Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: If there's one thing we've learned from history, it's that we've learned nothing from history. Today's conflict is just a continuation of hatred. Antisemitism is going to be on the rise in the last days. The whole world is going to turn their weapons toward Israel, ultimately. The fact that what's happening in front of us today politically tells us, if you're a careful Bible reader, that we very much are living in days that seem like what the Bible calls the last days.

Guest (Male): Both Abraham and Stephen demonstrated an unshakable faith in Almighty God, for they knew that there's nothing that is able to thwart God's perfect plan of redemption for both the people of Israel or his church. Coming up, Pastor Brett Meador encourages us to exhibit the same steadfast trust in the truth of today's word still being fulfilled in the Lord Christ Jesus today.

Brett Meador: Acts chapter seven. We start to shift gears as we have a sermon, and it's quite a sermon. Stephen goes into a little history lesson with the religious guys there on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and that's what I'd like to do is take a little section of this because, as it turns out, the history lesson that Stephen's giving to the children of Israel there in Jerusalem during the first century, it would be very pertinent to what they were talking about. Stephen's going to make a real powerful point at the end of his sermon. It's amazing to me the very things Stephen's talking about in his sermon, it's the same thing the world is raging about today.

The world is angry, and it has to do with Jerusalem and Israel and the Jews. Who really belongs in Jerusalem? Who really belongs on the West Bank or the land of Israel? Stephen gives us a springboard to identify things that are happening in the news today that have to do with what Stephen's talking about. Let's pick it up. It's Acts chapter seven, verses two through eight will be our section. Let's read.

And he said, "Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran and said unto him, 'Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee.'" Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. From thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land where you now dwell. He's talking about the Jews in Israel.

Verse five. It says, "And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. Yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession and to his seed after him when as yet he had no child." God spake on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land and that they should bring them into bondage and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God. After that shall they come forth and serve me in this place.

And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. Why would Stephen be going into this history of Israel with the people of Jerusalem? It has to do with God having a plan and a purpose. He's going to indict these religious guys as not believing truth and that God's going to judge them for this. They want to destroy him so much that they start stoning him to death.

This is the story. What's the big deal? Why is Stephen going to this history lesson? It had to do with the Abrahamic Covenant. That's what we call it. It's a covenant that God made that's unconditional, that God made to the Jews. This is a huge point of contention in the world today. When you hear people call Israel the occupiers in the land of Israel today, or Palestine as they want to call it still, they say the Jews are occupiers in that land.

Where was Abraham originally from? Stephen tells us, Ur of the Chaldees near Babylon in Iraq. The story goes just like Stephen said: Abraham begat Isaac and Jacob and then Jacob had twelve sons and those would be the twelve tribes of Israel. Because there was a famine in the land, the twelve sons of Jacob moved to Egypt. Joseph was there, the second most powerful man in the world at the time. It's an amazing story.

The Jews are there, and they're there for a few decades when the Pharaoh said these Jews, Hebrew people, sons of Jacob, Israel, they're getting mighty and so they enslaved them. They were enslaved as Stephen enumerates here for four hundred years as slaves. The idea is the Jews would then leave the captivity as slaves in Egypt and be led by Moses to get to the border of Israel, the land of promise, the Abrahamic Covenant promise. God's going to give to them that land as an everlasting covenant before the whole world.

He says, "I'm giving you this land." There's three reasons I want to give you why Israel, the Jews, belong in the Holy Land, Israel. Whatever you want to call it, Palestine, it's still the Jews. I'll tell you why. Point number one: God gave the land to Israel. The Jews have the Bible. This book, written over a 1500-year period by 40 different authors, three different languages, three different continents, throughout the whole scripture of the Bible, God says Israel belongs.

First of all, he says Jerusalem is mine and my name is on that city. That's important. Then he tells us who he gives this land to as a possession. Stephen reminded in our text there in Acts chapter seven, verse five, he promised that he would give it, the land, to him for a possession and to his seed after him, that's his descendants, all the descendants of Abraham through the line of Isaac. This is called the Abrahamic Covenant. If we were to do a timeline, this is the first thing on a timeline that I'd like to show you.

The Abrahamic Covenant starts in 2000 BC. What happened? God gives to Abraham this promise and it's an unconditional promise. Some people try to say it's a conditional: if Israel disobeys God, then he's going to forsake his covenant with them. No. This is an unconditional covenant. The confusion might come because there are, in the book of Deuteronomy, some conditional covenants: if you don't do this, then I'm not going to do that. God makes those really clear.

When it comes to the land of promise, the covenant of Abraham, it's an unconditional covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant's Genesis chapter 12, verses one through three. It says, "Now the Lord said to Abraham, 'Get thee out of thy country,' that's Ur that Stephen was talking about, Ur of the Chaldees, 'and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.'"

