When the Jews Returned to Israel

Bible readers understand that it is impossible for a people group to be scattered for 2000 years only to come back to the same land, resurrect the same language and celebrate the same traditions.  Israel is a modern day miracle.  God said he would never forget the Jews even though they rejected him.  He said in the last days he would bring them back to the land he promised their forefathers and that no one would drive them out again.  The Arab armies tried 3 different times and were unsuccessful.  Now the Persians (Iran) and Turkey are making big plans to take a swing at them using Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian missiles.  They won’t be successful either.  I’m not sure how it is possible that so many Christians, who practice replacement theology, can ignore the evidence that the return of the Jews is a supernatural work of God...but they do.  You can expect some of those churches to start waving Palestinian flags, if they haven’t already.

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To an outside observer, the idea that a widely dispersed people would uproot themselves once again and return to the God-forsaken place where they once lived seemed ludicrous. It would be as if people calling themselves Trojans decided to regroup after 3000 years and rebuild the lost city of Troy.

However, unlike the Trojans, the Jewish people maintained their identity through the long years of the diaspora. They honored ancient customs—although not always revering the God of their Fathers—in a way that unified them across the years and the miles. Passover, Hanukkah, Purim, and other Jewish holidays ensured a collective memory and shared hope.

By the late 1800s, the embers of that hope were stirring back into flame. In 1878, Jewish-Polish poet Naftali Herz Imber penned the words to “Hatikvah” (The Hope):

As long as in the heart, within,
The soul of a Jew still yearns,
And onward, towards the ends of the east,
An eye still gazes toward Zion;

Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

Shmuel Cohen, a 17-year-old musician from Eastern Europe whose parents had immigrated to Palestine set the words to a Romanian melody in 1887. It became well-known throughout Zionist circles into the early 20th century and was adopted as the anthem of the Zionist circle in 1933. Although banned from public broadcast by the British Mandate government, “Hatikvah” would later become the national anthem of Israel.

As prophesied and promised, Israel’s Hope indeed springs eternal.

Odds Too Long to Wager On

Throughout the period of Diaspora, the Church took on an overwhelmingly Gentile flavor. Paul spoke of the Jewish rejection of the Gospel as the “reconciliation of the world” because it led to the Gospel itself being scattered far and wide over the earth (Romans 11:11-15). Tragically, many Gentile Christians assumed the Jewish obstinance was evidence that they had been cast aside, even though Paul insisted that was not the case (Romans 11:1-5).

But, witnessing the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy regarding the wandering, outcast, despairing Jew, Gentiles too readily accepted the lie that God had washed His hands of the Jewish people. That was the attitude of “Christian” crusaders who streamed to the Middle East from 1050 to 1300—killing Jews with as much glee as they dispatched Muhammadans who had seized the Holy Land.

So, when Jews began to return to the Land that Mark Twain had testified was desolate and devoid of people, beasts, or vegetation, there was little popular support for their dream. Even Great Britain reneged on its Balfour Declaration promise to support the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. When push came to shove—and there was much pushing and shoving from the Arab world when Jews began to grow in number and influence—the British Mandatory authorities were decidedly pro-Arab and anti-Jewish.

Perhaps the greatest example of the inconceivability of Israel’s reestablishment is the counsel offered by America’s Secretary of State in 1948, George C. Marshall. General Marshall, whose strategic and geopolitical acumen was proven in World War II, was convinced that the overwhelming superiority of the combined Arab armies would mean a death sentence for the Jews. Marshall warned Harry Truman that if the President dared support Israeli independence, he would resign his position and then campaign and vote against him in the next election!

Thankfully, Truman had paid attention in Sunday School, and knew that while man sees only impossibilities, “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). And, when it comes to the prophecies of Scripture, a promise of God is an ironclad surety.

Impossibly long odds, or prophecy fulfilled? Many Christians were too ignorant of Bible prophecy to know the difference.

 https://harbingersdaily.com/impossibly-long-odds-or-prophecy-fulfilled-many-christians-are-too-ignorant-of-prophecy-to-know-the-difference/