34 Times of the Gentiles

Times of the Gentiles

Hosea 3:3,4; Written at the end of the period of theocratic rulers just before the northern kingdom goes into captivity in Assyria. God communicates His love toward Israel and a time of forgiveness in the latter days. Yet for now, Israel refuses to repent and continues its spiritual decline in pagan worship of Baal. 
God tells Hosea to take a wife who is an adulteress and cause her to live with him without practicing her whoredoms as a sign of what God will be to the nation ‘for many days’. It was a prediction of Israel’s captivity under the authority of Gentile powers. For a time without a king, a temple or a priesthood. 
Luke 21:24; Jesus came to offer them an end of this period but upon their rejection of Him, He confirms the prophecy of Daniel of an undisclosed period of time that he calls the times of the Gentiles. 

Mosaic covenant
The law was given to show the nation to be different from other nations.

1. God alone would be their king
2. God was to choose who would be the earthly king ruling from the promised land.
3. The king was not to multiply wives, horses or riches.
4. The king’s throne was to be subject to heavenly throne of God 
1. Unlike pagan kings who claimed to be god. 
2. The pagan kings/rulers were/are puppets of Satan.
5. The nation of Israel alone was designated by God to be a kingdom of priests.
1. This designated them as mediators between God and the other nations
2. The Shekinah glory/presence of God set them apart from every other nation. 

Israel’s judgments
Theocratic Administrators: 860 years of presence in the land conditioned upon obedience to the Mosaic covenant. 
Kingdom Summary: Divided Kingdom

Kingdom Summary: Times of the Gentiles: This period begins with the captivity of Israel and it continues until the end of the church age. In our study of the Kingdom, it is important to see how the Spirit of God describes this time through the prophets beginning with Daniel and ending with the Lord Jesus Himself. 
* It is during the times of discipline that God uses His prophets in the OT to describe the coming kingdom. As we look at this description, we will see some details that set it apart as a time unlike any time since Eden.
On a map of the Assyrian Empire we see that its expansion in 720 B.C. extended into Israel. Then expanded too far into Egypt.

Ezekiel prophecies in the same period of Babylonian captivity as Daniel. In 24 chapters, Ezekiel describes in great detail, the case that God has against the nation causing her to be brought into captivity. He gave the description for the Shekinah glory to leave and for the office of Theocratic administration to be suspended. In the last 15 chapters, a detailed prediction is made for the future return of God’s glory to the temple. This will happen when they finally receive Jesus as Messiah.

1 Peter 1:10-11 The important role of prophecy is given to us. The world becomes a very dark place when the Lord’s Word is ignored and His presence is unwelcome. 

As individuals and as a church, we sometimes find ourselves in a very dark place when our sin nature pushes God away. It begins in subtle ways when we become self reliant and presume upon God’s grace. 
As we adapt to the dark ignorance of grace, we come to believe that ‘We are the way, the truth and the life…” so we become more legalistic and find a cloak for our sin.  As we adapt to the the darkness, the darkness intensifies and we become more demanding and suspicious of one another. The apostle James reminds us that wars with one another come from our lusting hearts. So God uses darkness to discipline us and look to Him for some light and hope in that dark place. So, He speaks to us through a prophetic word. The prophetic purpose is to be a light shining in a dark place pointing to God’s promises that are yet to be fulfilled.
Peter is saying that even more sure of his eyewitness testimony is the prophetic word that the Holy Spirit has provided. Our hope is in the clear picture of the coming kingdom that the prophets provide for us.

Luke 10:24 records the Lord’s word to us regarding the church’s unique position in world history. With the advantage of hindsight we see how God’s Word is perfectly fulfilled in the person of Christ. This is how the church can be the light of the world, pointing to Christ in His coming kingdom.

This (handout) timeline of the OT prophets is a useful tool to understanding the times in which these prophets spoke. 
The OT prophets describe the Kingdom Characteristic We learn from these prophets what the Kingdom will be like…

As is often pointed out, the prophets saw only the mountain tops of prophecy and they themselves wondered at the word that they were given to speak. 

Isaiah’s prophecy was given after Assyria took Israel captive but before Judah falls. In Isa. 9:6 He predicts the coming Messiah that will be both rejected and received as King. The words must have been particularly vexing to Isaiah. It is amazing to me how the Spirit of God can reveal God’s purposes over many centuries in a few verses.

