Armageddon Campaign, Stage Five - Israel Cries for
Salvation
Why is it important to
understand the Armageddon campaign? The first reason is that it is in
Scripture, and that says it all. Because God has revealed this to us we need to
be able to understand it and to think our way through it. This whole military
campaign is part of the great day of God the Almighty that brings history to
its final culmination as the Son of Man comes to the earth to establish His
kingdom. It resolves evil and brings to completion the unconditional promises
that God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Old Testament, the promises
related to David in the Davidic covenant, and promises related to the New
covenant. All of this gets pulled together and we need to understand what
actually takes place at those final closing weeks of the Tribulation period,
and to understand how there is a transition period between the return of Christ
and the actual beginning of the Millennial kingdom—all of the judgments that
take place there.
There are basically four
major areas of fighting that occur related to the great day of God the
Almighty. The first is in the valley of Amrageddon which is actually the staging area where all of the troops
and supplies are brought in and the armies are gathered and then dispatched.
The second area is the destruction of Babylon, the third is in Jerusalem itself, and the fourth is down in the area of Edom, Petra,
Bozrah. Then the scene shifts back to Jerusalem to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
At the first advent Israel’s national sin was the rejection and crucifixion of
the Lord Jesus Christ, even though individually there were thousands who were
personally regenerate. As a result of that the nation, because of their
disobedience, was brought under divine discipline in AD 70 and taken
out of the land. What happens at the end of the Tribulation is that the nation
as a corporate entity under the leadership of we are not sure who come to the
recognition that it needs to accept Jesus as their Messiah. At that point they
call upon Him, and that is when the nation is regenerate. How do we understand Israel’s regeneration?
In Matthew 23:37 Jesus is looking out over the city of Jerusalem and He says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted
to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her
wings, and you were unwilling. [38] Behold, your house is being left to you
desolate! [39] For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say,
‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF
THE LORD!’” This is the key reference in
terms of what must happen when the Jews turn and trust in Jesus Christ as their
savior. This is a quote from Psalm 118:26. To understand the dynamic here we
have to go back to Leviticus 26:40-42. In the fifth of the cycles of discipline
there is a horrid description of what would take place in Jerusalem, and this
did occur both in 586 BC and in AD 70—cannibalism, vv. 20-30, devastation upon the
cities and on the temple. Then God promised in v. 33 that He would scatter them
among the nations and draw out a sword after them. In the Bible the sword is
used as a symbol for death, the power of death. Cf. Genesis 3; Romans 13. The
statement that there would be a sword drawn out after Israel indicates persecution, hostility and that many would
die as a result of being removed from the land. Then there is a period
described in v. 35 when the land would lie desolate, and this was most
certainly the case in the period from approximately 100 AD up through
the nineteenth century. The text goes on to say that many would perish among
the nations but there would be a small number that would remain. Verse 39 NASB
“So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the
lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers
they will rot away with them.”
But there is hope. There
is never judgment without hope in the Bible
Leviticus 26:40 NASB “If they confess their iniquity and the
iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed
against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me—[41] I also was
acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their
enemies--or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make
amends for their iniquity, [42] then I will remember My covenant
with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant
with Abraham as well, and I will remember
the land.” That is the only place that phrase is found in the Old
Testament. God restores the land to them. At the end God is going to fulfill
the Abrahamic covenant, He is not going to forget the promise to Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob that He would give this land to their descendants.
Leviticus 26:44 NASB
“Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not
reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant
with them; for I am the LORD their God. [45] But I will remember for them the
[Abrahamic] covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their
God. I am the LORD.” It is clear that there is this promise of restoration
to the land.
This is embedded in two
key passages in Deuteronomy. The first is in Deuteronomy 4:26-31, the central
passage (the second one starts in Deuteronomy 29:28 and goes to the end of
chapter 30) NASB “I call heaven and earth to witness against you
today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going
over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be
utterly destroyed. The LORD will
scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the
nations where the LORD drives you. There you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands,
wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and
you will find {Him} if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.
