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Israel in the Gospel Harvest
Bro. David Doran

Thank you, Brother Bob. Happy Sunday to everyone. My topic is something brethren are talking about all over the place, and I do not pretend to be an expert on the subject of Israel whatsoever. And I will probably give nothing to add that brethren can't do better. What I'd like to try to is… Simplify. And as you've heard in the chat room, if not even in the discourses. There are a lot of details and I encourage them and I appreciate them. That's not what I'm going to do today. I'm going to try to be basic. I think in all things, whether we're talking about doctrine. or prophecy. or even behavior, character development I think perspective before detail is extremely important. We need to see big pictures before we can hang all the little details on them. So with Israel. I think it's extremely important that we don't react. to current events. The world is reacting. They look at what Israel is doing in Hamas and they throw their hands up and they scream and they call it genocide and everything else. But that same world, at least the part of it that's religious. claims to believe in scripture. Old Testament included. And what happened when Israel went into the land the first time? God said, go in and kill them all. Even their animals. Well, that's almost what they're doing right now. in… the Hamas situation. but from several thousand years later we look back and say, well, yes, God took care of putting Israel in its land. Isn't that wonderful? Even though they had to kill everybody that was in it. Now they're doing the same thing for the same reason. to plant Israel in its land. And so we have… Incredibly… great sympathy for the horrible sufferings that the people of Gaza are going through. That's not the picture. The picture is God is doing something. He's doing the same thing that he did when Israel was given its land in the first place. He's throwing out… those who don't belong there. And it's terrible to see, but that's what we don't want to react to. We want to understand that this all has a place in a very basic and bigger picture now there are dangers of oversimplification and you'll probably find them during this discourse But there are also dangers in the lack of a simple overview. I mean, just consider the chart of the ages. You can't have a greater simplification than that. That's the whole Bible on one sheet of paper. Is it dangerous? Well, when you're talking about certain subjects, you may consider it dangerous because it doesn't show that detail But if the detail you're talking about doesn't fit on that chart, the problem is with your detail likely and not with the chart. So, yes, there are dangers of oversimplification, but There are dangers of the lack of a simple overview. So the example, don't focus on Hamas's sufferings focus on the march of progress from 1878 to the dotted line. That's what we're looking at with Israel. We're looking at the establishment of that people and that land which will be the center of the Earth's government the visible center. of the Earth's government. Israel is the visible incoming of the new order. And the troubles in the… rest of the world are the visible outgoing of the old order. And the year 1878 marked the start of each. I have… summarized this thing about Israel, this big picture about Israel in six points, which you will see below on the handout. And really, I'm going to focus as we go through it on points five and six rather than on the first four of them. But I want us to see. the progress. So we're going to start We're going to be looking at 1878 until the making of the new covenant. And so the first four are all past. But let's quickly summarize them. Number one. Israel was established in the In 1878. That's fact. They realize it. The world realizes it. Pateka's establishment was the planting of Israel on its own land. And I want to I want to connect that strongly to the promise of the end of the double. When favor is restored. We can do all kinds of things as we discuss favor. We can do all kinds of things when we discuss the end of the double. But if you read The hundreds of prophecies about israel The focus that hits you square in the face about what the end of the double means It is God saying. I will plant you on your land. If you have to come down to one seed one kernel. of the promise of how the end of the double starts. That's how it starts. I will plant you on your land. That happened. Number two. The prophecy of the Gentile times Now, most of us as brethren get in trouble because we make that prophecy Too broad like Brother Russell did. Brother Russell didn't live long enough to get the whole thing straightened out. And we're 150 years past the Lord's return. And brethren still focus on the wrong things with the prophecy of the end of the Gentile times 1914. Jesus summarized it in Luke so clearly. He says… that Jerusalem would be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Now, how do you tread on something? You do it with your feet. And this image of four empires had their feet on Jerusalem. That is the kernel of the doctrine of the Gentile times. The Gentile times are not about the existence of Gentile nations. That's wrong. Just get rid of the idea. It's wrong. The Gentile time prophecies are about the fact that the Gentiles as a punishment to Israel. were given a right to put their big fat foot on Jerusalem and rule it. The war that started in 1914 ended that. And what does that mean? I think probably it is best expressed with Ezekiel 21, 27. Overturn, overturn, overturn. I will make Well, mine says, I ruin a ruin, a ruin, I shall make it. This also will be no more until he comes whose right it is, and I will give it him. Now, that prophecy is