In the latter verses of the 19^th chapter of Isaiah, where we were reading this morning, we saw how Israel will cross the Jordan River, and how she will conquer what we now call Jordan. There never was a country in ancient times by that name. That area over there belonged to the Moabites, the Edomites and the Ammonites, along with other parts of it, Gilead, to some of the northern tribes of Israel. With this in mind, knowing that God has promised that in the last days He would bring Israel back and plant her there, and establish her according to her former estates, which pertains to her former boundaries, that is what we should be watching for. There is no need for any politician or world leader to think this Bible is a book of mythology, and that they can treat it as such. God will show them a different picture when the time is right. We are living in the era of modern technology. Man, from the scientific viewpoint, has accomplished many things. He no doubt has felt that it has been his achievement apart from any help from a God he does not believe exists anyhow. It has caused him to brag and boast and to influence millions of people, that this God of the Bible could be just a myth, like, Well we have to have doubts of the authenticity of the Bible, and all such as that. God has just left carnal minded mankind in the twentieth century, drift into this frame of thinking, because basically, society as a whole now feel that they do not need God. However when He does show Himself in the miraculous way, the way He will with Israel as they set about to reclaim their land, many of them will be left speechless. I just have to say, That time is not twenty years off: It is just a few short years away now: You could probably count those years on your fingers. I want to go back to what we were on this morning. We see here, in the 19^th chapter, that Israel will hit the land that we now call Jordan, in order to accomplish all these prophecies pertaining to this hour of time. Israel will know in that hour, that she must lay the m waste if need be, in order to conquer those who oppose her. In the first place, it is the closest enemy to her own personal borders. When she does that, she cuts the link of friendship between one Arab nation to another Arab nation, so in military language, she will be able to succeed in accomplishing the military victory over all this area of Jordan, saving certain airstrips without having to fly her planes back to the main land of Israel: She can resupply them right there in the area of Jordan and send them in either direction. Now that remains to be seen, but the reason I say this is because it is from that area, that she then goes to the south to hit Egypt. We read this morning, of the devastating way God is going to hit Egypt. It will be such a blow Egypt will never be the same kind of nation again. When you finish reading the rest of the 19^th chapter, you see the finished results: Egypt is no longer an Islamic nation. She has been turned, overnight, to believe in the God of Israel. I have to say, It is hard for educated, Anglo Saxon, western people to conceive of such a thought. You must keep in mind, that we are talking about areas where the Bible was written, where all the history of it came from, and where all the wars have been fought, right there in that area called the Fertile Crescent. It is returning to that. Israel is going to wind up being the victorious nation, and her borders are going to stretch from Egypt to the Euphrates valley. What the American troops, and the coalition troops she had during the Gulf War, refused to go ahead and do, Israel will do it. It will not take her weeks to get it done either. If the Gulf War was a miracle for the American troops, to regain their prestige, (and we believe it was) then this time God is doing what He will do, to give all this land back to Israel. Even a lot of the Jews might think that is speculation, but, No, it is not speculation. This is all a scriptural fact. It is all so vividly clear it would be hard to miss. In the latter part of the 11^th chapter, we see that at the same time, when it shows what Israel will do, it tells how God will dry up the river Egypt, which is the Nile. Notice what it says, that men can walk over the tongue, or the mouth, which is the delta, dry-shod. We know there has been a drought condition hovering over the eastern coastal regions of Africa for the past twelve to fifteen years. It is just like a cloud. It moved from Sudan, Ethiopia, right down the eastern coast into South Africa: It just moves back and forth. We know this, When you look at the geography of Egypt, the Nile is furnished water from the plateau countries in the mountains laying next to Ethiopia. That lets me know, when the delta of the Nile goes dry, so that men can walk over dry-shod, do not think life will not be hard in Egypt, because the Nile has been her lifeline for thousands upon thousands of years. The whole country feeds from that. Her industry runs from that. They put in a dam to generate a lot more electricity. Yes, and it is true they can hold back a lot of this water that has been escaping, but with a drought condition hovering over that whole area of the continent of Africa, God knows exactly how to dry up that plateau and the river that has flowed north and been known for its bountiful supplying of the lands that are close to the delta, with fresh sediment all the time, just think about it: When that dries up, do not think the agricultural situation will not look very bad: It will. All of that plays right into the hand of God, but we must understand, God has a reason for all of it. He is not only concerned in laying the land desolate by the military victory on Israel's part, but it says right here, And the Lord shall smite Egypt. When He does, that is the military victory. Then He will heal it. That goes to show, that