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Well, what a privilege to be back at Emmanuel and to share with you concerning God's word and how it gives us perspective, God's perspective, even on the world around us. I don't know how you get your news. Maybe you're swiping through the news feeds and you might see things that are pretty familiar on a regular basis.

You might open it up one morning and say, oh, okay, inner-city gang violence. Yeah, I've heard that before. Moving on. Southern border illegal crossing. You probably had that here in Texas once. And so moving right along. And then Hamas missiles into Israel. Yeah, that's nothing new. And Hezbollah sending rockets from the north.

Yeah, yeah. But can I just encourage you that what happened on October 7, this is not that. When I awakened on October 7 and began to see my phone lit up with text messages from our friends in Israel and then checked the news, my mind immediately went to Psalm 120, verse 7.

It states, I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. Friends, on October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel by land, sea, and air, infiltrating and overtaking towns and villages near the Gaza border and brutally murdering innocent civilians. Again, what happened on that day?

It's like no other thing that's happened in the history of the modern state of Israel. More Jewish lives were lost on this day than on any other day since the Holocaust. And thus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, citizens of Israel, we are at war. Not an operation, meaning just another round of those regular attacks and fightings.

No, no, no. At war. And so rather immediately, I received an email from a pastor friend just outside the D.C. area, and he said, Tim, I wonder if you can help us out. Take any of the next six Sundays that fit your schedule, speak in all three of our Sunday morning services, and I'd like you to address some questions that really need a biblical perspective.

Here was my assignment: Why is Israel special to God? Who are the Palestinians? Are the Jews occupiers of Palestinian land? Who is Hamas? Why are they terrorists? Is what we're seeing on the news in the past few weeks the fulfillment of Bible prophecy? Is this Ezekiel 38 unfolding before our very eyes?

And I thought, hmm, all in one message. That'll be fun. Can you imagine? Here's your final exam at the end of a course on Middle Eastern history, theology, and ethics. Wow. So he also was kind enough to include an evening service with QA. And so we, I'll be back tonight if I don't finish everything on my list.

I've put this together in a talk I'm calling Israel's Current Conflict and God's Eternal Plan. And in order to really address these issues, we're going to need a flyover of Middle Eastern history, theology, and ethics. So since this is a flyover, we're going to have to move rather quickly.

I'd encourage you to buckle your seat belts, to place your tray tables in the upright and lock position, to stony carry-on bags in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of you, because we've got to fly to make it through this. So let's start with question number one: Why is Israel special to God?

And for this, we could turn to a host of promises in the Old Covenant scriptures. But because some might say, well, that's the Old Testament. We're in the age of the New Testament today. Let's just head that off at the past and see what the New Testament has to say about those Old Testament promises.

In fact, in an amazing section of Paul's magnum opus on the gospel, the book of Romans, he states toward the conclusion of Romans chapter 11, he says that from the standpoint of the gospel, they, this would be the majority of Israel who have rejected the Messiahship of Jesus, they are enemies, ideologists.

Enemies for your sake. But from the standpoint of God's choice, they, these same Jewish people, the Israelites, are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. I don't know if this word is already highlighted, underlined, circled in your text, but it needs to be so in your minds because this is the way God's promises are.

Think about it in the Bible: if God made a promise and it hasn't happened yet, what's going to happen? He's always going to be good to his word. Or, as another passage of scripture would remind us, there's one thing that God cannot do: God who cannot lie. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Or, as we'd see two chapters earlier, because this is a unit in the book of Romans, Romans 9, 10, and 11, which is like the Israel section, that culminate at the end of all of these beautiful truths leading up through chapter 8, where Paul assures the Roman believers that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That's quite the promise. But those who are informed about Israel's history might say, but you know, God, what about these promises that you made to Israel? I mean, they disobeyed you, and if we're honest with ourselves, We disobey the Lord too. I really like to talk to people who believe that you can lose your salvation because I know that if I could lose mine, I would have lost it a long time ago.

And for those that I know best, I know they would have lost theirs too. It's helpful that God always keeps his word and that our salvation and his promises are dependent upon him and his character, not dependent upon us and our obedience. And for this reason, we're reminded that those gifts and callings are irrevocable.

