Unwilling witnesses - regathering
Before we look at these remarkable predictions, we must emphasise that we are in no way supporting the politics of the nation of Israel. The Bible makes it very clear that the Jews often have not behave in the best of ways. We’re not looking at the rights and wrongs of what the Jews have done or are doing. We’re looking at fulfilments of predictions and not the politics of situations.
We’ll now consider predictions fulfilled in more recent times, particularly by looking at predictions about the return of the Jews to their original homeland. .
It’s been estimated that between 1882 and 1948, over 500,000 Jews went back to their original homeland.
In 1917 the British army under General Allenby conquered Palestine. He entered Jerusalem on foot out of respect for the city on 11 December 1917.
The desire for a national homeland for the Jews was greatly encouraged by the British Government who issued the Balfour Declaration in the same year which said that:
“His Majesty's government view 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."
During the period of the British rule of Palestine, the Jews flocked back to their homeland by every means of transport available. In the 1930s Jews were arriving at Port Haifa from Germany. They were fleeing Nazi persecution..
There was a steady stream of arrivals at the reception camps that were set up.
The prophet Ezekiel predicted this when he said:
“For thus says the Lord God. … I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land”; Ezekiel 34 v 13
As if for emphasis, he repeats the prediction:
“Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land” Ezekiel 37 v 21
We can see that God is making it clear that the Jews would not be re-gathered just anywhere, but it would be to their ancient homeland.
Martin Gilbert’s Atlas of Jewish History shows that between 1652 and 1946 at least twenty places other than Israel round the world were considered as possible Jewish homelands.
For instance, in 1905, the British Government offered 5,000 square miles of the Mau Plateau in what is today Kenya as a homeland for the Jews. But the Jews wanted Palestine.
The Second World War left the surviving remnant of Jews in central Europe as displaced persons, most of whom wanted to go to their old homeland.
But increasing Arab opposition to this immigration caused many problems. Eventually on 29 November 1947 the United Nations agreed to the formation of Jewish and Arab states in Palestine.
There was much opposition to this plan and tension in the region increased even further.
Eventually on May 14 1948, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, signed the scroll of the declaration of the State of Israel. In the picture he is watched by Rabbi Hacohen.
The "Palestine Post" for the same day said the “State of Israel is born”. The Jews now had a homeland again after over 1800 years without one.
As we have seen, the Bible is insistent that they would go back to their own land.
The Bible’s prediction was correct despite politicians having other ideas!
The Bible correctly predicted that the Jews would return to their old homeland
The land to be fruitful land again
As we saw earlier, the land of Palestine was desolate before the Jews started to return. Agricultural communities known as Kibbutzim were established when the Jews began to settle in the land to reclaim the barren land and make it fertile again.
Because of Arab opposition, armoured tractors were used to plough the land.
Soon the land became fertile again and crops such as the world-famous Jaffa Orange were produced. Since the nation was reborn in 1948, Israel has become a world leader in agricultural research and development.
This has led to dramatic increases in the quantity and quality of the country's crops.
This is exactly what the prophet Ezekiel said would happen:
“But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, … and you shall be tilled and sown”. Ezekiel 36 v 8 and 9
He then repeats the prediction later:
“The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, `This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden”; Ezekiel 36 v 34 and 35
The Jews land became fruitful again when the Jews returned just as the Bible predicted
Cities to be rebuilt
The returning Jews had to make homes for themselves in this desolate land. In 1909 the founders of Tel Aviv met in desolate sand dunes to parcel out land that had been purchased.
Today, Tel Aviv is a thriving modern city. Many other equally modern cities have been built on barren land since the nation of Israel was established in 1948.
This is yet another fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
“I will multiply men upon you … and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.” Ezekiel 36 v 8 to 10
The ancient city of Jerusalem has also become a thriving modern city since the establishment of the State of Israel.
The Lord Jesus Christ gave an interesting prediction about Jerusalem. He said:
“And Jerusalem shall be trampled by the gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”Luke 21 v 24
Jesus said that Jerusalem would be overrun by non Jewish nations for a limited period. Jerusalem was under Roman rule in the time of Jesus.
The city was then in the hands of various non-Jewish powers until 1967, when the Jews again regained control. Here we have another example of a precise accurate prediction.
The Bible correctly predicted that Jewish cities will be rebuilt and that Jerusalem would again come under Jewish control
The challenge
We may be tempted to say “Well, yes, but these predictions were all lucky guesses. Anyone who knew anything about history could have foretold the future and got it right some of the time”
But using knowledge of history, no one would have come up with these predictions about the Jews at. History tells us that nations disappear when they lose their homeland. They become absorbed into the nations that conquer them. The Bible, however,made the unexpected prediction that the Jews would survive as an identifiable people and eventually come back to their homeland.
We should also bear in mind that anyone who could regularly predict unexpected events could make a small fortune at the bookmakers or on the stock market. The same person would also be in great demand by weather forecasters and politicians! Regularly predicting the unusual is something we just can’t do.
So we are presented with a challenge:
There is no way we can accurately predict unlikely future events. But the God of the Bible has done so with 100% accuracy.
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