Hebrew poetry is done in parallelisms. They can be completive parallels, where one phrase completes another (e.g. 53:7; He is taken as a lamb to the slaughter….) or they can be contrastive parallels such as we have here.
We are familiar with this passage, often repeating it during the Christmas season but look at the mystery that it presented to Isaiah that we now understand today as fulfilled in Jesus Christ…

Daniel is the first of the prophets to begin that period that the Lord calls ‘the times of the Gentiles”. It is defined as a period where there is no Shekinah glory. The land, the temple and the rulers are placed under Gentile authority. As we know, Daniel was taken captive to Babylon as a boy and given a new name. He and his companions were being trained to serve in the palace of the king of Babylon. 

One night the king has a dream that he wants to know what it means. His wizards could not tell him what the dream was or what it meant so they were all going to be put to death, including Daniel and his companions.

Daniel calls upon the Lord in prayer and fasting and he is told the dream and its interpretation. He shares this with the king and the wise men of Babylon are spared. 

Daniel’s prophetic utterances were recorded alongside of the ancient prophecies of Balak. Future wise men from Babylon would learn from these writings that a star shall come out of Jacob and a sceptre arise from Israel. That king will establish an unshakeable kingdom. They would be led to follow a star to Israel where they would meet and worship He who is born King of kings

In this dream, King Nebuchadnezzar is given a vision of a statue made of metals of decreasing value and 

utility. They describe each successive empire that God will use to rule over His people until a smiting stone from heaven falls to crush the feet of the image and cause the image to turn to dust and blow away. 

Daniel describes that smiting stone as growing larger until it fills the whole earth. We understand that stone to be Christ Himself when He comes in His Kingdom to rule and reign over the whole earth.

Six empires are predicted in Daniels vision.

Daniel has other visions of the same four kingdoms. In Ch. 2 it is from the perspective of the Gentiles but in chapter 7 it is from the perspective of the captive Jews that these empires appear as ferocious beasts.
Babylon represented by the ferocity and swiftness of the lion; 
Persia represented by the brute force and power of the bear overcoming the lion; 
Greece overcomes the bear with the leopard like swiftness of Alexander the Greats conquests; Daniel ch. 8 predicts this great conflict as like a battle between a ram and a goat. At his death, the empire was divided between his generals with two gaining the preeminence (Ptolemy and Seleucid)
Rome follows with its iron rule to subjugate and unify the peoples of the Mediterranean Europe and Africa, ultimately dividing itself between two capitals (Rome and Constantinople). 
The feet and toes part of iron and part of clay represent the final form of oppressive Gentile power over the whole earth with ten kingdoms under the authority of antichrist.
That short lived empire will be crushed at the return of Christ to the earth.
Merril Unger; the fallacy of trying to find fulfillment of these prophecies in the church.
Takeaways:

1. Israel is under the discipline of judicial blindness from the time of their Babylonian captivity until Christ returns to establish His kingdom, ruling the whole earth from Jerusalem.
2. Believers are brought under judicial blindness when we become self reliant and used to the darkness.
3. If the church is to be as a light shining in a dark place, we must not continue in darkness about the prophets predictions for Israel, confusing them with God’s plan and purpose for the church.

As we begin to explore how the OT prophets describe the kingdom, we should also consider briefly the Royal Psalms that also speak prophetically of the coming reign of Messiah. I encourage you to read through these psalms. In particular we are going to look at Ps 110 as a sample of these prophetic royal psalms.
Dwight Pentecost: Daniels prophecy is yet future

 

Psalm	Author	Royal Topic
Psalm 2	David	King’s coronation
Psalm 18	David	King’s battle victory
Psalm 20	David	Prayer for king for battle victory
Psalm 21	David	Praise by king for battle victory
Psalm 45	Sons of Korah	King’s wedding
Psalm 72	Solomon	Prayer for the King’s dominion
Psalm 89	Ethan the Ezrahite	Davidic covenant
Psalm 101	David	King’s charter
Psalm 110	David	Priestly kingdom
Psalm 132	David	Place of the King’s Throne

33 Divided Kingdom

Deut. 28: 49-50; Rom 11:20-22;

In our last session, we considered how the first three kings of Israel teach us among other things the power of the flesh. We saw that leadership in Israel as it is in the church and in our homes when it is carried out in the power of the flesh will result in legalism as it did in Saul’s case, License as it did in David’s life and a corrupted lifestyle as it did in Solomon’s reign.
Furthermore, we considered three takeaways…

1. Reliance on the flesh always leads to a failure realize God’s purpose for our lives
2. Walking in the flesh will lead us to forget God’s anointed King, resulting in leanness of soul.
3. Failures of the flesh cannot thwart the declared purpose of God.