And that's why Paul needed to address these issues at the end of chapter 8. Starting with chapters 9, 10, and 11, he deals with the Israel question. And here, at the very beginning of that section, in Romans chapter 9, verses 3 through 5, Paul says, For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites.

And just in case you've been exposed to a theology that replaces God's promises to Israel and says that now these promises belong to the church, let's be clear about this. In this passage, Paul goes on to describe who the Israelites are. It's not like a code for, you know, asterisks.

It's really the church. No, who are the Israelites? They're the ones to whom belong the adoption as son. God never called out another group of people to be his chosen people. He chose Israel through Abraham, not Ishmael, but through the line of Isaac. And then through Jacob, not Esau, and then on and on.

Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. The Israelites are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were adopted as sons. Further, Paul says, and to whom belongs the glory. This would be the Shekinah glory that led the children of Israel through the wilderness, representing the presence of God, which inhabited the tabernacle and later the temple.

The glory. No other nation had God's glory dwelling among them. And the covenants, which is a, we'll say, technical term for promises that God gave that were so certain that, well, later Paul calls them irrevocable. These are covenants. These are promises. And the giving of the law. To no other nation did God give his Torah, his instruction at Mount Sinai.

And the temple service. Meaning, not only at Mount Sinai did God give the instructions, the law, but he gave the instructions concerning how the priests were to operate in the tabernacle within the sacrificial system. And then he simply says, and the promises. These promises were also given to whom?

To Israel. Whose are the fathers? So the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And from whom is the Christ? You see, no other nation was used by God to bring us both the scriptures. And the Savior. For this reason, later on in Paul's letter to the Romans in chapter 15, he speaks to the Gentile audience and says, for this reason, we are debtors.

Look what we received from Israel, both the Savior and the Scriptures. And this really causes Paul to rejoice in worship when he says in verse 5, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But there are many passages of Scripture that could answer the question for us: why is Israel special to God?

I think of 2 Chronicles 6, verses 5 and 6, where the Lord says, Since the day I brought my people from the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that my name might be there, nor did I choose any man for a leader over my people, Israel, but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name might be there.

Think about it. No other city has had the localization of the presence of God like Jerusalem has. No other city has been the special focus of God's redemptive plan like Jerusalem has. Do you realize that all the events that pertain to your salvation and mine occurred in Jerusalem?

Jesus died for our sins in Jerusalem. He was buried in Jerusalem. He rose from the dead in Jerusalem. And guess what? He's coming again to Jerusalem. This is the focal point, the episode. Epicenter, as it's been called, of God's redemptive plan. In fact, Zechariah 2, verses 7 through 10, goes on to use a synonym for the word Jerusalem when he refers to those people who had been a part of the Babylonian exile, and he says, Up, escape to Zion, a word for Jerusalem.

You who dwell with the daughter of Babylon, for thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you. For he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. It's like the pupil, it's like a warning. He who touches you, Jerusalem, touches the apple of God's eye.

In other words, attacking Israel is like poking God's eye. Why is Israel special to God? For this and many other reasons, we can note God's covenant promises to the people of Israel, which, by the way, have not been replaced, removed, or revoked, but are awaiting the moment when they will be further revealed, redeemed, and even renewed.

But we must move forward. Who are the Palestinians? The origin of the term Palestine comes from a period of history when the Roman government was expanding. And exerting its force. And in the region of what was ancient Israel, and really, as a result of Israel's past history with another people group, the Philistines.

Do you notice the connection, some of the consonants, Philistine, Palestine? There's a reason for that. So the ancient Philistines, you'll remember when they were a real threat to ancient Israel, and the big giant, Goliath, he is blaspheming the Lord. And young David, he hears this when he brought some refreshment from his father to his brothers who were fighting on the front lines, or at least standing with Saul and shaking on the front lines, waiting for a fight.

And Goliath is shouting out his blasphemies against the God of Israel. And then you'll recall those five smooth stones. David picks them up and, along with his sling, goes right for the front of the battle lines. And as that stone left his sling, you might recall what happened.

I think some Hebrew commentary notes that Goliath said that something struck him that never entered his mind before. Friends, that was the end of the threat by the Philistines. The rest of biblical history. Simply speaks of them as a byword, as a past threat, as something that used to be.

