The Israel Impact: What Does It Mean for Us? (With Ron Hutchcraft)

Jesse:
Go mad season three is underway. We are so excited about the season and can't wait to share what's in store for you For now, Doug and Brad are joined in the studio by Master of Puns and fellow Hutchcraft, Ron Hutchcraft. In today's episode, the guys turn their attention to the place the whole world is watching, Israel.

What is going on? What is God doing in all this? No politics, no future predictions, just some clear steps forward for the ambassador for Christ wondering.

What does all this mean for me? Stay tuned and let's go mad

Brad:
Welcome everyone to season three of Go Map 33. I can't 33. It may feel like that.

No, it is season. Season three still that's Pretty hard to believe. This is awesome.

You know, we want to thank everyone for uh just tuning in the first couple of seasons. The feedback we've gotten, it's been so encouraging, and we are really excited. We're gonna talk about season three in just a minute But if you're wondering where we're starting, I can tell you it's not where we thought we were going to start.

This is not the episode that we had talked about doing, but the reality is when you turn on the news. You can't help but see Israel. You can't help but see the Middle East right now.

So today we're gonna have a conversation about Israel But much more than that, just about what's going on over there right now. And no matter who you are, you'll want to stay tuned in. We're not diving into political commentary, but we are going to talk about some very practical application steps we can take in our own lives right now in light of what we are seeing unfold on the world stage.

So that's where we're heading today.

Doug:
Now before we jump into that, we are we're gonna talk a little bit about how excited we are about season three here. We have got an unexpected special guest with us today. We do, we do.

Brad:
To kick off season three and with what we're talking about.

Doug:
It's you, Ron. You dad. Ron Hutchcraft, who happens to be our father.

I'm so glad Dad is with us. I don't know anybody with um that I trust more when it comes to biblical issues. Um man, I I I wonder what's happening like with the left behind series right now on Amazon.

That's that's gotta be going. Number one Again, I always love the names in those. The names were like super heroic names, like comic book names, like Joseph Longshoulder.

Stuff like that. I don't know what that one one was.

Brad:
I think one guy was nimble. And the bad yeah, no, and the the bad folks had bad names. You knew.

You knew where the lines were drawn. When they introduced the person, you're like, I know who that guy is But I have to tell you one of the things we really do appreciate about the podcast and having this forum is this year we're gonna talk about a lot of things. In fact, in the next episode, we're gonna be talking about some of the fears that parents have of failure and things like that.

But Right now, we're also able to talk about current events and what we we said, if you saw our kind of teaser on social media, we're going to be talking about the things that God cares about. God cares about Israel. He cares about the situation in the Middle East.

And so we just had to say, hey, that's what we're going to dive into today.

Ron:
I have a current event right now that I just got notice the power is out at my house. Yeah, that's not a good current event. That is That's not current events.

Brad:
That was a pun. Current. That was a pun.

Doug:
Oh, yeah.

Brad:
Current events. That's right. Take a moment, process that listeners.

Doug:
Did you edit that out?

Brad:
Yeah. We just lost ten listeners. We're never having that special guest.

Doug:
Yeah. Okay. Dad, tell us tell us what you're seeing on the news. I mean what what are you feeling?

Ron:
You gotta realize that um God has for his own purposes uh put the Jewish people in Israel kind of like right in the very center of a lot of his plans, including his plans in the countdown to the final days of human history. Right. And there's some stuff that he said was going to go on.

There's a lot of prophecy in the Bible, and nothing that that already has occurred in the world The prophecies were never wrong. There has not been one single thing God prophesied that now is a part of history that he was wrong about, even though it was prophesied a thousand five hundred years in advance. So it's the only predictions that are bad a thousand.

And so God s said that he did choose people, uh a people group to be the people through whom he would send his laws, Ten Commandments, right? and through whom he would send his Messiah, Jesus, right? And um through whom he hoped to have uh you know somebody that would represent him on earth.

Now, like all of us, we you know, do good job sometimes, not such a good job sometimes.

Brad:
Amen.

Ron:
He also promised them a land, and that land, hello, is Israel. So there has been a God idea that there was that his people would have a land that would be theirs. However, for 2,000 years They weren't there.

