The Majesty of Israel pt 1 - December 7th, 2025

Today we're going to be doing a two-part sermon about the nation of Israel. But in order to think through this appropriately to cause us to think in the same process, the sermon is going to sound a little bit different. Alright. But we are going to be looking at the future of Israel from Naham chapter 2. And we're looking at it this week and then a few weeks later because we're in the holidays. So but I am breaking this up into two sermons. So if you can rise with me, we're going to read from Nahum chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Nahum chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. And it reads. Can you click this for me? The one who scatters has come up against you.

Guard the fortifications. Watch the road. Strengthen your loins.

For Yahweh will restore the majesty of Jacob, like the majesty of Israel, even though those who empty them have emptied them to destruction and ruin their vine branches. Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you would help us to think clearly, to think biblically, and to align our hearts' affections with yours. I pray for just a good morning of learning. And that learning would turn into appropriate application and it would evoke appropriate affection for the work of Christ on the cross to draw all sinners and to reconcile all sinners back to yourself through his shed blood. This is the Christmas season, and it's so easy to forget Christ in the Christmas season. So I pray for us this month, you would protect our hearts.

Cause to be unhappy with this world, so that we would long to know you fully in heaven. Help us to think with great affection for those in the world for whom this month means material things. So grant us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts that are soft.

Amen. Go ahead and take your seats.

And they are referred to as beacons fourfold vision. And these are foundational to understanding how we are trying to build God's church. And the beacon fourfold vision can be found on our website. Each of the four core values, the visions of the church, they begin with the phrase, the vision of the beacon church is to glorify God by establishing, and then four values are listed in the order of priority and importance. So oftentimes when people search for a church, they prioritize a third value. Just take a quick moment to read that over. Accountability, community, and support. So a lot of times when people are looking for a church, they're looking for a place to belong. And there's nothing wrong with that.

And it is a core vision of our church. Community is what we've been created for, and we've been created into community, and it's a good thing. But community in the Bible is never a goal. And it's not something that is manufactured superficially. It is something that is naturally formed by people who are on the same page, united by a common interest. And though community is a good thing, it is a byproduct and never a goal. Okay. And a biblical community, our third vision, is something that comes as a byproduct of the first two visions being in place. Okay. Now, there are also some people who are out to change the world, who are more like uh, they have a lot more zeal and energy, who look for a church that is engaged in vision number four.

Because they believe that outreach is far more important than inreach. And they want to be a missional church. And that may be well meaning, but that's a very immature thought. It's ignorance on fire, oftentimes rooted in pride. Because a sick church will not be effective at saving and producing healthy saints. Right. Mission work is the fruit of those who love Jesus. And mission work done by those who do not love Jesus. It usually does a ton of harm, both to the missionary and to the field. So the order here is very important. And the first vision reads the vision of the beacon church is to glorify God by establishing a church that engages in God centered worship and not man centered. First, because you and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, the Lord Jesus Christ is primarily why we gather on Sundays, and He is why our church exists.

He is the one we are being trained up to please every day of the week and not just for Sundays. So we are doing our best to build a church that engages in worship that is first God centered and not man centered. And God has made it very clear how we are to do this. He has laid out his heart and his plans and his promises explicitly in the Holy Word. God does not speak in mysteries, he speaks very plainly to people. And the message is mysterious and befuddled, usually only to those who are perishing, to those who do not have ears to hear. So the Bible is a blueprint, or it should be the blueprint for every church. It's the manual for all Christians and every Christian's life. The Bible is a love letter to humanity.

The Bible is the book of God's holy expectations for every person created for the purpose of worship. And the Bible is also a signed contract filled with promise of great benefits. Right? And so the Bible has to be essential for every church and for every Christian. And a church that moves away from the authority of the scriptures moves away from the heart of God. So the core value, the second vision of the beacon, is to establish a church that equips every believer with God's inerrant word. So we want every saint who belongs to our church to be able to study God's word, to know how to handle God's word, and then to equip others with God's word and to think through every aspect of his life biblically, all of the Bible, cover to cover from Genesis to Revelation, all 66 books.

So to begin today's sermon, I'm going to be walking us through the ramifications of this second vision of our fourfold visions, because it'll be supremely important to think through Nahum chapter 2 verses 1 and 2. Okay. So one of the first foundational premises of the scriptures is that God is sovereign.