And their culture and their military prowess kind of fades off into human history. There were no more Philistines. So, when the Romans are now threatening Israel, you'll recall they are the ones who, under Titus, destroyed the temple in 70 AD. But the Jewish people kept fighting back in what are known as these Jewish revolts.

And when a later revolt occurs, finally another emperor, Hadrian, he has had enough. And he wants to put down these revolts of the Jewish people. And he completely renames the whole country. And he renames Jerusalem emotional extra credit, if any of our students might know the name which he gave to Jerusalem.

It was Alia Capitolina. Doesn't sound very Jewish. Do you notice that? Aelia Capitolina sounds like something you'd order off a menu in a fine Italian restaurant. I'll have number 13, Alia Capitolina with some marinara sauce on the side, please. Why would he name it something like that? Because he wants to remove all Jewish connection to this city of Jerusalem.

He not only renamed it, he reoriented it. You'll recall that the temple. Is laid out on an east-west axis so that you enter through the gate and you come further west. You pass the altar and the labor. You enter into the holy place. There's the candelabra or a menorah.

There's the table of showbread, the altar of incense. You go further. Only one man on only one day of the year is able to enter this one special place, the holy of holies. It was on this east-west axis where entrance to the holiest place was achieved. But Hadrian reorients the city like a traditional Roman city with a cardo, the heart of the city, with a north-south road.

And he has it built with colonnades all along. You can see its ancient existence in one of the earliest maps of Jerusalem, the Madaba map, found on a church floor in modern-day Jordan at the site of Madaba. But you can also see it in its remnants when you visit Jerusalem today and walk through that ancient Roman cardo that is north-south, remember not east-west.

He reorients the city, he renames the city, but he also does the same for the whole land that had been the biblical, Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee. He renames the central part of the land where Jerusalem is found as Palestina Prima. The Galilee as Palestina Segunda, and the Negev desert region in the south as Palestina Tertsia, first, second, and third Palestine, to, in essence, enact psychological warfare against the Jewish people to cause them to forget that this land ever had any historic connection to the promises of God.

Who are the Palestinians? Well, some would claim that there is an ancient connection to the Philistines, but neither language, culture, geography, or history connect these people whatsoever. We would further note that all residents of this land prior to 1948 were all considered Palestinian, whether they were Jews or Arabs.

In fact, I was looking on eBay and I noticed this photo of the Palestine Post, the front page from May 14, 1948, the date on which Israel declared its independence from the British. Under British Mandate Palestine, they were not allowing Jews fleeing the Holocaust to immigrate to the promised land and to follow.

Safety from their persecution. No, the British were disallowing Jewish immigration. And so finally, at this critical moment, even at the end of the Holocaust, Israel decides to announce its independence, declaring its independence in Tel Aviv. And they have this headline in the paper: State of Israel is born.

But notice the paper's name. It's the Palestine Post. Friends, this is the precursor to today's paper known as the Jerusalem Post. It was not an Arab Palestinian paper, it was a Jewish Palestinian paper. For that matter, it's not only that all Jews and Arabs prior to this time were known as Palestinians, but the Talmud, this huge collection of rabbinic literature, like an encyclopedic set, has two editions.

One produced by rabbis in the Babylonian captivity, and it was called the Babylonian Talmud. But another edition of this multi-volume set was produced in the land of Israel, and until more recently, it was known as the Palestinian Talmud. Can I just encourage you to think about this for a moment?

They wouldn't have called it the Palestinian Talmud if it only could refer to Arabs. This was a Jewish piece of literature. It wasn't until much later that people in the 1960s, like Yasser Arafat, Claim, no, we are the true Palestinians, and that the term Palestinian could not refer to any other residents of the land.

And thus, there is this claim of an indigenous culture among the Palestinians. We were here, and you might see this map that illustrates in the green Arab Palestinians, and in the white, Jewish residents of British Mandate Palestine. But as you move forward in history, you see the UN partition plan that sought to divide for a two-state solution in 1947 and offering Israel some land around the swamp-filled areas near the Jordan River and Sea of Galilee, and some sandy dunes along the Mediterranean coast, and then all of the desert in the far south.

And Israel said, Yes, we'll take it, anything, to provide a safe homeland for our people. And the surrounding Arabs said no. But the narrative suggests that Israel just keeps taking and taking land that rightfully belonged in green at the first map to the Palestinians. And so that by today, you have a decreasing Arab population.

