| Seven Sermons
THE WOMAN'S MAN CHILD WAS CAUGHT UP UNTO GOD
We need to examine verse 5, and be sure we get it placed right. "And
she (Israel) brought forth a man child, (Jesus) who was to rule all nations
with a rod of iron: (In the Millennium) and her child (The resurrected
Jesus the Christ) was caught up unto God, and to His (The Father's) throne;"
and that is where He still is this very hour. Why was He caught up? It
was because the political element, that religious element that thought
they knew everything that was to be known in that hour, CRUCIFIED HIM;
not even knowing He was the ONE all their scrolls had been pointing them
to. Just think of it, those Pharisees and Saducees had been going to their
various synagogues, reading the scrolls of the prophets, and going through
their little rituals every Sabbath day. What were they reading? The promises
of their Messiah that was to come. There He came, and they did not know
one thing about Him. I just have to say this, Denominational Gentile churches
are doing the same thing, looking for, and talking about a Bridegroom
they know nothing at all about. I received a letter from a brother in
Wisconsin, with a little tract enclosed. The tract was put out by an outfit
in Scottsdale Arizona. The writer of this tract titled it, Pretribulation
Rapture. He leaves it as though what we believe is a false revelation.
I just thought as I read that thing, Mr.: You are another one of those
who cannot see yourself anywhere in the Bible except Revelation 7:9-17,
which is a picture of tribulation saints. If John had never written Revelation
7, I wonder if you would be able to relate to 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Let us just refresh our memory, concerning the apostle Paul's revelation
of what the true Church should be looking for. (13) "But I would
not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (14) For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which
sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. (15) For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. (16) For
the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall
rise first: (17) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (18) Wherefore comfort one another
with these words. We are supposed to comfort one another with these words;
not the words of Revelation 7. Those words are for the foolish virgins,
that great multitude that would rather speak in tongues than to sit and
listen to truth. I have nothing against speaking in tongues; but if you
have no revelation of the word of God, and all you can think of is having
a good time with the gifts of the Spirit, Revelation 7 has a place reserved
for you, lest you be a make believer. The truth is, If Revelation 7, is
all the vision you have, you may not even make it in that group; for the
apostle Paul spoke of another group that a lot of people are going to
fall right in with. You will find in 2nd Thessalonians 2, where Paul said
God Himself would send strong delusion upon those who have no love for
the truth. Remember, the devil does not try to keep anyone from going
to church; his only interest is in perverting the word of God, so those
who do go, will be satisfied with something less than a revelation of
the truth of that word. I never get too excited about people just merely
being faithful to go to some church building regularly. I get excited
when I find someone who is truly hungry for the truth; instead of just
being satisfied with traditional hand-me-down religion. An awful lot of
people seem to think that just because the book of Revelation was written
some 30 years after most of the Epistles, it annuls all those things the
other apostles had already established in the Church; but I will be quick
to tell you, The book of Revelation annuls nothing that was already written
in the word of God. To me, it clarifies an awful lot of what was already
written. As for the man child being caught up unto God, that is exactly
what happened; but not before He was crucified, buried, resurrected and
allowed to walk upon earth for 40 days after His Resurrection. Of course
we can see, that this embodiment of dragon power was in the old Caesars
that ruled the Roman Empire at that time. Capital punishment was not allowed
to be administered by the Jewish court of law. They could try Him. They
could condemn Him; but they could not administer capital punishment. The
capital punishment had to come by ones that were in ruling power. When
they finally brought Him to Pilot, he wanted to let Him go. He was the
secular ruler, the one appointed by the Romans. He would have let Him
go; but that zealous bunch of Judaistic Pharisees, the religious leaders
of that day said, Crucify Him! Let His blood be upon us. I hope I can
say this in a right way. The Jews that have suffered so much throughout
the various nations they have been driven to for the past two thousand
years, do not realize why they have had to go through some of those ordeals
of punishment, suffering, and bloodshed. Their forefathers prophesied
it upon them. At least, they asked for some of it; when they stood there
in the streets that day and said to Pilot, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! We'll
take the blame. Let His blood be upon us, and on our children. (Matthew
27:25) Pilot wanted to let Him go. Pilot took that pan of water and washed
his hands and said, I deliver myself of responsibility for Him. That bunch
of religious Pharisee leaders said Crucify Him. Let His blood be upon
us, and on our children! I am only pointing to what is written; so if
any Jewish person should ever hear this, I want them to know, I am not
saying these things to belittle them for being a Jewish. I know you are
living in a generation when God is going to open your eyes, if you are
one that cares about pleasing God; because the prophets have written in
your scrolls very plainly, that He would do this in the last days. You
who could not understand Hitler's ordeal, and who will not be able to
understand what the antichrist will do during that last 3 1/2 years of
Daniel's week, will no doubt be among those, when Jesus does come to reveal
Himself to you, that will ask Him, (Zechariah 13:6) "What are these
wounds in thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends." They read that in their synagogues every
day; but they do not know what it is talking about. None of us have anything
to be puffed up about; we Gentiles have been blinded to. Why else would
so many Gentile Professing Christians believe that God is THREE PERSON'S,
if it were not that they are spiritually blind? These Trinitarians read
verses like Acts 7:56, where Stephen while being stoned to death, looked
up to heaven And said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the
Son of man standing on the right hand of God;" and it just reinforces
their belief that God is three persons. Saints: Listen to me, That is
blindness. Are you going to tell me, that Jesus Christ (the only person
in the Godhead) is coming after a bride that knows no more than that about
the God they profess to believe in? Not on your life. He is coming back
for a bride that embraces the same revelation that first age element of
Christianity held. He truly was caught up unto God, and to His throne;
when He led His disciples out to the Mt. of Olives that day, and a cloud
received Him out of their sight; but that does not make the Father a person.
