First and last
There are so many
prophecies and promises
in the Bible
concerning Israel that have
come true,
especially in the last 200 years, that no one could
possibly have predicted or imagined.
It shows that God can see the future,
foretold it in
His word,
and has been
utterly faithful in keeping His promises!
More than 300 years ago, King Louis XIV, the ruler of France, asked the famous philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, to prove the existence of God. Pascal replied: “Well, Your Majesty, the Jews! The Jews!” Their remarkable story of survival and their journey through history till today reveals that time after time, God’s word is true.
PERSECUTION – DEUTERONOMY 28
Exactly as Moses predicted in Deuteronomy 28,
the Jewish people have
suffered greatly,
and been
persecuted wherever they have gone.
They have been repeatedly conquered by
various empires and regimes,
and while in exile they have
suffered numerous violent persecutions.
Thousands were slaughtered in the Crusades and
millions in the Holocaust.
They suffered the evils of the Inquisition and
the repeated trauma
of being forcibly expelled
from country after country.
The persecution of the Jewish people has been
relentless
and really quite extraordinary.
If you are not sure about this statement, just do a Google search,
and you’ll see what I mean.
Yet somehow, they are still alive to tell the tale.
A DIVINELY PRESERVED PEOPLE – JEREMIAH 31
History books show that when people groups are
dispersed from their homeland,
they gradually lose their ethnic identity and
are eventually assimilated or lost after a maximum of
five generations.
But somehow,
the people of Israel have maintained their
Jewish identity
for thousands of years in exile.
This, too, is extraordinary.
But not surprising, if we believe the Bible. Why? Because God promised in Jeremiah 31:35-36 that
as long as the
sun and moon are still in place,
Israel
will never cease to be a nation before him.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the
Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
For truly, I say to you,
until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot,
will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Last time I checked, all three were carrying on just fine.
Because
God’s word is faithful and true, even though we are not.
Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day …
the moon and the stars for light by night…
"If this fixed order departs from before me… then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.” Jer 31:35-36
A REGATHERED AND RESTORED NATION –
ISAIAH 49, JEREMIAH 16 AND 31, EZEKIEL 36, AMOS 9,
ZECHARIAH 12, AND MANY,
MANY MORE!
Against all odds, Israel was declared a state once again in the land of Israel, on May 14th, 1948.
Immediately following the re-establishment of
The State of Israel,
five armies gathered
against the brand new country to destroy it, and remarkably (miraculously), despite very little in the way of soldiers, training, or weapons, all of which had been forbidden under the British Mandate, Israel somehow won. This miracle was repeated again in the wars of 1967 and 1973. Each time it seemed almost inevitable that Israel would be finished, but to everyone’s surprise, the exact opposite happened: Israel survived and thrived. Since then, the Jews have continued to return to their homeland from all over the world. At the founding of the state, only 6% of all the world’s Jewish population lived in Israel; today it is almost 50%, and steadily growing.
This is a testimony
to the truth of God’s word--
He promised over and over that he would bring his people
back to the land,
and he has done it, just as He promised.
The Jewish people are back in Israel
despite their unfaithfulness, because God has promised,
and He remains faithful even when we are not.
A RESURRECTED LANGUAGE – ZEPHANIAH 3:9, JEREMIAH 31:23
Just as God promised, the Hebrew language was
brought back to life
after being a
dead language for thousands of years.
It is the only time in history
that this has ever happened.
Back in the 1950s,
Israel’s streets were full of many languages as people
were coming from all corners of the earth,
with many languages and dialects,
but today,
the vast majority
of Israel’s population grew up
speaking Hebrew
as their mother tongue.
The remarkable story of
the restoration
of the Hebrew language started in 1877,
with a young man called Eliezar ben Yehuda, who said,
“I heard an inner voice calling to me:
‘Revive Israel
and its language in the
land of the fathers’”
His story is not an easy one by any means,
but God used this young man to
bring his word to pass.
Today in Israel,
for the first time since the
early church,
thousands of Messianic Jews
read the Scriptures in the original language--
in their
mother tongue: Hebrew!
Now, with the
help and insight of the Holy Spirit,
believing Israelis
are uncovering wonderful insights
in the text that are not visible to those
who cannot read Hebrew.
This too is a mighty work
of our faithful God.
THE LAND OF ISRAEL RESPONDS TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL –
ISAIAH 27:6, 35
He also promised to send rain to sustain his people,
and remarkably, meteorological data shows that every time there was a wave of Aliyah--Jewish people returning to Israel—there was a corresponding increase in rainfall to keep up with them!
The land of Israel has flourished and
blossomed,
and supplies the world with
fruit.
Just as God said it would. Shops all over the world
carry fruit,
vegetables and other produce from Israel,
much of which was grown
in the
desert!
Israel’s technological developments have enabled them to
find creative ways
of making
even the most barren places fertile and productive.
The cherry tomato
was invented in an area close to the Dead Sea, and
desalination systems and the revolutionary
drip-irrigation method have been developed in Israel,
which has changed farming
in hot climates for many around the world.
On top of all that,
there have been many great breakthroughs
in
science and medicine
as the people have been
living and thriving
back in their own land again.
A LAND GIVEN BY GOD – GENESIS 12-13
About 4,000 years ago
God commanded Abraham to
leave his country and assured him:
“Go from your country and your kindred
and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
And I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and him who dishonours you I will curse,
and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
(Genesis 12:1-3);
“Lift up your eyes
and look
from the place where you are,
northwards and southwards and eastwards and westwards,
for all the land that you see
I will give to you and to your offspring forever.”
(Genesis 13:14-15).
Some today are unsure if this promise still stands,
but ask yourself--
when has God ever broken His word?
It is no accident
that the people of God are back in the land God promised
to their forefathers—their restoration,
though fraught with challenges and sorrows for many people,
is a fulfilment of God’s word.
Because God is faithful
and
true, even though we are not.
Here is what Charles Spurgeon had to say on the matter:
“I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough about it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the Children of Israel.”
God promised he would do it, and he has done it. Not because Israel is in any way better than any other nation – in fact, God says the opposite!
“It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath
that he swore to your fathers.” (Deuteronomy 7:7)
From Father Abraham to the streets of Israel today,
the story of the people of Israel at every corner
proves that while we fail God over and over,
He is faithful and His word is true.
As we celebrate the promised reestablishment of Israel,
let’s recognize the epic story of God’s faithfulness
as demonstrated not only in the pages of the Bible,
but in the same piece of real estate that
He promised to the forefathers thousands of years ago.
He is the same God, yesterday, today and forever.
The God of Israel keeps his promises!
If He has done all this for Israel,
you can count on His faithfulness to you too.
RSS Feed
