As I write, the world is hurtling down the runway towards possible Armageddon, with Russia hinting at nuclear support for Iran. But for now there is a ceasefire.

As it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with fast-moving events, I’m never quite sure whether what I say will still be relevant by the time I’m finished.

Having said that, Ezekiel famously prophesied of a time when an alliance of Israel’s enemies would come from the north with devastating intent on attacking Israel but would be stopped in their tracks by the Lord himself on the plain of Megiddo.

I’ll speculate no further, except to say that both Isaiah and Jeremiah have apparently pinpointed specific details of the current conflict. Through Isaiah, the Lord urges “little Israel” not to fear, for he himself will help them.

“See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them…” (Isaiah 41:14f)

Could this refer to the bunker-busting bombs penetrating weapon manufacturing deep underground?

Jeremiah, in a message about the area of Iran where the nuclear sites are based, says the Lord Almighty “will break the bow of Elam” (their missile launch pads, perhaps?) and send her inhabitants into worldwide exile. The Lord will even set his throne in Elam and restore their fortunes, possibly with the help of the brave army of Christians waiting in the wings there. (See Jeremiah 49:34-39)

Operation Rising Lion, as the latest IDF action has been named, relates to a Scripture from Numbers (23:24) but, far more significantly, points to the Redeemer of Israel, the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5), who will ultimately triumph over his enemies.

We are surely witnessing end-time events of huge import. The times of the Gentiles are drawing to a close. The focus is now firmly on God’s great purpose for his ancient people.

As for the Gentile Christian world, I believe Yeshua is now gently rebuking us with the same challenge he made to the disciples on the road to Emmaus:

“How slow you are to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25)

Whereas the Emmaus believers had failed to understand what the Scriptures taught about the coming Messiah, today’s Christians are largely ignorant of the present and future plans God has for Israel, and of the crucial role they are playing in these last days.

Whereas destruction and exile came upon the Jews because they did not recognise the time of God’s coming among them (Luke 19:44), a huge swathe of Western Christians are tragically failing to recognise the time of God’s coming among his chosen.

As Jesus said, Jerusalem would be trampled down by the Gentiles…until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. In a sense, that happened in 1967 when the city was re-united for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. But Islam still has a foothold in the city, where Jews wishing to worship on the Temple Mount are greatly discouraged (even by their own) from doing so, for fear of provoking violence.

The prophets have clearly spoken about these times. It’s in the Bible. We can, and must, check it out as the Berean Jews did when the Apostle Paul preached the good news of Messiah (Acts 17:10-15).

As much as we Christians like to think of ourselves as God’s special possession, it is only by grace that we have become so, being grafted into the olive tree that is Israel, the “apple of his [God’s] eye” (Zechariah 2:8, Deuteronomy 32:10).

As the sun sets on the church age, we must keep on preaching the gospel as never before – “to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16). The focus of the world’s, and the church’s, attention should now be on Israel and the soon return to Jerusalem of the Lord Jesus as our Jewish brothers embrace their Messiah with increasing momentum.

True, it was the latter whose partial blindness opened the eyes of the Gentiles. But now the natural branches are taking root again, and it’s Gentile Christians who are too often blighted with blindness. But Jesus can still open the eyes of the blind (Isaiah 35:5).

Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon; Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com; To the Jew First, A Nation Reborn, and King of the Jews, all available from Christian Publications International.