the after affects will cause the peoples' hearts to be turned to the God of Israel. They will begin to pray to the God of Israel. They shall return even to the Lord, meaning Islamic Egypt shall return to the Lord God of the Jews, And He shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them. It will not take God six years to get that done. When you look at the rest, you can see the lingering effect that this victory in Egypt has. It establishes future things that will go on between Egypt, Syria, and Israel. You can read the rest of it. That carries you right on into the Millennium, the thousand year reign. Right now though, I want to go to the 49^th chapter of Isaiah. Keep in mind, we started with Zechariah 12, where it says, And in that day, that means a period of time, not a day of twenty four hours, God said He would cause Jerusalem to become a cup of trembling. There is a reason that Jerusalem is to become a cup of trembling. It is how God will work through all of this to make Jerusalem, (which the Palestinian Arabs that live there now, think they must have as their Capitol) a cup of trembling to all who stand in the way of His will and purpose. Through the U.N., the Palestinians are more or less making their bid for world opinion, so that the whole world, through the workings of the U.N. body, will be psychologically converted to believe that the Arabs have as much right to live in and control that spot of ground, as the Jews do. Well I understand how a lot of people might think that way, just because the present generation of Arabs were born and raised there, but do not forget the Jewish people that were taken captive and carried out of there two thousand years ago, by the Romans. The ten tribes had already been taken out of there around 720 B.C., never to return until the last days. The two tribes that had been brought back from Babylonian captivity, and were there in the time of Christ and the apostles, were taken out of there in 69 A.D., when the Romans attacked the city, defeated the Jewish military, killed a lot of them and carried the rest away into different areas of the Roman world and sold them into slavery. The poor Jewish people were left to wander from one area of the earth to another for all those centuries that followed. Regardless of all that has happened to that race of people, I am fully persuaded that all of what is written in these scriptures concerning them in the last days, is going to be fulfilled exactly as it is written. God has promised in His word, that He will bring them back and will do better with them at the end, than He did at their beginning, so knowing what God has promised, how can we not expect Israel to make their move toward the fulfillment of those prophecies in the very near future? They will not be doing what they do with the thought of fulfilling prophecy: Circumstances and pressure against them will set the whole thing in motion. God knows exactly how He is going to bring it all to the forefront.

WATCHING GOD

FULFILL HIS WORD

Let us just see what all of this which we read here in the scriptures adds up to. It starts with Jerusalem being a cup of trembling, but what is the end result? Here is the objective: It is to deny the Arabs of something they feel like they should have, because they will no longer have old Jerusalem to look to and argue about. They will no longer be able to argue and even boast that Jerusalem will be the capital of the Palestinian state they plan to have. Most of what is going on right now, is a result of world leaders planning and demanding things that are completely contrary to what Gods word teaches us to look for. They want to divide the world and the resources of the world, and create a utopia of their own planning, but God is not going to allow them to fulfill their great plans for the 21^st century. I am so glad the 21^st century belongs to God. All the world leaders have their own ideas, but in the final outcome their ideas will have nothing to do with it. Regardless of what world leaders may want to do, God is greater than all of their ideas and He will do what He purposed before the foundation of the world, to do in this 21^st Century. What He allows to be done, has to be done this way in order for modern mankind to be able to recognize God in the outcome. I will just say, in the light of all the modern technology the world has in weaponry, Their inability to defeat a small nation, (Israel) with their God running the show, is what is going to turn the world upside down. This is what is going to shake nations and cause millions of people to realize there is a God after all. I will not read all of this chapter, but I will touch the high points to give you a profile of the picture the world will see one day soon. When this great war is over, the world will see things much differently. How long will it last? Naturally we do not know, but I will answer like this, It will just be a matter of weeks, not years. When God gets in this war, remember, He is doing it to show the nations, I have returned to Israel. He is doing it also, to wake up the Jewish people. As I said this morning, I have been there more than once and know there are thousands of young Jewish people, and especially college age young people, that do not know whether to believe in the God of their ancestors, or not. I would have to say, and I do not mean to be derogatory, It is a shame for the devil to have robbed them of the knowledge of their true God. After all, it is their book that we get our hope from. Gentiles, Hear me, This is not our book. No Gentile ever wrote one verse of scripture in it. It was all written by Jewish prophets and apostles. We have just borrowed it, and been allowed to be the keepers of it, and by the faith God imparted to us, and the grace and mercy of God, we are able to reach out with that faith and accept the promises God had