possess, if you will, the beast or the Antichrist. And he will try to gobble up the Jewish nation and strike preemptively so that this long-awaited kingdom prophesied to come to the world through the Jewish nation can never materialize. And that is where Jesus tells the Jews living in Judea at the time, quote, Matthew 24, verses 15 and 16.

"Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation," that will happen at the midpoint of the Tribulation, "which was spoken of through the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains." Dropping down to verse 20 of Matthew 24, "But pray that your flight will not take place on the winter or the Sabbath." This is describing here intense spiritual warfare that will break out in the second half of the Tribulation Period as Satan is trying to strike Israel so that the kingdom can never come.

Just like with Matthew 2, which tells the story from the physical world, and Revelation 12 tells the story from the spiritual world, the same thing is happening here. Matthew 24 narrates the story from the physical world and Revelation chapter 12, verses 6 and following, narrates the exact same story from the perspective of the spiritual world. And we will see how this battle intensifies in our next show together.

Narrator: You have been listening to The Watchman's Call, exploring the intersection of prophecy and culture. This program is a ministry of Sugar Land Bible Church, a place where the Bible is taught and the times are discerned. Visit this Sunday in person or connect with them anytime at SLBC.org. That is SLBC.org. Until next time, may the Lord give you a spirit of discernment in the week ahead.