"Israel: God's Prophetic Calendar" - James W. Goll

"Israel: God's Prophetic Calendar"

James W. Goll, Franklin, TN

The Elijah List

Although Israel as we know her today is only a little more than sixty five years old, the Jewish nation is actually one of the oldest on earth. These people and their land reach back to the time of Abraham's prophetic pilgrimage and the covenant promise of God to him and his descendants (see Genesis 17:4-8). But after what many considered to be a silence of two thousand years, this land has been reborn. Israel is once again the showpiece being displayed before the eyes of the world. All the more as I have declared that in these very days, the Middle East would be a boiling cauldron (click here to read the article).

Brief Historic Overview

Let's take a peek at the past to be able to have a proper view of the future. How could a remnant of scattered and persecuted Jewish people, who went through their darkest hour in Hitler's Holocaust, come forth all at once as a sovereign nation within their age-old boundaries? Not without divine intervention, for sure, although many Israelis today believe they did it all on their own. Let's sketch this history briefly.

On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution requiring the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Israel was then reborn the following May 14th, 1948. (Photo of Israeli Declaration of Independence via Wikipedia)

Just a day later, on May 15, 1948, while this creation had barely come forth, five Arab nations assaulted the newborn Jewish babe. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq (forty million Arabs, 1.5 million of them armed) attacked Israel in what became known as the Israeli War of Independence. The war continued for eight months with heavy casualties on all sides. The miracle is that Israel, which had just been reborn, could not be destroyed (see Isaiah 54:17).

I Stand with Israel

In 1967 the Six-Day War should also have ended in disaster for Israel, but God's mercy again prevailed. The Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights were occupied by the Israelis in only six days. This conflict also saw the notable capture by the Jews of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem and the remaining Western (Wailing) Wall of the Temple. All holy Jewish and Christian sites were controlled by the Israelis at that point.

And consider the outcome of the surprise 1973 Yom Kippur assault. The Arabs, backed by one of the world's two nuclear superpowers, the former Soviet Union, attacked on two fronts; but Israel, coming close to major defeat, again came out the victor. Taken by surprise on their highest holy day, the Israelis were pushed back as the Arabs made territorial gains. Yet by what I believe was divine intervention, Israel regained all her land. Once again the hand of God, working in part through the agency of human beings, protected the outnumbered and despised Jewish nation.

What is the lesson to learn here? God has done it before, He will do it again!

Prophetic Foretellings

The history of God's divine protection of Israel since it was reborn as a nation in 1948 is a brilliant study in its own right. So let's take a quick look at some significant Old Testament prophecies regarding Israel's dispersion and regathering.

Jeremiah's Declaration

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, glimpsed through the lens of time that Israel's faithful, covenant-keeping God would offer His stretched-out wings as a place of divine protection to His people during their ingathering to the Promised Land:

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock." Jeremiah 31:10

We find three truths contained in this one verse from Jeremiah. First, it was God Himself who scattered Israel from her own homeland. Second, the same God who scattered Israel will regather her to her own land. And third, God will not merely regather Israel but keep her and put a divine hedge of protection about her as she is regathered. (Photo via pixabay)

Hosea's Pronouncement

Hosea 1:10 reads:

It will come about that, in the place where it is said to them, "You are not My people," it will be said to them, "You are the sons of the living God."

This piercing prophetic statement was given concerning the condition of the house of Israel at a time when she was in a state of rebellion and sin ("You are not My people"). But God's critical word of judgment did not end there.

This one verse speaks of physical restoration and relocation and also of the spiritual rebirth or revival that will take place among God's covenant people when they are returned to their covenant-given land. A miracle of major proportions is being declared here. What a reflection of the awesome faithfulness of our Father!

Two Regatherings Predicted

With the needed foundation in place of God's grace and His faithfulness, let's trace a few more steps back in history and glance at the topic of the Diaspora (the dispersion) of the Jewish people in history.

The First Regathering

It is my understanding that Scripture speaks prophetically beforehand that the Jews would suffer two major dispersions, or scatterings, from their own land, followed by two regatherings.

The first was in the years when the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel were exiled in the land of Babylon, that period in which the Jews of the Judean kingdom were displaced from their country after the destruction of the Temple, Jerusalem and commonwealth by Nebuchadnezzar (see Daniel 1:1-6). It was around 605-B.C. when Daniel and his associates were carried away. Their restoration to the land began in 538-B.C. (see 2-Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4), and the Temple remained unrestored until 515-B.C. (see Ezra 6:15), about seventy years after its destruction in 587-B.C.

