God And Israel - October 7, 2023

The title of the message today is "God And Israel - October 7, 2023." I want the title in the message today so that in the future, there will be a connection. Our key verse is Romans 11, verse 1. And we’ll start there after I tell the story.

Two messages ago, in Revelation, we talked about the 144,000 sealed Jewish Witnesses, the supernatural witnesses that will work during the Tribulation. And we talked about the fact that God has sealed 12,000 from each of the Twelve Tribes – Jewish evangelists. He has sealed them for a purpose, for the good of Israel, during the Tribulation because those 144,000 are going to be tasked with the revealing (which is what the Book of Revelation is about – the singular revelation of Jesus Christ) of Jesus Christ.

We addressed what we see as a totally unbiblical theology, that God has abandoned Israel and replaced Israel with the Church. You’ve seen me get worked up about that before, and every time, I tell you, “Look. If God’s going to replace Israel because they messed up, what’s he going to do with you?” Obviously, he’s going to replace you if he replaced them because he created them as a Nation to bring the Messiah.

We showed that the skewed theology – Replacement Theology – where the Church replaces Israel, really came into full force during the Reformation. There was anti-Semitism in the early Church Fathers, but Luther and Calvin drove it home. We showed you quotes from Luther and Calvin. I don’t have anything against Martin Luther or John Calvin; they were both solid men. But man, not God, man has taken some of their ideas and exploded them into theology that is not in the Bible.

In the Reformation, there was incredible anti-Semitism. The leaders, primarily Luther, but Luther and Calvin get the brunt of it, are quoted over and over and over again by Adolf Hitler. And Adolf Hitler got his support from the Church. Have you ever wondered, hey? Where was the church during the Holocaust? The Church was anti-Semitic, and Hitler said often that everything he got he got from Martin Luther. Which Martin Luther is an awesome Reformer, great, great, great because our whole Protestant world God started through him. But he hated the Jews with a passion because he didn’t understand that his sins killed Jesus. He thought the Jews killed Jesus, and actually, it was the Romans.

We did all that two weeks ago, so I don’t want to redo that. But I have to go back to God and Israel today. I have to.

Yesterday, again, this thing that has happened over and over and over and over and over and over throughout history came onto Israel yesterday like a flood. And so, I want to remind us all that we serve a faithful, immutable (it means unchanging) God who will never go back on a covenant or a commitment or a promise. He never will. He’ll never go back on a promise to us, and he will never go back on a promise to Israel.

Listen, Here’s rule number one. The mainstream media is lying. That’s rule number one in our culture. The mainstream media is lying. I promise you they’re lying. So, whatever you do, stop watching that propaganda machine from whatever you want to call them. It is a propaganda machine. It’s meant for a purpose. Stop watching it.

Or, better yet, watch the news from a Biblical perspective. If you want to watch the news about Israel, go to beholdisrael.org. I would suggest the app Telegram. The app has some pluses and minuses. But this is Amir Tsarfati, and this is the absolute number one source for information about Israel. He has a massive ministry; he’s a big celebrity now. He happens to be the guy who taught me how to lead groups to Israel. Pastors go first and learn how to lead a group, and they come back and lead trips. Amir was the guide who taught me and nine or ten other pastors how to lead groups – he was our guide on our second trip to Israel in 2003. You need to follow him. Just do.

And you might say, hey, why do people like Amir use the Telegram app? Because yesterday, when Amir went on YouTube to update the world about what was really happening in Israel, YouTube cut him off immediately in like four or five minutes in. “Sorry, technical difficulties.” They just censored him. That’s why he is on Telegram because it’s a non-censorable platform (at least right now). So, get him there or any of those other places.

Yesterday was the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles in Israel. Sukkot. It is the feast that commemorates the forty years in the Wilderness and God bringing Israel through the forty years. And the last day is especially a huge, a huge celebration day. That was yesterday. And so, at 6:30 in the morning, Israel time, 2,500 rockets (Hamas claims it was 5,000, but Israel says it was more like 2,500) were basically fired simultaneously on the southern end of Israel. And, somehow, and we didn’t know this yesterday, but by this morning, the IDF has figured out how it happened: a thousand terrorists breached the wall, the border with Gaza in so many places that the numbers vary. But certainly, in fifteen to twenty places, all simultaneously. And a thousand terrorists poured into Israel.
 
They overran the Israel security checkpoints, which is phenomenal because the IDF is never caught off guard; they were caught off guard yesterday. They killed and captured IDF soldiers, took over their military vehicles. Today, we’re finding out that Hamas used drones to drop bombs on what Israel calls the Eyes of Israel. Which is this phenomenal detection system that runs the entire length of the Gaza border with a whole team of IDF soldiers that never take their eyes off the border.

