Don’t expect Israel to believe – not yet. They will believe. You know when? When they look at Him whom they pierced when Jesus will return. As we sang – His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives and they see will Him and they will mourn and they will cry and they will repent. That will happen, unfortunately, after the tribulation. And that brings me back to Malachi 3. Malachi 3, I want you to see, as he says, “‘Return to me and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of host. But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’ ‘Will a man rob God, yet you have robbed me,’ he said.” And then look at what we see in the book of Hosea 5. Look what it says in Hosea 5:15, “I will return again to My place.” Jesus came and then returned back to His place. “Until they acknowledge their offense, then they will seek My face. In their affliction, they will earnestly seek Me.”
The tribulation is going to be a horrible time for Israel. But the Bible says this is the trouble of Jacob and he shall be delivered from it. And I want you to know, God is not done with Israel. Israel is a miracle, and Israel is a picture of God’s faithfulness, and Israel is your insurance policy that God is faithful to His covenants. And if you do not follow Him today, time is short. I want to tell you something. The rapture can take place any minute. And I want you to know that today, today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow. Don’t push it. Israel is a picture of God’s faithfulness. God wants to get your attention. He’s using His nation over there to tell you, “I love you in the same way I love Israel. Now you are My people. You who were once not my people are now My people.”
Romans 8:28 is a “go to” verse for many in times of struggle or adversity, and is often offered as a Christian “everything’s going to be alright.”
Romans 8:28 KJV – “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
There are some things that, in our minds, don’t belong in the “all things” category. Traumas, trials, and suffering, and, yet, all things means all things.
Hebrews 12:11 KJV – “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
James 1:2-4 KJV – “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
1 Peter 4:12-14 KJV – “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
Chastening, trials, and suffering all have a positive outcome for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. It is also equally true that those who love are those whom God loves, and nowhere is this proven to be true more than with Israel. The end result of the most severe chastening and extreme suffering is contained in a time period known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, or, as we know it, the Great Tribulation.
What results from such a time of tribulation such as the world has never seen is this:
Zechariah 12:10 KJV – “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
There is no greater example to us of the faithfulness of God than the regathered nation of Israel being back in their national homeland after nearly 2000 years of being scattered among the nations.
Hosea 5:15 KJV – “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”
The Lord will return to the place from which He ascended 40 days after His resurrection, having originally come to save the lost sheep of Israel. He had healed their diseases and freed the demonically possessed. He was full of grace and truth, and, yet, He was despised and rejected by His own people and wound up on a cross.
It is in Israel’s affliction that they will turn to Him and finally look upon the One whom they pierced and mourn with tears of repentance. There are a great many things we can learn from Israel, including that all things work together for the good of those love God and are called according to His purpose.
Maybe you’re in a season of deep waters right now. Maybe the trials are pressing in and constant. Maybe you’re in the unpleasant season of chastening by the Lord. Remember, the peaceable fruit of righteousness can come from your struggles. It will for Israel. Joy can be had, even in trials and even if there’s nothing joyful about them. Suffering for His name’s sake is cause for rejoicing when His glory is revealed. Those are all good things working together with hard and unwanted things!
As Christians, we, of all people, should rejoice to see the Jews back in their homeland. No Christian should call the Jews “occupiers”. No Christian should call the land of Israel “Palestine”. No Christian should support the BDS movement, but every Christian should rejoice that God is faithful to those whom He calls – His chosen people.
Israel, and their eventual salvation, should remind us all that good stuff can come from the hard stuff. So, if you’re suffering, enduring a trial, or experiencing the loving chastening of God, look for the good stuff in it rather than just the exit from it.
All things work together for good means exactly what it says.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!
