I wrote down my impressions and observations from a recent three week trip to Israel. I spoke to Greg first about sharing this and he said go ahead and don't offer it for debate or to challenge anyone. That is good advice and that is the spirit I offer it in. It's simply my observations and I am coming from a pre-mill point of view. If you want to deride or challenge to the point of contention then please save it. It's a tad long and I am sorry about that but how could I leave anythng out from this three week period filled with so many encounters and events? Read at your own leisure if you are inclined and if you want to talk about it any in any way just make a reply or email me.
Blessings to everyone.
OBSERVATIONS FROM ISRAEL
My goal in sharing is to speak of observations of the Jewish people and the land of Israel I gained from a recent three week trip to Israel (my first ever trip there). I'm not trying to toot my own horn and boast of this trip because I consider it to be a high privilege and a gift that the Lord allowed, as He provided much for my way there and back. Landing in Tel Aviv and then proceeding on to Jerusalem was just "something else” for lack of better words. After arriving in Jerusalem, we went first of all to our lodgings where we would be staying. This bed and breakfast was offered by a Russian lady who was a believer and had emigrated to Israel from Russia. This Russian lady was friends with a Jewish man and his non Jewish wife who had emigrated to Israel and they both were friends with the leader of our little group of three. They all were wonderful people with the same aspirations, longings and struggles that members of the body of Christ everywhere experience. Our fellowship and time with them during our stay in Jerusalem was superb and fun and edifying.
Then there is Jerusalem itself. After arriving and lodging that first night, the next morning we made our way to Jerusalem and the old city and first of all visited the Wailing Wall and the temple mount before proceeding to other places in the old and new city. I think I experienced much of the same thing Brother Derek Prince wrote of his experience when he first came to Jerusalem in 1942. He said he realized that you don't choose Jerusalem but that Jerusalem chooses you. Deep calls unto deep.
As a Christian, perhaps one should not think it strange or unnaturally ethereal for this type of experience to happen to a believer while in Jerusalem. The city has been and still is the center and focus of so much of God's dealings with His chosen people, which in the end always affects the rest of mankind. It may not be an exaggeration of our faith to proclaim that as Jerusalem and the Jewish people go, so goes the rest of mankind.
Not consciously trying to make myself go in this direction, I found myself thinking, "Oh Jerusalem, Oh Jerusalem! Yes you have sinned but how God's mercies are still kindled within Him for the sake of your gates. Tender mercies shall yet rain from on high. For Zion's sake God is not going to hold His peace nor keep silent.” No wonder that the focus and center of God's government on earth should strike such a strong spiritual chord within me as a believer. This may not be the experience of everyone who has had the privilege of going to this land and city. I am just sharing what my experience came to be. I hope that without any spiritual bravado and self promotion so as to be seen of men that I can also say Jerusalem seems to have chosen me, not vice versa. I understand Brother Prince now. No longer can I deny in any way that as a believer in Israel's Christ that I am not at the same time bonded inwardly to Jerusalem in all its past history and its coming destiny. Its destiny is irrevocably intertwined with the destiny of the church. Finally, I was there, becoming aware of the reality which I had long heard of and read.
Besides a immediate inward bonding with the city of Jerusalem and the people of the land, after about three days I had a strong inward witness that this land truly has been set aside for and belongs to the Jewish people. Yes I know, tell us something we don't know. I understand that sentiment but now I see that the whole scenario of history is involved perhaps in these few short words - "Israel/Canaan has been set aside for and belongs to the Jewish people.” It was a real life revelation, believed before but now made flesh before my eyes. "Oh, now I get it,” was all I could say many times. Yes, everything I have been told is certainly true. Now I see and not only see but KNOW."