Okay. So this may be a little small in the text. Job 42, 2. I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Psalm 115, verse 3. Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he wants, whatever he pleases. Daniel 2, 21 to 22. He changes the times and the seasons.

He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. He reveals the deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness. And the light dwells in him. So God is sovereign. Say amen if you believe that to be absolutely true. Secondly, sovereign God, who has a perfect will, has made his will known through his word, both spoken and then later made incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. So God has made himself known through his word, and there have been expectations and instructions attached to the revelations of himself. There are expectations to his revealing himself to us. Deuteronomy 29. Alex, can you click? Okay, thank you. 29, 29. The secret plans, things belong to Yahweh, our God.

But the things he revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may do all the words of this law. So the second, or the secret and mysterious things truly belong to the Lord, but the things that he has revealed to us in his word, we are to carefully live by. So God is sovereign. In other words, what's another, it's a synonym for sovereign. It's king, right? And so what the king says, his servants must do. And God, our sovereign and our king has made his desires for us known very clearly through his word. And if you believe this also to be true, please say amen. Okay. And his spoken and written word is timeless and true. Every promise and even every prophecy will come to pass. Just Joshua 21 45, Isaiah 4.8, Matthew 5 18, 2 Corinthians 1.20, 1 Peter 1, 23 to 25, and many others tell us that the word was made flesh, the person of Jesus, and he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So God is unchanging. Cultures, governments, seasons change. But God's word is eternal. Every promise of God's word is unchanging because God is unchanging, and so his promises are timeless. And if you believe this also to be true, please say amen. Lastly, because God is not bipolar, he's not always easy for us to understand, but he is not confused, nor is he fickle. So for every passage of the scriptures, there is only one interpretation that is correct and authoritative. Every verse of the Bible, for every verse of the Bible, more important than how do I feel is the question, what does God mean?

How we feel about any particular passage does not matter. You guys tracking? If he is God, how I feel doesn't matter.

There is only one interpretation that is correct and authoritative for every passage of the Bible. Only one interpretation matters, and that's God's. Okay? Now, we always are clumsy, and we often get it wrong. No church or no theologians' interpretations have ever proven to be error free. Okay. We are all limited and finite beings. Even the apostles had no idea a lot of times when Jesus was clearly speaking in their face, what was gonna happen. John MacArthur and RC Sprohl, they were best friends who are very who are different, who are parts of two very different denominations. They both moved on to glory, but both have one said, I know I have errors in my theology. I just don't know where they are.

And they were men devoted to the careful study and proclamation of every word of the scriptures. So our interpretations may contain great and even destructive errors. History has shown that to be the case, right? That shouldn't come as a surprise because Satan has always waged an all-out attack to twist and distort the scriptures, to twist and distort the truth. He even tried to distort the scripture to Jesus Himself, if you remember, during his temptations in the wilderness. Satan is a liar and the father of lies. So we all too often are prone to getting it wrong. My theology is far from perfect. Yours is too. It is easily influenced by different factors. But the truth stands, there's only one interpretation of every passage that is correct and authoritative.

So our priority has to be to make sure our interpretation and understanding of every passage aligns with God's.

Every church and every individual Christian is to be diligent in this. And this diligence characterized the prophets of old, and it's always been the priority for those who are carried along or filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Someone who says that they are filled with the Holy Spirit of God and is clumsy and lazy about the scriptures is a liar.

Life and doctrine are both equally important. Persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

We dare not misspeak on his behalf. So we need to take great care and play close attention to every single word proclaimed in his word. And we are to, whether you're a pastor or not, we are to delight in the process, because the mystery is holy God who hates sin, who hates sinners, is a God of love who has chosen to make himself known to sinners and to draw us near. So it's a joy and a privilege to have access to the thoughts of God. God has entrusted his secrets, his intimate thoughts to you and me.

So God is sovereign, sovereign God has made himself known through his word.

To take great pains to make sure our interpretation and application of every passage of scripture is pleasing to him. Now, here are some things that are absolutely important for us to think through biblically. For example, what does the Bible say about women in ministry? What does the Bible say about homosexuality? What does the Bible say about helping the poor? Should we baptize newborn babies? What does the Bible say about a Christian's involvement or submission to the government? What does the Bible say about money? About the marriage bed, about heaven, about hell, about legalism, about antinomianism, which is the opposite. What does the Bible say about who should become deacons? Who should become elders or pastors?