When He ascended up to the throne of God, where He has been ever since
that day, that fulfilled the portion of that phenomena we see portrayed
here in Revelation 12:1-5; but the phenomena still hangs there; because
as there was past, which was the Law, present, giving
birth, there is yet the future. I hope you can see that; for
that is what we are coming into. When the child was caught up unto God
and to His throne, there in verse 5, God slipped the whole dispensation
of grace in between verse 5 and verse 6. The gospel of the revelation
of Jesus Christ was given to us Gentiles; and we have had it for over
1900 years; and verse 6, has not been fulfilled yet. In 69 and 70 A.D.,
the remnant that was left of that Israelite nation was scattered throughout
the world; and the nation no longer existed. That was the state of it,
at the time John had this revelation given to him. Therefore the Grace
Age Church has been living time wise, between verses 5 and 6. Where does
verse 6 pick up again? Verse 6 picks up somewhere just up ahead of where
we are right now; when the woman element of the nation of Israel has to
flee for her life, getting away from the evil forces of the old Antichrist.
If she is running for her life, where did she start running from? She
did not start running for her life from Russia; nor from Africa, nor Austria.
No. Somewhere before verse 6 is a reality, God must bring that nation
of people back from dispersion in sufficient numbers to fulfill all of
His word. Then, after she has heard the preaching and prophesying of the
two prophets for 3 1/2 years, and the old Antichrist initiates the bloodbath
that will last for another 3 1/2 years, she knows it is time to get out
of there, to the place the two prophets has told her about. Let us read
verses 6 and 14; and then I will show you something. (6) "And the
woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God,
that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore
days. (14) And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle,
that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished
for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent."
Verse 14, is what lets us know it will be the message she receives from
the two prophets that will direct her to her place of safety God has prepared
for her. Why do I say that? Let us go to the book of Exodus 19:4, where
we find these words, "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians,
and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself."
That is what God said to the children of Israel after He had brought them
safely out of Egypt by the direction of Moses and Aaron; but tell me,
Where did the eagles' wings come in? That is how God referred to His two
prophets that had been His instructors to the people; and it refers to
the same thing in Revelation 12:14. I might note also, that it is only
when the Jews are in their land, that God deals with them according to
the prophetic utterances in the scriptures. That is why at the close of
WW2, certain things were set in motion for the rebirth of this nation.
No, it was not natural minded mankind trying to fulfill the prophecies
of the Bible; that set those wheels to turning. God put it in the mind's
of those who were instrumental in the allotment of a certain portion of
the land of Palestine for Jews to go home to. That was the start of getting
a sufficient number of them back in the land of their forefather's; to
finish what had been prophesied to her as a nation. God said He would
save Judah first; so at the end of WW2 He brought Judah back. That was
basically those Jews dispersed throughout the European areas. He spoke
in the prophets, how Judah was to be looked upon as the corner, the nail,
the battle bow, and everything that He (God) would use, and need, to start
the beginning of the rebirth process of the reconstruction and restoration
of the nation of Israel. He foretold that He would use Judah to establish
that. Once Judah is established, then He speaks of how He would save Joseph
or Ephraim, which is two titles the ten tribes are called by. That is
where we are standing today; right at the crossroads of time. The remnant
of those Jews in Russia are the remnants of the ten tribes; that have
been right there for centuries of time, waiting for the hour that God
would call upon them to come home.
ISRAEL IN HER LAND-THEN WHAT?
God would not be opening up the way for multiplied thousands of Jews
to return home; if it were not time for prophecy to be fulfilled concerning
that nation in the last days. God gave her the opportunity to receive
the gospel of Jesus Christ before it was ever made accessible to Gentiles;
but as a nation, she rejected it; and the Gentiles have carried it ever
since. That does not mean there were no Jews saved in that first age of
the gospel of Christ. There were a lot of individual Jews that believed;
in Israel as well as in other nations; but the past 1900 and some years
are referred to as the Gentile Bride Dispensation. Like I said, We are
living between verses 5 and 6, of the 12th chapter of Revelation. Prophecy,
many times, is written in strange ways. It reaches a certain point of
the event, then jumps a huge gap. That is what throws a lot of interpreters
off course; they just simply do not know how to relate certain things
to other developments that are injected into the stream of prophecy. When
you pick up verse 6, you automatically see the woman fleeing; and a lot
of people just simply cannot relate that to the first five verses as it
should be. We just have to realize that God deals with prophecy you might
say, just by stopping a stop watch so to speak. He brought Israel up to
a certain point in the seventy weeks of years Daniel's prophecy covers;
then He just stopped the prophetic clock for about 2000 years, while He
used that time to call out a Gentile bride for His only begotten Son.
That did not stop all prophecy; it just put a hold on that part of prophecy
that pertains to God's dealing with Israel as a nation of people. Israel,
Jehovah's wife nation, has been dispersed, scattered throughout the nations
of the world for centuries; but if there is to be a woman fleeing, as
verse 6 shows, then somewhere in this broken interval of time between
verses 5 and 6, it is absolutely necessary that there be a regathering
of an element of that nation sufficient in number, to fulfill all these
other prophecies for the last days. We need to realize also, that not
every Jew that goes home to Israel will be saved. It takes both the spiritual
element as well as the political element, to fulfill all of what is written.
The woman will be fleeing from the same area of the earth she was driven
from in 69 A.D. by the Roman army. Some may say, Where will she flee to?
Well we could speculate; but for now let us just take note of the fact
that it will be a place God already has prepared for her, where she will
be fed and protected for a period of 1260 days. That is exactly 3 1/2
years of prophetic time; which has only 360 days to a year. (Rev.12:6)
"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place
prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred
and threescore days." Saints: The things we see taking place in the
Middle East today, involve a lot more than just what the News Media reports.
