Open your Bibles, if you will, this morning to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. And like I said, I'm going to do something quite a bit different than, I suppose, what I normally do. It's not really a sermon, necessarily. It may, I don't know, at some point in time, there may be sermon-ish type points that get brought out. But it's not really a sermon. But I called it very simply, God is in control. What I wanted to do this morning is just to take a look at some of the things that are going on concerning the nation of Israel. We've seen this happening, we see this happen in the news and I don't know about a lot of you, but when I was younger especially, those things just flew over my head. I was more interested in baseball and football and those things. didn't really pay a lot of attention to it. And so a lot of things that are kind of culminating right now are things that, I hate to admit this, happened during my lifetime. And I wish I would have paid more attention. So I thought I'd take a little bit of time this morning and just kind of go over some general aspects of the sequence of events, of what's happened. with the nation of Israel. And in order to do that, I wanted to start all the way back in Genesis chapter 12. In Genesis chapter 12, we realize that God is obviously in control. And the reality is God gave to Abraham, as you well know, a promise that that land over there was his. So these are some things that happened from our perspective in the past. In Genesis chapter 12, Abram took Sarah, his wife Lot, his brother's son, and all their substance that they had, in verse 5, and gathered the souls that they had gotten in Haran. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. And in the land of Canaan they came, it says in verse 5. In verse 7, which is up on the board, The Lord appeared unto Abram, and he's in the land of Canaan, and said, unto thy seed will I give this land. And there he built an altar unto the Lord who had appeared unto him. And you go through and you read that in chapter 12, and you realize the promise that the Lord gave that land to the nation of Israel. If you flip over a couple of pages in your Bible to Genesis chapter 15, it kind of continues on. And in Genesis chapter 15, the Lord rehearses with Abraham again the same sort of a promise. After these things, in chapter 15 verse 1, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision. saying, fear not, Abram, for I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, this shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowel shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, look now towards the heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto them, so shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it unto him for righteousness. One of those very pivotal moments in Abraham's life. And in verse 7, he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of the Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it. And down in verse 13, it says, and he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in the land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 400 years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great substance. And you take a look, and it continues on. And you look down in verse 15, I'm sorry, verse 18. chapter 15 verse 18, in the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Alright, so I know I've shown this slide before but it's worth I think somebody was asking about it the other day. But basically, Abraham started out down there in the bottom right corner in Ur of the Chaldees. That's about where the Garden of Eden was, at the end of the Euphrates and Tigris River down there. And when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, he took off and headed to Haran, which is way up towards Turkey, up at the top of that triangle. And then in the passage that we just read, the Lord told Abraham, to leave Haran and head down into Canaan, which obviously is Israel down there on the coast. But when God tells Abraham what land he's going to give him, he says, I'm going to give you the land from the Great River in Egypt, which is the Nile, all the way over to the Euphrates. That is a big section of land. That is the land that God promised Abraham, right? And you don't, you know, you don't think about it. You don't think of the land mass because Israel is such a small strip of land over there currently. But in the end, guess what? He's going to get all of that land. And as we know, the Jews left and they, time goes on. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the 12 patriarchs. And they're carried off into Egypt, just like God prophesied they would be. They were in Egypt for about 400 years. God brought them out with Moses. They wandered around for 40 years. And then, of course, God then took the nation of Israel into the land of Canaan. And the nation of Israel began to conquer at least what we now know as Israel, Palestine, that area in there. And God took them into that land, of course. turned their back on God multiple times throughout their history. God kept trying to send them prophets, and they would get right for a little while, and then they would fall back again. They were backsliding Israel, the Bible calls them. And eventually, God sent in Nebuchadnezzar, and God dispersed them from the land and kicked them out of the land. They were taken captivity to Babylon. There was a small remnant that was left. A bunch of them headed back to Egypt, of all places, to go. And over the course of time, some of those folks wound up coming back into the land. So that when we pick things up in the New Testament, they're there. There's some