Prophecy Update | May 2026 | Eye on Israel - Brett Meador

One of the hardest things about doing a prophecy update once a month is, um, there's just so much that goes on in the world. Uh, there's so many things in this past month that, you know, I remember just as the month was coming, I was thinking, "Oh, I should talk about that." You know, it's almost like, "Oh, yeah, we need to cover that. Oh, that, that, that." I even make notes as the month's kind of going along, and then, you know, I come to, you know, the the the Friday night, you know, and I realize, "Wow, that's way too much to talk about." And often times the Lord wants me, he kind of stirs my heart to zero in on some things, and, um, he definitely done that in this case.

Um, you know, as we watch what's going on in the world, there's all kinds of things. You know, Jesus talked about wars and rumors of wars, and, uh, we, we just watch that, you know. We see, uh, technology, uh, you know, going crazy. We see wars and destruction. Um, you know, this Iran war, uh, uh, you know, some people say, "Very, very biblical, very prophetic." But at the same time, we're kind of at a place where we've, we're seeing tech, uh, increasing. Are even the United States, our own military is getting stronger, it seems, with, uh, some of the stuff.

But one of the things that we're really seeing is, um, more than the wars and the rumors of wars right now, because that's been going on for a long time. But the, the way the world thinks about all this stuff, you know, when we see, um, you know, uh, Israel, but not only Israel, do you know what nation, what nation has Iran hit even harder than Israel? Does anybody know? UAE? More rockets have landed in UAE than in Israel. What's up with that? And this is where you can get into the eschatology of the Iranian Shia, you know, Muslims, and what they believe about bringing chaos into that region or the whole region of the, the whole world, really. Um, but we just see all kinds of crazy stuff going on, and, and really, it's tough to make sense.

But, um, one of the, the greater overarching things that I think is interesting is watching America be more and more divided. You know, there's people that are saying, "What are we doing in Iran? That peace-loving nation, Iran, you know, that, uh, why would we ever go to war against a nation like Iran?" Well, those of us have been following it for more than 10 minutes, um, for the last 47 years, the Iranians have been killing Americans and others around the world. And, and if you know what's going on, you know, you, you know that, um, one, one of the things you'll hear is, "Why is Trump claiming that we're stopping their nuclear program?" It's like, uh, and people sort of mock that. Uh, and one of the things they mock is that the United States and Israel's been claiming Iran has had a nuclear capability, getting there weeks away. And we've been saying that for years. Um, and so Israel is kind of to blame for that, you'll hear them say about Netanyahu. They'll say, um, you know, "He's been saying Iran, Iran's going to get a nuclear weapon, just a few weeks away." And, and that's one of the arguments of why it's just rhetoric. They say that that never was really true. But that's poor logic.

If you actually know what's been going on, Israel's been bombing the daylights out of Iran long before this war ever started. Um, you know, in Natanz and all these locations, you know, there's been these mysterious bombings over the last few decades, and Israel's been keeping very close watch with Mossad, uh, knowing, uh, the, the developing of, of nuclear weapon capabilities, and Israel and Mossad has stayed right on top of it. But, um, this most recent situation, uh, there were some serious problems. One is the depth of the bunkers, and can, can the Israelis get to it without the United States' help? All that's stuff that we could debate and talk about.

But the thing that we should probably note more than just about anything, if you ask me, is because of the Iranian situation, because of the world, um, and their, their, you know, ideology of, of this war and, and all that, one of the things we're seeing is a hatred for Israel that's even more than even a few weeks ago. We're seeing Israel, um, you know, and, and if you, if you love Israel, um, you know, it's, it's amazing if you, uh, see what people are saying, you know, on social media and all these different podcasters and groups. There's a real vitriol and hatred for anybody who supports Israel. Uh, now, I've been supporting Israel for a long, long time, and so I've been the target of some threats and stuff like that recently, which is no big new thing. I mean, that's, that's happened for a long time. Whenever you speak out about this kind of stuff, don't be shocked if people start to not like you or even hate you. That's just part of the deal. Uh, I always kind of feel like when I get that people hate me because I love Israel, I kind of think, "Oh, this is what Jesus talked about." Don't be shocked when people hate you and even persecute you.

Could it be that persecution, especially if you have a worldview that says, "We still believe God has a plan for Israel. We still believe that Israel are called God's chosen people." And even though not only the secular world hates Israel, um, but has this love affair with Islam right now? Have you guys seen that? Like, did you see even today, Texas approved the Islamic Shangri-La law, whatever they call that thing? But basically, Texas is going down now with, uh, embracing Islam in a way that I think is shocking. I, I would have thought Texans would have seen right through it. Um, just watch what's going on in Europe. Uh, you know, go to, go to some of these European countries and see what Islam has done to those nations. And somehow the United States, we didn't get that memo. Uh, even though we look at places like Dearborn and others, Texas is next. Um, as it turns out, um, how is it that the worldview went from, you know, uh, you know, "We support Israel, they're our best friend in the Middle East," to now, "If you support Israel, you're a pedophile"? That's a, that's an interesting leap that they've made. Um, and, and where does that come from? Uh, you know, it's, it's an interesting thing because, um, I believe it's demonically inspired. I think Satan really wants the world to associate Israel with pedophilia. What, like, what's the worst thing you can imagine? Um, and, and, and, um, so that's some of the stuff that actually is happening. If you're pro-Israel, suddenly you're a pedophile. Uh, that's what they like to say out there in the world today.

But, um, but, uh, or you're being paid off. I, I, I can't say how many times I've seen online where I've been paid by the Israelis, and somehow my bank account doesn't realize that. I, I have not seen any dollars. I'll take them if they want to give them to me, but, uh, no, I'm just joking. That's a joke for those crazy people out there. Um, I have never received one dollar from anyone, uh, for any reason, uh, related to anything I do or preach or any of that. That's ridiculous. Um, uh, but that's the narrative out there that that is happening. Um, uh, am I complaining about that? Not, not even in the slightest. I'm actually, uh, sort of honored that I get to be a part of the days we live in. I'm, I'm blessed to be a last days believer. I really do believe we're living in the last days, and I think we have plenty of evidence for that.

But one of the things I wanted to kind of dive into is this great hatred for Israel that's growing. And, and not only is it growing in the secular kind of context, but even in the church of Jesus Christ. Um, we've been, by the way, outnumbered for for a long time, really maybe since, uh, the early church, as far as people that believe God still has a plan for Israel. We, we have never believed at Athe Creek, um, that Israel's been replaced by the the Christian church. Uh, we don't believe that. We don't believe in replacement theology. They, they don't like to call it replacement theology, but that's what it is. So, I'm going to keep calling it that. Um, they've replaced Israel with the church. And, um, and that's why it's not hard for a lot of pastors and churches to sort of make fun of, knock those that would say, "We support Israel." Um, you know, even if you just take all the Bible and and Christianity, even religion, if you take it all out, why would you still not support Israel compared to Islamic nations? Um, well, Brett, don't you understand? Israel is this, this, you know, mean nation that's crushing those poor Islamic people in that region of the world.

We need to, we need to remember, uh, the Islamic world is gigantic. Israel is a speck. >> Uh, and, and I want to show you this is, of course, my little map of Israel, but let's zoom out from this map here. And I want you to just be reminded the Islamic world is just slightly larger than Israel. Israel's the little yellow, if you can see the spot on the screen there. Um, and the green, all the green is Islamic nations. Now, there's variants of green because the, you know, the darker green is the, um, you know, Arab Islamic states, and then there's Islamic that are not Arab Arab, um, you know, states and what have you, but they are Islamic, um, and there's different kinds of Islam and stuff like that. But, but basically, you know, it's not, it's not, you know, like Wolf Blitzer said, David versus Goliath, the big Israeli, the idea of fighting against, um, uh, the poor little Arab people around the world. That, it, it's really, uh, ridiculous.

Why, why does the whole world sort of obsess and as of late, really kind of freaking out over one tiny little strip of land, um, that's smaller than New Jersey? Even though it's smaller than New Jersey, yet the nations rage over Israel right now. Um, there's protests going on all over the world about Israel, and all of our, you know, big Ivy League colleges and universities are teaching and and encouraging protesting and, uh, support for the, the Palestinian cause. We'll talk more about that, but, um, you know, the UN passes more resolutions against Israel than any other nation combined. Like, it's amazing what, uh, the UN, the United Nothing does, uh, against Israel. Um, and, and, and yet Israel, you know, the world religions do revolve around it. Judaism, Christianity, even Islam claims, um, that Jerusalem is the third most holy site in all of Islam. Um, and, um, and armies fight over this little speck of land over the centuries. Prophets wrote about it. Jesus pointed to it.