They were scattered all over the world. Uh you know, when when uh the temp their temple was destroyed, you know, with the Roman Empire and so on. And so th they haven't had no home.

So when they say, I'm gonna go home, there's no home. It's like you have no house, you know. And uh For two thousand years, arguably they've been the most persecuted people on earth.

I mean it I mean it goes back, you know, all those two thousand years. Everybody comes seems to come after the Jews. We know the awful, horrific unspeakable things that happened during World War Two.

Finally the world said, you know what? They're the only people that don't have a place to go back to. They need a land.

Wait, they have a land. Historically, you know, they and that's where In nineteen forty-eight, the United Nations said, Hey, you can have a home now. You're gonna have a house to go home to.

And they've been coming home ever since. The Bible's full of predictions. And God said, there's gonna come a day when I'm gonna gather you from all over the world and bring bring my people back together because they're gonna have a a home to go to.

That place is the land of Israel. Of course the Palestinian folks were were there. It wasn't just it wasn't just desert sitting there.

And uh so that's where the tensions have come in and have gone on for a long time. I do know this. God loves Palestinians and God loves Jews.

That's right. And Jesus died for men for Jews and Jesus died for Palestinians and all the people involved, he loves. Uh so uh but with the events going on there Maybe telling me and telling you that it might be the fourth quarter uh and you play different than the fourth quarter?

Doug:
It's almost impossible to watch the news right now, especially as a believer and not be thinking whether we're watching Bible prophecy unfold right in front of us. I mean, people have thought it was Time for a long time. You were telling me uh yesterday, Dad, when when uh well share with everybody what you were telling us because people have been sure other times that oh It is prophecies coming. Well watch the skies. It's about to open up.

Ron:
Well, since I'm about 110 years old, you know I've got uh I I can Archaeologists just discovered the remains of my high school. But I so I can go back a little bit. I've got a little perspective on this.

So and this is crazy. I was so bored. I'm sorry.

Wait, this is Uh nobody's listening, are they? Or watching. Of course not.

Um I was so bored when my parents dragged me to Wednesday night prayer meeting at church. Uh I'm a teenager, so I go down in the l i in the basement and and now it's th I read the World War Two prophecy books. They had it all figured out.

Wait a minute. Hitler's the Antichrist and Mussolini and Italy. There's the Roman Empire and there's and and and it's all figured out that Jesus is coming any minute during World War II.

I'm sitting there years later going, This is hilarious.

Doug:
But a few things were missing, weren't they? A few things were missing back then.

Ron:
Oh no.

Doug:
A lot of things have have happened since then

Ron:
Big thing was missing. So many of the prophecies, like for example, the Battle of Armageddon. A lot of people they know what it is, but they've heard of it.

It's a place. I've I've been to the plain of Megheto where it's gonna be fought. It's in Israel.

So here's the deal. There was no Israel. So it was something missing in the prophecies.

Doug:
And a lot of the prophecy, no officials.

Ron:
The state of Israel, right. There were Jewish people and and the land was there, but it wasn't you know, it was called Palestine at that time. So, uh what in 1948 was a very important year, I think, because now you've got the Jews back in their land, which kind of has to happen for a lot of the prophecies to happen.

Brad:
Right.

Ron:
One other little thing is that a lot of the prophecies have a global dimension to them. It talks about um people being able to see events happening all over the world. It talks about Uh uh m a message spreading to every corner of the earth and things like that.

Doug:
The gospel message spreading to every corner of the earth.

Ron:
And sin and sinful message. Both the garbage and the gospel kind of going across the planet. That couldn't happen until now.

Look at this. These m hi everybody. That's the deal.

It's the technology. that makes those prophecies possible because a lot of them are global in their dimension. So all that is to say, now, I am not prepared today.

Uh I was going to and then I uh I I my lunch wasn't didn't really agree with me. But I was gonna name a date for Jesus to come back. Yeah, right.

No.

Doug:
No, I wasn't. But you know what?

Ron:
You and ninety two thousand guys they've been laughed away, you know. Here's the let's just say this. This I will say.