Jews there. There's a population. They're in the land. They're not in control of the land. But they are living there under Roman rule. And eventually, you get up to about 70-ish AD in that time frame. And Titus comes in. And everything gets completely wiped out. The temple gets completely destroyed. And those Jews kind of disperse. And they are just gone, right? There's very few of them left back in the land. I mean, there's still a few that are there. But for the most part, as far as the nation as an entity, it ceases to exist. And then for 1,900 years, close to it, the nation of Israel did not exist. And that brings us up more to the present, you know, our present day. And I'm counting our present day. We're going to go back to the, you know, early 1900 timeframe. But that brings us up to where we're at now. And for you and I, you know, we're looking at all these things happening in Israel. And everybody is looking in the Bible. And if you're watching any YouTube videos or other preachers or something, you're seeing a lot of talk and prophetic talk about what's going on in the nation of Israel, what's happening, and where that's supposed to be occurring in the Bible. And you'll see a lot of those things come up. And because it's a popular subject, we're finding ourselves right in the middle of some major things happening in the nation of Israel. So I just wanted to go over and kind of maybe give you a few hints, a few things from the Bible to help you as you're listening to those sort of things, to help you to be able to sort some of them out and to make sure that you're well-equipped to place things in the right place when it comes to figuring out what the Bible says versus what's happening in the uh... in the world and especially with your like i said if you're watching a lot of people uh... it's just it's very easy sometimes to get the time frames really confused with different passages of the bible so my hope today is to kind of go over uh... just a little bit of a history there and then uh... at the end will will kind of try to mesh things and and hit some of those passages in the bible that uh... hopefully will help you keep some of this historical stuff in perspective uh... so So the Jews are dispersed from the land. You have World War I that breaks out in the early 1900s. And in the mix of all that, Britain is a major player. And they wind up making some deals with some Arabs and some Jews. And they're trying to kick the Ottoman Empire out of Palestine, what's currently known as Palestine. and Britain winds up going in and kind of taking over what we now know is Palestine and occupying it for a while. Well, one of the things that you've probably heard is, how many of you have heard the term, the Balfour Declaration? Anybody know what that is? Right? Well, it was, you know, it was a letter And I'll go ahead and try to take the time to read it. It says, I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty's government the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionists aspirations which has been submitted to and approved by the cabinet. His Majesty's government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights of the political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation. Basically, Britain is finding itself between a rock and a hard space because it's trying to at some level appease the Arab counterparts that are already there, but it's also trying to support the nation of Israel. And their intent, obviously, was to help the nation of Israel get back into their homeland. But they, even back then, realized the dynamite that the pile of dynamite that they were kind of getting into. And we have seen the fruit of that ever since. After World War II, The British, like I said, they were in control of that area. And the Jews started to immigrate in. The British encouraged Jewish immigrants to come in. You had a bunch of, did I say World War II? I mean, after World War I. I'm not up to World War II yet. But you had a bunch of people migrating, immigrating into the land, a bunch of Jews, and the Arabs were getting upset, and the Jews were getting upset, and then the tensions began to arise, and then they began fighting each other, and Britain was in the middle trying to keep peace, and all these things were happening, and it was a nightmare, just like it has been ever since. Right? Britain in 1920 assumed responsibility for Palestine under the League of Nations, which is the forerunner to the United Nations, which we know of today. And over the next couple of decades, over 100,000 Jews entered into the country. In September of 1946, the British called a conference. And they called a conference between the Jews and the Arabs between their leaders and they called this conference in London and they're trying to work out a peaceful solution to where they both coexist. They've been trying to do that, you know, since day one. In November of 1947, the United Nations, which is now formed, so we're now up to pre, I mean post World War II. So this has been going on And Britain is still occupying that territory. The Jews and the Arabs are still there. They're trying to find a peaceful solution. The British is more and more relying on the United Nations to help find a peaceful solution. So in 1947, the United Nations comes up with a plan. And their plan is basically on the way to a two-state type setup where Israel has part of the land and the Palestinians have part of the land. And they make that recommendation. And then in May of 1948, on May 15th of 1948, Britain now, with this idea in place, and they realize it's going to take a while. They realize it's going to be a long, hard process. But in