The Israel of God – The Ark of God!

“For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” Galatians 6:15

The Israel of God is the Ark of God prepared for the salvation of mankind! Scriptures show that those in Christ, have been grafted into this Container or Vine, and according to Galatians 3:7, have become sons of Abraham.

“And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree…” Romans 11:17

The Israel of God is the Container fashioned and prepared to host the Gentile saints and the great Harvest that has been invited in, coming in at the end of the age. The Scriptures tell us that blindness happens to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in (Rom. 11:25). The word fullness in this passage is pleroma and refers to a container being filled to its fullness. This ties in with Romans 11:12 where the same word pleroma is used.

“I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!” Romans 11:11-12

God made promises to Abraham, to Isaac, and then to Jacob that the entire world would be blessed in them. In light of the priceless Gift of Christ and the massive blessings that have come to the world through Israel, God has said that any who curse them would also be cursed (Num. 24:9).

“Also the LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.” Deuteronomy 30:7

In this season of maturation and of everything being gathered in and summed up in Christ, eyes will be opened to see and understand God’s plan in Israel. Everyone will be given the option to get into the Ark of the Israel of God as Jeshua and Israel are one—Prince of God—the Body prepared for Christ.

At the council of Nicea in Rome, the enemy was very successful in dividing the early church birthed in Jerusalem. The intention was to divide and conquer; to separate the Gentile converts from Israel—God’s container fashioned in the image of His Son—the Jewish Messiah—is the skin of the New Wineskin and the epicenter of His work on Earth. God has given great grace to Gentile Saints to function and grow while separated from Israel… for a time. At the end of the age, He will be saying to all, “Get out of Babylon and Get into the Ark I have prepared!”

“…having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.” Ephesians 1:9

Israel Called as Kings & Priests Represented in the Five-Fold

God established the priesthood of Israel to minister to Him and also to minister before Him on behalf of the people. The kings of Israel were intended to rule on behalf of God and His Kingdom. They were given Kingdom authority to legislate both in the spiritual realm, the heavens, and in the natural realm through prayer, intercession, and decree. Israel was given both offices to administrate the will of almighty God and his purposes on earth and the heavenly realms from a land marked off as His portion.

Israel stood before God also as a prophet nation, Prophesying the will of God to mankind and recording it for all future generations. Israel was positioned by God to be the Teacher—God’s Rabbi, established to bring revelation and understanding of the Word of God to mankind. Israel was the Shepherd pastor, ordained by God to pastor His flock—the saints of God on earth. Israel was God’s evangelist, authorized by God to bring salvation to the world (Isaiah 26 and Jn. 4:22, Rom. 1:16). Israel was also the apostle of God, sent to represent Christ to build, plant, establish, and administrate His House on Earth.

These five facets or offices of God represent Christ the Messiah positioned in Israel. All five offices were embedded within Israel as God’s first Ekklesia, established on earth to represent the Kingdom of God. Israel was prepared as the Body and container for the King—the High Priest, the Messiah—The Great Apostle of the faith, the Teacher, the Great Shepherd, and the beautiful feet of the Evangelist carrying the Good News of the Gospel of Christ.

Israel fell short of their Call and Mandate, as each facet of the Call represented Jesus and could only be administered in the power of the Holy Spirit. The old covenant was deficient in many aspects, but God’s covenant with Israel stands and continues eternally. Through the prophet Isaiah, God promised the coming of the Messiah for salvation; through Jeremiah, He promised the coming of the New Covenant with Israel, and through the prophet Joel, the coming of the Holy Spirit.

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David… to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins…” Luke 1:68-69,77

Throughout scripture, God has always promised to be Israel’s great Redeemer and Savior. He will never break His Covenant. He is not a man that he should lie. His mercy endures forever toward Israel and is eternal. Israel and Jesus cannot be separated, they are eternally bound in Body and Spirit.

“Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins… for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” Romans 11:25-27

Wherever Israel was positioned in the nations, they stood as Princes of the Kingdom. Their very presence in the nations was as dew on that particular land that extended mercy from the King. When they were rejected by a nation and expelled, judgment was soon to follow on that nation.  During their season of blindness, God has always kept a witness in Israel to keep the fires burning God gave a sign to the Maccabees, the last holdout to Rome, that the oil—the Glory would never go out.

Another aspect of Israel’s place in God’s purposes is seen in Jerusalem—The City of God. At the end of the age, the gathering of all things is to Jerusalem, a natural entity to which He will return and the Spiritual entity that is eternal—the Bride of Christ. Abraham was promised descendants numbering the stars of Heaven representing the finished work of God.  In the architectural blueprint of this Heavenly City, God shows that all its measurements represent Israel—its walls, the foundation of its walls, and its gates—the entrances into the City. Each gate was made of one pearl and named after one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev. 21:9-27). Entrance into the City, the Ark of God is through the gates of Israel.

Paul recognized that something had been deposited and established in Jerusalem even though he said the apostles there added nothing to him. Wherever the saints assembled they carried with them the authority of the Kingdom which was centered in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not abandoned! It is only a matter of God’s timing—in the fullness of time, when He turns once again to Jerusalem in preparation for His return.

God’s regathering of the Jews to Israel from the nations of the world is the fulfillment of prophecy and a clear sign that we are approaching the end of the age. The Jews have returned to the land! They have reclaimed Jerusalem. The time is, therefore, very close! We have been praying for the harvest and the harvest is now. The scriptures say that the harvest is the end of the age. Scripture states that blindness in part has happened to Israel until. The time of until is now! There is a generation of Jewish sons and daughters rising up today declaring the word of the Lord and releasing the cry, “Blessed it is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

The climax of the Jewish situation, to be summed up in Christ in the last days, was layered into prophecy and recorded in scripture by Hosea. As Jeremiah 14:16 marked Israel’s second return to the land, one of the prophecies given by Hosea, marked the completion of their journey and entry into the Promised Land of Christ—where He returns to rule and reign in the City of Jerusalem.

“Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.” Hosea 6:1-3

This prophecy is about to be fulfilled in the near future, as according to 2 Peter 3:8, a day is to the Lord as a thousand years. Using Peter’s measurement, two thousand years after the time of Jesus’ ascension, or the destruction of Jerusalem, brings us to approximately somewhere between the years 2030-70.

Israel is both a natural and spiritual entity, formed and fashioned by God the Father for His Son’s first coming and as the vessel for the return of His Son to Earth: “…a body You have prepared for Me… I have come to do Your will O God” (Heb. 10:5-7). The Body and vessel in which Jesus chose to tabernacle with humanity, fashioned and prepared by the Father, over two thousand years for His first coming, was Israel. God’s work of building His House continued over another two thousand years after Christ, built by Gentile saints on the Jewish foundation of Jeshua—the Messiah.  Jeshua is the New Wineskin! All attributes of Jeshua are in the DNA of the New Wineskin tabernacled or housed in Israel.

The Israel of God, comprising both Jew and Gentile, fashioned within Israel, is the Ark of God for the salvation of the World. Like Noah, God has been patient in fashioning and building this Ark over the centuries to contain the great Harvest grafted in and invited in at the end of the age, “… God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.” (1Peter 3:20).

The Ark is being completed! The Lord is now sounding the trumpet and warning all to: Get into the Ark! This requires a return to Israel in our hearts. The turning begins by honoring Israel’s place and significance in God’s comprehensive and unfolding plan.

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.”  Luke 17:26

“The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation… Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth… And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.”  Genesis 7:1,4,10