Jerusalem, the city of gold. A city long caught in the fire of conflict. Twice destroyed, besieged 23 times, captured 44, attacked 52 times. Yet it stands. Israel, if you've been around here for very long, you probably know that Israel is a very important place to us. It is a world away. It's a long airplane ride or several airplane rides away. But I still feel it's a lot closer than it was when you had to go by ship. But going by ship, you had a lot more room than you do in an airplane seat. But although it is far away, it definitely affects us here in America. The nation of Israel is the focus of the entire world, which is so odd to me because it's just a little sliver of land. Why is Israel such a big deal? Well, I'm glad you asked, and that's what we're gonna be covering in this miniseries today and next week, Israel and the End Times. Before we start in our series and what we wanna do is look at the Bible, we call this the Holy Bible, I'm going to be giving you many passages from Jewish prophets that lived hundreds and thousands of years ago and they speak about Israel and they speak about the future and an amazing future for the nation of Israel. So we're gonna be going into those prophecies and we're gonna look and see what the Bible has to say about Israel in the end times. We have today in this room very, very special guests. We were able to do a hour of interview and dialogue and talking with these guests, and the one that has set it up is my dear friend, Alison Peirce-Loban. Would you please stand? Alison is the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the Midwest, an amazing, amazing woman. She's the only Jewish person I know that has former neo-Nazi friends that have the key to her house. And so I'm amazed at Alison and all that she does, and our friendship is deep and wonderful, and she is just an amazing person. So Alison, thank you. Thank you for bringing this together. And Ido as well, thank you for bringing this together. But our special, special guest today, and I would like to introduce them one at a time and have you stand. We have Noam Ben David. Noem was at the Nova Festival on October 7th, and sadly lost her boyfriend, David. We're so thankful, though, that you are here today. God bless you, and let's give her a welcome today. Noem also was shot and has recovered and is recovering from that wound as she was hiding out in a big yellow dumpster. And it's a very prominent thing there still today. They've left those dumpsters at the festival. Now it's a memorial area and there's a big sign and explains all of the awful things that happened there. So we are grateful that you are here. We truly are. We also have Mayan Snapir. Mayan, would you please stand and we're so grateful that you are here today as well. Mayan's grandparents were among the first taken into captivity and sadly her grandfather died in captivity. His body released recently in the last few months and laid to rest there in Israel, Oded Lifshitz. And so it is great to have you both. Our hearts are still broken for the tragedy that you've gone through, and our hearts are with you, and we support you, we love you, and we will do everything we can here in our area, Chicago and Illinois, to support the Jewish community, to show our love and support to the nation of Israel. So thank you again both for being here today. God bless you. We have the opportunity today to look and be able to take a glimpse into the future, which is crazy because we shouldn't be able to do this. Really, even the best people that have tried to tell us what the future is haven't done so well. Just watch the evening news and watch the weather reports. And they tell you the best they can, and they get pretty close if it's a day or two out. But once you get a week out or two weeks out, and then when they tell you this summer's gonna be a really warm summer, cold summer, wet summer, how do they know that? They guess, and they usually get it wrong. The Bible, though, is an amazing book because it's not a guess. This book has to have come from God himself because this book contains thousands of prophecies. As a matter of fact, about a quarter of the Bible was predictive when written, prophetic when written. Many of those have come to pass exactly as predicted. But there's still about a third of the Bible's prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled. How do I know the things that we're going to talk about today are going to come to pass? Because of all the things that have already come to pass, that were written hundreds of years before the event predicted. So I have incredible confidence that this is a book like none other. This is a book that literally contains the word of God. Without this book, we wouldn't know much of anything. But with this book, we can know the most important things. And that is, why are we here? Where do we come from and where are we going? Those are the big questions of life, the big questions of humanity. We can also answer the questions that come to our mind when we think about the awful attack, not just on October 7th, but think about the surprise attack on Yom Kippur in 1973. Think about the Holocaust and how can we explain this unreal, unexplainable hatred against the Jewish people. In my opinion, the Jewish people have been a tremendous blessing to the world. The brightest, the most energetic group of people and they've come up with incredible discoveries and have blessed the entire world over and over again. Why are they hated? I think the only answer is a supernatural answer that God chose them for a purpose and for a time. And what I'm gonna tell you is that The God's purpose for Israel is still gonna