“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 30:2
Prussian cavalry general Hans von Zieten, known as an uncompromising Christian, was asked by his king, Frederick the II, “Give proof for the truth of the Bible in two words!” With no hesitation Zieten replied, “Your majesty, the Jews!” For him, the present existence of a Jewish people was proof alone that God’s Word was true. His response of faith, is even more remarkable when one considers in this era of the 1700’s there was no nation of Israel, the land was barren and desolate of any population. The Jews were still a scattered people.
Author Mark Twain, an agnostic and skeptic, was intellectually stumped with the very real existence of the Jews. In 1899, he writes: “The Egyptian, Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away. The Greek and Roman followed, made a vast noise and they are gone. Other peoples have sprung up, and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out and they sit in twilight now or have vanished. The Jew saw them and beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal, but the Jew. All other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immorality?”
Unlike Zieten, the great American author sadly refused to acknowledge the undeniable confirmation to the truthfulness of the Bible and its prophecy contained.
Dr. Randall Price on the subject of the Jews: “The modern return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel has been called the ‘Miracle on the Mediterranean.’ Such a return by a people group that had been scattered among the nations is unprecedented in history. Indeed, the Jewish people are the only exiled people to remain a distinct people despite being dispersed to more than 70 different countries for more than 20 centuries. The mighty empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome all ravaged their land, took their people captive, and scattered them throughout the earth. Even after this, they suffered persecution, pogrom, and Holocaust in the lands to which they were exiled. Yet, all of these ancient kingdoms have turned to dust and their former glories remain only as museum relics and many of the nations that opposed the Jews have suffered economic, political, or religious decline. But the Jewish people whom they enslaved and tried to eradicate live free and have again become a strong nation.”
You and I have a front-row-seat to witnessing what previous generations only dreamed. This week, our own nation, the first to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a seismic “birth-pang.” Those signs which Jesus talked about, and His coming has never been so soon!
“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
Maranatha!