written in it, even those He made to Abraham when He came from the land of Mesopotamia and was coming into the land of Canaan. When God promised He would give him all that land, He then told him, In thee, and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Naturally Abraham did not know what all that meant when God made the promise, but we can see today, that we are children of Abraham, not genetically of course, but we are children of Abraham by faith. I am thankful to God for that. As for the city of Jerusalem mentioned in the great prophecy in the 49^th chapter of Isaiah, we have to realize, God is never going to allow the Arabs to completely possess it: It goes with the heritage Abraham passed on. Certain verses when you read them, show how the land speaks, and Mt. Zion is the place that Jerusalem is built on. Mt. Zion, that has been absent for hundreds of years of the Jewish people walking on its streets and living in its buildings, begins to speak, and you can see why the land begins to speak out. The prophecy is speaking on behalf of where Jerusalem exists, but in order not to make the subject boring, I am just going to highlight certain verses. This particular miracle war has been accomplished. The Jewish people will immediately know what to do, because when this goes out to many other Jews that are still out there in dispersion in other nations, it wakes them up to the point that they will say, I want to go there myself: I want to immigrate back to Israel. I will say this, It is not just any Jew, even though He is of the tribe of Judah, that is going to have that opportunity. The city of Jerusalem, as it was captured by King David, basically, through the years that followed that victory for him, it gradually became populated by those Jews related to King David. This is why, after King David's victory, the city, in latter years, became known as the city of David. It meant that it was relatives, cousins, and such, all of the household of King David living there. We Gentiles do not keep genealogical books, but the Jews do. Hundreds and thousands of Jews know exactly what tribe they belong to. They have made it their business to keep those things up to date. When you read in Chronicles, it shows you how they looked at the genealogical side way back during the B.C. period. These Jews are going to say, I want to go there and live in Jerusalem. This war is basically to give Jerusalem back to the Jews, because it is their sovereign right to hold it, and to possess it. Also, it gives them the right to take back all of their promised land. That is why I say, everything that God promised Abraham, they will take, and the world cannot stand in the way. Let us hear now, as the land speaks. The land where Jerusalem is built begins to speak out. I am going to start in the 11^th verse. "And I will make all my mountains a way." In this you read mountains, you are talking about a particular kingdom, which means wherever there is still Jews settled in certain nations, and they have not all left, God said, I will make all my mountains a way, "and my highways shall be exalted." Keep in mind, that this is figurative language. God is not going to build highways just to get the dispersed Jews to come home. You have got to see the figurative language used. No matter whether it is Syria, Iraq, or what nation that has bottled up the Jews, refusing to let them leave and go back to Israel, God says He is going to break down all governmental barriers, because the world has been made to realize, there is a God of Israel after all. All through this Bible, we are going to see how God looks upon the nation after this victorious war, and what God is going to do to that nation that will not minister to the restoration and rebuilding of Israel. "Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim." According to the translators, this land of Sinim is China. That lets us know there is a possibility, that there are still a few of the ancient seed of the Israelites still living in this oriental country. The 13^th verse says, "Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth: and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted His people, (He has given them victory, so now they know He is with them and they do not need to fear any more. They are assured that God is going to lift other things from them.) and will have mercy upon His afflicted. (Now right here is where the land itself speaks.) "But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, (Think of it, For two thousand years Jewish people have been denied the right to live there in their own land in a collective sense.) and my Lord hath forgotten me. (That is what the land says, but the Lord replies back,) Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." He is looking right at that spot on Mt. Zion, the spot of ground where the old city of Jerusalem is. If we read it right, God is saying, Take a look, and watch what comes next. Listen to what follows this. He says, "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." Notice now, He is promising the land something, and this promise has been laying here for hundreds and hundreds of years. Little attention has been directed to it, but now you and I are living in a generation that is going to see it fulfilled right before our very eyes. I am going to say this, It is not twenty years off. I am going to say also, that things have developed to a point where this thing could start being fulfilled even in the next few months. "Thy children shall make haste." Now I want to say this to any Jewish reader, We hear a lot of political collaboration going on by Yasser Arafat and others, how he threatens the Israelites, that if they do not allow them to have old Jerusalem as their capital, they will give them another intifadah. Which means, another war, or much trouble. I want to say for the sake of the Jewish