When it comes to all the families of the earth shall be blessed, why are we blessed as Gentiles? Because Jesus, the Jew through the line of Abraham, the Messiah, Jesus came. We owe that to the Jewish people that the Messiah came through the Jewish people. This is what God's promising. All the nations of the earth. You can check those boxes. Did the Lord make Israel a great nation? Check. Will he bless Israel? Check. His name being made great? Check.

"But thou shalt be a blessing." Some people say, "No, Israel's a curse." That's like the people that want to fly in the face of God and say the Jews are a curse, and antisemitism is the result of that. Are we seeing any antisemitism today? It's feverish right now. Horrifyingly bad. This is the promise. Like Stephen said, "Abraham, you're not going to necessarily see that promise when you get the land, but it'll be your descendants after." He said, "I will give it to him, your seed, a possession."

When did that happen? If we go to our timeline here, it's when Joshua took the land from the Canaanites in 1500 BC. First thing, Abraham 2000 BC, the Abrahamic Covenant. The next item on the history timeline you really should be aware of is Joshua took over the land, fit the battle of Jericho. Remember when I said the land, the Jews were enslaved for 400 years? God was preparing the people for the land, but he was also preparing the land for his people.

Before he moved his people in, he gave the Canaanites 400 years to repent of their evil wicked ways. If you know Canaanite culture, it was horrifying. They would sacrifice babies on the altar of Moloch and Chemosh, the two gods, or some people thought it was the same god. Giant iron idols with they'd heat the arms of incandescent heat and lay babies on the hands of the iron gods and sizzle them to death. As it turns out, God used the Jews coming into the promised land to be the instrument to judge those Canaanite nations.

Fast forward, Arabs came into the land in the same way the Jews were coming to the land, but there's reasons why the Arabs were wanting them to start to flood the land. It was really under the leadership in the 1950s and 60s under the leadership of Yasser Arafat. Remember him? He came up with the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. He's the one who started changing the narrative to these horrible Jews who are taking over the ancient Palestinian people, which there's no such thing as an ancient Palestinian people.

You've got to do your homework on this. Don't just take my word for it. Look at the old history books because there's a horrible rewriting of history, especially there's a huge agenda from the progressive liberal side trying to rewrite history on this. Find an old history book that's accurate. All that to say in Palestine now it's filling up with Jews and there were Arabs coming in at the same time. Let's fast forward back to our timeline. Let's fast forward to 1917 to 1948. That's when the British came down.

The British were everywhere at some point in history. They ruled the Palestine area for those years. It was not good for the Jews and it was not good for the Arab people. The British messed that up and they set up a thing called the British Mandate, which I've talked about that before. Then up until 1948, then what happened? That was World War II. The British are still there, but the Jews are forming more of a formal agency as they called it, led by a guy named Ben-Gurion, who was a Jew, who started to say, "We need to formalize this as a nation."

From 1939 to 1945 you've got World War II, of course, and you've got the Holocaust where Jews were taken from all over the world, just like Theodor Herzl tried to predict and say, "There's no safe place for Jews except for the Holy Land." All the Jews that went to the Holy Land, they were somewhat protected, but the Jews that stayed in Europe, they were hauled off to concentration camps. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. With that, the world, we didn't come to their rescue. The United States didn't come to the rescue of the Jews.

What happened was the British Mandate was basically saying, "Here's how things will be divided. Here's where the Arabs should go, here's where the Jews should go," and it was the British controlled area. The expiration of the British Mandate was up and earlier in this is an important time when the British Mandate was almost over, Israel becomes a nation. How did that happen? On November 29, 1947, the United Nations adopted a resolution, Resolution 181 for you that know history or want to look into this, also known as the Partition Resolution, which would divide Great Britain's former Palestine Mandate into Jewish and Arab states, two separate states. That was their solution.

Guess who didn't want to be a part of that two-state solution? The Arab people. The Arabs said, "We will not have a two-state solution," but the Jews said, "Cool, we'll do a two-state solution." The Arabs denying it, the Jews accepting it, and then the world feeling really guilty about the Holocaust, they said, "Okay, Arabs, you could have accepted it but you didn't. The Jews are accepting it, so this land is Israel now." Israel becomes a nation with not only the UN's vote of saying yes, but even state of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish agency who would become the first prime minister, proclaims the establishment of the state of Israel and Harry S. Truman was right there with them recognizing the new nation the same exact day, May 14, 1948.

