The Prophetic History of Secular Israeli Leaders – Part 1

Over the last hundred years, the church has taught a lot about the prophetic, and we believe in all of its forms. There are no restrictions to how God can speak to us. The Bible says in Revelation 19:10 that the Gospel itself is prophecy. It’s one of two “eyes” of prophecy. The other “eye” comes from the Biblical Israelite world view, and we need to begin to understand it as we continue to move into the end times.

One way to learn this view is to read the second half of Isaiah 61 starting from the day of judgement and the restoration of the kingdom of God in this world. Another way is to simply read all the prophecies from Isaiah to Malachi and understand that much of it hasn’t happened yet. These are current prophetic words. Then reading the book of Revelation shows how John put both the Israelite prophecies and the church prophecies together in order to prophesy to the nations.

Here are another 10 keys that I have learned from studying Jewish history, Rabbinic thought, and current events here in Israel:

1. Restoring the Language

The first key was perhaps the first modern prophetic word regarding Israel in the end times. In the late 1870’s, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda had a vision. He felt God tell him “You will go back and restore the language of the prophets in the land of the prophets.” He accepted that calling, and today is known as the father of the Modern Hebrew language. He moved his family to Israel in 1881, and his son was the first person to speak Hebrew as his mother tongue.

I see this as parallel to us as a Messianic community in Israel, as we return not just to the Hebrew language, but to speaking in tongues as the early church did for the first time on Shavuot in Acts 2.

2. Global Reconciliation

The second key was from Rabbi Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, and possibly the most significant in modern Jewish history. In the beginning, the Ultra-Orthodox Jews were against the nation of Israel. In fact, most of them are still. Kook saw that the Israeli pioneers were secular, atheist, Communists; therefore the movement couldn’t be from God but from the devil. However, because they were bringing God’s people back to the Land of Israel according to Biblical prophecies, he created a bridge between Ultra-Orthodoxy and modern Zionism, and in doing so, laid the foundations of what we call Modern Orthodoxy. Today this stream of Judaism is pro-Israel and even serves in the IDF.

Similarly, I believe that our calling as Messianics is to bring together all the diverse aspects of Israel, including Orthodox and secular Jews, as well as the international Ekklesia (church). Throughout history these groups have opposed each other, even though we’re all supposed to be on the same side. So the second end times prophetic word is the joining together of Israel and the church.

3. Stages of Restoration

When Rabbi Kook considered modern Israel, he did not believe that it was the kingdom of God, but rather the first stage of the restoration which would lead to the Kingdom of God. There had to be some sort of physical restoration of the Land and people of Israel so that redemption could take place.

We are saying the same thing. Modern Israel today is not the Kingdom of God, but rather the initial steps of a restoration that is leading to the Kingdom of God. It is a mistake to be overly Zionist and call this the Kingdom of God, and it’s also a mistake to reject the idea completely. We’re saying that these are the beginning stages and the Messianic community is in the middle of it.

See Part 2 for more on these 10 modern prophetic keys.