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‘“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!’” says your God. ‘“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins,’” (Isaiah 40:1-2, NKJV). The glorious Second Coming of Jesus Christ is tied in very important part to the divine promise to deliver and comfort remnant Jews in Israel and scattered over the face of the earth after all of their many centuries of travail at the Lord’s hand for sin (Isaiah 40:3-5, 9-11; Jeremiah 30:10-11). For bound up in the second phase of Christ’s work from the Father is His awesome coming for vengeance and the comfort of His people (Isaiah 61:1-2; Matthew 5:4).
In the soon coming day of Israel’s comfort by the Lord, it will have been thoroughly fulfilled what was first written by Moses that He “will judge His people,” (Deuteronomy 32:36a, NKJV). In lieu of annihilation for transgression, sin and iniquity--as was done to many similarly guilty nations--to include instigating the death of their King (Zephaniah 3:1-7; Matthew 27:11-26), the Lord destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and scattered the people to the four winds in AD 70 as double punishment (Jeremiah 30:12-15; Hosea 3:1-5, 5:8-15). With all of the foretold horrors of suffering that followed, yearning for the land of Zion continued until the Lord in step with His prophetic Word at the turn of the 20th century began to show He was again hearing Israel’s cry (Psalm 44, 74, 79, 80, 106:40-48).
After two world wars, the victorious nations in pity for unspeakable Jewish suffering consented to accept the formal creation of a Jewish State, even Israel on May 14, 1948. Immediately, the new nation was at war and against all odds prevailed in it and the several that have followed (Isaiah 66:5-9). However, scattered Israel’s troubles and sorrows as double punishment from the Lord are not yet over. In the buildup to the time of “Jacob’s trouble” looming large ahead in which out of fear of Him the nations will permit the temple to be rebuilt, God alone will prevail for His people (Jeremiah 30:4-9; Revelation 7:1-8, 8-11:2). When their strength is gone and there is no hope, then my God in compassion shall again act to deliver Israel (Deuteronomy 32:36; Psalm 46; Jeremiah 30:16-24).
Why does God do this for Israel? Is it not because God is a God of grace and mercy and they are His chosen people that He loves with an everlasting love; gathering them back to Himself in the land of promise (Deuteronomy 7:6-11; Isaiah 41:8-16, 43:1-13, 49:14-21, 51:1-16; Jeremiah 31; Romans 11:1-10)? The Lord will come down from Heaven before every eye to deliver His people, the remnant of Israel and comfort them with grace and forgiveness in all of their mourning especially over what their 1st century forefathers did to Him and their own unbelief (Psalm 18:1-17; Isaiah 51:17-52:10, 66:10-17; Micah 7:14-20; Zechariah 12:10-13:1, 7-9). Immediately, the Lord will also summon the remaining scattered Jews to Him in Israel (Isaiah 11:11-14; Zephaniah 3:8-13).
They will come weeping and singing for joy from the four corners of the earth to which they were scattered with the Lord’s power on display to help them (Isaiah 11:15-16, 35, 49:8-13; Micah 4:1-8). Some will be assisted by surviving Gentiles who also rejoice with them in this latest and last foretold turnabout in one of the greatest love stories in the history of the world; God and Israel, reconciled in and by Christ forever (Isaiah 49:22-26)! When they are all gathered to the Lord in the land, then He shall heal and restore them completely as part of His comfort; giving them “beauty for ashes,” joy in the Holy Spirit for mourning and new clothes of praise (Isaiah 61:3; Zechariah 8:1-8, NKJV)!
The redeemed sons of Jacob shall also set about under the leadership of Christ their King to “rebuild the old ruins,” “raise up the former desolations,” “repair the ruined cities” and enjoy all of the many blessings He shall bestow upon them as they move forward in their divinely ordained eternal comfort (Isaiah 61:4-9; Zephaniah 3:14-20, NKJV). Finally, they will live in the peace and security they have longed for; peace and security only the Almighty God can provide (Jeremiah 23:5-8; Ezekiel 28:24-26, 34:25-31)! They, for their part will overflow with continuing joy in Christ their King and the blessings of righteousness bestowed on them by the Father before all nations (Isaiah 61:10-11; Ezekiel 39:21-29).