reader, I know you live over there and see all those Arabs all around you, and you know first hand what they have in mind. They have made their boasts about what is ahead if they do not get what they want. Well, when we read from the prophecy of Zephaniah, in chapter 2, when this war comes about, which is a miraculous thing, God accomplishes something else: Not only does Israel take back the land of Jordan, but God says, I will destroy, or I will famish all the gods of the earth, in that day. What is He going to do that for? To the Jewish believer I want to ask, If you were to go to Saudi Arabia today and ask their king, Would he give a contribution for the rebuilding of the Jewish temple? What kind of answer do you suppose you would get? They would refuse you and run you off. Suppose you were to go there today and make a speech, asking the political side of Saudi Arabia, Don't you think you rich Arabs ought to open your heart's of compassion and give the Jewish people something toward the rebuilding of their temple, what do you think their answer would be? They would tell you real quick, No. Why? Because they are all under that Islam spirit. We know this, the Mosque of Omar, which is a big Islamic temple, sits right on the spot where the Jewish sacrificial altar is to be rebuilt. I have heard Gentile preachers preaching on prophecy, say that the antichrist will give the Jews an opportunity to build their temple, by signing a covenant of peace. That is a totally misconstrued statement, because, nowhere in the Bible do we find that the antichrist agrees to let Israel build their temple. You are going to see later on, when we get these scriptures together, that all of their predictions are wrong. God is going to cause Israel to gain the victory over all this area, by destroying their Islam religion first of all, and it will not take forty years for that to happen. It will be more like a few days. When the conflict is over, those Arabs left alive are going to come screaming, begging, pleading with the Israelites, We want to worship your God: We know He is the God we should worship. Keep that in your mind as we read on right here: The land is still talking. "Thy children shall make haste; (To the Jews, those Arabs that walk the streets, rubbing shoulders with you, and you knowing in your heart that they threaten you now, that will all be over.) thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee." Right now the Palestinian Arabs have no intention of leaving that land. They want just the opposite. If anything, they would insist that the Jews leave, but what the end results of this will be, God already knows: He knew a long time ago, even before the foundation of the world. That is why the prophet put it in here, that thy destroyers, they that made thee waste, those that have made your land look like a slum shall go forth of thee. The Arabs have let the land grow up and become a desolate, untilled, and just plain un-cared-for land. They set around smoking their Turkish tobacco, baking their bread in open ovens on the street, and expect the world to side with them against the Jewish people, and a lot of them do. You see street vendors with their little carts, a lifestyle that goes back hundreds of years. Then, here comes a car, right along with the burros and everything else. You have the twentieth century, you have the B.C. centuries, both running parallel. It speaks this twice in this prophecy. Any time you see within the structure of a prophecy, the objective mentioned more than once, rest assured that prophecy will stand out in the forefront. There is not a man that can read it, if he is in the generation that it is to be fulfilled, without seeing precisely, why God wanted it mentioned twice. Notice the wording as we read on. "Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. (Who is this coming? It is Jews. Coming to do what? To immigrate to the city of Jerusalem.) As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee (He is speaking to the mountain, the land right where Jerusalem is, thou shalt clothe thee, or thyself.) with them all, (That speaks only of the Jewish people.) as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth." In other words, when the city of Jerusalem has been reclaimed, and only the Jews live there and fill her habitation, God is going to take great pride in how that city, from that moment on, begins to look. The Jews will also, because there is something that is going to come upon them that will cause them to. "For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow (too crowded) by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away." There, it is the second mention. That lets us know there is no compromise in the mind of God about this. No. The Arabs are not going to be able to negotiate and say, Well, we won't cause any more problems. No. They are all going to have to leave, because this is going to be restored to be a city dedicated to Jehovah. "The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, (meaning those in B.C. times) shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait (too crowded) for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone, these, where had they been?" God knows exactly where every Jew is, that belongs to the lineage of the house of David. Keep in mind, the house of David is out of the tribe of Judah. But the tribe of Judah is settled mainly in the rural areas of the territory of Judah. With this in mind, this conflict, this miraculous war, will have accomplished the reclaiming of Jerusalem as the Jews' capital, and the Jews will immediately begin, from the ends of the earth, those that belong to King David's line, to immigrate back there. They will come in numbers so great, it will be hard for the administrators to be able to look the situation over, to delegate and divide the territories and prepare for the building of housing and such, for the Jewish immigrants that are coming there from the nations of the world. Also, we will read here in a few minutes, that the city is not going to be left in an old run down, desolate, poverty looking condition. Immediately, the Jews will want to start dressing it up. I want to say this to the Jewish reader, That miraculous war is over when this takes place. The reason it is a miraculous war, is because God shows Himself as the God of the Jews, and that He has returned to them, to show favor to them.