But can I just encourage you to note that the Arab population, even and birth rate, is thriving in the land of Israel, and that Arab Israelis, those who choose, Chose to stay within Israel after 1948. By the way, the claim that Israel is an apartheid state, let me just fast forward and get there for a moment, read the Declaration of Independence for the state of Israel.

They are opening their arms wide to say that all Arabs are welcome to stay and to survive and thrive with us. Let's raise our children together. Let's produce schools, hospitals, infrastructure so that everyone can thrive in this land in peace. But the claim that the Arabs are the only ones with an indigenous culture must be challenged.

And this map is full of inaccuracies. In fact, we're talking about a small land. When we lived in the Chicagoland area and I taught at the Moody Bible Institute, I would often be able to point basically outside the classroom windows toward Lake Michigan and illustrate for our students that the entire state of Israel could fit inside of Lake Michigan with room to spare on every side.

It's such a small little land. I can't even imagine how many times Israel would fit into Texas. But I can tell you that from the Persian Gulf, all of the Middle East to the Nile River would all fit inside of Texas. And this little spot is just one little area.

Further, this is my proof-positive picture that Israel is trying to take over the Middle East. Notice, you can barely see it there, surrounded by all these Muslim-majority countries, totaling over 100,000 times the size of Israel. But when you think of Israel as it's seen by its Muslim neighbors, it's like, no, no, no, they're taking over the world.

And further, there are academics who are trying to draw this straight line between the ancient Palestinians and the modern, I'm sorry, the ancient Philistines and the modern Palestinians. Here's a book by Keith Whitelam, which received a very positive review in a journal for the study of the Old Testament.

I mean, they were saying that everyone from soccer moms to military generals should all know about this important book. It should be in paperback and, you know, audio book and podcast. And we should be getting this word out. Here is the title of Keith Whitelum's book, The Invention of Ancient Israel, subtitle, The Silencing of Palestinian History.

His claim is that the modern Palestinians are the ancient Philistines. And to not acknowledge that is to do some sort of criminal injustice to this poor indigenous people. Well, friends, it wouldn't be the first time that you have a scholar lie to you or fabricate their so-called data.

You really need to check the notes here. Sadly, when we say who are the Palestinians, most Palestinians do not recognize the legitimacy of the existence of the state of Israel. So it's very tough to do business in this area. And for that matter, they have no elected consensus.

Mahmoud Abbas was elected Palestinian president in January 2005 for a four-year term, and there have been no elections since then. He continues to rule by executive fiat. So it's not as though there is this unified collection of people who all want the same thing. No, you'll recall that not many months after his election, and he's ruling out of Ramallah, north of Jerusalem, that Hamas takes over the Gaza Strip and through elections have been brought into power there by the local community.

And so there's this deep division within the Palestinian people. And there has been the hope that Hamas might be just strong enough to somehow defeat Israel. Well, that's being questioned even as we speak. Are the Jews occupiers of Palestinian land? I'd submit to you that the Bible and history show an enduring Jewish presence.

Think about it for a moment. When you dig down in the ground in this country, you realize you don't find Shakespeare and English texts. But when you dig down in the earth in Israel, you find Jewish artifacts and Hebrew texts. Who is indigenous? I love this photo of here is the western wall and above it the temple mount.

But what's on the temple mount? The dome of the rock and the al-akza mosque. You have to ask: who's occupying whose space? Are the Jews occupiers of Palestinian land? First of all, we also need to note that there never was a Palestinian state. If there were, we could look back and say who were their rulers, who were their presidents and prime ministers, who were their governors, and who were the mayors of their cities.

But you will not be able to do that. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, with a partition plan by the UN in 1947, there was a brief moment of sympathy for the Jewish people to suggest that there needed to be the establishment of a Jewish state, a place where Jewish people could find safety from all of the oppression, anti-Semitism, and murderous regimes that had driven them out of their lands.

When Israel was established, it was established so that both Jews and Arabs could have representation for their communities in the parliament of Israel called the Knesset. And still to this day, Arab members of parliament exist in. The government of Israel. This is not apartheid. I mean, look up what apartheid did.