Summary of the Mosaic covenant: stated purpose of becoming a kingdom of priests
An unconditional covenant of ownership, alongside of conditional covenant for possession
Exodus 19:5-6 is that statement of purpose to be the mediator between God and the nations. That purpose is established in the royal line of David from whom Messiah must come.
God’s purpose carried through the failures of the flesh from Moses leading a stubborn and rebellious people into the promised land to 586 B.C. when the last king, Zedekiah, led an idolatrous people back into captivity in Babylon.

As a result of Solomon’s corruption, the kingdom was divided between his son Jeroboam in Jerusalem and the breakaway kingdom of Israel under Rehoboam, but even then, the office of theocratic administrators is carried through until the Shekinah glory leaves the temple.

The kings of Israel (20 bad) compared to the Kings of Judah (only 8 were good)
This resulted in Assyria bringing Israel into captivity 209 years after division.(a.d.)
Then Judah was carried away into Babylon 136 years after that.

In a Map of the divided kingdom, we see Samaria in the north and Jerusalem in the south. Note Philistia is Gaza; Galilee in the north and why it was a despised no man’s land by the kingdom of Judah. The source of hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans.

Ezekiel’s prophecy describes God’s contention with Judah. It makes the case for the glory of God departing the temple. The last 15 chapters describe the Shekinah glory returning to the temple in the Millennial reign of Christ.

In God’s complaint against the nation, He called the northern kingdom Aholah (Samaria, an idolatrous sanctuary) and the southern kingdom Aholibah (Jerusalem; the woman of an idolatrous sanctuary) were names given to indicate their utter abandonment to satanic rule and worship.

Isaiah 49:7: The Jews despised Messiah, their Redeemer because of His physical heritage. They said that no prophet came come from Galilee; nothing good can come from Galilee, etc. 
Yet, the geneaology from Judah reveals that there is no bloodline purity to Messiah:The seed of the woman will come from both idolatrous gentiles as well as monotheistic jews. 
Abram and Sarai were idolators from Ur of the Chaldees.

Four women in the genealogy of the Messianic line of Judah
Tamar, the Canaanite who played the prostitute to Judah
Rahab the Canaanite, a professional prostitute of Jericho
Ruth, the Moabitess (Moabites were the descendants of incest with Lot)
Bathsheba, from an adulterous relationship with King David.
This is why Christ is called the Redeemer of Israel.

Mary, the mother of Christ was considered to be an adulteress due to her unnatural conception

A Samaritan woman was the first to see and report on Messiah coming to Israel.

Mary of Magdalene, a former demoniac, was the first to meet and speak with the Risen Christ

Ezekiel 33:29. The purpose of discipline is that we know that God is in charge, not us. The period of time that we are now in as it relates to the children of Jacob is a period of intense sharpness and rigor. The Jewish nation in the times of the Gentiles, which began in 586 b.c. is not experiencing the favor of God, but instead, judicial blindness.
Romans 11:20. If we in the church don’t take personal responsibility to walk in the Spirit and allow Him to give us the power to cut off the flesh, God will use His discipline to cut if off from us… even as He has judged His earthly people. 

What does it mean to continue in the goodness of God? 

The implication here is that it is possible for the believer to stop experiencing the goodness of God. Does this teach that a believer can lose his/her salvation?  (e.g. riding in the back seat with my brother on long vacation trips. Although the thought may have crossed his mind, I was not abandoned at the side of the road, but I did experience the sharpness of my father’s arm and I did have to ride under my dad’s displeasure)

The contrast of goodness and severity here is between gentleness and sharpness; a contrast between the favor of God and the discipline of God.

The church at Laodicea was likewise under discipline. They are rebuked and chastened by the Lord. The idea that this is the Lord knocking at the heart’s door is an application, not an interpretation. This describes the Lord deliberately kept on the outside of His church. 