happen. Against all odds, Israel is a nation today, against all odds. The more you study it, the more you realize that the nation should not exist. Never has a people group that have been scattered literally to the four corners of the earth ever come back, reformed as a nation, reformed a language that wasn't spoken by the people, worshiping the same God. This has never happened in the history of the world. This had better get all of our attentions, this country called Israel. And as Bible believers, Israel is everything to us. Because without Israel, we don't have a Bible. Without Israel, we don't have our Savior. And so on behalf of this church and all Christians, thank you. If you're Jewish, thank you for bringing us such blessings, the Messiah and the scriptures. And then also, according to the Bible, God is not done with the nation of Israel. The first slide might surprise you. How does this connect to Israel and the end times? And that is something that is taken out of the headlines in the last few days. Pope Francis, one week ago, his sermon was being given on Easter, and then the next day, he is dead. So why is this slide in my Israel and the end time presentation? Because the Pope is the leader of what most people would say the Christian world, although I don't consider him the leader of the Christian world. He's the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. And although I love people that are Catholic, I truly do. And if you're Catholic, I truly love you. The Roman Catholic Church and many other churches even within Protestantism have strayed far away from the Word of God. And they've added a lot to something that is free. They've made salvation something that God has given us a free gift. They've added all of these things, all of these works to it. And he was the head of that dogma, that Catholic church. But also, although he did say some kind things about Israel and the Jewish people, he had a friend that was a rabbi in Argentina. They wrote a book together. He was in one breath, you know, in some ways blessing the Jewish people. In the other breath, he was condemning Israel for all of the casualties without mentioning all of the schools and hospitals and churches and mosques that Hamas was hiding in, that Israel has to take out the wickedness and the awful people that have caused such damage and destruction. He should have mentioned that in those sentences. He also was there at Christmas time and somebody had put in the creche of baby Jesus with the kaffa, the Arab headdress. And he didn't say anything against that. He didn't say anything about that. As Mahmoud Abbas said that Jesus was a Palestinian. No, Jesus is a Jew. And that's a fact, and it just bothers me that he let those things go. But that's not why I have him in this presentation. Why is it that I have him in the presentation? Because the Bible talks about, in the future, a seven-year tribulation period where there will be a man, the Bible calls the Antichrist, and he will have this false trinity. there's going to be this false prophet that arises. And so I'm not saying that it will be a Pope, but I am saying that I'm gonna be watching carefully to see who is the next Pope, as I do feel we're getting closer and closer to the end times. Just something to be aware of, something to keep on your radar. and uh i would assume if we're close to the end times this next post will be very uh pope will be very ecumenical that he will kind of say well all religions are the same and we can all worship we're all worshiping the same god we just kind of come at it from different angles but according to the bible jesus the son of god says i am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but by me So if it is a person that stresses that we can all just form this one big religion and that's basically what it's gonna be, eventually the Antichrist wants to be worshiped himself. Could this major religious figure be part of that? I would say for sure, for sure. I'm not saying the next pope will be or not, but just something to keep an eye on. Now what about other things in our headlines today that relate to Israel? Well, the big headlines now, fortunately, this is starting to get rectified, but here is a picture of Columbia University. Some of the worst anti-Semitism was happening, blocking passageway for Jewish students, basically closing down the school. Now fortunately, we have a president who's putting pressure on these institutions. President Trump has threatened to withhold $2 billion from Harvard. $2 billion? The richest university in the world or in the country? Harvard's actually changing course a little bit. But we have, even Northwestern here in our area, very awful things have happened and have transpired that are an embarrassment to me as an American, an embarrassment. People can protest and that's fine, but they cannot disrupt, they cannot keep people from class, they cannot harm Jewish students, and Jewish students were afraid and they were getting beaten up. They were getting harmed on these campuses, and I'm grateful that that is starting to change. We need to keep that full pressure on. How about what's in the media and in Hollywood? In the last round of Oscars, there was a documentary that won an Oscar, No Other Land. And people are saying, wow, this is so great, and it's telling the story about how Israel's stealing land. What they don't tell you is the rest of the story. That this is land that the world has said is Israel's civil control and there's basically squatters living on the land. It's also an Israeli shooting area, like nobody should be in that area. And so after years of court cases and all of that, they don't