God is positioning those nations for this end time wrap up. There are
sufficient prophecies lying right here in the scriptures, to let us know
for sure that God, in the end time, will restore the nation of Israel
to its geographical identity of old. I know a lot of people today, will
say that is not fair; but you have to remember, God gave them that land
for an inheritance, and they were driven from it; so He is just simply
going to see that they get it back. We have this little map drawn up,
to illustrate what we are talking about. You will notice this little body
of water at the top, with Dan right above it, that represents the
Sea of Galilee. The line running from there, down to the next body of
water, represents the Jordan River; coming right down through there to
the Salt Sea; (Dead Sea) and presently, Israel does not hold any territory
beyond the Jordan River; so what does that tell us? Simply this, There
has to be some kind of situation develop in that area of the world, that
when it is all over, Israel will once again hold all of her ancient territory.
You will notice here, that part of the tribe of Dan, part of the tribe
of Manasseh, the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Reuben, are on the east
side of the Jordan river. That is land they must have before the last
week of Daniel can go into effect. Presently her land goes only to the
Jordan River, and for years now the Palestinian Arabs have been trying
to throw her out of what you always hear referred to as the West Bank.
Geographically, from the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, as you would climb
the slopes of the Judaean mountains, some 1800 feet above sea level, this
is where they are talking about. It is the west slopes of the mountains,
and it would be just as accurate to say that, as saying, the west bank;
because we are definitely not talking about the bank that runs along the
river. on the west side. Well I have news for the Palestinian Arabs, and
for anyone else who thinks like they do. It is too close to the end of
this age, for Israel to be giving up any land. It is time for her to take
some more. I understand, how the world looks upon that touchy situation;
because those Arabs were born there. It is home to them. I want to say
also, that I am not personally against the Palestinian Arabs; but I have
confidence in the word of God; So I know what is coming. Israel will have
all of her land back; and she will not be taking it back during the Millennium.
She will get it back somehow, before the great peace covenant is signed
with the Antichrist. Most of you have maps in the back of your Bible's;
and no doubt one of those maps will show the land of Canaan, as it was
divided among the twelve tribes of Israel in the days when they possessed
all of the land which God had given to them.
A LOOK AT BIBLE PROPHECY IN FULFILLMENT
We are going to deal with some of the prophecies we have been referring
to; and I hope each and every one of you will pay attention to how various
things have come about during the past forty years. From the close of
WW2 in Europe, which was the month of April, that the fighting stopped,
and they began to work out the armistice arrangements, things started
happening that led right into what we are looking at. In the month of
May, 1948, an element of Jews from Europe were given a certain amount
of land in Palestine, that they might have a place to go when they left
Europe. Many of those Jews had come from the areas of Poland and Austria,
which were mainly of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, that had been carried
into Europe after the Roman siege in 69 A.D. We are not going to pin it
down so technical, that we would say there were none from any of the ten
tribes among them. That would be foolish, and very unnecessary to the
point we will endeavor to make. However prophetically, we must keep each
tribe identified in its separate identity; because the prophecies themselves
prove that God was to deal with Judah first, before He would start dealing
with the ten tribes in any major manner. First we will go to Zecharich
10:3-4, which says, "Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds,
and I punished the goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock
the house of Judah, and hath made them as His goodly horse in the battle.
Out of him (Judah) came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of
him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together." As we read
this prophecy, it portrays to you and me the gradual progression, of how
God would start the restoration of this woman we are talking about, which
is the nation Israel itself, back in the land given to their forefathers.
Watch my point. The United Nations was faced with a problem. Thousands
of Jews were left in detention camps; and Europe did not know what to
do with them. It was like God was saying to the United Nations, You have
a hot potato on your hands, what will you do with my people, Israel. In
haste, in just one night's time, as the U.N. General Assembly convened,
May 8, 1948, and even Russia giving her agreement and voting with it,
unanimously voted to give Israel a petition, something like this, (pointing
to the chart) just short of the Jordan River. Right in here it has a big
pocket; because this is in the area where Jerusalem is. There is a pocket
that goes around, and then comes out and goes toward the sea. This is
just a rough description; of what was called the United Nations partition,
meaning they divided the land of Palestine. On what basis? On this basis,
that since 1800 and something, there had been a slow migration of Jews
under the Zionist movement, back into the land. They had begun to come
back home. As they came back home, little by little they began to locate
in the most desolate, remote areas, buying up whatever acreage they could,
from the Arabs, who were almost like the barons of England and France
in the Middle Ages. They owned vast holdings of land. However the land
was just a grown up waste land. The Arabs owned this land along with a
few goats and sheep. They did not care how it looked. They were content
with it as it was. Remember though, the prophets of old had said, that
while Israel would be out of the land, the land would lay desolate, virtually
untilled in any major way. The ancient villages that Israelites once lived
in, also would remain in ruins, uninhabited. That is the way it had remained
for centuries. However coming into the twentieth century, these Zionist
Jews had bought up a considerable amount of this type of land; and immigrant
Jews were slowly going back, buying up more land, clearing it of the rubbish,
and forming little Kibbutz settlements. That is where they combined their
abilities, their western technological learning of how to make the land
produce agriculture, and so forth. In a short interval of time they had
succeeded in clearing away rubbish; and in these kibbutz settlements,
they were building, farming, and making the land do things it had not
done in a long, long while. The Arabs were startled, because they had
not even suspected that the land would do such a thing. Take the valley
of Jezreel for instance. It is also called, in secular history, the plains
of Megiddo. It is where the battle of Armageddon is to be fought. That
valley runs toward the sea, coming out at Haifa. At the turn of this century,
that valley was nothing but a swamp; but in ancient times, when the ten
tribes did live in their own land, that valley was Israel's bread basket.