Apartheid says, you have no representation. We're taking away any rights. No, no, no. Israel sought to give representation to all Arab citizens. And claims of apartheid are frankly false. This might also cause us to ask a little more about whether or not the Jews are occupiers of Palestinian land and to consider the question of who are the Arabs.

Some make the claim that it's simply that the Arabs are all Ishmaelites. They are also equal descendants of Abraham. Well, that must be challenged a little bit. In his famous book, Islam in Light of History, a Jordanian medical doctor turned researcher and historian, I saw his office with his original texts from multiple languages and primary sources that he had amassed to look at the history of Muhammad's family and of the rise of Islam as it was charted by both Islamic sources and then surrounding historians from others whose lands were conquered by the sword of Islam.

He points out that the word Arav, Arab, means desert dweller, and that it suggests. A conglomerate people group who all had this nomadic desert lifestyle in common. Some came from the West, from North Africa, and others from the East as far as India, and even that the family of Muhammad were Yemenite from Africa and non-Semitic and not from Abraham, and that modern Arabs include many conquered peoples.

But it's not only Raphat Amari, but further, a British scholar named Mark Dury notes that the evidence indicates that Ishmael was not the father of the Arabs, neither was Abraham. The Ishmaelites were probably Canaanites, speaking not an early form of Arabic, but a dialect similar to Hebrew. In time, they disappeared or were absorbed into other groups like so many other ancient peoples.

Much later, Josephus, he writes, invoked Ishmael's name to conjure up a genealogy for the Arabs. By the way, Josephus is a complicated figure. He's Jewish and thus noted as a Jewish historian, but you know, he wrote his histories in Greek for the Roman government, who made him mayor of the city of Tiberias.

He was essentially collecting and assembling the history of the Jewish people for his Roman overlords, who were the enemies of the Jews. Jews, because they wanted to know their enemies better. It's like, hey, Josephus, tell us all about your people. And he did. So, in so many ways, he's like a Benedict Arnold in Jewish history, rather complicated.

But it's often due to a misunderstanding of history that there will be common anti-Semitic tropes, but we need to see this Jew hatred that exists, has an early start. Even from the outset in the book of Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15, in the record of the fall of mankind into sin, there is that famous statement of the curse that says that, yes, this serpent, this satanic opposer to God's plan, he would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, but the seed of the woman would ultimately crush his head.

Well, of course, Satan doesn't like this future promise, and he wants to do everything he can to thwart it. And he knew that this salvation for mankind would come through the seed of the woman. And even as God revealed his plan further, that it would come through Abraham, and then through Isaac, not Ishmael, and Jacob, not Esau, and then not just through any of the 12 tribes, but through the line of Judah, and not just through any of the Judahites, but through the line of David.

And as it narrows down the messianic promises as to who the Messiah would be, there are multiple places along the way that through satanically inspired opposition, the evil one, the adversary, the opposer of God's plan, seeks to thwart God's plan to annihilate the Jewish people. So, how about all the male children in Egypt?

They had to be killed. Thankfully, the Lord, in his providence, leads Moses' parents to spare him and place him in that little basket among the reeds on the Nile River to be preserved in God's plan. And like this, there were multiple episodes where there was satanic opposition so that the Jewish people would be wiped out because if the line is cut off, then the promises cannot be fulfilled.

I think of the book of Esther and the hatred against the Jewish people under Haman, who wanted to annihilate the Jewish people. And yet, the Lord preserves them. And we could keep going. By the way, in the Jewish community, it's common to say, well, yes, we're the chosen people, and the Egyptians tried to kill us.

We're the chosen people, and the Persians tried to kill us. We're the chosen people, and the Romans tried to kill us. We're the chosen people. And then, could you choose someone else once in a while? You know, it's not always a blessing to be the chosen people because when you are a part of God's plan, you have a target on your back.

Maybe you know that even as a believer today, things can be pretty easy not following the Lord. But when you determine that you want to obey him, you realize the enemy has your number. He may bring you more trials than you've ever had as an unbeliever. This is not, and now my life will be free from trials.

No, no, no. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Friends, Israel has suffered this persecution, and maybe you've heard things like this about the Jewish people. For instance, Israelis aren't real Jews. I often find this in the comments section under various news articles. Well, the modern Israelis aren't real Jews.