Daniel, a prophet of the one true God, was in captivity with the children of Israel in Babylon – a foreign land with a foreign culture and gods and ways. It was perhaps in their sixty-third year of captivity, while meditating on the Word of God (see Daniel 9:2), that Daniel received a revelation based on the prophetic promises of Jeremiah:

"This whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation," declares the Lord.Jeremiah 25:11-12 (Photo via Wikipedia)

"Thus says the Lord, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.'" Jeremiah 29:10

Not only did Daniel believe the word and declare it as revealed to Jeremiah – that at the end of seventy years of Babylonian captivity, the children of Israel would be released from their enslavement and return to their own land – but Daniel sought the Lord for any reasons or blockades that could stand in the way of the prophetic promise being fulfilled (see Daniel 9:3-19). Daniel then responded by confessing the sin of his people as his own. The verse that summarizes his confession is Daniel 9:19:

"O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name."

The fact that the word of the Lord happened precisely as had been declared through the lips of Jeremiah, and knelt upon by the prophet Daniel, gives us an example of prophetic intercession at its best. At the end of seventy years the Israelites were released into the beginning fulfillment of the prophecy of their first return to their covenant land.

The Second Regathering

That was not the only dispersion and regathering prophesied by God's watchmen. Isaiah 11:11-12 states that the Lord would set His hand a second time to recover a remnant of His people:

It will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations, and will assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Let's make it simple. The Scriptures explain that there would be a regional dispersion followed by a regional regathering. Then there would come a second worldwide dispersion followed by a second worldwide regathering. When did the second dispersion occur? It began around 70 A.D. under the Roman ruler Titus, when the Jewish people once again fled their homeland and ran for their lives. For many hundreds of years they scattered – but for approximately nineteen hundred years they were banished from their homeland to the four corners of the earth.

Closing Appeal

A warrior angel came and stood at the end of my bed one year ago. All it said was, "Attention! Be on the Alert!" Are you alert right now as a watchman on the walls? (Photo of Charles Finney via Wikimedia)

From my vantage point, that is exactly what I is see is needed in the Middle East today. We need the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation concerning His prophetic calendar for Israel, so that His heart for Jerusalem and the people of the Middle East will beat in our own heart.

Join me as together we help give birth to God's purposes through the power of prophetic intercession. Join me on the walls, watchmen, and let's lift a cry for Israel for such a time as this!

On the Alert!

This article is an updated excerpt of Chapter 8 – Israel God's Prophetic Calendar, from the book The Prophetic Intercessor.

Dr. James W. Goll
Founder of Encounters Network • Prayer Storm • God Encounters Training e-School

Email: info@encountersnetwork.com
Website: encountersnetwork.com

Dr. James W. Goll is the president of Encounters Network, director of Prayer Storm, and coordinates Encounters Alliance, a coalition of leaders. He is director of God Encounters Training – an e-school of the heart, and is a member of the Harvest International Ministries apostolic team. He has shared Jesus in more than 50 nations worldwide, teaching and imparting the power of intercession, prophetic ministry, and life in the Spirit. James is the prolific author of numerous books and has also produced multiple study guides and hundreds of audio and video messages. James was married to Michal Ann for 32 years before her graduation to Heaven in the fall of 2008. James has four adult children who all love Jesus, and continues to make his home in Franklin, Tennessee.

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Covenants ("Brit" in Hebrew)

Messianic Bible (news@biblesforisrael.com)

Jerusalem

Shalom,

“This is the covenant…” (Jeremiah 31:33)

While Western cultures are familiar with the idea of blood brothers, they are often not so familiar with the concept of a blood covenant, which is important in much of the world.

Covenant is also one of the most important concepts and central themes found in the Bible.



Jewish men pray at the Western (Wailing) Wall

The Hebrew word for covenant is brit, which appears 284 times in the Tanakh (Old Testament). (Strong's)

This word implies pact, contract, treaty or agreement between two parties and is likely derived from the Hebrew verb barah, which means to cut.

This Hebrew root brings to mind the Covenant of the Pieces (Brit bein HaBetarim or Covenant Between the Parts) in which the smoking firepot and blazing torchpassed between the halves of the heifer, goat, and ram that Abraham cut when God promised him the Land, providing its physical dimensions:

“When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadie of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates….” (Genesis15:17–21; see also Jeremiah 34:18)

And because the physical dimensions of the Land are provided in this covenant, there can be no over-spiritualizing its meaning into some otherworldly spiritual realm.