That was where her grain was produced, just like in Kansas, Iowa, and
Nebraska in the United States. That is what that area was to Israel in
the early B.C. times. When those tribes were taken out of there, that
valley became a waste land, a desolate, grown up wilderness. Then they
became swamps. They even had crocodiles. However as these Jews began to
come back, what did the prophets of old say about it? They said God would
bring them back in the last days, and they would build the ruined places,
the desolate places would be inhabited and so forth. Do you know what
they first began to do? They set eucalyptus trees in those swamps. In
a short interval of time, the swamps were dried up. Then they brought
in bulldozers to finish clearing the land and get it ready to grow crops
on. That whole Megiddo valley today, has an agriculture potential, equivalent
to anything in existence in the Middle East. They are raising cotton,
oats, barley, and wheat. In fact they are competitors with Egypt today,
in the production of cotton. A hundred years ago, that valley was nothing
but a swamp, infested with crocodiles; and today they are shipping their
produce everywhere. That is how prophecies are being fulfilled right before
the eyes of our modern twentieth century people; and they are too blind
and ignorant to realize what God is doing. As we speak about the regathering
of Israel, and of the reestablishing of her as a nation, we have read
two verses in Zechariah. God specifies in this prophecy that has been
lying here all these centuries of time, just what He intends to do. He
has a unique, and very precise manner, in which He sets about the reconstruction
and the restoration of this nation. Of course as you might read the first
two verses, some of it is irrelevant to what we are reading the prophecy
for. Many times that is the way prophecy goes; because the prophet who
spoke it was looking at a present tense condition; and his words are specifically
for that. Then the spirit takes it, and goes beyond that setting to speak
of something else. This is God's way of concealing the understanding of
it until the time for it to begin to be fulfilled. Verse 3, is where we
really began to see the significance of what God has done in the last
forty years. In 1948 the U.N. was forced to partition that piece of land
that we mentioned. Israel drew up a charter, and that is why we speak
of the birth of a nation, in a night's time. At that time, the Israelite
nation was not in any position to fulfill what we will later speak of,
as we continue on in the message. I want to show you just how these prophecies
we are going to use are being fulfilled right before our eyes, as we sit
and watch our television sets. CONTINUED NEXT ISSUE.
THE WOMAN OF MYSTERY -CONTINUED
WE ENDED OUR JANUARY ISSUE SPEAKING OF HOW ZECHARIAH 10:3-4, IS
BEING FULFILLED RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES AS WE SIT WATCHING OUR TELEVISION
SETS; SO THAT IS WHERE WE WILL PICK UP.
Let us again read those two verses, before making any further comments.
(3) "Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished
the goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock the house of Judah,
and hath made them as His goodly horse in the battle. (4) Out of him came
forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out
of him every oppressor together." Truly God has used the Jews that
came back to the land of their father's from Europe, (which were basically
the two Southern tribes called by the name Judah) to get things ready
to receive that element of the ten Northern tribes which would be coming
out of Russia and other parts of the world, coming back to the land for
various reasons of their own; but for the purpose of God, they are coming
back there to prepare for the coming of their Messiah. God does not deal
with the Jews as a nation anywhere except in the land of Israel; therefore
the twelve tribes must be sufficiently represented in the land, before
that last week of years prophesied to Israel by the prophet Daniel can
begin, for its end time fulfillment. In Revelation 12:6, John wrote of
this woman (Israel) fleeing into the wilderness, to a place prepared of
God where she would be fed (and protected from the evil forces of the
Antichrist) for a period of 1260 days; which of course is the full
duration of the great tribulation period of time. Daniel spoke of it (12:1)
as a time of great trouble. "And at that time shall Michael stand
up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: (Daniel's
people were Jews.) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never
was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time
thy people (Spiritual Jews) shall be delivered, every one that shall be
found written in the book." As we have already stated in the first
part of this message, the 144,000 servants of God, of Revelation 14:1,
will flee to the nations of the world, preaching the everlasting gospel;
and the woman element will flee to this place already prepared of God
for her; until the time of trouble has ended; but let me add this, In
1948 Israel was in no way capable of flying away. She was in the beginning
of first being restored to the land, from where somewhere in future
time she would fly away. Therefore let us watch time; and the prophecy;
and see how it is applied. To you young people, I realize that when you
go to school, they care little about prophecy of the Bible; but you can
know what to expect as the days come and go. They (the secular element
of modern society) think this Bible is a book of myths; but in my honest
opinion, before not too long a time, some of our school professors might
have to hang their head and say, Something is going on in Mt. Zion. Hallelujah!
They will not be saying it though, until God does something to awaken
them to reality.
ZECHARIAH LOOKING TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Notice verse 3, of Zechariah 10, "Mine anger was kindled against
the shepherds." That is speaking in past tense. That is how God looked
upon the rabbis, the scribes, the priests, the leadership of the people
of Israel, that were responsible; and held accountable by God, that caused
Him to do to her, (the nation of people) what He did. "And I punished
the goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock the house of Judah."
