Unlocking the Prophetic Mysteries of Israel: 7 Keys to Understanding Israel's Role in the End-Times

By Jonathan Bernis

We are witnessing things today that the prophets of Israel longed to see.
God is fulfilling His Word in our generation!
 
If you want to understand what God is doing in these last days, you must understand what He is doing with Israel. It is here that the Bible’s prophecies regarding the end of the age will all unfold.
Jonathan Bernis, host of the internationally popular television program Jewish Voice With Jonathan Bernis, with this fascinating book unlocks a greater knowledge about the last days. The book explores questions such as: 

• What crucial role does Israel play in the last days?
• Why is anti-Semitism on the rise worldwide, and what is at its root?
• What is the seed promise, and why is Satan so angry about it?
• What profound promise did God make to Abraham that applies to you today?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charisma House
• Release date: Nov 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781629991412

Book preview

121:4).

INTRODUCTION

WHEN ISAIAH PROPHESIED the coming of the Messiah, he wrote: He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, nor beauty that we should desire Him (53:2). In fact, the prophet went on to say, He was despised and rejected by men (Isa. 53:3). To the human eye, Yeshua (Jesus) seemed like an insignificant, ordinary man. He even came into the world in a lowly, drafty grotto rather than in a palace or even a clean room. Yet He was the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Obviously, God’s ways are different than ours!

In a similar way, the nation of Israel seems insignificant—a tiny country spread over a few thousand square miles of deserts and hills in the Middle East. Slightly bigger than the state of New Jersey, Israel is not the world’s largest, richest, or most powerful nation. Yet in God’s eyes it is by far the most important nation on Earth. This tiny people with their tiny land are the apple of God’s eye, and because of this, the history of our entire planet is bound up with the history of Israel.

If you want to understand what God is doing in these last days, you must understand what He is doing with Israel. It is there that the Bible’s prophecies regarding the end of the age will all unfold.

THE LAST DAYS ARE HERE

Everywhere I go, I hear people speculating about whether these might be the last days of planet Earth. People sense that we are heading toward a cataclysm. Even people who don’t consider themselves to be religious are talking about it. There are many reasons this is true.

First of all, it’s difficult to understand the hatred and complete disregard for human life that is the hallmark of radical jihadists and their sympathizers. Just think about what we’ve witnessed. Gunmen massacre innocent, unarmed civilians watching a concert.¹ A truck driver purposefully runs over dozens of people during a Bastille Day celebration in France, slaughtering innocent men, women, and children.² Here in the United States we have experienced massacres in San Bernardino, California; Orlando, Florida; and Boston, Massachusetts, among other cities. Elsewhere in the world there have been attacks in Paris, London, Istanbul—the list goes on. Just look at the death toll in Iraq, where it seems there is at least one suicide bombing every week. There have been so many mass killings, in fact, that it’s difficult to remember them all. Before we’ve had time to grieve one bloody tragedy, the next one happens.

And then there are the unrelenting wars that continue throughout the Middle East. Civil war has left Syria in ruins and sent millions fleeing into Europe, causing a refugee crisis there—and resulting in the deaths of thousands of people who have drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe.

And the bloodshed continues in Israel, where terror attacks are commonplace and rockets continue to rain down—fifteen thousand of them since 2001.³ I could go on and on. There are the racial tensions and assassinations of white police officers here in the United States as well as renewed belligerence on the part of Russia and efforts to expand their control. For years we have fooled ourselves into thinking human beings are getting better—more civilized and humane. Now the ugly truth is out: we are the same old flawed humanity we have always been. The Bible is on the mark when it says:

But understand this, that in the last days hard times will come—for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, hardhearted, unforgiving, backbiting, without self-control, brutal, hating what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to an outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people!

—2 TIMOTHY 3:1–5

Yes, the end of the age is near, but that is not a bad thing for those who belong to God and serve Him diligently. The end does not mean destruction for God’s people but rather redemption and the emergence of a new chapter of history, one of peace and freedom from suffering. Despite the terrors we see all around us, God is still in control, and He has a plan to bring everything together for our good. As Yeshua Himself said, Now when these things begin to happen, stand straight and lift up your heads, because your salvation is near! (Luke 21:28).

