Israel will be Messiah's physical home
The Physical Representation of the Spirits
in the Air
A Moslem Arab once said to me
(in a political discussion about peace and the claims of Jews and Arabs to
the land mandated to the Jews): "Jerusalem actually belongs to the Christians
because they have to come here on pilgrimages to their holy sites." My immediate
reaction was, of course, to tell him that he had it wrong, that Christians**
don't need to make pilgrimages - that is a basic principle in Islam. Moslems
need to make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca in their lifetime to qualify
for salvation (heaven) - unless they die as martyrs of Jihad (holy war).**
Meaning Protestants.
Some days later, as I was thinking about ways
to explain why physical Israel is so important, it occurred to me that there
needs to be a physical dimension in religion as well. Most basically we need
buildings where we can meet to worship, from where the idea has developed
that the church is the house of God. The Jews were commanded to pray "towards
their God's Temple" and the Moslems pray facing Mecca because that is where
their moon god, Allah, resides.
Ps
3:4 I cried out to the Lord, and he heard me from his Temple in Jerusalem.
TLB |
How, though, do the gods (spirits
in the air - not the God of Israel), let us people know that they are "up
there?" It is by having something on earth to represent them. These are not
buildings, but objects. For this reason the followers of Elohim (the God
of Israel) are forbidden in numerous scriptures not to possess/worship objects
related to gods, viz.
Lev
26:1 "You must have no idols; you must never worship carved images, obelisks,
or shaped stones, for I am the Lord your God. TLB |
Our God of Israel does not have an object
representing him, but a person, Messiah Jesus. For this reason Jesus could
say,
..."Don't
you even yet know who I am, Philip, even after all this time I have been
with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking
to see him? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is
in me? The words I say are not my own but are from my Father who
lives in me. And he does his work through me. 11 Just believe it-that
I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or else believe it because of
the mighty miracles you have seen me do. John 14:9-11 TLB |
Since the God of Israel is a person,
you cannot belong to him unless you've met him personally,
have presented yourself
to him, have confessed to him that you're a sinner and have asked him to
forgive you and to be your God and Saviour, to take control of your life
from there on and show you how to live a holy life that pleases him!
Jesus' meeting with the
woman at the well points to the first step that needs to be taken to be saved:
YOU HAVE TO MEET THE ONE WHO CAN SAVE
YOU! One cannot be saved by being part of a religion by birth,
tradition, going to church, serving, rituals, a lifestyle, personal understanding
or belief, pilgrimages, feasts, formal conversion, trying to keep laws, studying
at a seminary, yeshiva, etc.
John
4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it
is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have
given you living water." 11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing
to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from
it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
Ps 36:7 How precious is your constant love, O God! All humanity takes refuge
in the shadow of your wings. 8 You feed them with blessings from your own
table and let them drink from your rivers of delight. 9 For you are the
Fountain of life; our light is from your light. 10 Pour out your unfailing
love on those who know you!** Never stop giving your blessings to
those who long to do your will.** TLB ** Shows that God's love is
actually conditional.
Ps 78:5 For he issued his decree to Jacob; he gave his law to Israel. He
commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, [WHY] 6 so the next
generation might know them--even the children not yet born--that they in
turn might teach their children. 7 So each generation can set its hope anew
on God, remembering his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. 8 Then
they will not be like their ancestors--stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful,
refusing to give their hearts to God. NLT |
THE "MUST EXIST" STATUS OF THE
JEWS AND ISRAEL
Firstly, it has
to do with God's
honor since
he made a covenant that they would exist until the end of time and the land
he had given them would be theirs forever and ever.
Jer
3:18 At that time the people of Judah and of Israel will return together
from their exile in the north, to the land I gave their fathers as
an inheritance forever. TLB
Ps 105:8 Though a thousand generations pass he never forgets his promise,
his covenant with Abraham and Isaac 10 and confirmed with Jacob. This
is his never-ending treaty with the people of Israel: "I will give
you the land of Canaan as your inheritance." TLB
Ezek 36:22 "Therefore say to the people of Israel, 'The Lord God says: I
am bringing you back again, but not because you deserve it; I am
doing it to protect my holy name, which you tarnished among the
nations. 23 I will honor my great name, that you defiled, and
the people of the world shall know I am the Lord. I will be honored
before their eyes by delivering you from exile among them. |
If Satan could therefore wrench Israel
from their/our God, it will prove that he isn't all powerful. In our day
he is trying to use the Arabs and pressure of conspiring world (global) leaders,
including the U.N. to push Israel into the sea by means of initiatives like
the Oslo and the Roadmap peace plans.