A street in Old City of Jerusalem

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The word brit (covenant) carries a connotation of the shedding of blood. This is nothing unusual: even from the earliest of times, covenant agreements were often ratified by animal sacrifice or an exchange of blood.

Such a covenant is so binding that to break it would result in the death of the person who broke it and often the family as well.

Abraham, therefore, was following an ancient custom when he cut the three animals in two and placed them in such a way that the blood formed a pathway.

The two parties entering into this covenant would walk through the blood to confirm a covenant in which each party could lay claim to all the possessions of the other party.

But in the case of this covenant, only the smoking, burning Presence—a manifestation of God that is reminiscent of the pillar of fire that guided the Israelites through the wilderness centuries later—walked through the blood.

Why? Only God could establish this everlasting covenant, and the responsibility for maintaining it fell solely upon Him.

This was no mere contract that could be voided. It was an unconditional, eternal trust. This covenant is often referred to as the Abrahamic Covenant.



Orthodox Jewish children play at the Lions Fountain in 
Yemin Moshe, a Jerusalem neighborhood that 
overlooks the Old City.


Implied Covenants in the Garden of Eden

“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21)

The first covenant between man and God was probably made with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and it did not involve the shedding of blood.

Though Genesis does not use the word covenant in regards to God’s conditional promises made to Adam, the prophet Hosea does refer to it as a covenant:

“As at Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to me there.” (Hosea 6:7)

Hosea seems to be speaking of God’s commands when he placed Adam in Gan Eden (Garden of Eden) to care for it:

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:15)



El Mona Garden in Julis, a Druze village in the 
Galilee region of Israel

Perhaps the earliest example of a blood covenant can be traced to the time in the Garden when animals were first killed to provide clothing for Adam and Eve(Genesis 3:21).

This was the second covenant that God made with them.

Because Eve, and then Adam, succumbed to the temptation of the serpent, their connection with God was severed. They realized they were naked and tried to weave a garment of fig leaves to cover their shame.

In response, God promised to give the Messiah who would come to destroy the work of the serpent and restore the relationship between humankind and God.

The promise is worded in such a way as to infer that God would be intimately involved in the person of this promised Redeemer:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” (Genesis 3:15–16)

What followed is considered by some to be an implied covenant: the shedding of innocent blood to provide a covering that was necessary as a result of sin.



Noah's Ark, by Edward Hicks


Noahic Covenant

“Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: … I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’” (Genesis 9:8–11)

The first covenant explicitly spoken of in the Bible is the covenant God made after the flood destroyed the earth.

It is unique in that God made it with all of humankind; and through this covenant, all of humanity is still in a covenant with God in which people are not permitted to eat blood or to commit murder (Genesis 9:4–6).

In this covenant, God promised to never again destroy the earth through a flood as he had during Noah’s time.

The sign that God gave Noah to seal this covenant is the rainbow (Genesis9:12–17).



A double rainbow over Petah Tikvah, which is about 
11 kilometers (7 miles) east of Tel Aviv.


Abrahamic Covenant

“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7–8)

In the Abrahamic Covenant, God promises Abraham the Land of Israel, descendants, and blessings. (Genesis 12:1–3)

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1–3)

Understanding the Abrahamic Covenant is extremely important since it governs God's unique relationship with Israel, as well as His relationship with the nations.



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) 
and Malta Prime Minister Dr. Joseph Muscat (left) 
at a recent meeting in Jerusalem.

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Each of the three aspects of the Abrahamic Covenant—land, descendants, and blessing— form a basis for three other covenants:

God’s promise of land is expanded with the Land Covenant(Deuteronomy 29:1–30:20).

“For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.” (Deuteronomy 30:16)

God’s promise of descendants is expanded with the Davidic Covenantand its promise of the coming King Messiah (2 Samuel 7:11–16; 1 Chronicles 17:10–14).

“I will set Him over My house and My kingdom forever; His throne will be established forever.” (1 Chronicles 17:14)

God’s promise of blessing is expanded through the New Covenant(Jeremiah 31:31-34).

“I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. … they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." (Jeremiah 31:33–34)



A Jewish man wears a tallit (prayer shawl) 
and tefillin (phylacteries) while he prays slichot 
(penitential poems and prayers).

As an eternal sign of His covenant with Abraham, God gave him the Brit Milah(Covenant of Circumcision) (Genesis 17:9–14).

