A Train for the Messiah

A note to Bible-believing Christians whose heads may be in the clouds: Please read the following verses, then take a clear-eyed look at developments unfolding at the Center of the Earth in our day.

“For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.” (Jeremiah 24:6-7)

When the Lord builds up Zion, He will appear in His glory. (Psalm 102:16)

“On that day I will raise up the tabernacle [dynasty/ kingdom (Hebrew meaning)] of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old…” (Amos 9:11)

“Foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.” (Jeremiah 30:8c-9)

“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.” (Luke 1:32)

And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16)

Here, concerning the Land and the People of Israel, are some thoughts to consider:

• The State of Israel is a 70-year-old secular democracy headed by a prime minister.
• Its establishment resurrected a 4000-year-old national home that was once a kingdom.
• Jerusalem is the capital – the seat of government – of this modern Jewish state.
• Its ‘67 reunification returned the city established as capital by King David to Jewish rule.
• Israel’s God-ordained destiny will see it transition from a state back to a kingdom.
• Jerusalem’s God-determined destiny is to again house the throne of David.
• Only the United States, Guatemala, Vanuatu and the Czech Republic have expressed their willingness to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and have moved or are in process of moving their embassies there. Australia is contemplating this.
• The international community is increasingly seething with hatred of Israel, working to delegitimize the Jewish state, and passing resolutions intended to rob this indigenous (Jewish) people of the heart of their ancestral land and the half of Jerusalem that contains the Temple Mount.
• God is returning the Jews to this land to do them good. He will keep them here as a shepherd keeps his sheep.
• God equates David’s kingdom with His own kingdom. (2 Samuel 5:12)
• He calls the Mountain of the Lord (aka Mount Moriah aka the Temple Mount) the place of His throne.
• God is resolved to install His King (the Lion of Judah – i.e. a Jewish king) on that hill – and will do so no matter how violently the nations of the world oppose it (Psalm 2:1-6).

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Last week I took a train on the new high-speed line from Ben Gurion International Airport to Jerusalem.

Until now, to travel between my home and the airport, I have had to primarily use the sherut (shuttle) system, with its notoriously bad-tempered drivers, slow winding routes that see nine passengers dropped off before I get home (sometimes taking more than an hour), and a cost three times as high as the train ticket.

Now, for a mere NIS 17.00 one-way, I was whisked at 150 km/h from the Valley of Ayalon, through the Lowlands and up into the Judean mountains in this quiet, smooth-running train that took just 22 minutes from the airport to the shiny Yitzhak Navon Station, deep underground the Highway #1 western gateway into the capital.

As with most innovative infrastructure projects, there have been teething-problems getting this significant addition to Israel’s ultra-modern transport system underway. The cost went way over budget estimates, and a couple of times after beginning the service the train was stuck with signal breakdowns and at least one engine malfunction. But it is up and running, and these issues will soon be ironed out.

Along with this trainline, plus a smaller one through the Jezreel Valley in the north, Israel has been doubling the width of its major motorways, while towns and cities like Afula, Ashdod, Netanya, Modi’in and Jerusalem are exploding with growth. Down near Eilat in the south of the country the new Ramon International Airport is set to open its runways for business any day now. And as announced last May, the conversion of an IDF airforce base into a third international airport is under consideration.

These days I teasingly introduce visitors I guide around Israel to, “the crane, our national bird” pause, and then point out “the building crane”. Their silhouettes can be seen on almost every skyline in the land.

Israel’s achievements list goes on and on. Huge offshore natural gas fields are now being exploited, not only for indigenous use; sales contracts to other countries are in place and being negotiated. News that takes many visitors by complete surprise is that Israel has enough oil to be oil-independent for 300 years. It’s locked up in shale right now, but the “innovation nation” is working around the clock to develop the technology and know-how to get it out.

And speaking of innovation – whether it’s sweet water out of fresh air or desalinated from the sea; precision-agriculture technologies that monitor and provide for individual plants; happy cows that produce almost twice as much milk as the average bovine elsewhere in the world; driverless car technologies and interactive GPS systems; cancer cures and non-invasive solution to dementia shaking; anti-missile rockets systems and cutting edge pilotless aircraft development – the list goes on and on and on.

