CONTROVERSY OF ZION AND THE TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE - PART ONE

 by Dalton Lifsey

http://thecontroversyofzion.com/

 

 

 

This was a book I read a couple of years ago that has some great insights on end time eschatology concerning the church and the nation of Israel. The “time of Jacob’s trouble” refers to the Age-ending suffering of the Jewish people and the glorious restoration that follows. The following are my notes on the book. It may be ordered at the above website.

 

 

1. The Controversy
For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.’ “ Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, And wall her in, So that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, But not overtake them; Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘ I will go and return to my first husband, For then it was better for me than now.’ Hosea 2.5-7

Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. Micah 6.1-2

For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. Isaiah 34.8

 

The Assyrians as a tool of judgment on the House of Israel Isaiah 10.5-6
O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Babylon as a tool of judgment on the House of Jacob Habakkuk 1.5-6
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not their's.

Chastisement for disobedience Leviticus 26.23-26
And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.


 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

These judgments/chastisements are not made obsolete with Jesus’ death on the cross. In Luke 19 Jesus prophesied of Jerusalem’s coming destruction for disobedience (Luke 19.43-44). He also spoke of an end time calamity in Luke 21.20-24. This is the primary way God addresses the sin of His people and the world when all lesser forms of discipline are rejected.

 Ezekiel 20.33-42
“As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you. I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face. Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you,” says the Lord GOD.

“I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
“As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says the Lord GOD: “Go, serve every one of you his idols—and hereafter—if you will not obey Me; but profane My holy name no more with your gifts and your idols. For on My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel,” says the Lord GOD, “there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me; there I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the firstfruits of your sacrifices, together with all your holy things. I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised My hand in an oath to give to your fathers. Also read: Hosea 2.14-17, 18-23, 3.1-5

Israel’s end time change of heart is the great climax of this age. Read Romans 11


2. The People  Jew and born again Christian are one bride, one church, saved by one savior. Read Romans 9 thru 11

Israel has a set time of transformation (Psalm 102.13). You will arise and have mercy on Zion; For the time to favor her, Yes, the set time, has come. Romans 11, Ephesians 2 and 3 reveal the reality of union and distinction between Israel and the church. A husband and wife “become” one, but still retain their gender distinction and individuality.

3. The Land: Gen 17.7-8 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

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.

Also read: Ez 37.21, Hosea 1.11, 3.4-5, Joel 3.20, Amos 9.14-15, Obad 1.17, Micah 4.6-7, Zeph 3.14-20, Zech 10.6-10, Jeremiah 30.3, 11

Many in the church deny that God has given this land to the Jews forever. They say it is “spiritual Jews” or today’s Christian Church. That is off the mark. The Bible means what it says literally first, spiritually second. In Jer 31 and Ez 36 the new heart is given. This is the new covenant. The promise of the land is eternal and it is the nature of Israel’s identity--where else could they live? This land is their history. You shall dwell in the land.

Jer 31.31-37 describes new covenant and Israel as a nation going together unconditionally. The Palestinians refuse to recognize the Jewish state: "They talk to us about the Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize a Jewish state," Abbas said at the U.N. How do you negotiate peace with this attitude? This denies facts of history. (This took place in Sept 2011) They want a Palestinian state. How can there be a double standard?


Jeremiah 31.31-37 is a key passage as to the land and nation of Israel. This controversy that divides the church will also divide nations politically at the end of the age and create a second holocaust. Jer 25.31, Is 34.8, Zech 14.1-2, Is 28.19, Ps 83.3-4, Rev 11.1-2, 19.10

The first disciples lived under the shadow of an imminent, age ending judgment of Jerusalem. The city was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD but it was not the end of the age. We are now coming full circle. This is why the gospel is to be preached to the entire world. Each generation has the potential to be the final generation--only God knows the time of the end of the age. Between 70 AD and 1967 AD there was no Jewish Jerusalem. We are the first to witness this Jewish presence on Jewish soil since the time of the Apostles.

We need to understand that the Bible was written for all generations. There is, however, only one final generation. That is why we have the testimony of the prophets concerning the end of the age and the final war over Jerusalem and Jewish existence. The end of the age will find these books showing us/them the way, and explaining what is happening before that generation’s very eyes. Those words and books describing the end are for those alive at the consummation of the age. This is what has been sealed up until the time of the end. Dan 12.9

Tomorrow Part Two