inseparably connected to the times of the Gentiles. that overturning is the turning is succession from Babylon to Persia, from Persia to Greece, from Greece to Rome. And then from giving it to the remnants, from the remnants of rome to… who's to him whose right it is. 1914. The Gentile foot was off of Jerusalem. The focus of this prophecy in Ezekiel is jesus jesus there becomes the new king of Israel. It is no accident that Israel hasn't lost since then. They have a divine king. They don't know it yet, but we know it. It was given to him whose right it is, and he took the crowd of Israel because the least of Gentiles over Jerusalem had expired And what did the Lord do to that? Pardon me, Gentile image Where did he strike it? He didn't strike it on the head. That's what you do if you wanted to kill it. He struck it on the foot. Why? Because the foot was on Jerusalem. So that's step number two. in the big picture. Step number three, I'm going to read the text. No, I'm sure. In Ezekiel. 38. Let me read a little earlier. Starting 34. I shall bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out. And I shall bring you into the wilderness of the peoples and there I shall enter into judgment with you face to face. face by the way, judgment doesn't mean pronouncing whether you're guilty or not. Judgments are the same thing that judges did in the Old Testament. deliverances. The judges were sent to deliver. God is saying he will deliver. I will enter into judgment. with you face to face. As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God, and I shall make you pass under the rod. Okay, that's troubelous. The rod is disciplining, but it's troubeless. Remember, I will give you the value of a core. The low place of trouble and pain as the door till you're receiving the hope Petach Dikwah, the door to hope. that I promised you and you want. And so it starts with this trouble. I shall make you pass under the rod and I shall bring you into the bond of the covenant. now there we have a story all the way to the covenant. The next line And I shall purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against me. And I shall bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the Lord. Okay, so point number three is somewhere along the line The Lord starts dividing Israel. into those who will be or are the faithful remnant and those who are just Jews by name. He will purge out the rebels, those that do not have the faith of Abraham. This is an ongoing work. And it culminates In Zechariah 14, 2. I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle. This is the Gog and Magog invasion. And the city will be captured. And the houses plundered and the women ravaged. And notice, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off. from the city. There you have The final division of israel before the peace. The rebels are cut off. But the rest are not cut off. The people have been divided. the city has been divided. I will purge out the rebels and ongoing work culminating in Zechariah 14 2. Now, I heard brethren speculating about all of this. Who are the faithful remnant? And brethren, don't bother. You can't find the answer to that. I hear brethren saying, well, can't be those people because they're homosexual. Can't be those people because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now, let me ask this. Who was the faithful remnant at the first advent? It was those that everybody thought was the trash of Israel, ones that Jesus went to. and ate with and taught the faithful remnant now may be the kind of people that Jesus ate with. read the word remnant in so many of the prophecies that you could read concerning Israel. It's so important. I don't know who they will be. You don't know who they will be. You can't say they will be the Orthodox. You can't say they will be the atheists. The fact is the situation is going to bring out the true faith of those who are true Israelites. Number four. In 1948, Israel put forth the leaves on the fig tree. My understanding is that the whole point of leaf This tree saying, I'm alive. I have trees now suffering from a drought. They lost their leaves. I don't know whether they're alive or dead. Next spring I will know if it puts forth leaves It's alive. And I think the relieves represent the covering of statehood, which is Israel saying. I am… Alive. And I'd like to quote matthew 24. 32. Learn the parable from the fig tree when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves. You know that summer, by comparing that with Luke, it's the kingdom is near. Let me compare that with Ezekiel. Chapter 37. which you know about. And it is bringing Israel back like a body of dry bones Verse 8. And I looked and behold, sinews were on them and flesh grew. and skin covered them. Flesh, by the way, is not skin there. It's muscle. Skin covered them. But there was no breath in them. We're there. The skin is the same as the leaves on the tree. It is that unifying element that makes it into one body, but it's not alive yet. The new covenant will make it alive. It will Well, as it says elsewhere as well as It will get breath or life. The four wins. We're not there yet, but we do see Israel with skin or with leaves. That brings us… To Numbers 5 and 6. Which I think, again, not in detail, but in a broad picture are the two considerations that we need yet to make as we look at this big picture about Israel. Number five is the Lord intends to disable hostile neighbors. It just occurs to me I forgot something. The text we read earlier where it was talking about bringing them into the bond of the covenant. and taking them out of the land I've got to find it again. Hold on one second. the ezekiel 20, 38. I shall bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. It's a very interesting phrase, isn't