Brothers and sisters, if He punished the goats, we have to look backward
to the time when He did it. That does not apply to the Middle Ages, nor
anywhere else in time other than when that tribe was carried out of there
into dispersion. Therefore we must look back to 69 and 70 A.D., when the
Roman army was sent (by God) just like it was prophesied by Jesus. In
that time the Roman army came against Jerusalem, tore the city down, demolished
that beautiful temple which the Jews thought was so magnificent; and took
them away into captivity. That was what fulfilled the words of Jesus,
(Matthew 24:2) "And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things?
verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another,
that shall not be thrown down." From that time, the Jews were there,
were scattered. This was basically the Judah tribe that became scattered
into Europe and eastern Europe, to remain there for the durations of time
until this prophecy would resume its fulfillment. Notice how God said
this, as He has punished them, He also follows up and says, "and
I punished the goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock.(As
WW2 ended, God began to look upon an element of Jews that were established
in the areas of Europe. We are not going to get technical with it; but
we are dealing mainly with the tribe of Judah; because it is prophesied
that Judah has to be moved first, for this beginning of national restoration,
and the eventual climax of what it must come to.) and hath made them (the
tribe of Judah) as His goodly horse in the battle." That language
structure is very mysterious; because the average person today, knows
we do not fight wars with horses any more. That is so far in the past,
it is not even written about anywhere in books, to really know how to
relate to that; but in here the prophet speaks of Judah being like the
goodly horse in the battle. How could Judah possibly be associated with
anything related to by that likeness as spoken in this prophecy? We have
to go back to 1948. As I touch this phase of her beginning, do not forget,
No sooner did the U.N. say, We will partition that land and give it to
these displaced Jews of Europe, did her boats begin to arrive at Haifa
and wherever else they landed, and the Arabs in that land began saying,
We will not let any more Jews come here. They sensed trouble. As long
as it was a few at a time, buying up land, most of the Arabs were not
saying very much against it. England was still the controlling power of
that area. However when England gave it up, in order to allow the U.N.
partition to go into effect, the Arabs took over England's military equipment
she left behind, and became possessed with one thing, killing every Jew
that landed on shore in the land of Palestine. All you have to do is go
back and study whatever histories are now written about it; but You will
have to do it by the Jewish writers. When you read of the conflicts that
began to take place as those Jews kept coming, you cannot help but thank
God for the fact that you were born in a nation where you have not had
to grow up under such conditions as those young Jewish people that lived
to go from Europe to Israel. Some of those young people never even lived
to see their dreams come true. As they landed there, war broke out. That
was the war of 1948, you have heard about. Remember though, God said He
has made Judah like His goodly horse in the battle; so if He had
brought Judah back home eating ice cream and angel food cake, without
any resistance, you can rest assured, she would never have known how to
survive all the other wars she has had to fight, 1956, 67, 73, 80, 82,
and all the other resistance she has had to face. I have read some of
what the various writers have written, telling of the hostilities that
took place at night. When they heard on the short wave radio, that the
U.N. had partitioned a certain amount of land to be turned over to these
Jews, that very night Arabs in many major cities throughout the land of
Palestine, went on a rampage, shooting and killing. The Jewish underground
army was the only thing Israel had, that they could look to for help;
as they fought for survival. With that in mind, let us look at this goodly
horse in battle, because we have to go back and pick up some story to
relate this to. I have in my possession a booklet, that tells about the
British occupation in Burma, back in the colonial period, back when they
used horse cavalry, and horse drawn artillery. In her records of warfare,
they wrote this outstanding article about this one particular horse in
a certain unit, and the troops only had this one gun unit being pulled
by these two horses; but this one horse had been in Burma for a long time.
He had been under fire. He was a horse that knew how to conduct himself
under fire. Instead of going mad, crazy, and going every which direction,
he seemed to use his horse sense. That is what we have to see in this
scripture. God likens Judah to a goodly horse in battle. He could either
go wild and carry his rider into a trap, or else he could keep his cool
and carry his rider to victory. It told how, as this British unit was
moving along the Burma road, naturally it was in jungle like, heavy foliage.
All of a sudden they were fired on from both sides of the road. The footmen
immediately jumped to the bushes; but it left the riders on this gun carriage,
and this gun, and the article stated how there was a bank there they thought
was entirely too steep to even try to get the gun carriage to go up. Therefore
the troops that were on this gun carriage just bailed out and went up
the bank into the bushes, leaving this team of horses with the gun. That
one horse, instead of him becoming wild, he had been under shell fire
before, the one horse took a look at that bank and that is where you can
say God let extra adrenalin come into that horse. Because as he looked
at that bank, he made one leap and took the other horse, gun, carriage
and all, and climbed the bank into the bushes. The men set the gun up,
and the fact that it was saved, enabled them to keep from being massacred.
In other words, that one horse was credited with saving those men; so
that is what we are looking at, in this scripture pointing to Judah. As
Judah came back to the land in 1948, if she would have looked at all this
Arab hostility, and given herself over to fear, (because she was so overwhelmingly
outnumbered and had so very few weapons) the history books would be telling
a completely different story about the rebirth and restoration of Israel.
I read one story in the book; called, The Exodus, telling how in
a northern city there was a Jewish quarter, where Jews at the beginning
of the century came back and settled. It was in that part of the mountain
city of Safad. As this Arab hostility broke out in the Arab quarter, they
lived in the hill population overlooking the Jewish quarter. As the hostility
grew very bad, they knew that somehow or other, if some kind of aid could
not be reached from the underground army supply systems, then in all probability
the Jewish quarter in Safad, could possibly be overrun by the Arabs. One
man volunteered to travel through hostile territory by night and make
his way to Jerusalem, to the Haganah people, asking if they had any kind
of weaponry, supplies, explosives, or anything. When he got there, he
was completely refused, because the Arabs at Jerusalem had caused the
Jews there to have to expend so much of their supplies, they had nothing
to spare. In that book it tells how they were left with so many sticks
of dynamite. That was about all the weapons they had. Well that man went
back; and there is where God took a little and made a lot out of it. You
know the song, little is much if God be in it. The Jews in that Jewish
quarter of the city of Safed said, Then we have to take what we have,
and devise some way to frighten these Arabs it. They gathered up all the
nails, and all the small pieces of scrap they could find, and devised
a contraption they named Goliath. They fixed up a launching instrument
of some kind. Then they fastened knives onto the end of sticks, like spears.
