God’s people Israel and their end-times victory

In the Bible, end-times refers to those days when God will draw His people Israel back to Himself, causing them to be redeemed according to His promise to them in Daniel 9:24 – Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. That 70 weeks represented a year for each day; thus 490 years yet remained on their timeline until their eventual redemption. Effectively Israel was promised everlasting righteousness as God’s people after a period of 490 years. This was to be counted from the date of an order given to rebuild Jerusalem (including the temple).

Daniel 9:25-26a (²⁵Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. ²⁶And after threescore and two weeks (following that initial 7 weeks) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:) sets out a period of 7 weeks of years plus 62 weeks of years, making 69 weeks of years (= 483 years) before their Messiah (Jesus Christ) is cut off (= cut down). This occurred when Jesus was put to death on the cross for the sins of the world. This left but 1 week of years (7 years) to bring in the everlasting righteousness of Israel.

But. after that 69 weeks of years (= 483 years), Israel (via the Jews) rejected their Messiah. (John 1:11 – He came unto his own, and his own received him not.) Consequently most of Israel was blinded from the truth and separated from God’s will for some time, not cast away but sidelined. God has never cast away His people for ever! Their final 7 years before their everlasting righteousness was effectively put on hold; they were sidelined (but not thrown away as some today try to teach).
Romans 11:1-2a – ¹I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, [of] the tribe of Benjamin. ²God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.

Israel continued to seek after a God whom they considered to be their special property, but most were blinded such that they just couldn’t see that they were blinded.
Romans 11:7-8 – ⁷What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded ⁸(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

A remnant of Israel would continue to seek and find God through repentance …..
Romans 11:5 – Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
… according to God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:12-13 – ¹²Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. ¹³And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
But most of Israel would be spiritually blinded, shut off from God until He chose to seek them once more; this would mark the beginning of the end-times.

On 14^th May 1948 Israel returned to a part of her ancient lands; this was an act of God to commence the countdown to their becoming once again His people and He would be their God (according to Ezekiel 37:24-28). In fact, Ezekiel 37 talks about the valley of dead bones becoming a living whole house of Israel once again. This is happening in our time; Israel will not ever be sidelined again; no enemy will ever be able to destroy Israel again.

However, the refusal of Israel to accept their Messiah 2000 years ago opened the way for the Gentile Church to take over the tasks and promises given to Israel; this would continue until the Church age was completed according to Romans 11:25 (For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.) But now that time is very near. When the Church age is fulfilled (“when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in“), then Israel will be brought back onto her timeline to complete that final week of years. A Saviour, the Deliverer, their Messiah, will return to Zion (Israel) …..
Romans 11:25-27 – ²⁵For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. ²⁶And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: ²⁷For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
…. and all the remnant of Israel would be saved according to Joel 3:31-32 – ³¹The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. ³²And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

This is still mostly in the future. Certainly Israel has already returned to some of her ancient lands, and right now it does appear that the war of Ezekiel 38 is approaching fast, that war which will usher in that final 7-year period.

Joel talks a lot about the end times. To begin with, God will return them from where they have been scattered around the world; He will “bring again their captivity” which means that God will restore them back from their captivity. The captivity here could mean restoration back to their lands, but the context does strongly suggest that it includes being restored from their captivity to sin.
Joel 3:1-4 – ¹For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, ²I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and [for] my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. ³And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink. ⁴Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
All the nations who oppose Israel’s return to their land and instead desire the destruction of their people, all those who demand pay-back against God and His people, will instead have their demanded recompense paid back to them (Israel’s enemies); it will be upon their own heads. In particular, “Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine” will receive what they have demanded for Israel. Today we can see how relevant this really is!

Over many centuries they have taken from Israel to give to the temples of their gods, and sought to destroy Israel as a nation. They have persecuted and dispossessed God’s people Israel in order that they might steal their lands. But God will raise His people Israel from where they have been banished (Israel became a sovereign state in 1948) and will use Israel to pay back those who have persecuted them over the centuries. Because Tyre, Sidon and the coasts of Palestine have destroyed God’s people Israel and dispossessed them of their lands, behold, God will now do the same to them as Israel’s oppressors. They will receive what they have given to God’s people. Because they have dispossessed and enslaved God’s people Israel, God will sell their sons and daughters into the hands of God’s people, and Israel in turn shall remove them far away from their lands, “for the Lord hath spoken [it].“
Joel 3:5-8 – ⁵Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: ⁶The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border. ⁷Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head: ⁸And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken [it].

Not only will God pay back Israel’s enemies in kind for what they have given to Israel, He demands that they gather all their allegedly mighty men to prepare for war against God who will defend His people Israel.
Joel 3:9-11 – ⁹Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: ¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I [am] strong. ¹¹Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.
The start of this appears to be a taunt made to those barely-ordinary men of war who think they are champions in battle because perhaps they are so great in number. Let those who are weak (and ordinary) boast of their mighty acts of war; let them beat their chests and proclaim themselves to be the heroes who will win this battle. Barnes Commentary says: So universal shall be the rage of Israel’s foes for invading her, that even the weak among them will fancy themselves strong enough to join the invading forces. Age and infirmity were ordinarily made valid excuses for exemption from service, but so mad shall be the fury of the world against God’s people, that even the feeble will not desire to be exempted.
It does remind one of their “so courageous, such mighty” cowards who do not dare go into battle without the protection of women and children gathered around them! All may feel brave when they are with a lot of other like-minded people or surrounded by women and children!

thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord – This seems to be praying that God would cause His mighty ones (gibbowr) to come down (from heaven) to fight in this battle. Revelation 19:19 (And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.) says that the armies of earth will gather to fight Christ the Messiah and his army (which may be assumed to be angels).
Also note that angels are used to gather people for judgment: Matthew 13:41-43 – ⁴¹The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; ⁴²And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Psalm 2:4 – He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. God will mock Israel’s enemies for their futility.

This next passage from Joel 3 does appear to jump forward to that greatest of battles opposing Israel: Armageddon. At the end of that final 7-year period of Israel’s timeline, the nations of the world will gather a huge army to oppose Jerusalem itself. Christ the Messiah returns to slaughter Israel’s enemies and then sets up His thousand-year reign over the whole earth.
Joel 3:12-15 – ¹²Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. ¹³Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness [is] great. ¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord [is] near in the valley of decision. ¹⁵The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

Judgment comes to all those who oppose God’s people. The sickle cuts down all the enemy armies; it pictures all the dead being placed into a huge wine vat and crushed so that the blood runs freely at a depth of about 1.2 metres for a distance of around 300km.
Revelation 14:16-20 – ¹⁶And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. ¹⁷And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. ¹⁸And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. ¹⁹And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast [it] into the great winepress of the wrath of God. ²⁰And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand [and] six hundred furlongs.

And, at the end of this final 7-year period of Israel’s timeline, Israel will be the victorious nation who goes into the thousand-year reign of Christ their Messiah. All those of other nations who are yet alive after Armageddon will go every year to worship Christ the King, the Lord of hosts.
Zechariah 14:16 – And it shall come to pass, [that] every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Those who choose to not worship Christ the King at Jerusalem each year will be punished with drought.
Zechariah 14:17 – And it shall be, [that] whoso will not come up of [all] the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

Jesus the King will rule forever and there will be no end of His kingdom, ever.
Luke 1:32-33 – ³²He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: ³³And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

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