2 Samuel 7

We are in the seventh chapter of 2 Samuel. David is at a place now where he doesn't have any other enemies to fight. He has built his palace now in Jerusalem. So he has this gorgeous place to live. You can imagine him going out on the veranda– the balcony– of his palace. And he looks out. Remember last week we dealt with the issue of his bringing the tabernacle– excuse me– the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, where it would reside in the tabernacle. It was a tent, much like they used during the time of Moses, during the wanderings of Israel. But you can imagine him living in this gorgeous, palatial place of his own and looking out into the city of Jerusalem and seeing this tent, knowing that inside that tent is the Ark of the Covenant, this glorious gold-plated, beautiful box, which is the symbol of the presence of God in the nation of Israel. And to think to himself, it just feels weird. Here I am living in this gorgeous home, and the Ark of the Covenant, the ark of God, is in a tent. You can imagine what David would immediately think. That is actually how the chapter begins. It says in verse 1 here:

Now this is going to begin a process of God speaking to David about things to come that… I just need to tell you that this chapter. And this is the only chapter we are going to get through tonight, this chapter is so important. It is so pivotal. It is so vital, not just to the life of David, but to the understanding we have of the coming of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, that I almost think this chapter should be the middle of your Bible. No, it's not, is it. It ought to be this central point, because it seems to me like things from the Old Testament come to here, and then from here they go out into the New Testament. And we begin just to see this unfolding of this prophetic, incredible stuff from this chapter. Okay, because David wants to build God a house. It is a very good thing that David wants to do, but what we're going to see, and you can see that Nathan, the prophet, is even impressed with this idea. He has Nathan over, and says, Hey, here I am living in this great house, and the Ark of the Covenant is in a tent. Nathan doesn't even consult the Lord. He just says– and not that he had to consult the Lord at that point– he just said, Do what's in your heart to do. He is not giving David a word from the Lord. Please understand, Nathan isn't giving a prophetic message here. He just says, God is blessing you in every way. He has been blessing everything you set your hand to, so go ahead and set your hands to do whatever they find to do. And surely the Lord's blessing will be upon you. That is really all he is essentially saying, but God has actually a different message. This is interesting. Verse 4 and following say:

Now stop there. You say, Well, God is saying to David, I'll make you a house. Well, doesn't David already have a house? That is not the kind of house He is talking about. He is talking about a dynasty. When we talk about the dynasty of the current, like, Queen of England, for example, we talk about– they talk about the house of– what is it? It starts with a W… Windsor. That's right. The House of Windsor. Obviously they are not talking about a physical structure, but the House of Windsor is the dynasty of the Queen of England and the family that came before her, and the family that will come after. God is saying to David when He says, I will build you a house. He is saying, I will build you a lasting dynasty. I am not talking again about the house you live in and that you lay your head down on. I am talking about your children who come after you, and so forth. And so what God– isn't this interesting?-- David sets out to build a house for the Lord. And God speaks through the prophet Nathan. And He says, He said, no, actually, that is not what I want you to do. He is going to talk about who will build that house in just a moment. But He says, That's not what I want you to do for Me, David. We'll even find out why in a minute, but He says, I tell you what, though, I will build you a house. This prophecy, this statement that God is making to David is what I was talking about earlier. It becomes that center point where prophecy begins to spill into this point, and it will spill on into the future, into the coming of Messiah. Because– I don't know if you guys remember– but way back in Genesis, in fact, it is the very end of Genesis, Jacob is about to die: 49th chapter of Genesis. And he has been sprawled out. He has been bedridden for some time, but his sons all gather around him. And so he rallies his strength, and he sits up on the side of the bed, and he begins to speak over all of his sons. Do you remember? And he begins to say things over his sons, and he begins to speak prophetically. Some of his sons have frittered away their position through their choices, and so forth. And he speaks about those things. And then he comes to his one son named Judah. Do you remember? I'm going to put this up on the screen for you because this is, again, a very important prophetic verse. I am quoting it here out of the NIV. And it says:

