Let us take a quick look backward. Our history as a people began when 70 of Jacob's descendants went into Egypt. Later, under a Pharaoh “who knew not God” they were treated as slaves for many years until under pressure of a series of plagues, Pharaoh let the people go. Then he changed his mind and gathered 600 chosen chariots and all the chariots of Egypt and pursued after the children of Israel. Exodus 14: 7 & 8. All that night a strong east wind blew, and raised walls of water, between which the Israelites walked safely across the Red Sea, but when the Egyptians followed, the waters fell back, and destroyed them all. Thus began the long series of events in our history when God has intervened to protect us from our enemies and to fulfil His plan for us and for the world.

Then came the formation of the twelve tribes into the Nation of Israel, the Kingdom of God on earth, over which God Himself was to be King, and through which He could reveal Himself to the peoples of the earth. To this twelve-tribed Israel nation, and to them only, God gave His Ten Commandments, His Laws, His Statutes and His Judgments, in order to enable them to fulfil the destiny — implicit in their God-given name of Israel, “Ruling with God”.

After reaching Palestine, Israel lived as a Theocracy, for about 400 years. Then they rejected God as King, and Saul was made their king. Forty years later David became king, and ten years after that, God made a covenant with him, as we read in 2 Sam. 7:10-16, “Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as before time...and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever, thy throne shall be established for ever”. Four hundred years later, by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah (33.17) God confirms this covenant saying, “For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. Has this promise been fulfilled: It has, and we have a Queen of the line of David sitting on the throne of Britain, “The appointed place,” today. It is this same throne to which the angel referred when announcing to Mary the coming birth of Jesus, he said, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end”. Luke 1;32-33.

Despite the fact that all the signs in international affairs point to the nearness of the “so-called'' Battle of Armageddon, we should not forget that God has clearly promised true Israel, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper”. Isa. 54:17. And neither should we forget that “The Son of Man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity”. Matt. 13:41.

What then should be our outlook for the next year ahead? It surely could not be better expressed than in the words of Luke 21:36, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man”.