The Mount of Beatitudes overlooking the Plain of Gennesaret by BiblePlaces.com

 

 

The Land at the Time of the End

The Land of Israel and its role in the

Redemption of the House of Jacob

By Robert Mock MD

robertmock@biblesearchers.com

www.BibleSearchers.com

January 2004

 

 

 

Zechariah 8:2-3 – “Thus says the Lord of Hosts, 'I am exceedingly jealous for Zion...I will return to Zion and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.”

 

 

In the traditions of the Hebrews, Creation began in Jerusalem, the Navel of the world

 

“As the navel is set in the center of the human body,

So is the Land of Israel the Navel of the world…

Situated in the center of the world,

And Jerusalem in the center of the Land of Israel,

And the Sanctuary in the center of Jerusalem,

And the Holy Place in the center of the Sanctuary,

And the Ark in the center of the Holy Place,

And the Foundation Stone before the Holy Place,

Because, from it the world was founded.         

Midrash Tanchuma, Qedoshim,

 

Of all the descendants of Noah, the chosen one to inherit the land of Israel was Abraham. 

 

 The ‘chosen line as Isaac’ was decided on Mount Moriah, where the Temple Mount resides, when Abraham obeyed the command of the Lord. 

 

Genesis 22: 15-18 - “Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this things, and have not withheld your son, your only son – blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.  In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

 

The blessings of father Isaac were given to the ‘chosen line of Jacob’.

 

Genesis 28:3-4 - “May G-d Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of peoples; and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger (of your sojourning) which G-d gave to Abraham.”

 

This blessing was reaffirmed as Jacob as he laid his head on a stone pillow at Bethel (the House of G-d), eleven miles north of Jerusalem, and was revealed the ladder or the Sefirot of the Almighty.

 

Genesis 28:13-15 – "I am the Lord G-d of Abraham your father and the G-d of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.  Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; ….and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.  Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoke to you.”

 

The descendants of Jacob were still mired in slavery in a land that was crumbling under the onslaught of ‘acts of G-d’ in a great catastrophe in Egypt.  The first time the Lord of hosts repeated to them the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He also asked the children of Israel to prepare and sit down and have a feast.  As He commanded them;

 

Exodus 12:24-27 – “And you shall observe this thing (Passover) as an ordinance for you and your sons forever.  It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service.  And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our household.’”

 

To the “Promised Land” the ‘chosen descendants’ of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were returned, yet it took them over forty years to do so.   The prophets of Israel warned that if Israel did not follow Torah, they were be exiled and so they were by Sennacherib, the ruler of Assyria.  The prophets of Judah warned that if Judah did not follow the teachings (Torah) of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they also would be exiled and so they were by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.    

 

Jeremiah 29:10 – “After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place (The Promised Land).”

 

The restoration by the Jews after seventy years back to the land of Judea was only accomplished when the curse the people placed upon the land of Israel was erased. How was that?  According to the commands of the Lord, the land was to lay fallow, not be cultivated and to ‘rest’.  This was called the Sabbatical Year.  As the children of Israel were to rest every seven days, the Seventh-day Sabbath, or the seventh Sabbatical Day, the land of Israel was to rest every seven years, the seventh Sabbatical Year.  This use of the “Sabbatical Year” in the time of Jesus is critical in the analysis of the history and life of Jesus and the history of the Hebrew Nazarene Ecclesia that he left under the leadership of His brother, James the Just.   

 

Because the Jews did not allow the land and Jerusalem to ‘rest’ every seventh year as commanded by the Lord since before the time of King David, they were exiled from the land of Israel. For seventy weeks, or four hundred ninety years, the Sabbatical year land rest command was not followed.  So the Lord of hosts gave “The Land” a seventy year rest during the Babylonian exile. 

 

So again after the restoration of the Jews back to Jerusalem, the Lord of Hosts gave the Jews another test.  For seventy ‘weeks of years’, or for four hundred ninety years, they were given to determine their allegiance to their G-d. 

 

Daniel 9:24 – “ ‘Seventy weeks are determined for your people (Jews) and for your holy city (Jerusalem), to finish the transgression, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.”

 

According to the rabbinic chronology which was initially put into written script in the 13^th century by Rabbi Yose b. halafta in his work, Seder Olam Rabbah (The Great Order of the World), Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple of Solomon in the Jewish Year 3341.  Note that this date was a date which progressed with time or 3,341 years since the days of Adam in the Garden of Eden. 

 

The initial numbering system of our modern calendar for A.D. (“Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi") or “in the year of Our Lord Jesus Christ” and B.C. (“Before Christ”) was instituted in 527 A.D. by a Roman Catholic Abbot Dionysius Exiguous. 