HOW GOD'S POWER

CHANGES MAN'S WAYS

Let us go now, to the 60^th chapter of Isaiah. Here is where we begin to see the affect of this miraculous war, what all is going on and what it leads to. This miraculous war that God is going to bring about in the Middle East is going to change a lot of thinking right here in the United States. That is why I would like to be standing somewhere, looking over the shoulders of some of the professors, deans, and presidents of our colleges, when they have seen some of the display of the power of God, and they can no longer deny God, nor hide themselves from the reality He has caused them to come face to face with. I would like to tap some of them on the shoulder and ask, What do you think of God now? Is He still just a myth to your thinking? That was the work of God, the God you have been teaching your students, that does not exist. That is the God you have said, was only a myth. That is the fulfillment of a book you said was nothing but fantasy and fiction. It is definitely not fiction. God is going to do exactly what the Bible says He will do. Why? To touch the heart of an element of young people that are walking right now, on the face of this earth, both in this part of the world, as well as in other parts also. This is one way God has, to turn their mind's around. I have to believe we are going to see all kinds of chaotic and out of the ordinary incidents take place. It will not come from people seventy years old: It comes from little kids, that, all they have ever seen and heard connected with terror, tear it up, scare them, have a good time at the other person's expense. It would not have to be that way. It is because of gross darkness on the people. You cannot call it anything else but darkness. When I speak of Gentiles, that is what we are. I am speaking on behalf of Gentile nations. I am not talking about the Christian Bride of Christ. How many understand that? I am speaking of the Gentile world of people at large. "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light." I have to say to those that preach the United Nations and New World Order stuff. There is nothing in the New World Order agenda that will even allow anything like this to be fulfilled. Not in our day. That is why I have to say. If they would read Zechariah 12, exactly as it is written, God said, In that day, that is when God is going to take that U.N. body and deal with it. In one place it says He will break them to pieces, and in another it says He will cut them to pieces, though all the world be gathered together against Jerusalem. That is the diplomatic negotiating process. "And kings to the brightness of thy rising." That is the restoration of the nation of Israel. "Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged: because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, (This is not talking about spiritual conversion. This is talking about material substance of various descriptions that is going to be literally turned from its original commercial purpose, and sent to Israel for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the temple, and whatever the Israeli people need it for in that up and coming future which is just a short time ahead.) the forces (This is not military forces, this is talking about material substance.) of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." Now let us see ,when this has been fulfilled, where the Arab, Islamic god is? It tells us right here, or at least we should be smart enough to know what we have read. As we go into the 6^th verse, "The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; (That is Saudi Arabia.) all they from Sheba (That is still Arabia.) shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord." Where are they bringing it to? They are bringing it to Jerusalem. Can you get it from them right now? No. But I have to say to the Jewish reader, Your own Bible tells you the future. This is not some political gimmick. This is reality. It is going to be such a fulfillment that it is going to bring great joy to many people, and there is going to be people from one end of this earth to the other, made to realize that there is no god like the God of Israel. Now let us see what happens next. "All the flocks of Kedar (This is one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah, Abraham's second wife.) shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth (That is another son.) shall minister unto thee: (Right now, Israel has no animal breeding program within the whole agricultural output, but here it shows us, that when this great and glorious event does unfold, what takes place is going to set in motion immediately, what the Jewish people that are religious minded will purpose to do, so they are going to immediately say, Let us start offering sacrifice. Well they have to have an altar. That is the first thing they will need. Then, since there is no animal breeding program to start producing this large number of animals for sacrifice, something else has to happen: They have to have access to the animals they will need. God, beforehand, has already spoken, that out of the land which is now alien, anti Jew, they are going to turn and say, Here, you can have my sheep. I know this sounds preposterous, but just mark it down and wait. I have been asked, Bro. Jackson, do you think the temple