What Would It Take?
What would it take for Israel, its leaders and the nation as a whole, to call upon Jesus? Many Jewish people, even today, swear that they will never acknowledge Jesus. Jesus, the King, came to His people 2,000 years ago, offering the perpetual Kingdom that was promised to David. This was rejected by the leaders of the nation, therefore postponing the Kingdom.
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.(from Ps 118:26) (Matt 23:39)
A great crowd of people did say exactly that (Matt 21:9) at the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. It was the leaders who refused to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. Luke records the same words of Jesus (Luke 13:35) and the same action from a crowd of people (19:38). It seems that this requirement of saying, “Blessed is He that comes in the Name of yehôvâh” is that the leaders of the nation officially make this proclamation.
What would it take for the leadership of Israel to make the public proclamation that Jesus is the long awaited One? No real national rescue will take place until this requirement is met. Jesus will not return as King until this takes place, as He prophesied.
Based upon the promises of Scripture and the records of history, the consequence of Israel being stubborn against God's revealed plans is quite severe. The Bible promises invasion and exile for turning away from the Lord. History records the Jewish temples being destroyed in 586 BC and again in 70 AD. It's not that diplomacy and explanation are not God's preferred way of changing things. It is that nothing short of desolation is going to have any effect on the nation. God has a special love for His first covenant people. He has a long history with Israel that proves that gentleness and kindness do not work. What would it take? Anyone who shares God's love for Israel does not really even want to think about it. As much as the Jewish people have suffered throughout the centuries, they (the nation as a whole) haven't seen anything yet. A time is coming upon Israel known Biblically as “the time of Jacob's trouble”.
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble;...(Jer 30:7)
If a true Christian can even refer to this while grinning about it, there is something severely wrong. Any normal human would not want to see this happen to their worst enemy.
Do not get the idea that God is going to create new evil to drive His people to their knees. The fact that these things are recorded in Scripture does not mean that this is the will of God. It means that these things are sure and certain to happen. God, Who dwells outside of time, can see the beginning and the ending in the constant now. Since the nations of the world are going to try to destroy Israel, God is going to use this for His purposes. Jesus' final last-minute entrance will be dramatic.
The “birthday party” of the Holocaust did not do it. That did not move the needle any. No “splashing in the kiddie pool” of the German extermination camps had any effect on the stubbornness of the nation. What is coming will be sufficient to make the Jewish nation cry out for deliverance. It will be enough to make the leaders call upon the name of Jesus to come help them if He can. The prophet Zechariah says that two thirds of the nation shall die (Zec 13:8). Again.
What would it take for the leadership of Israel to call upon the name of Jesus? The threat of instant, total annihilation of the nation. Nothing less than that. And that is exactly what is coming. However, the prophet Zechariah sees what is coming after that.
8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. (Zec 13)
When the leadership of the nation of Israel will call upon the Name, deliverance will come. This is not the words, “the name” (ha Shem) but rather the name of Jesus of Nazareth: the name, and the only name, that can bring real salvation (Acts 4:12).
When Jesus really does come to rescue His bloodline people from annihilation, it will be a wonderful day yet also a day of horror.
... and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zec 12:10)
The minute Israel officially cries out to Jesus to rescue them, He will come and fight against all the enemies of Israel. What a glorious day for Israel! Yet it will be a day of mourning as well.
When the realization hits them, it will be overwhelming. They could have had this national salvation at any time. There was no reason to wait even an hour. Two thousand years of pain, suffering, and death were completely unnecessary. Millions of Jews had died, even horrible deaths, and it was only because of stubbornness (and spiritual blindness (Rom 11:25)). The mourning, the wailing, the shrieking as if grieving the death of a child will be heard everywhere.
Jeremiah sees the end of it.
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. (Jer 30:7)
In the New Testament Paul agrees.
And so all Israel (that is alive at the time) shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: (from Isa 59:20) (Rom 11:26)
May 7, 2025