So let's look at Israel and God's Word. There are a couple of ways that you can go about this. You can simply check your church's or your denomination's doctrine on this....or you can read a prophecy book or two....there's not a whole lot of work involved....and let it go at that....and go back to what is really important in your life.....whatever that may be....or you can read God's Word with the rectitude of a Christian that actually believes that God's Word can speak directly to us? Denominational traditions can serve a purpose....for not having them can be an invitation to confusion and even chaos.....but if not constantly checked....and reformed if necessary....semper reformanda....'Reformed and always reforming'....they can be nothing but....traditions....and as Tevye from Fiddler On The Roof would sing and humorously question at the beginning of that 1971 Academy Award winning musical...."Tradition! Tradition! Tradition! Tradition! Tradition! Tradition! You may ask, why did this tradition get started? I'll tell you why-I don't know."
From what I see....without someone telling me what I see....it is very clear....Israel would one day return as a people and a nation to their land....God would sustain them and protect them....even though they would be surrounded by those who hate them....and even though they were still in abject rebellion to Him....for He has a purpose....and that purpose is to not totally reject them....but to have mercy upon them at the end of days....through much tribulation. And that is where we are today.
What Israel is experiencing right now is thoroughly existential....their very existence is on the line. It should turn them to the God that they once knew....for thousands of years ago....God did separate the waters for them to pass over....and He did send Haman to the gallows and not Mordecai....and the Angel of the LORD did kill 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night....and Gideon did see their enemy fight and kill each other in confusion....but He also brought about the judgments that He warned of through the prophets!
If I should say to you....Luke 21.....what would you think? Quickly! Nothing? What if I add Mark 13? Hmm....OK the third one is easy....Mathew 24 and 25. Right now....what is this the first day of summer....2025? The passages from these four chapters in these three gospels....should be second nature to us now. We should almost have them memorized....for they are the map that we are traveling right now. This is that which is known as the....Olivet Discourse.
These passages should be the topic of synods and Bible studies and cell groups! What more could you want as evidence. Jesus gave a detailed description of what it will be like upon His return....and we can see them happening now! Jesus even tells them...."So you....when you see these things happening"....Jerusalem surrounded by armies for one...."Know that the kingdom of God is near." Signs in the sun and the moon and the start? We've almost got nothing but signs in the sun and the moon and the stars this last decade!
Verse 34 of Luke 21 warns us....keep playing around and these things will come upon us unexpectantly! That means....watch and pray and take heed....and they will not come upon us unexpectantly!
Let me slide on over to 1 Thessalonians to conclude this post....chapter 5....verses 2 and 3. This day....that day....the day of the Lord....is coming as a thief in the night. That's a phrase that is etched in our minds....and people will be celebrating a supposed peace and safety....but something else is going to happen....and we are not to be in darkness!
Let me give you another Latin phrase....that I stored up way back when I was trying to guide our son in high school....tolle lege...."take up and read".....that's the phrase that the great Augustine heard repeated....from the mouths of children! So he took up and read. Will you at least do that for the three renderings in Matthew and Mark and Luke....of what we know today as the....Olivet Discourse?
