Vintage

“You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2)

These inspired words, addressed by God to the nation of Israel, explain the reason why these people have been described as ‘the chosen race’. For 3,500 years, the history of the Jews has illustrated the miracle of their survival. Over the centuries anti-Semitism has never succeeded in destroying them, though many times they have witnessed the downfall and destruction of their enemies.

God’s Witnesses

The Bible is essentially a book about the Jewish nation, dealing with its history and its people from their earliest times to the present day, and significantly, it deals with what lies ahead. The reason for their continuing survival is simple: God chose Israel to demonstrate to the world His existence, and his plan and purpose with his creation. The Children of Israel were chosen to be God’s witnesses:

“You are My witnesses,” says the Lord, “and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He.” (Isaiah 43:10)

Israel is probably the most distinct and longest surviving nation on earth. It is the only nation that can trace its beginning to a single man. Abraham was called by God to leave his native city of Ur in Chaldea, and go to the land of Canaan. After many years of sojourning in the ‘promised land’, Abraham had a son named Isaac. He in turn had a son named Jacob, whom God subsequently renamed “Israel”. These three men became known as ‘the fathers’ of the Hebrew race, which sprang from them.

Jacob had twelve sons who became the heads of the twelve tribes (or families) named after them. The only authentic history of the development of this people is contained in the Bible. It is a factual record, free from legend or folklore. The Jews themselves have never questioned its accuracy, and many Jewish rites and customs cannot be accounted for on any other basis than that the Biblical record is true.

A Chosen Race

God has always overshadowed the destiny of the Jewish people. Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt and assembled them at Mt Sinai. There they were given a Divine law, which was dictated to Moses by God, known as “The Law of Moses.” Not only did these laws govern their religious lives and civil administration but included laws to guide personal and family life. These laws revealed the privileged position held by Israel in God’s purpose. The Bible declared:

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 14:2)

The importance of the history of Israel lies in its connection with God’s plan of salvation. Israel was appointed the guardians of true religion.

(Theirs is) the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came. (Romans 9:4-5)

‘Salvation is of the Jews’ (John 4:22)

The Bible records the detailed history of Israel as God’s chosen people. The choice of their kings was often by direct Divine intervention. For example, God sent the prophet Samuel to find and anoint David, the son of Jesse, to be king in place of Saul:

Now the Lord said to Samuel, “Fill your horn with oil, and go; …I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons” …Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. (1 Samuel 16:1-13)

The defeats and the victories of Israel over other nations, their sufferings and their prosperity were, and still are, under the direct control of God.

So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill. Like birds flying about, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it; passing over, He will preserve it.” (Isaiah 31:4-5)

No other nation has ever been able to claim God as their King, as can Israel. Even when they rejected Him, God still continued to guide their destiny according to His predetermined purpose. They denied Him and disobeyed His laws — but God has never fully rejected them:

You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. (Amos 3:2)

Why Does God Favour the Jews?

The promises, which God made to Abraham, were prophetic, and tell of a glorious time yet to come. Abraham proved to be a man of exceptional faith and obedience. God tested Abraham’s faith by commanding that he sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Abraham responded in faith, and as he raised the knife above Isaac, God called a halt:

The Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:11-12)

Because of this demonstration of his faith and obedience, God made the promises unconditional. God told him through the angel:

“By Myself I have sworn,” says the Lord, “because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son — blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (Genesis 22:16-18)

Nothing can stop Abraham’s name becoming great throughout the world when the promises are fulfilled at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the establishment of the kingdom. Jesus prophesied:

Many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 8:11)

This is the reason why God has favoured the Jews from the earliest times:

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)

It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word, which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 9:5)

Therefore it is impossible to separate Israel from God and the Bible, or to explain their history by any other facts than those given in the word of God.

