The Bible is a book about Israel.
Yet its message is a universal one for all nations.
Learn God's purpose for Israel, and discover how all mankind can become a part of this
unique nation, next, on The Key of David, with Gerald Flurry.
Greetings, everyone.
Did you know that the Bible is a book about Israel?
And yet Israel is a total MYSTERY to religions in this world.
That's a shocking statement, but it is true, and you need to also realize that you can't
even UNDERSTAND the purpose of man unless you understand the truth about Israel.
Now, you can prove that; I'm not making statements that can't be proved.
Also, you can't even reach your human potential, your Incredible Human Potential, if you don't
understand the truth about Israel.
So I'd like to encourage you to look into this more closely than you ever have before.
Did you ever wonder why God raised up Israel?
And He's not a respecter of persons.
Is He a respecter of nations?
Is He a Being that has a favorite?
Well, these are many questions that we need to answer.
And also, did you know that God didn't even OFFER salvation to ancient Israel, except
for the prophets?
He didn't even offer that to them.
And here's another shocker, the northern kingdom of Israel was not Jewish!
You can look at II Kings 16 and verse 6 and see that the first time the word "Jews" is
mentioned, they're at WAR with Israel!
Now, how do you explain that?
Well, I've been going through a series of programs on Mr. Armstrong's, Herbert W. Armstrong's
book, Mystery of the Ages, and the seven mysteries are: Who and What is God; that's a mystery
to this world.
And the Mystery of Angels and Evil Spirits, number two.
Number three, the Mystery of Man.
Number four, the Mystery of Civilization.
And number five, Mystery of Israel.
And number six, Mystery of the Church.
It is a mystery!
And the Mystery of the Kingdom of God.
Now, I want to talk about the Mystery of Israel today, that fifth mystery.
And I'll begin in talking about Abraham or Abram, as he was called before he was converted.
But he was called "the father of the faithful."
Now notice in Genesis 12, verses 1 and 2.
To this man, Abram, God commanded this: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee
a great nation," so God made this wonderful promise to Abraham.
He was going to make him a great nation.
And He started Israel with one single man, just like He started humanity with one single
man.
But here Abraham was the patriarch of Israel.
That was the congregation or the Church of the Old Testament.
But the PHYSICAL congregation of Israel under the Old Testament is really only a TYPE of
the New Testament Israel, or the Church of God.
And you can find that principle of duality throughout the Bible.
The Old Testament is just a forerunner or a TYPE of the New Testament and what happens
there.
In Isaiah 43 and verse 21 it says this: "This people have I formed for myself; they shall
shew forth my praise."
Now, that was God's PLAN for Israel, to really show forth His praise and show the world how
to obey God and receive a MULTITUDE of blessings that God promises if you do that.
And again, you'll find this duality here in Abraham, as we found it in the first Adam,
a material and carnal man, and the second Adam, Jesus Christ, the spiritual and divine.
And there's the Old Covenant and there's the New Covenant.
All this duality!
And there's duality in Abraham's, the two phases of the promises to him, and that is:
One was purely material and national; the other spiritual and individual.
Here he was the father of the faithful.
That includes Gentiles, Israelites, everybody if they have faith in God.
Spiritually, you see, all mankind is to become Israel, and that's something that many people
don't understand.
But the Apostle Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles; that's in Romans 11 and verse 13.
But look at verse 17; I'll quickly read that to you.
Verse 17: "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou," Gentiles, "and thou,
being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them," that is, Israel, "and with them partakest
of the root and fatness of the olive tree;" so the Gentiles spiritually become a part
of Israel.
You can see, I'll just paraphrase this, but in Romans 2 and verses 28 and 29 it says:
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly;"
And you can find in the very last era of God's Church, in Revelation 3 and verse 7 it talks
about the Philadelphia Era, and then it goes on in verse 9 and says that there's some of
them that turned away from God's Church, "...the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews...
but do lie;" so the lesson there is that we all even become spiritual Jews when we become
converted to God's way of life.
But I want to go back to ancient Israel and show you something here.