Somehow, Hamas got the technology and the training to drop these small bombs, almost like mortars, on all the security cameras and sensors that warn the IDF of breaks in the fence. So, yesterday, nobody knew that. Today, they know that.

And so, it’s this extremely coordinated attack that is lightyears beyond what Hamas is able to do. Lightyears beyond. Which means that Hamas is a proxy. You’re aware of proxies, right? So, Hamas is doing what they do. They want to kill Israel; they want to kill you. So, don’t believe they are just “nice little terrorists, murdering children and old ladies in the street.” They would do the same thing if they were in Nuevo. They would kill you in a second. I promise you they would.

So, this is a phenomenal, coordinated attack from Hamas that wasn’t them, it was the people, the countries behind them. In the first major attack, there was a rave going on right at the Gaza border. It was an all-night dance party, that’s what the Jews do on the last night of Sukkot, of the Feast of Tabernacles, they dance all night. And so, some promoter got this idea of doing this all-night dance party, really it was a rave. (I don’t know if the drug stuff is as big there as it is here, probably not.) So, the first thing these terrorists did was encircle this entire concert area and start gunning down the young adults that were there. Two hundred and forty people. Their pictures are on Telegram, on Behold Israel. I think his Telegram account is actually Amir Tsarfati. (Back in my day, when he was guiding, he would say, “Look. You can call me anything you want, but don’t call me Tsar‘fart’i. It’s Tsar‘faht’I”) Anyway, you can see way too much, way too much. You cannot in mainstream media.

Here’s mainstream media. I’m not rambling. I promise I’m not. I’ve been on this a lot last night and this morning, and yesterday. So, I pull up the mainstream media, and I won’t mention MSNBC news, but it was one of the mainstream media. So, they’re asking this professional, who is very professional, and he’s got all kinds of stuff, and they talk about professionally. Here was the anchor’s question. “What did Israel do to provoke Hamas into this response?” I’m telling you, it’s propaganda. And so, they won’t show you the disgusting horrors.

I tried. I tried last night. I said, what if I take this video and cut this part out? I can’t do it. They murdered viciously 240 civilians – all young adults. Their pictures are on Telegram. They’re all mostly under thirty. And they’re just there to dance.

They killed one girl who was actually from Germany and had come to Israel for this event. Killed her. Stripped her. And paraded her through the main streets of Gaza. Along with plenty of other bodies of civilians and military, and they allowed the children in Gaza to beat the corpses. You see pictures of these children beating these, sometimes naked, corpses, or kicking them in the street. And they’re celebrating like a frenzied celebration, like nothing I’ve ever seen in this country. They’re celebrating like you can’t imagine. They give out candy and sweets to the children as they parade the bodies through the streets.

And they’ve captured way more people than we know. There are a thousand civilians still missing. We don’t know how many of those are dead and how many are captured. But they parade them through the main street of Gaza and beat them and celebrate. You can see the Muslim world, and Hamas, and Islam. You can separate Hamas from a moderate portion of Islam. But they are radical Islamists. But you can see Muslims all over the world celebrating this heinous, murderous act.

So, moving on. The first twelve hours of the war yesterday, 5,000 rockets were fired into Israel. FIVE THOUSAND. That’s not like, hey, how many you got? How many have you got in your garage? I got a couple. Let’s see if we can get up to 5,000. This is a long-term plan from a source, a country, or countries (and we know who they are – everybody does) that stockpiled, trained, and built these rocket launchers. You can see videos of these rocket launchers that Hamas is videoing them launching rockets; they’re massive rocket launchers. Very expensive. They’ve really, really grown up because of money.

So, 5,000 rockets and bombs dropping, mortars, and even bigger bombs, dropping from drones on civilians. There’s a video of a drone bombing and ambulance. There’s a picture of nine civilians at a bus stop; they’re just gunned down and bodies in a pile. And it looks exactly like Hitler’s Germany. Exactly.

Another interesting thing about yesterday was that the Iron Dome system, somehow, was jammed. And so, many of these 5,000 rockets found their spot – ALL of them, every single one – pointed at civilian neighborhoods. Every one that fell, fell in a civilian neighborhood. Most of the military casualties came in conflict. All the civilian casualties came from Hamas targeting them in really horrendous ways. I mean, I can’t even, I just can’t even convey it to you. When you see the real news, not the fake news. You look at news that’s uncensored by whoever it is that is censoring it, people who hate America and hate Israel. Many in the Deep State of our country. They control what you see. It’s not news anymore. It’s just propaganda.

