Israel and Jerusalem are a part of God’s amazing, ongoing work of the miraculous. Last time we saw how God’s prophetic word laid out that exact timing of Israel’s re-emergence as a nation – down to the day. [In that way it mirrored the prophetic word given in Daniel that gave us the precise day that Jesus would enter in to His Kingdom. It was the first Palm Sunday, when Christ rode into Jerusalem, finally accepting the crowds declaring Him a King.] Today we’ll look a little deeper at the incredible history behind the re-born Jewish State.
PART VI – ALL FOR THE PURPOSES OF GOD
“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim.” (Hosea 3:4)
“On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down…I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,” Says the LORD your God.” (Amos 9:11, 14-15)
Throughout the 20th century the stage was being set for the re-emergence of Israel as a nation. The Zionist movement had encouraged and made possible the emigration of thousands of Jews from around the world. Then World War II threatened to end the enterprise. It is the clear teaching of the prophetic Scriptures that Israel would be back in the Land at the return of Jesus the Messiah. Knowing his time was short, Satan was determined to derail God’s plans by preventing the rebirth of the Jewish Nation. To that end he enlisted one Adolph Hitler. Hitler was more than just an egomaniacal dictator. He was a man chosen by and steeped in the occult. In 1919 he became associated with the Thule Society, a sun worshiping pagan society dedicated to the superiority of the Aryan (German) race. They and Hitler saw Jews, with their dark complexions, as being the apotheosis of evil.[i] According to Trevor Ravenscroft, author of The Spear of Destiny, “The inner core within the Thule Society were all Satanists who practiced Black Magic.”[ii] One Dietrich Eckardt took Hitler under his wing, initiating him into Thule lore and practice, which included “a monstrous sadistic magic ritual” steeped in sexual sado-masochism. It was thoroughly and overtly Satanic in nature. Eckardt believed that Hitler had been possessed by the spirit of the Antichrist. Hitler believed that he had been “born anew”, with a super power necessary to fulfill his “mandate.”[iii] Hitler did follow that Satanic mandate in trying to wipe the Jewish race from the face of the earth. One third of all the Jews in the world, about 6 million in all, perished in the Holocaust. But this horrible massacre only served to turn world opinion in favor of the establishment of a Jewish homeland.
After the end of World War II, the UN resolved to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish States. But the Arab world would have no part of it. As the British Mandate over Palestine approached its end, the Arab states threatened to completely destroy the emerging Jewish Nation. The Arab armies were armed with modern tanks, planes, and heavy artillery from Britain and France. They were well supplied with weapons and ammunition. The Israeli forces opposing them had no planes or artillery with which to oppose them and only about 10,000 rifles.[iv]
Despite the odds and knowing the consequences of their actions, the Israelis went ahead with their declaration. Immediately two things happened. First the United States and the USSR both recognized the new State. Secondly, the next day, five Arab nations invaded the new country. The troops of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Transjordan and Lebanon invaded from all points of the compass. God’s Word had spoken to this, thousands of years before. “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.” (Isaiah 66:7-8) Israel had indeed been born in one day. No sooner did she declare her nationhood than she was accepted by the international community. The labor of war followed the birth of the nation. It seemed too that the newly formed Israeli Defense Force (IDF) was possessed of almost supernatural strength. The population of the invading nations was over 20 million at the time; the Jews boasted less than 1 million. Yet over the course of the little less than 8 months of the war, the Israeli forces put the invaders to flight, claiming 50% more territory than they had originally claimed. The victory had come against tremendous odds. Leviticus 26:3, 7-8 reads, “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them… You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight.” Though they had returned to the Land primarily in religious unbelief, God seemed to be granting them the benefits of His promise found there.
Perhaps Ezekiel 20:42-44 gives us the best clue to understanding God’s heart in the matter. “‘Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised My hand in an oath to give to your fathers. And there you shall remember your ways and all your doings with which you were defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight because of all the evils that you have committed. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel,’ says the Lord GOD.” There are two key things to note here. According to this passage, Israel would remember God once they had been brought back to the Land. And God said He would accomplish all of this for “for My name’s sake.” Further evidence of God’s protective hand was evidenced in the Six-Day War of 1967 and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel again triumphed over markedly superior Arab forces.[v] It was during the 1967 War that Israel once again gained control of Jerusalem, signaling the first phase of the fulfillment of one of Jesus’ own prophecy found in Luke 21:24. “And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
Despite the seemingly endless conflict marked by wars and terror, the history of modern Israel has been one of triumph. It has established the only fully functioning democracy in the region. The fertility of the land has been restored, the economy modernized. There were only about 84,000 Jews there in 1922. The population is now around 4.7 million. During the course of its short life, of about 60 years, Israel fulfilled another prophecy. Beginning in 1977 and continuing well into the 80’s, aided by covert action on the part of the Israeli government and even the American CIA, thousands of Ethiopian Jews were airlifted or brought by other means to the land of Israel. This fulfilled Zephaniah 3:10. “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, the daughter of My dispersed ones, shall bring My offering.”
In Matthew 24:32-35, Jesus spoke the fig tree in telling us the signs of his coming. “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” In 1948 the fig tree of Israel was planted. It is now well grown. The generation that saw the planting of Israel has lived much of its time. Yet many prophecy scholars believe that Jesus is referring to that very generation in the passage above. And we have the promise that “this generation will by no means pass away” until all is fulfilled. That time seems near indeed! God has indeed affected a physical restoration of Israel, – with more to come. But there is an even greater spiritual transformation that has been promised for the end times. Jeremiah 24:5-7 says, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.”
[i] Jean-Michel Angebert, The Occult and the Third Reich, taken from threeworldwars.com/world-war-2/adolf-hitler.htm
[ii] Trevor Ravenscroft, The Spear of Destiny, as quoted in threeworldwars.com/world-war-2/adolf-hitler.htm
[iii] Trevor Ravenscroft, The Spear of Destiny, pgs 155, 173, 93-94 – as found in Cutting Edge Ministries newsletter 1011
[iv] Anna Lim, The Birth of Modern Israel, Nations in Prophecy, www.patriarchywebsite.com/prophetic/birth-israel.htm
[v] Jack Kinsella, The Year of the Countdown, Focus on Jerusalem, http://focusonjerusalem.com/theyearofthecountdown.html
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