(Continued-Chapter III-The God of Revelation)

God loves all peoples. His desire is to reach the greatest number in the shortest length of time and in the most efficient manner. The method which He adopted to attain this goal was the selection of Israel as the channel of world-blessing. As every informed person knows, the Lord gave His revelation to the world through the Hebrew people. All that we Gentiles have of a spiritual nature has come to us through them. Their debtors, therefore, we are.

When Israel's Messiah did make His appearance upon the earth, His people as a race did not recognize Him, the reason being that they did not know the Scriptures nor the power of God and fulfilled them in condemning Him (Acts 13:27).

Israel therefore voluntarily, though without knowledge, left the main line of God's plan and purpose and took the siding. She has been on the siding ever since. During this period of her alienation from God, the Lord is calling forth a people from both Jews and Gentiles and is welding them into one spiritual body which is known as the church--the aggregate of believers. Through it the Lord is now working in making His truth known to the world.

But the time will come, according to Romans, chapter 11, when Israel will see her mistake and come back to God and fit into the plan which He has for her. During the Tribulation, as we learn from Revelation, chapter 7, there will arise 144,000 Jewish evangelists from the twelve tribes of Israel who will bring about the world-wide revival, the like of which has never been in the history of the world. Then people from every nation, tribe, tongue, and language will see the truth and will accept the Lord Jesus Christ.

At the conclusion of the Tribulation, all Israel, being evangelized and seeing the truth, will accept Jesus as Messiah and plead for Him to return (Ps. 80). When she does that, He will return, will deliver her, and will set up His kingdom of a thousand years duration. She then will be the head of the nations instead of being the tail, as she is at the present time (Deut. 28:13). In the great Kingdom Age Israel will be the priests and ministers of our God.

This great era will be the consummation, as far as this earth is concerned. It will become apparent to everyone that God has conquered evil. When the Lord Jesus Christ mounts His throne, all the intelligent beings in the heavens above, on the earth, and underneath the earth will acknowledge that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father and that God has been righteous, just and holy in everything that He has done; and at the same time confession will be made that God could not have acted otherwise.

As suggested above, at the end of Messiah's glorious reign, the present material order passes out of existence. Then God will create the eternal order, and all of the redeemed from this earth will be with Him in the new Jerusalem which will come down out of the eternal heavens and rest upon the eternal earth. About these things we shall learn more in the last chapter of this book.

Our God, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, now extends His arms of love and pleads with men and women to come to Him: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and Ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30). The final invitation to all to come and partake of the water of life is given in the last chapter of the Bible in these words: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).