DATE: – SUNDAY 18TH OCTOBER, 2020
TOPIC: – THE ISRAELITES AND THE END TIME PROPHECY (Part 1)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Deuteronomy 28: 58 – 68
MEMORY VERSE: – “If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD” (Deuteronomy 28:58).
INTRODUCTION: – The most important signs of the end times are the ones relating to Israel because God uses the Jesus throughout the Scriptures and ages as His prophetic time clock. By this we mean that very often when God is revealing an important event that will take place in the future, He will point to the Israelites and state that when a certain thing happens to them, the important event will also occur. The Jews, therefore, are one of the key focal points of Bible prophecy.
Taking a look at the incredible prophecies that pertain to the Jews, we see that the end times are here.
LESSON OUTLINES
A) A Fulfilled Prophecies
1) Dispersion: – The Jews were warned repeatedly that they would be dispersed worldwide if they were not faithful to their covenant with God (Deut.28:64; Lev.26:33).
2) Persecution: – God graphically warned the Jews through Moses that they would be persecuted wherever they went (Deut.28:65).
3) Desolation: – God also promised that couple with the dispersion, their land would become “desolate” and their cities would become “waste” (Lev.26:33; Deut.28:22-23).
4) Preservation: – But God in His infinite mercy and marvelous grace promised He would preserve the Jewish race as a separate people during their worldwide wondering. God even said though a mother can forget a sucking child, yet, He will not forget the Jewish people (Isaiah 49:15-16; 66:22; Jer.30:11; 31:35-37).
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
God has fulfilled all of these prophecies during the past 2000 years. In 70 A.D, the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem and took the Jewish nation into captivity, desolating the land and scattering the Jewish people across the ends of the earth.
As prophesied, everywhere they went, they were terribly persecuted, with their persecution culminating in the Nazi Holocaust of World war II,
But according to His promise, God also preserved the Jews. The fulfillment of this prophesy has been one of the most remarkable miracles of history. No other people have every been so dispersed and yet been able to retain their identity as a nation and their language.
No wonder the Scriptures reveal the Jews as the apple of God’s eye (Zech.2:8), their land is described as holy (Zech.2:12). Their city of Jerusalem is termed “the center of the nations (Ezek.5:5).
They are pictured as the wayward wife of God (Ezek.16 and Hosea 1-6).
And the Bible makes it clear that they will be as the object of both God’s wrath (Jer.36:7) and His grace (Zech.13:1) in the end times.
QUESTIONS
- Which are the most important signs of the end times?
Enumerate the fulfilled prophecies concerning the Israelites.