A Cup of Reeling for the Nations | Ariel Blumenthal

About this sermon

In this week’s Global Broadcast message Ariel gives us an inside-Israel look at a major shift that has happened in just the past 10 days in Israel. This shift is significant in relationship to Zechariah 8-14 and the fulfillment of prophecies leading up to the Second Coming. Two laws have been passed in the Knesset that would have never had enough votes to pass before October 7th, 2023. Since the Hamas invasion of Southern Israel, events in the Land and around the world have forced many Israelis to (again!) face the difficult reality that the world system is not friendly to us, and that we are increasingly isolated. From the all out Iranian missile attacks, to pro-Hamas rallies on college campuses, to the sharp increase in anti-Israel, anti-Semitism on the world-stage—all this is serving to unite the Jewish people in a new way. 1. Anti-UNWRA Law (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for PALESTINE…for some reason the P is left out!) - UNRWA started out as an important humanitarian initiative to care for 500,000 Arabs who were made refugees as a result of Israel’s War for Independence in 1948-49. But what was supposed to be a short term “band-aid” has turned into a long term, festering wound. UNRWA, with the support of the nations of the world, has become its own welfare mini-state to 6 million(!) Arab/Palestinians in “refugee camps” around the Middle East—actually the children and grandchildren of the original “refugees.” UNRWA, and the Arab nations around Israel, have perpetuated a whole caste of non-citizens who are taught the “hopeless hope” that one day there will be a glorious Palestinian state to which they can go home to. UNRWA’s budget for 2024 is $1.6 billion, more than the budgets of each of the poorest 39 nations of the world! After discovering what anyone with half a brain already knew—that many UNRWA employees (among 12,000 in Gaza) were members and/or supporters of Hamas—the Israeli government has finally said ENOUGH! UNRWA is now illegal in Israel, and for all purposes, in Gaza and the West Bank. 3 or 4 years ago, this kind of legislation was spoken of in the media as coming from the “extreme,” “far-right” of the Israeli political spectrum. Last week, it passed by a huge majority. Israel has shifted to the right, big-time! 2. The amendment to the “Jerusalem Our Capital” Basic Law. Israel, without a formal constitution, functions according to a category of Basic (or Fundamental) Laws. One of those declares an undivided (East and West) Jerusalem as our eternal, sovereign capital. But, we haven’t been particularly strong in “policing” the nations who don’t accept that, which is all the nations of the world, except for five. For decades, the nations of the world have kept their embassies in Tel Aviv, while establishing consulates in Jerusalem, with many also in East Jerusalem to service the Palestinian population. In many cases, this has been part of the world agenda to force a Palestinian State—with a future capital in East Jerusalem—down our Israeli throats, no matter how full of terrorist explosives it may be. This amendment declares that from now on, any nation with hopes of a diplomatic or bureaucratic presence in Jerusalem—East or West—must establish a regular embassy to the State of Israel…and nothing else. In other words, if your nation wants to be in Jerusalem, you can do so by recognizing our capital, thank you very much! Or, “If you want to do business in the holy city, then you have to play by the rules of the sovereign nation, Israel, for whom that city serves as our capital.” All of this, of course, would go without saying in any other nation’s capital—but Israel is not any other nation, and Jerusalem is not any other city. Both of these laws, passed in the last two weeks, are strong expressions of Jewish/Israeli sovereignty over the Land, and Jerusalem; not surprisingly, the world does not like it! For the last 100 or so years, it has been the same formula: Israeli sovereignty leads to Israeli isolation. There is something deeply troubling to the nations when the Jews are sovereign in the Land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why? Because Jewish/Israeli sovereignty over the land hints at the Sovereignty of God over this world, and the Biblical promises of the Jewish Messiah—Yeshua—ruling and reigning over the entire earth from Jerusalem. For us, none of this should be too surprising. It’s all been prophesied in Scriptures like Psalm 2, and Zechariah 12:2-3; 14:2-3. As events unfold before us, it is all too easy to imagine how a world coalition could come up against Jerusalem—the Jerusalem of biblical, Israeli claims—with a desire to put an end to this “problem” once and for all. God has chosen Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be a “cup of reeling” to the nations. He is coming to fight against the nations who come against her to battle. WATCH this important update/teaching!

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• Christian Living