Verse 5 of Exodus 19: "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is
mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel."
Now, they were to be a kingdom of priests.
They were to teach the world about God, if the world was inclined to receive that teaching.
But they were also a holy nation.
But this was all on a carnal level.
They didn't HAVE God's Holy Spirit, but it was by the letter of the law, and that was
a wonderful way to live, the best way you could possibly live if you DON'T have God's
Holy Spirit.
But it was DESIGNED, you see, to bring prosperity and a carnal level of peace to Israel.
But notice what happened.
I'll just quickly read this to you.
Exodus 19 and verse 8: "All that the LORD hath spoken we will do."
Now, that's what Israel told God, but well, did they do that?
Did they do it the way they SAID they would?
Well, no, they didn't.
Now then we'll look at Jeremiah 3 and verse 20 where it says: "Surely as a wife treacherously
departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel,
saith the LORD."
So look at that!
Now, they just simply didn't measure up to what God wanted them to, and what they said
they would.
But this nation of Israel was God's nation, and God was there and they could APPEAL to
God, and He gave them His Church.
It was all on a physical level.
They were not a spiritual nation.
Why did God go through all that?
What was the purpose of all that?
I want to show you because it's one of the most AMAZING TRUTHS in the Bible!
And yet, only a tiny few understand it, and you can prove that to yourself.
But just think about these people, who had all these spectacular MIRACLES that God showed
them, when the Red Sea parted and they walked across on dry land between these two walls
of water, and then when the Egyptian army followed behind them, those walls collapsed
and drowned the entire army.
Now, that's such a miracle you'd think, well, hey, they could do ANYTHING if they saw a
miracle like that!
But that wasn't the case!
They were grumbling shortly after that about certain things they didn't like.
And if you go on to Mount Sinai, look at what happened there.
The mountain was like on fire, and there was lightning and thunder, and the mountain was
shaking when the Ten Commandments were given, and the people were scared to death!
But what a MIRACLE that was!
The sun stood still in the time of Joshua!
What kind of a miracle is that?
And again and again they defeated their enemies by various means.
Sometimes God even sent hornets before them to take care of the enemy.
It is AMAZING when you think about all the miracles that God performed.
But let me read something to you here, and I hope you'll listen closely because it is
a FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH of the Bible that you need to understand if you're going to understand
why ancient Israel, why did God put them THROUGH all this?
Well, here's the reason.
A quote from the book, Mystery of the Ages: "God now decided to give them knowledge of
His law--His kind of government--His way of life!
He was going to PROVE to the world that without His Holy Spirit their minds were INCAPABLE
of receiving and utilizing such knowledge of the true ways of life.
He was going to DEMONSTRATE to them that the mind of man, with its one spirit," one human
spirit, "and without the addition of God's Holy Spirit, could not have spiritual discernment--could
not solve human problems, could not cure the EVILS that were besetting humanity.
The nation Israel would be His guinea pig to demonstrate that fact."
Do you want to know why man can't solve his problems?
Well, it tells you right there.
And these people had God directing them, if they would allow Him to.
But this was His nation, and He made a covenant with them, the Old Covenant, a marriage covenant!
You talk about intimacy!
He really had it with Israel, if they would only allow Him to have it.
God was their Husband, and they were MARRIED to Him, they had an Old Covenant marriage,
and STILL they FAILED!
How do you explain that?
UNLESS you understand that they didn't have the Holy Spirit of God, except the prophets.
They didn't have it!
God didn't offer them salvation.
He wanted to PROVE to the world what Mr. Armstrong says here.
And do we understand that?
If you just think about, it seems like all the conditions were perfect EXCEPT they didn't
have God's Holy Spirit.
Mr. Armstrong went around and met more world leaders perhaps than any other person when
he was alive, especially the last decade of his life.
And he said he met emperors and rulers and kings and people like that, and they admitted
to him that the problems they had facing them could not be solved by human beings.
Now, that's an astounding truth that we OUGHT to understand after ALL this history that
we've had.
But those problems are of a SPIRITUAL nature and can only be solved SPIRITUALLY!
That's what men don't understand.
