Daily devotion – no like no other time.
Our flights to Israel now have been officially cancelled by the Emirates airline and we now await our refunds. We have travelled to Israel a number of times as has some of you. Each time we have gone I have always had in the back of my mind, is this the last?
When Noah our grandson first advised me on October 7 that hostilities had broken out in Israel I took it to be like so many other times in the past. Israel will deal with it as usual and so never took to heart what was happening. However, when I heard and saw the PM of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu declare “War”, I knew this time was different, very different.
The conflict in the Middle East, Israel, has polarized the world and drawn out the animosity that has been brewing against God’s people but now found a break in the dam.
I say all of this because this time, these events are not like any previously! Israel has the world’s attention and focus.
Matthew 24: 32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
I still remember walking out of the picture theatre in Fremantle on November 22nd 1969 as a young boy only to see the newspaper headlines – President Kennedy shot dead.
I also recall July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
The events in Israel 2023 – are in the same capacity – as we will see that the world will never be the same since October 7.
Jesus tells us in Matthew’s Gospel – that when we see all these things, now that it is near…!
And when these things BEGIN to come to pass – suggests that a sign need not be full blown before it is important to God’s people.
Christ’s return is near, our generation sees a foreshadowing of these signs – but we are looking for a Saviour not signs as such.
Watch and pray, look up for our redemption draws near.
Israel, the Tribulation period, all major events in God’s Word teaching us in these times to be alert, faithful – how grateful we ought to be that God has NOT appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation when Jesus Christ appears. – 1 Thess 1:10.
Soon!