How should a church be built? What does the Bible say about that? What does the Bible say about how we are to engage those who land on different conclusions from us? Or who vote differently? So remember what our culture says, how we feel, how strong our opinions are, or if even if we call them convictions, not one of them matters. Right? But it's in polarizing issues like I just listed, where we're going to find that the Bible is not the final authority in people's lives or in the positions people hold to.

Look at his success. I believe that Tim Keller is got the handle on God's truth because he's all about the gospel. I follow John MacArthur. Man, he is a man of the word. I follow R.C. Sprohl. Under whose lordship are your opinions and your views submitted? Because again, the only one whose opinion truly matters is Jesus Christ's. Amen. So you better make sure that your opinion closely aligns with Christ's.

What does the king want from his people? How does the king want us to think? How does the king want us to communicate to the world his truths? This is the longest sermon introduction I've ever given in my 25 years as a pastor. Okay? And I know that the introduction was a short sermon in and of itself. But I felt the need to establish these logical and theological hedges because the passage we have landed on in Nahum poses a very important but polarizing question. Okay. How are we today to feel politically about Israel? That's sensitive. It's historically been sensitive. Presbyterians and Baptists don't will not see eye to eye on this. And I don't consider Presbyterians lesser brothers or heretical.

And here are some related questions to this. Is Israel God's still chosen people? Do God's Old Testament promises to Israel still stand? Is it a sin to be anti-Semitic? Or if I don't like Jews, is that sin? Does still does God still have a plan for the Jews? Didn't the church replace Israel as God's people and as the primary beneficiaries of God's promises. Is it okay for a Christian to be pro-Palestine? So remember, God is sovereign.

And again, not a single one of our opinions or preferences matter. He is God's, or He is God. Our thoughts, our opinions, our preferences all have to be aligned with His. We have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God and to represent Him accurately and carefully. So I'm going to get back to our Nahim passage. Nahem chapter 2, verses 1 to 2. The one who scatters has come up against you. Guard the fortification, watch the road, strengthen your loins, instill your power with exceeding courage, for Yahweh will restore the majesty of Jacob like the majesty of Israel, even though those who empty them have emptied them to destruction and ruin their vine branches. And here's the outline and thought flow for these two verses that we're going to be looking at today and next time.

First, we're going to be looking at the futility of man in verse 1. The Assyrians can try all they want to go against God's purposes, but they will fail.

And that's going to be our second point. And third, we're going to look at the function of the historical present. Okay, the function of history present. And that third point is going to have to be a second sermon for the next Nahum sermon, because there's a lot to unpack. And I want us to help us grow in thinking of the issues of our world through the lens of the Bible. Okay? Because there's a lot of opinions. And many of them are just noise. So how do we think through this together biblically? Nahum 2 1, the one who scatters has come up against you, guard the fortification, watch the road, strengthen your loins, instill your power with exceeding courage. The one who scatters in this verse is the Babylonian army.

They are also called the Chaldeans. They were a more fearsome and a more evil people than the Assyrians.

It's a bigger mimistic. God was raising up the Babylonians to bring vengeance upon Assyria. But God was also preparing to use the Babylonians now also to discipline Judah, the southern kingdom, where the promised line is.

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who walks on the breath of the land to possess dwelling places which are not theirs. Habakkuk did not understand this. He was astonished. He was deeply bothered. God is raising them up. God would unfold his will by carrying out vengeance on a wicked nation by raising up an even wickeder nation. And this wickeder nation would even swallow up God's line of promise, Judah. And in response to Habakkuk's astonishment, and in response to Habakkuk's questioning of God's justice, you see a lot of questions at Habakkuk. Are you not God who does this? Are you not a God who is just? Yahweh responded with the very famous oft-quoted verse, Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 4.

Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right with him, but the righteous will live by his faith. How many guys have heard this verse before? The righteous shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. This is one of the New Testament's most famous verses, and that one has been made famous by Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation. He was quoting Paul's epistles to the Romans and to Galatians and in the author of the Hebrews. But the original context of that verse is here in Habakkuk. God is sovereign.

And though his plans are difficult to fully grasp and understand, the righteous saints of God will always trust that God's plan is perfect and good, and the righteous will live by faith. The one who scatters is the Babylonian empire, and the Assyrians are sarcastically encouraged here to put up a fight and stand their ground. This is a condemning taunt from God. They are exhorted to work hard in their futility. They are sarcastically encouraged, guard the fortification, watch the roads. They're called to man up, strengthen your loins, be courageous, and not just regular courageous, exceedingly courageous. And this is ironic because remember, Assyria's pride and glory have always been the strength, has been in the strength of their military.