One more quote from Mr. Armstrong here: "The many decades and centuries of ancient Israel
proved that!"
That the carnal mind can't solve their problems!
"To Israel, God gave his statutes and judgments, as well as his spiritual law.
But these perfect laws did not, without God's Holy Spirit, solve the nation's problems!
God could say: 'I am God.
Take my word for it.'
But God gave PROOF, through Israel, that without the Holy Spirit, man is helpless!"
Man is helpless!
"They even had God to APPEAL to."
And they STILL failed!
Now, there has to be a reason for that!
Is the fault God's?
No, it isn't.
God is perfect!
It's not God's fault!
But they proved by experience, that man, without the Holy Spirit in him, cannot be righteous,
and he's totally helpless!
And that's what we haven't learned today.
Look what we're facing!
Our number one problem is that of human survival, and man doesn't have a solution!
It's BEYOND man solving!
We ought to understand that.
Notice Genesis 12 and verse 1, and let me read this again with an added verse.
This is verse 1 of Genesis 12: "Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation," race, and then He says, "[A]nd in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed."
Grace!
Salvation to all humanity!
A promise that that would come through Abraham, as well.
Now, if you talk about a nation, you're talking about race.
But if you talk about ALL families of the Earth, well, then you're talking about GRACE
being given to them.
Genesis 22 and verse 18 says: "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed;" that's talking about Christ and the salvation that comes through Christ.
It's also mentioned in Galatians 3, verses 8 and 16 if you'd like to read that.
See, that one great nation is certainly not one seed; that's talking about Jesus Christ
coming along, the second Adam, that IS going to eat from the tree of life and be perfect
and die for our sins and prepare us to receive the Holy Spirit of God IN us, and that's how
Christ lives IN us.
We're saved by His LIFE!
Christ living IN us through the Holy Spirit.
That's what Romans tells us.
But then later on you can see in Genesis 17 that he became, that is, Abraham became the
father of many nations, and that can't refer to one seed, either.
Now let me read to you from Deuteronomy 10 and verse 19 where God says to Israel: "Love
ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."
So they were told to love the strangers, those of other countries, the Gentiles.
And verse 20: "Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt
thou cleave, and swear by his name.
He is thy praise," He is your PRAISE.
You ought to be praising God to the whole world!
And Israel didn't do that, never did that.
They failed in that!
And that's what God wanted them to do, and that's what the Church has to do today.
That is the solution!
Notice I Peter 2 and verse 9.
Here we go from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant: "But ye are a chosen generation,"
but notice how similar these words are.
One was the Old Covenant on a physical level, and the New Covenant is on a SPIRITUAL level,
and notice almost the same words, but a much greater depth here in verse 9 of I Peter 2:
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye
should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous
light:" See, here Peter is talking about a kingdom of priests, priests who could teach
the word of God to other people, and help them understand how to live the way of being
blessed ALWAYS before God.
But here it's called a ROYAL priesthood.
Indeed!
A spiritual, royal priesthood of people who have the Holy Spirit living IN them, or have
Christ living in them THROUGH the Holy Spirit.
It's still called a holy nation and certainly is that.
This time, spiritually!
But Israel didn't even make it holy on the LETTER of the law level, as they /SHOULD have.
So here we have God's Church.
You see, if we're doing OUR job before Jesus Christ gets here, we're showing forth the
praises of God!
We should have our lives FILLED with praise for God because of the wonderful blessings
He's given us and CONTINUES to give us REPEATEDLY, even before we receive salvation in the Family
of God and as the very Bride of Jesus Christ, if we heed God's message before the Second
Coming.
Then we don't have to be resurrected to get to know God.
Now, see, God had that goal with ancient Israel on a physical level, or a letter of the law
level.
Notice now what it says here in Hebrews 8 and verse 6: "But now hath he obtained a more
excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was
established upon better promises."
That is, you can get forgiveness for your sins!
That's a better promise!
You can receive eternal life!
That's a better promise!
You can now call out to God the Father, your Father, and pray to Him, and He will take
you into His Family forever, and you will be a God-being.