I think the world today, looking at how the nations are arranged and what's going on even right now in Israel and and the headlines day after day. I would say the world looks more like the kind of world Jesus said he would come back to than any time I know of in history. Does that say he's coming tomorrow?

I don't know. I know this. He's gonna come back to a world that looks more and more like ours.

Brad:
Yeah. That's where we're gonna spend a lot of our time is on that fact that We are seeing more and more signs that Jesus is coming back soon. And yet we're not naming days or even years or anything like that.

We just know He's coming soon based on world events. But a couple things that I do want to point out that you covered, Dad, that I think are really important to th that stick out are first of all as we watch the news as we watch these things unfold remember to be praying for everybody. There are a lot of people.

who have lost their lives recently who don't know Jesus. And we need to be praying that hope will come into that situation on both sides of the issue. So we want to make that clear.

The other thing that Really, it boils down to is that Israel has a place that's important to God as far as the future events that are to come. We know that Israel was important in the past. And we know that Israel continues to have an important presence in prophecy going forward.

Doug:
You know, odds are if you're listening to this podcast, you're someone who is at least interested in Jesus, you probably love Jesus, you're a follower of his, and you're going Man, it what does this mean exactly? I mean, does this mean Jesus is coming back soon? And if so, remember Peter said, well, how then shall we live?

He said Um actually it was in 2nd Peter 3. 11 he says, since since everything will be destroyed in this way, talking about the end times, what kind of people ought we to be? So let's get into that a little bit.

Four things we know are true from God's word when it comes down to prophecy. And it's these four things. Jesus is coming.

Trouble is coming. Judgment is coming and Jesus wins. Jesus said, so so what do we do with these signs?

Well, it gets kind of simple. Um, two words, be ready. John two first John two twenty eight says, Now dear children, continue in him so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

So I I like the way Dad put this. I like the way Ron put this. He said, you got two end time reactions.

Oh boy. Or oh no. And it all depends. It all he's here.

And it all depends if you've been living for him. Um, Matthew 24, 12 and 13, because of the increase of wickedness, Jesus uh the disciples asked Jesus, so how are we gonna know? When it's getting close.

Well, he said because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most, he's talking about believers is gonna grow cold. That's awful. But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come. So you got two big things happening here.

As the days are winding down. You got believers who are kind of running into their homes and and kind of huddling in and don't bother me and I won't bother you. The love their love is growing cold.

They're not going out and making a difference for the kingdom for Jesus, but then you have others who are like, Man, if he's really coming back, it is time to tell my neighbor, my friend, my family member about him. I gotta get serious about this. Uh two lists Two lists, right?

Ron:
And two other lists. Two other lists I was just I thought we were gonna end up at the same place. No, there's two two lists in life, the things that really matter and the things that really don't Our lists get mixed up.

And things that really don't matter end up on the things that really matter list, and vice versa, things that really matter slide over to This helps us get that figured out, doesn't it? I was just gonna say, when you say, man, when you look at the way the world is moving and what God said was gonna happen as it's winding down It's the countdown. I mean you play different in the fourth quarter than you do in the first quarter.

I y and there's a two minute offense for sure when there's a two minute warning I got a story. I got a story I gotta tell you. Okay?

So uh friend of ours, you you you you knew her as a teenager, and Mandy is is uh her boyfriend's coming for the weekend. He lives a couple states away So she's like, uh, time to clean my room because I can't find the floor. And so she is, and it's really hot, it's summer, and so she's up in her in her room and all bedraggled, you know, obviously in her grubbies and so she's got everything you know how you gotta mess things up and before you clean them up?

So it's she's in a it's disaster. Suddenly the phone rings and and and and you know what? It her Tim called, her boyfriend called.

Yay! She he she said, I'm looking forward to seeing you. Mm see ya, love you.

Bye And she's like, Oh, it'd be nice to see him tomorrow. Suddenly there's a knock at her door. It's Tim.

He was downstairs when he made the call. He surprised her. Hi, surprise.

And she is there hair all matted, stinky, dirt, you know, mat and she's like, this is so embarrassing. She was so ashamed. Well, I thought She wasn't ready for his coming anytime.

And that's exactly what you just read, Doug. Ready or not, here he comes. And and and that verse you read in 1 John 2.