I soon came to love the ruggedly beautiful and majestic mountainous land. Not worship the land, but highly esteem and treasure it because of the central place it has and is still to play in God's redemptive plan. From the early history of man, what else has history revolved around but the fact (and controversy) that God chose one certain man and set aside one certain LAND for this man and his descendants. The God made flesh through which redemptive blessings have come to the whole earth, made His incarnated appearance in this land and bodily left this land and will again bodily return to this land and city. As one of our acquaintances has rightly observed, history is a hopeless riddle and enigma without understanding Israel and its calling. Now I was there and understanding this fact first hand. The land of Canaan belongs to the Jewish people! If they have presently been brought back largely in unbelief than the issue is in God's hands. It's He that has done this even if it appears to our natural eyes to be an exercise in vanity to bring so many people back in unbelief.
The number one observation and impression I believe I brought back from my trip was the belief that this present return of the Jewish people to Canaan (Palestine is a Roman name given in derision), even largely in unbelief, should be treated with the utmost reverence and fear.This observation came from my own experience and dialog with various people in the land over the three week period I was privileged to be there. It affected a major adjustment to my belief that this present return was a result born largely of fleshly and political efforts. Many actual face to face conversations with real people adjusted my thinking and perceptions in a significant way. I realized that for whatever reasons, I had been carrying a lower opinion of this return than should in reality be the case. How and when I came to hold this opinion is something I am still trying to determine.
I remember our very first morning in Jerusalem's old city. During a meal a Jewish person named Frank was seated close to us and before long a conversation developed. Frank explained his reasons for coming from America to Israel to live and this initial conversation with a resident of the land already contained within it a common and recurrent theme we were to find again and again that there was more to their coming to the land than just, "I want to go and live in Israel because I am a Jew.”
During our time in Israel, the three of us were blessed to have been able to visit the most noteworthy parts of the land and many of the more famous biblical sites. After our initial stay in Jerusalem, we journeyed northward and up into the region of Galilee which is awe inspiring and very beautiful. In Galilee we stayed with a Messianic couple, the wife non Jewish and the husband Jewish. The wife shared with us how she grew up in Switzerland and early in life set out to find God and somehow knew she was going to have to go to Israel to find her destiny. She ended up in Israel and became a believer in Christ and eventually married a Jewish believer. As she related her story over early Saturday's shabbat dinner, I discerned that even as a unbeliever she had followed a inward spiritual inclination given to her by God to come to Israel.
In this same town in beautiful Galilee, we met a non Jewish lady, a called and anointed writer of songs, who was saved in Boston, Massachusetts and yet became compelled by a strong inward inclination to come and live in Israel. And yet again, in the same town, we met another Jewish lady who was also saved in Boston and yet immediately knew as a Jew that she belonged in Israel. She vehemently and passionately shared that she would not want to live in this life if she could not live in the LAND and that she knew beyond any doubt she was called to live in Israel and present her witness for Christ to the Jewish people.
In this same area, another Jewish couple we had the pleasure of spending time with reinforced the growing sense I was receiving that it was God Himself who had called these many people to return to Israel even if many of them were in unbelief when they returned. The wife spoke of how her family had been caught up in the holocaust and had ended up after the war in Argentina and yet knew beyond any doubt they were to be in Israel. Since becoming a Christian I had always had a sense of empathy and compassion for the Jewish people and this present return to the land, yet during the course of these many enlightening conversations, slowly and almost imperceptibly it seemed, I was beginning to understand that my view of this present return had been somewhere along the lines of, "Well, what else would a Jewish person do after World War II? It would not be hard to figure out Israel would be a good place for Jews.” Interlaced with this notion, I also came to realize over the course of this three week visit that I had been somewhat unknowingly nursing a opinion that this return was displeasing to God from the start because it had not all been done perfectly and had included non believers and had been largely fueled by humanistic wishes and political maneuverings and strivings. Yet this Jewish lady went on to share that she had returned to Israel from Argentina and several years later, one day in 1959, she sat down by herself in a small room in Jerusalem and prayed and got saved at a Vacation Bible School run by Protestants, maybe even Catholics. Yet I had the unmistakable witness that her family and her own compulsion to return had been from God even while still in unbelief. So what was I to say? A definite tweaking of my own condescension living unknowingly in my heart about this present return was being exposed. Why did the lady from Switzerland I spoke of above, a non Jew, know inwardly before being saved that she would find her destiny in Israel? Why had Frank who I mentioned previously feel complelled to return even while experiencing a good life where he was at in America? Why had the two ladies from Boston, one not a Jew and the other a Jew, felt not only compelled but divinely led to come to the land?