tell that side of the story. These shanties were taken out and it was kind of used as this example of Israel stealing land, which is not true. So just to keep these things on your radar, these things are in our news all the time. Why? Because Israel matters. Israel matters today. Israel will always matter. What about the future of Gaza? And this is a big question. Now, I do believe there are such a thing as innocent Palestinians. I really do. These children, most of them, they don't know what's going on. They've been indoctrinated. But many of them are being raised to hate Jewish people and to kill Jewish people and to celebrate what happened on October 7th. So what's the solution? Well, our president surprised the world by saying, well, America will just take over Gaza. And some of my Jewish friends are excited about that because they want a Chick-fil-A next door. It would probably be closed on Saturday and Sunday. They thought a Costco in the area would be amazing. But in all seriousness, I don't think that world, I don't honestly think it was a serious proposal. Maybe it was, but it definitely got the moderate Sunni nations moving toward coming up with a solution. Now, I was so surprised to read this headline, and those of you that know Bible prophecy, you'll understand why I was surprised to see this headline. I saw this headline a couple days ago about the future of Gaza. Secret Israel-Gaza peace plan may lead to seven-year ceasefire. Now, why am I surprised at that? Well, and by the way, there's a lot of proposals to solve Gaza. My feeling is although, you know, God promised Israel the land. So I don't think any land should ever be divided that God gave Israel. But you have people that are living there and you have to figure this out. So my feeling is that there will be a solution that will be provided by these countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia maybe, and maybe this will be a furtherance of the Abraham Accords. And I actually heard, I couldn't believe it, I heard that Syria was interested in the Abraham Accords, which is amazing, okay? But either way, it's so complex. What can possibly lead to peace in Israel, peace in Gaza, peace in the Judean Samaria? What's gonna bring peace to the world? Well, why am I so worried about this seven year time frame. And I had heard earlier that somebody had proposed five years and ten years and this plan of these moderate Sunni nations coming in and administrating, taking out Hamas as any type of leadership and installing this kind of civil government by these other nations. Well, because a seven year time frame is mentioned in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Hebrew scripture, This is the seven-year peace treaty right there. We are in this age, which we're not Jew or Gentile, we're not male or female, we're not bond or free, we're all one in Christ Jesus. The church is going to be taken up and then starting a seven-year period of tribulation upon the earth. These different judgments are gonna be coming down from God against those that are rebelling against God. And we call these the seal judgments, the first four horsemen. You see the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The first one is a white horse. It's a false peace, it's one that's gonna promise peace, and we call him the Antichrist. There's going to be a seven-year treaty, and there's gonna be at first a false peace. That's gonna unravel, that's gonna devolve into a bloody, terrible time on this planet, and all of these things are gonna come to pass this last seven-year period on the planet. So we're gonna be focusing a little bit about that today. And let me tell you more about the seven-year peace that is going to be this covenant that's going to come upon the earth. Now there is an amazing prophet, amazing young man who was taken into captivity from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. His name was Daniel. We have any Daniels in here today? I love that name. It's an amazing name, Daniel. And it says he, and if you read the context of Daniel 9, you're talking about this man of sin, this antichrist that's gonna rise up. He's gonna have all the solutions. He's going to be one that's going to finally achieve Middle East peace. But again, it's just going to be a temporary peace, a promise of peace, and it's going to devolve into bloodshed, death, famine, and all of those things. But he, who is this Antichrist, Daniel says, shall confirm the covenant. So again, I think this is some sort of a peace deal, peace treaty, and you say, well, why do you say it's seven years? Okay, stay with me, it says, With many, he's gonna have this covenant with many for one week. Okay, well that's, one week is seven days, right? No, because if you know Hebrew, this is the word shabuwa. Week is shabuwa. It doesn't mean week of days, necessarily. It's a unit of seven. We have a word that we use for 12, right? We have a word dozen. It's a unit of 12. Unless you're a baker and then somehow you add another one, a 13 to that. I don't understand. But this unit of seven, and Daniel earlier talks about 70 of these weeks, 70 units of seven. So what are the units of seven of? Well, we think it's units of time, okay, because they're talking about time here in Daniel seven. Daniel's saying, how long are we gonna be in captivity? How long are we gonna be in Babylon? And God says, it'll only be 70 years because you have neglected 70 land Sabbaths. And so God says, you've neglected them, you have not given them to me, I'm gonna take them. After the seven years or 70 years of Babylonian captivity, God had brought back people from Israel, from Babylon back to Israel, back to