THE SEASON OF GRACE

With the conflict in the Middle East growing in intensity, many are the would-be prophets and prophecy interpreters who are cashing in on the current situation. Without even reading the prophecies or the interpretations of the Israel/Gaza mayhem, I can almost guess what many of them are saying. In a nutshell, “This is the beginning of the end.” Throw into the mix the recent natural disasters that have decimated countries and killed thousands, and we have a situation ripe for all kinds of speculation.

Does the Bible have anything to say that will give us a timeline so that we can pinpoint where we are or at least find some clues to help us understand what is happening right now?

I am not a “fundi” on Bible prophecy. I make no claim accurately to interpret the present events. However, there are principles we can glean from Scripture that help us navigate these difficult times.

Firstly, I don’t think God likes timeliness. When we read through the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, prophecies pop up randomly in the story. We sometimes see prophecies fulfilled soon after the predictions were made, and we sometimes discover that prophecies can have a double fulfilment, soon after as well as decades or centuries after they were uttered.

God oversees history. He works according to a divine plan, weaving together human situations and His unfolding will according to His sovereign wisdom and power. All we can do is put our hope in Him because He is faithful to His Word.

He assures us, through His prophetic word, that He is working in our world and that He will fulfil everything He has promised. He does not intend for us to tick boxes when we read His Word. He wants to grow our faith and our anticipation for what lies ahead for faithful believers.

For several thousand years, God kept His people accountable to Him through His covenant with them at Mount Sinai. Apart from a few, they failed completely to be faithful to Him. However, even their unfaithfulness served His purposes.

Jesus fulfilled every prediction made about His first coming and will fulfill every promise about His return. He came to set the record straight for Israel and the Gentiles that no amount of rule-keeping will satisfy God’s demand for perfect holiness. Israel’s history confirms this truth.

Jesus also provided the solution for universal human failure by dying in our place and rising again to secure forgiveness and eternal life for those who surrender all rights to Him.

So, God’s grace is for everyone, Jew, and Gentile, to start again, to live for and in Christ. They experience the real life God wanted for everyone in the beginning.

However, there is a season of grace that God provides, a window of opportunity that God will open and close for Jews and Gentiles.

Romans 11:7 NLT
[7] “So this is the situation: Most of the people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have—the ones God has chosen—but the hearts of the rest were hardened. …
[11] Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves.”

Why did God allow this to happen? Israel’s season of unbelief has opened the door for the Gentiles to receive the gospel. Since the Apostle Paul took the message of Jesus to the Gentile world, for more than 2000 years the harvest among Gentiles is being gathered in.

Few Jews by comparison have believed in their Messiah? Will they ever stop rejecting Jesus and come to Him?

Zechariah prophesied thousands of years ago,

Zechariah 12:6-10 NLT
[6] “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a flame that sets a woodpile ablaze or like a burning torch among sheaves of grain. They will burn up all the neighbouring nations right and left, while the people living in Jerusalem remain secure. [7] “The Lord will give victory to the rest of Judah first, before Jerusalem, so that the people of Jerusalem and the royal line of David will not have greater honor than the rest of Judah. [8] On that day the Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal descendants will be like God, like the angel of the Lord who goes before them! [9] For on that day I will begin to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. [10] “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died…. “

Since scenarios like this happened many times in Israel’s history, we cannot say for certain that this time the Jews will turn to the Lord. We can only say for certain that there will be a last time that God defends Israel against the world before He opens the eyes of their hearts to the truth about their Messiah. Will they see His wounds when He returns?  We don’t know.

“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
“The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
²⁷ And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
²⁸ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, ²⁹ for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. ³⁰ Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, ³¹ so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. ³² For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” Romans 11:25-32

Since God’s predictions are scattered throughout the Bible in a seemingly disorderly fashion, on no orderly timeline, we can only really have that “Aha!” moment when they have been fulfilled. Only then will we able to say with certainty, “Now I understand what God meant when He said…”

God gives Habakkuk the correct understanding in situations like the present. He revealed His plan to the prophet to raise up the Babylonians who would inflict suffering and exile on his people. However, the bottom line, even in this national catastrophe, was the individual. Amid the terrible destruction of invasion and war, God is still concerned about the individual.

Habakkuk 2:4 NLT
[4] “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.”

Jesus endorsed God’s heart in all this suffering,

Luke 13:1-5 NLT
[1] About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. [2] “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? [3] Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. [4] And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? [5] No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

We want answers to what is happening in the world. God’s response is simple, “What about you?” In the end, once again, the Bible assures us that God is at work in us, even through world events, to hone our faith in Him and our faithfulness to Him as we await the return of the Lord Jesus to finish what He started.

So, don’t ask the wrong questions. Ask the only question that really matters,

Matthew 16:15 NLT
[15] “Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

and joyfully proclaim the only answer that counts…

Matthew 16:16 NLT
[16] Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”