So, who has the technology that is high enough to be able to jam this phenomenal Iron Dome missile defense system? Two countries in the world have this technology. One of them is the United States. I don’t think it was us. The only other country that has this ability is Russia. And so, if you dig a little past the mainstream lying, you’ll find out that it had to be Russia because they are the only other ones that could jam the Iron Dome system.

So, the attack was incredibly well planned, long time planned. Perfectly orchestrated. Nothing that Hamas has ever been able to do. The world knows, everybody in the real world, which is not what you see on our TV, but in the real world, everybody knows that Russia and Iran both are backing Hamas. Hamas is being funded, I wish I could say by them, but we’ll just for now say that Russia and Iran are both backing Hamas in the south, the terrorist organization in the Gaza strip, and they’re funding Hezbollah in Lebanon in the north.

So, Lebanon and Syria both hit the top corner of Israel in the Golan Heights. So, up in the north, we know that Iran has been Hezbollah forever. But we also know that Russia has been supporting Abbas, and the dictator in Syria, and building military bases like crazy in Syria. And so, we know that Russian arms are going to both Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south. And so, you see these two countries, Russia and Iran, both have a purpose for creating instability in the Middle East. They both have their own purposes. They both are Biblically prophesied in Ezekiel and other places.  

And so, we know that the guys on the ground just want to kill. That’s just what they do. They’ve been raised to kill since they were children. Just Google “cartoons from Hamas that teach children to kill Israelis,” and you’ll see cartoons that teach children how to kill an Israeli with a knife. Children. I mean cartoons. Cartoons, you know, like “Bluey kills Israelis.”

Are you tired of hearing it yet?

Israel has not seen anything like this since the Yom Kippur war in 1973. The same exact thing happened, but it was Egypt and Syria that attacked Israel on the morning of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. So, it’s their highest holy day. This day yesterday, was actually a high holy day, but it was a celebration day, where Yom Kippur is a day of repentance. Israel has not experienced anything like this.

We don’t even know how many Terrorists came in, certainly over a thousand that gunned down the crowd at the concert. They took huge amounts of civilians hostage, and then they began going to whatever city was closest to them, all these southern towns in Israel, the people know they live with this danger. But they started knocking on doors, or kicking in doors and just taking people. Killing anybody they felt like killing and pulling people out of their homes and taking them as hostage. Plenty of videos, too many videos.

The UN is in Gaza. The UN has a permanent place in Gaza. They were gone. They were gone. They weren’t in Gaza. Those who are supposed to be there as the “United Nothing” overseeing Gaza – they’re not there. They’re gone. Which means they had prior warning. If you remember the United Nations as this group of nations that was kind of meant to keep the peace – forget about it. Forget about it.

Here’s how evil the United Nations has become. I’m not kidding. All this stuff you can get so easily. Three or four weeks ago, it wasn’t that long ago, the United Nations in their Human Rights Council, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, gave Iran a leadership position. So now, Iran has a leadership position on the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. IRAN?? You know? Iran. Woman is beat near to death because she doesn’t wear her hajib, the head covering and face scarf. Do whatever you want to women and children. IRAN is a leader in the United Nations Human Rights Council. It is pure evil. When the United Nations talks, it talks about how terrible Israel is. The United Nations won’t say a thing.

There’s the Taliban. Remember the Taliban? So Barack Obama, through his puppet that’s in the Office right now, made the Taliban a full-fledged war machine by giving them seven BILLION dollars of United States military equipment when we just walked out of Afghanistan. Twenty-year war that so many of us and many that we love, including my son, gave so much of their lives for. And we just funded the Taliban. (Because – and if you don’t know this, the guy that’s President for us today, really, his real name is Bernie because they’re running a “Weekend at Bernie” type government. They just put sunglasses on him, and have him get ice cream. So, we know that Obama, it’s really Obama’s third term, and Obama’s goal of his life, it was his father’s dream, and he wrote a book about it, is to bring the terrible colonialists [that’s us] down to equal level as the third world. That was his dream. He made it clear.) And so, we’ve made the Taliban a real war machine, and they are offering – right now – to come help Hamas wipe Israel off the map, using our military equipment. SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS for it.

Not to mention, just three weeks ago, three WEEKS ago, our “Weekend at Bernie’s” President, gave IRAN six billion dollars. Six billion dollars so that they would have plenty of money to fund their terrorist proxy wars in Israel.

