Firstly, may I wish all my readers a Happy, Prosperous and Safe 2026. I have a strong feeling you will need your seat belts fastened tightly and you eyes fixed on the Word off the Lord. Welcome back to Bud Hancock with another original article, appropriate to begin what promises to be a momentous year. Do not forget that Israel is “God’s Time Clock”.

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

The Mysterious Ways of God

By Bud Hancock

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

This one verse explains, from the mouth and mind of God, that the ways in which He accomplishes His will are much more advanced than anything a mere human can imagine. God is faithful in everything; all His actions are righteous and perfect, and will bring about the total fulfillment of His will. Some will call His ways mysterious simply because we do not always understand why He does things, but He always reveals to His faithful His plans before they unfold:

Amos 3:7 says,  ^“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets”. Even though His plans that are based on His will may seem to be mysteries to us all, we were meant to discern those mysteries and become privy to His will.

Since man self-destructed in the Garden, rebelling against God’s word, His plan has been to redeem all mankind back to Himself and to restore everything that was lost in man’s rebellion. His plan (His will) was eventually revealed to His Servant and Friend, Abram (Abraham). Establishing a covenant with Abraham, sealed with blood, that promised redemption through the seed of Abraham, God foretold that Abraham and his seed would be a blessing to all the world. That covenant was passed on to Isaac and then to Jacob (Israel). Through the seed of Jacob, the Messiah would enter the world and become the sacrifice needed to complete the Plan of Redemption. That covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is still in effect and will be finally and completely fulfilled when, at the end of this age, the Messiah returns to this Earth to put down ALL sin, ALL rebellion and anything that would ever again corrupt mankind and this Earth.

Meanwhile, much remains to be accomplished before this age ends. God has not been dealing with Israel as a nation, as a “people”, since they rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their long-awaited Messiah. However, their time is on the horizon, the time in which God will once again begin to interact with them as a people. Some of that interaction will be utterly unpleasant because He will judge their rejection of his will, His plan, and will punish their rebellion. Sadly, that punishment will bring about the death of millions of Jews, but joyfully, it will also bring about the redemption of the “remnant” of Jews who survive the Tribulation Period, also known as Daniel’s Seventieth Week, or the time of Jacob’s Trouble.

Since Israel was reestablished, on May 14, 1948, millions of Jews have made aliyah to Israel, returning to their ancient homeland from all parts of the world, where they were scattered in the Diaspora. Every year, many more Jews from the nations where they have dwelt for centuries are welcomed with open arms, and given assistance from the Israeli government and her citizens. I can only imagine the joy they experience when they first set foot on the soil of their ancient homeland, and realize they are finally “home”.

Through these miraculous returns, God is fulfilling a promise made generations ago when He revealed the following through His Prophet Ezekiel:

“For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel” (Ezekiel 34:11-14).

As long as the Jewish people were banished from their land, it lay in ruins, desolate, barren, almost as a woman that had been rejected and left destitute by her husband and children, and left alone to grieve in anguish. However, when the Jews returned, that barren land began to flourish, and the barren places became green and productive, just as the Lord had promised it would.

Notice in the scripture above that it is GOD Who will deliver them from the places

where they had been scattered. It is NOT the actions of any one man, or group of

men, who are responsible for the return of the Jews to Israel. God wants them ALL to

return to their land so that He can show Himself STRONG on their behalf and restore

not only the land, but all the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant to the remnant that are

still living when, at the end of Daniel’s Seventieth Week, the Lord returns to set up His

Millennial Kingdom in Jerusalem.

There are many evil forces in this world that are trying desperately to destroy the Jewish people before God can bring them home, chief among them being Satan himself. He knows that when God has them back home, and begins his dealings with them, that his time will indeed be very short. He has unified a large number of men and women, supposedly the leaders of some of the most powerful nations on Earth to aid him in his destructive plan, but, because he is NOT God, but only a created angel, his plan will fail and God’s plan will succeed.

So now we know that God has a plan to “deliver his Chosen People” from the many nations on this Earth, but exactly how will He accomplish it? Of course, he could send an army of angels to the nations and simply do what the angels did in Sodom and Gomorrah: Warn Lot and his family that destruction is coming and urge them to leave; I believe God has a better plan that will encourage His people to WANT to leave their adoptive lands and return to their eternal homeland.

The Jewish people in their displaced state, living among many Gentiles, have adopted the pagan, evil, Gentile ways and become extremely comfortable doing so. God often complained of the stubbornness of the Jews and that stubbornness could be a serious detriment to having the Jews return to a land they have never seen. It is simply human nature to want to remain in a place where one feels safe and comfortable, and this is never more certain than when speaking of the Jews who ended up living in the United States of America, a land of extreme liberty wherein the Jews have fared very well, growing prosperous; their comfort seemingly has caused them to forget that their land, their home, is NOT here in the U.S., or in any other nation, but IS in the ancient and ancestral land known as Israel. Because God deeded that land to them eternally, He will not accept them living anywhere else when He begins to deal with them.