The scepter (and obviously the scepter is something that is held by a king, right? The scepter) will not depart from Judah (Jacob says, over his son), nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. Now, this is considered to be a Messianic prophecy, and when we say messianic, we mean relating to or referring to the Messiah. That is where messianic comes from. So this is a Messianic prophecy. In other words, speaking of the coming of Jesus Christ, who is the ruler who will rule and reign, and rule over all the nations. This literally catapults us all the way into the future, into what we call the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ upon the earth. It hasn't happened yet. So this prophecy back in Genesis, chapter 49, hasn't come to pass yet. It will. It will happen during the Millennial Kingdom. Now, what is interesting here is that he speaks this over Judah, right? Now, fast-forward now a couple of thousand years or so, and we come to the prophecy that you are basically looking at here, essentially of David. And David, you will remember, was born of the tribe of Judah, in Bethlehem. So it is David's line through which this prophecy is ultimately going to be fulfilled. So this is why I am saying, as I was going through and looking at this, going through this chapter here in 2 Samuel Chapter 7, I was thinking to myself, Wow, this is just so huge. I mean, this chapter ties together prophecies from the beginning of the Old Testament through the Old Testament into the New Testament and into the future that even hasn't happened yet. And there is this thread of prophecy that goes through the Scriptures. And it centers around, and David is at the center. It begins in Genesis, then the tribe of Judah, and then David, and then we move on. Let's do just that. We are going to look here at what they say. So he goes on here, and he says in verse 12. Look at verse 12 with me:

Stop there.

Now, this is an interesting example of prophecy in the Old Testament that actually has some elements in it that are fulfilled in the immediate future, and some which will not be fulfilled until the far distant future. The immediate future is, of course, Solomon. He is talking about Solomon in the immediate future. He says, listen, David, I know you want to build a house for Me. I appreciate that. That's cool and all, but you are not the one to build it for me. Actually, your son Solomon is going to be the one who is going to build that house. And Solomon is the one who built the temple. And there is a specific reason for that which we will get to in just a moment again. But then he goes on to say things about this kingdom which weren't true of Solomon. And one of the things is that He is going to establish his kingdom forever, on into eternity. Well, that didn't apply to Solomon. Solomon's reign came to an end. Gave it over to his son Rehoboam, who wasn't a real wise king. And then, eventually, it went on and on down the Davidic line, until, essentially. During the time of Jeremiah, the nation of Judah was conquered by the Babylonian army. And from that point onward, there were no Davidic kings. The Davidic line didn't die out, but the kings did. No king sat on a throne after that time. So what's all this eternity stuff? What's all this “It will go on forever” stuff. Well, obviously that is prophecy, which also speaks beyond the immediate into the distant and is only accomplished through Jesus Christ. This is what we call a parallel prophecy. It happens a lot in the Bible. And if you don't understand it, you are going to misunderstand and misinterpret a lot of prophecy. Because there are many times in the Old Testament, particularly, where prophecies have a near fulfillment and a distant fulfillment. This is just one of many situations where that takes place. Now he goes on here again verse 16: “‘And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever (again) before me. Your throne (look at this) shall be established forever.’ (ongoing) In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.” So again David is told, You're not the one to build the temple. But we know that from elsewhere, God was pleased that David asked or wanted to build the temple because later on we have a passage from 1 Kings where Solomon spoke of this, and look what he said from 1 Kings, Chapter 8, he said:

But the LORD said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.” God wasn't criticizing David at all for having that desire in his heart. It was a good thing. It's just that he wasn't the one to do it. And we find out actually at the very end of David's life why David was not to build the house for the Lord. And it is actually in 1 Chronicles, Chapter 28. This is David speaking now, and he says,

But God said to me, ‘You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood.’ Now we don't know exactly when God revealed that to David, but sometime, obviously, it was either in that initial message through Nathan or later on, but God spoke to David and said, You are not to be the one who builds the house for me, because you are a man of war. I'm going to have your son build a house for me because he is going to be a man of peace. What does that tell you about Solomon? Isn't that an interesting picture of Solomon? Solomon was a man who reigned during an extended, protracted time of peace. And so he is the picture of the Son of David to come, who we call the Prince of Peace. And he is the one who is going to build the house for God. Do you guys understand that the whole idea of building a house is a picture of Jesus and what He is also doing, and that is, building a house. Jesus is building a house, just like Solomon built a house. Solomon was a king in time of peace, and he was the one to build a house. It wasn't to be a man of bloodshed. Bloodshed refers back to the Law. But yet the man of peace builds the temple, establishes the thing, and that is a picture of Jesus Christ. Keep reading with me now in verse 18: “Then King David went in and sat before the LORD (now he's going to go, and he's going to pray after hearing this. You might think that David might be disappointed after hearing from God,