Luke 21:24; The good news is that God’s discipline has limits. The Lord comments on the future of Israel continuing on as subject to Gentile rulers. However, there is a time limit, there is an ‘until’, there is a fulfillment of this sentence. The Lord Jesus referred to this period as the time of the Gentiles. 

• They were more concerned about comfort in the church than they were concerned about truth in the church. 
• This is a church that was more concerned about the preservation of their wealth in the world than they were concerned about the preservation of fellowship with the Lord in His church. 

The Kingdom program during the Times of the Gentiles. The Shekinah glory is departed. The Temple is destroyed, the people are killed or carried back into slavery. 

Even though there is a Jewish presence now in the land of Israel, there is no temple, no glory, no peace. 

When the antichrist appears, he will offer them peace and a temple, but the glory that they hope for will be denied them when the antichrist offers the abomination of desolation in the temple.


The prophet Daniel is raised up to reveal the course of this time. God did this by means of placing Daniel in a position of influence with the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezer had a troubling dream that God allowed only Daniel to interpret. 

Hosea 3:3,4 Hosea’s marriage to a harlot is intended to be an illustration of God’s relation to the children of Jacob. As a result of their harlotry, the office of theocratic administrator is suspended. It will not be restored until the nation recognizes their Messiah.

The King’s Dream The dream describes the times of the Gentiles from Babylon until the appearance of Messiah. He comes as the smiting stone that will lay waste the Gentile Kingdoms that God has used to judge and discipline Israel with sharpness.

Isaiah 9:6,7 It is amazing how the Holy Spirit can succinctly describe the purpose of God that takes centuries to develop and reveal. Hebrew poetry is written in parallels. Sometimes they are completive parallels, (i.e. He is led as a lamb to the slaughter….) sometimes they are contrastive parallels as we find here. 
The Holy Spirit through Isaiah summarizes Israel’s ordained purpose in a very carefully chosen pattern of words that describe the fulfillment of Gen. 3:15.
How is it that the mighty God could be born as a child?
How is it that the Everlasting Father could be found in a Son that is given flesh?
How is it that the rejected Prince of Peace, could become the King of kings?

32 Divided Kingdom

 

"Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what [meaneth] the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and [whom] he had not given unto them: And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as [it is] this day." - Deuteronomy 29:24-28 KJV

The devil uses the flesh to undermine God’s theocratic administration.
"[This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." - Galatians 5:16 KJV
The office of Theocratic Administrator was first given to Adam until he committed treason against God and forfeited his position to the serpent. The title deed to the earth was always in God's possession but sealed until the office of Theocratic Administrator could be firmly restored in the Last Adam.

Under the Mosaic covenant, that office was conditionally restored through Moses as long as the conditions of the covenant were met.

Theocratic administrators began with Adam but was suspended until the exodus in 1446 b.c. when it was reinstated in Moses. Joshua showed the power of a people united in purpose under Jehovah. Their success was great, but incomplete. 

There is a pattern that we observe in every human endeavor: An enterprise starts with a man, it gathers momentum into a movement, then it metamorphoses into a monument. This is true with denominational church movements and it was true with Israel in the days of Joshua. After he leaves the scene the nation began to drift from its calling.

Judges were raised up to deliver the people from their enemies. Although it was a time characterized by the phrase: ’Every man did what was right in their own eyes’; It caused the people to look for a leader like the nations around them. Who were the leaders of the nations around them? Giants like Og, King of Bashan, Goliath and his brothers, etc. 

1. God recognized Israel’s reliance on the flesh requires discipline. When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, they loathed the manna, ‘this light bread’. So God sent them flesh in the form of quails and “God gave them their request, but sent leanness unto their soul” Ps 106:15 

We often are tested when we become reliant on the flesh. We get impatient, we move ahead of God, we think that we can accomplish something apart from Him. We mistake the promptings of the flesh for promptings of the Spirit of God and then we blame God for the sad result.

1. Exodus 19:5-6 God declares that Israel was redeemed for the purpose of becoming a kingdom of priests. Israel was not given the law to redeem them. They were redeemed when they passed through the Red Sea. The law gave them their purpose. Yet their purpose could only be realized if they kept the conditions of God’s covenant made with them on Mt. Sinai. 

