From His Heart with Jeff Schreve

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
That's always.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
It seems as though the nation of Israel is always
in the news, even though it's such a small nation.
It's really only about the size of New Jersey, not

(00:38):
very big at all, but yet it's so significant. And
if you have trouble understanding the nation of Israel and
the Jewish people and the impact they have on our
world today, then you're going to have difficulty understanding what
God has done, what God is doing, and what God
will do in the future. This is from His Heart

(01:01):
with Pastor Jeff Shreeve and all this month we're in
the prophecy series entitled Future Shock. What in the world
is going on? And today's message concerns Israel and the
End Times. Now, if you miss part one from last time,
you can listen again online anytime at fromis heart dot org.
Click the listen tab. Now open your Bible to Genesis

(01:24):
chapter twelve. As Pastor Jeff explains what the Bible really
has to say about Israel and the end Times.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Let me give you three reasons why Israel is so
important in Bible prophecy.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Reason number one.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
They're important because God chose Israel to be his people
and his nation.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
God chose them.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Now here's Abram is living inn eer of the Cawdies.
He's just minding his own business. And one day the
word of the Lord comes to him and God reveals
himself to Abram, and Abraham obeys, and he steps out,
and he goes, and he leaves his home and he
goes to the Promised Land, although he gets hung up
in this place called Horan. It's kind of a halfway point,

(02:06):
halfway Haran. And God comes to him again, as we
read in Genesis chapter twelve, and he says, hey, leave
Horan and go to the land that I will show you.
And so he finally goes to this place that God
showed him.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Where was the place?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
It was the land of Canaan, the promised land, the
land we know.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Of as Israel.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
And God chose Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And that
is the lineage and the descendancy of the Jewish people.
See the Jews descend from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob eleven
times in the Bible. Do you read that triad, I
am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the

(02:46):
God of Jacob. And the question comes into being, well,
why did God choose Abraham? Why did God choose the Jews.
There's a little couplet that says, how odd of God
to choose the Jews?

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Why did he do it? What did they have? What
did he.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
See in this man Abram from ear of the Caldies
that God.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Said, Man, I want to choose that guy. You know
what he had?

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Listen real close, because you're not going to get this
in other places. Most commentaries don't tell you this. What
he had was nothing, nothing, He worshiped the moon God,
he was a pagan, He had nothing. There was no
reason that God chose him except for the fact that
God wanted to choose him. So why did God choose
the Jews?

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Because he wanted to?

Speaker 3 (03:30):
He wanted to, and he chose Abraham because he wanted
to choose them. God just made a sovereign choice. And
why did God do that? Because God chose this man
to be the father of a multitude, so that that multitude,
that nation, could bless the world. And that's why the
Jews were chosen to be God's light to the world.

(03:52):
Because does God just love Jews, No, he loves everybody.
The Jews were the touchstone to go out into all
the world. Now listen, it's impot to remember this. God
wanted them to be separate. But as you know the story,
the Jews didn't do it, and they mingled with the
inhabitants of the land, and they picked up their vile
practices and they began to worship bail like the inhabitants

(04:12):
of the land did.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
But that wasn't God's plan.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
God's plan was, we choose the Jews, and you guys
become a lighthouse to the world. So that's the first
reason why is Israel important. They're important because God chose
them to be his people in his nation. Second reason,
God made promises to Israel that he will keep. Why
is Israel so important Because God made some promises to

(04:34):
them and He's going to keep those promises. Looked in
Genesis twelve at verse seven, it says, and the Lord
appeared to Abram and said, to your descendants, I will
give this land. And God says, I'm going to give
this land to you and your descendants forever. So God
made promises to Israel that he will keep. Now God

(04:56):
established Israel in the land of promise.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
You know this story.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
I mean from Abraham, we have Isaac, and then we
have Jacob and Jacob's son. The most famous of his
sons was Joseph, and Joseph ends up being sold into
slavery in Egypt. And Joseph becomes the number two men
in all of Egypt. And when there's a famine that
hit the land, the brothers of Joseph, the sons of Israel,

