The Secret of Israel (18) – The Finale has Started

We are approaching the conclusion or rather the climax of the history of salvation. The Gospel of the Kingdom was proclaimed among all nations and the name of God is proclaimed to the farthest corners of the earth. Hundreds of millions of people are saved by their faith in Jesus Christ. And in our days, the Gospel has started her final journey, the homeward journey to the place where the Gospel departed two thousand years ago, Jerusalem. And we notice it too: It is twilight in the Occident, Europe. Moral and spiritual darkness has settled on.

In the meantime a war is raging in the heavenly realms. The ruler of this world is conquered and the devil is cast out of heaven with all the fallen angels and he is doing what ever he can. He knows that the completion of the history of salvation will take place on the cradle of civilization. That is where it once began and there will be the centre of the restoration of all things.

He has tried to make sure that God will arrive anyway without His people in the finale of history. More than six million Jews were murdered with unbounded cruelty. Israel underwent a tribulation unequal in the course of history. But God’s answer was the foundation of His people’s own independent State of Israel. Not even three years after Auschwitz a Jewish flag is flying on the Knesset in Jerusalem.

This always reminds me of that impressive chapter of the prophet Ezekiel. Chapter 37 starts with the valley of dry bones: bones and skulls, a large valley full of bones with a caption saying: Our hope is long gone. We are finished. And then after the sight of the intense destruction of God’s people, immediately following this, in the same chapter, the resurrection of Israel and even the return of the tribes of Joseph, disappeared and hidden for so long.

And now the battle for Jerusalem has begun. If Israel cannot be destroyed, then maybe the place where it all will happen can be occupied be the darkness. The prince of darkness mobilizes all the forces he can gather to withdraw Zion to God’s authority.

The world shouts loudly and with indignation about the disputed areas and about East Jerusalem. But the real underlying issues are the Mount of Olives and the Mount Moriah, the heritage of the Lord, the most beautiful of all his dwellings. It is about the mountains of Israel where the Son of David will graze His flock.

It seems as if Zechariah 12 has dawned: Jerusalem that is put on the lips like a cup of hard liquor, the great macabre and absurd parade of all nations heading for Zion. Not only IS, not only Iran, not only the entire Muslim world, but also Europe and the developing countries fall over Jerusalem as the place where God will live among His people for ever (Ezekiel 43:7).

And in the meanwhile the Messiah is taking on His other three tasks (Isaiah 49). It is not perfect yet, but it is in progress: The judgment on the nations who pointed their finger to the apple of God’s eye (1), the gathering of all tribes of Israel (2) and the promised recovery of the Land and the City (3).

The big question for us is: How will the Church behave itself during these developments?