When you are in distress and all these things
have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God
and listen to His voice. For
the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you
nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.” This is a
legal contract calling upon two witnesses to witness it and the penalty
stipulations that were written into the contract. It makes it very clear that
there is a future restoration for Israel.
Deuteronomy chapters 28-30
outlines the blessings and the cursings that God puts into the Mosaic Law. It
is parallel to what we read in Leviticus chapter 26. There are blessings that are
promised at the beginning of chapter 28, that if they are obedient to God and
obey the law then they will be richly blessed and prospered by God. Starting in
verse 15 there is an outline of the judgments that are going to be brought
against them. There is a historical breakdown that occurs in these verses.
Verses 32-48 represent the judgment that occurred in 722-586 BC, the first
time the nation is taken out of the land according to the 5th stage
of discipline.
Deuteronomy 28:32 NASB
“Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes
look on and yearn for them continually; but there will be nothing you can do.
[33] A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and
all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed
continually. [34]You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you
see…. [36] The LORD will bring you and your king, whom you set over you,
to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall
serve other gods, wood and stone. [37] You shall become a horror,
a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the LORD drives you.”
That occurred when the northern kingdom was wiped out by the Assyrians in 722.
The Assyrians had a policy that when they defeated a people they would scatter
them throughout their empire so that the people could not organize again, and
they would intermingle with other ethnic populations and lose their identity.
Starting in Deuteronomy
28:49 is a second stage. NASB “The LORD will bring a nation against
you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation
whose language you shall not understand, [50] a nation of fierce
countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.
[51] Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your
ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil,
nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused
you to perish…. [53] Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the
flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the LORD your God
has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will
oppress you.”
Then the third stage comes
in Deuteronomy 28:62 NASB “Then you shall be left few in number,
whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey
the LORD your God. [63] It shall come about that as the LORD delighted
over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight
over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land
where you are entering to possess it. [64] Moreover, the LORD will
scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of
the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or
your fathers have not known.” Notice, they are scattered among all peoples from
one end of the earth to the other.
Deuteronomy 29:28 NASB
“and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury
and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as {it is} this day.” That
is a quote that Moses is saying it is really related to what they will say in
the future. That casting out occurred in AD 70.
Deuteronomy 30:1 NASB
“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and
the curse which I have set before you, and you call {them} to mind in all
nations where the LORD your God has banished you, [2] and you return to the LORD your God
and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you
today, you and your sons, [3] then the LORD your God
will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather
you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.” When did
this take place? It has never taken place—until right now. This is the first
time in history that we are seeing Jews from all the nations in the world
return back to Israel. There are two returns, based upon Isaiah 11 and one or two other
passages, one in unbelief and one in belief. The one in belief occurs at the
end of the Tribulation period but there must be a return in unbelief that
precedes the Tribulation so that there will be a nation in place for the
Antichrist to enter into a covenant with and to tick off the seventieth week of
Daniel. God is going to restore the Jews and it is that understanding of a
future restoration to the land for the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant
that forms the basis for the rise of Christian Zionism, which is nothing more
than the belief that the Jews would be restored to their land and they had a
right to a national homeland in the homeland that God had promised to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 30:4 NASB
“If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God
will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. [5] The LORD your God
will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall
possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.
[6] Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of
your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
so that you may live.” Watch the progression here. There is a restoration to
the land in unbelief, then God restores them to the land as a nation and He is
going to bless them, and then there is a spiritual transaction that takes place
for the nation but this takes place after many of them are saved or regenerate
individuals. This is connected to their national regeneration; it is not part
of their personal regeneration. That language in verse 6 is very similar to
language that is picked up by Jeremiah, and intentionally so because Jeremiah
is writing at the time of roughly 595-600 BC between the first and second invasions of
Nebuchadnezzar into the land. He is addressing the people of Israel in his time saying, The Babylonians are going to
come, they are going to destroy Jerusalem, they are going to take many of our sons and
daughters out of the land. God is finally going to bring about this promise of
judgment that He promised back in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, but He is going to
eventually restore us to the land. That is the context, and in Jeremiah 3:13 he gives the stipulation for what must take place
before God will restore them as a nation—not individual salvation but national
regeneration. NASB “Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have
transgressed against the LORD your God And have scattered your favors to the
strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares
the LORD. [14] Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD; ‘For I am
a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And
I will bring you to Zion.’”