Now, in these latter days it is important that faithful Christians stand for support with unredeemed Israel in their ancient land and scattered over the earth in accord with the working of God. Understanding though, that only a tiny, elect, mortal remnant will see Christ come, it is of the greatest importance to facilitate the proclamation of the Gospel to them especially by their own redeemed, messianic brethren so that many will be saved. For indeed, the visible vindication and comfort of the saints composed of multitudes of Jews and Gentiles made righteous in Christ by faith and resurrected to immortal glory at His appearing will coalesce with all of God’s foretold promises of comfort to that surviving, mortal remnant of Israel (Romans 11:11-15)!
Israel is forever the natural branches of the olive tree God planted and He comes to deliver that we Gentiles in certain number He knows are grafted into. To see it any other way is blatant arrogance and damnable heresy (Romans 11:16-29). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
Angels are “ministering spirits” according to Scripture whose natural form as created by God is solely spirit (Psalm 104:4; Hebrews 1:7, 14, NKJV). But man was created by God to be housed in a body whether of composition from the dust of the earth as the first Adam or of eternal spirit as the Second Adam, Jesus Christ from Heaven who was made mortal to suffer death in saving fallen mankind and resurrected to immortal glory (Genesis 2:7; 1 Corinthians 15:44b-50)! Therefore, it is unnatural for man to be disembodied, yet, God has permitted it as the temporary experience and consequence of sin (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:17-19; Romans 5:12; Hebrews 2:9, 9:27-28).
Nevertheless, even the unnatural condition of being disembodied God has made wonderful for those from creation that have looked to Him in faith. In this edited 2013 repost, marvel you saints at the awesome works of our God who has made comforting provision for us in between the death of the body and our soon coming resurrection to immortal glory all brought to light by the death, burial, resurrection, ascension and glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 1:8-10)!
Originally Posted April 14, 2013
According to Luke’s Gospel account, just before His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus told the repentant thief crucified with Him, ‘“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise,’” (Luke 23:43, NKJV). After awhile, the Son spoke directly and finally to His Father saying, ‘“Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,’” then “breathed His last” (Luke 23:46, NKJV). Clearly, even a casual consideration of these two statements of Jesus on the cross indicates He was fully expecting to be alive on the same day He was to die on the cross. How can this be?
The resolution is that while Christ’s body did die on that cross, His eternally joined spirit and soul remained alive as do all human spirits and souls when the body dies! The human spirit and soul are a package deal though functionally different as seen at the creation of man and strongly implied in Scripture thereafter (Isaiah 42:5, 57:15-16; Mark 12:29-30, 14:34-38). Indeed, as the living Word of God, Christ absolutely knows the place of their division (Hebrews 4:12) and knew exactly what He was entrusting to the protection of His Father at the death of His body. As the Lord taught, ‘“God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,’” (Matthew 22:31-32; Mark 12:26-27; Luke 20:37-38, NKJV).
Be clear at this point that though all human spirits (understood to include the soul in tandem and vice versa going forward) live in terms of existence after the body dies, only born again Christians enjoy the qualitatively superior “eternal life” of God through relationship with Him stemming from salvation by faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13, 3:1-8, 14-15, 10:10, 11:25, 17:1-3, NKJV)! Otherwise, the wicked having died separated from God spiritually (Isaiah 59:1-2), remain in that condition and await a bodily resurrection to endure what is described as a “second death” in the lake of fire forever (Revelation 20:6, 11-15, NKJV). Consequently, let the saints heed the Lord (Matthew 10:27-31)!
The spirit of man separates from the body at death which renders it disembodied. So, where does it go? As noted in my blog, God Raises The Dead! under the category The Faith, the Lord Jesus Christ expressed a confidence toward God the Father through His forefather, king David, a thousand years in advance that He would not leave His soul in Sheol (the Old Testament term for the abode of the dead or disembodied called Hades in the New Testament) or let His body decay and would instead raise Him from the dead (Psalm 16:9b-11a; Acts 2:27-28a).