Jerusalem. And eventually the temple was rebuilt by Nehemiah and Zerubbabel in the walls of Jerusalem. So we're talking about years, okay? So it makes sense to me that these 70 weeks are 70 times 7 years, okay? Which is 490 years. And if you want to do the math, you know that from Daniel it actually predicts the coming of the Messiah. So if you have from the time of the return of the captivity, 483 years because there's this final seven-year period set aside this 483 years you can do the math and see that Messiah has to have come back around the first century okay which is interesting Now, so there's this final one week or seven year period. And in the midst of the week, so in the middle, so if you have seven years and you have divide that by two, you have three and a half. Okay, so three and a half years. Into this seven year tribulation period he the santa christ is going to cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease What does that mean? Well, the bible predicts that there's going to be a temple rebuilt. That's the yearning of the jewish people I've done a whole series on rebuilding the jewish temple The Jewish people more and more want to see the temple rebuilt. I actually have a video I'm gonna play for you where I was interviewing people on Jerusalem Day in Israel last year. And they were talking about rebuilding the temple and how excited these young girls were over that. So there's going to be a rebuilt temple in this tribulation period. Maybe it's part of the peace negotiations. Maybe this will be the peace that will Convince Israel to agree to this. Okay, we're gonna give you this or this or maybe East Jerusalem They shouldn't they shouldn't they shouldn't but they probably will don't do it, but they probably will okay, then we get to build our temple and I've talked to rabbis I said now there's there's there's two Muslim buildings on the Temple Mount today and There's the Dome of the Rock. Many people think that's right in the way of where the temple stood. I think it might have been over a little bit to the north, either way. And then there's the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has the gray or silver dome. The Dome of the Rock has the gold dome. The mosque is the third holiest mosque in Islam. And I talked to rabbis and they said, yeah, no, we think we would allow the Muslims to continue to operate the Al-Aqsa Mosque If we have the temple, because Islam doesn't have gods, they don't have idols, they are a monotheistic religion, and so we would probably be okay with them still doing that, and actually the book of Revelation tells John to not measure the outer court of the temple, that's given over to the Gentiles. It's interesting. Either way, there's this yearning to rebuild the temple, They have all of the money, they have the financing, they have the plans, they have the garments for the priests, they have the different instruments that are needed. So they are ready to go and they could build it quickly. So maybe that's part of the peace negotiations because the Antichrist is gonna cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. As a matter of fact, he's going to do something that's called the abomination of desolation. Now some people have looked back in history and they did see a Greek king that did desecrate the temple and take his epiphanies. He slaughtered a pig. The most awful thing you can do to a Jewish temple is slaughter a pig on the altar. He also murdered thousands of Jewish people and he banned the sacrifice. They banned the Jewish system. Now, was that who Daniel was talking about? Well, I don't think so because Jesus talked about this, Daniel's desolation prediction and said it's somebody in the future. Jesus came after Antiochus Epiphanes. So I feel like this is the Antichrist who's going to do Worse than Antiochus Epiphanes did he's gonna come in as the Savior as the guy with all the answers He's gonna take control basically over the whole world The world will somehow give up sovereignty of all the nations and to form this one world government one world religion one world Monetary system according to the Bible in the middle of that seven-year period he's going to break his promise He's gonna set himself up as God put a big statue of himself up in the temple, desecrating the temple. That is what Daniel says. Now, how do we know that this fits what the New Testament authors say? Well, let's look at Revelation chapter 13. This is talking about the same man. Daniel and Revelation go together perfectly. And this is John on the Isle of Patmos, and as God was giving him the revelation of the future, It says, there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things. This is the Antichrist. And blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue 40 and two months. Now if you all know your math, 42 months is how many years? Three and a half years, okay. So if he's going to set himself up as God, desecrating the temple, you read the whole passage of Revelation 13. It's the last book of the New Testament. You'll read about what he's gonna do And again, if it's halfway through, as Daniel told us he would, that's a seven-year period, right? So there's going to be this seven-year peace treaty. That's why any headline I see that says it has to do with Israel and peace or ceasefire or covenant or whatever, it makes me very nervous, because that seven-year number is so prominent in Scripture. Now, Israel has gone through terrible, terrible, terrible suffering, and I believe the Bible predicts that they will have to go through a lot more. Although Israel and Jewish people have gone through unimaginable suffering, and some of their suffering