You're not to build this temple. He is not disappointed at all. He is, in fact, he says,) ‘Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord GOD! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord GOD! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. “22 Therefore you are great, O Lord GOD. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? “24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. 25 And now, O Lord GOD, confirm forever the word you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The LORD of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you.” Can you see how David is just blown away by this? He says, I can't believe what You have done. He starts off by saying, Who am I? I suppose it could have gone to somebody else's head, but David was such a man of humility. And he hears this from the Lord, and he just thinks, he must be laughing inside. Who am I that You have chosen me? I'm nothing. I'm nobody. You picked me up off the farm, brought me out of the pasture. I was out taking care of my dad's sheep, and you made me king over Israel. And now this? And now You not only make me king over all of Israel, but You establish my kingdom and say that it will go on forever. This is incredible. This just blows my mind. David says, You told me– I came to say, I wanted to build you a house– and You came to me and said, no, David, I'll build you a house. And so I found courage to pray to You because of what You have said to me. “And now (verse 28), O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29 Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord GOD, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.” David knew– and how much he knew beyond his own physical progeny, his own children, the descendants of his children, we don't know. How much he knew of the greater scheme of God's redemptive plan to bring the Messiah through his offspring, we don't really know. But David is absolutely blown away by this. And so his response to God is interesting. He says, Now God, do what You're going to do. You told me this is what You are going to do– now do it! Isn't that an interesting thing to say to the Lord? What would you say to the Lord if the Lord made a big promise like this to you? David comes back and he goes, God, Okay, You said You are going to do this– now do it. I pray that You would confirm it, and You would carry it out. Bring it about. This is a wonderful plan that You have. Now, what you have just read here in 2 Samuel, Chapter 7, is referred to as, essentially, the terms of the Davidic Covenant. You will notice that this covenant is a kind of covenant within a covenant. It is going on during the time of the Mosaic Covenant, but it is not part of the Mosaic Covenant. Remember, the Mosaic Covenant is a covenant of the land, where God said to the people of Israel, Obey My law and I will bless you in the land, right? I'll bless you. I will bless you against your enemies. I will bless your crops. I will bless your children. It is a very physical sort of promise that went along to the condition that they obey the Law. Did you notice here in this Davidic Covenant that God says to David, I am going to carry this out, and your kingdom will continue no matter what. Now, if your son disobeys me, and now he is talking about his physical son, Solomon and the ones who came after. If they disobey me, I will chastise them. And He is talking about sending prophets and even sending enemies in future years to try to get their attention. Ultimately, He will bring, as we said, the Babylonian army to conquer them. So He said, I will do that when they get out of line. But I want you to know something, David. As far as they may get out of line– and they're going to go way off-course– I will never remove this promise from you. It doesn't matter what happens.

It doesn't matter what you do, and it doesn't matter what you don't do. I will keep this promise, and your throne will last forever. So this promise made to David, that is why we pull it out of the Mosaic Covenant because it is not conditional like the Mosaic Covenant is: Got to keep My law. Here he doesn't say that. He doesn't say, Keep My law, and you guys can keep being king. He doesn't say, Be a good king, and you can keep being king; love Me and you can keep being king. He says, I will establish your throne, and it will go on forever and ever, because He is talking about this covenant, which speaks to us of the coming covenant under Messiah, which of course will be a covenant that will be everlasting and will give everlasting life. Now. This covenant that you have just read here in 2 Samuel 7 is echoed in beautiful form in one of the Psalms. And I actually want to take you there tonight. I want you to– we are not going to read the whole thing– but I want to take you to Psalm 89. And this is a beautiful Psalm because it outlines the essence of this Davidic Covenant. In fact, it is in Psalm 89 that the word covenant is used related to this. Did you notice in 2 Samuel 7, God doesn't refer to it as a covenant, but it is referred to as one here. This does enlarge and give us some interesting information. Psalm 89, beginning in verse 1: this Psalm begins by saying:

Now skip down to verse 20 in this Psalm:

26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my

Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ 27 And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” Oh, see, now we just jumped into this parallel prophecy, didn't we? We just moved beyond David. Because now God begins to speak of the coming of Messiah, who will be the king of all kings. And that is what Jesus is referred to: King of all kings. He says here, I will establish Him. I will keep Him. And He will be the highest of the kings of all the earth. Verse 28: “My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. 29 I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens (in other words, for eternity). “30 If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules (now we are back to the sons of David), 31 if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, 32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, 33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. 34 I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.” Listen to this) “35 ‘Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. 36 His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. 37 Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.’” It's beautiful, isn't it? We see these incredible threads moving through the Scriptures in this central focus of God's Word related to this promise made to David concerning, first of all, in the short term, his own sons, and then ultimately to the Messiah. Now, we know that Solomon went on after David passed away, and he began to build that temple. But you will remember something else about David. God told David that he wasn't the man to build the temple, but you know what he did with the rest of his life, don't you? He spent the rest of his life preparing to see that temple built. He was socking away every nickel and dime and piece of gold and silver he could get his hands on. He was tucking it away so that Solomon would have the incredible resources to begin that process. Then God blessed Solomon even beyond that. And this temple rose in such magnificence and splendor and glory, and so forth.

David spent the rest of his life– isn't that interesting– preparing for this temple to be built, even though he wasn't the one to build it himself. It speaks about the heart of David, I think. I mean, David was a worshipper. And more than a king, he was a shepherd who cared about the flock of Israel. He wanted these people to worship and center around the worship of Yahweh. It was vitally important to him. And for him personally to build the temple, that was a big deal for David. This was a dream. He wanted to bring the ark back to Jerusalem, and then he wanted to build around it a magnificent temple. But God said, No. You are not the one to do it. So instead of moping around, which we might do if we have been told no about something. David spent the rest of his life preparing for that thing that he wasn't going to be able to do. Isn't that interesting? What would you– how would you– respond if you felt like the Lord called you maybe somewhere, but then you found out later that wasn't the will of the Lord. I have had people come to me a lot over the years and say, I really feel like the Lord has called me into such and such, or to go to this place. And then I have watched as it just didn't pan out. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn't. Just because something is on your heart doesn't mean that is God's will for your life. This was on David's heart to do. And he was convinced that he was going to do it until God came along and said, No, you are not the one to do this. Your son is going to do this. So you see, we can be convinced of something. Imagine if you were convinced that you were supposed to go somewhere. Maybe you had a heart to go out into missions, and you really had this burden and this passion for some country in the world. It was your fervent desire to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ established to those people. You are studying about those people, and you are learning all about it, and you get your visa and your passport all put together and everything. And then the Lord speaks to you and says, No, it is not you who is going to go. It is going to be one of your kids that is actually going to go. Or maybe it is not you who is going to go, but it is going to be somebody else that you know. I laid this area on your heart so that you would pray and prepare the way for somebody else to do the work. Would you sit around and mope and be all sad, I wanted to go… or would you get busy?