Later during our trip, we traveled southward to the Negev Desert region of Israel and stayed with friends that the leader of our little entourage already had become acquainted with in past years during his previous trips to the land. They were wonderful and precious believers and saints of God. One of their close friends living nearby was a Jewish lady from Florida who had left the states to come and reside in the land. This man, a Jew, and the wife, a non Jew, had interesting stories to tell of how they met and fell in love and were married. His mother and father had been abused because of being Jewish, incarcerated and separated during the dark hours of the holocaust. The mother had been sent to Auschwitz and somehow survived and became separated from the father. After the war this man and wife assumed the other was dead but the man ended up tracking the wife down and after discovering she was alive they reunited and lived out their married life in Israel. They had felt inwardly there was no other place they wanted to live. Not a mental thing but a deep inward understanding that Israel was their place. And now their son and his wife who we were staying with feel called to reside in the land. The wife is from South Africa and was journeying around the world and ended up living on a kibbutz in Israel where she met her husband I have spoken of above. She knew upon marrying him that she was to stay in the land with her husband the son of holocaust survivors.
A revealing incident occurred during our stay in the Negev Desert with the couple from South Africa and Israel I am writing of now. They have a open home of sorts where a church meets regularly and where visitors are welcome. Talks occur around the table and food and one day they had a young Christian visitor drop in along with a Christian lady. At this time at the table there was also a Jewish man who was an unbeliever yet he feels comfortable being there with this couple who were his friends and who he knew were Christian. He is a very smart and able man who has contributed more than a little to the science and practice of agriculture in the land. Concerning this expertise in agriculture, I saw first hand how the returned Hebrew people have literally made the desert bloom. That is not an exaggeration or clever use of speech. At the table though, as a round of introductions were occurring this man was introduced as a Jewish man. No problem with that of course but before long the young Christian visitor asked the man, "Who really is a Jew?” The young Christian visitor then proclaimed that as a Christian he was more of a Jew than this Jewish man. To make a long story short, this conversation and confrontation didn't work. As we sat gathered around the table and listening, we all had a sense that though this young man had hit on a facet of truth that he was still out of line to a large degree. He was speaking truth but his attitude betrayed him. It DIDN'T work. The table of people grew uncomfortable and the Jewish man was not impressed and somewhat put off. As it turns out, this was something he had heard before but it had been not so much what he had heard before but the attitude behind the young visitor's words were something he had heard before.. Why shouldn't he have been a bit offended? The young man was speaking the truth but he was not speaking the truth in love. There is a world of difference and here the difference that was demonstrated before us. Intellectual remonstrating with the Jewish people in abrasive and confrontational and highly personal ways ("I'm more Jewish than you”) is not going to work. The young man had the right things to say but he was obviously in the grips of pride and a certain amount of condescension. He was not broken or displaying a posture of humility toward this Jewish man and it showed. Likewise, will a unbroken and condescending church be able to be used by the Lord to help serve as a witness that will open Jewish eyes? If Israel is going to be brought to a broken contriteness does the church perhaps still believe it will be a true witness if in its own heart it still has large unknown and unbroken pockets of pride and veiled conceit toward the Jewish people? "Israel is going to be broken,” we may have grown accustomed to boldly proclaiming. And the church is going to be what?
So not just many, but multitudes have returned to Israel and the land, some while in unbelief and some after they became believers. I was beginning to sense that all of their stories of being called to the land had a authentic ring to them and I need not be the judge of them (or God) because of the spiritual condition they returned in. I was beginning to realize my view had been along the lines of, "Well, so many have returned in unbelief,” yet I now acknowledge that this aspect of the present return is with the Lord and should be taken up with Him if anyone one has any questions or complaints as to the nature of this return. I believe it is a safe assumption to believe that God knows what He is doing and does not have to explain or ask permission from anyone to do things the way He sees fit however He wants to do them whenever He wants to do them.