Israel becomes a nation. For Bible prophecy people, they should have been stunned because the Bible said this would happen, that Israel would become a nation after being scattered for centuries to be regathered and become a nation again. If we go to our timeline after this, point number one: God gave Israel their land. Point number two: Israel paid money for much of their land. What nations can say those two? But what about this one? The world with the vote of the UN said, "You can have this land. This is your land."

How many nations can say the rest of the world agreed, "Okay, you can have that land"? That's shocking. No other nation even comes close. If there's one nation that should say we have got the ultimate reason why we should be here, it's Israel. Meanwhile, the world's saying Israel's the worst nation in the world and they're occupying another person's territory. Do you see the problem there? Where does that come from? It comes from Satan. Satan's the one who's doing this.

Israel becomes a nation, then you have the War of Independence. That's where five Arab nations, the day after they become a nation, they're just a bunch of farmers with pitchforks, Israel, the Jews. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq attack Israel. All I'll say about that is a biblically proportioned battle where God defeats these five Arab nations. There's no reason why the Jews should have won that battle and protected their new country other than God said it was going to happen and he made sure it did happen.

You have the War of Independence. Then you have the Sinai War of 1956, again miraculously beating back Arab forces. Then you have the Six-Day War, June 1967. That's when Moshe Dayan, the guy with the patch, marched onto the Temple Mount. This is where the Jews took over some of the land that the UN was going to give to the Arabs. Half of Jerusalem was going to stay in Arab control and it was until 1967. The Jews, defending themselves against Arab attacks, they gained ground, including the West Bank.

This is why it's so contested. Those Jews are taking the West Bank. They took it in self-defense. The West Bank includes the Temple Mount and some of those West Bank towns. Then Moshe Dayan gave the Temple Mount back to the Jordanians. It's a long story. After the Six-Day War, by the way, when President Obama said we need to get back to the '67 borders, he's saying we need to chop Jerusalem in half. That's what he's saying. If you know your Bible, Zechariah 12, Zechariah 14 says in the last days before Christ comes, they're going to seek to divide Jerusalem in half.

Something you should know about. They're doing that every day. They talk about dividing Jerusalem even to this day. After the Six-Day War, you've got the Yom Kippur War in 1973. General Ariel Sharon, famously, maybe notoriously, went and disobeyed orders and marched his army straight to Cairo, bypassed all the Egyptian army and went to Cairo and took over the whole city, took it by the throat and said, "War's over if you care about your capital city." The Egyptians with their tails between their legs ran back to Cairo and it's an amazing story.

Later Ariel Sharon the general became the prime minister of Israel. Some other big ones: the Intifada wars, the first Intifada wars of '87 to 1993, the second Intifada wars, another giant and maybe one of the biggest ones since the Holocaust would be October 7, 2023. Hamas attacking from the south, 1200 mostly civilian people were killed. They took 240 hostages, including civilians and some soldiers. Israel then attacked Hamas, which has initiated the Israel-Hamas war that's still raging today.

Great, thanks for the history lesson. If there's one thing we've learned from history, it's that we've learned nothing from history. Today's conflict is just a continuation of hatred. When The Hague says the prime minister of Israel trying to defend their nation, he's a war criminal, that's antisemitism and we're seeing it right in front of our faces. When the Canadian leader Trudeau says he's going to arrest Netanyahu, that's antisemitism. Not only the Jewish students being chased around in Amsterdam and around Europe and we're seeing antisemitism even on the streets in America, we're seeing this all around the world.

The reason that this is so important, Stephen's telling them about the Abrahamic Covenant and you might just read through that and say, "Yeah, whatever, that's just the Jews talking about Israel, ancient times." It's right on the forefront of everything right now. The fact that what's happening in front of us today politically tells us, if you're a careful Bible reader, that we very much are living in days that seem like what the Bible calls the last days. All these things, antisemitism is going to be on the rise in the last days. The whole world is going to turn their weapons toward Israel, ultimately. I mean, we could argue we're on the verge of that right now.

This is not a time to be messing around and saying, "Whatever, I'm just going to be a Christian and sort of not care about the Rapture of the Church or the end times." What does the Bible say? It says in Romans 11:25-28, "For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceit." This is don't be ignorant and don't be arrogant. That blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written.

Pause for a second before I read on. Some people say, "Brett, I can't believe you guys support Israel. They're unbelievers. They don't even believe in Jesus. Most of them are secularists. In Tel Aviv, they're all atheists. How can you support Israel?" Do you understand the Bible says they're going to be regathered in unbelief? This is exactly what the Bible says is going to happen. We don't support Israel because they're good and they're wonderful people in Israel and they're doing loving things to Palestinians. We're not supporting them because of that. We support Israel because they're still God's chosen people. Don't be arrogant, don't be ignorant about what God's going to do. Blindness has happened to Israel. They're still blind.