But back to my train ride:

The new Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem train route has a significant name, “The King David Line”. Here in Jerusalem, just outside the Old City, a neighbourhood boasts a whole slew of buildings bearing the name of this beloved Jewish king.

On a rise, west of the city wall, the golden-limestone King David Hotel reigns in all its splendour. It stands across from the new King David’s Crown housing complex and, a little further down King David Street, owners have snapped up condos in King David’s Residences. Diagonally over the way from their balconies stands the David Citadel – hotel of choice for visiting diplomats who, should they turn right at the entrance, would pass the exclusive David’s Village apartments before having their eyes drawn directly to the iconic Tower of David atop the skyline.

The whole area – with its new Mamilla Mall is being called, in Hebrew, Derech HaMelech, the Way of the King.

What, if anything, does all this signify?

To my way of understanding – the epitome of everything:

Two thousand years ago, as they stood with Jesus on the Mount of Olives, the disciples put to Him the question that had burned inside them since they first heard the words, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Repeatedly during His years of ministry, they had heard Him stress that His kingdom was not coming, at that time, “on earth as it is in heaven”. His purpose, at that time, was to teach the gospel of the Kingdom and to overcome both sin and the grave.

In the future He would return as King.

Still, so strong was their yearning to see Him enthroned that, up to His very last minute with them, they could not let it go: “Lord,” they insisted – after He had died, come back to life, and taught them for another 40 days – “will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Jesus’ reply was unequivocal: His Father had set the time and season for this to happen “in His own authority” . It was not for the disciples – back then – to know these times. They had to focus on a different commission.

And they did.

As darkness descended on Israel – following the genocidal Roman campaigns ending in AD 70 and 135 that saw Jews killed by the millions while most the rest were driven into a 2000-year-long captivity – God’s face turned to the nations: the light of His countenance rising over the Gentiles as the gospel of the Kingdom went to the ends of the earth.

During most the “Church era” as some call it – “the times of the Gentiles” is the New Testament term – Jews languished in foreign lands – persecuted and killed almost everywhere. Jerusalem was trodden on by non-Jewish nations for hundreds and hundreds of years.

In 1882, however, the first of successive waves of Jewish immigration (aliyah) to the Land of Israel began. Their return triggered feverish resistance from the Enemy who sought – first through violent Muslim-Arab rejection of this immigration, then through British betrayal of its mandate, and then through Hitler who came frighteningly close to obliterating them from the face of the earth – to thwart their coming home.

But come home they have. Over the last century-and-a-quarter they have made aliyah from some 120 nations. Many are driven by fear of antisemitism; some are drawn by deep faith in their God and in obedience to His commandment to settle the land; others come as patriotic Jews who will no longer let Gentiles oppress them.

Yes, for the past 136 years, the light of God has been returning to rise over Zion as the “set time” has dawned for Him to favour His people and His land.

According to the Bible, He is bringing them back to do them good, to reunite them with their God, and to raise up “David their king” to rule over them.

Whether or not they all realise it, the nation of Israel is being readied for that day when the Son of David, the Lion of Judah, the Prince of Peace will be enthroned in Jerusalem.

Nations will fiercely oppose His coming. They already are. Many will even come and fight against Jerusalem – fight against Him. He is getting ready to engage them in war, and the outcome for many will be bleak.

Those who survive in the nations that come against Jerusalem will, once those countries have been vanquished, be invited to come up to Jerusalem to worship the King.

It is for that day – I believe – that the highways and byways, the trainlines and the roads, are being constructed across the Land of Israel.

Israel, prospering and developing notwithstanding the enormous odds stacked against it, is heading for its magnificent destiny, when it will soon become (as it was during the reign of Solomon, the first son of David to sit on his throne) the head of the nations.

Yes, right here, right now in 2018, the Lord is building up Zion. And soon, very soon, He will return to Zion, in all His glory.