Regarding being in the land again yet in unbelief, the scriptures give a clear stage by stage order of events regarding the return.
Ezekiel gives us a stage by stage description of Israel's restoration to the land:
Ezekiel 36:16-28
16 - Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,
17 - "Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in the land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.
18 - "Therefore, I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols.
19 - "Also I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them.
20 - "When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, 'These are the people of the Lord; yet they have come out of His land.'
21 - "But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.
22 - "Therefore, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.
23 - "And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord," declares the Lord God, "When I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.
In the stage by stage order of events we see:
1) First punished in the land (36:18)
2) Scattered and dispersed among the nations (36:19)
3) God's name was profaned by the people being dispersed out of the land (36:22-23)
4) God will act for the vindication of His holy name (36:23)
This is what has happened so far. Now let’s look at the stages of the regathering of Israel:
24 - "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land
25 - "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
26 - "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and give you a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 - "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
28 - "And you will live on the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.
5) To be regathered from all the lands and not just Babylon (36:24)
6) Then clean water will be sprinkled on them (36:25a)
7) Then they will be cleansed from all their filthiness and idols (36:25b)
8) Then they will be given a new heart and a new spirit (36:26a)
9) Then they will have their heart of stone removed and will be given a heart of flesh (36:26b)
10) God will put His Spirit within them (36:27a)
11) God will cause them to walk in His statues and be careful to observe His ordinances (36:27b)
12) They will live on the land that I gave to their forefathers and they will be God's people and He
will be their God (36:28).
So they will be gathered largely in unbelief from all the lands (not just Babylon) BEFORE they are sprinkled and cleansed. THEN (after a return in unbelief) they will be sprinkled with clean water which is the word of God. Many today in Israel are being sprinkled with God's word and many are responding. The number of believers in Israel has been steadily increasing in recent decades and may number as many as 30,000 today. Congregations of believers and home churches are increasing. The sprinkling of the word of God as it is proclaimed is washing many Israelis as the washing of the water of the word does. Repentance is being experienced and purifying of hearts and motives is occurring as regeneration begins its process. Even now many are being given a new heart and Spirit as they are born again. Hearts of stone are being removed that couldn't and didn't occur during the dispersion and they are realizing now the reason for their dispersion. God is placing His Spirit within them as they are being baptized in the Holy Spirit (36:27). And they are beginning to be careful to walk in His statues and seeking to be careful to observe His ordinances because they have been transformed from within and have a new heart and spirit.
I don't know if I totally believed it before but I have realized that somewhere in my thinking was the notion, perhaps not fully solidified but there, that the restoration of Israel will really only begin at the time of Jacob's trouble. That time will come and it will be a fearful process but what scriptural legs do we have to stand on that God's final dealings with Israel will only begin then? The restoration of Israel is in my opinion happening NOW. An overly critical church regarding their present unbelief may really be a criticism against God for not doing things the way we would. The dry bones of Ezekiel's vision are in the land and dead before they are resurrected and begin to live - Ezekiel 37.
It's worth mentioning that during our stay with these believers in the Negev Desert region, we also briefly met two friendly and soft hearted Palestinian Arabs who wanted this couple to come and be with them for a bit and share their witness for Christ with them. So it's not all tooth and nail in Israel. God's love is moving on many hearts.