will be built before the Millennium? Of course it will: It is not going to be built during the Millennium. It will already be built, and the Bible says very clearly that it will. The only thing is, it is spoken in a way that you have to read all these scriptures that put the picture together. There is no need of this Gentile church of tradition, thinking that the temple will suddenly drop out of heaven. No. That is not how it comes into view. Let us finish reading this scripture: What does this gold go to? It goes to decorate, or to beautify the house of God. As He speaks here of the various nations that will contribute the animals, notice how it is worded."they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I (This is the Lord speaking.) will glorify the house of my glory." What is He talking about. The temple of course. That is what that gold is coming out of Saudi Arabia for. The 8^th verse says this, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" Can you not see giant airplanes here, like the Berlin airlift when the Russians had said, We will starve east Germany, Berlin, into submission? I have an article about that. The planes they had then, were not like the ones we have now. Think of it: I have to say, When this miraculous thing is fulfilled, everything is going to come together so speedily, so very quickly that it is hard to imagine, because these scriptures show that God has put His approval on it. These nations that have the facilities, and the means of material substance that the Jews can use, airplanes of giant sizes, will take this substance and fly everything there to them, everything that they can possibly fly. It will be just like the time when the Berlin airlift was going on. They kept it going around the clock. The 9^th verse, says, "Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He hath glorified thee." God is going to put into the Jewish peoples' hearts, such a great joy of knowing that God has returned to them in favor. He is not only doing that for them, but He is also putting upon the hearts of Gentile people in various nations around the globe, to want to do everything they can to contribute something to the reconstruction, the beautifying of this land. Why? Because they are getting ready for the coming of their Messiah. With that in mind, let us continue on. The 10^th verse, says, "And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls." What does this mean, sons of strangers? I want to look at it from a political standpoint. We know this, Israel through ancient times, had international, political relationships with certain nations in the old world. In this day and hour though, we have to realize that the world powers in general, look upon Israel in an altogether different way. The nation of Israel, yes, by certain reasons, they have always carried on since WW2, certain diplomatic relationships with certain western nations, but this tells us here, not the sons of friendly nations, but the sons of strangers, those that have never had political relationships of communication, or the transaction of trade, are the ones that respond. When it says the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, you need to realize, that when we read the story of how King Solomon built the old temple in 1000 B.C., it was not all Jews that worked on that project. When they conversed with the king of Lebanon, some of the best stone masons of that time, came from the Lebanese people. Throughout the countries round about that area, there were people that came, donated, contributed their expertise, whatever their trade was. That is how that temple went together. From cedar, from oak, from stone, it was not brought on the temple grounds and cut, hewed and polished: it was all brought to certain areas where the material was gathered. There is where the stones were polished and finished. According to the architects, they knew where each particular stone was marked to go in this construction. Therefore when the hour came for the temple to be built, the Bible says there was not the sound of a saw or a hammer heard. They brought the material, the substance, as they put the stones in place, then the cedar beams in place, it was already a finished product. But looking at this same thing in this day of modern equipment, and the way they can take stone, and iron, I can see there will be an era that from the various nations of the earth that have been startled, shaken, they are going to say, We want to contribute certain materials that we have, to this great cause. The temple that is going to be built then, is not a temple just for the Jews alone, it is the temple that the Lord is going to rule the earth from for one thousand years. It plainly tells you in the 14^th chapter of Zechariah, That all nations, once each year, shall go to Zion and Jerusalem. To do what? To worship the Lord of hosts. Notice, as we continue on, "And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings (their political leaders) shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually: they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee (Notice this.) the forces (material things) of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought." None of this sounds like the U.N. has anything to do with it, does it? Can you see the U.N. in this? No. "For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." Bankrupt, to be exactly accurate. I have to say, Right here (chart) is the week of Daniel. It is the last seven years of this whole seventy week period. In the first part, (3 ½ years) is where the two prophets will appear. In the last half is where the antichrist sits himself up as GOD. Keep in mind though, This great, miraculous thing with Israel takes place before this week starts. According to the yardstick of Hosea 6:2, that should terminate, meaning the yardstick, the end of it, around 2004 ½.

