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Distant Hoofbeats

Foreword

 

The seven-year Tribulation is “the time of Jacobs trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7), not the time of the Gentile nations’ trouble.  But the nations, because of their position in relation to Israel — the ones among whom Israel presently dwells; the ones whom God has chosen to, through persecution, bring Israel to the place of repentance — will find themselves caught up, right along with Israel, in this time of trouble.

 

And, beyond the preceding, after God uses the nations to bring Israel to the place of repentance, God will then judge these same nations because of their mistreatment of the Jewish people.  God will use the nations to effect His purposes; then God will judge these same nations for that which they will have done.

 

The principles set forth in Genesis 12:3 cannot be violated.

 

Judgment befell the Pharaoh of Egypt during Moses’ day after God had used this man to achieve His purposes regarding Israel (Exodus 9:15, 16; 14:13-31).  And judgment will befall the coming world ruler after God has used this man to achieve His purposes regarding Israel (Revelation 17:16-18; 19:17-21).

 

In short, Israel, because of millennia of disobedience, is about to find herself in a time of trouble completely unlike anything the nation has ever experienced before.  And this trouble will emanate from the hands of the God of Israel, as He uses the Gentile nations and the end-time ruler of these nations to bring His plans and purposes regarding Israel to pass.

 

God is not pleased with Israel’s actions, extending over time covering, in actuality, 3,500 years of Jewish history, dating back to the inception of the nation itself during Moses’ day.  And God is about to, once for all, bring the matter to a head and take care of the problem.

 

The four horsemen of the Apocalypse are about to ride (Revelation 6:1-8).  And God will use that which is set forth in the actions of these four horsemen — Deception, War, Famine, Pestilence (Plagues, Diseases), and Death — to bring His people to the place of repentance.

 

Thus, everything that occurs when these horsemen ride will have an inseparable connection with God’s end-time dealings with Israel.

 

Again, this is “the time of Jacobs trouble,” not that of the nations, though the nations, because of the way God has chosen to bring the Jewish people to the place of repentance, will find themselves directly and inseparably involved in God’s dealings with His people.

 

The death of millions of Jews and more than a billion from the nations, which will occur during this time through wars, famines, plagues, diseases, and other related things, will result from God having to take matters this far to bring about one purpose regarding Israel — to bring the Jewish people to the place where they, at long last, after millennia of time, will be left without a place to turn other than to the God of their fathers.

 

And, without a place to turn other than to the One who has been available all along, they will, in the midst of all these things that will occur, be driven to the place where they will call upon the God of their fathers.  And, true to His Word (Leviticus 26:40-42), God will hear and send the Deliverer whom the nation rejected and crucified 2,000 years earlier.

 

The heavens will open, and a fifth Horseman will appear (Revelation 19:11ff).  This Horseman, God’s Son, will come forth on a white charger to put a stop to all the havoc, destruction, and death created by the previous actions of the four horsemen.  And God’s Son will come forth at this time for one reason and one reason alone — the previous actions of the four horsemen will have brought Israel to the place of repentance.

 

This is the unique position that Israel holds in God’s economy!

 

God views Israel being brought to the place of repentance important enough that all four horsemen are allowed to ride — effecting all the suffering, famine, disease, and death that will occur during this time.

 

Why is the importance of bringing Israel’s repentance to pass seemingly placed above that of sacrificing more than a billion lives?  The natural mind wouldn’t understand this at all, but natural things are not in view.  Rather, God’s thinking (quite different than man’s [Isaiah 55:8, 9]), derived from His Word, is in view.

 

God has decreed that all blessings for the human race are to flow through one nation, the nation descending from Abraham through Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons, the nation of Israel — the nation through which God gave us both the written and the living Word.

 

Until Israel has been restored, the multiplicity of blessings reserved for the nations can only be withheld.  But after Israel has been restored, then . . . .