(05:22):
they come to live in Egypt, and he takes care
of them, and they proliferate like crazy in Egypt. And
then it says that another pharaoh arose and he knew
not Joseph, and so he put this big group of people,
the Jews. He put them into slavery, and they were
in slavery for four hundred years. And then, as you
know the story, God raised up Moses, and God used

(05:43):
Moses and led the people out, and he brought plagues
upon Egypt, and they came through the Red Sea. And
so they come out and as a people, and God
is going to lead them into the Promised Land. But
they don't go to the Promised land. Why because of
unbelief and they sinned against God. And God I said,
all right, you're not going to go in when I
gave you the land, where you're going to wander around
the wilderness for forty years, and eventually when all you people,

(06:07):
all you adults die out, I'm.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Gonna bring your children into the land.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
And they lived there for a long time, centuries until
there was a problem. First problem was there was a
break and ten tribes revolted against the whole and said,
we're not going to follow Solomon's son Riha Boham. And
so they said we're going to go and be our
own kingdom. And so ten tribes of the twelves broke

(06:31):
off and they became the Northern Kingdom. And you still
had two tribes, Judah and Benjamin that stayed in the south.
So here this Northern Kingdom then goes down the tubes.
But the Southern Kingdom is still together. But then because
of sin and rebellion against God, and six oh five BC,
God brings Babylon, and Babylon comes and brings destruction and
takes captives away from Jerusalem and takes them back to Babylon.

(06:56):
We know about several of those guys that went, Daniel
and Shad Mishak and a Bendigo.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
They were taken in six oh five BC.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
And then in five ninety seven BC there was an
uprising in Israel.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
They didn't want to obey Babylon.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
So Nebuconezzar comes back there and he slaps him around
a little more, takes more captives, and then they rebelled
against him again in five eighty six BC, and nebucon
Nez are sent in the troops and they wiped Israel
off the map.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
They destroyed the walls, they destroyed the.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
Beautiful temple that Solomon had built, and Israel became.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Just a waste place. It was awful.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
And then when Babylon was overthrown by the Meto Persians,
Cyrus became king. It's also called Durias, the same person.
He becomes king, and he writes a decree that says, hey,
you guys can go back to Jerusalem and you can
rebuild your temple. And then Jerusalem becomes a city once again.
But it's not an independent country anymore. And Jerusalem is

(07:51):
still operating, but it's not operating the way it was
under King David and under King Solomon. It's not operating
like that. But God still had Jews in the land,
and all that changed in seventy AD because in seventy
a d. The Romans came and they wiped them out,
and year after year after year went by, no Israel,

(08:13):
no Israel, no Israel, no Israel. And then in nineteen
forty eight God reestablished Israel in the land. That was
a huge date. May fourteenth, nineteen forty eight. God brought
Israel back together and Israel became a nation again. And
the scripture speaks to that, such a shock. It says,

(08:35):
has anyone ever seen or heard of such a thing?
Has a nation ever been born in a day? Zion
will not have to suffer long before the nation is born.
And in one day the United Nations got together and
they said, Israel, who has suffered so much under Hitler
in World War Two, We're going to give Israel the land.

(08:56):
And so they gave Israel back the land, and the
Jews there were about six hundred thousand of them that
were there, and they got to be a nation again.
And it says in Ezekiel thirty six twenty four, for
I will take you from the nations, gather you from
all the lands, and bring you into your own land.
And that was shocking, Wow, a nation born in a day.

(09:17):
Milton be lind Bergh says this, without the existence of Israel,
we would not be able to say with certainty that
we are in the last days. That single event, more
than any other, is the most prominent sign that we
are living in the final moments before the coming of Jesus.
The Hebrew people have been called God's time, Peace of
the Ages. The promise is that God has made to Israel.

