Isaiah 11:11-12 It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations, And will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth.
Jeremiah 31:37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
Song of Solomon 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
In 70 AD Jerusalem finally fell to the mighty Roman army led by Titus after a long siege. To commemorate the Roman victory over the Jewish rebellion, an arch was erected in Rome known to this day as the Arch of Titus. This famous arch depicts the fall of the Temple and its artifacts paraded in a processional described by the historian Josephus’ in his account, “The Jewish War.”
The arch of Titus stands to this day, as a horrific monument to the defeat of the Jewish people. Yet history and God have a way of inverting such things since when the nation of Israel was reborn in 1948, the exact depiction of the Menorah on the arch of Titus was used as a symbol of Israel’s rebirth.
While the Roman empire has long been vanquished, the nation of Israel has remained and been resurrected despite utter defeat and decimation. How could this tiny nation survive 2,000 years of dispersion and persecution? A promise (Jeremiah 31) and a prophetic sign are indicated by this “banner to the nations” of Isaiah 11.
And just as the symbol of the menorah on the Roman victory arch has been resurrected to symbolize Israel’s rebirth, this little nation of Israel is also a banner and a sign for us. Israel is a monumental marker indicating our time in history (God’s story) and the absolute surety of God’s promises. Her resurrection signals the time of the end, the last of the Last Days, and the soon coming of Messiah for His Bride.
The Roman empire expressed terrible power and pretension with persecution and plunder, appearing victorious for a season. In these days of the final “Beast” system, the enemy of our souls is also marching, triumphantly corrupting culture and government and destroying righteous foundations. Persecution of God’s saints is increasing greatly, and we may need serious endurance. But we also have a “banner.” His banner over us is love, which endures all things and never fails.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Today's word is not Hebrew or Greek, it's Inuit! The word is issumagijoujunnainermik. When missionaries first shared the gospel with the Inuit tribes in Alaska, they couldn't find any word in the Inuit language for forgiveness. So, they took a number of Inuit words and joined them to form a new word -- Issu-magi-jou-jun-nai-ner-mik -- and it became the Inuit word for forgiveness. The individual words are "Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore."
True story! In 1940, a large and wonderful Christian family, the Rudolph's, announced the birth of their 20th baby! Though the baby was not expected to live, having been born prematurely and with polio, she defied all odds. She did live, but by the time she was four she had suffered polio, pneumonia and scarlet fever. This little girl was badly crippled with hardly any use of her left leg. While her brothers and sisters enjoyed running and playing outside, she was left confined to braces.
Near Eilat, in Southern Israel, there is a life-size replica of the tabernacle in the Negev desert, a couple hours from where we live. One particular year, as we visited and entered the Holy of Holies, the guide shared something I never heard before.
My wife used to teach Israeli dance workshops all over the world. And over the years, she has acquired a few interesting and rather funny stories of people, including herself, tripping and stumbling over each other during a class.
We've been in full-time ministry just over 20 years now, and boy, have we had our share of trials and tribulations!
Sometimes when we are in the midst of trials we start to wonder -- Lord, will it ever end? In case you haven't noticed, it doesn't. But the good news is that with each faith-testing experience, our ability to deal with these trials and tribulations becomes better and our faith grows stronger!
There was a man who had four sons. He wanted them to learn to not judge things too quickly, so he sent them each on a quest to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. He sent his first son in the winter, his second in the spring, his third in summer and his youngest in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.
A group of scientists and botanists were exploring remote regions of the Alps in search of new species of flowers. One day they noticed through binoculars a flower of such rarity and beauty that its value to science was incalculable. But it lay deep in a ravine with cliffs on both sides. To get the flower someone had to be lowered over the cliff on a rope.