Pastor Jack Hibbs likens the nation of Israel to a mother hen, as Jesus referred to in Luke 13:34-35 (MEV):
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! … Truly I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
When He first came to earth, the majority of the Jewish people rejected Jesus as their Messiah. But Hibbs, the founder and pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino Hills, California, says as a brutal and costly war that began with the terrorist group Hamas on Oct. 7 and continues to rage in the Holy Land, they have but one choice for their survival: to turn to Christ.
“When you are in distress and all things come upon you in the last day, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice, for the Lord God is a merciful God, He will not forsake you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them,” Hibbs says.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed since the war began, and equally as important in God’s eyes, 3,785 Palestinians have been killed. Many other Israelis have been kidnapped, women have been raped and babies have been beheaded by Hamas, the Hebrew word for “violence.”
For more than 2,500 years, many countries and factions have tried to exterminate the Jewish people, including the Egyptians, the Romans, the Nazis and now Hamas—to name a few—but the Jewish people, as Jonathan Cahn says, are miraculously “still alive.”
Yet, when the gospel of the kingdom is preached in all of the world as a witness to the nations, the end will come.
Hibbs says we are living in a time right now that is the most accurate age to live in regarding the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. “We could say that the fuse is about to be lit if it hasn’t already been lit now,” Hibbs says. “… According to the Scriptures, we are living in the last days …
From Scripture, Hibbs warns the Jewish nation:
“Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. Let him who is in the field not return to take his clothes” (Matt. 24:16-18).
Many have interpreted the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 14 to be recently converted Jewish evangelists who are sent out to brin sinners to Jesus Christ during the seven-year tribulation. While the Tribulation period has yet to begin, are we getting close to seeing this come to fruition?
Revelation 14:1-5 reads:
Then I looked. The Lamb was standing on Mount Zion and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand having His Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of a great thunder. I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths, for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Today, although small in numbers compared to the Jewish population, Messianic ministries exist in Israel to spread the gospel of Christ to the Jewish people.
Hibbs says that Israel is now fighting its greatest war since the Holocaust. Soon it will not only be against Hamas, but others like Iran, China and Russia will join in, as well as countries like Turkey and Syria.
The odds, he says, will be overwhelming. It’s why Christian intercession for Jews is not only a duty, but should also be a priority for believers.
But will the Jews eventually accept Jesus as their Messiah? Some see this idea as controversial, disruptive and inconvenient. But then Hibbs says everything God does is controversial.
“God is loving, forgiving, merciful and kind—yes,” Hibbs says. “As we speak of the pierced hands and the pierced feet, we know that Your anointed one has come to Jerusalem to an empty tomb leaves, just as the prophets foretold. So, Father God, in Yeshua’s name, we pray that You would open the eyes of the people to know that the price of sin by the Lamb of God has come, and the only hope possible is in Him.
“You are soon about to deal with Israel in its reawakening, and the gathering of the Jew will come soon,” he adds. “But Lord, your word is clear that when we hear the gospel, we are to say yes to it now; the ancient promise of eternal life. The just shall live by faith.” {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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