God’s Prophetic Warning: the Blessings and Cursings

But privilege brings with it responsibility. Israel’s population grew, despite many problems. Within a few hundred years they numbered millions. And they were given the land that God had promised them, the land known today as Israel. This was not the fulfilment of the promise, because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not present with them, as prophesied. The Children of Israel had to demonstrate faith and obedience to continue their possession of the land. Notice the covenant God made with the Children of Israel at Mt Sinai in order to test them.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Exodus 19:5-6)

The Children of Israel eagerly entered the covenant:

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do.” …Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” (Exodus 24:3-4, 7)

As they were about to enter this land, God gave them some warnings through their leader Moses. Notice that their possession of the land was conditional upon their faith and obedience:

If you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments ...the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth ...Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks …The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. (Deuteronomy 28:1-9)

If you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. (Deuteronomy 28:15-19)

Continued disobedience would result in them being scattered amongst the nations:

Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. (Deuteronomy 28:64)

Israel Rejected God

History shows us that everything that God promised in Deuteronomy chapter 28 actually happened. For a while Israel was blessed in its new land. Then gradually the people began to forget about God and adopted the standards of the heathen nations which surrounded them. They allowed their children to take marriage partners from the surrounding nations, contrary to God’s commandments:

Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you (Deuteronomy 7:3-4)

They did not remain separate and their hearts were turned to the idolatry practiced by those around them.

The nation reached its peak of greatness during the reigns of King David, and his son Solomon. Then God caused the nation to be split in two and eventually each was invaded. In 606 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar took the people into captivity in Babylon and later returned to burn Jerusalem and its temple.

Seventy years later, those who wished were allowed to resettle the land of Israel. In due course Rome became the dominant nation of the known world, according to the prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. It was not long before the land of Israel was under Roman rule, and continued in the days when Jesus Christ lived there. Once again the Jews rejected God and on this occasion they rejected His son too, demanding that he be crucified.

The Fall of Jerusalem

Shortly before his arrest and crucifixion the Lord Jesus Christ gave the following prophetic warning:

They will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:24)

The Lord Jesus spoke the words quoted above about forty years before the Romans besieged Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The siege lasted for two years until the Roman general Titus gained entry to the city. He sacked Jerusalem and led its people captive into all parts of the Roman Empire. Subsequently they were scattered to the four corners of the earth, just as Moses had prophesied:

The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young …They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you … Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. (Deuteronomy 28:49-64)

Since that time — until June 1967 — foreigners dominated Jerusalem. The Jews were completely banished from the land in A. D. 135 when the site of Jerusalem was ploughed up. Its territory was turned into a Roman colony and no Jew allowed in its vicinity. Many of the population were put to death and many more were carried off into slavery.

From then on, for more than eighteen centuries, the Jews were a people who wandered the earth like strangers, oppressed and persecuted wherever they went. The Roman emperor Constantine passed anti-Jewish statutes in the fourth century but it was the Crusades that more than anything else ushered in the worst and longest period of anti-Jewish feeling throughout the world. They were expelled from many countries, including England in 1290.

And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. (Deuteronomy 28:65)

They were subject to extortion and persecution wherever they, lived, especially in central Europe. A new wave of anti-Semitism spread through Europe towards the end of the nineteenth century resulting in the deaths of many thousands, especially in Russia. Between 1880 and 1910 at least three million Jews fled Eastern Europe, many of them to the United States. These centuries of suffering culminated in the holocaust of the Second World War when, in six years, Germany put to death some six million Jews in concentration camps, just as prophesied:

Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see. (Deuteronomy 28:66-67)

Searching for a Homeland

The end of the nineteenth century saw the first, small beginnings of a remarkable change in the fortunes of Israel, according to God’s timetable. Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) was led by the development of anti-Semitism to publish a pamphlet “The Jewish State” in which he argued that Jews had two alternatives: assimilation by intermarriage or a separate national state. The latter course was his answer to the problem.

In 1897, at the Jewish Congress in Basle, Herzl proclaimed the determination of the Jews to establish an independent State.

The Zionist movement was given great impetus during the First World War when, in 1917, the British Foreign Secretary Balfour committed Britain to the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. He made the following declaration:

“His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object ...”

After the war, Balfour's declaration led to the League of Nations giving Britain the land of Palestine to govern as a mandate territory.

It was the holocaust of the Second World War that led far more Jews to try to return to their historic home. Wave after wave of immigrants landed in Palestine following the war. The Palestinians who were already there were apprehensive and increasingly resistant. These and other pressures caused Britain to withdraw.