Now, that's what your Bible teaches throughout; it really is!
How WONDERFUL is that?
How INSPIRING and MOVING is that?
Notice, here's where Israel failed, and yet so many people don't understand this, and
I wish they would look more closely at these scriptures because they're so stirring and
moving and so uplifting.
Verse 7 of Hebrews 8: "For if that first covenant," the Old Covenant, "had been faultless, then
should no place have been sought for the second."
there's no need for a second if that first one is perfect.
But what's WRONG with the Old Covenant?
"For finding fault with THEM," with THEM!
The problem was with the PEOPLE!
Well, why do THEY have a problem?
Here they had the Old Covenant with a perfect law.
It's not God's law that was the fault, it's perfect, Psalms 19 and verse17 says.
And it says the fault is with them!
No Holy Spirit!
They couldn't deal with the problems they had, which are spiritual in nature.
They couldn't do that.
God was showing all Israel and the world that the fault is with US!
We're going to have to learn we must have another Spirit.
And then He says He's going to write those laws in our hearts, not on table of stone.
I want to just read to you or mention to you here at the end, well, in Genesis 49 it talks
about Jacob saying to Ephraim and Manasseh, "Let my name be named on them."
So prophetically, that is Britain and America, and they are Israel, the two birthright nations
of Israel in this end time, and the Jews are the scepter nation.
And God is going to punish them first if they don't repent of their sins because we are
just DELUGED with sins today.
Surely we can see that if we know anything about the Bible.
And if you read Mystery of the Ages and study it, you'll understand that in a very vivid
and stark way.
Let me tell you, you will.
But I did want to mention just this about Solomon, and he had a son, Rehoboam, and then
Jeroboam rebelled against his son and took the ten tribes of Israel with him.
They followed Jeroboam, and he was like a prime minister to Solomon, really a great
man with a lot of ability.
So he turned the ten tribes of Israel, they were not Jewish, the ten tribes of Israel
away from the Jews and away from Jerusalem, and away from David's throne.
Now I want to just tell you this.
There is a MODERN-DAY Jeroboam!
A modern-day Jeroboam that's mentioned in Amos 7, and he is going to come on the scene
in this end time, and we have just decided to totally do again The Great Again booklet
and add a chapter to it about who IS this Jeroboam and what is HE all about.
In this end time it's like the ANCIENT Jeroboam!
So we've changed this book in many, many ways and updated it, so we'd like to ask you to
go ahead if you'd like and order it again or request it again because it is now so much
more powerful and has a revelation about this modern-day Jeroboam that will ASTOUND you,
and I mean ASTOUND you!
And it's such a wonderful, wonderful truth!
So do write for this new booklet, and I'm telling you, you're going to be moved and
stirred by it.
Until next week, this is Gerald Flurry, goodbye, friends.
God called the ancient nation of Israel to be an example to the world.
Without God's Holy Spirit, Israel failed to accomplish its purpose.
Request Gerald Flurry's free booklet Great Again to learn how the modern descendants
of ancient Israel are also failing to be a shining light in a dark world.
The updated version of this booklet contains a new chapter about the modern-day Jeroboam.
Anciently, King Jeroboam led Israel into idolatry and changed the dates and observances of God's
holy days.
A modern type of Jeroboam is prophesied to sink America into an abominable display of
false religion in the end time.
Read Great Again to discover God's solution to America's rebellion.
Understand how America truly will become great again, in a way that most people would never
expect.
Ancient Israel broke its Old Covenant agreement with God.
Request Lesson 21 of the Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence Course to discover
why Israel failed, despite having every advantage.
Learn how God replaced Israel with His Church.
To understand what God expects from true Christians today, study Lesson 21: "Marriage Is a Covenant."
With your order, you will also receive a free Key of David DVD: "Who Is the Modern-Day Jeroboam?"
Learn how a type of the ancient king who destroyed Israel is here in America today.
All our literature is available free of charge, at no cost or obligation to you.
Request Great Again, "Marriage Is a Covenant," and "Who Is the Modern-Day Jeroboam?"
Order now!
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