CHAPTER 14 – GOD CREATES a NATION – ISRAEL and PROVIDES LAND for HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE – the JEWS and for CHRIST’S SECOND COMING.

God created the nation of Israel and its people through Abraham and his descendants. What makes Israel unique among all of the nations of the world? What are its peculiar features that separate it from those “other” nations of the world that indicate to us God’s Divine Providence over it?

“Israel is the very embodiment {personification/example} of Jewish continuity. It is the only nation on earth that {now} inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did {some} 3,000 years ago.” {Quote from Charles Krauthammer – The Weekly Standard, May 11, 1998} I will try to clarify this statement. This does NOT mean the Jews continuously occupied the land of Israel for the last 3000 years. The Jews did NOT occupy the city of Jerusalem from 63 B.C. to 1963 A.D. some 2026 years although a remnant of Jews has always lived in Jerusalem. I believe that what Mr. Krauthammer is saying is that Israel is the ONLY nation on earth that NOW inhabits the same land, has the same name, has the same language, and worships the same God as it has for some 3000 years. No other nation on earth today can make that same claim!

We must fully understand the importance of this claim and fact! All we have to do is to step back and take a look at the changes in the number of nations worldwide in history. I tried to find an estimate of the number of kingdoms and nations in the world’s history but could not. Apparently there are too many making it too difficult to make an accurate estimate. But according to Wikipedia there are about 15 other sovereign nations currently that predate the time of Christ (BC). But all of these other nations have been occupied by other nations at one time or another in their history. What happened all of these former kingdoms and nations? The truth is there is very little stability in the nations of the world over a long period of history. The United States of America has continuously survived some 238 years making it a relatively long continuously surviving nation in the history of the world in modern times!
Google: Wikipedia “List of sovereign states by date of formation.”

The rise and fall of the kingdoms and nations of the world are a revolving kaleidoscope that God even though He did NOT create them, changes by His Sovereignty according to His foreknown and predestined plans. BUT this is NOT the case for Israel! I believe that God in His foreknowledge predestined the nation Israel with its people “to endure through Christ’s Second Coming” to bring to fruition the Father’s plans for His Second Coming. Scripture states that God established Israel and its people to exist forever! Following is a synopsis of its introduction and beginning through Christ’s setting up His Kingdom here on earth for a thousand years.
2 Samuel 7:24 And You {God} have established for Yourself Your people Israel to be Your people forever, and You, Lord, became their God. AMP
Revelations 20:4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. NASU

As we all know, God in His Sovereignty and Providence used Abram to create/ bring forth the nation of Israel with its land {taken from Canaan} with His chosen people – the Jews. God promised Abram that his Jewish offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and as the sand on the seashore.
2 Chronicles 9:8 Blessed be the Lord your God, Who delighted in you {Solomon} and set you on His throne to be king for the Lord your God! Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness. AMP
Genesis 12:1-2 NOW [in Haran] the Lord said to Abram, Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. [Heb 11:8-10.] 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you [with abundant increase of favors] and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others]. AMP
Genesis 13:14-15 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had left him, Lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15 For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your posterity {physical descendants} forever. [Acts 7:5.] AMP
Genesis 15:5-6 And He {God} brought him {Abram} outside [his tent into the starlight] and said, Look now toward the heavens and count the stars — if you are able to number them. Then He said to him, So shall your {Jewish} descendants be. [Heb 11:12.] 6 And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God). [Rom 4:3, 18-22; Gal 3:6; James 2:23.] AMP

We have Abram being declared righteous by God for his faith in believing what God had physically showed him which now enables him {now Abraham} to truly become the “spiritual father of our faith.”
Genesis 22:16-18 And said, I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that since you {Abraham} have done this and have not withheld [from Me] or begrudged [giving Me] your son, your only son{/Isaac}, 17 In blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants {spiritual brothers and sisters} like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. And your Seed (Heir) will possess the gate of His enemies, [Heb 6:13, 14; 11:12.] 18 And in your {lineage the} Seed [Christ] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and [by Him] bless themselves, because you have heard and obeyed My voice. [Gen 12:2-3; 13:16; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; Acts 3:25, 26; Gal 3:16.] AMP
Romans 4:16 Therefore, [inheriting] the promise is the outcome of faith and depends [entirely] on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of grace (unmerited favor), to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his descendants — not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those {spiritual descendants} who share the faith of Abraham, who is [thus] the father of us all. AMP
Romans 9:8 That is to say, it is not the children of the {physical} body [of Abraham] who are made God’s children, but it is the offspring {spiritual descendants} to whom the promise applies that shall be counted [as Abraham’s true] descendants. AMP

