Divine Intervention
Divine intervention occurs when God becomes actively involved in
changing some situations in the current matters of humankind.
How He chooses to intervene in which current situation is solely
dependent upon His divine character and will. Very often, God steps
in to help or protect one person or some people favoured by Him. And
very often too, God steps in to chastise His own people because of
their sins and unrighteousness.
In the deliverance of His people out of the slavery in Egypt, God
sent the ten plagues in the land of Egypt. He did it to punish not
only the people of Egypt, but also the gods of Egypt.
Exodus 12:12
‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and
will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt
I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
In doing so, God broke the spiritual powers and principalities
over the land of Egypt, which were ruled by the Egyptian gods. These
ten plagues also dethroned Pharaoh, who was claimed to be the divine
king bearing the name "Son of Ra."
Have we ever wondered why God destroyed the gods of Egypt?
Besides delivering Israel His people, God also desires the Egyptians
to believe in Him, and to be called His people. God has included the
Egyptians in His plan of salvation too! This is clearly revealed in
the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 19:19-25
19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the
midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its
border.
20 And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of hosts
in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of the
oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He
will deliver them.
21 Then the LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians
will know the LORD in that day, and will make sacrifice and
offering; yes, they will make a vow to the LORD and perform it.
22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal
it; they will return to the LORD, and He will be entreated by them
and heal them.
23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and
the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and
the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and
Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land,
25 whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is
Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and
Israel My inheritance.”
God has chosen Israel to be a blessing, instrumental in bringing
His good news of salvation and hope to the nations of the earth. But
Israel failed to do what God had called them to do repeatedly
through history.
As a result, God had to punish His people for their
unfaithfulness and repeated sins, and sent them into exile for
seventy years. The LORD used Babylon as His agent of judgment
against Israel for their sins of idolatry and rebellion against Him.
2 Chronicles 36:15-23
The Fall
of Jerusalem
15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them
by His messengers, rising up early and sending them,
because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.
16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despised
His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD
arose against His people, till there was no remedy.
17 Therefore He brought against them the king of the
Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the
house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or
virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand.
18 And all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the
treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king
and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon.
19 Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of
Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its
precious possessions.
20 And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon,
where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the
kingdom of Persia,
21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of
Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long
as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
The Proclamation of Cyrus
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of
the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the
LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that
he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it
in writing, saying,
23 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia:
All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me.
And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is
in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the LORD his God
be with him, and let him go up!
The LORD who sent His people to exile and captivity also promised
to bring them back after 70 years. He had another secret agent named King
Cyrus. This was clearly divine intervention.
Israel then went through many years of being ruled by foreign
powers. Israel had lost her nationhood. She was deprived of her
land, her kings and her temple. She had been divided. Her twelve
tribes had dispersed for such a long time that unification and
restoration seemed impossible.
After the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans
came. Then Jesus came.
John 1:10-11
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the
world did not know Him.
11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
Jesus Christ came to Israel, His own people but they rejected Him as their
Messiah. They eventually crucified Him on a cross. But Jesus was
resurrected to life, and He ascended to heaven.
Acts 1:9-11
Jesus Ascends to Heaven
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was
taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into
heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will
so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
As Jesus ascended to heaven, two men in white apparel told the
disciples of Jesus, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into
heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will
so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
Jesus will come back again to Jerusalem in Israel the same manner
He went up to heaven!
After the Roman Empire, Israel was ruled by the Byzantine Empire, the Arabs,
the Crusaders, the Mamluks, the Ottomans and eventually the British.
But in 1948, Israel regained and re-established sovereignty over
their ancient homeland. It happened after the Holocaust. The modern
State of Israel was announced on the day of May 14, 1948 when the
last British forces left Israel.
A day after the declaration of independence of the State of
Israel, armies of five Arab countries, Egypt, Syria, Transjordan,
Lebanon and Iraq, invaded Israel. This marked the beginning of the
War of Independence. The Arab states continued to jointly wage four full
scale wars against Israel:
- 1948 - War of Independence
- 1956 - Sinai War
- 1967 - Six Day War
- 1973 - Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War broke out on the 6 October in 1973 when the
neighbouring Arab countries of Egypt and Syria decided to wipe
Israel off the face of the earth. Thanks to divine intervention, all
of them were all repelled. Israel even managed to expand its land.
Jeremiah 33:20-22
20 “Thus says the LORD: ‘If you can break My covenant with
the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be
day and night in their season,
21 then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant,
so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the
Levites, the priests, My ministers.