But here's the thing. If you go to cemetery, I mean, seminary, um, you will never take a class in Israel. Uh, you will never study about the nation Israel, which is really a shock to me because if you read your Bible carefully, um, Jerusalem is named over 700 times in the Bible. By the way, how many times is Jerusalem mentioned in the in the Quran? >> Zero. >> Zip. Zero. Um, but actually, it's mentioned over 700 times in the Bible. Jerusalem and Israel is the epicenter of all geography in the Bible. And yet, isn't it interesting that there's not one class you can find in most colleges or seminaries, uh, about studying the, you know, the, even just geography of Israel, let alone the geopolitics or even the Bible prophecy around God's plan and purpose for Israel? Um, and, and here's the thing that that's so, uh, I think key, and this is where I really want to focus tonight, that is, if you misunderstand Israel, you will misunderstand Bible prophecy. That's just the bottom line.

Um, well, Brett, how do you know, uh, you're right about Bible prophecy? Isn't that too controversial to land? I don't believe so. I'm firmly convinced, uh, in in a pre-trib, premillennial view of the rapture of the church and, you know, the order of events. I'm, I'm convinced of that. Now, um, you can say, "Well, Brett, there's other opinions out there." Of course, and people are welcome to have them. And when they're raptured, they'll change their notes on their way up. Uh, it'll be great. Uh, I'm, I'm sort of joking. And, and, and by the way, I have good Christian friends that have different views than I do. Uh, don't forget, we can disagree. There's, there's certain things we can disagree on and still be brothers and sisters in Christ. Uh, that's one thing that a lot of people forget, uh, in our modern-day culture, is if you disagree with somebody, suddenly they're, you know, going to hell and they're, they're heretics and all this stuff. Uh, I, I vehemently reject that notion. Uh, we need to remember what the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. And by the way, that mistake is made on both sides of the argument.

A couple well-known Prophecy Update guys that many of you know and love, probably, uh, came out a few weeks back and said, you know, "If you don't support Israel, you're really not a Christian." Um, I totally disagree with that. As much as I am a supporter of Israel, and I wish all Christians would support Israel and love Israel, that is not an essential doctrine of the Christian faith. Um, you know, it doesn't say, "Confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, and support Israel, and then you will be saved." It doesn't say that in the Bible anywhere. Um, so I, I understand their passion and why they say it, but they're just dead wrong on that one. Um, be careful when people say stuff like that. If, unless you support Israel, you're not really even, you can't be a Christian. I understand maybe saying, "How can you be a Christian and not support Israel?" I understand that question, but, uh, I know a lot of people that don't support Israel, but I know that they're faithful Christians and they love the Lord. Uh, be careful. Don't just throw the baby out with the bathwater. That's something that we're seeing today. Uh, even on both sides of this argument, uh, people that I love are making those kinds of statements, and they, they really shouldn't.

But if you misunderstand God's plan for Israel and the, the understanding what the Bible teaches about Israel, you, you really won't understand Bible prophecy. And that explains to me why so many people are sort of misguided. Um, and if you're wondering, Brett, why don't you present all the various views of of eschatology? Well, um, I don't really want to. That's why. What a waste of time. Uh, uh, no, I, I have, I have shared with you guys over the years, you know, here's the various views. I've talked about amillennialism, postmillennialism, pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib. Uh, there's all kinds of views. Um, and, um, and, you know, I, I like discussing with people those different views, but when it comes to me talking on a prophecy update or or sharing here as I teach through the Bible verse by verse, um, that's one of the things I like to do is just say, "Here's what the Bible teaches." And I think if you let the Bible just stand for itself, uh, you really can't avoid, um, really the understanding of God's plan, uh, eschatologically. Eschatology is a study of the last days, the end times. Um, so, so they don't understand Israel, and because of that, they've failed to know, um, uh, God's plan and how it's going to unfold. Uh, and, and really, you need to understand Israel's past, present, and future. U, the Old Testament and God's plan and purpose for Israel. You got to go into the past to really understand God's plan for the future. Uh, I'm going to hopefully demonstrate that tonight.

Um, I believe one of the greatest things that will help you understand Bible prophecy is history. Um, have you ever noticed my Bible prophecy updates often go heavy into history? There's a reason for that. Um, and it really has to do with, uh, looking back and seeing how God has confirmed his plan throughout history. Um, and, and when you see the way he unfolded in history, why wouldn't we also see those same patterns in the future? Let me just give you one example of that. Um, uh, they missed Jesus's first coming. Would you agree with that? >> Uh, there was only a few, some Magi from the East, some Babylonian dudes, they were kind of going, "Hey, this might be an important thing." And they were looking for the star. And where did that come from? And we've talked about maybe Daniel and the guy's influence there, uh, in Babylon, but there was only a tiny group. The religious leaders in Jerusalem, they weren't looking for the, the coming of Jesus, his first coming, the first advent, and they missed it.

Um, but they should have known. Why? Well, there was all kinds of prophecies, more than 300 specific prophecies about Jesus's first coming, and they missed it because they weren't, they weren't watching the signs of the times. Now, you and I can go back, and it's easy now in retrospect to go back and say, "Well, you know, he's going to ride on a colt of a donkey." That was prophesied. It was prophesied that he'd be born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem. Uh, like, there's so many things that the Bible said about his first coming. They really should have known, but they missed it. Um, and in the same way, uh, should we know? Now, by the way, they should have known even more in a sense than we do, because the second coming of Christ, no man knows the day nor the hour, nor can they. As it turns out, there were some date setting that they could have done if they wanted to, uh, in the first coming. Remember when he rode into Jerusalem on a little colt of a donkey? They could have known that if they'd studied Daniel chapter 9, the very day.

Um, so in history, there, there were actually predictions of very days that they could have known. We'll get into that, uh, a little bit more tonight too. But studying the past, um, they, they, you know, we, they could have known the first coming, and Jesus said, "You shouldn't be ignorant concerning the second coming and my plan for Israel." Um, and this is one of the things that, like, they were ignorant in the first coming, we see the church being largely ignorant concerning the second coming. Same old thing. Uh, if there's one thing we've learned from history is we've learned nothing from history. And that's what we're seeing again.

So, Israel's past is hugely important. Israel's present, that is today. There's huge confusion on what Israel should do or what they shouldn't do. Are they still God's chosen people? Um, are all the Jews saved just because they're Jews and they have the DNA of a Jew? Um, what about the government of Israel, modern-day Israel? There's all kinds of confusion and, and people screaming about those things. Uh, we'll answer those questions tonight. Um, but God's future for Israel, there is a very clear plan, perfectly spelled out in the Bible. It's not even hard. A kindergartner could figure out that God has a plan for Israel, unless, unless you tell everybody, "Well, there's no such thing as Israel anymore." Um, and so it really is all the Israel prophecies are to really the church. Do you see how simple it was for people to shift off of Israel onto us? That's just called replacement theology. So they just say, "Well, all the promises to Israel in the future really are on the church, the new Israel." Um, which is such a convenient little jump. I'm going to call it a huge leap. Um, that is actually just full of error.

Um, so let's go back to some of God's past dealings with Israel, and this will help us understand, uh, modern-day Israel. Uh, the questions that are asked, "Are the Jews still God's chosen people?" Um, the answer is yes. Um, does chosen mean that they're all going to heaven right now if they died? >> No. They're still chosen, but they're not saved. There's a difference between being chosen and saved. Is there coming a time where a moment in history where all of Israel will be saved? >> Yes. >> Yes. The Bible tells us that. Romans 11:25 says there's coming a time when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, all of Israel will be saved. That's going to be, uh, during the tribulation period. That's, but that's a whole another topic. Um, uh, is modern-day Israel, God still working in and through modern-day Israel? >> You better believe it. And the answer, I'll show you, I, I want to prove to you tonight that that is true.

Now, now I'm just going to say, uh, one of the greatest testimonies of God's existence is modern-day Israel, if you ask me. Um, because, uh, his word has been so perfectly, uh, exact on the re-gathering of the Jews in their land of Israel. That's, that's been foretold in the scriptures. But there is confusion about that, uh, that God is re-gathering Israel. And, and if you want to know what the replacement theologians are trying to say, they're saying, "Well, the, the re-gathering of Israel is not really geographically, but it's really the true Israel," they'll say, "the church." Um, and that's the re-gathering. Um, and because, uh, of the new Israel, the church, as they would say, God is blessing the church and cursing Israel, the Jews. Um, so, uh, so let me show you where some of that confusion lies. In fact, would you flip over to Deuteronomy chapter 30? I want to show you this. Um, there's an interesting prophecy, uh, that's really clear, uh, if you ask me. Um, but I'll tell you why there's confusion about it. It's Deuteronomy chapter 30. Of course, books of Moses. So, this goes back quite a ways. Wouldn't you agree?