That is, they were to be mediators between God and the nations. The nations could recognize that God was with Israel and be blessed or they could resist Israel and be cursed. 

However, Israel’s experience of forgetting God reminds us that, like Israel and like Adam in the garden, the believer’s purpose and calling is thwarted when we listen to the serpent’s voice and move in the flesh, forgetting to listen for God’s voice. 

Yet in spite of human failure, we can trace God’s faithfulness through the beautiful story of Ruth, a gentile Moabitess outside of the covenants of Israel yet graciously received of Boaz. She would become the grandmother of David and carry the seed of the woman into the Messianic Royal line.

1. Praise God that He is never kept from fulfilling His purpose even when our flesh keeps us from fulfilling our intended purpose.
2. In Gen 49:10 God’s purpose concerning the Royal seed was given through Jacob’s prediction that the sceptre would not depart from Judah.
3. Judahs ascent to the throne from Saul to David. This word is fulfilled as Israel suffers under the legalistic pride of Saul and the kingdom is taken from him and given to Judah’s descendant, David. (a lot of churches suffer under leaders like Saul; It is well said that God often makes us to suffer under leaders like Saul in order to train leaders like David)
4. In Deut 17 the Spirit of God declared through Moses that the nation would one day desire a king like the other nations. This was realized in 1 sam 8. 
5. Deut 17:16;. God is not opposed to a king, He had given them conditions of a king and that he had to be one of God’s choosing. 1 sam 8:7God recognized this request was of the flesh, so He made them suffer with a tyrant, just like the other nations around them. 
6. 1 Sam 9:2 Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, not Judah. He was marked by his physical stature and satisfied their fleshly appetite for a king like the other nations.

The first king, Saul was given to Israel by God to answer their request for a leader head and shoulders above everyone else. God used Saul to send Leanness into the soul of the nation when they went to battle against their enemies. Saul’s pride made him believe that he had to do it all. He intruded into the office of prophet priest and king that only Messiah is qualified to hold.

As Saul became more consumed with pursuing David rather than with pursuing the enemies of God’s people, he left no room for those that God had gifted to serve His people. Satan could not have been more pleased.

1. 1 Sam 15:17: God intervened through the prophet Samuel who confronted Saul’s pride. As a result of Saul’s intrusion into the priests office, the kingdom was taken from him. God choose a young man to replace Saul who had a heart for God and God’s people.
2. David’s Path to the throne: Although David is anointed to be king as a very young man he did not come to the throne until 1011 B.C. after the death of Saul.
3. 1 Samuel 16:12-14: David’s anointing was before he confronted Goliath. The Spirit of the Lord that was upon Saul was replaced with an evil spirit from the Lord to trouble him.

There is a parallel pattern here to the period of time that we are in today. David was their anointed king but he was rejected by the Jewish leadership and hunted down like an animal. He could not take his place on the throne in Jerusalem as long as those that rejected him were alive. In the meantime, the people were left to choose their allegiance between the flesh’s choice, King Saul or the Spirit of God’s choice, King David. Do you see a similarity in the preaching of the gospel? Who are souls asked to choose between?

I Sam 20:30-31 This spirit of jealousy drove Saul to madness even trying to impale his son Jonathan to the wall with his spear. Saul tried to blame Jonathan for the loss of the kingdom 

David prospered Israel during his reign. Their enemies were subdued, they expanded and controlled much of the land of their enemies. Those that blessed them were blessed and those that cursed them were cursed. 

1. The Kingdom was established in David and it was decreed that the seed of the woman would ascend to the throne through the line of David. David’s throne is established forever.

2 Samuel 12:9-10; David’s sin with Bathsheba required God’s judgment on his house.
Then we come into the reign of Solomon whose reign foreshadows the peace and prosperity of God’s kingdom established in the land during the millennium. 
1 Kings 10:23,24,26: (the half hath not been told) exceeded above all of the kings of the earth.

1. Satan influenced Solomon to go against the conditions of the Mosaic covenant in multiplying wives, horses and riches for himself.

1 kings 11: As a result, his success as King was short-lived. He became more and more corrupt, even to the point of promoting the practice of child sacrifice.
These first three kings show us how leaders actions or inactions can lead to division and war among God’s people. (Applies to leaders in the church and to our homes)

1. Saul’s legalism was an attempt to put a veneer of religious activity over a heart of pride and jealousy. 
2. David’s license with Bathsheba and David’s led to David’s exile and civil war in his house.
3. Solomons lifestyle that was contrary to the revealed will of God led Solomon into horrible sin. So God Divided the Kingdom removing all of the tribes but Judah from David’s throne. 