28, that people will either be confident when he comes, hi, oh yay, you're here. or the oh no, I'm in a mess. I can't believe what I'm doing when he came.

I can't believe I did not clean up. Uh I am not ready for him ashamed. You're either confident or ashamed when he comes.

Uh boy, that's something to think about. And this all of a sudden, all this stuff going on in the world isn't some distant newscast. It's a me cast 'Cause I'm in it all of a sudden.

Brad:
Yeah, wow. But I I think I it's so important that to realize this, but I think one of the challenges that people really face today You you hear people talk a lot about younger generation, that they, man, they don't care about stuff. Why isn't this important to them?

Why don't they, you know, different things that people kind of pigeonhole them with. And the reality is, do they see you caring about these things? Because it's easy to look at news, we're we're bombarded in a news cycle.

with wars and rumors of wars as the Bible talks about. And sometimes it can just be another conflict we're hearing about. And I remember growing up, Dad, where you said, man, you've got to have The newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other.

Now I know most people aren't having a newspaper nowadays, but you've got to have to have your phone in one hand. You've got to be watching news in one hand and the Bible in the other because It's for some, honestly, it would be easy to say, I see what's happening over there, but it's not happening here So if you're wondering why that young person in your life is saying, what's the big deal with Israel? What's a big deal over there?

What about the other side and everything else They're struggling with trying to make sense of all of it. And if you look at things through God's word, and if you look at how does this impact my life and the urgency I'm supposed to live with, then you can have them start caring more, not about an issue, not about a conflict. You can have them start caring more.

about the word of God and how they are supposed to live because the Bible is filled with a glimpse of current events. You know, it really feels like you watch the news just for a minute.

Doug:
And it feels like Revelation twelve, twelve, that says that the devil is full of fury. He's enraged because he knows his time is short. He reads the Bible.

He reads the Bible and so he hates people he hates God's creation so he is going to try to do everything he can to get as much of that destroyed and desecrated Uh so then what we what do we do if he's doing that? Well I hope that we're saying if the enemy is getting all excited about doing the worst he can, are we getting all excited about getting off our couch? and doing what we can to share the gospel.

I hope that this is lighting the fire under us to go, man, if Jesus is coming back soon. Every knee will bow, the Bible says, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But at that point, there's not an option anymore for the people you love.

There's not an option anymore for your neighbor or your friend or your classmate. So tell them now. Jesus is here, and I didn't tell them.

Brad:
Oh. Yeah, here's what uh guys taking us back here to 2016, May of 2016, when Doug, you and I lost our mom and dad, you lost your wife of over fifty years. And all of a sudden you look at things different because we never know how much time we have left with those that we love.

Now, so grateful mom passionately loved Jesus. But though there are those in our lives that we don't know how much time we have left. Even without the fact that yes, Jesus is coming back soon, we don't know what's gonna happen to these people around us tomorrow and the next day.

He's covered for people, individuals, every day.

Ron:
There are hundreds of last day.

Brad:
Well and there are hundreds of people. who are uh over a thousand now, a couple thousand on both sides of the conflict that had no idea when their last day was coming so soon. And so we don't know that.

And so the verse that's been hitting me is Proverbs 24, 11, rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering towards slaughter. When we're about rescue, we are passionate about that and we're not saying, well, it can wait until tomorrow.

That is a something that we all should be living because We know that time is short. We know the two-minute warning has sounded. We you look at that countdown clock, the what's it called, the doomsday clock or whatever.

And it keeps ticking down closer and closer. Closer. They put it closer to midnight than ever.

Everyone. Everyone sees that the end is coming, that things are getting worse. God's people need to be the first ones on the line saying we see it and we've got an answer and his name is Jesus.

Ron:
I got a question that might be good for us all to ask ourselves. If Jesus came today, what would my regrets be? What would I wish I had done?

What would I wish I wasn't doing? Um, how would I have done it differently? A good, a very good question, because even if Jesus doesn't come today It's still the right question to be asking.

And you know, honestly, if it's not gonna matter when he comes, if it's not gonna matter in heaven, Why does it have to matter so much today? The things that are going to matter then are to be the things that matter now.