May of 1948, Britain decides, OK, we've been here long enough. We're leaving. So Britain pulls out of the nation of Israel in 1948 and leaves it. to the Jewish people and the Palestinians to try to implement this process that was to some degree or another, you know, started by the United Nations. So that, you know, that goes on. So as soon as Britain pulls out, As soon as Britain pulls out, the surrounding nations are not interested at all in seeing the Jews in that land. As soon as Britain pulls out, all the countries around the nation of Israel launch an attack against Israel. So they had started with this idea that both places can live peacefully and coexist. And yes, it's going to take you a while to get there. But you both have your land. Have fun. You guys take care. Manage yourselves. Britain pulls out. And as soon as they do, all the Arab nations around the nation of Israel immediately attack. the nation of Israel to kick them out. So that is a very hard-fought war. Israel, as small as they were, and as primitive as they were at the time, because they weren't really a well-founded and well-established nation yet, things are just getting started, they managed to defend themselves against all of those nations who were attacking them. You say, how did that happen? Well, God had to have intervened. Because there is no way a nation that small with that few men and equipment could have withstood the attack of all those other nations. I mean, that area is just not, land-wise, it's just not a big area. So that is what happened as soon as Britain pulled out. None of the Arab nations wanted anything to do with the nation of Israel there. They immediately attacked them. Israel fended itself off and they managed to maintain control of what you and I, for the most part nowadays, call Israel. The Palestinians were still in the area. They were still having to deal with that that confrontation between the two, but they were established now as an independent state. You move up to, so that was back in the, like I said, that was back in 1948 when that began to happen. Move forward in time up to about 1960s, up in the 1960s, 1967, Israel is now established as a state. The Palestinians are there. And all this time they're working towards peace and there's constant fighting, there's constant terrorist attacks, constant attacks on Israel. None of the nations around Israel want them to be there. And so this is a kind of a continuing thing that's going on. You make it up into 1960, 1967, and in 1967, all of a sudden you have a major attack from many of the surrounding nations, and it's called the Six Day War. The nation of Israel, they kind of had an idea that all these Arab nations surrounding them were mounting up their forces and getting ready to launch an attack to once again try and wipe the nation of Israel out. And Israel did what any nation would do under those circumstances. They actually started the attack themselves. And that war lasted for six days. And Israel, by this time, militarily, was a formidable force. And Israel actually wound up taking over all this land all the way through the Sinai Peninsula. And then the land on the northern border, shaded in red, the Golan Heights up in that area, or up Golan Heights is going to be up in that area eventually. So Israel in that six-day war just completely destroyed those surrounding nations, caught them with a surprise attack, disabled their air power, and just kind of swept through and just obliterated them, and took all this land back. Now it's their land, right? And again, they were defending themselves from an imminent attack. There was no doubt about the fact that if they didn't do something, they were going to be overwhelmed once again. The United Nations called for a ceasefire on the 7th of June. It was accepted by Jordan, and it was accepted by Israel. And on June 9, Israel launched an assault on the Golan Heights. and captured them from Syria. There was still some fighting and resistance that was going on up there. So now Israel now has all of this land. Of course, nobody around them wants it. And what you have going on is you have the terrorists constantly attacking, you have Nation of Israel defending itself, and you have skirmishes and wars that are continuous throughout this this time frame. In 1973, you have another instance where the Arab nations around the nation of Israel launched a surprise attack. It's called the Yom Kippur War. And it took Israel quite a bit by surprise this time. They weren't aware that it was going to happen. So what we're seeing today is not the first time the nation of Israel has experienced this at the hands of their neighbors. Alright, so on one of their holy days on Yom Kippur, the countries around the nation of Israel launched a major attack against Israel and Israel almost lost. It was a hard-fought war. They did manage to stay as a state, but they just barely won the war. They wound up entering peace talks. Everybody's trying to broker peace for the nation of Israel and the surrounding Arab nations, and everybody is failing to one degree or another. But they wound up entering peace talks, which wound up leading to, in 1978, the Camp David Peace Accord. And in the Camp David Peace Accord, one of the things that Israel conceded in order to obtain peace with their neighbors is Israel gave back that Sinai Peninsula to Egypt that they had taken over. So Israel conceded all that land in the hopes of gaining peace with their neighbors. And that was a brokered, like I said, that was Jimmy Carter and a whole bunch of people involved in the process. But they did. They gave up all that land. Israel was able to keep