came at the name of Christ, which is, I'm so sad by that, I'm so embarrassed by that. I don't know any Christians that would do some of the things that the Crusaders did to the Jewish people, but it still happened, and I am so sorry for that. Although they've had to go through this awful suffering, folks, let me tell you something. They will never be destroyed. Why? Because the Bible says in Jeremiah 31, 35, thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for light by day, ordinances of the moon and of the stars of light by night. The Lord of hosts is his name. Okay, so now we have Sun, moon, and stars, okay? Last time I checked, they're still up. Have you guys been out lately? They're still up. I've been in the building for a few hours. They're still up, at least the sun, okay. So as long as the sun's in the sky, as long as the moon's in the sky, as long as the stars are in the sky, if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, in other words, if the sun falls and the stars fall and the moon falls, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. In other words, if you go outside and you see the sun in the sky, the moon in the sky, the stars in the sky, Israel will remain. Now, I don't know about you, but how many times are these places mentioned in the Bible? How many times is Chicago mentioned in the Bible? Anybody? Anybody? Chicago? What? Nobody? That's kind of depressing, isn't it? Yeah. Okay, New York must be in the Bible. New York, the great, powerful, economic center of the world, New York. How many times is that in the? Zero? Are you kidding me? Okay, maybe London. London has to be in the Bible. It's not. How about Dubai? Dubai must be in the Bible. These great, massive cities, powerful places. Nope. Jerusalem? Anybody? Anybody? Jerusalem in the Bible? How many times is Jerusalem in the Bible? Over 800 times. Friends, Israel will remain. I am more fearful about America ceasing to exist than I am about Israel. I want you to see the joy and the excitement on the faces of youth in Israel. As we were there filming, just by chance, the reunification of the old city of Jerusalem on an amazing day in June in 1967, a miracle, truly a miracle took place as God gave the holy city back to who it belongs to, the Jewish people. We are in the new city of Jerusalem on Jaffa Street and we have throngs of people that are starting to gather for the Jerusalem Day festivities and the parade. I love as far as the eye can see and you've got seas of people so we're gonna kind of go into the flow and see what happens. What are you singing? What's the song? We hope that the Kadesh Baruch Hu will build the Beit HaMikdash and all the people around the world will know that Jews have the right to be here and we need to be here and this Beit HaMikdash, it will be crazy I don't know how to describe this because it will be awesome And you're talking about the temple, the Jewish temple? Yeah, the Jewish temple, right. It's Bet HaMikdash in Hebrew. Now we have this, and we have the sky, and we don't know how to connect between them. And Bet HaMikdash is exactly what it must do to all of the nations. If all of the nations really know what is Bet HaMikdash for all of the world, they will come with us to help us to build it. How important is Jerusalem to the Jewish people? Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very Egypt, Syria, everyone came to us and just pushed them back to where they came from. Do you feel that God helped you? Definitely, of course. It was three years before I was born. Israel took the old city. And so I wasn't alive. I'm sure you weren't either. But how exciting it is to be here today, especially after what's happened in Gaza. to say this is your land. This is our land. This is our home. We're not going to leave here. And if someone is interrupted by that, he can leave because we're not going to do it. What do we need more? You've been here for 3,000 years. For 3,000 years, you worship the same God for 3,000 years. I agree. This is yours. Yeah, it's ours. And I think that people need to know that because if we wouldn't be here, so what happened in Gaza will happen in every country in the world. Every country in the world. Yeah, but also, if we wouldn't live here, if there wasn't, there's like almost 100 families that lives here in the Muslim quarter. But if they weren't living here, you couldn't walk here. You will get murdered for just trying to walk into here. It's not a fight with Israel It's a fight with the good and evil in the world We fight everyone who doesn't Muslim It's universal, it's not us It's you, help us It's a fight about our country It's a fight about the power of the world Thank you guys Have a great holiday I think they need to be official spokespersons for Israel. They are so passionate. All the young people, it was really amazing. It was very moving. And we're doing a whole series on this. It'll run in June for Jerusalem Day coming up. And we're able to meet some of the heroes. of 1967, the one that directs Ammunition Hill, this big museum. His dad was a hero. We were able to interview the guy that put the Israeli flag on the Dome of the Rock. There was an Israeli flag on the Dome of the Rock for three hours until Moshe Adan commanded them to take it down. The guy that put it up said, not these hands. These hands put it up. These hands will not take it down. I don't think you're supposed to disobey direct orders from the general, but he did, and somebody else went and took it down. So we have his interview. It's really gonna be an amazing show. But let me just tell you, friends, God promised to regather Israel, and they have been regathered. Now, they're still