HARBINGER’S DAILY
By Olivier Melnick
May 19, 2024
Note from Pastor Kevin Lea: The Scriptures tell us that in the last days God will bring His Jewish people back into the promised land of Israel (Ezekiel 36-37). The Holocaust of WWII was the impetus that drove Jewish survivors to demand the right to return to their God-given ancestral homeland. The near extermination of the Jews during the Holocaust also resulted in the 29 November 1947 United Nations vote to partition Palestine, which paved the way for the miraculous rebirth of the nation of Israel on one day (May 4, 1948), fulfilling Isaiah 66:8-9. God is now using the global antisemitism to call Jews who are still scattered throughout the world to return to their Jewish homeland. This final return of the Jews is setting the stage for the last-days fulfillment of prophetic Scriptures: Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east and gather you from the west; I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not keep them back!' Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth — Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him" (Isaiah 43:5-7 NKJV). When this final re-gathering of the Jews to the Promised Land of Israel is complete, Jesus will take His Church to be with Him in Heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, John 14:1-4). With the Church gone, and even though most Jews today reject Jesus as their Messiah, God will again use them as His witness people on earth during the final seven-year period referred to as Daniel’s 70th week (Daniel 9:20-27). At the start of this period, most Jews will embrace the soon-coming global leader (the Prince who is to come, Daniel 9:26-27) as their messiah. But halfway into the seven-year period, this man of sin, also called the antichrist, will turn on the Jews and seek to exterminate them, and some Jews will flee into the wilderness in obedience to Jesus’ prophecy (Matthew 24:15-21, Revelation 12:13-17). The antichrist will persecute the Jewish people to an extent never experienced in human history, even during the Holocaust. Increasing antisemitism in our own country and around the world is yet another indicator that we are rapidly approaching the time of “Jacob’s Trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7), followed by the Second Coming of Jesus. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake… For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be (Matthew 24:9, 21 NKJV). Now when the dragon [Satan] saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman [Israel] who gave birth to the male Child [Jesus]. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time [3.5 years], from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood (Revelation 12:13-15 NKJV). As a gentile Christian who worships the Jewish Messiah (Jesus) and loves the Jewish people, it is horrifying to watch the unbelieving Jews being set up for a period of unparalleled suffering that they could avoid if only their eyes were not now blinded (Romans 11:8-12,25). If they continue to refuse to trust in Jesus as their Savior, then our advice to them during this time of growing hatred against the Jewish people is for them to return to their homeland and start reading Daniel 7, 9, 12, and Matthew 24 with the hope that they will open their eyes to the true Messiah, Jesus and then prepare for what is about to happen during the time of Jacob’s trouble.
It was only 85 years ago when Jews were being identified, located, separated from the community, and relocated “for their own safety.” Freedoms were slowly taken away, one step at a time. First, their bicycles were confiscated so mobility would become limited to a pedestrian level. Then, radios were taken away so that outside communications became limited if at all possible. Finally, it was just a matter of time before the Nazis rounded up the Jews that they had gathered in contained communities (read ghettos) and put them on trains on their way to disappear through the smokestacks of Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka, or any of the numerous death camps.
I really wish I could say that we have learned from history, but everything seems to indicate just the opposite. We should be concerned about an upcoming rounding up of the Jews. They are somewhat similar to what took place during the thirties and forties. Unfortunately, the Jewish response was very slow. Most Jewish people couldn’t believe that men could treat other men so horribly. When the Jewish community realized that the horror stories they had heard and suppressed were all true, it was too late. Everything has been moving much faster than I ever imagined, showing no signs of slowing down. I see several reasons why the past is here to haunt us again…