The photo here is from the cover of Time Magazine. While I have not read the article, the picture was fitting for this post even though I think the picture along with the article is Anti-Semitic. The picture says "Why Israel Can't Win" and I would change it to "When Israel Will Win."

There has been much debate about what is going on with in Gaza. I have been avoiding the subject because Layne at Prominent Thought has done a good job at keeping posts current in regards to the matter. One of the major questions being asked is whether or not Israel has the right to retake Gaza. I find the answer to that question in Genesis 15:18-21, where God promised the land to Abraham. In Deuteronomy 1:6-8 when God promised Moses and lastly in Joshua 1:2-4 where God continued to tell Joshua. We know that we cannot question God's right because Psalms 24:1 tells us He owns the whole earth.

Now the question turns to when will Israel be fully restored. The prophet's answer is when Christ returns for His millennial reign.

Jeremiah 16:14-18 "Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”

In addition to restoring Israel, God is going to make a new covenant with them. It will not be like the Mosaic Covenant because His people broke it and received a series of punishments. God's new covenant will give Israel the ability to obey.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Ezekial 36:24-32 indicates that this change will happen from bestowal of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the new covenant also mentions God forgiving their sin. God is not overlooking their sin, but rather God provided a substitute in Christ, Isaiah 53:4-5.

Posted by Craig