They might say, they're really Khazars. If you even hear this word Khazar muttered under someone's breath, pretty much you know, they're affected by anti-Semitism. Because this is a statement that somehow the people who are in the land of Israel today, who are Israeli Jewish people, it's undermining their very identity to claim that, well, they have no connection to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the Bible.

They're really this inbred group of people who come from the area of Russia and Eastern Europe, and they intermingled with some Jewish people, and they became the Ashkenazi Jews. And somehow, Ashkenazis are not real Jews. Friends, look at what the Scripture says about God's promises and his punishments of his beloved Israel, his discipline of his own chosen ones, where he said, Because of your disobedience in the land, I'm going to drive you out.

But then, before you say, okay, game over, God drove the Israelites out, that's it, he now no longer loves Israel, then read the rest of the verses. Because they will say that in the same way that I drove you out and scattered you, I will bring you back into your own land.

Meaning that he never gave it to somebody else, it was always their own land, the land that he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with promises which are irrevocable. Remember that? So, further, some would emphasize that the Jews killed Jesus. Now, I would suggest that this is a very lopsided appreciation for what really happened in Scripture.

I mean, think about it like this. In Acts chapter 2, verse 23, in Peter's sermon, he states that Jesus suffered due to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge and counsel of God. That this was not a, oh no, the Jewish people have killed Jesus. Was all part of God's plan.

In fact, Jesus himself in John 10, 18 says, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down myself. And for that matter, Isaiah 53, verse 10 tells us that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. And if you want to ask, well, why did this have to happen?

Isaiah 53 verse 8 tells us that it was for the transgression of my people. In other words, for our sin, Jesus died. He gave his life as a propitiation, a satisfying sacrifice to pay for your sin debt and mine. If Jesus didn't die, friends, we couldn't be worshiping the risen Savior today.

You might note that many Christians also overlook Jesus' Jewish identity and his connection to the Jewish people as a whole. And because of this, they can make such wicked statements like you see in the signs held by this woman. God hates Jews. God hates Israel. You see, God hates Jews.

That's traditional anti-Semitism. But this statement, God hates Israel, this is a way for the new anti-Semitism to sound just a little more palatable. After the Holocaust, like nobody really wanted to be confused as being an anti-Semite, that won't get you elected, that won't, you know, help your profile advance.

No, no, no. But maybe you could say, you know, I don't hate the Jews, but Israel, it's an apartheid state, it doesn't belong in the Middle East, it shouldn't exist. A Jew should be removed from the river to the sea. See, of course, how would that happen? Only by, just like the Holocaust, murdering Jews.

It's Satan's same old story: annihilate the Jewish people. He couldn't do it on the way to the cross and the empty tomb. But if he were to be able to accomplish it even now, he would still claim victory over God's plan. Friends, when we look at this question about Israel and the hatred of the Jewish people, perhaps we also need to note how the New Testament speaks of Jesus' Jewish identity and his connection to the Jewish people as a whole.

The first verse of the New Testament opens up with a genealogy, the genealogy of Jesus, the son of Abraham, the son of David. I remember the first time I gave a copy of the New Testament in Hebrew to an Israeli friend. She opened it up where you'd open most books at the very beginning.

And she's reading the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1. And I'm thinking, oh, I wish she'd read somewhere else. Like, maybe she could turn to, and what if, there's a great passage over here. She could be reading this, but she's reading this genealogy. And, you know, she looked up to her husband and said, Zevi, Hayimeta Yodeshi Yeshu Hu Ben David, being translated as, do you know that Jesus was the son of David?

She was familiar with these promises about the Messianic line. She had a bachelor's degree from Tel Aviv University in biblical studies. She had read about these famous people from her own Bible, and now she's reading about them in Matthew chapter 1. Like, who? Mishelanu? He is from us.

Jesus is Jewish. Further, this is how Paul opens up his magnum opus in the book of Romans and Romans chapter 1 when he says that he is set apart for the gospel of God, which, and then that allows him to go into one of those long, Pauline sentences for which he is famous.

And he says, for the gospel of God, which was promised beforehand in the Holy Scriptures concerning God's Son who was born a descendant of David according to the flesh. I don't know. Is that how you introduce the gospel? It's how Paul introduced the gospel. It's how the first verse of the New Testament introduces the gospel story of Jesus, tying him to Jewish history and to God's promise.