Always in absolute control of His creation, the holy God established that disembodied human spirits from fallen Adam should abide away from Him because of sin guilt and defilement until future divine disposition in a location that is in the bowels of the earth as understood by the often associated term “down” with the place of the disembodied (Numbers 16:28-34; 17:13-16; Matthew 11:23, NKJV). Truly, when the prophet Samuel was permitted of God to appear to king Saul he came “up” from the earth (1 Samuel 28:7-14, NKJV). Apparently, the teaching of the Rabbis in 1st century Israel that this place under the earth holding departed human spirits is divided according to divine will was correct.
The Lord did not challenge this thinking in His parable of the rich man and Lazarus found in Luke 16:19-31. In order to be meaningful for its hearers, a parable must have things in it that are familiar and relatable to them. In the parable warning of the consequence of being caught up in the riches of this life and ignoring the teaching of God’s Word containing His priorities, the Lord shows Hades divided at least in half--other portions of Scripture reveal a special place of lockdown for chained fallen angels as well (ex. 2 Peter 2:4). “Abraham’s bosom” figuratively representing a paradise of comfort and rest is where the beggar, Lazarus, ended up upon death while the rich man was tormented in flames. He saw “Abraham afar off” and learned they were separated by a “great gulf fixed” that neither could cross (Luke 16:22-26, NKJV).
That God would create a divide where condemned sinners suffer and His people are comforted and protected is plainly seen in the way He made such a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites during the plagues He brought on the land of Egypt in the Exodus (Exodus 8:20-23). In Samuel’s disembodied appearance to Saul, he seemed to be annoyed that he had been disturbed--not the attitude you would expect if his spirit and soul were in torment (1 Samuel 28:15-19). Truly, Saul and his sons would join Samuel like the rich man with Abraham in the same place of the disembodied, but each in separate accommodations according to God’s judgment! Thus, with joyful anticipation of a restful paradise for saved by faith disembodied spirits under the earth, our Lord comforts the thief on the cross.
The so-called two-stage Second Coming of Christ where He first comes secretly to evacuate His Church from the earth before seven years of tribulation to include the last three and one half years of great tribulation and then returns after with the saints in glory is no where taught in Scripture. This heresy must be artificially constructed by starting with the false premise that especially the great tribulation is all God’s full on wrath and then fancifully reading into 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that it is His means of evacuation prior to. However, in context, the apostle Paul is not comforting his readers about an evacuation from tribulation of any kind or wrath. He comforts and instructs them about the saints who have died with his words about their return with Christ.
As we persevere through all of the foretold violent, global convulsions and persecution Christians face, we are instructed by God’s Word to stand firm on it through faith and the hope resident in us by the assuring presence of the Holy Spirit while waiting for the Kingdom to come (Romans 8:22-25)! Be encouraged to do so by God’s prophetic Word in this edited 2012 blog repost.1
Originally Posted July 22, 2012
A night of spiritual darkness is falling and must remain until the dawn of God’s new Day and Kingdom come to earth at the appearing of Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12)! Like a skilled chest player our God is now perfectly positioning every player (good and evil) into place in order to execute the final moves He will make at just the right time that lead to His checkmate of evil in wrath (Revelation 6:12-17). In that Day, our Lord will stand triumphant in Jerusalem; reigning and presiding over the restoration of creation in a new beginning wherein all of the promises of God made to His faithful saints and the nation of Israel will be fulfilled (Isaiah 2:1-4, 11:1-10; Jeremiah 33:14-16).
Every aspiring strong man and great woman of God is comforted and encouraged in the hard things we endure in the meantime by our hope in faith that our Lord Jesus is soon to return. This hope is not just a wish sustained by knowing the written Word of truth from which it springs. No, ours is a “living hope” empowered by the Spirit of God who lives in our hearts (1 Peter 1:3, NKJV). He even marks us out as belonging to God for the Day of God in Christ at His appearing (Ephesians 4:30). While we faithfully labor in the Kingdom cause of our Lord through the Gospel here and now, we also long with tearful prayers at times for the Kingdom to come (Matthew 6:9-10).
