God's design for universe: Two words, one place

Two hundred and fifty years ago, the King of Sweden was not sure he believed the Bible was the Word of God so he reached out to German religious reformer Count von Zinzendorf, leader of the Moravian movement.

The king sent a note saying, “I want you to present the evidence that the Bible’s the Word of God and I’ve laid aside 10 hours for you to come and convince me of the reliability and trustworthiness of it.”

Von Zinzendorf replied, “I don’t need 10 hours; I only need 10 minutes. Because I only need time to say two words: the Jews.” Today, we only need one word: Israel.

The God who created the heaven and earth identifies Himself 203 times as the God of Israel in the Bible. He also calls Himself ‘the God of Jacob.’ The name Israel occurs in Scripture almost 3,000 times. Israel is a major theme in the Bible and one could never understand the Bible without understanding God’s plan, purpose and reason for Israel.

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“I remember years ago listening to a radio program of J.C. O’Hair’s where, in making the point that you can’t understand the Bible without understanding the nation Israel, he said there are five chapters in the Bible that recount Israel’s history," says Jordan. "I thought, ‘Wow, that’s interesting; there’s actually more than double that!’

“In Acts 7, you have a whole recounting. There’s Acts 13, Psalm 78, Psalm 105, Psalm 106, Romans 11. There’s whole chapters in Scripture given to the history and accounting of God’s purpose in that one nation and there’s not another nation on the face of the earth God did that with.

“There’s one nation in the earth where God says, ‘I choose them and they are mine.’ He says, ‘To get rid of Israel you’ve got to get rid of the universe; the very ordinances I made with heaven and earth.’

“In Jeremiah 31, right after He gives them the new covenant in verses 31-34, God says in verse 35: ‘Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:’

“To get rid of Israel you got to get rid of the universe, because God’s purpose in creating the heavens and the earth finds its embodiment in the creation of this nation in the earth.”