coming. They're still coming, and that's why I think God has allowed this antisemitism to rise up, when the whole world should be sympathetic for the Jewish people, but we're doing the opposite. The whole world is coming against and criticizing Israel, saying they're apartheid. Apartheid? Oh, you mean the one that has Arabs in the Knesset, they're apartheid? The ones that allow, you know, Palestinians or Arabs to be in the Supreme Court, they're apartheid? You know, it's crazy what the world is saying against Israel. But either way, God is allowing these things so that the people will continue to come home for a time, and I believe that time is in the future, the seven-year tribulation period. Now, I don't have enough time to cover everything today. Let me go through a little bit of the prophecies that God said, I'm gonna bring my people home. And there's dozens of these, friends. We could stay here all day and read all of the Jewish prophets that said God is gonna regather his people to Israel. Jeremiah 31 7 O Lord save thy people the remnant of Israel behold I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the coast of the earth a great company shall return thither Isaiah if you really want to understand God's future for Israel and the Jewish people go home today and read read Isaiah 11 chapter 11 in Isaiah chapter 12 It's incredible Isaiah 11 11 it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people And then it goes through a whole list of places that the Jewish people are going to come back from. And he shall set up an end sign, a banner. It's going to be a banner for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Friends, I've been all over this planet and everywhere I go, I find Jewish people, it's incredible. God is gonna regather them and is regathering them for this final time in human history when finally all rebellion, sin, wickedness is ended and righteousness is going to be set up forever and ever and ever. Read Ezekiel 20, 34 through 36 sometime on your own. We're gonna skip that for the sake of time. Unfortunately though, I believe the worst is yet to come for Israel. Jeremiah 30 verse seven says, alas, for that day is great. I believe this is referring to that final seven year tribulation period so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble. So to me, this is something that is something we need to pray for, something that we need to be watchful for that the persecution of Israel will be more and more intense. The Bible says in Deuteronomy, that God has kept Israel as the apple of his eye. Why is it so dangerous to hurt a Jewish person, to hurt Israel? Because you're poking God in the eye. Okay, what does the apple of the eye mean? That means that when you stand really, really close to someone you love, and you probably shouldn't be standing close to someone that you don't love, you can see yourself in the reflection of their eye, the apple of your eye. Also, the eye is one of the most sensitive parts of the body, and you're gonna protect that, right? And so it is that God is going to keep and protect his people. You say, wait, then why did the Holocaust happen? Why did the Hamas attack happen? Why are these things happening? God has a plan and a purpose. He's not causing evil. Sometimes he's allowing it for a greater purpose. I trust him. I know he has love. I know he is good. We need to trust him and we need to know that. But Israel is the apple of his eye. What does the New Testament say about Israel? God must have forsaken Israel. The Jewish people in the scripture said, let his blood be on us and our children as Jesus was on trial. So that God must be done with Israel. They rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Well, what about Romans 11? By the way, Jesus didn't die. Jesus wasn't murdered. Jesus wasn't killed by the Jews or the Romans. Jesus gave himself a willing sacrifice, like Isaac was willing to be bound by Abraham. Isaac was a young, strong teenager. Abraham was an old man. Isaac said, Isaac was a willing sacrifice. Jesus was a willing sacrifice for our sins. So Jesus died. Who's to blame for the death of Jesus? I am. because I'm a sinner. He died for sinners and willing sacrifice. So don't ever blame the Jews for killing Jesus or even the Romans. It's all of us. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short of glory of God. But is God done with the nation of Israel? No, no, no. Romans, this is the apostle Paul, the Jew of the Jews. He said, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid, I am also an Israelite. You won't find any more one observant than the Apostle Paul. He hated Christianity. He thought it was not true until one day he met Jesus. I am of the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people. folks God is not done with the national ethnic nation of Israel there's a future for them you say whoa whoa whoa what about these countries that that hate Israel and and probably Western society in the United States how about Russia well President Trump told Putin to stop and Putin didn't stop The Bible actually in Ezekiel 38, 39 predicts a coalition of countries including Russia and Iran to attack Israel. God is gonna repel it. I believe this is a future attack. I don't know exactly when it's gonna happen. It's gonna be a massive attack and God's gonna repel it. What about Iran? Iran calls Israel the little Satan, America's the great Satan. Iran hates us as much as they hate Israel. I'm amazed at what just happened yesterday. A whole port that's supposed to be a civilian port blows up. This massive explosion in Iran. They're saying it has to have been solid rocket fuel that would be illegally smuggled