Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: What's amazing about the times you and I live, and the Bible says don't be ignorant about Israel and don't be ignorant about the times that we're living. Most nations of the world are opposed to Israel this very day and say you guys have no right to be in Jerusalem or occupying, they say, the land.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador views Israel from the pages of Scripture. The Bible says don't be ignorant about my people, about Jerusalem, about Israel. So, I want to show you biblically what the Lord says about Jerusalem in His Word and about what's going to happen in the last days.

Kurt: It seems as though Israel makes the nightly news regularly. But the Old Testament prophet Zechariah provides us various details too about Jerusalem and how the world's nations will come against it in the last days. And so, in today's word, Pastor Brett Meador considers how the current geopolitical climate is setting the stage for these verses fulfilling end-times events.

Brett Meador: In Zechariah chapter 12, we have this powerful word given to Zechariah the prophet from the Lord about Jerusalem and the nations that try to handle Jerusalem. Check it out. It's Zechariah 12:1 is where we'll begin. And there it says, "The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all people round about when they shall be in siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people, and all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it."

A key phrase there that you should notice as a flag is "in that day." And that's a phrase Zechariah is going to use many times here, but we're talking about the Day of the Lord. We've covered this in previous teachings. The Day of the Lord is when God says, "That's it, time's up," and He intervenes into the world. It starts with the rapture of the church and goes into the tribulation period. That's the Day of the Lord, and even in the millennial kingdom, the Day of the Lord is coming. Then this is going to come to fullness where all the nations of the world are going to gather against Jerusalem.

Now, what's amazing about the times you and I live, and the Bible says don't be ignorant about Israel and don't be ignorant about the times that we're living. Most nations of the world are opposed to Israel this very day and say you guys have no right to be in Jerusalem or occupying, as they call it, the land. But the Christian church needs to understand the history of Israel. And if some of this is familiar, hopefully some of you are getting to where you have it memorized. Because I feel like we should know the history of Israel because the Bible says don't be ignorant about my people, about Jerusalem, about Israel.

And yet there's not only ignorance but propaganda and lies that have been pushed about the Jews and about Israel. So, I want to show you biblically what the Lord says about Jerusalem in His Word and about what's going to happen in the last days. And it's kind of an important thing to know this. So, Jerusalem, what makes it such a big deal? Why is Jerusalem an important city? There's no seaport, there's no river, or not much for natural resources. Just Jerusalem stone everywhere. And about all that, people are arguing who does Jerusalem really belong to? Well, the answer is God. Jerusalem belongs to God.

And God doesn't claim other cities. He doesn't claim Dundee or Portland or New York or Paris. He says, "Jerusalem is mine." Let me just give you a few scriptures for you to jot down. Why is it so important? Well, it says in Psalm 132:13, "For the Lord hath chosen Zion," that's another name for Jerusalem, particularly Mount Zion, the Temple Mount. "The Lord has chosen Zion, He hath desired it for His habitation." God says, "I'm going to live there." That's kind of a big deal if you believe the Bible, that God says Jerusalem's where I'm going to live.

Joel chapter 3, verse 17, "So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy and there shall no strangers pass through her anymore." There's coming a day where God is going to send His Son Jesus, who came the first coming and died on the cross. The second coming He's coming to rule and reign, and Jesus is going to make His throne there on Mount Zion, Temple Mount, in Jerusalem, and He's going to call it His own. So, who cares what the world says? That's what will happen.

Not only that, but 2 Chronicles 7:16, "For now I have chosen and sanctified this house," that is the temple in Jerusalem, "that my name may be there forever, and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually." The heart of God is there at the Temple Mount where the temple used to sit. Now, what's interesting about this, where it says "that my name shall be there forever," that's basically when God says, "This is mine." So, the Lord assigns His name on Jerusalem. Jerusalem belongs to God, and that's what the Bible says very clearly. And I just gave you three verses; there's more.