As the day came for our departure, we were leaving this home gripped by much sadness of heart and tears because the time of our being together was ending. As we sadly made our way out of the neighborhood, we stopped at David Ben Gurion's grave because it was actually only a few blocks away. Ben Gurion is known as perhaps the major founding figure of modern Israel and was a hard hammer of a man and we were only going to take a quick look at his resting place. We found the site to be closed because of ceremonies honoring Ben Gurion which were to take place the next day. We were making our way back to our vehicle at the entrance to the memorial and grave site and at the entrance we met two Jewish ladies and ended up having a spirited conversation with them. One lady was from Los Angeles and was visiting her relatives in Israel yet it was the words of the other lady which arrested me. She spoke of her family's history and hardship and how it can temper an individual for the good. She spoke of how the Israeli people had next to nothing when they began to return to the land. She also spoke of how her parents had lived in tents for seven years when they came to Israel. She related how they had been willing to endure this type of living just for the sake of residing in the land. Once again, without actively seeking it, I was struck by the sense that more than just a human desire to return to the land may have been at work in this lady and her family. The recurrent theme I had heard in so many people was again repeating itself through her words. Was I supposed to tell her she had it all wrong and in the most grievously personal way begin negatively digging at her family's history? If someone believes that as a follower of Christ I was supposed to do that, then in what manner or spirit should I have gone about it? How much would my words have meant to her because of the attitude she may have sensed behind my words? I don't know exactly where I had come to entertain the idea and inner notion that these types of stories were not really that important and basically were not to be paid attention to because there were more important issues to be addressed. Yet in paying attention to the greater issues are we supposed to just sweep aside in one impersonal thought and word the whole history of families?
After leaving this Negev Desert region, we eventually made our way back to Jerusalem and spent the last few days of our time there. The blessed adventure and on the job real life real people lessons and revelations had not ended we were to find out!
Our morning Bible studies together had been very blessed with a special presence of the Lord on this trip. We planned nothing each morning yet the Lord would meet us and open the word to us and many times it was not even concerning Israel. But this one particular morning it was about Israel. The Lord had very definitely set a particular theme for us of losing ourselves to the Lord and as ministers of reconciliation still accepting people even while they are still in their sin. God was in Christ not imputing the sins of the world to the people of the world but rather laid them on Christ and now we are His ambassadors of reconciliation (II Cor 5:18-20). The reproaches of those who reproached God were laid on Christ as He willingly bore them on behalf of others! We were asking ourselves what a true priest is and the Lord seemed to speak to us. As we sat on the balcony of our room, the busy streets and sounds of Jerusalem and its people were sounding and echoing up to us from below. It was almost as if the sounds and busy going about represented all of Israel. We could almost smell the streets. And the Lord was speaking in a very profound way to us of being a priest even for people who don't know God yet. A priest in the truest sense is a selfless individual who ministers before the Lord on behalf of other people. Even the enemies of God if you will. When the priests ministered before the Lord in the temple and implemented the sacrifices they did it on behalf of the people and not themselves. They were to be hidden and selfless individuals in their priesthood. As the strong presence of the Holy Spirit and his heart breaking words were making indelible impressions on our minds and spirits we were moved to silence and tears before the Lord. We sensed strongly that although a majority of Israel may still be enemies of God that they are still BELOVED OF GOD for the father's sake. Are we willing to let the reproaches of Israel fall on us and bear them as if it were we reproaching God? A true priest is an intercessor who beseeches God on behalf of the people. A true priest, a true servant after the manner of Christ, is not concerned with himself but lives for the profit of others. The Lord challenged us to allow Him to mold us so as to be capable of loving Israel and all people right where they are at in the midst of their rebellion and intransigence of heart against the Lord. What hidden conceits of heart may still be holding us back from the true apprehension of this becoming more than just an intellectual platitude we voice. How much of, "I'm more of a Jew then you,” still lives in us? In Daniel's epic prayer of Daniel chapter nine, Daniel had not sinned but yet feverishly prayed to God as if he were the chief of sinners. On behalf of the nation and the city Jerusalem he was willing to bear the reproach. He was interceding as a true priest willing to have the sins of the people laid on him. And my, in their rebellion and hardness of heart what a unlovely people they had been! If Israel's present unbelief is unlovely then how can that shut up our bowels of mercy and intercession for them? Such were we. Maybe that is old stuff to many but it was pressed home anew to us this morning.