And so, you saw Biden yesterday stand up and say, “We stand with Israel.” Pfffttt. It’s not true. Why do you give a country that has PROMISED to put a nuclear bomb in the middle of Israel the second they have one, why would you give them another six billion dollars? That was after Obama, himself, when he was actually, physically in the office, you know this, right? He sent so many plane loads of cash to Iran that they almost can’t account for it. Trump said it was one and a half billion. I really, really researched it as much as I could yesterday (which you have to consider the source and all), but it was more like two billion dollars – in cash during the Obama administration. Two BILLION dollars. And listen, a dollar goes a little further there than it does here. So, two billion of them fuels a lot of terrorism.

And I’m just ramping up here. I’ve got a message to give you. I’m just telling you the truth because we don’t hear it. We don’t hear the truth. We don’t hear the truth in our country anymore.

So, knowing that Gaza is run by Hamas, which is full-fledged, kill everybody that’s not Islamic extremists. Knowing that any money we give Gaza will, very little of it, if any, will actually get to the people, in the past two years – the last TWO YEARS – our government has given HAMAS, the terrorist organization, five hundred million dollars in “humanitarian aid.” If you look at Gaza, it’s not very humanitarian. And you don’t really see any signs of “aid.” They’re given so much money by so many countries, and there are no signs of it. ALL that money goes to terrorism. All of it does. We’ve given them $500,000,000, and we have never asked for any accountability where it is spent. That’s the U.S. The United States government.

So, not only are Russia and Iran both fully backing Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north, but we’re funding this. We’re funding it.

By the way, there was (you probably don’t remember him) there was one President that stopped all of this. I can’t remember his name now. Thomas Edison was it? Starts with a “T” – I forget. But anyway, there was a President who stopped all of this madness. And we replaced him with Obama’s third term and his commitment to destroy this country. I promise you. It’s not that Obama wants the country destroyed; he wants us equal. He wants the whole world on an equal playing field. And so, since you can’t bring the third world countries up, you bring the superpower down.

Anyway, that’s a little summary of the news. You might say, Hey, Dave. I thought you were supposed to teach the Bible. I am. You can say it. I am. But I’m telling you, that is not a rant. There’s a purpose for it. There’s a purpose for it. If you just look at the History of Israel since 1948, it would blow your mind. I could do a whole other message on the phenomenal proof of God’s protection over Israel since May 14, 1948, when Israel became a state. They were attacked within hours of becoming a state moving towards being a Nation. Within hours, they were attacked by five countries that surrounded them. And in every war since, they have won. And they’ll win this one. It’s the odds that are against Israel are phenomenal. And what the mainstream media wants you to see is: “Israel is this great country that is just oppressing these people.” That’s the exact opposite. Israel is happy to live in peace if the people around them would stop killing them. It’s just that one little thing about them wanting Israel to be annihilated. It just creates a little problem.

I tell people all the time. What would we do if Mexico fired five thousand rockets into San Diego? We’d be like, “Oh no. (sigh) Their feathers are ruffled, you know. Let’s not get too excited about it.” No. Mexico would start at Ensenada. We’d just – whomp!

Once you know everything that God’s done for Israel, you’ll know this: (Listen. Please hear this. I really have a point today. My heart is absolutely torn for the people in Israel. I have genuine friends there; I’ve been communicating with them since yesterday. And my heart is broken for them.) I want you to know something. The miraculous proof of God protecting Israel is an assurance to you and me that God will protect us and that we are safe and secure in the hands of the Lord.

Yes, there are people dying. And it’s a lot. It’s more than anybody knows because it’s still too much.

But I want you to know by the end of this message that God doesn’t turn his back on his people. And if you’ve received Christ and become a child of God, God will not turn his back on you. What if you’re killed? Do you think killing me is a defeat? Because my next breath is going to be in the presence of the Lord. So, it’s a win-win situation. God will never turn his back on us.

I will show you God has made promises to Israel that he will never, ever go back on – or change. You will know that Israel is in a one-sided covenant relationship with God that will miraculously carry them through ALL that they face on this earth!

Let’s start a Bible study.

Romans 11:1–2(a) (NLT)
1 I ask, then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning . . .

The answer to the question is IN the question. Twice in the words “HIS OWN PEOPLE.” They are his own people. Just like you are God’s own people. You are a son or daughter of God if you’ve been adopted through faith in Christ. Has God rejected his own people, the Nation of Israel, his own people? Of course not!

God made the Nation of Israel – his own people. God created the Nation of Israel. He didn’t arbitrarily choose them. He didn’t look around and say, “What nation would be best.” God created the Nation of Israel. He created Israel through one man – through the faith of Abraham. And God made it miraculously clear that he has not and will never reject his own people.

I would really encourage you to read all of Romans, Chapter 11, to see God’s secure commitment to save BOTH Jews and Gentiles.

God’s promise to Israel starts way back in Genesis Chapter 12.

