What is going on with Israel?

It is the question on everyone’s mind. Unbelievers and the believers who don’t study prophecy are looking to us – to you – for answers.

The Bible tells the story of how a holy God can save sinful human beings without compromising. The only way it can be done is for God to become a man in order to substitute Himself for the sins of mankind.

In order to add humanity to His deity, God had to be miraculously born into the human race. And in order for that to happen, there needed to be a people, a nation, that was chosen by God as the humans He would descend from. That nation is Israel, and those people are the Jews.

Since Israel is critical to God’s plan, we expect Satan to marshal forces against them.

• He tried to keep Jesus from coming.
• Ever since that failed he has been trying to interfere with Jesus’ Second Coming by attempting to exterminate all Jews.

Modern Israel dwelling in her ancient homeland is a miracle and a fulfillment of prophecy. The Bible predicted the following:

• Israel would be scattered among the nations. Hosea 9:17, “My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; they will be wanderers among the nations.”
• Israel would be regathered to their land. Isaiah 11:12, “And He shall raise a banner to the nations, and He shall gather the lost of Israel, and the scattered ones of Judah He shall gather from the four corners of the earth.”
• Israel would be established as a nation again in her homeland. Isaiah 66:8, “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave birth to her children.” That day was May 14, 1948.
• Israel would be troublesome for all the nations. Zechariah 12:3, “And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.”

Israel is in her land, but the nation has not repented of rejecting their Messiah, Jesus Christ. God has designated a coming 7yr time of great tribulation for Israel. He calls it, The Time of Jacob’s Trouble. It will result in the death of ⅔ of the Jews, but the surviving ⅓ will be saved when Jesus returns.

If you’re wondering where in the Bible, exactly, this current war is prophesied, that’s not gonna happen. It is a precursor, perhaps, to something greater. For now we watch and stay in the big picture, not making outrageous claims.

Consider the current conflict a fulfillment of Jesus’ statement that in the build-up to the Time of Jacob’s Trouble there will be “wars and rumors of wars.”

There are some things that are fascinating to contemplate:

#1 “Hamas” appears in the Bible! Not the terrorists themselves. In Hebrew the word Hamas (חמס) means violence. Appropriate, don’t you think? It occurs in Genesis 6:11 where we’re told that in the days of Noah, “the earth was filled with hamas [violence].” Jesus told us in the Olivet Discourse that “as days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:37).

#2 Israelis are making a connection between Hamas and the vile Bible character Haman. He was a Jew hater who finagled the King of Persia to declare a day during which they would attack and kill all Jews in the kingdom and beyond, confiscating their property. Haman didn’t know Queen Esther was a Jew. The king declared that the Jews could fight back. You probably know this but ancient Persia in modern day Iran. Only I don’t think any of Iran’s leaders are married to a Jew.

#3 Speaking of Persia: In the Book of Daniel, the angel Gabriel was dispatched to Daniel to give him the great 70 Weeks prophecy about the Last Days. He is hindered by a supernatural being called the Prince of Persia. This person is the only such under lord over a nation revealed in the Bible.

#4 Haman was a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites, long-time enemies of Israel. It was the Amalekites who launched an unprovoked attack on the weak stragglers as the Jews were being led by Moses. Israelis are mentioning “the spirit of Amalek” as they comment on what is happening. Especially the murdering of “stragglers, i.e., infants, children, women.

#5 Ynet News published the following headline: “IDF will destroy Damascus, target Syrian President Assad if Hezbollah joins war; US warships will support Israel in war.” Israeli jets attacked and disabled the airports in Damascus and Aleppo. In chapter 17 in the Book of Isaiah, the city of Damascus is a pile of rubble. The Bible says it will disappear from the face of the earth and become a heap of ruins (17:1). At the same time, large parts of northern Israel will also lie in ruin (17:3). The prophecy has obviously never been fulfilled because Damascus is still standing.

#6 One member of the Knesset named Revital Gotliv has been calling for the use of nuclear weapons. “Jericho Missile! Jericho Missile! Strategic alert. Before considering the introduction of forces. Doomsday weapon!” Gotliv wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, according to a translation.

Another post says: “I urge you to do everything and use Doomsday weapons fearlessly against our enemies.”

#7 The Hamas attack was launched as Israelis were wrapping up the seven-day-long Jewish Feast of Tabernacles that followed 5 days after Yom Kippur. All of the biblical feasts are prophetic. The Spring feasts speak of the Messiah’s coming: Passover is a foreshadow of Calvary, Firstfruits of the resurrection, and Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks) is a forerunner to the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. The Fall Feasts symbolize the last trumpet that will sound as the Messiah returns, Yom Kippur points to the final judgement, and Sukkot (Tabernacles) is the final feast when the Lord will dwell among His people as King of kings.

A Messianic Jewish site I visited said this:

Each Feast/Festival of the Lord has three defining characteristics: The people of God observe the festivals in the present to remember past works of God, all the while looking ahead to greater future works of God. The first four feasts were prophetic foreshadows of the first-coming of Yeshua (Jesus). Consequently, just as Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled the first four feasts in His first-coming, no doubt He will fulfill the remaining feasts in His Second Coming.

I encourage you to keep a big picture view of what is happening. No need to get sensational or conspiratorial. Israel’s existence fulfills many prophecies, and we therefore expect wars & rumors of war until the moment the Time of Jacob’s Trouble begins.

Jesus promised His Church, “I… will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10). He keeps us entirely out of those 7yrs by raising deceased Church Age saints, then rapturing “we who are alive and remain.”

When? The return of the Lord for us is imminent. It could happen any time. Nothing needs to occur before Jesus can come for us.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!