A lot of "Christians" don't like to talk about eschatology, relegating it to a "side issue" and proclaiming how they "always try to be ready for Jesus". Hogwash. The "day of the Lord" takes nearly center stage in the Bible, standing at the right hand of the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ. From the prophecy of the serpent's defeat given in the garden to Abraham's unconditional land grant to his descendants to Moses' prophecy that God would "make Israel jealous by the goyim (Gentiles)" to God's promise to King David that one of his progeny would build the temple and establish a physical kingdom of Israel that would endure forever, Israel's role in endtime events has always been pivotal, for reasons which I will strive to make clear in this post.
The "seed" represents not only the Messiah Jesus Christ, but also the people from whom He came:
This is readily apparent, since the serpent's "seed" can not only be one individual (though the Antichrist represents his "son" as Christ represents God's Son) and is also a group of people.
So from the beginning of human history, God predicted that His people (via "the woman") would wage perpetual war (enmity) with the people of the serpent, culminating in a defeat of the serpent himself by the champion of God's seed, the Messiah Jesus Christ.
The first casualty of this war was Abel at the hands of his own brother Cain, who "belonged to the evil one" [was his seed] (1 John 3:12). Eventually the devil conscripted other fallen angels to add their own "seed" to the human race in a vain attempt to "poison the well" and prevent the coming of the seed of promise (Genesis 6) and the war reached such a fever pitch that God Himself had to intervene and wash away everyone but Noah and his family.
After the Flood, squandering the second chance they'd been given, humanity doubled down on its rebellion and openly disobeyed God's explicit command to "fill the earth", choosing instead to pool their collective energies and resources to build a ritualistic base of operations (called a "tower") that would open a portal to God's domain (reach unto heaven) to carry the war directly to His doorstep. Circumstances again required God's direct intervention ("lest those days be shortened, no flesh would survive, but for the sake of the elect...") and He confused the languages of the rebels to stop their "progress" in its tracks ("lest nothing they determine to do be impossible for them"), mercifully delaying the inevitable final (apocalyptic) confrontation between God and the devil (via their surrogates the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent) "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled".
Of vital importance to understanding eschatology and therefore everything else is to understand that in the wake of the Tower of Babel incident literal battle lines were drawn:
So after Babel "the nations" were divided up "according to the number of the 'sons of God'", a phrase which in the Old Testament always refers to angels. These angels chosen to rule over various nations formed a "council" with God, but because they were corrupt, God promised to deal with them and reclaim the whole world as "His inheritance" (intentionally using "inheritance" language in common with the partitioning language in Deuteronomy 32):
In Daniel we are given a "behind the scenes" snapshot of this perpetual war between the fallen angel "princes" (who rule over "principalities" [Ephesians 6:12]) and the holy angels who serve God:
As it clearly states in Deuteronomy 32:9, when God partitioned out the nations, He chose Israel (Jacob) as "His portion". And Israel began with Abraham:
By referring to Abraham's "seed", God is intentionally casting Abraham as the descendant of "the woman" who was to carry on the promise of "her seed". And God explicitly ties the promised seed in with "this land" (Canaan which became Israel), that is, "His portion".
"Land of Canaan" is too specific to mean some ephemeral "promised land" and we can all understand "everlasting possession". And of course it makes sense for God's "people" to be tied to a specific parcel of land, just as "Persians" live in Persia and "Greeks" in Greece.
It also makes sense that since the fallen angelic "princes" (and ultimately their leader, the devil) wage war against God's people using "the nations" as chess pieces, so to speak, that God would wield "His portion" of Israel as a chess piece against the forces of darkness:
With the usage of the same "Portion" and "inheritance" language of Deuteronomy 32, God is making it obvious that Jacob (Israel, His portion) is His "war club" and "weapon for battle" by which He will "shatter nations", ultimately including "Babylon" itself.
