Moses, Jesus, and the Future of Israel Part 3

What God’s messengers in the Old Testament foreshadowed in an imperfect way, Jesus was in a perfect way on earth. In His history and that of the people of Israel, we see prophetically how Israel’s situation will be before Jesus’ second coming. We conclude with Part 3.

Just as Moses was on the Mount of God for a time, had fellowship with God and then returned, Jesus is now with the Father and will return to this earth. Therein we are given a picture of the situation of Israel and the world before the return of Jesus. Let us now consider this end-times example in the third and final part of this sequence of articles.

Where Is the Promise of His Coming?

“And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us” (Exodus 32:1).

This is what the future of Israel and also Christianity will look like. Will the Son of man find faith when He returns? Jesus, the Messiah, still has not returned. The people are gathering around other leaders. They are seeking their salvation in other places than in God. The whole situation will culminate in the antichristian age with the false Christ and the false prophet. We find the first principles already in the worldwide modern mixture of religions.

In Israel it was thought that the Messianic age had dawned in 1948. In 1967 there was a climax with the capture of Jerusalem. Yet the Messiah has not yet come, the Messianic age has still not arrived. Many people in Israel seem disappointed, young people above all.

“Among Israelis the longing for peace and resignation is no less. ‘The Messiah is not coming. The Messiah is not calling!’ This is the chorus of a song by Shalom Chanoch… Many young Israelis see it just as Shalom Chanoch expressed it. The 28-year old Irit, for instance, mother and businesswoman, ‘I believe in God, but the Messiah is an invention of religion…’ The modern Israeli society is no longer hoping for the Messiah. This is not only the opinion of the mocker, Shalom Chanoch.”¹

Risto Santala writes concerning the Jewish group “prophetic Zionism,” “This union was less concerned about a real Messianic idea, which was realized in the personification of a Messiah, than about a ‘Messianic motive.’ They want to establish the Messianic kingdom in their own power and by socialistic means. It says literally, ‘This group is waiting for the dawning of a golden socialistic age.’”²

Here we are inevitably reminded of the golden calf as a result of not expecting the return of a personal Messiah, as Moses experienced in olden days, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

Materialism Will Take the Place of God

Materialism will take the place of God, which is made very clear in Revelation 17 and 18. It will be connected with religious things, but without any Biblical basis. Today everything is about money; everything is judged and decided by money, “And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me” (Exodus 32:2).

Those who are not waiting for the return of Jesus and become impatient will seek all the more the things of this world, and place their security in them. James sums up the end-times power of materialism when he writes,

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:1-8).

God Is Farther and Farther Out of Israel’s Vision

God Is farther and farther out of Israel’s vision, whereas secularism is increasing. Their own deeds and achievements are praised. “And he [Aaron] received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4).

In the summer of 2004 hundreds of young Israelis held a wild party in a wadi (valley) near Elath. The center of the celebration was an oversized statue of a goldplated bullock, around which they danced. In Tel Aviv shortly thereafter, a sadomasochistic restaurant was opened. A dominatrix dressed as a “wicked queen” showed the guests to their tables (Topic magazine, July 04).

It is no different where the nations are concerned. People think capitalism and globalization can help the economy out of all its crises, and so they look to them as the great savior of the future of mankind.

One Day a New Temple Will Be Built in Israel

This temple, however, will become the seat of the Antichrist, “And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord” (Exodus 32:5).

The Call for Peace Is Influencing the Political Picture of Israel and the World

“And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings…” (Exodus 32:6a). It is a peace, however, which is not founded on the returning Messiah and which excludes God. This attitude will ultimately bring the Antichrist to power.

The striving after a false peace should lead to satisfaction, to rest, joy and security, “And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play” (Exodus 32:6b). Did the Lord not say that the last days would be like the time of Noah? They ate and drank, married and gave in marriage until the day the flood took them all away (see Matthew 24:38-39). This was a time of superficiality such as there never had been before, and that although the storm clouds were beginning to gather.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves” (Exodus 32:7). This connection is very interesting. In the preceding verse a peace offering and a resulting supposed security are spoken of; now we read of corruption. This means prophetically that out of this “peace offering”—the false efforts toward peace—a security will emerge that produces corruption. This is the exact sequence we find in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”

The result will be that the wrath of God will come upon Israel and the nations in the Great Tribulation, “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation” (Exodus 32:10).

Israel Would Be Completely Destroyed

Israel would be completely destroyed if the Lord Jesus Christ as the High Priest did not intercede for His people, just as Moses interceded on Mount Sinai for Israel, “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people” (Exodus 32:12).

Jesus, the High Priest, will pray and the days will be shortened. I want to refer to two Bible texts here, “And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2) and, “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22).

The covenant that God made with Abraham and the patriarchs is stronger than His wrath, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever” (Exodus 32:13). Paul explains in Galatians 3:17, “And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.”

Jesus Will Return

“And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other were they written” (Exodus 32:15).

This is a fitting picture of the return of Jesus, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).

“And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day” (Exodus 32:25-29).

“Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them” (Exodus 32:34).

This is a prophetic foreshadowing of what will take place after the Lord has returned. He will execute judgment upon Israel and the nations (Matthew 25) and a division will take place. Here it will be decided who will enter into Jesus’ millennial kingdom and who will not.

ENDNOTES
1 “The Messiah will not even call,” Idea Spektrum 51/52/2003, p.18
2 “Der Messias im AT,” Risto Santala, p.158/159

MidnightCall Magazine

August 2010

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