REDEMPTION THROUG HISRAEL

The role of Israel, both the land and the people, is foundational to understanding God’s redemptive plan for mankind. Since our first ancestors brought sin into the world in the Garden of Eden, God’s divine plan to redeem us from sin and restore us into a relationship with Himself through His Anointed One, the Messiah, has been unfolding.

God’s Son, the promised Redeemer of mankind, gave His life for our sins in Jerusalem almost two thousand years ago. It was there that He was crucified and buried, rose from the dead, and then ascended into heaven. It was in Jerusalem that God chose to have His temple built and to dwell among His people. It was in Israel that He performed great signs and wonders. And Jerusalem and Israel are where He will ultimately fulfill the words written by His prophets thousands of years ago.

You and I are privileged to be experiencing things today that the ancient prophets of Israel longed to see for themselves. I would not want to live in any other period because I know that God is bringing about the final wrap-up of history, and He has honored us by allowing us to be a part of it.

This book provides seven keys to understanding Israel’s past, present, and future role in God’s plan to recover a corrupt and lost world. His plan will culminate in the utter defeat of evil and all principalities and powers, and the establishment of a Messianic age of peace and prosperity.

I believe that just by reading this book you are saying, I want to be part of what God is doing in these last days. I want to thoroughly understand the role of Israel and the Jewish people in this part of God’s ultimate plan.

I also believe that God is calling you to read this book. You didn’t pick it up by accident. He wants you to take the truths you learn within these pages and share them with others—to be salt and light to a church that, for the most part, does not understand how Israel ties into their salvation and the future redemption of the world. Just as Israel is experiencing a partial blindness that keeps them from recognizing Jesus as their Messiah, much of the church is walking in a partial blindness that keeps them from recognizing the role of Israel in God’s plan for the redemption of the nations.

I am convinced that it is vital for the church to recognize these seven keys to unlocking and understanding end-times prophecy and to understand the role all believers play in the return of our Messiah and Savior, Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth.

WHY ISRAEL?

Before we enter into an in-depth discussion of Israel’s role in these last days, I want to briefly touch on three reasons Israel plays such an important part in God’s plans for the future of this planet.

1. The Bible tells us that in the end of the age, Jews will return to Israel from the nations of the world they were scattered to. This is happening right now. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied: "For thus says ADONAI Elohim: ‘Here I am! I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will seek out My sheep. I will rescue them out of all the places where they have been scattered, on a day of cloud and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples. I will gather them from the countries. I will bring them back to their own land. I will shepherd them upon the mountains of Israel, by the streams and in all the habitable places of the land’" (Ezek. 34:11–13).

And Isaiah 11:10–12 says: It will also come about in that day that the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek for Him, and His resting place will be glorious. It will also come about in that day that my Lord will again redeem—a second time with His hand—the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. He will lift up a banner for the nations, and assemble the dispersed of Israel, and gather the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

2. God says that in the last days His Spirit will be poured out upon the Jewish people. This too is happening now, as thousands of Jews are coming to faith in the Messiah.

The growth of Messianic Judaism has been incredible. In 1967, before the Jewish people regained control of Jerusalem, there were just a handful of Messianic congregations in the United States (then called Hebrew Christian congregations) and only several thousand Jewish believers in Jesus worldwide. Today there are more than eight hundred Messianic Jewish congregations in the United States and across the globe, with more than one hundred in Israel alone.⁴

There are well over one hundred thousand Jews in the United States who express faith in Yeshua. Also, by some estimates, more than one hundred thousand Jewish people in the former Soviet Union have made professions of faith in Yeshua since the early 1990s.⁵

Philip Yancey writes, Despite two thousand years of the great divide, despite all that has taken place in this century of violent anti-Semitism, interest in Jesus is resurging among the Jews. In 1925, when the Hebrew scholar Joseph Klausner decided to write a book about Jesus, he could find only three full-length treatments of Jesus’ life by contemporary Jewish scholars. Now there are hundreds, including some of the most illuminating studies available. ⁶

3. When the Messiah comes again, He will return to Israel, where they will look toward Me whom they pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for a firstborn (Zech. 12:10).