But that's the reason, by the way, and people say what's the reason there's turmoil in Jerusalem? And people say the Arab-Israeli conflict. Well, that's the veneer. And that's really only recent, the Arab-Israeli conflict and stuff. But all throughout the centuries, Jerusalem has been a place of turmoil and warfare. Why is Jerusalem such a big deal? Who cares? Why does the world care about Jerusalem? It's not because the Jews are there as occupiers. It's not because of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I believe the reason Jerusalem's always been a source of conflict is because God says, "That's my city."

When you go to Jerusalem, it's an amazing thing. You can almost cut the tension with a knife. You can feel it. There's conflict and there's a spiritual warfare in that place, and it's an amazing city just for that reason alone. You get this sense that there is something unique about Jerusalem. It's hard to put your finger on it, but the Bible tells us what it is. It's God's city. Now, the history of Jerusalem is what people need to know because people are forgetting what actually really happened.

So, let's talk about it. So, the story really begins in 1000 BC. You could go back further, but who was there on the Temple Mount first? Actually, Abraham. Do you remember in the story of Genesis, Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, if you remember, on an altar? That was on Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah is another name for Mount Zion. Same place. But Jerusalem wasn't there when Abraham climbed up there and was going to do the sacrifice. And then God said, "Stop, Abraham. Don't sacrifice Isaac. God will provide Himself a sacrifice."

But Abraham was there first, and the land that he was standing on was given to him by the Lord. So, Abraham gets the land. Now, that doesn't solve the Arab-Israeli conflict because Abraham is the father of the Jews, but he's also the father of the Muslims and the Arabs. Do you know that? Ishmael was the Arab line; Isaac was the Jewish line. And so, the debate from there goes well, who was really the chosen line, Isaac or Ishmael? And if you read the Quran and are a Muslim, you believe it was Ishmael. If you believe the Bible and God's Word given to the Jews, you believe it was Isaac.

Well, Brett, how do we know which one? Easy peasy. Read the Quran. Nothing in that book is prophetic or accurate or right. And you read the Bible, and it's full of Bible prophecies that have come to pass over and over by the thousands. The Bible is the living Word of God, and it's provable. And even if you look at the difference between the true and living God, Jehovah, the God of the Jews and of the Christians, He's a gracious, merciful God. If you look at the god of the Muslim, well, Islam means submission, and you better submit, or else.

But I digress. The Bible has proven itself, and we've gone over that in other teachings, so I'm not going to take time with that. So, it does start with Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael. But through the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then the twelve sons of Jacob and then Israel. But if you remember, the children of Israel made their way into the Promised Land after being enslaved for 450 years. Joshua leads them into the Promised Land and subdues all the Canaanites.

There was lots of Canaanites there, that were Canaanites, Jebusites, Hivites. There was all kinds of groups of people in the land of Canaan. Joshua subdued many of them, but not all of them. One of the last groups that lasted there was a group called the Jebusites. And they lived in a city called Jebus. Interesting, there David takes Jebus, the city. We read about that in 1 Chronicles 11 where David says, "Whoever takes the Jebusite city, Jebus, will be my chief and my captain."

So, a guy named Joab, if you remember the story there in 1 Chronicles 11, Joab gets all the Navy SEAL Team 6 type of dudes that are on their army, and he sneaks into the water shaft there in the City of David, as it would be called. The city of Jebus becomes the City of David. Joab did something interesting. How did he take the city? Well, he snuck in with those Navy SEAL Team guys and he shimmied up the, either it was the sewer shaft or the freshwater shaft. There's debate on which one it was. But either way, Joab climbs into this shaft and he takes over the Jebusite city of Jebus.

And that happened in 1000 BC. By the way, the name Jebus, interestingly enough, means "trodden down" or "trampled place." Interesting, that's what Jerusalem really... they should have almost kept the name trampled place for a long time because that's what it's been to this very day. It's a trampled place by all the nations that have come and gone through the centuries. You say, "But Brett, it's called the City of Peace, Yerushalayim, the City of Peace, come on." Well, it's going to be that when Christ comes and rules and reigns in Jerusalem. That's when it's going to be the City of Peace. You and I, the Psalmist told us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for they shall prosper that love thee.