Secondly we see from what Jesus
told the woman at the well about the Jews, that they need to exist as a nation
to be instrumental in God's plan of salvation of everybody:
John
4:22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know,
for salvation is from the Jews. NIV
Isa 2:3 Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain
of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from
Jerusalem. NIV |
Many Christians say,
"but the Jews haven't accepted Jesus," to which we have Paul's answer:
Rom
11:12 Now if the whole world became rich as a result of God's offer of salvation,
when the Jews stumbled over it and turned it down, think how much greater
a blessing the world will share in later on when the Jews, too, come to Christ.
TLB |
From
this it is clear that we "ain't seen nothing yet" in terms of what's available
in Christ - over and above the wonderful things we have already
experienced.
It is also important to note that the
New Covenant, that now also applies to reborn Christians and according to
which they should live (vs. legalism), was actually promised to the
Jews.
Ezek
36:24 For I will bring you back home again to the land of Israel. 25 "'Then
it will be as though I had sprinkled clean water on you, for you will be
clean-your filthiness will be washed away, your idol worship gone. 26 And
I will give you a new heart-I will give you new and right desires-and put
a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony hearts of sin
and give you new hearts of love. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you so
that you will obey my laws and do whatever I command. TLB |
Thirdly, the most vital aspect,
namely that Jesus is returning to Jerusalem, he is going to live there, not
in Washington, Brussels, Rome or any other city.
Zech
1:16 "Therefore, this is what the LORD says: 'I will return to Jerusalem
with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. |
The Satanic onslaught on Israel, the
Jewish and Jerusalem her capital, is therefore inherently anti-Christ, to
prevent Messiah's return.
Most Christians think no further about Jesus' return than that he comes
back for his Church, his Bride. When one lets your imagination go a
bit further, it should dawn on you that he would again be a flesh and
blood person who would need a place to live. Where would it be? In THE
Church? No, he can't live in the or a church because
THE Church is a spiritual entity, there needs to be a logistical PHYSICAL
DIMENSION. Will it be a compound like the Vatican? Sure, but it will be a
Temple Compound in Jerusalem and he will live in a palace like king David,
not in the Temple!
He will rule from Jerusalem and
will it (mostly?) not even travel to the nations, they will come to
him:
Isa
2:3 "Come," everyone will say, "let us go up the mountain of the Lord, to
the Temple of the God of Israel; there he will teach us his laws, and we
will obey them." For in those days the world will be ruled from
Jerusalem. TLB
Isa 11:10 In that day he who created the royal dynasty of David will be a
banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to him, for
the land where he lives will be a glorious place. TLB
Jer 3:17 The whole city of Jerusalem will be known as the throne
of the Lord; all nations will come to
him there and no longer stubbornly follow their evil desires.
TLB
Ezek 37:24 "And David, my Servant-the Messiah-shall be their King, their
only Shepherd; and they [Israelis] shall obey my laws and all my wishes.
25 They shall live in the land of Israel where their fathers lived, the land
I gave my servant Jacob. They and their children after them shall live there,
and their grandchildren, for all generations. And my Servant David, their
Messiah, shall be their Prince forever [apart from being the Messiah]. 26
And I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting pact. I will
bless them and multiply them and put my Temple among them forever. 27
And I will make my home among them. Yes, I will be their
God [Messiah = God], and they shall be my people. 28 And when my Temple remains
among them forever, then the nations will know
that I, the Lord, have chosen Israel as my very own." TLB
Zech 2:11 "At that time many nations will be converted to the Lord, and they
too shall be my people; I will live among them all. Then you will know it
was the Lord Almighty who sent me to you. And Judah shall be the Lord's
inheritance in the Holy Land, for God shall once more choose to bless Jerusalem.