So in verse 1, God tells the Assyrians to do what they have always done for military victory. But whatever the fight the Assyrians put up will prove futile. The Lord would overwhelm the entire city with a flood of rivers, and the Babylonian army would come in and wipe them out.

And the righteous will live by faith, walking in this, trusting in this, and there's nothing man can do to thwart the will of God. And that is something that is clearly taught in the Bible.

God appoints every scatterer. And resistance to God's will is an exercise of futility. God raised up the Babylonians. You guys remember who comes after them? God raised up the Persians. And then he raised up the Greeks and the Romans. In more modern history, God raised up the British Empire. God raised up the French. God has raised up Nazi Germany. God has raised up Kim Jung'un, Xi Jinping. God has raised up Obama, Biden. God has raised up Trump. And whatever is happening in the Middle East today, God is in full control.

It's like, duh. There's something that is very uncomfortable. We're getting a taste of what Habakkuk must have felt. The righteous will live by faith that God, in his goodness, in the perfection of his good plan, will do whatever he wants. He is not playing games. He is establishing righteousness, for the glory of the Lord will fill the earth like the waters cover the sea. That's a back hook, right? Whatever God does is good, and he does whatever he pleases, and the scatterer that he raises up will come and destroy Assyria. And after 40 years, after the prophecy of Nahum, Babylon would historically utterly destroy the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC. So God would avenge a serious cruelty of his people, Israel, by wiping out Assyria.

God will again come to the defense of his chosen nation, Israel. Man can do nothing to stop God's plan. Say amen if you believe that. A little frustrating, right? You're frustrated because of your pride, not because of truth. Verse 2, for Yahweh will restore the majesty of Jacob like the majesty of Israel, even though those who empty them have emptied them to destruction and ruined their vine branches. Verse 2 begins with the word for, and it continues with the words Yahweh will. So there's a certainty to what is being written here. Yahweh will restore the majesty of Jacob like the majesty of Israel. Huh. What does he mean by this? Why is the same peoples called by two names? Why is Jacob, who is Israel, being called both here.

And you may remember that Abraham had two very significant twin grandsons. Okay. I'm skipping Isaac on purpose. Actually, now I didn't skip him. But Abraham had two very significant twin grandsons. Esau the older, Jacob the younger. The name Jacob has two meanings. The first meaning is heel grabber. You guys know this story, right? They called him heel grabber, because as it says in Genesis 25, 26, Jacob came out of the womb holding on to his brother's heel. The second meaning of Jacob's name is subplanter. That's actually the Hebrew word, to supplant. Because through cunning and trickery he robbed Esau, not only of his birthright, but his father's prophetic blessings as well. Jacob was a supplantor, a circumventor, a deceiver.

All of us would have liked Esau better. Jacob was not a good guy. Okay. Mama's boy. Not a manly man, not a good guy. But you're familiar with the story of Jacob. I mean, in the Bible, children's Bibles, Esau always looks like rough and right. And then in the children's Bible, Jacob looks all, ah, but that is actually not how the Bible describes these two men. Esau was just a man of lust, though, right? So in Genesis 32, God changes Jacob's name to Israel. And in Genesis 32, after spending all night wrestling with the angel of God, desperately clinging on to God's blessing, Jacob's name was changed to Israel, which means may God prevail. And it also means this is a person who stands with God, or God stands for this man.

That's what the name Israel means. So the name Jacob was symbolic of his old life. The name Israel represented the new. The name Israel carried the promise of God to bless, to fight for this man, whom he would make a nation. So Israel was the name signifying God's special selection of this man and all of his descendants. Confirmation of a covenant was made there when God changed Jacob's name to Israel. So Yahweh had chosen Israel from Israel's birth. Right? Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. Yahweh had chosen Israel, the people, before they had become even a nation. You guys follow. Yahweh would be Israel's God unconditionally and eternally. Yahweh would be Israel's redeemer and the one to whom they were to eternally look upon with hope forever and ever.