One day very soon, we will see undeniable evidence in the sky and on earth God is hearing those prayers (Revelation 8:1-6). The saints are not only praying for the Kingdom to come on our behalf, but in line with Bible prophecy, we pray also for the sake of Israel in the land and scattered across the face of the earth. Indeed, in praying “for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6), we are praying for the “Prince of Peace,” Jesus Christ, to return, take His rightful place on David’s throne and restore Israel securely in her land as promised by God through all of His ancient prophets (see the following Scriptures as a tiny sampling: Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Isaiah 9:6-7, 11:11-16, Jeremiah 30:1-3; Ezekiel 36:1-15; Hosea 3:4-5, Micah 4:1-8; Zechariah 14, NKJV).
Besides taking the Gospel to the world (Acts 1:6-8), God has also been keeping His Word to punish Israel for her sins including the rejection of His Chosen until the time allotted is completed (Hosea 5:8-15; Luke 19:41-44, 21:20-24). Scattered Israel’s most severe trouble is straight ahead in the night that is falling (Jeremiah 30:4-7). When it is all over, she will be comforted after having received even double for her sins from the Lord’s hand (Isaiah 40:1-2; Jeremiah 16:14-18). Those comforted will be an elect the Lord has chosen for Himself; a mortal remnant of His ancient people to bless at the appearing and Kingdom of Christ.
God will deal with this remnant as He did their fathers in the wilderness of Sinai in preparing them to enter the Promised Land. Their brokenness and repentance will give way to great joy as they enter into the Lord’s Kingdom (Jeremiah 3:11-18, 31:1-14; Ezekiel 20:33-44, 36:16-38; Hosea 6:1-3; Zechariah 12:10-13:1; Revelation 7:1-8, 12:1-6, 13-17). The resurrected saints will reign under Christ over the entire creation and on earth (Romans 8:18-21; Revelation 5:8-10) while His twelve apostles will judge the twelve tribes of Israel for a thousand years (Luke 22:28-30; Revelation 20:4-6).
It has been my fearful honor to personally witness to and support the efforts of Jewish Christian Ministries to reach the Jewish people with the message of salvation through the Gospel intended for them first (John 4:22; Acts 3:25-26; Romans 1:16, 9:1-5, 30-10:4). As a Gentile, I am a debtor to the Jews on two accounts. First, as the apostle Paul so eloquently instructs, I have been grafted into their already standing natural olive tree and have no room to boast as tragically some professing Gentile Christians have arrogantly done by declaring God is done with the Jews as a nation (Romans 11).
Second, I owe them for their written spiritual heritage which God recorded in the Bible. That heritage informed the faith of my Christian slave forefathers and now informs my own as I wait for God’s Kingdom to come to Israel and the earth (Isaiah 65:19-25, 66:5-13)!
1 In honor of this month devoted to praying for Christians suffering persecution around the earth, Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. is making the message the Lord gave me, The Call To Christians To Persevere available for free download in the Strong Man Store from November 13-19, 2015. Do not miss the opportunity to be instructed and challenged by this Holy Spirit energized message drawn from the Word of God. Pray for our brethren suffering severe persecution now to persevere; our time is at the door!
The millennium reign of Jesus Christ as the first part of God’s eternal day fulfills His promise of comfort and restoration to Israel beyond Jewish imagination after suffering His punishment under the tyranny of the Gentiles so long.1 For as the Gentiles had their “times” in this present world and age, the Jews in the millennium reign of Christ will have theirs as part of God’s eternal day (Deuteronomy 28:58-68; Hosea 6:1-3; Zechariah 8:11-23; Luke 21:20-24, NKJV).2 Truly, all of the surviving nations on earth will bountifully benefit from the Kingdom rule of Christ and His glorified immortal saints since there will be peace, justice, fairness and prosperity (Psalm 99:1-5; Isaiah 2:1-4, 11:1-9, 25:6-9).3
Even so, this first part of God’s planned eternal day is limited to only a millennium by design because one of His major objectives is the restoration of holiness to all of His Kingdom forever! This necessitates an end to the first part of His eternal day and bringing in of a second which follows His complete crushing of Satan, sin and death. For this cause Satan and his demonic hordes were only temporarily incarcerated under the earth, while mortals still as sinners are present on it during the millennium. It is amazing how without the instigating efforts of evil, but with the fear of the Lord the sinful deeds of mortal mankind are curtailed during the millennium (Micah 4:3; Malachi 3:4-5)!