Genesis 12:1–3 (NLT)
1 The Lord had said to Abram (Abraham), “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. (That’s through Jesus Christ. He created Israel to bring the Messiah to the world.)
3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” (Again, a reference to the Messiah.)

And at some point, Satan figured out that Israel was created as God’s own people through whom the Messiah would come. And since that day, the powers of HELL have been set against the Nation of Israel. Why does Satan want to steal, kill, and destroy (John 11:11) in your life? It’s not because you’re a threat. It’s because you belong to God, so he wants to destroy you. Israel belongs to God – Satan wants to destroy them.

Can I tell you, please (and I’ve already mentioned it) and I can’t really get into it anymore, but there have been times in history where Hell has used the Church to turn the world against Israel. The Church. People who are supposed to be reading and believing the Bible.

But God says in Jeremiah 31:

Jeremiah 31:36–37 (NLT)
36 “I am as likely to reject my people Israel as I am to abolish the laws of nature!”
37 This is what the Lord says: “Just as the heavens cannot be measured and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored, so I will not consider casting them away for the evil they have done. I, the Lord, have spoken!

And this is what 1 Samuel says.

1 Samuel 12:22 (NLT)
22 The Lord will not abandon his people (Israel), because that would dishonor his great name. For it has pleased the Lord to make [them] his very own people.

Yes – Israel has failed God over and over again . . . but God will never reject Israel for their failures. Just like God will never reject you for your failures if you have received his free gift of adoption through faith in Jesus Christ.

In Numbers Chapter 22, there was an enemy king named Balak who had learned that he could never defeat Israel physically. And so, he hired the prophet Balaam to curse Israel spiritually. That is the story that ends with the talking donkey. But that enemy King Balak (in Numbers 22) knew what today’s enemies of Israel cannot figure out. That is, when you fight Israel, you are fighting the God of the Universe – who created Israel as his own people.

Zechariah 2:8 (NLT)
8 . . . the Lord of Heaven’s Armies [said] . . . “Anyone who harms you harms my most precious possession (the apple of my eye).

History records a very, very long list of the enemies of Israel. But today, all of those historical enemies of Israel are gone, and Israel is still standing – having been reborn as a nation in 1948.

And part of the reason that God will never abandon Israel – is for you.

Back to Romans Chapter 11.

Romans 11:11–12 (NLT)
11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves.
12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.

It is easy to see – Biblically
and it’s hard to deny – Biblically

That God’s plan for this world centers around Israel.
The End Times ALL center around Israel.
The only other nations who are named in the End Times are those who are bent on destroying Israel.

That Tribulation that we have been studying in Revelation is largely FOR the Nation of Israel to finally reveal to the Nation of Israel that Jesus Christ is truly the Messiah and Lord of Heaven.

And we are in the midst of studying the judgments of God that will fall on the earth in the Tribulation. And we are about to start looking at the final three-and-a-half years called the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. The Patriarch Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, and through him, the Twelve Tribes of Israel were born. And the last three and a half years of the Tribulation will be primarily focused on Israel, and God will turn the nation back to himself.

And when the Lord Jesus does finally return to earth at the second coming – it will be – to Israel. He will come to the Valley of Armageddon it’s just to slay the armies of the world who are there to fight against him.

Speaking of the Second Coming of the Lord . . .

Zechariah 14:4–9 (NLT)
4 On that day (the Second Coming – not the Rapture) his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west. Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south . . .
8 On that day life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem . . .
9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped.

And that will begin the 1,000-year reign of Christ ON the earth, and Jesus will reign over the entire earth from Jerusalem, The City of God.

There are plenty of incredible things that will happen between now and then. But my point today is this.

God HAS NOT and will NEVER abandon Israel.

We will see it in this war and even in the Greater War to come, described in Ezekiel 38-39.

But, before the prophecy of that Great War that this war might even be a precursor to, back in Ezekiel Chapter 6, we read this.

Ezekiel 36:21–28 (NLT)
21 Then I was concerned for my holy name, on which my people brought shame among the nations.
22 “Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name . . .
25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean . . .
26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
28 “And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

God has not and never will abandon Israel. And if God will not abandon Israel and he will not abandon you.

Let’s pray for Israel today.

Psalm 122 (NLT)
1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
2 And now here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is a well-built city; its seamless walls cannot be breached.
4 All the tribes of Israel—the Lord’s people— make their pilgrimage here. They come to give thanks to the name of the Lord, as the law requires of Israel.
5 Here stand the thrones where judgment is given, the thrones of the dynasty of David.
6 Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper.
7 O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces.
8 For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “May you have peace.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.