Derek Prince - Why There's So Much International Opposition Against Israel
This is an excerpt from: Why Israel?
Now one final fact about this situation which is very, very critical is what is the real issue behind it all? I mean it is absurd, approximately half the resolutions of the United Nations have been made about Israel. You couldn't imagine anything less appropriate or more ridiculous. There must be a reason. Why is it that every time you open your newspaper or turn on your television there's something about this little strip of territory that contains about six million people? A drop in the bucket of the world. What is the reason for the pressure, for the opposition, for the conflict? I'll try to tell you. Let me turn to Matthew chapter 23, the last words of the chapter, very sad words, Matthew 23 verses 37, 38 and 39.
Now this is the farewell of Jesus to Jerusalem. It's a very sad and tragic farewell. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing"! And it's plural. There is a certain collective will of the Jewish people. They, as a people were not willing. Then He says, "See! Your house is left to you desolate;" When He says your house it means the temple because they called it habiat, the house. And true enough; within a generation it was totally desolated. Then He goes on in the last verse: "for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"
Now this is plural. You plural. It's not Jerusalem. It's you Jewish people. "...you will not see me again until you Jewish people say 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.'" That's the standard Hebrew greeting. Baruch haba b'shem Adonai. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD. So He says, "I'm not going to come back until you are ready to welcome Me". So He's got to have the heart of the Jewish people prepared before He will return. And if you turn to Zechariah the 12th chapter you find the final filling in of this picture. Zechariah 12 verse 10. Zechariah chapters 12, 13 and 14 all do deal with the situation in the land of Israel at the close of this age. And the Lord is speaking and He says: "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplications;"
Notice you cannot supplicate unless God gives you the Spirit of grace. When He gives you the Spirit of grace you can respond with supplication. "then they will look on Me whom they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a first-born". Now it is the Lord who is speaking and He says, "They will look on Me whom they [the Jewish people] have pierced". It is the most astonishing thing that they can read that without knowing what it means, because it is the clearest statement anywhere in Scripture that they will crucify the Lord. "They will look on Me whom they have pierced". And then it says, "They will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a first-born".
So there's going to come a revelation of Jesus to His own people, the Jewish people, by the Holy Spirit as to who He really is. And then there will be a mourning as has never been experienced in the history of Israel. For the first time they'll realize, "We crucified our Messiah. We rejected our God". Then it goes on. "In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David..." I want you to see if you put together Matthew and Zechariah before the Lord returns certain things have to be established. The Jewish people have to be re-established in Jerusalem and in the land because the Lord Jesus is not coming back until they are. Then there has to be a supernatural revelation of Jesus which will turn the hearts of the people to Himself.
Now what do you think Satan, the god of this age, fears most? What is the one thing that he's most upset about? I would say the return of Jesus. Because until Jesus comes back he may lose a lot of battles but he will never lose the war. He may lose a lot of souls but he'd still be the god of this age. That will not change until Jesus returns in person. So what does the devil fear most? The return of Jesus. What does he oppose the most? The setting up of the situation which will prepare the way for Jesus to return. The Jewish people have to be in Jerusalem as their city and they have to be occupying the land before Jesus will come back. See?
So this is what's behind all the uproar and all the fuss. Satan is doing everything he can to prevent the setting up of the scenario which will bring back the Lord. And there's where all nations are involved, because He's going to gather all nations, and He's going to judge them on the basis of how they've responded to His claim for the land for Israel. Isn't that amazing? It's also frightening. I pray for this nation, Britain, that Britain will not be aligned on the wrong side. I can't guarantee it, but I pray it.
You see it's tragic because in a way the British people, British Christians, opened the way for the re-establishment of Israel as a nation. You may not be aware of it, but at the close of the last century there was a small but very influential group of British Christians who prayed and agitated and worked for the restoration of the Jewish people to their land. The first Zionists were not Jewish. They were British and in that period God blessed Britain. Britain truly was great. You couldn't say much about Britain being great today. But when Britain had a Queen who loved the Jewish people... One Prime Minister who was a committed Christian and another who was a Jew by background, they were on the winning team. You see your relationship with God is what really determines whether you'll be successful or not.