Satan must be crushed because in the second part of God’s eternal day He will no longer tolerate His fallen angel as a continuing futile rival and instigator of rebellion and opposition against Him (Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-16; Romans 16:20). Hence, an '“everlasting fire'” away from God was long ago '“prepared for the devil and his angels'” in which men only join them because of refusing to repent from their evil works of sin and turn to Christ in faith for salvation (Matthew 25:41, NKJV). Indeed, because of their evil works of sin not forgiven, mortal human sinners cannot enter the Kingdom of God and eternally dwell in His presence for three important reasons.
God is holy as the first reason (Psalm 99:9; Isaiah 6:1-5; Revelation 4:8-11)! Because God is holy, He is absolutely offended by sin and reflexively condemns its source. God loves man, but when our forefather, Adam, sinned, God followed through with His forewarned consequence of death (separation) both spiritual and physical upon him and us his progeny (Genesis 2:15-17, 3:17-19, 22-24, 5:1-5). Sin in our bodies then, separates us from the presence of God Most Holy (Isaiah 59:1-8) who would instantly breakout upon and destroy the unholy sinner that dares approach Him (Exodus 19:10-15) or transgress in His face as happened to two sinning priests of Israel (Leviticus 10:1-3)!4
This leads to the second reason mortal men “cannot inherit the Kingdom of God:” His natural realm is spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:50, NKJV). Finally, the body, spirit or soul could not endure nor will God keep His anger toward sinners forever (Genesis 6:3; Isaiah 57:15-16). This is why He never considered such a thing. But from eternity as God planned for the creation of man it was purposed that his first form be mortal to suffer death for his foreknown sin and after, become immortal; Christ preeminently unveiling and making the metamorphosis possible through His experience in the Gospel proclaimed to the world we Christians await (1 Corinthians 15:35-49, 51-57; 2 Timothy 1:8-12)!5
Therefore, in accord with the foreknowledge and infinite wisdom of God, Satan is released from his prison at the end of the millennium reign of Christ and His glorified immortal saints and the first part of God’s planned eternal day. He immediately instigates a rebellion against the Lord by the mortal Gentile nations and gathers them to Jerusalem to also attack Israel (Ezekiel 38:1-17; Revelation 20:7-8). However, God the Father from Heaven intervenes to destroy all of the rebels and the entire physical creation with holy fire, while Satan is thrown into the “lake of fire,” (Ezekiel 39:5-6; 2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 20:9-10, NKJV).6 This is followed by Christ resurrecting and judging the unsaved dead; casting them with “Death and Hades” into the fire too (Revelation 20:11-15, NKJV).
Then, the Father as foretold creates “a new heaven and a new earth” and brings down “the holy city, New Jerusalem;” launching the second part of His plan from eternity that He should dwell up close and Personal with His redeemed creatures (Revelation 21:1-3, NKJV). In this ‘“new’” and final part of His eternal day, God eliminates every vestige of relational separation, grief and hurts from the ‘“former’” mortal ages and again certifies His actions with ‘“It is done!’”7 He assures the overcoming saint he ‘“shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son,’” (Revelation 21:4-8, NKJV). We will live together with, learn from and serve God and Christ in the indescribably glorious and beautifully Jewish accented New Jerusalem “forever and ever,” (Revelation 21:9-22:5, NKJV)!8
1 Read the August 13, 2023 post, There Is A New Beginning!, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
2 See the June 12, 2016 post, The Day Of Israel’s Comfort, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
3 See the September 24, 2017 post, Christ To Restore All Things, under the categories Bible Prophecy and The Cause.
4 Professed Christians practicing sin in the face of Christ are assured of His chastening in Scripture (1 Corinthians 11:23-32; Revelation 3:19). This being so, He calls for His wayward sheep in the pews and pulpits to turn back to Him in this Ministry’s latest Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, on YouTube. Isn’t your life worth thirty minutes?