David spent the rest of his life. He didn't see that temple go up. But he joyfully prepared for it. Can you imagine somebody again who has a heart for missions, and they had every– I mean every– fiber of their being wanted to go to that place and share the Gospel, but God said, No, you are not going to go. Somebody else is going to go in your place. So you say, you know what? That is a burden God put in my heart. I will spend the rest of my days praying for those people in that land that they might be open to the Gospel when God sends those people over there. I am going to take the money that God has given me, and I am going to start saving it up to give to those missionaries when they go to that place. I'm going to write information down and stuff that will be useful for them in the future that they can take with them and be better prepared to go to that place. Do you understand the difference here between deciding that, Oh, poor me, or actually doing something for the kingdom of God, even though you won't see it come to fruition. I just think that is really amazing. It is an amazing aspect of David's personality that I greatly appreciate. Solomon builds this glorious temple, and it truly is glorious. The presence of the Lord fills that place. They took the ark in there after it was done, and they dedicated it. The Bible says that the glory of the Lord was so great, they couldn't even go in to do what they were supposed to do in the temple. God just moved powerfully. And it was a wonderful, glorious thing. God in the midst of the temple. Now here is where we get– we bring it– to the New Testament. We see that Solomon is a type and a shadow of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. We have the king of peace who reigned in peace, who built the temple of the Lord. Now we have the Prince of Peace who is the son of God. And yet also, what did they call Jesus during his public ministry? It wasn't Son of Adam. It wasn't Son of Abraham. There was one name that he went by, Son of David. And isn't it interesting? That's why I say this is such a central point prophetically in your Bible. God says this to David, I'm going to build a house for you. And from this point forward, we know and understand the Messiah will be the Son of David. During his public ministry, do you know, it was great. People would get his attention by just calling him Son of David, because that was saying, Messiah. You remember blind Bartimaeus? (Mark 10:46-52) Jesus is walking through Jericho, and blind Bartimaeus is sitting there by the roadside. He asks people, What's going on? Jesus is walking by. He starts calling out, Son of David! Isn't calling by Jesus of Nazareth. Son of David! Have mercy on me! he says. And everybody's telling him, Shut up. Just be quiet. And they're shooing him down. Just sit down and be quiet. You're just making too much– It says he yelled even louder. Son of David! Have mercy on me! Jesus stops the whole procession. Who is that? Who's calling me? Over there. Bring him. So then the people next to him who were telling him to shut up just a minute ago said, hey, it's your happy day. He's calling for you. So they help him up, and they go over. You guys know the story. Jesus heals him of his blindness, and he follows along rejoicing afterwards. But notice he calls out to him, Son of David. This points back to Genesis 49 first, where Israel says to his son Judah, Son of David, the scepter will not depart from you, from your tribe, until it comes to him whom it belongs. And then we come to 2 Samuel, Chapter 7, and David says, I want to make you a house. And God says, No, I'm going to build you a house, David. And henceforth, your kingdom will never end, and the Messiah will come, and He will be known as the Son of David. It is beautiful. But the fact of the matter is, Jesus is also in the house-building business. You guys know that too. He is also building a house. Guess what that house is? It's you. It's you and me. Look what Peter says in 1 Peter, Chapter 2:

As you come to him. a living stone rejected by men (talking about Jesus) but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house. You see, Jesus is doing the very same thing that Solomon is doing, that David wanted to do, but David couldn't do because he was a man of blood. He was a man of war, but Solomon could do because he was a king of peace. The Prince of Peace who came after him would build that house. But this would not be a physical house this time. It would be a spiritual house, and it is made of living stones. And I am looking at them right now, at least some of them. And you guys are those living stones that are being built into a living temple in which God will dwell in the center. It's incredible, isn't it? It's just amazing how these things all come together. There is one of the most beautiful passages. I use this to sum this prophetic thing up from Luke. I love how Luke tells us so much about the birth of Jesus and the prophecies that took place. If it wasn't for Luke, some of these things we wouldn't have probably had knowledge of. Thank God, Luke went and we think he probably even interviewed Mary. And that's why he had so much information related to the birth of Christ. But Luke records for us that conversation in detail where Gabriel comes to Mary and he speaks to her and he too prophesies. Let me put this up on the screen for you as well. Love this passage. Luke 1:31-33 (ESV)