They had a few old rifles with just a few rounds of ammunition left. They
were saving them for the last go around. They were mainly depending upon
that one giant explosion to do something for them though; and in the book
it says that when the Arabs started their attack, the Jews launched this
Goliath contraption. When it went off, the Arabs began yelling, They have
the atomic bomb! That broke their spirit, and they fled. Has not that
always been the strategy God has used on behalf of Israel? Read it in
the Old Testament. He will take a simple little something, and put fear
in the heart's of the enemy; and then just multiply it. I am bringing
all of this in, just trying to explain how this scripture applies. Verse
5, says, "And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down their
enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight,
because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded."
Judah started out as she was being brought back into the land to start
the reconstruction of this nation that would eventually be recognized,
with very little to protect themselves with; but having the favor of God
made the difference for them. God has always used strange devices to make
His power known to Israel.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A GENERATION MAKES
Before we read Zechariah 10:6, I just want to refresh your memory on
what verse 4, says. God likens Judah as His goodly horse in the battle.
In other words, Judah has been through it, he is experienced. After all,
where did those Jews come from? Out of Europe. They had already been through
a living hell. They had nothing to lose. Therefore verse 4, is talking
about Judah. "Out of him came forth the corner." What is a corner?
It is a beginning point. That is what the tribe of Judah is. It is God's
beginning element, which He would use to start rebuilding that nation.
If you are erecting a building, you must have a beginning point. You must
have a corner to start with. That is why God referred to Judah like that.
"Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail."
In other words, if there is something to be held together, Judah is going
to be the tribe that God will use to do it. "Out of him the battle
bow." We are talking about a military instrument. Judah came back
with no military equipment to speak of. No nation wanted to sell to those
Jews going back. They were willing for the Jews to go back and be settled
there; but no one ever stopped to think of all the hostilities they were
facing when those Arabs had threatened to kill every last one of them.
I have read in various writings, that through underground means, they
bought obsolete rifles from any source that would sell them. That was
their way of surviving, holding on, and establishing a foothold back in
the land of their father's. It was the beginning of God's restoration
and rebirth of a nation that one day would climb to be the fifth greatest
military power in the world. That is what she (Israel) is today. Israel
today, does not have to purchase her arms through the underground system.
She is making many of her own weapons. Well we ought not be surprised;
it is right here in prophecy. She brought the French Mirage fighter. She
used to buy some of the British Spitfires. Finally Britain and France
cut that off. Then it was the United States alone that would sell to them
the various jet fighters. Finally, as the United States began to sell
them the more sophisticated models, Israel and the United States launched
a program of working together. The United States began to realize, that
if some of her own military equipment was ever going to be tested, it
should be tested in the fields of future Middle East warfare. Therefore
we sold them the Phantom jets. Then Israel took them, modified a little
of this and that; and now you know what they are capable of doing with
them. They did the tanks the same way. She modified everything to fit
desert warfare. Out of that, Israel began making a tank all of her own.
While all other conventional tanks have to be entered from the top, Israel
has her own model, that is entered from the back. That way, if the front
end is blown off, the crew does not have to escape from it in view of
their enemies. They can escape out the rear. She realized it is to her
betterment, to save the crew rather than the hunk of iron. I am not going
to dwell too long on these things; but I want to show you, that out of
her (Judah) has come the battle bow. From nothing, Judah, in the forty
some years she has been back there, has become a competitor, now manufacturing
weaponry to sell to other parts of the world. She has made one of the
best automatic rifles in the field of warfare. With that, she has made
a pilotless plane. She tested it; and it proved successful in the war
of 82. She has what they call a drone plane, maybe about six feet long.
It has a TV scanning camera in it. She can fly it 100 and some miles away
from base. She can fly it over enemy territory. One article told how a
camera in it could pick out a spot on the top of a car, and show it back.
In the 1982 war, they could spot an enemy moving through heavy foliage
and so forth, and it would send the data back to a ground base; and from
a ground to air rocket launcher, they would fire that rocket and hit that
tank right where it was spotted. The United States was also working on
building some of these type planes; but according to the article I read,
the United States had not brought hers to a successful test. She wound
up, if I remember correctly, she wound up buying approximately two thousand
of those drone planes from Israel. Then Israeli technicians along with
our native technicians, would experiment with these things together. There
are many other things in the military line I could bring in right here;
but I feel that this is enough for us to realize, that here is a prophecy
right here in Zechariah, that we have seen fulfilled in the last forty
years. Judah come from nothing, you might say, to where she is today;
and now she is able to make way for the ten Northern tribes to come home.
Verse 5 shows us that by the time Judah has reached a potential of being
the precise instrument God wants to use, she is in a place to be used.
