Appendixes R & S Expository Sermons on Daniel,& Ancient Prophecies for the End Times Part III

Appendix S Ancient Prophecies and Ancient Prayers for the End of the Age By Lambert Dolphin Part II
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http://www.ldolphin.org/kingdom/append.html

The Final Conversion of Israel

Israel’s national prayer for their Messiah to come and to forgive them is found in Hosea Chapter 5 beginning at verse 15. Most reputable scholars believe this prayer must be prayed by the nation as a precondition for their national salvation in the coming of Jesus the Messiah to save them:
Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me.”
1 “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.
3 Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” – Hosea 5:15-6:3
Earlier we traced the escape of a remnant of some thousands–perhaps tens of thousands–of believing Jews from Jerusalem to Petra, which will take at the time of the desecration of the Third Temple at the mid-point of the Tribulation period.
As the age comes to a full close many passages of Scripture speak of the national conversion of Israel. We have seen that the imagery of the trampling out of the vineyard and the blood like grape juice flowing as high as a horse’s bridle up and down the length of Israel will be Jewish blood as God judges the apostate majority of Jews in the land of Israel. In this terrible time for Israel, millions of men from invading Gentile armies fighting World War III in Israel will also meet their violent end. All the while the terrible judgments from God depicted in the book of Revelation will devastate the entire earth. Most of mankind will perish and the great infrastructures of the past thousand of years of civilization will be destroyed.
Yet Paul argues in Romans 11 that in spite of all this, “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-36). Here is a portion of that passage:
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” – Romans 11:25-27
Paul is careful to make clear that he is not speaking of each and every Jew being converted, but true Israel is limited to those who ultimately believe in Jesus within the nation. Just how many Jews will be saved at the very end of the age?
Though our own nation, the United States, contains a professing Christian population that appears to number many tens of millions of believers, it is more realistic to say that the “believing remnant” in America today is perhaps only 5 to 10% of those professing faith in Jesus Christ. Thus the future large-scale conversion of Jews to belief in Jesus at the close of the age will represent a very great work of grace by the God of Israel. A final conversion of one-third of the populace of Israel will surely be very large in percentage compared to the size of the fractional wheat harvest from among the Gentiles. The end result of Jesus‘ work in Israel at the end of the age will be a completely righteous nation of believers chosen to be the head of all the nations.
In the midst of Isaiah’s description of the terrible judgments during the time of Jacob’s trouble, the prophet gives a call for the remnant to hide themselves for a season (Isaiah chapters 24-27).
The post-exilic prophet Zechariah had much to say about the close of the age we live in as well as details about both the identity and character of both the true Messiah and the end-times imposter (Zechariah 12-14).
I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. – Zechariah 12:2-3
The term “on that day” is a clue that the passage is referring to the Day of the Lord, i.e. the Great Tribulation period:

The Wine Press of Wrath upon the Jews

14I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one “like a son of man” with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your
sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
17Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.” 19The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia. – Revelation 14:14-20
The first sickle and the references to the reaping of the harvest of the earth indicates the reaping of the wheat and the tares from the nations, Matthew 13.This is a final separation of the believers in the nations other than Israel divided and differentiated from the unbelievers with whom they are co-mingled.
This series of events is also foretold by the prophet Joel (Joel 3). First Joel discusses the judgment of the nations on the basis of their treatment of the God’s people the Jews. This is the same judgment we know as the “Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats” from Matthew 25:31-46.
Joel now announces the assembly of the nations to the Battle of Armageddon. It is God who draws these armies into his land.
Next, Joel invokes the Lord to come down with his armies of heaven to fight against the nations. Again, this is the sheep and goat judgment of Matthew 25:31-46. The Valley of Jehoshaphat is most probably the Kidron Valley between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives.
Likewise, Israel is to be judged.
The Lord makes his open appearance upon the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem in the midst of the battle:
The return of the Lord leads at last into the conditions of peace on earth under Messiah’s long-expected reign.
A clear description of this same event—the coming of Messiah to the Mount of Olives in power and glory–is described by the aged Apostle John (Revelation 19:11-20).
Notice that the armies of the world originally gather to battle at Megiddo–to fight one another. In the midst of that battle, ominous portents from outer space–visions and signs of the approach of Jesus–cause the armies of the world to turn and fight against God and his armies!

Isaiah’s Prayer for the Soon-Coming of Messiah:
In Isaiah chapters 64 through 66, the prophet asks for the Lord to come down to deliver Israel, and Messiah answers him with great detail announce his return in judgment for sinners and blessing for believers.