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Speaker: Jerry Cisar
You’ve probably heard the saying, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” It makes a lousy worldview, but it is an axiom that proves out many times. In the case of Israel and trying to occupy its territory, if you compare current events to how things were in biblical times, one can surely say, “The more things change, the more remain the same.”
And names haven’t changed much either. In historic Israel it was the Philistines, today it is Palestinians (just another way to translate it). Today there is dispute over the Gaza strip, a near approximation of the same area of the Philistines which was rarely ever controlled by Israel under its kings.
But God’s promises spoke of bringing these areas under the reign of the Messiah. Does that await another day? Or did God intend to do it in another way? I believe we will find in our text not only all these lands being mentioned, but the answer to these questions and more as we explore how the Kingdom of Israel under the Messiah, Jesus Christ, moves into a new phase of expansion.