The tiny nation of Israel is of mighty significance in this troubled world. With a population of about six million, Israel has become the focus of attention to all peoples. Geographically and economically, Israel sits at the control center of the world. Its capital, Jerusalem, has been revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims for millennia; and Israel's God has been worshipped by billions of believers of all nations since time began.
Why is this tiny nation so important? And how is it that Israel exerts so great an influence on mankind? The answer is: Because the Almighty God is with Israel! Without Him, Israel would be as unimportant as the weakest nation on earth - as nothing! Yes, the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is with Israel. In the Bible, He refers to Himself as the God of Israel or the holy One of Israel over 230 times! The pages of His diary are filled with appointments with Israel. Over the centuries, the Most High has shared His plans with Israel. Through Israel came His law, His prophets, and finally Yeshua, His only begotten Son - the Messiah! Yes, Yahweh is with Israel! To be sure, other nations and individuals count; but only as they affect Israel and relate to Israel's Saviour - the Son of God! The Bible is, in fact, the record of Israel's history and Israel's future. Let us further consider why this nation is so important.
Deuteronomy 7: | 6: For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God:
the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto
himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. 7: The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. |
Deuteronomy 10: | 15: Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to
love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above
all people, as it is this day. |
Deuteronomy 14: | 2: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy
God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto
himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. |
Isaiah 41: | 8: But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom
I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. 9: Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. |
Yes, Anti-Semitism has been around for thousands of years and every nation and religion - including Christianity - is guilty. Today, the eyes of the world are again on the people of Israel; simply because an all-out war in the Middle East would drag the whole world into war; not to mention its catastrophic effect on the economies of all nations. The Jews, bear in mind, are major players in world economic affairs and control more of the world's money than most people remotely imagine. Surrounded as she is by her enemies, Israel is a nation living under constant threat. Never a week passes but Israel is in the news. Why is this? What makes Israel so important? How has this tiny nation become the center of attention to the whole world? What hypnotic power does Israel possess with God and man? The answers are many and amazing to say the least. Let us consider a few.
Genesis 32: | 27: And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he
said, Jacob. 28: And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. |
The Most High chose the descendants of this man Israel ( Jacob ), gave them His law and placed them in the Promised Land with the intention of using Israel as a channel of instruction and blessing to all nations. Through Israel came the law, the prophets, and eventually the Son of the Most High ( Yeshua the Messiah, Jesus the Christ )
Romans 3: | 1: What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit
is there of circumcision? 2: Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. 3: For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? |
Alas! Israel, in the main, failed to live up to Yahweh's hopes. Israel rejected the Almighty's law and grievously sinned. Israel rejected the oracles of God, broke the everlasting covenant, murdered most of Yahweh's prophets and crowned her rebellion by crucifying His Son Yeshua. The story of Israel's rebellion against their God goes back a long way, long before New Testament times.
2 Kings 17: | 9: And the children of Israel did secretly those
things that were not right against the LORD their God
13: Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. 14: Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God. 15: And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. 16: And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. |
Jeremiah 6: | 16: Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see,
and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein,
and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will
not walk therein. 17: Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. 18: Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. 19: Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it. |
Matthew 27: | 22: Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then
with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let
him be crucified. 23: And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. |
The reader must not forget, however, ancient Israel's rebellion against Yahweh's law has been duplicated by the Christian church. Modern Christians, in other words, are no better than the people of ancient Israel. They too are rejecting Yahweh's law and polluting His Sabbaths just as Israel did. All nations are guilty of lawlessness, of sin. All have come short of the glory of God. So do not secretly look down on the Jew as though he were a spiritually inferior person because we Christians are no better than the Jews.
Romans 3: | 10: As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not
one: 11: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12: They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. |
Deuteronomy 4: | 25: When thou shalt beget children, and children's
children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall
corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of
any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God,
to provoke him to anger: 26: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. 27: And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. |
Deuteronomy 28: | 64: And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people,
from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there
thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers
have known, even wood and stone. 65: And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: |
Ezekiel 20: | 23: I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness,
that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them
through the countries; 24: Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols. |
For further study see: Leviticus 26:33, Psalm 44:11, Jeremiah 9:16,
Jeremiah 49:32-36, Ezekiel 12: 14-15, 22:15-16, Nehemiah 1:8.
Ezekiel 11: | 16: Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although
I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have
scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a
little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. 17: Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. |
Jeremiah 31: | 35: Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a
light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars
for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof
roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: 36: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 37: Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. |
The Apostle Paul continues this thought in the New Testament when he cautions Gentile believers not to imagine that God has abandoned or cast away Israel; because He hasn't.
Romans 11: | 1: I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.
For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe
of Benjamin. 2: God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, |
In other words, the people of Israel are still the chosen race and will continue to be as long as the immeasurable universe exists! Pause a while, dear reader, and dwell on that stunning fact! That is what the LORD God of Israel is saying in His Word.
Deuteronomy 30: | 1: And it shall come to pass, when all these things
are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set
before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations,
whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, 2: And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; 3: That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. 4: If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: 5: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. |
Ezekiel 11: | 17: Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. |
Also read: Jeremiah 29:14, 31:10, 32:37-41, Nehemiah 1:9, Psalm 107:3, Isaiah 43:5, Ezekiel 34:12-31, 37:21, Micah 2:12.
Is a re-gathering of Israel taking place? To be sure, it
is. Consider the statistics of Jews returning to Israel since
the nation was reborn on May 14, 1948.
1948 ... 657,000
1950 ... 1,203,000
1958 ... 1,810,000
1962 ... 2,069,000
Currently, thousands of Jews, especially from the former Soviet Union, return to Israel every year and the population is over the 6,000,000 mark.
Isaiah 11: | 11: And it shall come to pass in that day, that
the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover
the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria,
and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam,
and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the
sea. 12: And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. |
Isaiah 43: | 5: Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy
seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6: I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; |
Ezekiel 39: | 27: When I have brought them again from the
people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am
sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; 28: Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which cause them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. |
Yes, Bible prophecies concerning Israel's return to the Promised
Land are being fulfilled before our very eyes. The descendants
of Jacob are returning in their millions to the land of their
fathers; and the Christian church, in the main, stands bewildered
at events it doesn't understand, simply because it believes that
Israel was abandoned by God and replaced by a Gentile church.
Oh, what a tragic misconception that is!
Ezekiel 22: | 15: And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and
disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness
out of thee. 16: And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. 17: And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 18: Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. 19: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20: As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. 21: Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. 22: As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you. |
Ezekiel 36: | 21: But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house
of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. 22: Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. 23: And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24: For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25: Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27: And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28: And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. |
That refining work has already begun! Israel is being purified.
Points to note are:
When these final events occur, Israel will have reached a degree of purity and faithfulness never known before. The decimated nation will be as 'pure silver'.
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