(09:39):
If Israel doesn't exist and the Jews aren't in the land,
well those promises can't come to fruition. But God he
established them in the land in the Old Testament, and
he re established them in the land in nineteen forty eight.
You remember this, God defended and defends Israel in the land.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
You know what is interesting.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
They were established re established May fourteenth, nineteen forty eight,
back in the land.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
You know what happened the very next day.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
The Arab nations that surround Israel, they all declared war
on Israel. They hate Israel, they hate their existence. And
I read about this war of independence. It was Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon,
Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Fifty five million people represented there
of Arab Muslims came up against six hundred and forty

(10:31):
thousand Jews.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
The very next.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Day, the Jews were outnumbered significantly. Most people looked at
that and said, man, the Arabs are going to wipe
them out. Probably a little over a week. They're going
to be wiped out. Here were the odds. They were
outnumbered forty to one in soldiers. They were outnumbered about
one hundred to one in population. They were outnumbered one
thousand to one in equipment. They were out numbered about

(10:56):
five thousand.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
To one in land area.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
And you know what the Jews want one jus one?

Speaker 1 (11:01):
How does that happen? Because God will fight for them.
You know.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
In this latest battle that they've had with Hamas and
the people that live really in the area where the
Philistines live, the area by the Mediterranean Sea, there they
were firing rockets and attacking Jerusalem and Israel because they
hate them and they want to destroy them. And people
were saying to the terrorists, they say, man, you guys
are terrible shots.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Can't you shoot and hit them?

Speaker 3 (11:30):
And one of the terrorists said this their God redirects
our missiles into the sea. We are shooting at them,
and God moves the missiles away. That is just God.
God will defend them because he promised them. And God
is faithful to his promises.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Listen, when you hear.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
When you hear people from Iran, leaders from Iran talk
about how they're going to destroy.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Zion another name for Israel. You mark it down.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
God says, I will bless those who bless you, and
I will curse those who curse you. Assyria came up
against Jerusalem under Sanakarib in the Old Testament, and they
had the whole city besieged and they were gonna wipe
them out.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
They had one hundred and eighty.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Five thousand Assyrian soldiers ready to destroy Jerusalem. And God
sent one angel, one angel, and in the middle of
the night he killed them all. That's just one angel.
God has legions and legions and myriads and myriads of angels. Listen,
you're not gonna beat God. And so God is going
to keep his promise. So that's the second important point

(12:38):
of Israel. God made promises to them. And thirdly, and finally,
end Times prophecy is centered on Israel, centered on Israel.
Now we're gonna land the plane in just a moments,
but stay with me here because this is really really important.
Daniel when he was taken six oh five BC he's
just a young guy. He's taken along with his buddies

(13:00):
that we know him by their Babylonian names Shadrakmishek and
have been to go. They're taken from Jerusalem and they're
taken to Babylon, and they're put in Babylonian graduate school,
and they excel and they become the wisest of all
the wise men in Babylon. And Daniel especially stands out
above all the others. And Daniel is such a man
of God.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Well, Daniel knew that the people were going.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
To be in exile for seventy years, and he knew
at the demise of Babylon and the beginning of the
Persian Empire, the Medo Persian Empire in about five point
thirty nine BC. He knew that, hey, we're getting really
close to the end of seventy years and then people
can go back to Jerusalem. And so he's praying in
Daniel chapter nine, and God sends messenger Gabriel and he
speaks to Daniel and he says this to him, Daniel,

(13:42):
chapter nine, verse twenty four, Seventy weeks have been decreed
for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy,
and to anoint the most holy place that covers all
the rest of human history. In one verse, seventy weeks, Daniel,

(14:06):
seventy weeks.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
That's not very long.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
I mean, Daniel got this and what five five thirty nine,
five thirty eight BC and seventy weeks, Well, that would
be over. It's not seventy weeks of days, seventy weeks
of years. Four hundred and ninety years Daniel, And that
four hundred and ninety significant. You know why because when
God took Israel and he let them be taken captive

(14:30):
to Babylon, he makes this point. He said, how long
are you gonna stay there? You're gonna stay there seventy years?
Why seventy years?

Speaker 1 (14:37):
God?

