Greetings friends!  Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you find encouragement and hope in knowing that, though times may seem uncertain in our world today, our Lord Jesus Christ…the Blessed Hope…has promised to come again one day to take us to be with Him for eternity!  What a magnificent promise that is!

Just a few days ago we focused on God’s Plan of the End, and today I want to focus on the signs of that end time.  One very clear sign is found in Ezekiel 36-37, detailing the re-birth of Israel.  Understand that Jesus could not have returned until that key event in history happened.  The prophecy was fulfilled on May 14, 1948, when overnight, Israel was re-born.  But let’s key in on verses 11-14 of chapter 37:

Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’  Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.  Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.’”

Ezekiel describes a valley of dry bones and identifies them as “the whole house of Israel.”  Those bones are “dried up and our hope has perished.”  They were “completely cut off.”  Think about the holocaust.  Millions of Jews were exterminated, the existence of the Jewish people was “dried up,” and hope most definitely disappeared for most.  They were virtually “cut off” from existence.  They were those dead, dry bones.

But God never gave up on His plan for the Jews!  Thus, just as Ezekiel prophesied, God “opened the grave,” saving them from extinction, and brought them into their own land!  He made them alive again!  The story of the re-birth of Israel is fascinating and one that every Jew and Christian should know and understand.  Ezekiel 36-37 gives the account and I highly encourage you to read those chapters.

But God was still not through, and He is not through to this day.  Ezekiel 37:13-14 is a partially fulfilled prophecy, awaiting a future time for complete fulfillment.  In His great goodness and grace, the Lord declares them to be His people, and He promises to put His Spirit within them and bring them to life.  Today, they are alive physically, and in their land.  One day the final fulfillment will be that His Spirit will be breathed into them as a nation and they will all recognize their Messiah!  Indeed, they will know that He is Lord and has done this great thing!

Another very profound sign of the last days is found in Zechariah 12:2-3:

I will make Jerusalem like an intoxicating drink that makes the nearby nations stagger when they send their armies to besiege Jerusalem and Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves. (NLT)

In this prophecy, we are told that Jerusalem will become like an “intoxicating drink that makes the nearby nations stagger” when armies come up against her.  Since the first day of Israel’s existence, her enemies have attempted to destroy her, only to stagger away defeated.  Jerusalem is indeed an immovable rock that causes aggressors to hurt themselves when they go against her.

Yes, Israel’s military is one of the world’s elite forces.  However, the real strength and power of Israel is not its military, but the hand of God!  As we see enemies continue to rise up against the tiny Jewish nation, we continue to see God’s mighty power on display.  The fact that we are seeing the Middle East cauldron boil is evidence that we are living in the last days.

The signs are out there and we’ve only touched on two today.  But when we view today’s events through the lens of Scripture, we can’t help but realize that what God has said in His Word will indeed come to pass.  Soon and very soon Jesus will come again, just as He said He would (John 14:1-3), and we will have no room to say, “I didn’t know” or “I wasn’t warned.”  We do know…and we are warned…and we must be ready.  The signs are clear.  Do you see them?