the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip. So once again. There was a massive effort to obtain peace. And after the Camp David Accord, that was the nation of Israel. Again, with the thought process that now that we have made concessions, now that we've given them back their land, certainly there will be room for peace. The Palestinians were still in the land in those areas. The other nations refused to let the Palestinians immigrate into those nations, so they were stuck there. So the other nations didn't want to make it easier for Israel to have peace. Nobody would take the Palestinians, so they wound up staying in those occupied areas. And again, trying to somehow or another make this thing work. In 1993, you have what's known as the Oslo Accords. And around 1993, 1994, you have Yasser Arafat that comes into power. He is the head of the PLO. And in the Oslo Accords, what happens is the Palestinians and the Israelis are brought together, and they you know, they reach an agreement, and the agreement is that the PLO, in exchange for peace, and in exchange for autonomy, the PLO will renounce terrorism, right? And they will recognize Israel's right to exist, and then Israel will in turn recognize the PLO and give them the ability to govern themselves. They're no longer an occupied, you know, an occupied territory the way they had been before. And the idea was over a few year period, the Palestinians would have self-governing abilities. They would be able to elect their own leaders. They would be able to establish this. And the idea was it's working towards a Palestinian state. So these were the concessions, again, that Israel made. And the concessions that the PLO made was, OK, we're not going to be terrorists anymore. You see how well that worked? So Yasser Arafat is kind of in charge. Bill Clinton is actually trying to help broker this particular peace deal. And it is, in effect, a two-state solution, where both sides have agreed, hey, let's quit fighting. You guys live there. We'll live here. You guys take care of yourselves. We'll take care of ourselves. Once again, it did not work, even though they agreed to it. The Palestinians were given their areas, West Bank and Gaza, and they were to self-govern and self-rule those areas in exchange for peace. In 2006, There were elections held, and the ruling party, the Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinians that ruled Palestine and the Gaza Strip, they actually wound up losing the election. And there was another group that won the election. That group was called Hamas. So basically, the Palestinian people voted Hamas in as their leaders. They have the right to self-government. The Palestinians said, we want Hamas to lead us because infrastructure was terrible. The people were suffering. There was lack of food, water, lack of supplies. There were still skirmishes going on. It wasn't going well. The people of Palestine decided, we don't like this. Let's change it. Let's put Hamas in control. So in 2006 they voted Hamas into power. The Fatah didn't like that and there were struggles between Hamas and Fatah over who was going to control basically the army. so to speak, the police force, the army. And so Hamas and Fatah were fighting each other in the midst of all this. And at the same time, they're not getting along with Israel. And so everybody is just complete disarray. Gaza is in complete disarray because that's taking the brunt of all the consequences of all these decisions that are being made. And Hamas ultimately you know, like I said, won the election and they wind up taking over the Gaza Strip. They are in charge. They are the ones that have been elected. Again, remember, Palestine has the right to govern themselves. This is the government that Palestine chose. So, So once again, you're back to this situation. Hamas, the problem with Hamas is that in its charter, Hamas states that they have a commitment to the complete destruction of Israel, of Israelis and Israel as a state. So now, since 2006, you're back to the area where uh... the palestinians have voted this group into office and they have power and this group no longer has any you know any hint of a wanting to abide by any kind of a peace agreement or any kind of a two-state agreement at all their their uh... their charter is we will eliminate israel period that's who israel's dealing with alright uh... so all of that you know took place Hamas was eventually declared a terrorist organization, but now Hamas has control of Gaza. So Israel has now blockaded Gaza because these people are trying to wipe them off the map. They have not lived up to their part of the bargain, which was, you renounce terrorism, we will give you self-control. Right? In 2008, Egypt brokered a little bit of a ceasefire. Well, there's the area. In 2008, Egypt brokered a little bit of a ceasefire. And, you know, because the place is just getting destroyed. I mean everything is down in the Gaza Strip is just, that's where the war is taking place because of the government that the people have elected and put into place. One lady said this, I will not forgive them, they are the enemy, they destroyed our lives. So you have this fighting going on. You have rockets being launched. You have Israel responding. Hamas was launching rockets continuously into the nation of Israel indiscriminately, just hitting multiple targets. Israel would mount a counteroffensive and strike back with air raids. And again, you had just the people of Gaza were suffering, yes. It's the result of who they have in power. Egypt brokered a ceasefire in 2008. Israel agreed to stop the air raids if Hamas would stop the rocket attacks. And Egypt, at that point in time, said to