We are witnessing in the United States, as well as many other western nations a renewal of the centuries-long hatred of the Jewish people, with antisemitism raring its ugly head on an almost daily basis. Jews are threatened with violence and death, synagogues are being attacked and, in some cases, destroyed as Jew-hatred increases. For a long time, the hatred seemed to be primarily from the Muslim population, but now, many other groups, some even claiming to be Christian, are entering into it with great zeal. As in the past, the Jewish people have become a favorite target for every person or group with an axe to grind.

It is becoming apparent that the Jewish community here in the US has become less comfortable with their surroundings than at any time in the past. I believe the same is also occurring in Jewish communities in every nation, other than their home in Israel. I sympathize with them as they face a mounting backlash seemingly aimed at them just because they exist. It seems the normal reaction is to blame Satan for all this hatred and violence against the Jews, but could another factor be involved in it? God used the factor of fear, the fear of utter destruction, to get Lot and his family to leave Sodom and Gomorrah. I am sure they felt a tremendous level of discomfort when the angels announced the imminent and utter destruction of their city. Could that also be occurring here in the U.S. as well as other nations regarding the return of the Jews to Israel? I believe we are seeing that very event beginning. The government of Israel, headed by PM Netanyahu makes it abundantly cleat that ALL Jews are welcome to return to their ancestral home and become active citizens of Israel.

This article began by stating that God’s ways and thoughts are much higher than any ways and thoughts of man. He is not in any way limited by any obstacles that stand in the way of fulfilling His plan for the Jewish people. Being God, whatever method He chooses to have His chosen people leave their comfortable surroundings and return to Israel, He will do so in complete righteousness. I believe He might be using the Jew-hatred now escalating in the West to accomplish His will. Even though His judgment on Israel’s rebellion will be unpleasant, their return to Israel will be nothing short of the beginning of their redemption, just as the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah coincided with the redemption of Lot and his family.

However, there could also be a coinciding event that will work alongside His plan for the return of the Jews to Israel. Consider that this nation, the United States, which at one time could boldly proclaim its stand for God, has regressed to become a nation that not only allows the most heinous acts of evil and ungodliness, but actually seems to delight in such (compare to the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah). I have long wondered just why God has withheld His judgment of this nation, since it seems the cup of iniquity here should by now be overflowing. But consider this: God has always been faithful to warn people when their time for judgment is near, especially when those aligned with Him are in harm’s way; consider Lot and his family……once they were out of harm’s way, judgment and destruction fell on the wicked. Just as God did not allow the judgment and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah until his people were out of harm’s way, I believe the judgment that has already been determined against the United States will not occur until God has gotten the Jewish people out of this nation. But, just to clarify, I certainly DO believe that this nation is facing God’s judgment and punishment for its evil acts, and especially any acts committed against the Jewish people.

It is difficult for most Americans to imagine our country facing an existential judgment situation such as was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah when the angels directed Lot and family to leave before destruction hit.

I am certainly NOT predicting an imminent “judgmental event” to occur here in the U.S., or in any other western nation, but the signs that indicate God is getting ready to begin His end-times dealings with Israel are everywhere. Knowing that “He works in mysterious ways His will to perform”, it would NOT be surprising to see Him combine the redemption of His people, bringing them out of the Gentile nations, with His judgment on those same nations. I would caution all who do not know Jesus in His saving grace to immediately surrender all to Him and Trust God to deliver all from the coming judgment. 

In conclusion, seeing how quickly events are leading us further into the end-times prophetic fulfillment of God’s Plan, it means we all MUST pay attention and be ready when action is needed. After all, we are all still here for one purpose: to please God and be ready if we are needed in any way to aid in the fulfillment of His plan to bring the Jews back to Israel.

Blessings and Maranatha!

Bud Hancock

Born and raised in a small textile town in North Carolina, Bud’s family moved to Michigan in the hope of finding better employment with General Motors.  After graduating from high school, Bud began an apprenticeship with General Motors to become a Metal Modelmaker.  Retiring after a 30 year career, which included an eight year stint as a Metrologist (Science of high precision measurement), he and his wife moved back to North Carolina to be near his elderly parents.  Shortly thereafter, with both of his parents having passed, he began a new career in the bank security/ATM business, advancing from an entry level technician to one of two North Carolina customer service managers for his employer.  Retiring again after 13 years, he and his wife of 51 years relocated to Tennessee where Bud began writing articles emphasizing Biblical teaching and geopolitical issues.  At age 75, he and his wife relocated to South Carolina with their Miniature Schnauzer, Baxter.  Bud continues to study God’s word and write articles on Christian living and geopolitical issues from the Biblical end times  perspective.