Let us read it again. "And they shall be as mighty men, which tread
down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they
shall fight, because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall
be confounded." That of course, is talking about her enemy, if they
were on horses. We know modern day warfare has no place for horses. It
would be foolish to bring horse flesh against all the gunfire of modern
day weapons; but it takes that language to give the thought God wants
us to receive, because it lets us know God will put such bravery, and
such a strong gallant fortitude in the people of Judah, that her enemies,
when they would try to oppose them, would be like foolish people on untrained
horses in battle. In such cases everything goes berserk. With this little
view of what has already taken place, we can see that verse 6 brings us
to the time we are living in right now. Notice, "And I will strengthen
the house of Judah." He has already done that. She is there in
her homeland; and she is not to be taken lightly. Let us just look back
twenty some years. When we look back to 1967, the Jews had only been back
in that land nineteen years. They were constantly harassed by the Arabs,
because the Palestinian motto was, no concessions, no giving in. Israel
must be destroyed. King Nasser of Egypt, in June 1967, along with the
other Arab states, was bent doing that one thing. They threatened to drive
Israel out of that partitioned land into the sea. An Israeli general we
were privileged to meet in 1968, on a flight to Israel, was in the armored
corps that went through the Sinai, that helped push the Israeli line to
the sea. He said to us, Before the war started, we were contemplating
ten thousand citizen casualties. We were in the process of building wooden
boxes to bury our dead in. Yet when the war started, in six days it was
over. There was not one civilian casualty in the whole six day war. All
casualties were military casualties; and that was very few. I have said
all of this to show how God has strengthened Judah. From that time, look
what she did. She pushed the borders from the U.N. partition, all the
way to the Jordan River. She even pushed all the way to the Golan Heights
in Syria, where she has built settlements. Syria does not like that; but
she is there anyhow. She pushed on down into the Sinai Desert on the other
side; and she is building villages there. Bro. Jackson, they have no right
to do that. If you disagree with what they are doing, maybe you had better
talk it over with your heavenly Father; for verse 5 says, "And they
(Judah) shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the
mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because
the Lord is with them." God is enabling them to reestablish
their old borders; and it is very unique, the way it is being done. Their
enemies attack them; and when they repel them, they just end up with a
little more of the land they are supposed to have; and God is with them.
God is reestablishing the outer territorial, rural settlements of Judah
first, before He does very much of anything about bringing the other ten
tribes back home. Therefore when we read here, "He will strengthen
the house of Judah," and we see what happened in the six day war
the tribe of Judah was forced to fight, we can very well see what these
prophecies were pointing to. As we have already said, the tribe of Judah,
is the tribe we see back in the land, doing the fighting that is fulfilling
these prophecies. When she pushed the borders to the Jordan River, she
took the old city Jerusalem, which is called eastern Jerusalem; and three
fourths of its population is Arabs. There is only one Jewish quarter,
which Jews actually live in. Everything else around the old city is called
new Jerusalem. Keep in mind though, that is not the New Jerusalem that
is to be the capital for the Messiah. We have to look at old Jerusalem
for that; because that is where God put His name. That is where God's
eye is looking to; and that is where we have got to look to in the next
few months, as prophecy is in the process of being fulfilled. As we watch
developments in the Middle East, we need to realize that Judah stands
ready to do her God ordained part. Yet through all of her trials, she
has done her best to work favorably with the world. She realizes the world
gave her that partitioned land; but she also realizes she does not have
all of the land God Gave her forefathers; so when the world is saying,
Israel, if you want peace, you have got to give up so and so, I
say, Israel will never give it up. Let me say it like this, Judah will
never give it up. She was the beginning. She knows why she is there. Why
should she give it up? You must realize though, she does not want any
more outside hostility toward her, than what is absolutely necessary;
so she is trying her best to weigh the issues, play it cool diplomatically,
and try to go along as far as possible, with what western negotiators
are saying. Let us try to follow this prophecy, and see what else the
Lord says. In verse 6, God says, "And I will strengthen the
house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will
bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and
they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord
their God, and will hear them." Joseph is one of the names the ten
northern tribes were known by. One of the offspring of Joseph was the
father of the tribe of Ephraim. That tribe became a major tribe, in the
north. It was a major tribe in the north, just like Judah was in the south.
Rather than the ten northern tribes being referred to as Simeon and Ephraim,
they were basically called by the name Ephraim because of its outstanding
characteristics, just like Judah in the south. One time it says Joseph,
and another time it will call it Ephraim; but whichever it is called,
it is talking about one and the self same thing, the ten northern tribes.
First it is Judah, then Joseph. "And I will bring them again to place
them: for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not
cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them. And they
of Ephraim (notice now, He brings in the word Ephraim) shall be like a
mighty man." God has opened the door in these Communist countries,
so those Jews that have been there for centuries may have the opportunity
to go home. He is not going to make them mighty men in Russia. No. That
is not where he is going to make them mighty. It is when they come into
the land of their father's, that He will make them mighty. That is where
the mighty part comes into the picture. Just as soon as Russia began to
allow those Russian born Jews to go home, the Palestinian Arabs began
doing exactly what they did in 1948, when Jews were given that partitioned
area of Palestine for a home land. They immediately set up a protest.
They sent word to Russia, Don't let any more of them come here, until
we get this statehood question settled. Well I have news for them; This
is a work of God. Gorbachev cannot stop it until God gets His quota out
of there. That door of opportunity is like every other door God opens
up, He is the only one that can close it. I will say this though, That
door will not stay open for one hundred years. God has it marked. However
as God creates the conditions and sets the agenda, and determines the
pace and magnitude of this thing, do not think the Arabs at home are going
to set back and wait until they all get there, before they start their
campaign of hostility toward them. They are going to do exactly like they
did in 1948. We are already seeing it in the News; but it will get worse.
Let me read the rest of verse 7, and verse 8, then I want to show you
something in chapter 12. Notice this, "And they of Ephraim shall
be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea,
their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in
the Lord. I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed
them: and they shall increase as they have increased." God said He
would hiss for them, and gather them; and this is the very hour that prophecy
pointed to; so no matter what the Arabs do, and regardless of what the
United Nations may try to do, God is gathering His quota from all twelve
tribes of Israel, getting them ready to hear the message of the two prophets
that will soon come upon the scene in Israel. Saints, this is a work of
God; so do not be surprised at what you may see take place in that area
of the world very shortly.
