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John Ecob 

Throughout the Bible there are  many promises of a Kingdom of God  that will be established on earth when wars will cease and there will be universal peace. Jesus taught  His disciples to pray for that day to  come in what we know as “The Lord’s  Prayer”. He said to pray, 

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be  done in earth, as it is in heaven”  (Matt.6:10). 

The history of the world from the beginning of time is the story of wars and rumours of wars. Each war ends and after a short space of time another begins. The Old Testament is the most accurate record of human  history since God created man and woman to inhabit the earth and the first child born, Cain, murdered Abel. 

Throughout the history of Israel wars were an annual event. After harvests were reaped, marauding nations tried to capture the harvests and kings had to raise an army to defend their food supply. 

As world population increased wars  increased and were fought for other  reasons. There were wars to expand a country’s territory and there were religious wars. Today we have  Islamic terrorists warring to spread  the evil teachings of Islamism and we  have Communist countries seeking  to dominate the world to establish an atheistic political regime. There are many reasons for war and it is legitimate for nations to raise an army  to defend their freedoms when they  come under attack. 

The loss of life in wars over the 6,000  years of time has been incredible  and has increased with the modern weapons available. The only thing we can be sure of is that it will continue until God steps in and places His King on the throne to rule this world. That  King will be Jesus Christ and He will  reign from Jerusalem. His officers will be the Jewish race and all nations will go up to Jerusalem to pay homage to  Christ. 

Ever since God chose Abraham and  his descendants to be His witness  in an evil world the Jews have been  hated because God has an adversary  whose name is Satan and he has  sought to destroy God’s witness on  earth. He has done this by sending  evil nations against them to occupy  their land and he has worked to  corrupt them and cause them to turn  away from God. 

When God the Father sent God the  Son to earth as the King of the Jews to  establish His kingdom, Satan stirred  the Jewish people to crucify Him but  God raised Him from the dead and  made forgiveness available through  His sacrifice for all who would believe  in Him. 

As we view the world scene over the  past 2,000 years we see enormous  amounts of blood shed as wars have  raged and men have sought through  conquest to settle their differences. In  the 20th century, in WWII, somewhere  between 35 and 60 million died. Now  we have all the nations feverishly arming with the most sophisticated  high tech weapons that could wipe  out the entire human race of not 60  million but 8 billion. If it were not for  the promises of God that one day  peace will reign over the entire earth  we might all dispair. However God  has promised that there will be a  Kingdom of God on earth at the end  of the age and that a day is coming  when men will 

“beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into  pruning hooks: : nation shall not lift  up sword against nation, neither  shall they learn war any more”  (Isa.2:4). 

The Lord’s prayer will be answered  and God’s will be done on earth as  it is in heaven but not before Satan  has his final fling and seeks to totally  wipe out God’s witness on earth by  exterminating every Jew on the face  of the planet. If Satan can totally  eradicate every Jew he will have  proven himself victor over God and  will have shown himself capable of  frustrating the purposes of God. 

From earliest times Satan tried to  destroy Israel in the land of Egypt and  Pharaoh ordered every male child  to be cast into the river Nile but he  failed. Forty years later God brought  Israel out through the Red Sea and  drowned Pharaoh and all his army. 

In the land of Canaan Israel came  under constant attack but God gave  them the victory. Satan caused them  to turn away from the Lord and this  brought them under the judgment  of God but God is faithful to His  promises and covenants. He will not  fail to have mercy if Israel will only seek the Lord. 

Just before Moses died at the age of  120 years he addressed the nation  and reminded them of all that God  had done for them in bringing them  out of Egypt; giving them the law;  feeding them for 40 years in the  wilderness and supplying them with  fresh water in the desert. 

Moses warned Israel not to forsake  the Lord but he said that if they did  they could still repent and God would  have mercy upon them. He said: 

“But if from thence thou shalt seek  the LORD thy God, thou shalt find  him, if thou seek him with all thy  heart and with all thy soul. When  thou art in tribulation, and all  these things are come upon thee,  even in the latter days, if thou turn  to the LORD thy God, and shalt  be obedient unto his voice; (For  the LORD thy God is a merciful  God;) he will not forsake thee,  neither destroy thee, nor forget the  covenant of thy fathers which he  swear unto them” (Deut.4:29-31). 

Moses was a prophet. God spoke  with him face to face (Exod.33:11;  Deut.34:10) and he told Israel that in  the latter days, when they were in  the great tribulation He would have  mercy upon them but they would  have to seek the Lord. 

So what is God waiting for? Israel  must seek the Lord but we know that  will not happen until she is in great  tribulation. Jeremiah called it “the  time of Jacob’s trouble” and added,  “he shall be saved out of it” (Jer.30:7). 

Isaiah wrote about that time: 

“Before she (Israel) travailed, she  brought forth; before her pain  came, she was delivered of a man child.(Christ). Who hath heard  such a thing? who hath seen such  things? Shall the earth be made  to bring forth in one day? or shall  a nation be born at once? for as  soon as Zion travailed, she brought  forth her children. Shall I bring to  the birth, and not cause to bring  forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause  to bring forth, and shut the womb?  saith thy God” (Isa.66:67-69). 

Before Israel enters the seven years  of great tribulation Isaiah said she  would bring forth a “man child”. This  undoubtedly was the Lord Jesus who  was born in Bethlehem in fulfilment  of Micah’s prophecy (Micah5:2). But  then in a future day the nation would  travail and bring forth “born again”  children who trusted in the Lord. 

Jesus described the first half of the  Tribulation in Matthew 24:7-14 and He  said that this was Israel’s “beginning  of sorrows”. The word “sorrows” can  be translated “travail”. 

Israel’s conversion in the last days  will be sudden; “in one day…”at  once”; “as soon as Zion travailed”. 

We know exactly when this will occur.  Ezekiel states that it will occur when  Russia and Islam invade Israel in the  first half of the Tribulation. 

“So the house of Israel shall know  that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward. And  the heathen (nations) shall know  that the house of Israel went into  captivity for their iniquity: because  they trespassed against me  therefore hid I my face from them” (Ezek.39:22). 

When Moses concluded his final address to Israel he recorded the  Palestinian Covenant that God made  with the nation in Deuteronomy  chapters 28 to 30. He stated that if  Israel obeyed the Lord, God would  bless them in the land and they would  be victorious over all their enemies.  If they turned away from God they  would be overrun and cast out of the  land. However if after they were cast  out among the nations, they turned  back to the Lord, God would have  mercy and restore them to the land. 

Today we see Israel re-established  in the land but still living in  disobedience and rejection of  Messiah. Ezekiel prophesied that  there would be a return to the land in  unbelief before the nation repented 

(Ezek.37:8) and that is what we saw  in 1948. Antisemitism is increasing  and will increase more and more  until after the Church is Raptured  Israel will enter her final seven years  before they “finish the transgression” and “everlasting righteousness” is  established (Dan.9:24). 

What is God waiting for? He is  waiting for Israel to acknowledge  her sin of rejecting Messiah, our Lord  Jesus Christ. This is what the seven year Tribulation is all about. It is  determined on Daniel’s people and  his holy city Jerusalem (Dan.9:24) to  bring the nation to repentance. 

The Church won’t be here in Israel’s  last seven years before Christ returns  to destroy Israel’s enemies and  establish His kingdom. Only then will  the prayers of millions be answered: 

“Thy kingdom come…thy will be  done on earth as it is in heaven.”