A NEW DAY BEGINS

Somewhere right in here, (pointing to chart, before the week starts) is where this miraculous thing with Israel begins to unfold. It lets you know the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple will, by the time this week starts, be in the process of being rebuilt. That is why, when John was given a reed like unto a rod, reading in the 11^th chapter of Revelation, and told to measure the altar and the temple and them that worship therein, but the outer court leave out, for it is given unto the Gentiles. Forty two months shall they tread the city under foot. That is talking about the last half of the week. This reconstruction, rebuilding, beautifying, gets under way just shortly before the week starts. The week starts when the antichrist has signed his covenant of peace, and when the middle of the week comes, that is where everything is shut down. Basically the temple has been finished. If you can understand now, somewhere in this little era here just before the week starts, this great and glorious era of the miraculous, the display of God on behalf of the Jewish people takes place, which shows that God is getting the Jewish people ready for the great visitation of their prophets. Certain nations will be contributing certain types of materials. God is not coming down the street with the Salvation Army, pushing a wheel barrow and carrying a red bucket. No. God is putting it in the hearts of politicians and leaders of that hour, to contribute to the work, because they have already seen the display of God, and that is why they are responding accordingly. I can see some of the young students in the Orients, students that have been raised under Hinduism, Buddhism and whatever. Now they are in college, studying engineering and becoming knowledgeable about building. I can see these young men when they see that miraculous thing take place in the Middle East, because they have to compare that with their god of Hinduism or Buddhism, make some surprising decisions. I can see some of these young men as they say, I am convinced there is no god like the God of the Jews. They are going to say, I want to go there and contribute at least six months of my profession to their work. Why? Because God will lay it upon their hearts to want to do it. This is not a welfare work exhibition. No. This is people that have seen something, and they have heard something; and it has a strange affect on them. It has affected their hearts. That is why the sons of strangers will volunteer, Let me go there and contribute. I know, when the Six Day War was going on, right here in the United States as well as in Canada, there were Jewish people of certain types of professional occupation, that left their jobs for that very same reason. They said, I want to volunteer my services to my country, and to my people. They did just that. Think of it, this time it will be on a larger scale. Sons of strangers will come and help built up thy walls. The nation that will not serve thee, that lets us know there is going to be a world wide feeling begin to move out there, as the world begins to see Israel is rebuilding, renovating, and beautifying. The 13^th verse, "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, (At a ten thousand feet elevation, in the northern mountains of Lebanon, is a cedar forest. They claim the cedars there are five thousand years old. There, is the remnant of the giant forest of cedars that existed in the days of King Solomon. It is a known fact, that for the cedars of Lebanon, there was a great trade, because this cedarwood was so much in demand. The cabins of maritime ships were finished with this cedarwood from Lebanon. A few years back, these cedars were perishing so fast, that finally the government stepped in and said they would keep a certain acreage in reserve. That is the remnant of her glory of bygone days. I have to say, The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree,) the pine tree, and the box together, (What for?) to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious." It is going to be the most beautiful building in all the known world. "The sons also of them that afflicted thee (Let's see what happens,) shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; (God will make them come and say, We are sorry that we defamed your name.) and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, (This is another figurative language, which means this, all over the world these wealthy business executives will be touched. This is a language that says to us, that when God puts it upon their heart, they are going to begin to say, I am dedicating a billion to this cause.) and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." I realize there are a lot of educated Gentiles today that could read this and say, Oh this is all fantasy. Stick around and see. We know there is as much money here today as there ever was, it is just that a lot of it is in the wrong hands, and it got there the wrong way. Watch this. "For brass I will bring gold, (This means that whatever you read about the material King