22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea
measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and
the Levites who minister to Me.’ ”
God has made a promise with day and night. He promises that they
will continue forever. Day and night will always come at the right
times. Unless one could change that promise with day and night,
nobody could change His promise with David and Levi.
If the promise with day and night could be changed, the
descendants from His servant David would not be the kings on their
thrones. If the promise with day and night could be changed, the
family of Levi would not be priests serving Him in the Temple. But
nobody could change that promise!
God will give many descendants to
His servant David. And He will give them to the tribe of Levi who
will serve Him in the Temple. They will be as many as the stars in the
sky that no one can count. And they will be as many as the grains of
sand on the seashore that no one can count.
The main issue is this: Is the Bible true? If the Bible is true,
then Israel will continue to exist and live as long as the Lord
lives! But if not, then the nation could be annihilated and destroyed
completely by her enemies! And if the Bible is true, then the books
of the other faiths are not!
Interestingly, through divine intervention, the enemies chose
very interesting dates to fight their wars. Yom Kippur is the Day of
Atonement. It is the holiest day of the year! Celebrated on the
tenth of Tishri, it is the day of humbling one’s soul to seek
atonement for sin. It was the day that the High Priest entered the
Holy of Holies to atone for the sins of the priesthood, the people
and the place!
Then this year on the morning of October 7, 2023, the Hamas initiated
a major surprise attack on Israel, coinciding with the Jewish day of
Simchat Torah.
Simchat Torah celebrates the completion and the beginning of the
Reading of the Torah. It is a celebration of the loving relationship
between God and His people.
Why did the Hamas choose this date? I believe God knows. The end
is in the beginning, and the beginning is in the end.
Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,”
says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the
Almighty.”
The current problems and wars will end when the King returns to
Jerusalem. He is the Messiah, not just for Israel but also all the
nations of the earth! He is coming! There is a blessed hope ahead!
Those who trust and hope in the Lord will not be discouraged and
disappointed.
The centre stage of major world events is set on Jerusalem in
Israel. However, the main focus is not the Temple but the King who
is coming! Yes, the coming Messiah!
Many Christians are not interested in Israel or what is happening
there. Many Christians have embraced and adopted the Replacement
Theology that taught the Church had replaced Israel! They are only interested in the Christ or Messiah who was and
is. But we should be interested in the Christ who was and is and is
to come.
Whether we like it or not, the LORD will touch down in Jerusalem
and stand on the Mount of Olives, the same place He ascended to
heaven! And He will fight the nations that are against His people!
Zechariah 14:3-4
3 Then the LORD will go forth
And fight against those nations,
As He fights in the day of battle.
4 And in that day His feet will
stand on the Mount of Olives,
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.
I am not interested in attending conferences after conferences or
concerts after concerts in Jerusalem. But I am interested in
walking,
trailing and praying in the wilderness, and listening to one crying in the desert.
Isaiah 40:1-3
God’s People Are Comforted
1 “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
2 “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double for all her sins.”
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.
I am not interested in blowing the shofars night and day or
sounding the alarms presumptuously. But I am waiting patiently to the
heavenly shofar that will eventually be sounded.
Joel 2:1
The Day of the LORD
Blow the trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For the day of the LORD is coming,
For it is at hand:
While praying for the peace of Jerusalem, we must know that true
peace will reign when the Prince of Peace comes and rules in His
holy city. The efforts and endeavours of others will only offer
temporary relief and peace.
Our eyes should be kept not on the Jews but a Jew named Jesus!
Many of the leaders, apostles and prophets in Israel and the nations
today are not true, righteous
and holy before the Lord! Not all things and deeds done by the Jews
are pleasing in His sight! We need to keep our eyes on Jesus and His
Word!
I am not Jewish but I am interested in becoming a Jew named
Jesus. Not acting, behaving and doing things like some of the Jews
do but becoming more Christlike each new day. The deeds and acts of Jesus are
not the same as those of Israel and the nations of the world!
During Sukkot this year, I woke up daily with a song focusing in
dwelling under the shadows of His wings. The best hiding place is
not a place but a Person.
Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
As the events unfolded after Simchat Torah, my heart was inclined
to sing not primarily the songs of Zion but more importantly the
songs of the Messiah! Yes, Messianic songs that focus on the Coming
King! Yes, preparing the way of the Lord!
Revelation 22:20-21
I Am Coming Quickly
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am
coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
And His grace is sufficient for all of us!
If interested, please view some:
Messianic Songs @
https://thejoshlink.com/videos.htm
Written on:
3 November 2023