Israel Reborn

Israel had rejected their God and they suffered terribly for it for close on 2,000 years. But despite their rejection of God, he did not abandon them. When the right time came, God intervened.

On the day the British mandate was due to end, May 14 1948, the U.N. declared the land to be a Jewish State, and the Jews proclaimed the new state of “Israel”. Today, after 2,000 years since they were dispersed, Jews again walk the streets of the ancient city of Jerusalem, and legislate for its future. The words that God spoke through Jesus two thousands of years ago proved to be history written in advance. In view of that fact, these words of the Lord should be blazoned across the world, that all might appreciate the significance of the dramatic days in which we live.

They will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:24)

Christ declared that Jerusalem would be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the "times of the Gentiles" be fulfilled.

He thus predicted that the time would come when Jerusalem would be freed from foreign domination to be taken over again by the Jewish people, and he declared that this would be a clear sign that the world faced the end of an epoch.

The restoration of the Jewish people has been accompanied by amazing events that border on the miraculous. Bible prophecy shows that there would be a set time when God would favor Zion (Israel):

You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time to favor her, yes, the set time, has come. (Psalm 102:13).

God has established it!

These incidents are part of the miracle of modem Israel, revealing that the political revival of the people and nation is the prelude to events that are destined to affect the life of every living person upon the earth. God has brought them back to their own land from the places where He scattered them.

“For behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,” says the Lord. And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.” (Jeremiah 30:3)

I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered …I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land. (Ezekiel 34:12-13)

The revivals of Israel as a nation, and the freeing of Jerusalem, are signs that Christ's coming is near, and that a new era is about to begin. The restoration of the Jewish people has been accompanied by amazing events that border on the miraculous.

Where Are Israel’s Ancient Enemies?

Down through the centuries, the Jewish people have been conquered, scattered, persecuted and yet, as a nation, they have been preserved. They were driven from their land nearly 2,000 years ago and have been persecuted and banished from country to country where they fled. They were legislated against, herded into evil smelling ghettos, denied civil rights, restrained from exercising their religion, sold into slavery, brutally persecuted, and yet retained their identity!

The Bible shows it to be the hand of God at work. Over 2,500 years ago, God declared:

“For I am with you,” says the Lord, “to save you; though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, and will not let you go altogether unpunished.” (Jeremiah 30:11)

The Jews were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, dominated by the Greeks, scattered by the Romans and finally suffered the holocaust at the hand of Hitler’s Third Reich.

Where are those mighty world powers of antiquity today? The nations and empires at whose hands the Jews suffered exist no more, but the people of Israel do. Not only do they exist but also they thrive — back in their own promised land. The Scripture has been proved true which declares:

Therefore all those who devour you (Israel) shall be devoured; …those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey. (Jeremiah 30:16)

The ancient Roman Empire is now but a dark shadow across the pages of history. All that remains of the Grecian Empire is the memory of her conflicting philosophies. For centuries Babylon’s ruins lay on the banks of the Euphrates River and today the Third Reich is but a ghost upon the stage of Europe.

The Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you …from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land, which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. (Deuteronomy 30:3-5)

Today the Jewish nation remains — a witness to the existence of God and the truth of the Bible.

Day of the Lord

The story does not end there, however. The Jewish people have not turned back to God. They have not yet accepted what He asks of them. The Bible shows clearly that the Jewish nation faces one last terrible crisis. The self-reliance that Israel has developed since 1948 will be worthless in the face of one more invasion, one final battle when the nation and, indeed, the whole world, will be on the brink of disaster.

For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. (Joel 3:1-2)

Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. (Zechariah 14:1-2)

This final crisis will be greater than any that has gone before, incredible though that may seem:

Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. (Jeremiah 30:7)

It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:9)

This crisis will cause Israel to cry out to God and at last to accept His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will return to the earth as God has promised, to save it from destruction:

It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. (Zechariah 12:9)

For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:24-26)

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah …But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:31, 33-34)

The Good News

When Jesus Christ returns to the earth he will establish a worldwide kingdom of peace in which all those who follow God - whether Jew or Gentile - will be able to live forever. And thus will all the promises that God made to Abraham be fulfilled, with everyone having an opportunity to have a part in the blessings that they will bring.