Doug:
Dad, you remember you took us to Washington, D. C. when we were kids? And you brought us to a place called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Ron:
Yeah. Yep.

Doug:
And one thing I really remember from that I remember a lot from it. I don't remember everything. We were young, but I remember one thing you telling me that the the soldier who would come up to the other soldier and relieve him.

Ron:
One time when I was there I actually heard this exchange.

Doug:
You heard them say this and you talked I got up close that time. I and this was amazing What when when the soldier comes up to the other soldier and he relieves him, he says, orders remain unchanged.

Ron:
And really, and the other the one coming on says orders acknowledged. And that exchange has been going on for something like 70 years. every half hour or hour, depending on what day of the week or what time of day, that the orders remain unchanged.

Doug:
So isn't that us? I mean, the fields are ripe for harvest Therefore, pray that the God of the harvest will send out workers into those white, those fields white for harvest, ready. It means people are ready for Jesus.

We just need to open our mouths. and get out there. That was the order then.

That's the order. If it's possible for it to be the order more than ever, even now. Then that's it.

Ron:
So Jesus stands on a hill in Israel and is talking to eleven guys, and that's where the original orders were given. And the orders were go into all the world and tell everybody about Jesus. And they said, in essence, orders acknowledged.

And somewhere along the way, they passed that on to another generation. And the orders remained unchanged. And for 2,000 years now.

Orders remain unchanged. They are still the same, still coming from General Jesus, still handed down to us. We're responsible for the lost people in our world, in our generation, today.

And you don't you when you see General Jesus when he returns, you want to be in that victory parade and know that you have been part of that victory. Because I want to march with him. In victory.

Brad:
When we see others as Jesus sees them, it means that yes, we're going to be about rescue. And what that means is that it Another practical application is take a look at the relationships around you right now because there may be someone that you've been Man, you've been bitter towards. You haven't been able to forgive.

And when you look at it in light of eternity and then realize that realize that time is short, All of a sudden you've got to reevaluate that. You have to re-evaluate that person at work that you have been w not wanting to talk to because you're scared of how they may respond. We need to be looking at what do I need to adjust in my life as well, that broken relationship with a son or daughter that you have been saying, man, I how do I fix this?

Well, seek the Lord on that. Seek him to see How can I start just showing them that I still love them and that Jesus loves them?

Ron:
You know what the uh the message after all is when you read, as you said, Brad, the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other For thousands of years, I don't know if the newspapers are on stone slates then, but the news and the Bible have matched up and you and it's evident that God was all over it well hundreds of years before it ever happened. He is today. And if there is a bottom line message Because a lot of us live with a lot of anxiety and worry and stress and fear. And in fact, Jesus said people's hearts will be failing them for fear when they see the things going on on earth. What the message ultimately of the prophecies of the Bible and the events of our day say is God is standing there, calm as can be in heaven, going, I've got this.

Doug:
God's got this.

Ron:
And for thousands and thousands of years, wars, rulers, dictators uh tragedies, massacres, violence. God has stood in heaven saying, I am still seated on the throne, I am still in charge. And his fact that he's predicting all these things is because he is, as it says in the book of Revelation, the Alpha and Omega, the A and Z in the Greek alphabet.

And it's interesting that at the beginning Jesus says, I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Then in the book of Revelation, all this stuff, the Antichrist and Army, getting in the mark of the beast, and all this stuff happens. And then at the end, Jesus goes, I'm still Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

And so if you belong to Jesus, He's got this and he's got you. And there is one safe place in a world out of control that's still in his control. And that safe place is in the arms of Jesus.

Doug:
Amen. Man, I can't think of a better way to wrap us up today. Um, we are so thankful uh for you.

uh listening for spending some time with us friends. Um we hope that this is has meant something to you. I know it's meant something to me sitting here with my brother.

and my dad and uh I've been very encouraged guys we have such an amazing season three planned for you there are like surprises I wish I could tell you what they are, but then I realize something, then they wouldn't be surprises. Someone told me that. Well it's a great point.

Deep. Me right. Deep.

Very deep. But so we'll have a lot of deep we'll have a lot of fun And um we are praying for you that whether news has gotten a lot better since we recorded this or whether things have gotten even crazier, we pray that you will always go mad.