But God is putting the pieces in place to do what? When the fullness of the Gentiles come in, that's I think when we are raptured, the church of Jesus Christ, the Gentile church is raptured. It says, "So all of Israel will be saved as it is written." When will Israel be saved? "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer," that's Jesus, "and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them." Which covenant? The Abrahamic. This is a fullness of the Abrahamic Covenant. "When I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake."

Jews are not pro-gospel if you didn't know that. Are they still God's chosen people? They are beloved for the fathers' sake. This is where the church has made a huge error. A lot of the church, Catholics, many Presbyterians, a lot of denominations say God's done with the Jew and the church has replaced Israel. This verse should shake you up on that and say, "No, God still has a plan for the Jews." The world's going to hate the Jews as we get closer to the last days. What we're seeing with Netanyahu being on the criminal court of The Hague and being a warrant for his arrest, this is all part of the fulfillment of what the Bible says is going to happen in the last days.

So this is a day to not be ignorant or arrogant, but to be humble and say, "Lord, save my soul. Make sure that I'm in right place with God." God is still a God of wrath and he's not going to break his covenant with the Jewish people. God is faithful to the Jews. In conclusion, what should we do with all this? Two things I think of from the Bible. First of all, the Psalmist writes, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for they shall prosper that love thee." When's the peace of Jerusalem going to happen? The second coming of Christ.

This is what you and I pray for. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's how Jesus taught us to pray, by the way, this same prayer. Secondly, when you see all this stuff happening, what do you do? Jesus said this in Luke 21: "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draws nigh." I always say there's no problem I have today that the Rapture won't solve. So what do I do when I see these things in the world? Look up for my redemption's drawing nigh. I think we really can do that as Christians today. Keep our eyes on Jesus, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and for sure make sure you're on the right side of this thing.

If you're pro-Palestine saying from the river to the sea, that's basically saying Israel has no right to exist. That's what you're saying. You're on the wrong side of the argument. If you believe God's done with Israel, you're on the wrong side of the argument and God says I'm going to judge the nations how they treat Israel. Mark my words, if the United States is really, really blessed in the next few years, the biggest thing that's going to bless our nation if you ask me, just historically, biblically, is if we treat Israel really well. Guess what happens? Remember the Abrahamic Covenant: I will bless the nations that bless Israel, but I will curse the nations that curse Israel. If you support Israel, I think we're going to be blessed. Let's see what the Bible does if we truly do support Israel. I hope we do.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador once again recognizing the fulfillment of God's plans and purposes being fulfilled just as Stephen preached from today's word in Acts chapter seven. If you'd like to hear this program again or more messages from Pastor Brett, just go to todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Well, Pastor Brett is joined me now. For the last few days, you've been wonderfully detailing the important timeline of Israel's history here in Acts chapter seven, and as we close here, I know you wanted to acknowledge something of historical significance that we're celebrating across the nation right now.

Brett Meador: Yeah, 250 years as a nation. What a great thing to celebrate. I'm a patriot. I love this country. I'm saddened to see some of the things we do and where we've gone, but at the same time, I think we believers, we need to be thankful. I think gratitude is important. As Americans, we've been so blessed with freedoms, opportunities that much of the world has never really even experienced. Religious liberty especially is something Christians should deeply appreciate. I think we often take that for granted. For generations, people in this country have had the freedom to open their Bible, to preach the gospel, to gather in churches, for us to even share our faith publicly.

You do realize Psalm 33:12: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Now, we're moving away from that sadly. While America certainly has its flaws and failures, there's no question biblical values really shaped the foundation of this nation. I think that's what I'm most thankful for. Celebrations like Fourth of July, especially at 250 years, should remind us as Christians not only to have fun, eat a hot dog, but maybe to remember freedom isn't guaranteed forever. We should approach it with humility, prayer, and ultimately military strength, economic success, political leaders, we know that's not where our success is found. It's found in the Lord Jesus Christ and in moral spiritual health.

It reminds me of Second Chronicles 7:14: if the people of God will humble themselves and pray, he will hear from heaven. Yeah, we're going to celebrate big time here at Athey Creek, the blessings of America, but also pray for revival, wisdom, repentance, spiritual awakening because really our greatest hope isn't America; our hope is in Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): It's a good reminder, Brett, where our hope ultimately is, and so thankful that we get a celebrate freely in the greatest nation the world has ever known. Thank you, Pastor Brett, and a happy 250th birthday to America. Well, for more information about Pastor Brett Meador, Today's Word, or Athey Creek Church, you can find it at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. That's all the time we have. We hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend and can be back for another verse-by-verse study in the book of Acts. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.