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. (Look at this) And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” That is exactly what God said through the prophet Nathan back in 2 Samuel Chapter 7, when he said, David, No, you are not the one to build a house, but I am going to build a house for you, and I will establish your throne forever. The angel Gabriel comes along and says it to this young girl. Same thing. You are going to have a son and he will rule, and he will reign on the throne of David, and God will establish his kingdom, and it will never end. So do you see the beauty of this? Do you see the centrality of this particular prophetic chapter in 2 Samuel? That's why I wanted to take time tonight to really focus on this and bring out as much as I could, both sides of the prophetic picture, both starting from Genesis on up to the declaration of the Davidic Covenant. And then on into the future– Mary's– the Declaration to Mary and the prophecy onward related to the Millennial Kingdom, when Jesus will rule and reign on the throne of David. It is an amazing passage, and frankly the prophetic string that we see stretching through these passages is just delightful. When people ask me why I believe the Bible is true, I always point to prophecy as one of the main elements, certainly not the only one, but one of the main elements why I see God's divine touch in His hand and authority in the Scriptures. That element of prophecy is missing in other sacred books. It is not only missing, it is blatantly false in some sacred books. For example, the books of Mormon and prophecies that have been made by Joseph Smith and so forth, which have not come to pass. Even specific prophecies relating to specific times have not been fulfilled. But in the Bible we see this beautiful and perfect aspect of fulfillment related to the prophecies in the Scriptures. And we see this thread of consistency. I don't care whether you go to Genesis or Samuel or Peter or Luke or any of the other books of the Bible. When you see these passages related to prophecies made about the coming of Messiah, there is this consistent thread that you can follow all the way through, almost like you are canoeing up a stream. And it is unbroken, and you can get from Genesis to Revelation, and you can find your way there through this prophetic stream that runs through the Word of God. It is incredible, and it shows that there is an Author behind the authors of the 66 books of the Bible, written by some 40 different authors over a period of some 2,500 years. There is this amazing consistency that shows us the Author behind the author. And prophecy is one of the most powerful ways to show the authority and the historicity and the accuracy of God's Word throughout the Scripture, it really is truly amazing. That is the thing that I really wanted to focus on tonight, and I hope that it is an encouragement to you as well. Because even though we have looked at some prophetic elements of this that have not yet come to pass, particularly related to the Millennial Kingdom there is so much that you and I can be so certain about that which hasn't come to pass yet actually happening. Because we have so much prophetic evidence on our side that we can already look at to say fulfilled, fulfilled, fulfilled, just right down the line. So when we come to some of the other things like, man, we're just waiting for that. We're just waiting for that. I've told you guys– some of you have gotten into this author, George Mueller. I've talked about him from the pulpit several times. Autobiography which we sell in the bookstore. And I read some other works from him. In fact, I have a

--- book that is a collection of messages that he spoke over a period of years, several years. Usually they are little devotional-type messages, but he spoke them to a group. They were just recorded– not “recorded”– I mean it was in the 1800s, it wasn't recorded, written recorded. But anyway, he was living in a time when Israel had not yet been regathered. That wasn’t until 1947. So he was living way before that. He was living a hundred years before that. Yet he talked about it, and he knew that prophetically it was going to happen. And George Mueller talked; he says, Oh, we know that Israel is going to be a nation again. At that time, can you imagine living in that time, 150 years ago or whatever? And Israel– there is no Israel, there is no Israel. Yet the Bible has all this stuff centering around Israel, all these prophecies, all these things, and how Israel is going to be the centerpiece of God's prophetic unraveling during the last days. It all centers around Israel. There is no Israel during that time. Can you imagine living back in those days and thinking to yourself, Well, this is embarrassing. All this prophecy related to Israel, and there is no Israel. Oh, how people must have poked fun and said, Oh, that just proves the Bible is a bunch of hooey. All this talk about Israel. And sure, it was written back when there wasn’t an Israel. There isn't an Israel anymore. There hasn't been for all this time. So it proves the Bible isn't true. Guess what? 1947 comes along. Boom! Israel becomes a nation. George Mueller didn't get to live to see it, but he knew it was going to happen, because he believed the Bible. He believed the prophecies that were yet unfilled because of the vast majority of prophecies that were already fulfilled. He believed it, he knew it, and I love to read his stuff from back then because he is so confident this is going to happen. Israel is going to become a nation. We struggle with the idea that the temple is going to be rebuilt. I've heard some Christians go, Oh, I see in the prophecies concerning the last days that the temple is going to be rebuilt, because it says that the abomination that causes desolation is going to set up his image in the temple and demand that everybody worship him. But there isn't any temple yet, and so I don't think any… It's like, pfft, big deal. With today's building stuff and everything, that's going to take a long time? We're all sitting there worried. Good grief. Israel is a nation. I mean, that should have been the biggie. We should be going back, going, Wow, you know that?

We never would have expected that to happen, but it did. All the rest of this stuff is just gravy. This should be easy compared to pulling a nation out of obliteration. It has never happened in the history of mankind. No nation in the history of mankind has ever existed, been wiped out, and re-existed. Never. Except Israel. You want to see what God is doing in the world? Keep your eyes on Israel. By the way, did you see the speech just yesterday– was it yesterday? In front of a joint meeting of Congress, Prime Minister of Israel. Incredible speech. If you missed it, get on YouTube. You can find the whole speech there. Amazing. Boy, does he call it for what it is. And I mean, just an amazing speech. If you missed it, get online and listen to it. Talk about prophecy. He quotes Scripture several times through the course of that as well. So that is where we are going to stop. ---