 

Then the Catholic monks labored to develop a dating system of the world empires prior to that date; the Roman, Grecian, Persian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian On the other hand the Jewish chronologer kept a running calendar from the beginning of their historical time, the creation of Adam. 

 

One of the difficult eras of calendar dating has been the Persian Empire of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerses. Our present calendar of the ancient world was calculated by the medieval monks. This comprises our conventional chronology which states that the Persian Empire began in 539 BCE and ended in 321 BCE for a total of 207 years.  Yet the Jewish rabbinic calendar for the Persian Era, using historical data of the Jewish people who actually lived through this era in Babylon and the cities of the Persian realm, state that entire Persian Empire was only 51 years from 368 BCE to 317 BCE. The difference between these two calendar systems is 156 years.

 

It was in the Jewish year 3830 that the destruction of the second temple of Herod was destroyed by General Titus, the son of the new emperor of Rome, Vespasian on Tisha B’Av, or the 9^th of Av in 70 CE.  True to the traditions of their forefathers, upward to three million Jewish pilgrims returned from the Diaspora to their Holy City Jerusalem during the Sabbatical year of 68 CE.  It was there that they were to participate in the first festival of that year, Passover, called Pesach. 

 

Here within the perimeters of the walls of Jerusalem, the residents of Jerusalem and all the pilgrims became trapped as the Roman legions of Vespasian marched into the province of Judea and surrounded the city in siege.  For over two years, the city was starved out and those that escaped were brutally crucified on crosses outside the gates of the city. 

 

It is estimated that over 2.5 million Jews died as a result of war, famine and disease and over 1 million Jews were exiled over all parts of the Roman Empire.  Over 100 thousand were sold as slaves to the Romans, many who were later killed and tortured in the gladiatorial ‘games’ and pagan celebrations in the Coliseum in Rome. 

 

Yet according to the prophecies of Daniel, 490 years (70 week of years or 70 years x 7 days/week) would be ‘determined for your people and for your holy city.  Daniel was just coming to full awareness of the Jeremiah prophecy that the Jewish people would be restored back to their homeland was about to occur.

 

The people of Daniel, the Jewish people and their holy city of Jerusalem had a prophecy of their destiny.  That prophecy of destiny began with the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the Jewish year 3341 (421/420 BCE) and it ended with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman legions of Vespasian and his son, Titus in the Jewish year of 3830 (69/70 CE).  As the Lord of hosts did state, exactly 490 years were determined among Daniel’s people and their holy city, Jerusalem would once again destroyed. 

 

In the time of the end the restoration of the Houses of Judah and the House of Israel, called either the House of Joseph or the House of Ephraim will also end in ‘The Land ‘ and in Jerusalem.  Was it not Jesus Himself who claimed?

 

Matthew 15:24 – “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

 

It was also the first mission of the twelve disciples in Matthew 10 to ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 

 

Matthew 10: 5-6 – “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter in a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

 

And so at the time of the end, the Lord of hosts will respond and make a covenant not only with His people, but with the land; the beasts, the birds, the creatures, the skies, the earth, the grain, wine and oil.   

 

Hosea 2:18-23 - “In that day, I will make a covenant for them, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground.  Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.  I will betroth you (Israel) to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.  I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.” 

 

“In that day, I will respond,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel (Israel).  I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’  I will say to those called ‘Not my people; ‘You are my people; and they will say, ‘You are my G-d.’”

 

Where will the Lord your G-d dwell?  He will dwell in the Land, on Zion, my holy hill.

 

Joel 2:17-21 - “Then you will know that I, the Lord your G-d, will dwell on Zion, my holy hill.  Jerusalem will be holy; never again will foreigners invade her.  In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will glow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water.  A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house and will water the valley of acacias. …Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations.” 

 

Zechariah 9:9-10 - “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  Se, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  I will take away the chariots from Ephraim (House of Israel (Joseph)) and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken.  He will proclaim peace to the nations.  His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

 

Ezekiel 34:25-31 - “I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety.  I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. (Temple Mount)  I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.  The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops. The people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them.  They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid.  I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. Then they will know that I, the Lord their G-d am with them and that they the House of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord.  You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am you G-d, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

 

Ezekiel 36:24 - “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.”

 

Ezekiel 37:21-22 - Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.

 

The Land.  The Land.  The Land of Israel belongs to the Lord of hosts because there is one place on this earth that He claims for His own. He gave His people the Land and He took it away.  Yet when the day of the Lord comes, G-d will restore His chosen people and He will restore His Land.  They will not be restored because they have been righteous, but they will be restored to honor G-d’s Holy Name and to make His Holy Name known to all nations.

 

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