At this point, we were reduced to silence and just sat there for a while and eventually decided to get up and go into the streets of Jerusalem once again not knowing where we were going but just going. And within eight minutes of leaving our room, we literally bumped into a Jewish person who began asking questions immediately regarding our faith. Less than eight minutes after the Lord had laid out for us losing our lives as priests in behalf of largely unbelieving Israel! Even if they are unlovely in their unbelief. As we left our room we had been sober and silent and wondering what all this meant and less than eight minutes later as this unbelieving Jewish person stood before us asking questions, the Lord said to us, "This is what I mean.” This was no happenstance encounter but had been arranged by the Lord so as to greatly underscore the theme that He had just set for us in our morning Bible study. It was impossible for us to have set up this divine encounter so soon after our Bible study. We invited this person to eat lunch with us and that day and the next we had conversations with him regarding the true identity of Israel's Messiah. Not all things went perfect and we sensed maybe a mix of motives in this man yet he heard clearly the undiluted gospel and we could tell he was moved. We weren't altogether sure what we were sensing regarding his motives but still we had witnessed straightforwardly to him. Even if his motives were not entirely pure that made the Lord's lesson to us even more clear. In their sin and rebellion and lack of knowledge are we still willing to become selfless before them and love them in their unbelief? And what if they try and use you and maybe even con you? Along these same lines, so what that many of them have been beckoned to return to the land in unbelief? Can we still say as the selfless Paul, "I could wish myself accursed for their sake. Please don't impute their sin to them Lord and let the reproaches of those who reproach you fall on me.” Do we just voice agreement or are we really and truly convinced that we are called to stand in the gap for them and pray as if their sins are our sins? The church needs a fresh revelation and divinely empowered breakthrough to the truly priestly intercession that is done with itself and ministers on behalf of and for the profit of others. Love seeks not its own. Rather, love gives.
Again, if Israel is to be brought into a broken and contrite humility what type of church and individual saints will be best able to address them when their humbling process reaches full intensity? The Church obviously needs to be humbled FIRST if it is to be a broken hearted and priestly intercessor on behalf of the Lord's people and all people.
We pretty much finished our stay in Israel dining with a Jewish couple one night. The husband was from the Netherlands and had come to Israel and the wife was from Canada and had emigrated to the land. Neither are believers in Christ. But yet again, listening to their stories, the recurrent theme I had sensed and heard from the very beginning of our trip was once again manifested. I had the distinct inner witness that their desire to come to Israel had been more than just a personal intellectual decision they made. I discerned again the Lord was involved in their coming and I had nothing to say. Our peaceful and natural witness to them as Christians was more of a witness to them than any sermonizing on our part.
Brother Derek Prince said that in 1942, when he first came to Jerusalem and Israel, that it was a very rare occurrence to met another Christian believer. Yet this continues to change rapidly today. One professor of history in Israel has said that at one time all his Jewish students wanted to do was address various happenings and events in history but now all a large majority of these Jewish students want to talk about is Jesus! And again, perhaps being a bit redundant, if a large part of the current nation of Israel have returned and still dwell in unbelief, then we can again assume the Lord knows what He is doing. As we saw from scripture, this return now taking place is clearly laid out in scripture as to what stages the return will follow. Jewish people, and even non Jewish people, from over 100 nations have come to reside in Israel. Believers and non believers. Political efforts and "carnally nationalistic Zionism” (the words of a critic not mine) may have been involved in this AGAINST ALL ODDS modern miracle but this has obviously been part of the Lord's desire to spark this return. Trouble and a final time of shaking is ahead yet what is second place about this present return if the Lord has been the ultimate catalyst to bring it about? Jewish people, after all, did not begin to return to Israel only after World War II. This present return has been going on in earnest since 1870 or so. Around 1905 or so, many years before World War II, over 20,000 returned to Israel from the nations of the world. In 1935 alone, well before 1948, 50,000 people of Hebrew descent returned to the land. This is only the tip of the iceberg. As Americans we have a tendency to only be aware of people returning from America but they have come from all the nations. Year after year the return has gone on. On this trip, we met a young black Israeli lady who was a soldier who had migrated from Ethiopia to be in the land. After almost two thousand years of obscurity the Hebrew language has been reborn and is in practice every day. Against all odds these things have happened and the sole root and answer for this "impossible occurrence” cannot be it all came about because of secular Zionism and carnal desires to lift up Jewry again. Over almost two thousand years, the desire to return to their ancient homeland still lived in the hearts of the Jews of the Diaspora. Now the Lord is allowing a return even if it appears to be lacking certain vital qualities we want to see as believers. In spite of what is still lacking, the nations of the world need to be warned that interfering in this present return, as incomplete and lacking belief as it does in many ways, is a sin against God and any and all such actions by the nations will be held accountable.
