AFTER 70 YEARS

AFTER 70 YEARS

                “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you’ declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you. Then you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you’, declares the Lord ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.”  Jer. 29:10-14

                We know that this prophecy given by Jeremiah was spoken during Judah’s captivity in Babylon when God promised that after 70 years, He would lead them back into their homeland in Israel. We also know that at the end of their 70 year captivity, Daniel read Jeremiah’s prophecy of the 70 years and began to fast and to pray for God’s promised deliverance.

                God fulfilled His Word exactly as He had spoken it and even though it was only a remnant that returned to the land of Israel, that prophecy was fulfilled. But now in Jeremiah chapter 30 Jeremiah seems to be talking about a different time period. And this reminds us that prophecy is pattern. Whatever God has done for Israel in times past becomes a pattern of how He will deal with them in the future. He says:

                “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.”

                For one thing, in this promise God is addressing both Israel and Judah. This was not true of eh Babylonian captivity for only Judah was involved with Babylon. Israel had been taken captive in Assyria many years earlier.

                This time around there is much stress for the Lord says:

                I have heard a sound of terror, or dread and there is no peace. 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? Alas! For that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacobs distress. But they will be saved from it.”

                So this involves the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. And we see here described several things of importance. Verse nine says: But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king whom I will raise up for them.

                Wait a minute here: Is this reincarnation?  Is it the literal resurrection of King David? Is it talking about Jesus the Son of David? This we cannot answer with any certainty, but God follows up on this time period by saying: “For I am with you, declares the Lord, “to save you; for I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you.” Jer. 30:9.

                This year of 2018 is a year in which Israel’s 70 years are up once again. In fact it has been 100 years since Israel was declared to be a nation. It has been 70 years since she came into her land. It has been 50 years since she gained the city of Jerusalem and we are in a Jubilee year.  That all of these numbers come together in this one year

                This, we can be quite sure, has not happened yet. This sounds like either the battle of Gog of Magog, or Armageddon.

                Then in Jer.30:16- 22 talks about devouring those who have devoured Israel and restoring her to health, about restoring their fortunes. He will punish the oppressors and their leader shall be one of them, and their ruler shall come forth from their midst. And Israel shall be His people and He will be their God.

                Now in the aftermath of these things it says, “Behold, the tempest of the Lord. Wrath has gone forth and a sweeping tempest; I will burst on the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed, and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart.”

                This sounds like the wrath of God that will be poured out upon the wicked in the last days, for Jeremiah finishes chapter 30 by saying: “In the latter days you will understand this.”

                Now in chapter 31 we see a time after the wrath of God has been poured out and Israel’s enemies have been destroyed. It talks about rebuilding and singing and dancing and playing tambourines and planting vineyards on the hills of Samaria. It talks about bringing home the remnant of Israel, “A great company they shall return here, with weeping they shall come,” And by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters on a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel and Ephraim My first-born.

                These wonderful passages about the returning of Israel to their land give us hope and comfort whether we are Jews of Gentiles. They are written specifically to Israel, but they are given to us as well for if we believe in the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus Christ, we become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise. All of God’s promises belong to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

                Paul tells us in Gal. 3:16 saying: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘and to seeds’ as referring to many, but rather to one, and to your Seed that is Christ.”

                So every promise in the Holy Scripture was written to one Person, the God-man Jesus Christ. When we receive Him we become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. So we didn’t become heirs to these promises by replacing Israel, but by being grafted in, as Romans 11 tells us. We become heirs of the promises through Jesus Christ our Lord.

                In Christ we, both Jews and Gentiles, become one family. And it is important for us to understand this as we seek to be among God’s remnant people. Revelation 12, a woman (Israel) gives birth to a Son. (Jesus) the Dragon (Satan) who has been cast out of heaven waits to devour the child (Jesus) as soon as He is born, but He is caught up to heaven. So the dragon is angry with the woman and goes off to make war with the remnant of her seed.

                This remnant can only be a combination of Jew and Gentile. It is the woman (Israel) that flees, so the dragon (Satan) goes off to make war with the remnant of her (Israel’s) seed, who both keep the commandments of God and who also hold to the testimony of Yeshua. (Israel’s Messiah.) So whether we are Jew or Gentile, we are all saved by receiving Yeshua as our Lord and Savior.

                Once we are in Christ, then we can take comfort in all of the promises contained in the Bible. They belong to us

                When I see the great lengths to which our Father God has gone to forgive and to restore Israel and that even at the end of time He has not given up on her, this gives me great hope and comfort.

                He will not give up on us either, if we will put our hope and trust in Him.               

                This year of 2018 is a year in which Israel’s 70 years are up once again. In fact it has been 100 years since Israel was declared to be a Jewish state. It has been 70 years since she came into her land. It has been 50 years since she gained the city of Jerusalem and we are in a Jubilee year.  That all of these numbers come together in this one year               should give us pause. Have we come to some kind of a vital cut-off point? Are we about to enter the time of Jacob’s Trouble? Is the red horse of war about to ride? If so, should we then know who the rider on the white horse is?

                Many scholars and preachers who used to be so adamant about a pre-trib rapture are now admitting that we may have some stuff to go through before the Lord rescues us. We are promised that we will not have to endure the wrath of God, but there may be a lot of trouble before that time comes.

                We must therefore learn how to take comfort in God’s promises             … how to stand upon the Word of God and how to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. Selah.