Israel’s judgments began with the division of the kingdom

31 Why Did God Create the Church?

 "Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." - 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 KJV

One of God's objectives in history is restoring God’s rule on the earth through a man. That man is promised to come through Israel.

One of the conditions of the Israel's conditional covenant for possession of the land was receiving God’s choice of a King. When Israel rejected Messiah, they were dispossessed of their land until they are ready to receive Him. In the meantime, God is not left without a witness on the earth.

This brings us to why God created the church.

God’s purposes for the church. 

"Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. ... So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." - Galatians 3:7, 9 KJV 
First it is important to recognize that the church inherits the promises given to Abraham alongside but not in place of Israel. We must clarify the relationship of faith to obedience.

We have explored the Jewish covenants and how some are conditional and some are unconditional. It is not hard to see why there can be a lot of confusion about this difference and how it spills over into the churches teachings.

Even though the Abrahamic covenant is unconditional, there were some conditional promises given to Abraham. For instance, think of what Abram would have lost if he had not obeyed God’s command to leave Ur and go to a land that He would show Abram? 

There were two commands given to Abram in Gen, 12:1. "Get out" and "go". At this time they were living in Haran. Abram's father Terah died and now Abram was to leave his inheritance behind. This was a big deal. Secondly, he was to go somewhere .... a place that God promised to show him but had not shown him yet. Can you imagine the stir that this caused?

What were the promises given to Abram?: 

• God will make Abram a great nation; 
• God will bless him; 
• God will make his name great.

These promises were about Abram being blessed.

There was a second command given to Abram. He was to be a blessing. “Thou shalt be” declares God’s intent and ultimate result for Abram. In order for Abram and his descendants to qualify as a channel of blessing to the whole world it requires a right relationship to God.

Obedience to this command would result in three more promises: 

• Those who bless Abram will be blessed
• Those who curse Abram will be cursed
• In Abram all of the families of the earth will be blessed.

These promises were about Abram being a blessing.

So the intent of God here is to bless Abram in order to be a blessing. (There is a pattern here for the church)

Does this mean that Abrahamic Covenant was conditional?(Some christians teach this)…or…

Do the promises of 12:1 differ from the Oath that God made with Abram in ch. 15? (religious faith/saving faith)

Grace is not a commodity that can be traded for. Grace by its own definition is a gift. The faith that saves is first demonstrated by a ready heart to receive God’s grace and then follow in obedience. 

1. With saving faith, meeting conditions does not determine whether some promises will be fulfilled but when they will be fulfilled and who will participate in it. (e.g. all Israel will be saved but when that happens and who will participate depends upon obedience to the command to repent and believe on the Lord Christ)

The believer is unconditionally saved to become like Christ through the power of the Spirit.

Fulfilling the believer’s (church’s) calling is a conditional blessing depending upon obedience to the Spirit 

1. Matthew 16:18: The first mention of the church is after the nation of Israel rejects their King. The Lord reveals a new entity as an offensive weapon. He calls it ‘my church’. The Lord revealed this simple truth to me as a boy of 11 or 12…

Notice that the church is an offensive weapon and hell is described in a defensive position. The church being used of God to assault Satan’s realm by means of reconciling both Jew and Gentile back to God and also back to each other. Like faithful Abraham, our victory over satan as individuals is dependent upon a right relationship to God.

1. The church is unconditionally promised to be a kind of first fruits promising a greater blessing to come: 
1. In righteousness of faith based works (James 1:18) These are works that are not motivated by advantage to self (e.g. Zig Ziglar) but motivated by bringing glory to God. These works may or may not be to our advantage. In fact, these works are often the result of severe trials and temptations.
2. In the Holy Spirit’s work of restraint turning the believer from personal sin. We groan within ourselves due to our flesh (Rom 8:23). There is also restraint of God’s wrath on an unbelieving world (2 Thess 2:6,7) We are the work of the Holy Spirit exercising a ministry of light and salt. In the Millennial Kingdom, that restraint will be fully realized by the imprisonment of Satan.
3. We are first fruits in resurrection (1 Cor 15:23) What is the greater blessing to come? Is it not the complete fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram? Rev 7:9