Um, but listen how much the Lord already knew what was going to happen to Israel. Um, and, and he even foretells it here long before, um, you know, Israel is what it is today. Check it out. It's Deuteronomy chapter 30, um, verse one. It says, "And it shall come to pass, when all these things will come upon thee, the blessing and the curse which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call, uh, them to mind among all the nations, whether the Lord thy God hath driven thee." So, right there, Moses is writing that someday the Lord's going to drive the Jews out of Israel over through all the nations. We call that the diaspora, for those that you're wondering, the scattering of the Jews. And by the way, there was a couple different diasporas over the centuries.

Um, verse two, "And shalt return to the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, with all thy soul, that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return, and gather thee from all the nations, whether the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will I will will the Lord thy God gather thee from thence, and he will fetch thee. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it, and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And the Lord thy God will put all the c these curses upon thine enemies and on them that hate thee which persecuted thee." You might want to mark verse seven. What's the Lord gonna do? Anybody that's cursing Israel, um, they're going to get verse seven. The Lord will put all these curses upon thine enemies and on them that hate thee which persecuted thee. That, that should not be taken lightly.

Um, and thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord and do all of his commandments which I command thee this day. And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, and in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, the fruit of thy land for good. For the Lord, uh, will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers. So when will the Lord do this? The Lord will, um, verse one, uh, you know, drive you out among all the nations. And then verse two, "Thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God and shall obey his voice according to all that I command thee." So this, to to many people, go, "Wow, this is amazing." And the Lord's going to scatter the Jews, and he's going to re-gather them, um, in Israel, and they'll be blessed as a nation. Question. Has Deuteronomy chapter 30 been fulfilled? >> The answer is no. >> No. And I'm just going to say, uh, just to rub it in, not even close. You say, "Well, Brett, they were scattered and, and then they were re-gathered." But why is this? Can anybody guess why can we say, "Wait, there's, there's, we should pause here and not just think this has been fulfilled"? What, what's, what's the thing that's sort of missing here? >> What? >> Yeah. He's going to gather them for the good, um, when you return to the Lord thy God. Have, has Israel returned to the Lord their God? Not even close. In fact, what's really interesting is, um, most of the people that have moved back in and resettled in, in the land of Israel, most of them, you know, we always go to Jerusalem. So, we see the Hasidic Jews and some of the religious Jews, but the majority of the Jews in, in like places like Tel Aviv and Elat and other places, they're secular Jews. They, they, they're, they're atheists, agnostics. Uh, they were not gathered in their belief. Um, and so this, this is not the fulfillment of this.

Now, now you say, "Well, Brett, that, that causes me concern." Uh, it shouldn't, and I'm going to show you why. Um, in Jewish eschatology and biblical history, there's a thing that is referred to as the servitude of the nations. It refers to periods when the Jewish people would lose their political sovereignty, uh, and are subjected to the rule or exile or even being dominated, uh, by foreign empires. You know, it's like, um, when the Jews became sort of a, a vassal state of the Babylonians. Um, even before they were, uh, completely dragged off into captivity, they were under the fist of the Babylonians. Um, same thing that happened during the Roman Empire. The Jews were, uh, under the political sovereignty of Rome, eventually. Um, it was right around, uh, AD 12, when the Jews lost their own ability to govern themselves. The scepter was removed, if you know the reference there. Uh, uh, which there was a prophecy that the Messiah would come before the scepter would be removed from Israel. That, uh, that happened, and, and when did that happen? AD 12. And the old men in Jerusalem were weeping, "Oh, you know, our sovereignty left, and the Messiah hasn't been to Jerusalem yet." What was happening right around AD 12? The Messiah was sitting in Jerusalem as a 12-year-old boy confounding the priests in the temple. He had come, that prophecy perfectly was fulfilled in Jesus. Uh, which is so cool. Uh, but that was again, one of those times in history while Israel lost the dominance, uh, or ability to be sovereign over their own people. So, this idea of the servitude of nations.

Um, now, uh, we'll get back to Deuteronomy 30 here in a second. Um, but go with me to Jeremiah 25. I want to remind you when the prophet Jeremiah came on the scene. Um, uh, one of the things that, um, we, we need to remember is what happened when the Jews were scattered during the Babylonian Empire. Deuteronomy, pardon me, Jeremiah chapter 25. Uh, we won't go into the deepest part of this, but verse, verse 11. Jeremiah 25:11. You might want to note these and be familiar with these, because this really lends itself to the discussion about Israel, God's plan. Is modern-day Israel, uh, uh, does God care about them? Does he have a plan for them? Um, but in Jeremiah 25:11, it says, "And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years." So, what's this referring to? Well, it's the 70 years of captivity the Jews would serve, um, in Babylon. Uh, which is really important.

Um, now, does anybody remember why, why did God say, "You Jews, you owe me 70 years"? Anybody? >> Cuz because what? >> The festivals. Yes. But there was something very specific about that they, that they neglected to do. >> Yeah. The one-year Sabbath of the >> land. That's right. It was the land. They, you know, you're supposed to one and seven leave your land. What do they call that? Not planted and let the land rest. Interesting. God had a plan for that. Um, and we know that from 2 Chronicles 36:21, "To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. For as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill three score and 10 years." They didn't give the land the Sabbath rest. And by the way, God always keeps accurate accounts. Can I just say that? Can you remember that? The, um, it's almost like the Lord says, "You all owe me." And I was, I was ticking the clicker. Every time you didn't let the land rest, I remembered that. Um, by the way, when God says a debt is owed, it will be paid. That's important.

Um, the reason that's important is, is there's a lot of debts that are, are owed. The biggest debt you and I owe is, is, uh, the wages of sin. And when you and I owe the debt of sin, that, that debt has to be paid, and it will be paid. The question is, who's going to pay it? If you're not a Christian, you'll owe that debt. And the debt is paid by eternal death and hell. But if you want someone to pay your bill for you, it's there for the taking. God loves you so much. He says, "I'll pay your debt." He paid a debt he did not owe. You owe a debt you cannot pay. And that's the gospel. Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world, paying the debt. Um, when he said, "It is finished," paid to the last, it was really paid in full, a financial term, that debt was paid. So, just kind of a reminder, when God says a debt is owed, it will be paid. And, and boy, you could just look historically at Israel when they didn't let the land rest for those, um, you know, so many years, um, the Lord says, "You owe me 70 years." So, the people didn't believe these things would come to pass in their time. But Jeremiah, um, was saying, "No, you're going to, these are the years that are, you're going to be in desolation."

Do you remember Daniel when he was in captivity? He went in the first wave, uh, of three of the Babylonians, was 605 BC. Um, Daniel, he said, "I understood by the reading of the books." What books? Jeremiah was the book Daniel was reading. And he understood by the reading of Jeremiah that they would have 70 years in Babylon. That's all part of the deal. So, Jeremiah was the prophet predicting that. Now, one thing you should know, Jeremiah was older and began his ministry earlier, but was a contemporary of Ezekiel the prophet. Now, um, uh, their prophetic timelines, Jeremiah and Ezekiel's prophecies did overlap, uh, for a significant period somewhere between 593 BC and 596. There was some clear overlap of Jeremiah and Ezekiel's prophecy. During this time, Jeremiah was actively, uh, prophesying from the ruins of Jerusalem, while Ezekiel was simultaneously delivering prophecies in exiled Babylon with the Israelites that were already there, um, in the first waves of, uh, captivity. That's kind of important to know.

Now, uh, in Jeremiah chapter 38 and 39, Jeremiah writes about the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and its fall, which is kind of important. Now, in Ezekiel, however, there's, there's a prophecy in Ezekiel that I find really fascinating. And if you take a few minutes to study this, it, it really is, uh, something that seals the deal. The question, "Does God care about modern-day Israel?" And the answer is absolutely yes. But this isn't the kind of answer that you could give on CNN or Fox News. You, you know, if you go on one of these news programs, they give you a sound bite for 15 seconds or 20 seconds, and then you could, you know, but to actually talk about something that's meaningful, nobody ever, rarely do they do that anymore. And in fact, we're we're so, uh, short attention spanned. Um, we, we, we can't even really get real information out anymore. Have you guys noticed that? This is one that takes a little more thought than 10 seconds. But if you, if you look at this, um, it, it really does answer, God actually cares about modern-day Israel. By the way, um, I have a lot of reasons that are just, uh, why God cares about modern-day Israel, and that is the re-gathering of Israel. Well, Brett, you said Deuteronomy 30 is not about that. Well, it's not, but there's other ones that do talk about that. I'll get to that in a minute.