make the process a little more amiable to the Palestinians, because the Palestinians were kind of locked into this Gaza Strip because they're under a terrorist organization. Nobody wants them. And Egypt didn't want them coming in. And they had very tight control of the border. And Egypt, in brokering this ceasefire, said this to Hamas, to the Palestinians, as long as you keep this ceasefire agreement, we will continue. The longer you keep this ceasefire agreement, the more we will open our borders to you and allow you to come into Egypt so that you can get the supplies you need. You can get the daily things of living. We will open our borders to you. so long as you keep this peace agreement with the nation of israel uh... that lasted about six months And then it was right back to the same thing it always had been. So even in the, you know, every time a peace treaty has been made and created, it has been broken and they wound up fighting again. Gaza, you know, began the process of digging, well they had been doing this for years, but they currently have the, you know, tunnels dug. We hear about the tunnels down in our southern border, same type of thing, only these are going into uh... into the nation of israel and even into egypt to smuggle goods and back and forth because a lot of times the border is closed and they can't get they can't get basic necessities that they need because they keep wanting to fire rockets and and nobody's going to let that happen so they have this whole tunnel system intricate tunnel system that is uh... you know underground heading into multiple different points in Israel. Israel keeps trying to find the tunnels, and when they find them, they destroy them. They keep digging the tunnels, and it's an ongoing battle. And you have all of that still going on. They're still using those tunnels to this day. That's how they got a lot of people into Israel with this latest incursion. That's where they took a lot of hostages out, and they would hide them in the tunnels, and they used them very extensively. This is basically Hamas. Now, jump back just a little bit in time. Let's go back to 1970s. Back in 1972. There were four terrorists that hijacked Sabina Flight 571. There was two men. There was two women. They forced the plane to go land in the nation of Israel. The hijackers demanded that Israel release like 300 Palestinian prisoners. Otherwise, they would kill everybody on the airplane. The plane had, you know, some maintenance issues. They couldn't take off. So they allowed a team of maintenance workers to go in to help repair the airplane for the, you know, so that this plane could eventually take off. So they sent in a bunch of mechanics, aircraft techs. The reality is they really weren't aircraft techs. They were Israeli Special Forces unit. maybe some of you remember this happening uh... and when they got to the plane they stormed the plane they wound up killing uh... the two male terrorists the two female terrorists actually survived uh... and so one there was only one hostage on the plane that was killed in the uh... the counter-attack uh... there was one there was one of the special forces operators that was shot in the arm. He later went on, so again he's a counter-terrorist guy, he later went on and had a good career and that gentleman's name happens to be Benjamin Netanyahu. That's who Benjamin Netanyahu is. So again, he is now currently the leader of Israel. He's the prime minister of Israel. He has tried to make peace with the Palestinians. But he is very much a counter-terrorist mindset. That's what he did. That's his specialty. So he's no slouch. In 2014, well, Benjamin Netanyahu obviously started his political career. He became prime minister. He was elected. And then he tried to broker a peace deal with the Palestinians again. He actually politically made the mistake of offering them a little more land if they would accept a peace deal for, again, to stop the war that's going on. Because war's not good for anybody. But it's going on. And so Benjamin Netanyahu offered the Palestinians land in exchange for peace, more land in exchange for peace. It, of course, didn't work. But it also cost Benjamin Netanyahu his position as prime minister, because the people of Israel were tired of it. They're on the receiving end of a lot of these attacks as well, just like the Palestinians are in Gaza. And so the Israelis voted Benjamin Netanyahu out of office. Eventually, he wound up getting back in office, and he's been in office for a couple of terms now. So again, you have this thing that's gone on, and it has gone back and forth. Let me get through some of this, because I'm looking at the time. I want to get up to the Bible portion of it. But you have this that's been going on back and forth, air raids, bombs, rockets. And every time there's a peace deal that's brokered, it is broken. On the scene comes the American president, Donald Trump. Well, as it turns out, Donald Trump is actually a very good friend of Benjamin Netanyahu's. They know each other very well. And Donald Trump, as you know, went on to do some things to bolster the United States' support of Israel. One of the biggest things that he did is he recognized Jerusalem as the capital and he moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Well, that made everybody mad. Palestinians and every other nation, even a lot of the Western nations were upset at that. because it was just a very volatile thing to do. But it was in support of Benjamin Netanyahu and in support of Israel. And Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. That is where it should be. So Donald Trump actually did that. He took a lot of heat for it. But he