liThe Miracle of People of Israel-3"

by Desmond Ford

Jesus is the prophesied New Moses. The great Messianic prophecy of Daniel saysthere will be wars to the end. Israel rejected its Messiah and has suffered in those wars.

But the unbelieving Israelite is a symbol of all people who do not put Christ first.

Moses wrote:

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet likeme from among your own brothers. You must listen tohim. (Deuteronomy 18:15)The Lord said to me: " ... I will raise up for them aprophet like you from among their brothers; I will putmy words in his mouth, and he will tell them everythingI command him. If anyone does not listen to mywords that the prophet speaks in my name, Imyself will call him to account."(Deuteronomy 18:17-19)

Jesus the New MosesSo One was born as Moses was born,of humble parentage in the days ofa tyrant who sought his life.That One was delivered asMoses was delivered whileother children perished.That One then hadmany years in obscuri-ty as did Moses, only toemerge to work miracles.

That One spent a peri-od of forty days in the desert,as Moses spent 40 years there,and communed with God. LikeMoses, who was offered the riches ofEgypt, but refused them, that One wasoffered and refused the kingdoms of thisworld and all the glory of them.

Like Moses, that One delivered a people.Like Moses, that One founded a new common-wealth, a new brotherhood. Like Moses, that Oneknew God face-to-face. Like Moses, that One gave laws,though Moses gave them for Israel, that One gave laws forall humankind. Like Moses, that One was the meekest manon all the earth, but was hated as was Moses.

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And that One suffered because of the people who hatedhim. He bore their sins, he blotted out their sins. Moses saidto God about Israel, "But now, please forgive their sin-butif not, then blot me out of the book you have written"(Exodus 32:32). Jesus did that for us. He was blotted out atCalvary that our sins might be blotted out.

Like Moses, Jesus had power over the waters. Like Moses,Jesus had power to feed the people with bread. Like Moses,Jesus foretold the future of his people. As Moses had seventyassistants, so did Christ. As Moses led the twelve tribes, so

did Christ have twelve disciples.

False ChristsAnd the Lord had said, "I will raise up a prophet likeunto Moses, and I will require it if they do not listento him." You see, whatever great sin the nation ofIsrael committed had to be before A.D. 70 becausethat is when the temple was destroyed. The great

sin had to be before then, before A.D.70.

lt was in the year A.D. 116that the Jews rebelled again

against Trojan, and multi-tudes of them were put todeath. In A.D. 135, a newmessiah came, and the Jewsfought the Romans again. Doyou know how many fixed

battles they had with theRomans in 135? Fifty. Fifty fixed

battles with the Romans. And thistime the Romans plowed the city up,

and said, "No Jew will be allowed here."For centuries, no Jew was allowed in

Jerusalem, except on one day in the year whenthey were allowed in to cry.

After rejecting Christ, many, many Jews followedfalse christs. False christs appeared in every century

down until about the fifteenth century. Multitudes of Jewssuffered as a result.

After so many disappointments, the Jewish leaders said,"We will forbid people to study the prophecy of Daniel 9,about the coming of the Messiah the Prince. May his bonesbleach and rot who studies the prophecy about theMessiah."

The Forbidden ProphecyLet's look at the forbidden prophecy in Daniel 9:

"Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning yourpeople and your holy city, to finish the transgression, toput an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring ineverlasting righteousness, to seal both vision andprophet, and to anoint a most holy place." (Daniel 9:24RSV)

Have you ever seen such a collection of tremendouspromises?

To make an end of sin! Sin is the cause of all our sorrow.To make an end of sin means to make an end of temptation.Temptation plagues us from day to day.

To bring in everlasting righteousness! That's somethingwe long for.

To fulfill all that the prophetic vision has foretold! Toturn earth into an anointed heaven once more.

To anoint a most holy place!