So, this servitude of nations that Jeremiah referred to, Ezekiel kind of touches on that, too. That as, as the Jews in Jerusalem would rebel against the Lord, the Lord promised that he would scatter them through all the nations, and they would serve other nations. That's part of the deal. Now, go with me to the prophecy of Ezekiel chapter 4. Would you turn there quickly? Ezekiel chapter 4. Um, and remember I told you God, uh, requires, uh, the debt that the Jews owed him for their, uh, sentences, uh, that they, you know, their sinfulness. Jeremiah spoke of 70 years. Ezekiel is going to talk about a much longer time period. And boy, this is a story that makes me really glad I'm not a prophet from the Old Testament. Um, Ezekiel's, he's got all kinds of crazy stuff he's got to do. In fact, some of you have read Ezekiel, you're like, "What a crazy book." Uh, he throws his hair up in the air and chops it up with a sword. He eats from cooking with manure and stuff. And it's like he, it's kind of a crazy story, but this is part of that crazy story.

Um, he's going to be told by the Lord to get out there and lay on his side for a really long time. Have you ever, have you ever woke up in the middle of the night laying on your side too long and your shoulder is really sore, or your, you know, your hand was in a wrong position? You're like, "Ow." Uh, well, how long does Ezekiel lay on one side? Well, he's going to lay on one side and he's going to flop over and lay on the other side. Check this out. It's Ezekiel 4:3. It says, "Moreover, God says to Ezekiel, take thou unto thee, uh, whoops, sorry, I mean verse four." Now, let's go to verse three. "Moreover, take unto thee an iron pan, set up for thee a wall of iron between thee and the city. This is one of the weird things he had to do to make a symbol. And set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel." So, this, that's just one of the signs that is Jerusalem would be besieged. Now, verse four is the next visible demonstration. "Lie thou upon thy left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee, uh, the iniquity, or pardon me, the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, 390 days. So thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Israel." So, he's got to lay on his left side for 390 days. Man, I hope he's got a Sleep Number.

Uh, verse six. "And when thou hast accomplished that, the, the 3, you know, 90 days, um, when you've accomplished that, verse six, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days. I have appointed thee each day for a year." Um, what's that? Well, Jeremiah is doing something here. He's going to lie on his side, and for every day that he lays on his side, the Lord has determined a year, uh, that is owed to God for their years of rebellion against God. Um, and, and this is really something, and this is all part of that servitude of nations that they would have to serve other nations, like Jeremiah was talking about. Um, so this, this is the, this is the, there's a full sentence that, that God is talking about at the same time. One through Jeremiah, and then one through Ezekiel. You might say one prophecy of 70 years through Jeremiah, but Ezekiel gives two, uh, one's 390, and the other is, uh, 40 days as he lays on his right side and stuff like that. So, if you kind of talk about this sentence that God divvies out, 430 years are owed, according to God's, you know, uh, balance sheet or whatever. Um, 70 would be paid, um, uh, by the, the captivity of Babylon, but there would be 360 years not yet served. And so here's the question. Um, we know when, when Israel served the 70 years of captivity, that, that's the time of Daniel. That's when the Jews were stuck there in, uh, uh, Babylon for those 70 years. And we even know those dates and when that happened and stuff like that.

Um, so when did Israel serve the 360 years, or the rest of the judgment according to Ezekiel? Um, and, and this has caused people to kind of throw their hands up and go, "Who knows? I don't know. Nobody." Because, um, you really can't find that as much, uh, um, in history. Uh, which is kind of interesting, but I believe the answer is found if you look at Leviticus. Um, again, uh, one of the things that I think about end times that's really fascinating in the Bible is the Lord sort of encrypts a lot of stuff of end time stuff. It's meant to be sort of figured out. Um, the Lord, it sort of time releases end time stuff. And the closer we get to the end, we start to understand it better. That's why in the book of Daniel, he said, "Seal up the words of this book. You're not, it's not for you, Daniel. You're not going to understand it." But if you get to the book of Revelation, God says, "Do not seal up the words of this book." Why? We're closer to the end.

Um, so one of the things is we, we, if we study the Bible carefully, we'll start to understand. The closer we get to the end, the better we'll understand these things. So that's one of the fun parts of studying Bible prophecy is, is, um, finding those sort of, uh, those hidden, uh, truths. Um, but up until, uh, not that long ago, people, when did they serve the 360 years in captivity? Well, that, that they just kind of threw up their hands and said, "We don't know." But if you go to Leviticus, I'm just going to show you in chapter 26 of Leviticus, um, the Lord says something, uh, about a, a sort of a chastising or punishing the children of Israel. And it's, it's the seven times curse that is pronounced upon Israel. And I want to show you those verses. Jot these down if you would. Um, Leviticus 26:18. "And if you will not yet for all this hearken to me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins."

Um, question. Did the Jews hearken to the Lord? >> No. They had 10 seconds here and there where they did, but most of the time they were rebelling against the Lord. Look at Leviticus 26:23-24. "And if you will not be reformed by me, uh, by by me by these things, but will walk but will walk contrary to me, then will I also walk contrary to you and will punish you yet seven times for your sins." And then Leviticus 26:27 and 28, where it says, "And if you will not for all of this hearken unto me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you also in fury." Notice that. Um, and I even, I will chastise you seven times for your sins. This is quite a curse. And why does God say it in the Levitical law four times in one chapter? The seven times sort of curse. This is something that we should really note. Seven times. Um, if the Jews did not receive the correction that God was giving them, then he said, "Then I'm gonna, I'm gonna curse you seven times." So, um, so if you look at this, this is really interesting.

Um, Daniel served 70 years of captivity. We, we can, we can know when that was. But when was this other 360, Ezekiel's 360, uh, years? Well, if you apply the seven times curse, uh, that is listed here in Leviticus to the curse that Ezekiel passed out, what does that do? Well, there's some interesting things, and you got to put on your thinking cap, as your elementary school teacher told you. Let's do the math. You guys ready for some of the math? Um, it's kind of interesting. So, if you take Ezekiel's 360 years of curse times 7 times curse from Leviticus, that brings you to 2520 years that the Jews would owe the Lord for their rebellion, uh, and their sinfulness. Um, now, a few things you have to keep a count of is when we're talking about years. The Jewish and the Babylonian calendar has a year of 360 days. Uh, you know, we have the Gregorian calendar, they have the lunar calendar. So, it's a different, uh, you know, uh, sort of deal. Uh, so you have to kind of do that. So, it helps to to shift this to days. So, the 2520 years times the, you know, 360 days per year, that means there's 97,200 days in totality that the Jews owed God for their rebellion. If you apply the seven times curse to Ezekiel, are you guys still with me? >> Okay.

Now, if you take the, the time when Daniel and his buddies, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were taken out of Jerusalem, a lot of people killed in Jerusalem as the first wave of captivity after the seven, the 70 years of captivity. That would be 605 BC. So, these are, these are the dates we know. In 605 BC, the Jews were, the first Jews were carried away into captivity, first wave after, um, uh, the 70 years of captivity. And then in July 23rd, 536 BC, that's when Cyrus released the people to go home to Israel. So, those are kind of key dates.

Um, now, um, so now I, if, if what you, if we have the math right, what you should do is from July 23rd, 536 BC, if you were to go forward and add the 97,200 days, um, you can just bring you to a certain calendar date. And if you do that, it brings you to an interesting date. It's one that you might recognize, and it might be a little bit shocking to you, but it brings you right to May 14th, 1948. >> What, what happened on that date? >> Israel becomes a nation on that date. Um, which is really something if you know your history. This all Bible prophecy, guys, should have changed all their notes. I can see why before this, I can see why people might have stayed with their amillennial view because there was no literal Jewish nation or state. It was all, they were scattered all over the world. There was no country called Israel, and all those prophecies about a country called Israel, you had to, you had to spiritualize because they didn't even exist. But on May 14th, Israel becomes a nation again. Then you have to kind of re-look, which they didn't do, but you have to re-look and say, "Man, all those future prophecies concerning a literal nation called Israel. Does that apply to a modern-day Israel?" Well, I believe the answer is, uh, resoundingly yes, they do apply to a modern-day Israel. It doesn't. We're not talking about the church. Oh, there's prophecies about the church. Um, but the prophecies of, of Israel becoming a nation again, if you apply the seven times curse to Ezekiel 4, it brings you right to that date, which is really fascinating to me.