JERUSALEM A BURDENSOME STONE
I want to read a few verses from Zechariah 12, to let you see how vain
it is for other nations to try to negotiate a settlement between Israel
and the Palestinian Arabs. In verse 2, just think for a moment what that
actually means. "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling
unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both
against Judah and against Jerusalem. (3) And in that day will I make Jerusalem
a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it
shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered
together against it." In any negotiating process between the
Middle East nations, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians, let us
just watch this prophecy, how it speaks out. Judah is there. They
took the old city in 1967. It is true that even though the Israelis control
the police force, and they do the governmental administrative chores,
three fourths of the population of the old city is Arabs. Therefore since
three fourths of the old city of Jerusalem is Arabs, those Arabs are not
going to stand idle, and allow Jerusalem (the old city) to become the
prophetic spotlight the word of God speaks of, and them not do something
about it. There has been much said, and Israel is being pressured to give
those Palestinian Arabs living in the occupied areas voting rights. That
puts Israel in a very tight spot with all the others who think they have
a say in the matter. Will they allow the eastern Jerusalem Arabs to vote?
If they do, Israel is faced with the possibility of defeating their own
purpose. As long as three fourths of the population are Arabs, you can
rest assured that this three fourths element is not going to let Jerusalem
be the Messiah's capital in the Millennium. Now some may say, What does
that have to do with prophecy? It has a lot to do with prophecy. There
are other prophecies that tell us the rest of the story. Isaiah spoke
of how God will remove the inhabitants of it, afar off. I wonder why God
talked that way such a long time ago? It was because He looked right down
through the twentieth century and saw this very hour. He saw how hostile
the world would be, and it is even mentioned right here in Zechariah,
how it will be. The point is, sooner or later old Jerusalem will become
a focal point, as we get closer to the time when old Jerusalem must be
peopled by Jews. Why is that necessary Bro. Jackson? Because in Isaiah
you have a prophecy, how the city of Jerusalem is talking, as she sees
the immigrants in the last days coming back to possess her place, the
city of Jerusalem will cry out, Whence came these? That is not the Arabs
crying out, whence came these? The children of the later shall be greater
than the former. The old city remembers when her children were taken away
from there in 69 A.D. That is a prophecy of how Jerusalem will feel when
the Arabs have been far removed and the Jews are coming from the ends
of the earth to resettle her dwelling places. The hour is coming when
God will cause old Jerusalem to become a trouble spot, right in the spotlight
of international world affairs. That is why He said, "Behold I will
make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about."
Right now that is the Arabs; they are the ones who want to keep the land
for themselves. They are the ones who want to live there. They are the
ones who do not want prophecy fulfilled. No, they want Mohammed. That
is why we preached the message asking, Is it Isaac or Ishmael, Jesus or
Muhammed? They want Muhammed. It is not going to be Ishmael and Muhammed.
It is going to be the descendants of Isaac that God will place in that
promised land; and Jesus will one day soon be recognized as their Messiah
they have longed for down through centuries of time. What does God mean,
"I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round
about?" What is a cup of trembling? Did you ever see a cup in the
hands of a drunk person? Such a person reminds you of someone who is scared
half to death. When this issue of what is to be done with Jerusalem gets
so hot, so important, anyone who sticks his hand out to get involved in
it, God will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling for them. Would that not
be embarrassing, to reach out and take hold of something that has already
become a hot potato, too hot to hold? It comes your turn to make your
assessment and you hear these words, What do you say about it? You stick
your nervous hand out and take it, but oh how humiliating. It becomes
obvious to everyone, that you are scared too. Sure you are. You are scared.
That is why God likened it to a cup of trembling to them round about.
That is the Arabs. They are the ones that are round about. They are the
ones that are kicking up the fuss. Just listen, "When they shall
be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem." This combines
the two together, Judah and Jerusalem. Keep this in mind, and watch my
illustration. Jerusalem is right here. (Bro. Jackson is pointing to the
chart-Editor.) See that dot? Jerusalem is right there. That is the ancient
capital of the entire nation of Israel. Jerusalem was also the major city
of the tribe of Judah; so you have two things that stand out as important.
As we look at this city, it lets us know that when the time comes that
the city becomes an important issue, so also will the ancient territory
of Judah become an important issue. "And in that day will I make
Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: (this is pointing to
the international picture) all that burden themselves with it shall
be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together
against it." Politically the cry is Give it up; but God says
keep it. In the past forty years it has not been the major issue. Israel
has played it along. Every time it has come up for discussion, they have
always been able to shove it on a little further on out into future time;
but time is running out. Prophecy must be fulfilled. Immigrants are coming
home; and they are going to need to go somewhere. The Arabs say, Do not
put them in there. The Arabs could not care less if they stacked them
end on end; just as long as they do not put them in what they call occupied
territory. I see a different picture in God's word though. In the prophecy
of Isaiah, concerning this great influx of Joseph or Ephraim that comes
back, the immigrants coming in will get so crowded, the prophecy brings
out the cry that the people will begin to have, It is too straight here
for me. In other words, it is too crowded. In the past, through the years
of normal immigration procedures, that has never occurred. Everything
has been absorbed in a slow gradual process, as God built Judah up, saved
her, and established her as a tribal territory first. Now comes the time
to bring the other tribes home; so we see the issues that are at hand.
I want to read a few verses from Isaiah 49, before we continue with these
in Zechariah 12. Here is the picture as it was shown to Isaiah. (Isa.
49:17-22) "Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they
that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round
about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee.
As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all,
as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. For thy
waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall
even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed
thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou
hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait
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? Thus saith
the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set
up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms,
and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders." I just
wanted to refresh your memory on this prophecy; because it is already
being fulfilled; and it will necessitate the fulfillment of these others
very soon. Mystery Woman Continued.
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