by China. I'm sure Israel had nothing to do with that explosion. Anyways, we'll see what people say as that unfolds, but it's crazy. I mean, this is the world we're living in. The Bible predicts it. And what I want you to do is I want you to read Isaiah 11. We're not gonna read every verse right now, but the Bible says that there's going to come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots. We do know that Jesus came from David who came from Jesse, right? And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, spirit of counsel. And it goes on to talk about this messianic figure, the Messiah. It talks about him coming in peace, but also it talks about him smiting the earth with the rod of his mouth. He came the first time in peace to die for the sins of the world, the second time he's coming in righteousness. I think Isaiah describes both comings of Yeshua. Verses five and six talk about how righteous he is, but also start to think about the future for Israel. This is God's plan for the nation of Israel. He says the wolf will lie with the lamb. Now what if you put a lamb in an enclosure with a lion or a wolf in the zoo? Someone's gonna have lamb chops. I'm just gonna say it that way. The leopard shall lie down with the kid. This is not happening in our world today, but one day there's going to be a world after the seven year tribulation period where peace and righteousness will reign forever and ever and ever. And we get to be a part of that. As we have put our faith in Jesus, we've been grafted in. We get to be part of this whole incredible thing. The young lion and the fatling together, the little child shall lead them. Do you let your kids lead around dangerous wild animals? No. This is in the future. The cow and the bear will feed. It talks about a little kid can play in the hole of a snake, okay? It's incredible what's coming, according to Isaiah and other Bible prophecies. And this is where we're gonna end it today. Isaiah continues in chapter 12, verse two. Behold, God is my salvation. Those of you that know Hebrew, you know that word is Yeshua. God is my Yeshua. I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become my Yeshua, my salvation. Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And you know what Jesus said when he came? He said, I'm the living water. If you will drink of me, you will never thirst again. And this is the yearning of the world. We're yearning for peace. We're yearning for not having conflict and not having war, not having death, not having cancer. We're yearning for these days. And Jesus said he is the one that will provide that for us. Now we still live in this incursed world, but one day that will all end until that day We have the opportunity to be God's representation on this earth, to promote peace, to promote righteousness by the way we live, by the way we speak. A lot of people freak out when they read about the end times and what the Bible has to say that's coming and all these terrible calamities. But Jesus said in Luke 21, 28, and when these things begin to come to pass, freak out, build a bunker, get a bunch of weapons, get MREs. They taste terrible, but get them, because you're gonna need them. I have in my basement freeze-dried food. I'll probably never eat the stuff, but for some reason I saw some ad and I bought it. I don't know why. No, you're not coming over. No. And by the way, if you have one of these bunkers and you've got it all ready to go, give me your address, because I might need it. So, no, no, no, Jesus doesn't say, when all these things start coming to pass, look up, look up, lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh. What does that mean? That means the Redeemer is coming back, the Redeemer. He came the first time in humility on a donkey, as Zechariah said he would. He comes to present himself as the Passover lamb, to scrutinize him, to look for any spot, any blemish, To die on a cross, His blood can be applied to your life. And if the blood is applied on your life by faith in Him, the angel of death will pass over you and you will have everlasting life forever. So the worst thing that can happen to me as I die and go to be with God in heaven. That's the worst thing, and that's not so bad. If you've never put your faith in Jesus, I encourage you to investigate his words. Read his words. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Start with John. It's an amazing passage. John said, the book of John wrote, about Nicodemus and a conversation this this religious good this really good person Nicodemus had with Jesus and and he was basically saying how can I be saved how can I how can I have eternal life and Jesus said for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him see it's not about religion it's not about keeping the law Why? Because we've all broken the law. As Moses was getting the law, the people were breaking the law. The first commandment was being broken while God was giving it. We can't keep the law. That's why God came in the flesh. Whoever believes in him, trusts in him, should not perish, which is eternal separation from God, but have everlasting life, eternity with God. And that's the good news. of the Bible. That's the redemption. That's the redeemer. As you all know from Ruth and Boaz, this amazing story of a kinsman redeemer who is willing and able to redeem one who was poor, one who was a foreigner, one who was without a child, He could redeem her, and that's what is a picture of Yeshua, of Jesus coming, a kinsman. He was one of us, but he didn't have sin, and he died for our redemption, for buying us back. And if you've never put your faith in him, I encourage you to do that today.