Soulen has observed,
"As the story of the Exodus shows, God's curse does not necessarily fall upon all parties in equal measure. God can single out the nations for curse, according to the saying, "The one who curses you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3). The Scriptures return often to two negative images of the Gentiles: as idolaters and as blood enemies of Israel and Israel's God. These two negative characteristics are joined at the root, because both stem from the nation's rejection of the truth that the Lord, the God of Israel, is God. Because this truth is manifest for all to see in the works of the Lord on Israel's behalf and in creation (Psalms 117, 126), the Gentiles are without excuse. They cannot claim to be idolaters and enemies of Israel "by nature.” Rather, the nations become these things historically because of their unwillingness to accept God's blessings in solidarity with the people of Israel.” [1]
A greater piece of insight than this may be hard to come by! And now, if the church is to fulfill what it sees as its mandate in the last days, it must include a warning to the nations regarding their hostility to the everlasting covenant manifested in large part by the Lord's choice of Israel. If the idolatrous nations stand in defiance of the everlasting covenant then they historically have stood in opposition to Israel. If the nations stand in defiance of Israel they are automatically standing in defiance of the everlasting covenant. Of this transgression, the nations must be made keenly aware. The prophetic witness must go out from the church, not only to warn Israel of a time of coming trouble but this witness must also sound a grave and sober warning to the defiant nations. They must be left with a clear and understandable witness of the dangers of that which they embark on in their collusion against Israel which is really only a exposure of the secret thoughts and intentions of their heart set against God. Nonetheless, this interference with Israel will not go unpunished. The nations must know. I suggest that perhaps the church may have placed such an emphasis on warning the people and the land of Israel of the coming time of Jacob's trouble that it has forgotten to a degree that it should also be about warning the nations. The nations and the church are treading on sacred ground with hob nail boots if they oppose or criticize or malign this present return in spite of all the things this present return seems to be lacking.
God's arm is not so short that He cannot raise up a prepared witness in the land to address the things that must be addressed to the people and the land. By way of mention, when was the last time we purposefully set aside a time or a day and prayed earnestly toward this end?
Is seeing the present residents of the land and being softened in one's heart toward them falling prey to soulish sentimentality toward Israel or can it be the compassion of God moving within? It's easy to criticize the land and the people from a distance but flesh to flesh encounters with these very residents can change and soften one's attitude a bit. By way of example, when one speaks of war casualties it is usually done in a very impersonal way. If so many lost their lives in so and so battle a sterile and impersonal number is usually released to designate the number of casualties. The figures never can convey the highly personal tragedy and suffering and emotions that accompanied each death. Many individuals and their life stories and their belonging to families who loved them are swept away in the volume of impersonal figures. No name or personal histories are ever given. Just a cold number. We grieve in mass at such numbers but each individual and the trauma of his demise is hidden. In much the same way, one can criticize in mass modern Israel and its "returnees” and effectively wipe away and hide untold number of personal lives and struggles. There is no greater personal human drama than likely has ever occurred in human history as when European Jewry in particular began trying to pick up the pieces of their families after World War II. One impersonal barb from our mouths regarding Israel's continued unbelief can be a highly personal insult to Israel and its present occupants and what their personal struggles have been. What is to be said regarding people who returned to Israel and lived willingly in tents for seven years just so they could be in the land? What is to be said to people who have returned from over 100 nations of the world and endured much personal hardship and personal inconvenience so as to be able to live in the land? We need a softening of heart regarding this highly personal and emotional pilgrimage and not see it as just vain and nationalistic strivings cut free and separate from any motivation from on high. Of course one should not trust in the return itself as the salvific end of the matter. Yet it seems so many prophets who trumpet their calling to speak a hard word to modern Israel are not yet softened and weeping at the altar as the phrase goes. If a hard word must come will it come from callous hearts that can sweep aside the struggles of many generations with one careless impersonal word or sentence? In so doing the word of the Lord we are inclined to think we will be speaking will be done in a manner akin to releasing impersonal lists of war casualties. One can have prophetic accuracy without the heart of God. A softening of our hearts needs to occur and if God is going to send prophets He knows how to properly prepare them. Being moved with compassion for the modern residents of Israel, even in their unbelief, may not just be succumbing to overly emotional sentimentality regarding Israel. Where are the tears and inner burden that should accompany the prophets? "O Lord, tears run down my face day and night because of the condition of your people and your land!” Words from the Lord should be accompanied by pools of tears comng from a broken heart.
