RE: Neil L. (3 April 2022) God’s
Prophetic Purpose for World Wars
Neil:
Thank you for your insight into the
purposes for World Wars I and II. I read a book some
years ago which spoke to these two world wars and their
relationship to the Jewish peoples of the world.
The author said: “World War I prepared the land of Palestine
for the Jew and World War II prepared the Jews for the land
of Palestine. It is interesting to think about
that statement. Was God’s purpose of restoring the
Jewish people to the Promised Land the principal reasons for
the wars. I suspect it may have been
so.
There is an interesting story about
Jacob. Jacob worked for Laban for two 7-year
periods. One period for each of his two wives, Rachel
and Leah. Jeremiah describes a future period of time
as the “time of Jacob’s trouble”. (Jeremiah 30:7) I
think that Jacob’s two 7-year periods were his personal
times of trouble and that Jeremiah is using that phrase to
describe the Jewish races problems in the end of days
periods.
I think of Jeremiah’s reference to the
“time of Jacob’s trouble” as Daniel’s 70th week
as the latter half being great tribulation described in
Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24:21. Isaiah has an
interesting prophecy which speaks to the Jewish people’s
hardships (birthing pain) which I believe speaks to the
Holocaust and the first “time of Jacob’s trouble”.
In Isaiah 66 the prophet says: “For soon
as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.”
This would be a unified Jewish people born out of
hardship preparing the end of the 1,878 year Jewish Diaspora
exile. I would liken the Holocaust to this first labor
pain which I would compare with Jacob’s first 7-years of
labor pain under Laban, or the “first time of Jacob’s
trouble”. Isaiah, in the same verse 8,
says: “Shall the earth be made to give birth in one
day? Or shall a nation be born at once?
This seven year period 1938-1945 was Jacob’s first
time of trouble which gave rise the Jewish nation in
1948.
The year 1945 brought the end of World
War II and resulted in the formation of the United
Nations. The United Nations represents “all the trees”
of Luke’s version of the Fig Tree Parable. The U.N.,
later in 1947 carved out of Palestine a Jewish homeland for
the children of the Holocaust. This was the “shooting
forth (branches and leaves, no flowers and fruit) of the
newly revived “fig tree” which represented “self-righteous
Israel”. Self-righteous for rejecting their Messiah
and the symbol of the fig leaf fashioned as Adam and Eve’s
covering for their sin. The second “time of
Jacob’s trouble” is fast approaching because the Fig Tree
parables found in Mark 13, Luke 21 and Matthew 24 all
indicate that the generation which sees the birth of Israel
will see the Second Coming of Messiah Christ Jesus/Yeshua,
save the true Church.
The Church will be removed prior to
Daniel’s 70th week because that week is about the
condemnation and judgment associated with rejection or
indifference to sin, repentance, God’s righteousness and
offer of forgiveness. Daniel’s week represents a new
dispensation of faith and works. We who belong to Jesus may
rest assured that there is “now no condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to
the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)
For it is the Son who judges. (John 5:22) Believers in
Christ are His body. “Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation;
but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)
Let us be encouraged by Paul’s statement
in 1 Thessalonians 4:18 that God has a date set to deliver
us from the wrath to come. Let us look expectantly for
a Shavuot redemption where the dead in Christ shall be
raised as the first wave offering loaf, and the living in
Christ to be transformed as the second wave offering
loaf. The typology of Leviticus 23: 17 completes
Shavuot typology and the second order of the first
resurrection. (1Corinthians 15:20-24)
During Daniel’s 70th week, God
will call out a Jewish remnant. (Romans 9:27) The
remnant will represent true Israel. (Romans 9:6) “And
so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall
come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto
them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the
gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the
election, they are beloved for the father's sakes. (Romans
11:26-28)
The second time of Jacob’s trouble will
result in the birth of the Christ/Yeshua believing Jewish
remnant nation. This fig tree nation will flower and produce
fruit, the fruit of belief in Messiah Jesus/Yeshua.
Hosea 9:10, in part, says: I saw your fathers as the
“first ripe” in the fig tree at her first time. Fig
tree horticulture is instructive. The fig tree coming
out of winter dormancy flowers and sets fruit before its
leaves appear. This is the “first ripe” fig
fruit. God says he saw Israel’s fathers as fruitful
figs. Israel has failed to produce any fruit since the
Hosea’s words. However, in fig tree horticulture, the
fig tree sets a second crop in the Summer on the new branch
growth. This second summer fruit set is the “second ripe
fruit”. Israel returned to God’s land in 1948 and has
produced no national fruit. It has only grown branches
and leaves. However, remnant Israel, in the future,
will blossom and set the fruit of belief as they receive
their Messiah during Daniel’s 70th week.
(Revelation 12:17, 14:12) This will complete the fig tree
prophecy typology because belief in Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is
the fruit that the Lord seeks during Daniel’s week.
Blessings, Greg Wilson