Notice, the ones who are coming
back to Zion is not everybody because he is talking about the
restoration of the remnant. Not all are necessarily part of the remnant. Then
God says, [15] “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will
feed you on knowledge and understanding. [16] It shall be in those
days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will
no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’….” This tells us what
period of time this is talking about. This will be a period of time when there
is such spiritual blessing that no longer are they going to look back
whispering to that glorious time under Solomon and David and Moses when they
had the presence of the Lord and the ark of the covenant of the Lord. They are
going to have a rich period of blessing, so this has to be talking about the
Millennium. It can’t be talking about what happened before AD 70 or at any
time during the church age. [17] “At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will
be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; nor will they walk anymore
after the stubbornness of their evil heart.” That shows that a spiritual
reversal takes place and this in conjunction with the terminology of the
circumcised heart in Deuteronomy 30 tells us something about the future time
related to Israel.
We are still focusing on
the fact that Israel is going to be out of the land, God is going to remove them completely
from the land, and there has to be a turning, a confession, a national shift
back to God. And this also is predicted in Hosea. We are trying to connect the
dots on lots of these other prophecies, books we may not get to for years, the
Minor prophets and other Old Testament prophecies to show how that what happens
in Revelation is minor. Ninety per cent of what we are saying about Biblical
prophecy comes out of the Old Testament, unfulfilled prophecies related to the
establishment of the kingdom of David for Israel. Hosea 5:14, 15, a warning of judgment: NASB
“For I {will be} like a lion to Ephraim And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away, I will
carry away, and there will be none to deliver. I will go away
{and} return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt [National corporate
confession] and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
This is what they will say, Hosea 6:1 NASB “Come, let us return to
the LORD. For He has torn {us,} but He will heal us; He has wounded {us,} but
He will bandage us. [2] He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up
on the third day, That we may live before Him. [3] So let us know, let us press
on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He
will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth. [4]
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For
your loyalty is like a morning cloud And like the dew which goes away early.
[5] Therefore I have hewn {them} in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them
by the words of My mouth; And the judgments on you are {like} the light that
goes forth. [6] For I
delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather
than burnt offerings. [7] But like Adam they have transgressed the
covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.” This is a problem
that they have and so God is going to deal with them when He brings them back
in terms of a spiritual restoration.
Jeremiah 31 is the passage
on the new covenant. Deuteronomy 30:6 says, NASB “Moreover the LORD your God
will circumcise your heart and the
heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
so that you may live.” That is the language of the new covenant. All of this is
going to be transpiring right there within that period of the spiritual
regeneration of Israel. Jeremiah 31:31 is the key passage on the new Covenant, but if we turn
back a chapter we see the lead-in to this. It begins in chapter thirty with the
restoration of Israel and Judah: v. 3 NASB “For behold, days are coming,
declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah. The LORD says, I will also bring them back to the land that I
gave to their forefathers and they shall possess it.” Then he goes on to say
that it is at this time they will experience the day of the Lord. [5] “For thus
says the LORD, ‘I have heard a sound of terror, Of dread, and there
is no peace. [6] Ask now, and see If a male can give birth. Why do I see every
man {With} his hands on his loins, as a woman in childbirth? And {why} have all
faces turned pale? [7] Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; And
it is the time of Jacob’s distress, But he will be saved from it.” That is the
Tribulation period. He is explaining to them that because they have violated
that covenant, because they are worshipping other gods, because they have, as
it were, committed treason against Him, that this is the consequence of that
treason. So there will come about this tremendous time of judgment at the end
times that will immediately precede the coming of the Lord.