"Know and understand this: From the issuing of thedecree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until theAnointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sev-ens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streetsand a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will havenothing. The people of the ruler who will come willdestroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will comelike a flood: War will continue until the end, and desola-tions have been decreed." (Daniel 9:25-26 NIV)

Wars from Messiah's RejectionPlease observe that the prophecy says Messiah the Princewould come and his people would reject him. Because ofthat rejection, the city and the temple would be destroyed.The prophecy goes on, "War will continue until the end, anddesolations have been decreed." In other words, "And everafterwards until the end of time that land will know war anddesolation. "

Take any encyclopedia and look up the history ofJerusalem. Jerusalem has known more upheaval, more con-quests, than any other city of earth. Even before the comingof Christ, it had been destroyed and rebuilt, or recapturedand taken by different people 24 times. That was just forstarters.

You read the history of Jerusalem right down to this cen-tury when Zionism first became prominent in World War 1.Then think of the constant conflict that's in the Middle Eastnow. Israel is not the safest place of the world to live, thoughthe ordinary Israeli is a law-abiding person. But it's not thesafest place in the world to live. "And to the end there shallbe war." Until the end. Twenty centuries have demonstratedit.

Jews a Symbol of AllNow, my friends, our Lord took Daniel's prophecy as hisstarting point in Matthew 24. Jesus took this prophecy aboutthe destruction of Jerusalem because it refused its Messiah,and applied it to the whole world. Here is a very important

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principle, and you and I should not miss the point. Becauseof the way Christ applies Daniel's prophecy we see that theJew becomes a symbol of all who reject Christ. As the gospelgoes to the Jew first and also to the gentile, so with the judg-ments of God. We see a preview of the destiny of the worldin what has already happened to Israel.

Regarding salvation, the New Testament is pointedlyplain. There is neither Jew nor Greek in God's eyes. "Forthere is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for thesame Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him"(Romans 10:12 KJV).Every Jew is the purchase of the bloodof Christ, just as is every gentile.

I'm not bringing this historical enigma to your attentionto damn any. I repeat, we are not seeking to allow anti-Semitism. We resist all prejudice. Judaism, fundamentally, isno different to the nation from whence I spring. I am bring-ing your attention to this because it shows that what we dowith Christ is the most important issue of existence. Ofcourse it is.

Crime Against LoveThere's no crime that's worse than the crime against love.It's an infinite crime to reject an infinite Love. Could anyonehave spoken more kindly than the Jewish Messiah. "Allmanner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men"(Matthew 12:31). "Whoever comes to me I will never driveaway" (John 6:37 NIV). "God loved the people of this worldso much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone whohas faith in him will have eternal life and never really die"(John 3:16 CEV). "I have given you the power ... to defeatthe power of your enemy Satan. Nothing can harm you"(Luke 10:19). All of which means, in a lasting sense, "Lo, Iam with you alway, even unto the end of the world"(Matthew 28:20 KJV).

Jesus says, "Lo, I am with you always"-all the days.The good days, the bad days, the mad days, the dazed days.I'm with you all the days, even unto the end of the world.

"(ome unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,and Iwill give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, andlearn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and yeshall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, andmy burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)Why would anyone want to murder a man that spoke

like that?

Christ FirstBut, my friends, there's something that's almost worse thanmurder and that is neglect. Many a public figure downthrough the ages has said, "I don't care what they say aboutme as long as they talk about me." It's worse to pretend tomake Christ first and yet make him second-to ignore andneglect him.

It's a big thing to be a Christian. To be a Christianmeans that we acknowledge that everything we have is his.We are just in temporary stewardship of it, whether it's time,talent, money, or opportunity.

-Time: Not one of us knows how long we have. We livein an age of very sudden death.-Talent: We didn't invent our talents. Whatever talentsyou were born with are a gift.-Money: The main book God is going to be interested induring the judgment may not be what we think of asGod's record book. The main book may be our check-book. Our checkbook reveals who our gods are.-Opportunity: To love as God loves, and as freely andimpartially as God. a::

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