was the first American president that had the courage to stand up and take that step. A lot of them had talked about doing it. because they knew that's where it should be, but nobody had the courage to actually stand up and do it. So he took that step, which was a great show of solidarity between the United States and Israel. As you know, the Dome of the Rock sits on the holy site there in Jerusalem. But that's basically a little bit of history and kind of how we got to where we're at. So Trump has now left office. Biden is in office. And now we have the current attacks that are starting all over again, which you all heard about in the news. Same cycle. Nobody, right? From Israel's perspective, Palestinian's perspective is, hey, we're being oppressed. We don't get, you know, we don't even get food and water that we need to live. To which Israel says, well, if you quit bombing us with rockets, we'll take away the blockade. But they won't. Or if you change your elected leaders to somebody that we can actually work with who doesn't want to kill us, then we can probably have some dialogue. But they won't. So Israel says, OK, fine. Stay there. You made your bed sleep in it. And of course, the fighting continues. And this big uproar is a result of some of those things that have crept up. I am sure, just like the United States, Israel has not done everything perfectly. Right? Who does? But in the grand scheme of things, we've got to remember Israel is God's chosen people. Right? And Israel gave, we saw the map earlier of the land that God gave Israel. They've only got a small fraction of what is supposed to be theirs. And we read in the Bible about the nation of Israel being regathered. Well, that's what's happening. God prophesied the nation of Israel is going to be regathered. We saw that in 1948 after World War II. You know, all those Jews started going back before then. The nation of Israel became a state. And, you know, that is biblical prophecy being fulfilled. So if you find yourself on the side of being against that, which a lot of Americans unfortunately are, the reality is you are going against what God's plans are. You say, well, I have a good reason because Israel wasn't nice. When have you ever known two warring countries to be nice to one another? Because just as many people could say, well, Palestinians weren't nice either. You're right. They're at war. It's ugly. That's the whole reason for trying to find a peace agreement that could be lived with, right? But it's always been rejected or, you know. It's always been thrown to the side and then sneak attacks because they want Israel out of there. Nothing is going to suffice unless they kick Israel out of the land. Well, the reality, folks, is God said that's Israel's land. God put them back there to set things up biblically for the end times. And they're there not because they're, the nation of Israel is there not because they have a great military power and they're able to defend themselves. The only reason the nation of Israel exists and is there is because on God's timetable, he says, it's time. And when things happen, God reaches his hand down and says, oh, I'll just throw a storm over here. I'll make this tank run out of gas. I'll, you know, diesel fuel, whatever. The Lord puts his hand on it. Why do you think Israel has won those wars when by all military, you know, analysis, they should have lost many of those wars along the way? Right? So the only explanation, and biblically, they're there because God wants them there. And so you want to be on that side. Like I said, you can claim atrocities on both sides. I get it. You can claim atrocities on both sides in World War I. You can claim atrocities on both sides between the Germans and the Brits, the Germans and the Americans, between the Japanese and the Americans. There's all kinds of atrocities that happen in war. Those of you that have been there know that. There's nothing, nothing pleasant about it. So that's what got us up to this, you know, this point in time. And now let's look at the future and what it is that we're looking at. And I'm not going to have time to do this justice, but I am going to try to just go ahead and give you a few things in the next five or seven minutes. And you guys understand our timeline. The world history is going to be 7,000 years. We see that from the Bible. 4,000 years in the Old Testament, somewhere around 2,000 years in the New Testament. If you have any questions about this, please see me afterwards. But we are basically right here at the end of the Church Age. And that's what we see happening. During that seven-year time period, that is when the Antichrist is going to come into play, which is why everything is happening with the nation of Israel. God's getting everything prepared because that's what's going to be happening, right? So I'm going to blow this section of that map up. And it's not going to be to scale, but I'm going to blow it up so you can look at the end of the Church Age tribulation and kind of the millennium, primarily focusing on that seven-year tribulation part. So here we are right here in the history and in biblical prophecy. And the next major event, and if you watch the prophecy stuff, This is where it kind of gets convoluted because people have got all kinds of different ideas about what is going to happen. But the next major event that we have is we have the rapture of the church that's getting ready to take place. We are getting ready to be raptured out of here. I don't have time to go into full depth and explanation because of that. But people are watching what's going on in the nation of Israel right now, and they're trying to equate it to biblical