3.02.2006

But Israel isn't Really God-ordained, is it?

"Israel is controlled by a bunch of atheists. There is no reason why America should support that country!" I really never had a real good rejoiner for that one. At least, not until now. Read this excerpt from the epilogue of The Third Millenium:

In the Torah, Moses wrote (Leviticus 26:18 and elsewhere) that in the furture, whenever Israel sins greatly as a nation God will allow calamity to come their way. he will howver give them time to repent. If they, as a nation, do not repent after their warning period, then the remainder of their punishment will be multiplied by seven.

Over 600 years before the birth of Jesus, God used Ezekiel, a contemporary of Daniel, to show Israel her sin. In Ezekiel 4:3-6, God told the prophet to lie on his side for 430 days to signify the 430 years Israel would spend in exile for her sins. ANother contemporary of Daniel's and Ezekiel's, the prophet Jeremiah, predicted that the first 70 years of the 430 years would be a Babylonian exile (Jer. 25:11). That was Israel's warning period.

Sure enough, as predicted, Nebuchadnezzar came along and transported the Jews from Jerusalem to Babylon in 606 B.C. Then, 70 years later, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon in 536 B.C. and said he would pay for the millions of Jews to go back to Jerusalem. But the Jews refused. Only 50,000 devout Israelites went back. The rest didn't want to interrupt thier businesses in Babylon.

This obviously made God angry, so take 430 years of exile, subtract 70 years of warning, and multiply the remaining 360 years times 7, as Moses instructed in the Torah. You will get 2,520 prophetic years of 360 days each (the Jews measured prophetic years with 360 days) = 907,200 days from the day Cyrus made his decree to return to Jerusalem, which comes out to May 14, 1948, the day Israel became a nation.

So never let anyone tell you that Israel should not be supported! In Him, David S. MacMillan III

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm..... I've never been a real Israel proponent... but I must say that's a real interesting point. What's the reason for subtracting the 70 years of warning? Is it just to get a 'good calculation'?

David S. MacMillan III said...

Mr. Boskovic,

Leviticus 26:18 says:

"If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over."

"All this" refers to the warning period that could be considered worse than the actual punishment period. You will notice that the Jews were in exile in Babylon for the 70-year warning period, but the 2,520 prophetic years of punishment that followed occasionally had them in their own land ... but always under foreign control of one kind or another (Persians, Greeks, and Romans).

The Jews still refused to repent after their warning period, so their remaining punishment was septupled.

The Israeli government as set up on May 14, 1948 is simply the continuance of the original Israeli government that was cut short by Nebuchadnezzar. As such, it is obvious that:

"May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed." (Genesis 27:29)

and

"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:3)

and

"May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!" (Numbers 24:9)

still apply today. I support Israel 110%!

Anonymous said...

Interesting... Thanks for the indepth response to my question. I can't say the subject is really something I've put a lot of thought into. Although I must say some of these things definitely leave you with little to wonder.

I find very interesting that Israel has been able to fight of singlehandedly multiple nations, and they're smaller than some states. I must agree with you that it definitely seems that God is doing something there.

The definition of prophecies that I have grown up with however are starkly different. And it's not a subject I've tackled yet. You've got a great blog, I enjoy reading your (very) intelligent thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Great insight. I've got to get my hands on that book. The idea of 2520 years being the period of the "Times of the Gentiles" is not new but I have never before seen that calculation of Ezekiel's 430 minus Jeremiah's 70. Great insight. It harmonizes with the "seven times" that passed over Nebuchadnezzar while he was like a beast. H. Grattan Guinness believed that event was a prophetic "type" of the Times of the Gentiles of which Jesus spoke in Luke, and about which Daniel saw the vision in Dan 7. I have a time-chart illustrating some of this on my website. Have a look.

David S. MacMillan III said...

The book is called "The Third Millenium." However, the only real important info was the part I quoted verbatim in my post and a list of all the events that happened on Av 9. So unless you are hankering for an outdated, incorrect prophetic novel (he had Christ returning in 2000), I would advise that you forget about getting the book.