ROAD MAP TO PEACE

Israel has made tremendous strides in every field over her relatively brief modern history. Jerusalem today is a bustling, modern metropolis. The city is continually expanding with massive construction projects including a light rail to connect distant parts to the center. Yet her longing for and pursuit of peace has been elusive.

The search for peace has been central to all the initiatives, accords, plans and road maps proposed by men to end the Arab/Israeli conflict. Jerusalem figures prominently in the overall picture for any settlement. Because of the impasse, Israel is seen by many as the greatest threat to world peace. Some even view the current “road map” as the last chance for any peace agreement with the Palestinian people.

God’s “road map” for peace has always been “through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20). A just and lasting peace cannot come until the Gospel is welcomed. The Scriptures foretell the day when peace and safety will be declared only to be followed by the sudden destruction of God’s wrath (I Thessalonians 5:3-9). According to Zechariah 14:1,2 Jerusalem is the catalyst for that "day of the LORD".

Prior to Jerusalem’s glorious restoration and establishment as the center of worship and government in the earth, the LORD must first cleanse Israel of unbelief “by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning” (Isaiah 4:2-6). Only then will the nation fulfill the LORD’s solemn condition for His return — “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the LORD” (Matthew 23:39).

The LORD will not reject national Israel forever (Lamentations 3:31-33). Her destiny is to be grafted back into the olive tree of His grace (Romans 11:24-28). In the day of her salvation, “Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jeremiah 33:16).

                            

THE MYSTERY OF ISRAEL

By the year 2000 around one million former Soviet Jews had made their way to Israel. About one in four speaks the Russian language in the land today. Many have been introduced to their Messiah through the efforts of local Messianic congregations. But the overall number of believers in Yeshua remains relatively low in the land where the Gospel was born.

From a prophetic standpoint, the presence of Russian speaking Jews in the land indicates at least a partial fulfillment of Old Testament Scriptures such as:

• Jeremiah 3:18 "In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers."

• Jeremiah 16:15 "But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers."

• Zechariah 2:6 "Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD."

Much mystery concerning Israel must yet unfold. Her present condition in unbelief awaits the lifting of national spiritual blindness, “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:” Romans 11:25,26