So, 1000 BC, David takes Jerusalem. The next thing we see on the list, what happens in 586 BC? Jerusalem is crushed. And there's other things that happen; I'm just giving you the high points. Babylonians crush Jerusalem in 586. But then you remember there was the 70 years of captivity, and if you measure not from the first taking of... there were three waves when the Babylonians took. 586 was the last wave. But before that, there were a couple other waves, like when Daniel was taken quite a bit earlier. But you've got the 70 years of captivity starting back then.

But it was 516 when the Jews were given the chance to go back and rebuild Jerusalem. But they finished the rebuilding of the temple, Zechariah's assignment, by the way. They refinished rebuilding the temple in 515 BC. And the Jews took Jerusalem again at that point. It had sat in ruin really for 70 years. But then after that, the next thing kind of... there's a bunch of events that happened. We'll go quickly. Like 330 BC, Alexander the Great rides Bucephalus into Jerusalem. He doesn't crush Jerusalem because the priest of Jerusalem comes out and meets Alexander and shows Alexander where he was in the book of Daniel.

That the prophet of Daniel foretold a great king who would have conquered the world who will be at Jerusalem and take over that whole Middle Eastern region. And Alexander was so moved, he said, "I'm not going to crush Jerusalem." But he rode into Jerusalem and took control. After Alexander, the next big group that is notable, and this is a big date, is 63 BC where the Romans take over Jerusalem officially. The Romans are controlling Jerusalem when Jesus comes on the scene. And when Jesus dies on the cross, the Romans are large and in charge during that time.

And then what happened? Jesus predicted something that would happen. In 70 AD, Jesus predicted that Jerusalem would be torn down. More importantly, the temple would be destroyed. He didn't give the date, but in Matthew chapter 24, the disciples come and want to show Him the new temple that Herod just remodeled. But the main thing there is that at the end, Jesus said this: "There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down."

And you've heard me tell the story of the Roman arrow flying through the temple doors and catching the tapestries in the temple on fire, and the temple was like a furnace. And all the gold that was left in the temple melted and fell into the cracks of the rocks. So, what happened there? Well, Titus Flavius Longinus Quintus Marcus Turbo—we call him Titus Longinus, it's easier—but he said when they conquered Jerusalem and killed a bunch of Jews, then he said all the soldiers, he commanded them to tear the temple apart stone by stone and to throw the stones over the Western Wall.

And the reason they did that is they wanted to get all the gold that had melted into the cracks because there was, of that day, billions of dollars worth of gold. And so they did that. That was a sad day in Jerusalem history. 116 dead bodies of Jews thrown over the walls in one day by the Romans in that day. 97,000 Jews were taken to Rome to be slaves. And when the whole Roman thing in AD 70, the conquest of Jerusalem happened, 1.1 million Jews died in that conflict.

Okay, so that was a big deal. AD 70, biblically important, but historically you need to know that's what happened as well. Well, then the Jews were at that point not really welcome any longer in Jerusalem for the most part, and Jerusalem was in destruction. The Romans just crushed everybody. Well, a key date that you should know, the Roman Emperor Hadrian came on the scene in AD 117. He hated the Jews, and he was kind of a Hitler sort of character as well. He hated the Jews, wanted to exterminate them.

And so he made some strange laws. He made laws like if you see two Jews talking in Jerusalem, you had the legal right to kill them on the spot. If you saw two Jews talking one to another, you could kill them. Hadrian salted the farmland of all the Jewish farmers so that they couldn't grow crops. It would be like putting Roundup all over the ground of the farmer's land. That's what Hadrian did. And not only that, to sort of erase the memory of the Jews, he renamed a couple things. He renamed Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina because basically he outlawed worshiping God in Jerusalem and you had to be worshiper of Jupiter of all things there.

That's what Emperor Hadrian did. So, Jerusalem becomes Aelia Capitolina, and then he renamed Israel. He didn't want any name of Israel around, so he called it Palaestina. Now, where did he get that name? Palaestina was a name of a people group that were extinct called the Philistines. That's where that name came from. By the time Hadrian was on the scene, the Philistines had long been extinct. Remember the ancient enemies of the Jews back in David's time, back in 1000 BC? Well, the Philistines were gone. Well, Brett, the Philistines are the Arabs of Israel today. Well, that's just a bunch of lies.