Some Christians say that Israel has no right to the land on a Biblical basis. The claim is that Jesus extended the land promise to the world transferring it from Abraham to the church. It is amazing to me that modern day theologians presume to correct the Apostolic assertions: Paul affirmed that to Israel belong the promises (Romans 9:4). John wrote that 12000 souls from each of Israel’s 12 tribes are marked to stand with the Lamb on Mt Zion (Rev 14:1) Not to mention that the Lord Himself taught us to pray for the kingdom to come. (Luke 11:2)

1. Their argument is loosely based on one of the beatitudes that promises that the meek will inherit the earth. (Matt. 5:5) God claims ownership of His creation: ’the earth is mine’ (Exodus 19:5) It is His to give to whomever He chooses. To their minds this statement of Jesus somehow nullifies God’s assertion that He has promised ‘on His very life’ that the land of Canaan will be given to Abram (Gen. 15:17,18)
2. The simple reality is that the church is not called to replace Israel, but to reconcile all men back to God…to the Jew first but also the Gentile.
• What does the word ‘reconcile’ mean to you? Defining ‘reconcile’ as a restoration to favor. A settling of differences.
3. Our role is to show grace and bring light through a clear witness of God’s purposes in restoring the Kingdom back to the earth.

The church is not only to serve as a witness for God while Israel is under a curse but also in the Millennium when Israel will be a blessing for the whole earth.

Our intimate knowledge of the power and wisdom of God will be needed to teach those born in the Millennium both the character and the Divinity of the King of Israel. 

This motivates me to know more about God. Sometimes it seems like there is no point in learning more about God because no one is listening to us talk about how wonderful He is. The satanic blindness and deception is so thick…

It may be that even if you and never win another soul to Christ in this life, we can be excited at the possibilities of 1000 years of sharing Christ to a world of sinners without Satanic opposition.

1. Eph 2:13-18: By this means we are to be used of God to reconcile both Jew and Gentile back to God in this age as well as the ages to come. This is how the wall that separates Jew and Gentile is broken down.
2. Book; What Should We Think About Israel?;Randall Price

https://books.apple.com/us/book/what-should-we-think-about-israel/id147474495

1. Jewish contributors having some practical experience with attempting to reconcile with their family members after becoming Christians. There is less and less tolerance for this kind of ministry as the nation of Israel becomes more odious to the world community.
1. Purposes of the Local Church
1. Glorify God: (Eph 3:21) Revealing the Glory of God
2. Edify the Saints (Eph 4:11-16): Restoring the Power of God
3. Fulfill the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20): Reconciling heirs for the Kingdom of God

Supplemental:

The promises of Land, Seed and Blessing were all unconditional.

It is important to note that though both Isaac and Ishmael were promised blessing, only Isaac was promised to be a blessing. The chosen line through whom Christ would come to bless the world is Isaac. ‘In Isaac shall thy seed by called’

"But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." - 1 Corinthians 1:23-25 KJV

"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition [between us]; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, [so] making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." - Ephesians 2:13-18

“assumptions that underlie this chapter. 

1. First, the Bible is the only divinely inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God, and the source of ultimate truth. 
2. Second, the truth of a doctrine is determined by its adherence to Scripture and not how late or early it appeared in history. 
3. Third, any theological position is welcome at the scholarly table as long as it is arrived at from proper exegesis of Scripture and not based on a certain political bias. 
4. Fourth, the positive theological contributions of the West on the East and vice versa are not to be ignored, but rather examined to help improve communicate between the two. 
5. Fifth, it is not what is expedient for ministry, for missions, or for contextualization that gives warrant to a particular interpretation. 
6. Sixth, one’s eschatological position may or may not have a bearing on his or her political aspirations. For example, an amillennialist could be pro-Zionist and a dispensationalist could be anti-Zionist. 
7. Seventh, in scholarly dialogue, one assumes that deductions are made based on one’s evaluation of the data of Scripture, with freedom of expression as well as openness to critique and being critiqued in Christian love and civility. In all[…]”

Excerpt From

What Should We Think About Israel?

Randall Price

https://books.apple.com/us/book/what-should-we-think-about-israel/id1474744950

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