Now, uh, with that, uh, you know, the servitude of nations for Israel is officially over. That is, Israel actually has its own country again. May 14th, 1948. Um, now that servitude of nations, you could say that that seals the deal for Ezekiel's curse on the Jews. They were they

Were, uh, in servitude for all those years, 97,200 days serving other nations. That's over. What does this mean to you and me?

First of all, the Bible is amazing. Number one. Number two, I believe that also means the coming of the Lord, the second coming of the Lord is near. This should, uh, help us understand that we are living in the last days. Well, Brett, they've been over 70 years a nation now. Like, come on. Really? Oh, but you got to remember, um, that if you read Bible prophecy carefully, uh, there's a few things that need to happen after Israel becomes a nation. And we're seeing those things happen right now. Uh, by the way, Psalm 102:16, "When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory." Um, don't forget that Psalm. That is, we've are, are we seeing Zion, which is another name for Jerusalem? Uh, is the Lord building up Zion? Yeah, but Brent, I'm still confused. Deuteronomy 30, you said that's not happening. That hasn't happened yet. But now you're saying God is building up Zion? Yes, that's correct. Um, I'll, I'll fill you in on the detail here.

But before I do that, I, I want to show you another model. I just presented to you a model that gets you to an interesting date of the servitude of nations being closed off, May 14th, 1948. Um, but there's another model that I find interesting, and that is a different sort of, if you use a different reference. Let's, let's just show you this, just something to think about. Um, uh, the last model was about the nation of Israel as a whole, and I used that, uh, that the dates of when Israel sort of ceased to lose their sovereignty and what have you. But what about the destruction of Jerusalem? And have you ever kind of wondered, is Jerusalem more of the time piece of God's stopwatch of end times, or is it Israel, or is it both? Um, I think that's an important question. Um, but we'll answer it here in a second.

So, so when, when did the, um, you know, when did, when did the destruction of Jerusalem happen? Well, if you understand the first wave that I told you about before was 605. If you don't use that date, if you don't start from that date, but instead you go to AV of, uh, 586 BC, which is, by the way, uh, uh, we, we know that this, this, uh, this is when Jerusalem was completely destroyed. It was the third wave. You've heard me talk about 580, 586 BC forever. It's a big date in Israel because that's when the temple was crushed, the walls were destroyed, and it was completely leveled. And really, no Jews lived in Jerusalem from this day forward, which is kind of important.

What happens when you apply the 70 years captivity, um, uh, of, of Daniel's 70 years and Jeremiah predicting that, um, you know, uh, August 16th, 517 BC? Um, and then you do the math of the 97,200 days that we did before, if you're still with me. Um, that brings you to another interesting date if you, so remember the first one we based on the first wave of Nebuchadnezzar's, uh, captivity, 605 BC, and this one we're basing it on the, when, when Nebuchadnezzar crushes Jerusalem, smashes the temple, and all the Jews are out of, out of Israel. What, what, what happens if you add this 97,200 days? That brings you to an interesting date, June 7th, 1967. What's that? My one-year birthday. I was one year old on June 7th, 196, that I was blowing out candles. Well, I was probably putting cake in my face, but at my one-year-old. No, that's not the important part of that date. What was June 7th, 1967? That's where Israel took Jerusalem and the Temple Mount on that day. Uh, it was an amazing, uh, you know, those of you who know your history, this was a miraculous battle. Um, which is really something.

So, take your pick. Use the first date when, um, you know, Nebuchadnezzar took the Jews into captivity, the first wave, or use the last one. It brings you to these interesting dates. Um, without the 70 or the seven times curses, there's no time in history where Israel paid their dues. But if you add the seven times curses, you can either take the first wave and go to May 14th, 1948, or you can use the last one. It brings you to June 7th, 196. Is that a coincidence? I don't believe so. I think that's just too much for it to be perfectly fulfilled. Ezekiel 4 was fulfilled, no matter how you slice it. Uh, the first wave or the last wave, Israel is still God's time piece.

And what I want to show you is, um, this kind of shows you that God is still interested in modern-day Israel. See, the, the people that say God doesn't care about modern Israel, they don't think that there was anything big about Israel becoming a nation again. They blow that off as what, a coincidence? They don't care that in June 7th, 1966, the Jews took Jerusalem, um, and, uh, conquered the Temple Mount. Now, uh, what I want to say about this, uh, Jerusalem, Israel is God's, God's time piece. If you're a Bible prophecy student, you have to understand Israel, the nation, is God's time piece. But Jerusalem, you might call it God's second hand, the second hand of God's time piece. You, you really need to look at both the nation Israel and then the city of Jerusalem. Those are both key in Bible prophecy.

Now, you say, "Bro, Brett, that's great. June 7th, they, you know, they took the Temple Mount." Um, but something happened there that I think is really interesting because there's so many prophecies that need to fall into place. And you say, "Well, Brett, that might be a coincidence, the, the date and all that." But it's even more than that. Um, while they took, you see, and, and the reason I'm showing you this, these are famous pictures and what have you. The Jews weeping at the Wailing Wall. They hadn't been there for forever, for centuries. They hadn't been able to weep at the Wailing Wall or be up on the Temple Mount. Uh, I've got audio recordings of the soldiers weeping as they're taking the Temple Mount and, and getting back in Jerusalem. Like, it's an amazing thing to, to listen to. Um, but, but there's another prophecy that says that the, that Jerusalem, that is the Temple Mount, would be trodden down under the Gentiles' feet until, um, really the day of the Lord. Um, so, so some people would say, well, Brett, I have a problem then, because here's Jerusalem, they took it, and they took the Temple Mount.

Do you guys recognize this photograph? This is a, this is maybe the most photograph, p, the most popular picture of that day. And if you know these leaders, the guy in the middle is kind of important there. Moshe Dayan. If you're old enough, you remember the guy with the patch. Um, and he was the, uh, leader of this, um, taking over Jerusalem, June 7th, 1967. But he did something that nobody understands why he did it. Um, they took the Temple Mount victoriously. The guys were weeping. Oh, we get to worship God again on our Temple Mount. They're weeping and all that. What did Moshe do? Anybody know? He gave it back to the Islamic powers, the Jordanians, the Waqf. Um, and to this day, the Jews don't control the Temple Mount. If I go to Jerusalem with you as, as an Israel tour, which we're working on one for 2027, November, um, hopefully the war is not still happening for other reasons. I hope the war is not happening. But, uh, but, uh, but, you know, we're at the mercy of the Muslims whether or not we get to go on the Temple Mount on any given day because the Muslims control that. Why? Because Moshe Dayan gave it to them.

Now, uh, when they tried to pin him down, he sort of hemmed and hawed and said, "Well, you know, it's trying to make, you know, we, we crushed the Arab nations that tried to fight us, and we're just sort of trying to give an olive branch of peace." But, uh, if you understand how important the Temple Mount is to the Jews, it's like they gave, he, he gave everything they cared about. It wasn't just a little piece of land. And by the way, land for peace. How's that worked out for the Jews over the centuries? It's never worked. Not even once. Um, and yet people still act like that's a solution that's potential. Well, Moshe gave it. Now, to this day, Jews are mad. I, I've told the story. Story. I was in a Jewish owner's shop and he was an old guy selling his wares in Jerusalem. And I asked him, you know, was he there? Uh, or, you know, cuz he told me he fought for Jerusalem. I said, "Were you there on June 7th?" And he says, "I sure was." And he got really angry. And I, like visibly mad. He pulls up his pant leg and he shows me this huge gash scar on his calf muscle. He said, "I got this storming Jerusalem that day, June 7th, 1967." And he said, 'What did I get for it? Moshe Dayan gave back the Temple Mount.' Like he was still furious about Moshe Dayan giving back the Temple Mount.