5 The Lord led me to write on the topic of His design of man to be mortal as a first stage, then, immortal as a second in posts that run from July 3, 2016 through August 14, 2016.
6 For more on these events read the December 27, 2015 post, People And Guns, under the category, Biblical Worldview and the one on November 13, 2022, Jesus Christ: God’s Perfect King, under the category, Glory To God!
7 Read the August 6, 2023 post, The Last Day Of The End, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
8 Being eternal sons, disciples and servants is the destiny of every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:7) as He leads me to unflinchingly write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available in the Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Editions along with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
I will soon wrap up the series of posts the Lord Jesus Christ has led me to make since November 27, 2022 examining His foreknowledge then, literal experience of persecution to the death in God’s will as an instructional example to us Christians. Before this though, I want to revisit an event and a person in those posts that impact critical issues in our times. Today, on this Sanctity Of Life Sunday dedicated to urging every citizen in our nation to treat human life beginning at conception as from God and sacred (Psalm 139:13-16; Isaiah 44:24; Luke 1:30-35), I bring the Lord’s Word and a warning to those who continue to wickedly clamor for the right to murder the unborn.
The event that inspires this post is Herod’s massacre of the male children two years old and under in Bethlehem and its surrounding districts in his attempt to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ as a young Child he feared as a rival to his throne.1 Make no mistake about it; the dark and evil heart that could murder babies and toddlers out of the motives of fear and narcissism is the same one in those that would take out the unborn in their mother’s wombs. I know this from the forgiven guilt and shame of having been a teen father that gave consent as well as relieved endorsement to the abortion of my children before and during the days of Roe v. Wade as I wrote in previous posts and my book.2
The apostle Matthew is led by the Holy Spirit in his Gospel to comment on Herod’s massacre of the children that it “fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah; lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more,’” (Matthew 2:17-18, NKJV). At first glance, it seems that the Lord simply foretells this event over 600 years in advance rightly acknowledging the grief of the Bethlehem mothers figuratively represented by a woman named Rachel, but quite unfeelingly offering no explanation of why or comfort. However, deeper Bible study bears great fruit showing otherwise!3
Led by the Holy Spirit, a deeper Bible study involves examining the background of Rachel and God’s prophecy as it originally appears in context. Indeed, Rachel is the second of two wives of Jewish patriarch, Jacob, that were sisters when he was sent to get one by his father, Isaac, from his mother’s people (Genesis 28:1-5). He meets and falls in love with Rachel and works seven years per agreement with her father, Laban, to marry her. But Laban deceitfully sent in his older daughter, Leah, when it was time to consummate the marriage and gave Rachel to Jacob only if he served him another seven years--he did (Genesis 29:1-30). The women competed to bear him children.
Leah and her maid gave Jacob eight sons and one daughter, while the maid of barren Rachel bore him two sons. By God’s grace Rachel was finally able to conceive and bore Joseph to Jacob (Genesis 29:31-30:24). She also bore him the last of his twelve sons, Benjamin; dying in the process with great sorrow and was buried as the family made their way from Bethel to “Ephrath” “(that is, Bethlehem),” (Genesis 35:16-20, NKJV). Though she had borne him fewer children than Leah, Rachel is considered the mother of all Israel because Jacob loved her. Her burial location would prove significant in what are actually two future events involving Rachel’s children.
In Jeremiah’s day hundreds of years later, Babylon’s invasions of Judah as God’s judgment yielded captives that were marched in chains on the well traveled road northward from Bethlehem and other cities to various staging locations that included Ramah (Jeremiah 40:1-6). The Lord used Rachel as the mother of Israel to figuratively represent all the affected mothers weeping at their children being taken away. But this Word was given in the larger context of Jeremiah 30-33 as God spoke of a future day when He brings a remnant back to the land complete with Messiah their King and “a new covenant,” (Jeremiah 31:31-34, NKJV). So, He tells Rachel to ‘“Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears for your work will be rewarded…,’” (Jeremiah 31:16-17, NKJV).
