Israel Touring Day 4

 We left Tiberius and started the drive south.  We stopped to see the ruins of Bet She'An.  This is an amazingly well preserved and excavated Roman town.  It was a gorgeous day to explore.  I love Ancient Rome, so this was fascinating to me.

Our guide, Moshe, gave us all sorts of interesting facts about life in Ancient Rome.

 Everyone found ancient toilets funny!

We left here and continued driving until we arrived at Mount Megiddo.  We climbed to the top of it, and looked down upon the Valley of Armageddon.  This is the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, so it has always been an important area.  It may best be known though for it's future.  This is the site of the final battle of good versus evil: the Battle of Armageddon.

Bryant preached here for about an hour and fifteen minutes.  He barely even needed his Bible as he quoted scripture upon scripture, jumping between the old and new testaments.  He is such an amazingly gifted teacher, and this is why we wanted to visit Israel with him, so we could sit under his teachings.  I'm going to relay my notes here as best I can so I'll have them in the future.  May be a good idea to read his book "The Stage is Set" again too.  Here's what we reviewed:

• Revelation 16:13-16 describes the demonic trinity of the Dragon (also called the devil in Revelation 12:8-10), the Beast (also called the Anti-Christ), and the False Prophet.  The Anti-Christ will be a great world leader who can consolidate power and appear to be a person of peace.
• Matthew 24:3-5, 11 describes the things to come before Jesus returns, including false prophets, more wars, more natural disasters, an increase in persecution, and more fall away from the faith.  It's described as birth pains as we think in terms of frequency and intensity.
• Revelation 13:1-2 where the sea represents chaos and worldliness, and the beast receives it's power from the devil.  The beast has the look of a leopard, bear, and lion, which refers us back to Daniel 7:1-8 where Daniel sees four beasts: a lion with eagles' wings which represents Babylon (currently Iraq), a bear which represents Cyrus the Great from Persia (currently Iran), and a leopard which represents Alexander the Great of Greece.  The last beast is almost indescribable but it represents the Roman Empire.  These beasts are interpreted in Daniel 7:15-27.  We know that it appears Western Roman empire ended in 457 while the Eastern Roman empire ended in 1453, so this tells us the final Roman empire has not yet happened.  There is still a second time of the Roman empire to rise.  It will probably involve Europe.  Look at the mighty men from European history...Charlemagne, Napoleon, Hitler, Churchill...all wanted to bring back the glory of Rome  The 2004 "Treaty of Rome" brought about the European Union.
• This brings us back to Revelation 13:3-4 where the devil (who is the great counterfeiter to Christ) will appear to be resurrected.  We see that Revelation 13:5-6 compares to Daniel 9:27.  We learn that there will be a peace treaty signed with Israel for 7 years, but it will be broken after 3.5 years.  How can this happen?  2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 tells us that the Anti Christ must take his place in the temple in Jerusalem and declare himself God.  The Jews will be appalled by this and will rebel against the Anti Christ.  
• Currently, the Dome of the Rock stands where the temple should be.  Bryant's speculation is that the Anti Christ will convince the Arab world to allow the temple to be rebuilt next to the Dome of the Rock.  As we will later see in the city, there is actually plenty of room to do this when you look through the Eastern Gate.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:5-6 tells us that the Holy Spirit is restraining the devil at until the right time.  This means the Holy Spirit working through the church will be removed.  In Revelation 13:5-6, we learn the church is gone.  We don't know why.  Maybe the middle tribulation is a rapture of the church.  We do know though something happens to remove the church and the Holy Spirit at the 3.5 year mark.
• Here we also looked at Revelation 13:7-10 which notes our name must be in the Lamb's Book of Life.  Verses 11-18 shows us that the financial world will be turned upside down as individuals must have the mark of the beast to participate in the economy.  Who will you trust...your money or your God?
• At this time, Revelation 19:7-9 tells of the great celebration of the completion of the church's work which is getting the gospel to all people groups.  This is also an anticipation of the life to come together.
• Here's the part that nearly brought me to tears.  All the nations of this world will be poised and ready to destroy Israel.  Why?  Because God loves them and the Anti Christ hates them.  They will be at the crossroads of Armageddon.  The whole world will be watching to see this destruction.  We read in Zechariah 12:10 that the Jewish people will cry out to God once again to save His people, and He will.  Their long-awaited for savior, Jesus Christ, will return to earth to save them.  The Jewish people will be shocked and they will mourn that they did not recognize Christ before, and they will know the punishment they deserve.  God will once again forgive them with His never-ending grace and love for His people.  We see in Revelation 19:11-21 that Christ will return and cut down His enemies with a sharp sword, the sword of truth, from His mouth.  It really won't be much of a battle as Jesus alone kills those standing against Israel.  Romans 11:25-29 again confirms that God will save the Jews as they repent.

I know that's a lot, but I wanted to record it all.  It was unbelievable to look out over this valley and see where future history will take place.  Praise God for being a God true to His word; come Lord Jesus!

It's hard to imagine there's more to the day, but there is!  After eating lunch at the bottom of Megiddo, we continued our drive south until we arrived in Jerusalem.  It was amazing to drive into this city for the first time!  We immediately drove to the top of Mount Scopus, so we could have an overview of the city just as the sun was beginning to set.

We are thankful for Bryant and Anne with their leadership on this trip and at our church.

It was fascinating to see this huge city start to shut down as we were arriving Friday evening at sundown which is the start of Shabbat or Sabbath.  What a beautiful city.  I can't believe we are here!