Now you say, "Okay, but whatever. Who cares?" Here's why that's important. While the Bible does predict that Israel would get back Jerusalem, it would still be trodden down under the feet of the Gentiles until the fullness of the Gentiles come in and the day of the Lord is at hand. Moshe did this almost unthinkable thing. We can try to speculate why, but you and I know why. Because that's the way God wanted it. God knew that the Temple Mount would have to be under the Gentiles' feet, the Muslims of Jordan. Uh, it would be there until the day of the Lord. That's an important thing to note. In fact, Jesus talked about this in Luke 21:24. "They shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations." That's Jesus talking about that. "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Um, Paul talks about the fullness of the Gentiles in Romans 11:25. And that's, I believe, the rapture of the church. When the Gentile church is taken up and the fullness of the Gentiles is over, that's when, um, the Gentiles will eventually be driven out of the Temple Mount and Jesus will rule and reign from there in Jerusalem.

Now, this is really something because there's so many variables that have to line up for all this prophecy to match up. And I just gave you a couple things, but the Ezekiel 4 prophecy, uh, you could do the math, whether it's the, the founding of the nation, May 14th, 1948, or when Jerusalem was taken and the Temple Mount, um, and all that, June 7th, 1967, that was all given to them. But all those other details were in line. The Gentiles would still have the Temple Mount even though the Jews conquered the, the Temple. That's amazing. But the Jews would be scattered, um, after AD 70. The Roman Empire, the Jews were scattered, and that would be part of that, uh, servitude of the nations that, that was prophesied by Ezekiel.

Uh, what happened, uh, in AD 70 when, uh, when Titus crushed Jerusalem? They were scattered, and the Jews, most of them were dragged off to Rome. Uh, as it turns out, uh, if you ever go to Rome, one of the things you should note is this be, this Coliseum that we, uh, love to tour. This is a creek as we're going through the Coliseum a couple summers ago. Uh, and, uh, it, you know, one of the things I, I marvel is, you know, the people talk about the glorious Coliseum, as they say it there in Rome, Coliseum. Uh, but actually, it was the Jews who built this. The Jews built the, they were slaves, but they were the ones who built this along with the Corinthian Canal and some other things. It's kind of interesting, but, um, uh, great distress and wrath fell upon the nation of Israel. And this was all part of God making the Jews pay the servitude of the nations. From the day that Titus entered that city, for about n 1900 years ago, the Jews have never been able to get the Gentiles out of Jerusalem.

This is the Titus Arch in Rome. Uh, this arch is really interesting because it shows, um, in AD 70 when Titus robbed, uh, the implements of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. You see the Menorah that's in Titus's Arch. This was, this was built like two years after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. And they, they show them hauling off the, uh, the Menorah of the temple in Jerusalem. It's really a fascinating thing to see. Uh, but the Gentiles still controlled Jerusalem, uh, until May, uh, June 7th, 1967.

So, the Dome of the Rock, what is up with that? Uh, well, it's still the Gentiles. Uh, uh, what do they call the Dome of the Rock? Is it a mosque? Question. Trick question. No, it's called a shrine. Uh, the mosque is the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. That's the little, uh, gray dome that's on the Temple Mount. That is a mosque. And by the way, the, the Muslims have sprinkled little miniature mosques all over the Temple Mount, um, to claim the territory, which is kind of interesting. But the Dome of the Rock shrine, that golden dome there, this is some of the pictures we took, uh, one of the times we were there. We got up early on the, I'm standing on the Mount of Olives there, looking down to the Temple Mount. Um, and, uh, and that's that shrine there was built, uh, in the 7th century AD. Remember, the Muslims didn't, they weren't even around till 600 AD. It's a fairly new religion compared to Christianity. Way new compared to Judaism, but it was built by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan in the late 7th century. Um, and they say that it's the oldest extant Islamic monument in the world, this, this particular, um, shrine.

Now, what's, what's why did they build that here? Well, there's a rock that this is built over. Um, and it's sort of sacred to both, as they claim, the Muslims and the Jews. Um, the, the Muslims say it was apparently where Muhammad ascended, which there's no real proof of that. Um, uh, the Jews say it's where, um, Abraham brought Isaac when he went to Mount Mariah, which is Mount Zion, uh, and was going to sacrifice Isaac on that rock. So, the Jew, Jews say this is the whole, and it's where the temple sat of Solomon, they believe. But the Gentiles still in Jerusalem. Isn't it amazing how accurate the word of God is?

In fact, Romans 11:25, as we've covered it before, he, uh, Paul says, "I would not, brethren, that you gentile Roman and a Greek should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in." And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I will take away their sins."

Okay, now this is where we start to get some answers. Um, why was Deuteronomy 30, the scripture we started with, not fulfilled yet? Because the Jews haven't turned away from their sins yet. They're, they're, they're unbelievers. They're mostly secular today. Um, and see, this is one of the reasons why people argue against Israel because they say, "See, the Jews are mostly unbelievers. In fact, they're godless sinners and they're totally wacko." That anti-semitism of, you know, of Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and all those people, the, you know, the Nick Fuentes and all these people. Um, you, you have to understand that anti-semitism, they use the argument, "See, the Jews never repented. They're not even Christians. They don't believe in Jesus." And so they're forsaken, and the church has replaced Israel, and all this stuff. And, and man, it's just, this, this argument is raging.

Now, because of that, there's all kinds of claims, and I'm going to call them false claims, that are made against Israel. And because of this, there's an arrogance. Paul said in Romans 11, "Don't be ignorant and don't be arrogant." The very thing we're seeing rampant today, and it's based on false claims, uh, against Israel. What are some of those? We don't have a lot of time left, but I'm going to go over some of those false claims right now. Uh, false claim number one that I want to cover. Um, Israel, they say, can't be God's chosen people because they don't believe in Jesus and they actually crucified him. That's, have you heard that argument? Uh, they don't believe in Jesus, so they're not saved. That part's true. The only, there's only one name under heaven by which men can be saved, and that is Jesus Christ. So, if you're a Jew and you die today, you're, you're not automatically going to heaven because you're a Jew. Your DNA does not save you. Um, what's funny about that is some of these people that make these arguments, they act like I think Jews are saved because they're Jews. I've never said that. Um, well, Brett, you support Israel. We do. Um, but, but they're not even saved. Correct. But the Bible says you're supposed to, uh, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And, and one of the parts of the Old Testament says we're supposed to bless those that bless Israel. That's what God's going to do. And he's going to curse those who curse Israel. That's still coming. Even Deuteronomy 30 said, "Whoever treats Israel badly is going to get the curses on them." That's what it says. So they, they say Israel's cursed because they're, they can't be God's chosen people. Modern-day Israel can't be because they rejected Jesus the Messiah. And there's only, this is their argument. The only people that are chosen by God are people who are saved by Jesus Christ. I'll admit, we've been adopted. If you follow the line, we've been adopted sons and daughters of God if we're New Testament Christians. But as it turns out, um, Israel's still called the chosen, and we'll talk about that.

In fact, uh, Israel, they say, can't be God's chosen people because they don't believe in Jesus. And they crucified him. Question, who really crucified Jesus? Was it? Yeah, we all did that. Don't, don't be so arrogant to say those Jews, those pesky Jews killed Jerusalem in Jerusalem Jesus that day. Well, you could also argue the Romans killed him. They're the ones who drove the nails. Um, and then you could also say we killed him. Why? Because Jesus went willingly to the cross to die for your sins. That's why he died. We sent him to the cross. That's arrogant for them to, for people, even Christians, to say, "Those pesky Jews killed Jesus." That's their attitude. And it's arrogant to say that.

Uh, another false claim against Israel. Number two, Israel can't be God's chosen people because look at their sinfulness. Uh, again, you got to be careful with this one. If you look at Israel's sinfulness, who else should we look at? Their sinfulness? All of us. We're all wacko. Now, I'm going to give it to you. When, when I support Israel, as, as I say, I support Israel as a, as a nation, even God's plan for Israel, I'm not saying I agree with everything they do. I've been critical of Israel, the government, some of the moves they've made, the stuff they've done. Uh, I obviously they're, they're sinful, but so are you, and so, so are we. America is just as sinful as Israel, maybe worse. I don't know, though.