And that whole scene was revisited and interpreted in Hosea's prophecy. Alex, can you change the slide? Hosea 12, 3 to 6. In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his adulthood, in his maturity, he wrestled with God. Indeed, he wrestled with the angel, and he won. And he wept and sought his favor. That detail's not in Genesis. You don't see Jacob crying in Genesis, okay? And he found him at Bethel, and there God, he spoke with us, all Israel, even Yahweh, the God of hosts, Yahweh is his name of remembrance. Therefore, return to your God, keep loving kindness and justice, and hope in your God forever and ever. Continually. God would remember his people Israel, no matter how often they would revert back to living like Jacob.

I'm gonna repeat this. God would remember his people Israel no matter how often they would revert back to living like Jacob. And from so much of Israel's history, Israel did some horrible and absolutely atrocious things.

There are exponentially more stories of Israel's unfaithfulness than of the nation's faithful commitment to God. And you guys know some of the stories, right? They were constantly turning to idols and graven images.

And then whenever they got in trouble, they always sought favor and protection first from the pagan nations around them. And the phrase, such a thing should not be done in Israel, was often repeated in the Old Testament because the covenant people of Israel were time and time again reverting back to the ways of Jacob. A Levite, whose family members served as priests.

Judges 19 to 20. King David, who is the favorite of all the Jews, his own son raped his sister, 2 Samuel 13. The people of Israel sacrificed their infants to Malek and Baal, the fertility gods of the pagan nations. They put their history where they boiled and ate their own children. 2 Kings 6, 28 to 29. And the king said to her, What is the matter with you? And she said, This woman said to me, give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and we ate him. So I said to her the next day, give your son that we may eat him. Not fair. She has hidden her son. Lamentations 4 10.

The hands of compassionate women boiled their own children. They became food for them because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. They were always doing silly things in times of distress, but most vile of all, most criminal of all, they crucified their own Messiah for whom they had waited. Right? They blasphemed the Son of God by attributing godly power to Satan. The people of God, the religious leaders of God, said that Jesus was doing things by the power of Satan. So if the people of Israel had been judged by their behavior, their character, their obedience, or their faithfulness to God, they would have been rejected a million times over.

Right? Not once in the history of Israel had they kept their part of the contract or covenant with God. All the contractual obligations laid out for them in Deuteronomy 28, 15 to 68, Israel breached again and again and again and again. So it's important to remember that they had not been elected or chosen or favored because of their inherent goodness or their potential or their intrinsic value or their ability to keep God's law.

Next slide.

Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, Yahweh did not set his affection on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other peoples. Actually, you were the fewest of all peoples. But because Yahweh loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So the people of Israel never merited favor with God.

And for God to love God and to serve God, and Israel would be his chosen people for all of human history. Even today they are God's chosen people. Again, not because they deserve it, or because they're a good people. So it's an important question to think through this today, okay.

And it's fair. Is today's Israel a worse people than what we see in the Old Testament? That's an objective question. Is today's Israel worse than the Old Testament Israel? Are they a better people today? I'll take one concrete example, okay? God hates homosexuality. You guys all know this, right? Because it's an outright rebellion to his creation of male and female and his command for male and female to procreate and fill the earth. God hates homosexuality. It was an abomination in the old uh Testament, old covenant community, Leviticus 18, 22. It continued to be an abomination in the New Testament after the arrival of Jesus, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, Jude.

Homosexuality has always been rebellious and treasonous towards God. And with the ability for two people of the same sex to be married, that's an assault on the institution and union that God has blessed most for all mankind. Think about this with me. Isn't it so strange and odd that the only country today in all of the Middle East where same-sex marriage is legal is Israel? Isn't that mind-boggling? The only country today in the Middle East where same-sex marriage is legal is Israel. You can look that up. So throughout much of human history, God has disciplined his chosen people again and again and again through different empires, different oppressors, and Israel's history is very fascinating, and it's so difficult to understand.

But the greatest difficulty understand this is not so much on Israel, but it's how can God be so patient. The nation of Israel has been historically hated again and again and again and again and again.

Do you guys know this through history? No people has ever been genocide attempt as much as Israel. Satan hates the people God has chosen to love. Satan hates Israel, and the nations who are under Satan's power have always hated, hated Israel, but somehow they're still here. It's been three thousand five hundred years since God made a covenant with Abraham and then changed Jacob's name to Israel, three thousand five hundred years, three thousand of those years where they didn't have a land, and they're still here. Why? Because God is faithful to keep his promises. God has not rejected Israel.