Speaker 3 (14:38):
And God says this because I told you when I
put you in the land that every seven years, don't
farm one year of seven. The land is supposed to
have a rest, is supposed to have a sabbath. And
when I look at your history for four hundred and
ninety years, you should have had seventy Sabbaths, but you didn't.
You farmed the land every single year, and so you're

(15:01):
going to be in captivity so that the land can
enjoy its sabage. You'll be there for seventy years, and
it's based on four hundred and ninety total years. And
now God gives a prophecy to Daniel that says, Daniel,
this is what it's going to be.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Four hundred and ninety years.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
Seventy sevens have been decreed for your people, and everything
is going to happen within this timeframe. You say, well,
that would be over by now, yes, it would be.
But there's a break in those four hundred and ninety years.
And if you go and study Daniel, you'll see that
four hundred and eighty three years are predicted before something

(15:36):
significant happens. And the significant thing is this Messiah, the
prince will be cut off. The scripture says he's going
to be literally executed as a criminal. Hey, Daniel, from
the time that the decree is given to rebuild Jerusalem,
which that took place. The decree was given by art Exerxes.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
In four forty five BC.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
And when you work the math as held honer, the
Dallas seminary professor has done. You find out that when
you calculate from four to forty five BC to four
hundred and eighty three years, you come right up against
April third, thirty two AD, and then April third, thirty
two AD, Messiah the Prince was executed as a criminal,

(16:21):
and then everything stops at that point, and there's a
big parenthesis that comes after the sixty nine weeks, After
four hundred and eighty three years, there's a seven year
period the seventieth week.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
When is that coming? It hadn't come yet.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
And see here's the thing God brought about the church
after week sixty nine. So when you look at Daniel's
prophecy of this four hundred and ninety three years, it
goes to four hundred and eighty three years, and then
Messiah the Prince is crucified, and then there's a big parenthesis,
and then there's this time in there that is unaccounted for.
What time is that? That's what we call the church age.

(16:55):
That's when people come to know Christ. And it's primarily
not Jews as we know, it's gentiles and gentiles come
to know Christ. And it's the church age, and it
doesn't have a limit to it. It doesn't have an
endpoint to it. So we're in this time. There's a break.
Sixty nine weeks have already taken place. There's a week
left that will determine all of the future. There's one

(17:17):
week left, a seventh left, seven years are left. But
right now we're in the church age. The church is
living in this parenthesis between sixty nine weeks and between
the seventieth week. Now, God has the seventieth week in
the future. We don't know when that's coming, but it
is coming. And the seventieth week is called the time

(17:38):
of Jacob's trouble. We know the seventieth week is the tribulation.
We talk about the tribulation. We don't really talk about
it in terms of the time of Jacob's trouble. But
that's what the Bible says. That's how the Bible refers
to it. He says in Jeremiah chapter thirty. All right,
let me back up a minute. We know that seven
year period of time. This is what the Bible goes
on to say.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
In Daniel.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
It says that there is coming a leader. We call
him the Antichrist. He's called the Beast, he's called the
man of sin. The Antichrist is coming, and he's going
to make a covenant with the Jews for a week,
for seven years. But in the middle of the week
and sacrifices are going to begin again.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
The temple is going to be rebuilt.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
And during the start of the seven year tribulation, the
seventieth week of Daniel, there's temple activity again and they're
making sacrifices again, and the Jews are going to say,
this is our Messiah, look what he has done for us.
But in the middle of the week, he breaks the treaty,
he breaks the covenant, and he says in Second Thessalonius,
chapter two, he sets himself up in the Temple of

(18:36):
God and says, no more sacrifices, for I am God,
and you worship me. And then everything changes when he
breaks the covenant and he makes you take a mark
on your hand or on your forehead six sixty six,
the number of the beasts, And if you don't take
the mark, you're going to get murdered.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
It's the mark or martyrdom for you.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
And he's going at people who won't follow him.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
He'll come with avenge.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Hey, when the Antichrist comes, he's gonna make Hitler look
like a boy scout, and he is going to be
killing people by the untold millions. And then in addition
to that, God is pouring out his wrath.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
It's called the time of Jacob's trouble.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Because Jacob had rejected his messiah, it says in Jeremiah
thirty four. Thus says the Lord, I have heard a
sound of terror, of dread, and there is no peace.
Ask now and see if a male can give birth? Well,
of course a male can't give birth. Then he says, well,
why do I see every man with his hands on
his loins as a woman in childbirth? And why have
all faces turned pale? Alas for that day is great,