prophecy, which you should. And they're trying to place it and figure out, hey, what is this? And what you have to remember when you do that is that when you're reading scripture, scripture has three applications. And we've gone over this, I know, many times, historical, doctrinal, and spiritual. In a nutshell, Noah was a historical event. When I read the Bible, it actually happened. It wasn't an allegory. It wasn't a fairy tale that somebody made up. It was a historical event, and I can count on that. Doctrinal application for the story of Noah. Well, in order for me to escape the wrath of God, I don't build a boat. So doctrinally, Noah's, you know, those instructions that God gave Noah don't apply to me, but they did apply to Noah. Noah had to literally build a boat. So when you're reading the Bible, there's a historical application, there's a doctrinal application as in the actual group or the individual that God was, you know, this is for you right here to follow. And then the other thing that you can do is you can make a spiritual application or an inspirational. application, I can look back at the story of Noah and the ark, and I can say that, OK, Jesus is the ark. And if I want to escape the wrath of God, I have to get in Jesus. So it's a picture. It's a type, right? And when I read scripture, I see all three of those different applications. And it's easy sometimes to get them confused. The next thing. The next thing that I would like to ask, how many of you have heard some of these phrases? And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Just raise your hand. Ever heard anybody quote that when talking about prophecy? How about this? For nations shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There should be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in diverse places. And then how many of you have heard people talk about an earthquake that's happened recently and said, see, that's where we're at? Right? So if you take a look at Matthew 24, all those quotes that I just gave you and several more are in Matthew 24. And you'll see people that talk a lot about prophecy, they'll try to apply what's happening in Matthew 24 to an earthquake today, for example. Again, I don't have a lack of time, I just have to hurry. If you study Matthew 24 and you look at it, Matthew 24 is actually dealing with the last half of the tribulation time period going up to the second advent, which you'll see that marked on the next slide. The second, oh that yellow didn't turn out very well. It says second is here. That's what it says. That's when the Lord Jesus comes, Christ comes back. He comes back on the white horse. There's a big battle. There's a big, you know, a big army and the Lord sits down on his throne. And then there's peace for a thousand years after that in what we call the millennium. So you got to be careful when you hear people quoting things from Matthew 24. Because they try to quote them as if they're happening back here in the church age. And the problem with that, folks, is if you fall into that trap, then what do you do with the rapture? Because the rapture hasn't happened yet. And people are doing that, and that's why they can't get the rapture's time period straight. And that's why they think, well, Matthew 24 is happening, the rapture hasn't happened, so the rapture must happen at the end of the tribulation. And you have a lot of people that are losing the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture. It's not a problem with the rapture. It's a problem with them misapplying Matthew 24. Another thing that you run into is in Matthew chapter 25. How many of you have heard this? This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. I'm sorry, that's in Matthew 24 also. I didn't realize my notes went on so long. Matthew 25. How many of you have heard this? And before him shall be gathered all the nations. He shall separate them one from another. As a shepherd divided the sheep from the goats. So he gathers all the nation together. He begins to separate people. Sheep people over there, goat people over there. Right? How many of you have heard, then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. All of that is Matthew chapter 25 and that Matthew 25 is actually talking about things that are happening at the second advent, moving maybe a little bit right into the millennium, because it's talking about some of the marriage supper of the Lamb. So Matthew 25 is happening there. Now the big ones that I'm really going to have to hurry on and try to get to is turning your Bible to Ezekiel 38. Ezekiel 38. I'm going to take five extra minutes to do this. I apologize. But how many of you have heard of Gog and Magog? And how many of you have heard people say that, you know, Gog and Magog and, long story short, Gog and Magog's going to be Turkey, Russia, Moscow, Tubalcain. It's Russia's getting involved in this war and that is Gog and Magog, the battle of Gog and Magog is getting ready to happen. And we're witnessing it before our eyes. You see that happening. If you read Ezekiel 38 and you take a look at, Take a look at verse 22. It says this, and I will plead against him with a pestilence with blood. I will rain upon him and upon his bands and upon the many people that are with him and overflow rain and great hailstones and fire and brimstone. Doctrinally, ladies and gentlemen, doctrinally, Ezekiel 38 happens way out at the end of the millennium. And there's ways to show that. I don't have time right now. But people today are taking Ezekiel 38, Gog and Magog, because Russia might be involved in what's happening now. And they're trying to make Ezekiel 38 sometimes even apply to where