Hope for Israel in a Hostile Global Environment

Lamentations 3:22-42

It seems like a miracle that the State of Israel has not been altogether destroyed, even though it has only been seventy-four years since their existence, from 1948. The Israelis can claim God’s mercies, but the complete package of His mercies come by believing Jesus Christ who said, “Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:36 Mercy is something not found in the global government, which operates through the mark of the beast, yet that is what God requires of Israel and each one of us.

²²Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³ They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

Israel has been waiting thousands of years for their Messiah, and when He came, they rejected Him. It is essential to have faith in God through Jesus Christ, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 In their youth, from Old Testament times, Israel always had their focus on obtaining the promised land, that is a good yoke to carry. But that promised land no longer includes the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, nor the Temple Mount, but it is the inheritance of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is not a reconstructed Jerusalem on this earth, but it comes in the new heaven and earth which is eternal and only comes through Jesus. However, all of the earthly Holy Land was established to lift up God’s Holiness in the eyes of the world. As the Holy Land is being attacked and desecrated, God is being attacked and desecrated, which brings God’s retribution and the destruction of the global government of the mark of the beast. As followers of Jesus Christ, we hope and wait quietly for the return of Jesus as we watch the events in the Middle East unfold.

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
²⁶ It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.

Every community around the world is filled with hostility, and those who live by the mark of the beast thrive on kindling those fires against the ones they reject. Israel is surrounded by enemies who thrive on getting them to sound off in hostile ways. Jesus Christ teaches us through the Holy Spirit, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 1:19 Jesus Christ teaches what God was saying to Israel thousands of years ago, “To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. ” Luke 6:29

²⁸ Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
²⁹ Let him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
³⁰ Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.

Israel has hope because God is not bent on causing her affliction and grief. Israel, like all humanity, can come to a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That relationship will not make them conquerors over the West Bank, nor the Gaza Strip, nor will it gain them the Temple Mount, but it will give them the inheritance of the New Jerusalem. That is the promised land that God gives us through Jesus Christ. We are all prisoners on this earth, and if Jesus is not the Savior, then every one of us are left to be crushed with no coming justice. The Lord does not approve of crushing us, and that is why He sent His Son Jesus Christ, to bring liberty, justice, and Salvation. Justice is given to those whose name is written in Jesus’s book, and that book is the Lamb’s Book of Life.

³¹ For the Lord will not cast off forever.
³² Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
³³ For He does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.

³⁴ To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the earth,
³⁵ To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
³⁶ Or subvert a man in his cause—
The Lord does not approve.

There is only one way for the remission of sins to happen, and that is to believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. What is belief in God if we reject His Son Jesus Christ? God does not pardon where there is transgression against Him, who sent His Son so that whoever believes in Him will be saved. Every one of us, including all of Israel, needs to examine our ways and return to the Lord through Christ Jesus. Jesus will pronounce judgment on every person, some to the well-being of eternal life, and some to the woe of eternal torment.

³⁷ Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That woe and well-being proceed?
³⁹ Why should a living man complain,
A man for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰ Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
⁴¹ Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.
⁴² We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.