Did you see this article this week? J Post put it out. Uh, 4-day Pride festival to be held at the Dead Sea, largest in history in the Middle East. Um, uh, Israel's not helping themselves, you know. Uh, the Israeli, the Israelis are more pro-LGBTQ than probably even here in the United States. They have, I've been in Jerusalem when they've had gay pride parades and stuff like that. Um, Pride Land is what they're calling this. It's not just another festival. The producer of this said, um, his name is Aaron Cohen, which is interesting. The word Cohen, the name Cohen means you were part of the Levites. So, here's a Levitical guy putting on this LGBTQ festival. The new festival, Pride Land, intends to transform the middle of the Judean desert at the Dead Sea into a colorful pride city from June 1st to June 4th. By the way, I've been going to Israel for a lot of years. The Dead Sea area and all the tourism there that's becoming known as LGBTQ center, sort of like San Francisco is, you know, here in America, known to be the gay bay. Um, well, the Dead Sea, interestingly enough, is becoming sort of that in Israel, the place where all the gay people say, "This is our, this is our area." So they're, they're doing this big event. It, it, the article goes on, intends to create an experience broader than parties or performances, but aiming for a space that is alive 24 hours a day. Um, all the 15 hotels, beach complexes, parties, central performances, and an arena, uh, that'll be going around the clock. Not just a pride event. It also aims to highlight the Dead Sea region as a permanent destination for LGBTQ, uh, tourists, emphasizing that pride in Israel extends way beyond the hub of Tel Aviv. Um, that's what's going on.

So, um, when, when I say that we're supposed to bless Israel because the Lord will bless those, we, we can't say we're behind this or sinful behavior, but we are behind them, uh, as they're the, um, chosen of God. Um, they're just in total rebellion right now. We recognize that they're living in a sinful way. Um, so back to the Deuteronomy 30 thing that we started with. Israel is not there. They haven't turned to the Lord. They haven't repented. So that's why we can know Deuteronomy 30 is not, uh, fulfilled.

But brethren, the Lord did scatter them, and he did re-gather them. The real problem with this and the struggle that some of these, um, you know, replacement theology, they fail to see that the prophets in the Bible spoke of two international returns of the people. This is what you need to hear what I'm saying tonight. There's two re-gatherings. Um, the diaspora is the scattering of Israel, but there are two sort of biblical mentions of the, the Lord re-gathering the people of Israel. The first re-gathering is in their sin, in their deadness. Does anybody know where's some of the passages, uh, that talk, what's like one of the main passages talking about how Israel's going to be gathered in their deadness? Ezekiel 36 and 37. Remember the valley of dry bones? Um, they're going to be dead, but the Lord's going to gather the dead bones, but there's going to be no life in them. Um, and they, you know, the knee bone will be connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone connected to the hip bone, that whole thing. Clinkity clink. They're going to be gathered together, the bones, but then they're going to have skin on them, and they're going to have life. Looks like life, but they're not going to be alive. That's where we are right now with Israel. Israel hasn't been breathed spiritual life into them.

So, first, there would be a re-gathering in unbelief in preparation for judgment, namely the judgment of the tribulation period. Um, uh, I, I told you, you know, once it's recognized that the Bible speaks of two gatherings of God's people, the Jews, it's easy to see how the present state of Israel fits into Bible prophecy. The present state of Israel is re-gathered by God in their unbelief, in their sinfulness. The first gathering and, and culminating in 1948 when they become a modern state, born, uh, uh, the Jews were re-gathered in unbelief. In fact, the Zionist movement, which is, was mostly like a communist movement for those of you that are wondering, Herzl and those others, and even the kibbutzim and all that was all more of a communistic sort of thing. We're not saying, "Oh, rah rah the Zionist movement," and go communism. That's not what we're saying. What we are saying with Zionism, we recognize that God stirred it up in a bunch of unbelieving Jews to move to Israel. That's what we're saying. Um, so when people bash me and say, "But's just a Zionist wacko." Um, not really in that sense. I, I do believe God has re-gathered and used Zionism, Theodore Herzl, and, um, all those history that I've gone over on that. Um, and, and there's all kinds of predictions about Israel being re-gathered in their unbelief, in their rebellion. Um, there's a bunch of passages. Um, let me just go over a couple, uh, of those. Um, one of those is Zephaniah. Um, chapter, uh, 2:es 1 and 2. It says this. Um, this is just one example. "Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation, not desired. Why are they not desired? They're not desired of God. Not desired before the decree bring forth before the day pass as the, uh, chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you." This is clearly talking about how the Jews are going to be gathered together before the Lord's anger is going to be upon. When is God's fiercest wrath going to be poured out on the Jewish people? During the tribulation. During the tribulation. One of the whole reasons the seven-year ch period called the tribulation is going to happen is to pour out his wrath on the Jews. Now, it's, it's not punitive wrath. It's corrective wrath. The rest of the world, uh, in the tribulation is going to get more punitive wrath. The Jews are going to have their eyes opened during the tribulation, but no, nonetheless, the anger of the Lord has come upon them during the tribulation. This is that, that first re-gathering of the Jews for the purpose of wrath. That's what we are seeing with our eyes in this day.

Here's another one. Ezekiel 20:33. This is the first re-gathering to wrath for the tribulation period. Ezekiel 20:33 says, "As I live, sayeth the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out." Um, some of the newer translations say, "With wrath poured out will I rule over you." Um, this is, this, this fury is that, that what's determined upon Israel. I'll rule over you. I will bring you out from the people, that is the nations, and I will gather you out of the countries wherein you were scattered with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out. Um, question before I keep reading, has that happened yet? Well, we've seen him re-gather the Jews in unbelief, and they are perfectly postured for this to happen. This could happen at any moment. The wrath of God, um, pouring out on them. Verse 35. "And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face, like, uh, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. So will I plead with you, sayeth the Lord God. I will cause you to pass under the rod," that's God's rod of correction, "and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant." And verse 38, "I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me. I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourned. They shall not enter into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord." Uh, this is, this is a description of that re-gathering of the Jews in Israel in the first gathering for the purpose of God's corrective wrath and punishment. Um, this is a clearly a pastor saying the Lord's bringing them back into the land. Um, and we're seeing the current nation of Israel in that particular situation.

See, the, the replacement theology, people say, "Well, that can't be God doing that because Deuteronomy says that God's going to re-gather them when they are obedient and when they've repented of their sins." So, this isn't that. And they're correct on that. But what you have to understand for this, you know, this, this really to occur, there must be a re-gathering by the Lord of Israel before the tribulation period. Um, and God is at work, um, through Israel right now. The state of Israel is part of God's plan right now as he's re-gathered them in unbelief. Um, and by the way, anybody who claims that Israel, if they believe Israel has a future, uh, with God, the dry bones prophecy, Ezekiel 37:es 1-14 is, is perfectly describing that.

Now, uh, the, uh, the prophet also describes a future process, uh, which the nation Israel will come to be sort of reconstituted. And when that process is complete, um, they will, in fact, enter into a faithful spiritual relationship with the Lord. This, this is what I would call a multi-stage process. Um, and it must include the current modern nation of Israel, even though they're in unbelief right now. That is, they're being prepared to go through the time that will lead them to convert to Jesus the Messiah. This is also spoken of Ezekiel 37:14. "And shall put my spirit in you." This is after the dry bones. "And you shall live, and I shall place in you your own place, you in your own land. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, sayeth the Lord."

So what we're seeing here is God's going to re-gather Israel and their unbelief. That's the first gathering. Then they're going to go through the judgment, the tribulation, but then there's going to be a second worldwide gathering in belief. Um, and many passages of the Bible speak of this re-gathering in belief. Um, and it's going to happen at the end of the tribulation, at the second coming of Christ. Are you guys with me on that? Deuteronomy 30, the place we started. That's what Deuteronomy 30 is talking about. The second re-gathering after the tribulation period. Um, you might say, Brett, are the Jews going to be scattered during the tribulation? Oh, it's kind of worse than that. Uh, the Jews are going to largely, the Jews in Israel are going to be largely killed off during the tribulation period, which is really sad. My buddy Steve, the tour guide, he always says, "Brett, I don't like your eschatology." And I thought he would say that because he would say it because, um, he just doesn't agree with what I read and what I see in the Bible. But the reason Steve told me, the reason I don't like it is my Jewish friends, they all have to be in the tribulation and die and be, go through horrible things. And, and I can understand that, uh, that that is a horrible, sad thing. But the second worldwide re-gathering is going to be in belief. And there's all kinds of references. Uh, you might jot down Deuteronomy 4:es 29 and 31, Deuteronomy 30, the section we read, um, verses 1-10, Isaiah 27:es 12-13. I could go on. There's many more. Um, but this re-gathering, by the way, I think this, this re-gathering will fulfill, this is just throwing a, a freebie out to some of you Bible students. I believe the second re-gathering of the Jews is going to fulfill the Feast of the Trumpets, if you know about that, Rosh Hashanah, for the nation of Israel, which is going to be really interesting. Uh, Matthew 24:31 records a future re-gathering of Israel. This is Jesus talking this time in belief. In Matthew 24:31, Jesus said, "And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one, uh, end of the sky to the other." Uh, this will take place after the tribulation. Uh, there you go.