it? Does that mean they're going to go to New York City? When you do away with the diaspora. And the Jews left all those lands where they had been scattered. The fact is they were scattered to the United States too. Ultimately. But does this mean? The ones in new york are there because the Lord doesn't let them enter the land of Israel? No, I think this is a very symbolic prophetic element. The land is the center of all the promises to Israel, the land The land, the land, not the people. I mean, the people are there for a purpose and the Lord's going to use the people, but it is the land that is the center of the entire series of prophecies. When it says they will not enter the land, it means they will not be inheritors of the land. It doesn't mean they're not going to live there. A lot of those people that came out of Russia and Germany and who knows where all that are living in Israel are living in the land, but they've not come into the land. They will not be inheritors of the land in the sense that they will not be the receivers of the promises. They are being purged out as rebels. They will be the half of the city that is taken, not the half of the city that remains. Okay. Now, back to five and six. The two things that happened since 1948 is the Lord is going to do two disablings. Number five on our handout, he's going to disable the hostile neighbors, the people that live around Israel. The last thing he's going to do is he's going to disable the rest of the world. That's Ezekiel 38 and 39. So we're going to look at these two primary prophecies. just sort of ignoring all the other details that you're very familiar with and you have been discussing at this convention. So let's go to Psalm. 83. You'll notice I have a footnote there. And that footnote takes you down to the next page, actually. Tom Beatty. Breathe. Let me read it. Let's read the whole thing. O God, do not remain quiet. Do not be silent, and O God, do not be still, for behold thine enemies make an uproar, and those who hate thee have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plants. plans against thy people and conspire together against thy treasured ones. They have said, Come and let us wipe them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more, for they have conspired together with one mind against thee do they make a covenant. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and Hagrites. Keebo and Ammon and amalek. Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre. Assyria also has joined with them They have become a help to the children of Lot. I'll come back to that, but please notice… that it is talking about the neighbors with one exception, Assyria also has joined with them. Assyria is not a neighbor. We'll come back and discuss that. In the following section, the prayer is to deal with them in two different ways. Here again. I'm not being specific about interpretation except to please notice The prayer is, Lord, deal with them in two different ways. Deal with them as with Midian As with Sisera and Jabin at the torrent of Kishon, who were destroyed at Endor, who became his dung for the ground. Make their nobles like Ourov and Zek. Zibb and all their princes like Ziba and Zalmuna, who said, let us possess for ourselves the pasture of God. Once it has discussed those two ways of dealing with them. it continues oh my god make them like the whirling dust like chaff before the wind, like fire that burns the forest and like a flame that sets the mountains on fire. So pursue them with thy tempest and terrify them with thy storm. Fill their faces with dishonor that they may seek thy name, O Lord. I have to stop there. Is that not beautiful? Verse 16. Everybody else would say, wipe them out, Lord. Look what Israel says. fill their faces with dishonor that they may seek thy name, O Lord. Israel wants to be a blessed nation. They don't want to destroy these people. They want to bless them. But they're asking the Lord first to shame them. Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever and let them be humiliated and perish that they may know Again, you notice. following all these things that they may know that thou alone whose name is Yahweh are the most high over all the earth. Okay, little comment. when we read… 9 through 12. We saw the disabling of the neighbors. which is gradual. with two approaches the first approach 83.9, deal with them as with them Midian. The neighbors weaken themselves as enemies. What was the Midianite picture? It's in Judges 7. It was the Gideon picture. did the lord Have Israel go out and destroy these people? No. He made a big noise and they destroyed themselves. This is number one way that the Lord has been dealing with the neighbors of Israel. Some of them have destroyed themselves as enemies. Take Egypt. Used to be big. What happened after 67? They put their tail between their legs and went home and haven't been a problem since. Jordan, pretty much the same. The neighbors weakened themselves because they got frightened. Just as with Gideon. Number two, 3811, make their nobles like Oreb and zeb. This is in Judges 4. Israel weakens its errors by force. When you read the Judges 4 account, Israel goes out with horses and chariots by the thousands and physically destroys their enemies. So Psalm 83 has the lord preparing For the Gog-Magog situation you remember And the situation opens up that they are at peace. How? This is why. Some of the neighbors will have weakened themselves, put their tails between their legs and gone home. Others will have virtually been wiped out, just like Israel in Judges 4 went out and by force overcame their enemies. So Psalm 83 is quite explicit in the fact that it is mentioning two kinds of ways that the… initial surrounders the the neighboring states of