And just as the Messiah Jesus Christ is called the "head" of His body (language which harkens back to crushing the serpent's "head" and the Antichrist receiving a "head" wound), Israel was meant to be the "head of nations":
Just as the devil has a "head of nations":
In the interest of keeping this post of manageable proportions, I will speak about God provoking the nation of Israel to jealousy and the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in a future post, Lord willing.
The "seed" represents not only the Messiah Jesus Christ, but also the people from whom He came:
This is readily apparent, since the serpent's "seed" can not only be one individual (though the Antichrist represents his "son" as Christ represents God's Son) and is also a group of people.
So from the beginning of human history, God predicted that His people (via "the woman") would wage perpetual war (enmity) with the people of the serpent, culminating in a defeat of the serpent himself by the champion of God's seed, the Messiah Jesus Christ.
The first casualty of this war was Abel at the hands of his own brother Cain, who "belonged to the evil one" [was his seed] (1 John 3:12). Eventually the devil conscripted other fallen angels to add their own "seed" to the human race in a vain attempt to "poison the well" and prevent the coming of the seed of promise (Genesis 6) and the war reached such a fever pitch that God Himself had to intervene and wash away everyone but Noah and his family.
After the Flood, squandering the second chance they'd been given, humanity doubled down on its rebellion and openly disobeyed God's explicit command to "fill the earth", choosing instead to pool their collective energies and resources to build a ritualistic base of operations (called a "tower") that would open a portal to God's domain (reach unto heaven) to carry the war directly to His doorstep. Circumstances again required God's direct intervention ("lest those days be shortened, no flesh would survive, but for the sake of the elect...") and He confused the languages of the rebels to stop their "progress" in its tracks ("lest nothing they determine to do be impossible for them"), mercifully delaying the inevitable final (apocalyptic) confrontation between God and the devil (via their surrogates the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent) "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled".
Of vital importance to understanding eschatology and therefore everything else is to understand that in the wake of the Tower of Babel incident literal battle lines were drawn:
So after Babel "the nations" were divided up "according to the number of the 'sons of God'", a phrase which in the Old Testament always refers to angels. These angels chosen to rule over various nations formed a "council" with God, but because they were corrupt, God promised to deal with them and reclaim the whole world as "His inheritance" (intentionally using "inheritance" language in common with the partitioning language in Deuteronomy 32):
In Daniel we are given a "behind the scenes" snapshot of this perpetual war between the fallen angel "princes" (who rule over "principalities" [Ephesians 6:12]) and the holy angels who serve God:
As it clearly states in Deuteronomy 32:9, when God partitioned out the nations, He chose Israel (Jacob) as "His portion". And Israel began with Abraham:
By referring to Abraham's "seed", God is intentionally casting Abraham as the descendant of "the woman" who was to carry on the promise of "her seed". And God explicitly ties the promised seed in with "this land" (Canaan which became Israel), that is, "His portion".
"Land of Canaan" is too specific to mean some ephemeral "promised land" and we can all understand "everlasting possession". And of course it makes sense for God's "people" to be tied to a specific parcel of land, just as "Persians" live in Persia and "Greeks" in Greece.
It also makes sense that since the fallen angelic "princes" (and ultimately their leader, the devil) wage war against God's people using "the nations" as chess pieces, so to speak, that God would wield "His portion" of Israel as a chess piece against the forces of darkness:
With the usage of the same "Portion" and "inheritance" language of Deuteronomy 32, God is making it obvious that Jacob (Israel, His portion) is His "war club" and "weapon for battle" by which He will "shatter nations", ultimately including "Babylon" itself.
And just as the Messiah Jesus Christ is called the "head" of His body (language which harkens back to crushing the serpent's "head" and the Antichrist receiving a "head" wound), Israel was meant to be the "head of nations":
Just as the devil has a "head of nations":
In the interest of keeping this post of manageable proportions, I will speak about God provoking the nation of Israel to jealousy and the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in a future post, Lord willing.
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