we're at. Same thing with Ezekiel 39. Ezekiel 39 is talking about the second advent and they're making applications for it for where we're at and that's why a lot of people have left the doctrine of the church being raptured before the tribulation. So it's important that you have those places in your Bible that you understand where it is they're talking. There's cross-references in Revelation between Ezekiel 38 and 39 that show you. One of them is at the end of the millennium. The other one is at the second advent. All right? So like I said, without having time to go into all that, I wish I did. If anybody's interested, please let me know. I can do this a little more a little more in-depth with this portion. But what I will say, and to wrap things up, is this. Remember I told you there's three applications of scripture, right? Historical, doctrinal, and inspirational. Well, what you find is you find the Lord oftentimes will do something as a foreshadow of something that's going to happen in the future. For example, The, you know, Nebuchadnezzar comes into Jerusalem, destroys the temple, and takes over. In 70 AD, Titus comes into Jerusalem, offers a sacrifice on the temple, in the temple, and then ultimately destroys the temple. And then you have a lot of passages talk about that happening during the tribulation. But you also have a picture of it happening back in Daniel. Right? And then you have a picture of it happening in history, historically in about AD 70. So a lot of times what the Lord allows is the Lord allows a, let's just call it a similitude. of what's going to happen prophetically in the future to take place before that future event takes place. And that's sometimes what people are missing. So is Gog and Magog and Tubal-K and all that still Russia, Turkey and Russia? Absolutely. Are they getting involved in this conflict right now? Yes. And it looks like, and it has a picture of exactly what we're talking about in Ezekiel 39 and 38 in some cases. But for us, it's only going to be a picture. Because I know those chapters actually apply to the second advent, and then the other one applies to the, 38 applies to the end of the millennium. All right? So when you watch prophecy in the news, pay very particular attention to Ezekiel 38, 39, because you'll hear them referenced over and over and over again. And I just want you to understand that is, historically, that is where those two chapters are going to take place. Yes, we may see a shadow of it or a, you know, kind of a foreshadowing of it earlier. But the actual events are not going to take place until the second advent for Ezekiel 39. And the final one is going to be Ezekiel 38 is going to be the, you know, the end of the millennium. All right. So I know that was kind of rushed towards the end. trying to put a lot of information in there, but we see this going on, and folks, for us to be aware of what's happening, be aware of what the Bible actually tells us is going to happen, and to realize that what we see happening with the nation of Israel, folks, it's not just a simple matter of who do you think is the worst morally between the two sides. That really has nothing at all to do with it. OK? God said, I'm going to bring Israel back. I'm going to put them in the land. And God's going to do whatever it takes to get them in the land. And when God did things in the Old Testament to get the nation of Israel where he wanted, there was a lot of nations that were surrounding them that suffered greatly. I didn't have time to go in and show you, but back when the nation of Israel is getting ready to go into the promised land, at the time of Abraham, God tells Abraham, I'm going to give you this land, but I'm not going to give it to you yet, because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. So God promises the land to Abraham, but he said, you know what, the people that are living there right now, I'm going to have a little more long-suffering and patience with them because they're on my list, and I'm watching them, but they're not to the point where I want to destroy them yet. And 400 years later, God goes, all right, guys, you're done. Why? They're bringing their babies to false gods. causing their kids to pass through the fire to Molech. There's all kinds of things going on in the nation of Palestine when that's happening. And God looks down on it and says, enough is enough. The iniquity of the Amorites is now full. OK, Israel, go wipe them out. It's your land. Take it now. And that's what we have happening now. Israel is going back into the land. And God is going to bless it. And God is going to take care of them. And it's not a simple matter of who's the worst enemy. It is God looks at the people that are there and says, all right, time's up. You've had your chance. Time's up, just like you did before. All right? Let's go ahead and bow for a word of prayer. And again, I'm looking at the clock. Father, thank you again for the Bible. Lord, some of these things are hard to understand. And our human nature, Father, we see suffering, and it breaks our heart. regardless of who's suffering. Father, it breaks our heart when our enemies suffer. I do pray that you would just help us to understand you have got things in control. You have got the big picture. And Father, your way is always best, even if we don't understand the suffering that some men have to go through. So I pray that you'd help us to love the book, to stay true to the book, to realize, Father, that you gave us this book so that we could understand some of the things that are happening in our lifetime. We thank you for that. Just ask you to help us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.