Israel would be destroyed. However. Remember verse 8. Assyria also has joined with them. That's Iran. Which, by the way, used to be part of a series of takes some ancient history into account. They have become a help to the children of Lot. Children of Lot are neighbors. The Assyrians are not. And Iran is… poking on. the neighbors. to destroy Israel. they're going to suffer the same as the neighbors. do. All right, so that is basically number five Disable the hostile neighbors. That's the point of Psalm 83. And it is to bring them to that place where when we get to Ezekiel 38 and 9, They are living without walls. they're comfortable. Their neighbors have not become enemies anymore. They have been pacified. Then it takes us to the Lord disabling the rest of the world. And that's what's going to happen in the ezekiel 38 Scenario. No. We mentioned yesterday. the part of the great multitude before This is Ezekiel 38. They will have been witnessing And the remnant of Israel will have been hearing And as it says in Song of Solomon 6.1, they will finally say to the great multitude before it is glorified. Let us seek him with you. They're ready. Therefore, in the midst of in the midst of… the Gog invasion. The new covenant will be made with the faithful. remnant. And they will pray for the help of the church and the presence of the ancient worthies. And it will be answered. And they will be delivered. We also mentioned yesterday the Micah 5. Scenario. that this new covenant that this new covenant is made with the faithful remnant during the invasion. Not afterward. I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and it is made there. just after… Gog and Magog invade. All right, now… Number six is what we're talking about, and that's got little footnote on it. to take you down to take you down little broader discussion on Ezekiel 38 and 39, the last thing on the outline. Yes, thank you. Whoever's moving the outline is doing a great job. This is where God cripples the old world. We know that in Ezekiel, the actual invaders are identified by certain ethnic groups. Because what's happening here is there are two parts to the invaders. They're the actual invaders who enter the land and cause the problem. But there are the invaders in spirit who are egging them on. So… You go to Zechariah. 14. This, even though it doesn't say so. is the Gog and Magog invasion. Behold, a day is coming. For the Lord. When the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather You notice the next word. In Ezekiel 38, we have ethnic groups of the actual invader. But here is the whole invader. The rest of the world. I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle. So we have two things, the active invader and the supportive invader. And the supportive invader is unfortunately Everybody else. Wow. All the powers of the world. And this has the city then divided. No. When we consider Ezekiel 38 and 39, We have Gog and Magog. These are the two parts of the old power in this prophecy. Gog, the mountain. the kingdom of Satan virtually And Magog the great mountain. The evil spirits behind Satan's kingdom. So you've got physical invaders, Gog and spiritual invaders Magog. by the way… The only other place Gog and Magog are mentioned is in Revelation 20 in the little season. And they mean the same thing. They are just not the same people. Gog and Magog in Revelation 20 are good forces. It's the world of mankind, the kingdom of God, the mountain, and the great mountain the spirit powers behind it. But not here. We have two parts of the old power. Satan's mountain and the great spiritual mountain of satan which is behind them. during the Ezekiel 38 and 39. God destroys. Christendom. That's when Christendom Judaism will fall then too. All the isms will fall then, not just religion. We read it in Micah 5, 6. I won't go back now because we don't want to use the time. But there's some interesting hints in revelation. about what's happening. This invasion. In Revelation 14. is described as being outside the city that the grapes are trodden. Christendom is the grapes, the false vine. It is outside of the city of Christendom, Babylon. that it is destroyed. It is destroyed in Israel. During this battle, it is destroyed outside of its own environs. This battle will kill. Christianity. It will take up the great millstone and cast it into the sea and never be found again. the same hint is shown in revelation is shown in 1616 when it is talking about the destruction of their kingdom, Armageddon. In that one word. The text simply could have said he led them into a place called Armageddon. But it doesn't. It adds the words. It led them into a place called in the Hebrew tongue. Armageddon. Why? Because it's another hint. that this is taking place in a hebrew locality. It is taking place in Israel during the Gog and Magog invasion. Revelation 19, 18 is a quote from Ezekiel 39. where the birds are invited to come and eat. It is a direct quote from Ezekiel, but it's not about the Ezekiel prophecy. It is about The final battle, which is the Gog and Magog invasion. So all of these are showing that Christendom stays around. and is functioning. Until the Gog and Magog invasion. then it will be ended. and then god will say as in Psalm 46 10 Be still. And know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations and the heathen I think that's the matthew 24. 22. which let me read. Unless those days had been cut short. no life would have been saved. but for the sake of the elect God said Israel is my elect. here i do not think this is referring to the spirit begotten who are all gone and don't need any intervention on their part. This is speaking of israel for the sake of Israel mine elect Those days shall be cut short. And they will. May the Lord have his blessing.