There was hope for the future because God would bring Rachel’s children that were taken back as a remnant to Israel’s border (Isaiah 49:8-26)! But they are not all of them. As this prophecy is true in the natural, so too, in the spiritual and applies to the male children Herod killed instead of Christ. They live as does every unborn child ever aborted (Ecclesiastes 12:7)! The innocents killed by Herod died in Christ’s place so He could live and die for them and all mankind on the cross!4 As a result, the innocents will be raised at Christ’s command among all who have ever lived and with the saints, enjoy immortal glory (Psalm 90:3-4; Isaiah 26:19; Luke 20:37-38; John 5:24-30, 11:23-27). Woe to all the unrepentant murderers of the unborn (Genesis 9:5-6; Revelation 20:11-15)!5
1 Read the December 18, 2022 post, Christ Persecuted As A Child, under the category, Instruction.
2 Concerning previous posts see for example, the one on January 21, 2018, Protecting Our Children, under the category, Biblical Worldview. You can pick up a Soft or Hard Cover copy of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore and the Strong Man Store.
3 If you want to learn how to get the most out of your Bible study, I invite you to take the layman’s Fruitful Bible Study Self-Paced Video Course the Lord led me to develop to help. Get an overview of the course in the introductory first session at https://youtu.be/uufAkc3aYSc on our Strong Man Virtual Institute YouTube Channel.
4 The unborn and young children are not without the nature and taint of sin from Adam (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12). So, it must be atoned for as Christ accomplished on Cal- vary. They are however, innocent of willful sin because of not having yet reached the age of accountability before God which is generally when they have the ability to un- derstand biblical right from wrong (Proverbs 20:11; James 4:17).
5 While I and to be sure, every other born again, biblically conservative Christian advocate for the unborn in America continue to rejoice in the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, the spirit of murder behind legalized abortion remains intact and influential throughout the land (John 8:44). This is evident in the protest marches and persecution of Christians to include attacks on associated properties such as churches, businesses and pregnancy resource centers that have erupted. It is also seen in the efforts State by State to retain legal sanction for murdering the unborn and once again grant it nationally, this time through congressional legislation. Let all deceived and led by the spirit of murder to kill the unborn recognize if you will that the Lord is being gracious to allow you the opportunity to give heed to His warning and repent now, since no such opportunity will be offered on judgment day (2 Corinthians 5:9-11)!
No one has been waiting longer for a single event than the Jews! Indeed, as an ethnic people they have been waiting for the coming of their King, the Son of David, nearly three thousand years if one begins at God’s covenant with their second king; almost four thousand years if God’s promise of a “Seed” made to Abraham is the starting point (Genesis 22:18; 2 Samuel 7:12-17; Galatians 3:15-18). The many wait to this day for God’s Anointed and their King as a never having ever occurred event because as their first century forefathers in unbelief, they did not take to heart the prophecy of Daniel for example, that counted down the time of His coming (Daniel 9:20-27).
The birth of Jesus of Nazareth not only perfectly fit Daniel’s prophetic timeline, but the prophesied genealogy of Israel’s King as the Son of David and Abraham as well as the miraculous nature of His conception and place of birth foretold in complete accuracy some seven hundred years before (Matthew 1:1-2:12; Luke 2:1-7)!1 And though He did many miraculous signs and wonders and taught among them with authority, knowledge and wisdom as no one ever before (or since), the Jewish religious leaders especially refused to believe in and rejected Him; instigating His death on the cross to be rid of Him (John 4:46-54, 6:1-21, 7:10-52, 11:45-57, 12:37-41, 18:1-14, 19:1-24, 28-30).