Jeremiah 30:9 NASB
“But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up
for them.” When he comes in the resurrection at the end of the Tribulation
period David is going to be the king over Israel. He will reign under the overall kingship of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So these references to David are not talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ as the greater son of David, they are talking about David’s role.
Remember, Abraham is to have a role in the future kingdom because God promised
that Abraham that he would have the land—“All this land I will give to you.”
Jeremiah 31:7 talks about
the remnant of Israel that will be saved. NASB “or thus says the LORD, “Sing
aloud with gladness for Jacob, And shout among the chief of the nations;
Proclaim, give praise and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, The remnant of Israel.’” This is calling pout to the Lord to save them.
This is what is occurring at the end of the Tribulation period. [8] “Behold, I
am bringing them from the north country, And I will gather them from the remote
parts of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and
she who is in labor with child, together; A great company, they will return
here. [9] With weeping they will come, And by supplication I will lead them; I
will make them walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in which they will
not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn.”
What will happen here will
be the giving of the new covenant. Jeremiah 31:31 NASB “Behold,
days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah, [2] not like the covenant which I made with
their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land
of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.” It goes on to say in v. 33 “But this is the
covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares
the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it;
and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. [34] They will not teach
again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they
will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the
LORD,
“for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
This is talking about that time period when their hearts are
circumcised—Deuteronomy 30:6.
In Jeremiah chapter 32 God
reminds them of what He is going to do. Jeremiah 32:37 NASB “Behold,
I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My
anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this
place and make them dwell in safety. [38] They shall be My people,
and I will be their God.” That has never happened in history, and it is in the
context of that that we have a great prayer promise in the Old Testament, Jeremiah
33:3 NASB “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you
great and mighty things, which you do not know.” The context of that is that
the great and mighty things that they don’t know is regathering all of the
remnant of Israel from all the nations of the earth and bringing them
back to establish the kingdom. [6] “Behold, I will bring to it health and
healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace
and truth. [7] I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild them as they were at first. [8] I
will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me,
and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and
by which they have transgressed against Me.” There is a restoration to the
land, a restoration of their spiritual relationship to God, and God establishes
a covenant that will never be broken, Jeremiah 33:20: “Thus says the LORD, ‘If you
can break My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day
and night will not be at their appointed time, [21] then My covenant may also
be broken with David My servant so that he will not have a son to reign on his
throne…” It is permanent; nothing can break that covenant. So what we see is
that at the time of the return there is this spiritual transformation that
takes place.
This is what is dealt with
in Zechariah chapters 12 and 13. Zechariah 12:10 NASB “I will pour
out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of
grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced;
and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep
bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” They are already
saved when they look on whom they have pierced—individual justification. That
is why they flee to the mountains when the abomination of desolation is set up.
They turn to the God of heaven and give glory to Him when there is that massive
earthquake that takes place near the mid-point of the Tribulation, when the two
witnesses have been resurrected to heaven, 7000 are killed—and all the rest
give glory to God. So there is a massive turning of Jews to God during that
particular time. They are save individually, then there is a national turning
to God, and then there is the establishment of the new covenant. This then is
what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 23:39 NASB “For I say to you,
from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’”
This fits with Joel 2:28,
29 NASB “It will come about after this That I will pour out My
Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men
will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out
My Spirit in those days.” This is the establishment of the new covenant. It is
also associated with all of the things that happen in the heavens at the time
of the day of the Lord. It concludes with the statement, NASB “And
it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be
delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape,
As the LORD has said, Even among the survivors whom the LORD
calls.” Calling on the name of the Lord
does not refer here to soteriological justification but the rescue of the
nation from destruction by the Antichrist, which is what Paul referred to in
Romans 11:26, 27—“ and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE
UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR
SINS.” This is what Daniel referred to in
Daniel 9:24 NASB “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people
and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make
atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up
vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy {place.} [Messiah, the King of
Israel]” These six things that are mentioned here aren’t finalized until the
last period of the Tribulation, when they turn. Zechariah 13:1 then says, NASB
“In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.” The nation is cleansed of
their sins.
Illustrations