13 "Be silent, all mankind, before the Lord, for he has come to earth
from heaven, from his holy home." TLB
Zech 8:22 Yes, many people, even strong nations, will come to the
Lord Almighty in Jerusalem to ask for his blessing and help. 23
In those days ten men from ten different nations will
clutch at the coat sleeves of one Jew and say, 'Please be my friend, for
I know that God is with you.'" TLB |
OUR RESPONSIBILITY
CONCERNING THE PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF GOD'S PLAN OF
SALVATION
My experience is that
Christians in the nations and their Churches are only concerned about God's
involvement in their lives on a local level of interaction and growth. They
have not been taught that the Christian plan for salvation is totally dependent
on the continued existence of God's HOME TEAM (the Jews) and their HOME BASE
(Israel) to be SUSTAINABLE.
Believers and their leaders
should therefore become actively involved in the absolutely vital carrier
(medium) of God's plan of salvation.
Stand in solidarity
with him, because Jesus won't return before Israel has not been restored
to a format that befits his homebase. At the moment he can't even return
to the Mt. Olives and his Temple Mt. because it is occupied by a moon god
from Babylon. Identify
with God's trauma of having to listen to Islam's disharmonious wailing from
minaret loudspeakers five times a day over his city. These so-called prayers
are a proclamation of Allah's glory (Allah hu akhbar) and his claim of the
city. Refute world leaders'
attempts to divide and weaken Israel so that she won't be an opposing force
to counter their plans to control the world in a New World Order
(NWO).
Refute the world's overturning of Jehovah's sovereign ruling that Isaac and
Jacob (Israel) and their descendants are the sole heirs of the Promises to
Abraham - that Ishmael and Esau have no part in it.
Ezek
36:5 My anger is afire against these nations, especially Edom, for grabbing
my land with relish, in utter contempt for me, to take it for themselves.'
TLB |
Jesus will be the
eternal ruler in the line of David over Israel and all the nations of the
world. Why would He be willing to rule from a kingdom of Israel that
is smaller than that of David and Solomon? Actually, if world leaders could
have their way, Israel will be left with a sliver of land along the Mediterranean
Sea, a "Tel Aviv" state without Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Bless the
Name (baruch HaShem), they will not have it their way:
Ps
72:8 Let him reign from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to
the ends of the earth. 9 The desert nomads shall bow before him;
his enemies shall fall face downward in the dust. 10 Kings along the
Mediterranean coast-the kings of Tarshish and the islands-and those from
Sheba and from Seba-all will bring their gifts. 11 Yes, kings from everywhere!
All will bow before him! All will serve him! TLB |
Jews, except those who
stand on scripture and are persecuted and branded as rightwing by the Israeli
leftist government and media because of it, don't know about the scope these
promises - and the importance of them returning to Israel. It's therefore
our duty to inform and to encourage them. Jesus left us with the great assignment
to preach the Gospel, but there is more to it when it comes to the Jews,
since Israel's restoration and the return of the people to their land will
precede their spiritual rebirth - see
"And All Israel will
be Saved!"
We non-Jews should
realize that it is for the sake of our spiritual and even physical salvation
that Jehovah loves the Jews and care for them to the extreme that might seem
to us to be out of proportion:
Deut
32:10 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded
him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, ... 15 And
yet he rejoiced in your fathers and loved them so much that he chose you,
their children, to be above every other nation, as is evident today.
Ps 47:3 He subdues the nations before us 4 and will personally select his
choicest blessings for his Jewish people --the very best for those he loves.
Jer 12:7 Then the Lord said: "I have abandoned my people, my inheritance;
I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies. [...until...] TLB
Zec 9:23"In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm
hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, `Let us go with you, because
we have heard that God is with you.' |
Using "Highways
to Jerusalem,
http://highways-to-jlm.tripod.com,
as a vehicle to create awareness of the importance of the Jews and Israel
in God's plan to save us.
The main strategy in
this project is to establish (tent) tabernacles as a means to start highways,
because it is such a "visible" and versatile way. In fact, it's the
Physical Dimension of the project. Everybody will ask, "what
is this tent about?" Especially if it has an Israeli flag on top or a big
menorah, that gives you the opening to tell them - even set up a little
exhibition, (including a map of Israel stretching to the Euphrates!), display
a few Israeli products -- especially from the settlements! |
 |
What a turnover you'll soon have of
Israeli products from 1... 10 ... 100 tabernacles! Please folks, visit the
Highways site and consider using it as a strategy. Contact me for whatever
help or advice you need. Who knows, the "highways" may soon serve as escape
routs from persecution!
For His GLORY.
Philip
Blom
Please click