(19:34):
there is none like it. And it is the time
of Jacob's distress, the time of Jacob's trouble. That he
will be saved from it. Oh, it's a horrible time.
The tribulation period, especially that last three and a half years,
and the Bible makes it clear that it is three
and a half years. It says it is twelve hundred
and sixty days. A prophetic month is thirty days, so

(19:57):
that's three and a half years. It's also says it's
forty two two months. That's three and a half years.
It also says it's a time times.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
And half a time.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
One time is one year, times is two years, so
that's three and then half a time three and a half.
And so it gives us all these different designations of
the same time period. And they says that is going
to be hell on earth. And here's the story. The
Bible says that the Antichrist he marshals all his forces
at the end of that three and a half year
period in a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon,

(20:28):
at the Valley of Armageddon, and they come against Jerusalem
to wipe out the Jews and to wipe out Jerusalem
for all time and forever.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
And at that moment.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
John says this, and I saw heaven opened, and behold
a white horse.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
And hughes that.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Upon it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
He judges and wages war.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
And from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that
with it he may smite the nations, and he will rule.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Them with a rod of iron.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
And he treads the wine press of the fierce wrath
of God the Almighty, And on his robe and on
his thigh. He has a name written King of Kings
and Lord of Lords.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
And he comes back again.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
And he wipes out the Antichrist and all those who
are trying to destroy his people, and he sets up
his kingdom in Jerusalem, and he rules as the greater
son of David, as the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. And that is the message of the Bible.
That is how it's working. It's working toward Jesus coming

(21:34):
again in power, in great glory.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
And I want to ask you.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
This as we close out today, are you ready to
meet the King?

Speaker 2 (21:45):
How about you? Are you ready to meet the King
of Kings? As you've listened today, have you realized that
you don't know Jesus Christ in a personal way. Well,
if you don't, you can now and you can sincerely
cry out to him from your heart. He's asking you
to recognize your need for a savior and then turn

(22:08):
from your sin and put your faith in Christ. If
you want to, we hope that you'll go to fromisheart
dot org click the why Jesus tab and you'll find
that on our homepage thereto you can learn who he
is and why he came to Earth, Why your eternal
life is secure in his hands, and we pray that
you'll take the next step to knock on his door

(22:28):
and sincerely, with an open heart and a repentant heart,
ask Jesus to come in. That's from his Heart dot org.
Click the Why Jesus tab. Well today you heard part
two of the message entitled Israel and the End Times
from Pastor Jeff's series Future Shock. What in the world
is going on? It's our special gift of thanks to

(22:51):
you this month for your support of any amount, and
when you make that gift, we'll send you the series
in the format of your choice, as well as the
companion booklet How Near is the End? All of that
for your gift of any amount today. Your support allows
us to be here and on hundreds of stations around
the world, so we appreciate your generosity. To get yours,

(23:13):
go online from his Heart dot org or call eight six'
six for Zero bible to make your gift eight six
y six for Zero. Bible Pastor jeff receives no income
from this. Ministry he is our chief. Volunteer thank you
for being a faithful partner to join us in this
worldwide effort to draw people To, jesus and to do

(23:34):
it now while there's still. Time our time has gone for,
today but a reminder that one day soon the rapture
of The church will, occur and the, time, well it's running.
Out are you interested in knowing what that will be
like and what it means to us? Today Join Pastor
Jeff shreeve next time for the timely and profound lesson Called.

(23:59):
Raptured that's right Here from His. Heart from His heart

(24:38):
is the listener supported broadcast ministry of Doctor Jeff shreeve
speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hearty. World,
remember no matter, What god loves, you And he has
a wonderful plan for your. Life find out about that
go to fromis heart dot.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Org