The scriptures do not say, Jacob I hated, and Esau I hated. It says, Jacob, I what? Loved before they were born. Before the nation was birthed. God had chosen Jacob not based on any merit, but based simply on his good and pleasing and perfect will. The church has not replaced Israel. Israel remains God's chosen and elect people because God's word is timeless, and God is faithful to his word. Now the opposition in your mind and your hearts may start to grow. Well, that's not what I was taught. That's not what I heard. Hold that thought. Some of it could be valid. Okay. Can I have the next slide? Gentiles, like you and me, non-ethnic Jews, who believed upon the Jewish Messiah, we were grafted in because we believed the message of the good news.

That was God's plan all along, Genesis 12, 2 to 3, Galatians 3, 8. But this does not mean that the Gentiles have now subplanted Jacob, the subplanter. That thought is called replacement theology. Repeat after me. Replacement theology. It's also called supersessionism. Repeat after me. Supercessionism. And that was prevalent for much of church history. Because for most of church history, there was no Israel. You guys, you guys following this? The early church fathers were writing all their literature in a time where the nation of Israel was not there. For two thousand years, Israel did not exist as a geopolitical entity or as a nation. But what happened in 1948?

Israel somehow became a nation with geopolitical boundaries. And that happened immediately on the heels of six million of them being killed in an effort to again wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. God has not rejected Israel. The Gentiles have sought and found Christ, as was prophesied, yes. But in no way does that mean that God was finished with Israel. God is faithful to the promise to the Gentiles as well. So the Gentiles have not replaced or subplanted, nor will we supersede God's chosen nation. And that's Paul's point in Romans 10 and 11. And this is a slightly lengthy passage, but it's super important. So pay attention.

Ask for me. This is your testimony. God saved you. Okay. But as for Israel, he says, man, all day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient, obstinate people. And then Paul's speaking again. So I say then logically. Has God rejected his people? May Ganoita. May it never be. Absolutely.

Does he mean the opposite of what he just said? I don't think so. And he goes on to say, I too am an Israelite, a seed of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin. Can I have the next slide? Alex. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? Lord, they have always killed your prophets. They have torn down your altars. I alone am left. And they are seeking my life. But what does the divine response say to him? I have left for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to bow. In this way, then at the present time, a remnant according to God's gracious choice has also come to be. But if it is by grace, then it is no longer of works.

Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. So Israel too has been chosen, elected, and saved not by works, but by what? By grace.

Salvation has always been founded upon the grace of God. You have to do crazy hermeneutical gymnastics to say that God is done with Israel. Do you realize this? You have to be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The church fathers, well, why is Israel still here? There remains a future for the nation of Israel. At present, right now, the nation of Israel looks like they're up to no good and up to their old ways. There is nothing new under Israel's son. But here's a good thing. Their future depends not on their merit, but on the promises of God. So we have that in common. Right. In Naum, we find one of the multitude of God's physical and circumstantial blessings and promises for the nation of the people of Israel.

Yahweh will restore the majesty of Jacob, like the majesty of Israel, even though those who empty them have emptied them to destruction and ruined their vine branches. So throughout history, many have come and emptied Israel. At present, there are still many seeking to destroy Israel and to ruin their vine branches. Some God has raised up for Israel's discipline. Perhaps God is raising up nations now for Israel's discipline, like he has done in the past. Some nations God has raised up for Israel's glory. But God has promised a great future for the nation of Israel. So how are you and I to think through Israel and the conflict in the Middle East?

The opinion of experts is stupidity. Doesn't matter. For God has made foolish the wisdom of the wise, 1 Corinthians 1, right? So how are you and I supposed to think through everything happening in the Middle East? May we think thoroughly through what we see in the Bible. All of it.

Right? God's word is timeless. It is always proven true. There is only one interpretation that matters, and that's God's. And so may our opinions and preferences be aligned accurately to God's will and his interpretations and not sinful man's.

Amen. Let's pray together. Father, help us to think biblically, because we are so prone to have itching ears to incline our ears towards people who will say what we want them to say. There's a lot happening in our world that leaves us feeling very anxious and uncomfortable. There's a lot happening in the Middle East that is confusing, that is mind-boggling. And we don't know how to discern accurately the good from the better. Sometimes we don't even know how to discern the good from the bad. So I pray that, especially in our time of overinformation, that you would teach us how to meditate on your word and to delight in your law and to cling to the promises that are held within your word. Help us, the righteous saints of God, truly live by faith.

We entrust our hearts and our minds to you. I pray this in Jesus' name.