To Israel. In fact, a verse that is fast becoming one of my very favorites to ponder comes from Paul's instruction to his young Timothy. When he says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 8, Paul says this: Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.

Think about that for a moment. As preached in my gospel, when Jesus preached the gospel, he always tied Jesus to David because David was beloved by God, was promised a dynasty through whom an everlasting king would rule on his throne. Friends, you might omit this fact as you share the gospel with others.

You might never mention Israel and God's promises to them, or that you're reading a book, the Bible, that was brought to us by the Jewish people. You might omit that. Maybe like you could possibly tell the story of Narnia omitting any mention of a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe.

You could probably tell the story without it. You just wouldn't be telling it the way Lewis wrote it. Think about that. You might be able to tell the gospel story without any mention of Jesus being the son of David. From the line of Judah and a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and connected to his Jewish people.

But you're really missing out on the way God wrote the story right there in the pages of the Bible. Let's not do that. Further, we have to address this question of who is Hamas and why are they terrorists? Hamas, an organization founded in 1987 as the Islamic Resistance Movement.

It came from a previous group, the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. I need to address this issue because I hear it among many believers that Hamas is based on the Hebrew word for violence. And yes, the two words, the Hebrew word violence, Hamas, and this terrorist organization, it happens to sound the same.

However, I can encourage you that no Islamic group would name themselves after a Hebrew word. In fact, the word Hamas is an acronym like SWAT, like special weapons and tactics, or FBI, or CIA, or many other acronyms that you might know. Hamas is Harakat al-Muqamma al-Islamiyyah, essentially the Islamic Resistance Movement.

Its goal is to Islamify Palestine. A 2018 attempt to condemn Hamas for acts of terror at the United Nations. Nations failed, although you might note a long history of resolutions against Israel, all passing, at least perhaps without the veto power of the United States. But it was this group that on October 7, 2023, just months ago, Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, and its fighters broke through the Gaza barrier, attacked Israeli military bases and homes, massacred civilians, and took over 200 hostages back to Gaza, many of whom are still there today.

I think about the importance of knowing a little bit about who this group is, since you're hearing about them in the news like every day right now. They're the most famous Islamic terrorist group in the world at this moment. And all of the Islamic terrorist groups, they try to accomplish something big so that they will be the ones behind whom others will put their funds and invest in them because they will be the ones to take down Israel.

So Hamas seems to be the most likely group to back for the haters of Israel today. And I think about another similar hatred of Israel with Hitler's Third Reich. William Shearer, in his book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, noted that not every German who bought a copy of Mein Kamp, Hitler's famous diatribe against the Jewish people, meaning my struggle, not every German who bought a copy of this Work necessarily read it.

But it might be argued that had more non-Nazi Germans read it before 1933, and had the foreign statesmen of the world perused it carefully while there was still time, both Germany and the world might have been saved from catastrophe. Friends, at times, we need to take people at their word.

They told you what they were all about and what they wanted to accomplish long before they were able to do it. Do you realize Hamas has a charter as well? And in it, there are 36 articles translated into English for your convenience. And if this were not enough, there is a very helpful essay by Bruce Hoffman that appeared in the Atlantic on October 10, just days after this attack, titled Understanding Hamas's Genocidal Ideology.

And in this essay, the most relevant of the document's 36 articles can be summarized as falling into four main themes. Here they are. Number one, complete destruction of Israel for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a theocratic state based on Sharia law. What do they want?

They want an Islamic state based on Sharia. And in order to accomplish that, they want to destroy Israel. Number two, unrestrained and unceasing holy war, jihad, in order to attain the above objective. In other words, just like you hear the Hamas. Leaders speak after the events of October 7, they're very quick to say, and we'll do it again and again and again and again until Israel is destroyed.

And therefore, number three, deliberate disdain for and dismissal of any negotiated resolution or political settlement of claims to the Holy Land. In other words, just like the history of the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and let's be clear, it's important to note that it does not stand for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, but the Palestine Liberation Organization.

And that's very important because most Israelis are all for the betterment of Palestinians, and there are numerous nonprofit organizations from Jewish people in Israel who are trying to do things to help the Palestinians. But the PLO does not stand for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, it stands for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

And when they have their emblem, which shows the map of what they call Palestine, guess what it looks like? Israel. In other words, they want to liberate everything that is known as Israel today. And thus you see the slogan from the river to the sea. And they might not know what river it is, or even what sea it is, but we know it's the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.