Let’s take a look at the lineage of Abraham to discern as to who are his physical descendants, and who are his spiritual descendants. Abraham lived about 1800 BC and during his life time fathered two famous people – Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was the child of the bond woman Hagar and Abraham. He is the Muslim’s link to claim Abraham as their physical father. In Scripture, Ishmael is called a “wild ass” to indicate his radical spiritual thinking and violent physical behavior which still carries forward to this day with the militant Muslims particularly in their adamant opposition to Israel in continually trying to completely annihilate that nation and its people from the face of the earth. It is important to include the radical Muslims in this history because they will be involved in the war(s) against Israel {and other nations} at the end of the age. These militant Muslims are intent on saving the world for Islam and brainwashing and molding these new converts to make them their slaves in the “kingdom(s) of the world” with its god – Satan.
Genesis 16:12 And he [Ishmael] will be as a wild ass among men; his hand will be against every man and every man’s hand against him, and he will live to the east and on the borders of all his kinsmen. AMP
Revelation 16:13-14 Armageddon And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet {false demonic trinity}, three unclean spirits like frogs; 14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. NASU
Galatians 4:29 Yet [just] as at that time {3,800 years ago} the child {Ishmael} [of ordinary birth] born according to the flesh despised and persecuted him {Isaac} [who was born remarkably] according to [the promise and the working of] the [Holy] Spirit, so it is now also {“TODAY” 2014 AD}. [Gen 21:9.] AMP
Isaac was the first offspring of the free woman Sarah and Abraham – the child born of the promise from God that she would conceive and have a child even though she was well beyond child bearing age – 90 years old. She would then become the mother of many kings and their nations.
Genesis 17:17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a son? AMP
Galatians 4:23 But whereas the child {Ishmael} of the slave woman {Hagar} was born according to the flesh and had an ordinary birth, the son {Isaac} of the free woman {Sarah} was born in fulfillment of the promise. AMP
Genesis 17:16 And I {God} will bless her {Sarah} and give you a son {Isaac} also by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her. AMP {Sarah shall be the mother of the kings of the peoples of the nations.}

The descendants of Abraham became the nation of Israel about 500 years after Abraham lived. To make the long history of Israel very short and repetitious, the people of Israel intimately knew and prayed to God and lived in their land, and then they sinned against God and by God’s judgment, another nation took them captive and drove them from their land. Then they repented and prayed to God to return them to their land – which He did, and then they sinned against Him again, and He would let another nation take them captive again driving them from their land. Then they repented and prayed to God to return them to their land – which He did. This “merry-go-round” repeated itself many times for many centuries, but this came to an end in 1948.

I believe that because of the “Holocaust” – the killing of six million Jews during WWII, the sympathies of many nations of the world helped with the reemergence of the Israeli nation in 1948. Only one problem! The United Nations formed TWO nations – the Palestinian/Arab Nation and the Jewish Nation. What do you see? God’s Sovereignty and Providence in the reestablishment of the continuing conflict between the Muslims {Ishmael} and the Jews {Isaac}.

In recent history, there have been several wars between Israel and its Arab neighbors ALL trying to annihilate the Nation of Israel – the 1948 War of Independence, the 1956 Sinai War, the 1967 Six Day War, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Israel is a TINY nation BUT it has won ALL of those wars! What does this reveal about God’s Sovereignty over Israel and the other nations who fought against her? But that still does NOT detour them from continuing to try to annihilate Israel as we shall see.

But the “battle and war” against Israel is NOT finished yet. This is part of God’s reason for His continued Providence for Israel to remain a nation with LAND. There is yet ONE major war coming between Israel and her neighboring nations. But this war will take place on Israeli LAND on one of the most famous battlefields in the world – the Valley of Megiddo which will host the “Battle of Armageddon.”
Zechariah 12:11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of [the city of] Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo [over beloved King Josiah]. [2 Chron 35:22-25.] AMP
Revelation 16:16 And they gathered them together at the place which in Hebrew is called Armageddon. [2 Kings 9:27.] AMP

There are others who believe there will be up to nine other wars which will precede Armageddon. “The Gog and Magog War” which some call World War III and “The Great Middle East War” which some believe will pit Israel against all of its other neighboring nations who did NOT fight against her in “The Gog and Magog War.” Does this war bring ALL of the nations of the world against Israel? There is a lot of speculation about the events of the end times and I do NOT know the order of when these things are going to happen, but whatever takes place, one thing can be sure – ONLY the nation of Israel, its people along with the city of Jerusalem will come through these wars in their FINAL VICTORY and PLACE in the “kingdom’s of the world” because of God and His love for His only created nation and people!
Revelation 20:8 And he will go forth to deceive and seduce and lead astray the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth — Gog and Magog — to muster them for war; their number is like the sand of the sea. [Ezek 38:2, 9, 15, 22.] AMP
Revelation 16:14 For really they are the spirits of demons that perform signs (wonders, miracles). And they go forth to the rulers and leaders all over the world {all of the “kingdom(s) of the world”}, to gather them together for war on the great day of God the Almighty. AMP

It is imperative to understand why God created the nation of Israel with its LAND for His Chosen People – for the Jews to be the mightiest nation on earth and an everlasting nation amongst all of the nations on the earth.
Jeremiah 31:7 For thus says the Lord: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the head of the nations [on account of the chosen people, Israel]. Proclaim, praise, and say, The Lord has saved His people, the remnant of Israel! AMP
Deuteronomy 26:19 And He will make you {Israel} high above all nations which He has made, in praise and in fame and in honor, and that you shall be a holy people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken. AMP
Isaiah 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth which I make shall remain before Me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain {Israel}. AMP

As you follow through this chapter, I pray that you can see the unfolding of God’s plan for Israel as a nation as was stated at the beginning of this chapter – “Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity. It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did {some} 3,000 years ago.” {Quote from Charles Krauthammer – The Weekly Standard, May 11, 1998} Why is JUST the nation of Israel among all of the nations of the world so important and necessary to God? Can you see why it is so important for you to support the nation of Israel? Can you see why the other nations of the world aren’t AS important as Israel? Are OTHER nations going to be “saved” by God? Is the United States of America among these “OTHER” nations to be “saved?” I believe that God has placed in leadership of the United States of America a man who will drastically speed its decline so as to become impotent during the end times. The nation of Israel including the New City of Jerusalem will be the only nation to survive the worldwide “holocaust” of the end times.
Zechariah 12:3 Jerusalem will be a heavy stone burdening the world. And though all the nations of the earth unite in an attempt to move her, they will all be crushed. TLB
Zechariah 12:9 For my {God’s} plan is to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. TLB