Solomon put in his temple, whether it was a door knob or what, in this future temple, He will exchange it for something of greater value and beauty.) and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders." You can finish reading the rest of it. You are seeing Jerusalem going through, in a few short months of time, one of the most beautiful, uplifting, and renovating tasks as all this takes place, because the Jews, after seeing God's hand on their behalf in this miraculous war, to give them back all of their land, and to give them back their city, with no strings attached, they cannot help but put their whole heart into this project, because they will know they are getting it ready for the coming of their Messiah. With this in mind, we know this is how God prepares the hearts of a lot of Gentiles, so that they will want to contribute, and distribute their substance. I can see construction men that operate large companies here in the United States or Canada that will say, I am shutting down for a short period of time and we are going to Israel. We are going to get in on this great thing that is taking place there. You might not think it, but I have to say this, As we have been privileged different times to go there on tours, we have had guides tell us various things that fit right into this picture. One time, when we stood where old fort Megiddo originally stood, we were looking over into the Jezreel valley. As you see that, you see on a small scale the level land, like you would see in Iowa or Nebraska. It was the breadbasket of northern Israel in ancient times. When the ten tribes were taken out of there, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, God said the land would become desolate. It would rest. There was a time when parts of that land became a huge swamp. Crocodiles infested it. Naturally when the Jews began to go back there, many went back with western technology they had become familiar with. You and I know, that no Jew is a farmer in the United States or Canada. Nevertheless, as he travels from place to place he cannot help but see it, because many times the produce he buys, he has seen it as it has been produced by western agricultural technology. With this in mind, as he looked out over the that valley where they were planting citrus, planting grain, barley, wheat and such, just as they did in ancient times, his mind was thinking back. A tour group was there from Texas one time; and one man on the tour, as he looked out over the valley, said to his guide, That land looks like it would grow cotton. He was asked, Why do you say that? I can tell by the looks of the land, that it has the potential to grow a tremendous amount of cotton. In fact, I would like to take a sample of it back home and get it tested. Through his guide, he contacted the Israeli department that would allow him to take a sample of this dirt home to Texas. He did; and he planted some seed in it. A few months later he contacted the agricultural department of Israel and said, That land in the Jezreel valley is ideal for growing a tremendous crop of cotton. At the time we were there, we could see off in the distance, huge piles of baled cotton. The guide told us they had harvested the crop. It is baled, waiting to be shipped. He said, in fact we are now a competitor in cotton production, because Egypt was the sole producer of cotton in other eras. Now they are competing against Israel for the cotton market. I am saying that to show you that Israel, as the Jews come home, gain much, because they are coming from various nations where they have picked up here and there, certain technological things they can put in practice in their home land. In this same valley, parts of it was covered with swamps. Other Jews coming from the areas of Australia, fell upon the idea to drain the land by cutting irrigation ditches, and then planting the eucalyptus tree. In Australia, they use the eucalyptus tree because it has the largest, and the deepest penetrating tap root of any tree. They set them in rows, there in those swamps; and today there is no more swamps. They are all dry. All that land has been reclaimed, after laying hundreds and hundreds of years, desolate, just ruined wasteland. So if technology that has been learned from various nations where they have come from, has been used before, can you not see, when the time comes for this city to take on a beautification project, how it is not going to be done just by the Jewish people. It is because of what God does to restore the Jewish people, and lets His glory be seen resting upon them, and the raising of them back to preeminence and attention, that cannot help but spread throughout the world. It is going to touch the hearts of many people. Some of those people are going to be persuaded to be a part of what is taking place, so they will say, I want to contribute and have a little part in this: I am going to Israel and help them. There will be more than just a few that will feel like that. Next, the Lord willing, we will deal with Ezekiel 38 and 39, as we continue on in this series. Amen. Continued