The Brit Milah takes place with every Jewish male infant on the eighth day after birth.

This rite of circumcision is the vehicle through which every generation is able to enter into the covenant formed between God and Abraham.


The practice of wearing tefillin during weekday morning
prayer is based upon the Biblical injunction in Exodus
13:9, 16 and Deuteronomy 6:8, 11:18 to bind God's Word
on the arm and place it close to the heart.


The Mosaic Covenant

“Now if you obey me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5–6)

When God cut the Covenant of the Pieces with Abraham, He told Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years in a country that was not their own.

The Mosaic Covenant is the covenant that God made with the Israelites—Abraham’s descendants—at the end of this 400 year period, after He saved them from slavery in Egypt.

In this covenant, God separated the Israelites from the nations, making them a light for those nations—a kingdom of priests and a holy nation that serves the One True covenant-keeping God.

He gave His law to the Jewish People through Moses on Mount Sinai—laws that govern morality, the sacrificial system and the priesthood, and civil life.

To violate any one of these laws is to violate the Law as a whole.



Moses and the Ten Commandments,
by James Tissot

While the Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional, the Mosaic Covenant is conditional.

If Israel is obedient to this covenant, they will experience the blessings of this covenant, but if they are disobedient, they will experience its curses.

The blessings and curses that are associated with this conditional covenant are detailed in Deuteronomy 28.

This covenant reveals the absolute holiness of God and the sinfulness of mankind.

It is a continuous reminder to the Jewish People, indeed, all the nations, of our need for the Redeemer, the promised Messiah.


An Orthodox father and his children examine the 
world map near the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem.

As with other covenants, blood is involved. When Moses ratified the covenant with the Israelites, he sacrificed young bulls:

“Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’” (Exodus 24:8)

Furthermore, the covenant has a sacrificial system that provides a means of entering the presence of the righteous and holy God. This system also providescoverings (atonements) for the sins of the people of Israel.

While circumcision is the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, the Sabbath can be considered the sign of the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 31:12–18).

"Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe My Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.” (Exodus 31:13)



Foot traffic and street traffic stand in stark contrast in 
Jerusalem on a busy Shabbat (Saturday) afternoon, since 
starting a combustion engine on Shabbat is considered a 
violation of the Law of Moses by those who are observant.


The New Covenant

“‘Days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.’” (Jeremiah 31:3)

The New Covenant, which is a term that is only explicitly used once in the Tanakh (Old Testament) in Jeremiah 31:31–34, it is founded on covenant promises that came before it.

It fulfills the promise that God made in the Garden to Adam—that One would cometo crush the serpent’s head (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8; Colossians 2:15; Romans16:20) and restore an intimate relationship with the Holy God.

This promised One came through Abraham’s lineage under the Abrahamic Covenant.

Jeremiah states that the New Covenant will not be like the Mosaic Covenant of law that God made with the Israelites when He brought them out of Egypt, which they broke.

It is an unconditional covenant of grace given to Israel that is capable of transforming people from the inside out so that God’s laws are internalized and written on the heart—one in which His people can draw close to Him.



A woman prays at the Western Wall.

The New Covenant was ratified through Messiah’s sacrificial death on the Roman execution stake.

Whereas we were unable to keep the Mosaic Covenant, continually turning away from God and suffering the consequences, in the New Covenant, Yeshua alone has the ability to save those who put their faith in Him; this salvation cannot be attained by good works or by keeping the law or by anything other than faith in Him.

Moreover, He has provided the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to empower Believers to keep the covenant and receive an eternal inheritance.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Many have argued that the New Covenant abolishes or replaces the Mosaic Covenant, but Yeshua said this was not so:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17–19)




The New Covenant also does not end the Abrahamic Covenant, but is a measure for carrying out the blessings purposed in it.

In fulfillment of the blessings that the Abrahamic Covenant would bring to the nations(Galatians 3:14), those who put their faith in Yeshua (Jesus) are grafted into the olive tree of Israel.

“You, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.” (Romans 11:17)

After all, God promised Abraham that he would be “the father of many nations” (Genesis 17:3).




Through the New Covenant, God has brought all the pieces together that are necessary for the realization of the coming Kingdom that Yeshua promised.

And when Yeshua returns, the full power of the New Covenant will be seen both here in Israel and around the world.

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"My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children's children will live there forever, and David My Servant will be their prince forever." (Ezekiel 37:24–25)