Guess what's in between those two places? Israel. They want to liberate all of that land and make it Jew-free, which sounds very much like. Like the goal of the Nazi regime that wanted to make Europe the same way. Thus, there is this number four reinforcement of anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories against the Jewish people.

Perhaps you've seen this meme or others like it, where you have the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, protecting families who are in their bomb shelters underground hiding from Hamas missiles. But sadly, you also see Hamas militants in their numerous tunnels underground making missiles to launch against Israel, smuggling in weapons with which to attack Israel, while placing civilians who were supposed to be non-combatants up above them and in their way, so that even if they launch rockets from under schools, hospitals, and mosques, when Israel retaliates, then they say, Look, Israel is killing innocent Palestinians.

Friends, nothing could be further from the truth. But the last question on the exam was: Is the current conflict the fulfillment of Bible prophecy? Is this Ezekiel 38 being fulfilled before our very eyes? I appreciate a helpful volume by my mentor and friend, Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, available, by the way, on the back table, called The Footsteps of the Messiah.

It traces every prophetic event in Scripture and gives the scriptural references. With commentary. He states about Ezekiel 38 and 39 that it describes an invasion of Israel from the north and the subsequent destruction of the invading forces once they reach the area of the mountains of Israel. Further, the most controversial question in the context of Ezekiel 38 and 39 is: when?

When in the chronology of prophecy will the Russian invasion occur? And he states that the Russian invasion is another birth pang that will occur before the tribulation begins. Friends, all these wars and rumors of wars, they're just anticipating for us the great ultimate war between the Messiah and his declared enemy.

Now, is this, you know, something directly prophesied in Scripture? I think not. It's part of these birth pangs that are like many other wars. And maybe we could put it like this: we always understand prophecy better after the fact. Or perhaps you heard the statement by that famous theologian and biblical interpreter, Yogi Bera.

He said, It's difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. So we're not claiming that this is a fulfillment of some direct biblical prophecy, but we should live today like the time is now. And friends, that means praying for the peace of Jerusalem. I'm so encouraged by the legacy of my mentor and friend, Dr.

Fruchtenbaum. I believe your pastor shared with me that his Israelology volume, which was His dissertation at New York University was his first systematic theology text that Pastor Thomas ever read. What a blessing to have that in our connection. But Dr. Fruchtenbaum reached out to me earlier last year and asked if I would follow him as the next executive director at REL Ministries and follow the good gospel witness and faithfulness to scripture that has been a hallmark of this ministry.

I'm well aware that I could never fill his shoes, but I do want to walk in his faithful footsteps and take seriously the truths of scripture. Some time back, before I ever pondered the possibility of working together with Dr. Fruchtenbaum, he and I were invited by a mutual friend, Randall Price, to both contribute to a book called What Should We Think About Israel?

Separating Fact from Fiction in the Middle East. And so it's been our pleasure to co-author together and now to co-labor together at REL Ministries. If you'd like a copy of this book with chapters from names that you probably could be familiar with, it'll be on the back table available for a donation of $20 or more to REL Ministries.

You can just put cash in a basket and walk away with a book. Many other books are there. Dr. Fruchtenbaum available for purchase. The copies of the magazine, even with an article, with part one of this message in written form, are on the table, free for the taking, along with also a little bookmark that I hope you'll take.

And you could do a Bible study of your own because here I've listed the top 10 points about what a proper perspective on Israel and the Middle East would look like, along with passages of scripture that you could study on your own. I hope you'll take a look.

Well, as you would join us, we would invite your prayers as we think of the one to whom we pray, the one who keeps Israel, who the scriptures tell us will neither slumber nor sleep. Shall we pray together? Lord, we thank you for your word today, for the perspective it gives us on current events.

As we seek to be those who are people of the book, we ask that you would help us to turn to scripture to find both context and clarity in our confusing world. Help us to be those who love you, who love your word, who love your promises given to Israel, whom you use to bring about the Savior and the Scriptures.

Lord, we pray for the salvation of the Jewish people. That many will come to saving faith in Messiah Jesus. And we pray this in his name. Amen.