This all happened as Peter later preached to the Jews after the Lord’s resurrection according to “the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God,” (Acts 2:22-24, NKJV). The divine purpose was as the high priest unwittingly prophesied: ‘“...it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish,’” (John 11:49-52, NKJV). Thus, through the evil plotting and treachery of their religious leaders, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ occurred precisely as the Jewish prophets (including king David) had foretold far in advance to save the willing from their sins among them first (Psalm 69:1-21; Isaiah 50:4-6, 52:13-53; Acts 2:25-40, 3:18-26)!2
But thanks be to God from this Gentile among all others who have been saved by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ since the Gospel began to be proclaimed to us also by His apostles beginning with Peter according to His foretold will and plan (Isaiah 42:5-9, 49:1-6, 61:1-2; John 3:16-17; Acts 1:4-8, 10:1-48). After this, the Lord called and specially set apart another Jewish man to be His apostle to us Gentiles; Saul of Tarsus, also named Paul whose calling and conversion I recently wrote about.3 His missionary journeys and tireless labor brought the Gospel to Gentiles throughout much of the Roman Empire; paving the way for our joy the world over (Romans 15:7-13)!
Meantime, while not excluding the Jews from continuing to hear the Gospel of salvation and the coming Kingdom (Romans 10:14-11:6), during this nearly now, 2,000 years of “the times of the Gentiles” in world dominance and evangelistic focus God has also been fulfilling all that the Jewish prophets beginning with Moses and the Lord Jesus spoke concerning their punishment for sin to include rejecting Him (Deuteronomy 28:58-68; Jeremiah 16:1-13; Luke 13:34-35, 19:41-44, 21:20-24; Romans 11:7-10; 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16, NKJV). And though after being scattered from the land 1,878 years Israel is back in it, “great tribulation” and grief still lie ahead (Matthew 24:15-25, NKJV).
When at last the time of Israel’s comfort comes--the Day of the Lord and triumphant arrival of her long awaited King, she will have “received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins,” (Isaiah 40:1-2; Jeremiah 16:14-18, NKJV).4 The tiny, mortal elect remnant that sees the Lord’s coming will understand what they formerly did not; namely, that their one foretold Messiah and King would come twice (Revelation 1:7, 7:1-8). His first coming was to save them from their sins as God’s “once for all” sacrifice (Romans 1:16-17; Hebrews 9:1-10:18, NKJV). Resurrected, ascended and glorified He returns to fulfill the promises of salvation to the redeemed, deliver remnant Israel and restore David’s kingdom (Isaiah 1:7-9, 10:20-23, 11:11-16; Jeremiah 23:5-8; Ezekiel 37; Romans 11:11-36)!
Consequently, God’s specially marked out and preserved, but unconverted mortal remnant of Jews will receive His promised Messiah and King of Israel; Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God and David who came, was rejected and now, has returned “with great power and glory” as He assured (Mark 13:24-27, NKJV)! In that day, the remnant of Israel will mourn, repent and receive forgiveness (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). They with the entire world will know why the Jews have suffered so. Then, under their King, the nation and the land will be restored exceedingly beyond the days of David’s reign so that they are the times of the Jews throughout the whole earth (Isaiah 49:7-26; Ezekiel 36, 39:21-29; Zechariah 2, 8:18-23, 14:16-21)! The King waits only on His Father for this (Psalm 110).
1 Read the two-part December 2013 repost, Jesus: The Jewish Messiah, under the category, Holidays, the first post of January 28, 2014.
2 For this cause, I rejoiced when the Lord led me to use the rendition of the praise song, Praise Adonai, by Messianic Jewish Worship Leader, Paul Wilbur, in our first Strong
Man Of God Online Rally. Seeing Jewish Christians who were the first take their place among us Gentiles at this hour means we have now, come full circle from the first
century (Luke 13:22-30). This is also yet another sign the Lord is at hand! Nevertheless, He warns Jewish Christians they should not be corrupted by any Gentile Christian
adulation or heretical doctrines nor should they be accorded infallibility by Gentile Christians apart from God’s whole Word as it is written (Acts 10:24-26, 15:1-21; Titus 1:
10-16; 2 Peter 1:16-2:3). You can view the Online Rally on our Web Site Page, https://thestrongmanofGod.org/Webcast or if you prefer, directly at this genuine and safe
YouTube link, https://youtu.be/m78j5JaRrIc.
3 See the August 1, 2021 post, Jesus Christ King And Judge!, under the category, Instruction.
4 Read the June 12, 2016 post, The Day Of Israel’s Comfort, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
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