Well, man. Oh, I'm running out of time. I have more, uh, to, uh, let me go over one more false claim because I think this is important. What about this one? Israel's committing genocide. Um, this one is maybe one of the biggest lies out there. Oh yeah. And it's, it's, it's allowing all these people to really hate the Jews. They're committing genocide. Um, but they're not. They're, they're believing a bunch of propaganda from the news people, from the academics and the colleges and universities. Um, let's, let's talk about this real quick, and then we'll, then we'll start to wrap it up. Um, truth number one, the war began when Hamas went into Israel and massacred more than 1300 people. Babies chopped their heads off, raped the women. That war is, the Jews didn't say, "We're going to wipe out all the Palestinians from off the earth." Uh, it actually was started by a total, uh, massacre. Um, so that, you know, genocide usually happens not because of a result of something like that. Hamas, October 7th, 2023, uh, it was a horrible thing. Killed 1300 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and more than 240 were taken hostage. Let's not forget that. Um, Israel's stated war aim has always been to remove Hamas and to recover hostages, not to destroy the Palestinian people. They've never even said that, not even once. That, and that was not their, uh, their objective. By the way, how long, if Israel wanted to wipe out all of the Palestinians, how long would it take Israel to do that? They could do it in 48 hours. It would be over. That would have been easy. That would have been much, much easier than what they did if they were trying to annihilate the, the Palestinians. Um, also, there's Palestinians that are in Jerusalem. Are they saying, "Oh, we only want to wipe out the Palestinians that are in Gaza, and we like the Palestinians that are in Jerusalem"? Like the whole, the whole thing is so misguided. Um, um, truth number two, Hamas was embedding themselves with civilians. Um, you know, a major moral and military complication for the Israelis is that Hamas would fight, uh, in civilian areas, tunnels, under hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods. Um, but what's amazing is the, the world has never seen a war where the military operations have have attempted to avoid civilian casualties more than that of Israel. Um, if you look at the soldier to civilian casualty rate of, of Gaza war, it's way better than any wars we've ever fought. Um, so if you're going to say they're genocidal, then so is the United States in Vietnam. So is the United States in World War II. Um, like, it's so ridiculous, uh, to, to make that claim.

Truth number three about Israel committing genocide, which is such a lie. Um, civilian deaths. Don't, don't people say, "Well, you that support Israel, you love civilian deaths." Well, that's ridiculous. Civilian deaths are tragic, but it's not genocide. Um, war is horrifying. War is ugly, and war is because of the sin of man, the fall of man, and none of us celebrate the death of anybody, families, women, children. But that's war. Um, when we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we killed hundreds of thousands of people with just one bomb. That's, that's the civilian casualties of war. Um, and, and urban warfare produces a higher rate of civilian loss, which is what the Jews have had been up against. Genocide by definition requires the special intent to destroy a protected group itself. Anyone who's com claim that Israel is committing genocide is not really being intellectually honest, nor are they being historically honest. Um, Israel has taken, uh, actions inconsistent with genocidal actions. Uh, before they've dropped bombs, they've dropped leaflets and warnings. They've given evacuation notices, text messaging people, sending out massive texts. Um, creating humanitarian corridors, pauses, and crossings, attempting to target Hamas's leadership, not wanting to kill civilians. This is clearly a war and has been against Hamas, not an extermination campaign about, uh, against the Palestinians. Uh, uh, Hamas, on the other hand, truth, next truth on this. Hamas's stated goal is to openly, openly eliminate, uh, Israel. Israel is the one that they want to, uh, terminate, exterminate, and commit genocide. Even in the Hamas charter, it's written that they want to wipe out all of the Jews. What a strange irony. Israel is accused of genocide while fighting an organization whose founding ideology and actions have included the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews, civilian Jews. That's their goal. Um, so the accusation of genocide is a very specific charge, and it requires proof that Israel's goal is to destroy the Palestinians as a people. But that's not the evidence. Better evidence is that Israel is fighting a brutal terrorist organization that attacked its civilians over and over again, and the leadership of Hamas hiding among its own population, using civilian suffering as part of its strategy. Um, you can criticize, and we do, decisions made by the Israeli government about this war, um, without adopting the false claim that Israel is committing genocide. It's not intellectually honest, and it's not historically honest. Otherwise, you'd have to say the United States, we are genocidal trying to kill the Japanese, uh, in World War II, or we were genocidal when we were in Afghanistan.

One of the great dangers in the last days would be deception. And if you listen to the wrong people, if you're reading the wrong, uh, propaganda or whatever, or watching the wrong news or podcasts or whatever, you're going to be deceived. Um, uh, not just deceived in, in immorality, not just deceived about wars and instability or whatever, but it's, it's deception. Jesus warned in Matthew 24:3-4, "As he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, 'When shall these things be? And when shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world be?' And Jesus answered and said, 'The first thing he said to them, take heed that no man deceive you.'" One of the greatest things that's happening right now is mass deception on not just the Israel issue, but on all kinds of things. You're going to hear propaganda. You're going to hear revisionist history. You're going to hear emotional manipulation. You're going to hear, hear half-truths. And you're also going to hear, uh, outright lies. And because of that, people are believing all this crazy stuff.

Now, you're going to be pressured. The reason I think this is so important, and I wanted to equip you with the Ezekiel 4 prophecy showing that God cares about modern-day Israel. You can find the date of, of Israel becoming a nation, and also Israel taking Jerusalem. That, that's not a coincidence. That's God saying, "I'm signing my name to modern-day Israel." Um, but you will be pressured as an atheist or as a Christian to back away, even a little, from your support from Israel because it's really not popular to say, "I support Israel." People will say, "You're a pedophile." That's all part of that propaganda that they're doing right now. Um, uh, and also, not only maybe you won't be so bold to say, "I'm not going to support Israel," but you will say, "Why, why do I even need to talk about? I'm just going to kind of, like, forget about Bible prophecy." Like a lot of churches, there's a lot of churches say, "Yeah, we're not going to talk about Bible prophecy because it's too controversial." Um, so they tune out when it comes to Bible prophecy. The problem with that is you are dismissing one-fourth of the Bible, at least one-fourth of the Bible. Um, so listen carefully as we close. I know it's late. Um, it does not mean that everything Israel does does is right or politically righteous. Israel is a nation that's in need of salvation, just like every other nation. Maybe even worse than some nations. They need it. But the existence of Israel, the preservation of the Jewish people, the re-gathering of the Jews in their homeland is one of the greatest testimonies to the truth of the Bible in all of human history. And no wonder Satan wants to diminish that. It really is one of the greatest, most glorious proofs of God's existence. The nations rage about Israel because the enemy rages about Israel. Because Israel points to the faithfulness of God. If Satan can get people to doubt God's faithfulness to Israel, he can get people to doubt God's faithfulness to us. Um, don't let the spirit of this age, the lies of this age, um, tear away the word of God. Um, be careful what shapes, shapes your worldview. I think it has to be not social media, not your influence or political ideologies or endless outrage or propaganda or whatever. Stay grounded in the scripture. That's, that's where we need to be.

So, uh, just remember, prophecy is not ultimately about Israel, but Israel is God's time piece. Jerusalem's the second hand. Prophecy is really about Jesus Christ, as it turns out. Um, you know, it's interesting because what are we to do in these days? Second Peter says, 2 Peter 3:14, "Beloved, seeing that you look for such things, coming of Christ, be diligent that you be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." Let's not sin by yelling at the other side, being angry at this side. We have to remember Jesus is coming. And what do we do when we see these things happen? Luke 21:28. "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." That's what I'm doing. I'm just watching and waiting for the Lord to return. Meanwhile, I'm going to preach the gospel as hard as I know how. Point people to the saving work of Jesus on the cross. And I'm going to marvel at the power of God's word. That's where it's at.

Lord, we thank you so much for, uh, just these reminders of how powerful your word is. Lord, I know that we could have talked about all the various things that were going on in the world this last month. Uh, but really, there's so many things, it's almost too much to number or talk about. But, um, we're so thankful that your word tells us what's happening. We know why Israel's gathered in unbelief right now, in rebellion to you. We, we see what's happening, and you've spelled it out for us. Lord, I pray that people would get back to the book, reading the scripture, and, and not just make up their own ideologies because of some podcaster or even some pastor that doesn't really read the whole Bible, but just has his pet scriptures. Lord, I pray that we'd, we'd study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Help us with that. Bless these people who've taken this time tonight here in the building, but also all those online watching this. Bless them, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.