A WORD OF WARNING

Before we go further, I want to issue a note of caution that you might not expect to read in a book like this one: don’t believe everything you hear about the end times. While I believe it is unmistakable that Bible prophecies are being fulfilled all around us, I also believe that the study of prophecy is fertile ground for false teachers and charlatans. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of inaccuracy and sensationalism mixed in with the truth. We must be like the Bereans, who search[ed] the Scriptures each day to see whether these things were true (Acts 17:11).

When I was just starting out in ministry, a visiting speaker came to the church where I was serving as an associate pastor in Rochester, New York, and told the people that construction was almost complete on the end-time temple in Jerusalem. He even had pictures to prove it. As you can imagine, a lot of people listening to him were excited about this. The problem was that it wasn’t true and I knew it. Having lived in Israel while studying in college, I recognized the new temple in his photographs was a Conservative synagogue that had been erected a decade previously. I had to challenge this false teacher in his fancy suit because I knew he was not telling the truth, even though he insisted otherwise. God’s people must be diligent and weigh all they hear carefully, at all times and in all situations. Everything must be measured against the Word of God and the facts.

There is a great deal of false and misleading information out there. Some of it is borne out of wishful thinking, and some of it out of a desire for personal gain. But if there is a counterfeit, there must also be a genuine article.

What is true is that a movement to rebuild the temple is underway. I have met and interviewed some of the leading figures. These Orthodox Jews passionately believe this must take place to usher in the Messiah. And it is also true that a Temple Institute now exists, and they are fashioning the furniture and articles necessary for a rebuilt temple. Beyond that, not much of what is being reported is accurate. This group still represents only a tiny minority of religious Jews in Israel. But the movement is growing.

Various sources, including Charisma News, have reported on the Temple Institute and other organizations that desire a rebuilt temple on the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock currently stands. Charisma quotes my dear friend Jonathan Cahn, author of the best-selling book The Harbinger, as saying, We know that end-time prophecy cannot be fulfilled without the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. The abomination desolation prophesied in Daniel and in the Gospels must take place within the Temple precincts. So, too, the apostle Paul speaks of the ‘man of sin,’ or the Antichrist, sitting in the Temple of God. What many people don’t realize is that along with the Holy of Holies, the altar of the Temple is the most central and critical part of the Temple. ⁷

So again, don’t believe everything you hear. But don’t be guilty of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Even in the first century, Paul said that some people were preaching the good news of Yeshua’s atoning death, burial, and resurrection simply because they thought they could make some money from doing so. But Paul said that even if the gospel was preached with poor motives, good could come out of it:

The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Good News. The former proclaim Messiah not sincerely, but out of selfishness—expecting to stir up trouble for me in my imprisonment. But what does it matter? Only that in every way, whether in dishonesty or in truth, Messiah is being proclaimed—and in this I rejoice!

—PHILIPPIANS 1:16–18

And despite the confusion that exists due to false teachers—and some others who insist on setting a date for His return, even though He Himself said His coming would be like a thief in the night and that not even He knew the date or hour of His return—Yeshua said that He expects us to be ready for and expecting His return.

Therefore stay alert; for you do not know what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what time the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and not let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

—MATTHEW 24:42–44

The prophet Daniel also said that the wise would understand when the last days of planet Earth were drawing near:

Then I, Daniel, looked and behold, two others stood there, one on this bank of the river and the one on the other bank of the river. One said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, How long until the end of the wondrous things?

Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised both his right and left hands toward heaven and swore an oath by Him who lives forever, saying, It is for a time, times, and a half. Then when the breaking of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things will be finished.

Now I heard, but I did not understand. So I said, My Lord, what will be the outcome of these things?

Then he said: Go your way, Daniel. For the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly. None of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand.

—DANIEL 12:5–10

TWO SIDES OF THE MESSIAH

Now, I admit that anyone who reads what the Hebrew Scriptures have to say about the Messiah may wind up a bit confused. In some passages He is presented as the great conqueror who will wage war on His enemies and avenge His people. These references are