Anybody who knows anything about history knows the Philistines were not Arabs. They came from the Greek islands area. They were actually from Cyprus and Crete, and they were Phoenicians that came down through shipping down to what is today the Gaza Strip. And that's where the Philistines settled. But after David and some of the kings of David came, eventually they finally conquered the Philistines and they were either assimilated into other people groups or basically extinct.

But Hadrian knew that that would be a sort of an insult to the Jews to call Israel Palestine. To this day, if you see a map and Israel's called Palestine, whoever made that map probably is a hater of Jews and a hater of Israel. It's no longer called Palestine; it's called Israel. I'll tell you when that happened in a second. But when this happened, when Hadrian did this, the Jews scattered. And this is what really sparked what we know and call as the Diaspora. The Jewish scattering of Jews all over the world.

Jerusalem was no longer a safe place for Jews, and so the Jews didn't live there. And they scattered to everywhere from Iran, Iraq, Europe, eventually New York City and other places. But the Jews scattered and they were not in Jerusalem. The Diaspora just means scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale. That's kind of the Diaspora definition. But that's exactly what the Bible would say that would happen to the Jews. If you remember reading Deuteronomy and other passages where the Lord said, "If you don't obey my commandments and judgments and statutes, then I will scatter you among the nations," the Lord said.

And that's the bad news. But after a long, long time, 2,000 years, the Lord says, "I will regather my people and bring life back to Israel into the land and into Jerusalem." And a lot of people have blown that prophecy off. You shouldn't. You and I are living in a day, and some of you are old enough in this room that you actually saw some major prophecy, Bible prophecy milestones happen. And it's an exciting time to be alive, honestly, because we are living in the days where God is regathering His people, the Jews, into the Holy Land.

But I get ahead of myself. During the Jewish Diaspora, what was going on in Jerusalem while the Jews were scattered? Well, this is where I call Jerusalem the speed bump. Nation after nation came trouncing through Jerusalem. And you've got the Byzantines, the Muslims came through, after that the Crusaders, the Mamluks of Egypt, and then the Ottoman Turks and then the British. Jerusalem was under the British Mandate, if you know that about history.

But during this time, while the Jewish city of Jerusalem was trounced by all these different nations and the Jews scattered, anti-Semitism around the world just started to go crazy, especially in the late 1800s. In the late 1800s, has any of you ever heard about the Dreyfus affair? This was an interesting thing that happened in France. There was a guy named Alfred Dreyfus. And he was a guy who was the French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry. And most of the French and the people in Europe really hated the Jews.

But this guy was like a model officer in the French army. Somebody falsely accused him because he was a Jew of selling secrets to the Germans. But the people were accusing him. "This guy was a German spy, he was a Jew." And so they accused him. Now, what's interesting about this is he was found to be innocent. But that didn't matter. When he was in prison for 10 years while he was being accused—it took them 10 years to figure out—and they actually said, "We're going to pardon you," and so they let him out.

But he said, "I will not go out and be pardoned. I'm going to be exonerated. I did nothing and I should be exonerated." And so eventually they did exonerate this guy, Alfred Dreyfus, and he lived to be an old man. You say, "Well, big deal, whatever." Well, during the time of his imprisonment, that's where the French started yelling in the streets by the thousands, people in the cities of Paris yelling, "Death to the Jews! Death to the Jews!" And it was because of this, it was basically fake news and rage that followed after.

I can't imagine that happening in any other time in history, but that's what happened here. There was fake news about this guy, Alfred Dreyfus, and so people were saying, "Death to the Jews!" Meanwhile, there was a guy watching this, a young man by the name of Theodor Herzl. Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, playwright, political activist, and a writer who is known as the father of modern political Zionism. And this is what he said: "The Jew will never be safe without a place of their own. A homeland."