As said before, even if it is not what we want to eventually see and still lacks many of the essential ingredients of real faith that distinguishes the true descendants of Abraham, I propose that this present return to Israel should be treated with the utmost fear and reverence. If Israel needs to be warned then the nations of the world need also to be warned that they are storing up divine wrath. In opposing Israel. The prophetic calling to Israel and the same prophetic calling to inform and warn the nations go hand in hand. A true priestly intercessor, one who does not regard itself important, and living with a broken heart living for the profit of others, will be willing to stand in the gap. If Israel is presently being restored (not just beginning at Jacob's trouble) then true priestly brokenness and character for the purpose of true selfless intercession and witness will of necessity also need to be restored in the church. A shallow and unbroken display of this priestliness is not going to work in regards to Israel and any coming witness to them. If the Church feels called to address Israel, it must see a calling to warn the nations as going hand in hand. The nations need to be warned and given clear witness that interfering and opposing this present return and any future actions in accordance with this opposition will be a exceedingly grave and sinful act. The end of days and the end of the age is about more than just solving Israel's present spiritual blindness regarding Christ although that is primary. It is also about the final sinful assault of the nations against the ancient covenant people and the everlasting covenant. In God's overall workings, this present return should not be seen as a event of slighter or lesser significance than any emphasis we may place on a post tribulational return. That's not down playing the severity of Jacob's trouble to come or the redemptive benefits that will be realized at a post tribulational return. Not at all. Yet the horse's mouth, real life people speaking in real life terms of their experiences of returning to the land, speak as loud and as clear as any prophetic voice we may have grown accustomed listening to that would downplay this return more than is called for or is based in reality. All I can offer to fellow believers in the Lord who may be reading this is that I am just sharing from my own experience and what happened to me. No hand of human guidance stood beside me in the land and guided and cajoled me in this direction. I have no other motives than to just share and place this forward for our collective consideration. If if was just me receiving a needed adjustment in my views then so be it.
Summing up again, my experience was that while visiting with and fellowshipping with the various peoples in the land, I experienced and discerned a undeniable inner witness that this present return is not about political Zionism, wordly aspirations and Jewish tenacity ONLY. In my opinion, for whatever it is worth, there is much more of God in this present return than I ever imagined. The final asaults against this land and its people may be to divinely sift and prune and gather a final believing remnant but it can also be known and believed that it is going to be a brazen and EXCEEDINGLY SINFUL ACT OF INIQUITY by the nations as they oppose the everlasting covenant. Meanwhile, this present return has God written all over it in my opinion. A mocking church and a blind league of nations have already begun storing up wrath against themselves. This present return should not be downplayed as lacking any real and lasting relevance in the Lord's always wise and perfect workings.
[1] Soulen, Kendall R., The God of Israel and Christian Theology. 1996, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 426 S. Fifth St, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN (55440),. Chapter 7, "The Scriptures: Curse And Redemption, 145.)