The Jews around the world are in real peril because he saw the handwriting on the wall about hatred and anti-Semitism for the Jews. And so it was Theodor Herzl that started to get a massive migration back to Israel. And the Jews started going back in the late 1800s. Now, you say did they go with weapons and take over and kill Arabs for the land? No. These wealthy Jews from Europe went and bought dumpy land in Israel. Israel was a dump back in those days in the late 1800s.

So, the Jews came and purchased with their money that they'd earned in Europe and bought much of the land of Israel. They bought it with their own money. This is the first thing you should remember: Jews, most of the land they have they bought with their own money. They not only bought their land, we also know from the Bible God gave them that land. But thirdly, not only did God give them the land, but guess what? The world gave them that land. I'll tell you about that in a second.

But back to Theodor Herzl who's saying we got to go to our own land. He said this at the Conference of Basel, which is interesting in Switzerland, Congress of Basel. He came up with a plan for the state of Israel. This was his idea to sort of open up Israel again as its own nation or state. Theodor Herzl was known as saying, "At Basel I founded a Jewish state. If I said this out loud today, I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years, perhaps, and certainly in 50 years, everyone will perceive it."

And he was right. He was making the case we need a state, we need to become a nation of Israel. And people did laugh at him. "Oh, that's ridiculous. Israel will never have a state again." But after 50 years, they were right on the cusp of becoming a nation again. And people credit this single guy, Theodor Herzl, as the guy who came up with the idea to make Israel a nation again. Arabs were thrilled to sell the land because it was worthless. But the problem? The Jews over a very short amount of time, the Jews that had migrated back and bought the land, they farmed it, and they started coming up with very high tech for those days, high tech drip irrigation systems and ways to use water very conservatively, and they brought the land back to life. It's an amazing story, and I'm just giving you the high points.

Kurt: From the pages of Scripture through modern history to today's headlines, the nation of Israel continues to be an amazing work of the Lord, to be sure, as Pastor Brett Meador has been sharing from today's word. And I want to invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor.

We invite you to find out more about Pastor Brett and Athey Creek Church by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this message, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett has joined me. Brett, for a person listening today who is looking for a good church to attend, maybe they're not in the Portland, Oregon area, what kind of church is important to look for?

Brett Meador: Well, Kurt, I'm really glad you asked that question. And it's an important question. The first thing I'd say if you're looking for a church is that it actually teaches the Bible. Now, I'm a big fan of verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter. There's a lot of good churches that don't necessarily go verse-by-verse, but I would say make sure they open up the Bible, that they're actually walking through good sections of Scripture, not just tacking on a verse here or there.

When you read the story of the early church in the book of Acts, in Acts 2:42 it says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. And I think that should be the model that you look for, that the Word of God needs to be central. Apostles' doctrine is just the teaching of the Word. Second, I'd look for a church that keeps Jesus right at the center. It shouldn't be centered on a pastor or even the programs or the outreach. Those are all good things, the outreaches and stuff, but it really needs to be Jesus-centered, I think.

And the Gospel should be preached every Sunday where people hear the good news. My thought would be if you walk away thinking more about the pastor and less about Jesus, we've probably missed the mark. That's something I think as a pastor a lot. I want people to go away thinking about Jesus. And then also looking at the health of the church body. 1 Corinthians 13, Paul reminds us that even if we have the gifts of knowledge and word of prophecy, but if we don't have love, we've got nothing.

So, you want to see love in a church body. And then finally, I'd look for a church with a good, humble leadership that's accountable, servant-hearted leaders, not perfect people—you won't find that anywhere—but leaders who are teachable but also who handle the Word faithfully. And I think if you just pray and ask the Lord to lead you to that church and give you wisdom. Now, it's been said if you find the perfect church, don't join it; you'll ruin it. And that's true. So, you won't find the perfect church, but I would say find generally those things and you'll be in good shape.

Kurt: That's such great advice. Thank you, Pastor Brett. And if you happen to be in the Portland, Oregon area, we'd like to invite you to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn or our two other locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville, Oregon. Just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations."

Well, next time, Pastor Brett will continue in Zechariah and we'll see how it paints a simple but powerful picture that when people push against God's plans, it won't go well. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.