While they were scattered among the nations, holding on to the hope of returning to their homeland, God made a promise to the Jewish people:
For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.
Ezekiel 36:24
A promise that He wouldn’t only bring them back to the land of their forefathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but that He will also root them in this land, so that they will never be uprooted again. God also promised that His people will prosper and flourish in the land He promised them from the beginning of time.
The fulfillment of that promise began in the end of the 19th century, when the first Jews started returning to Zion, then reached its prophetic peak in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel.
God promised that Israel would be born from its ashes, and it will be the first phase of its rebirth. The one that will follow will be a spiritual one.
As the State of Israel prepares to celebrate tomorrow 75 years of independence tomorrow, as believers we know the biggest part of Israel’s restoration is still coming: Israel’s spiritual awakening.
How does that affect those nations?
Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.
Ezekiel 39:28-29
God reminds us Israel’s destiny is tightly tied to the fate of the nations. Israel’s “blindness” being partly a blessing for the rest of the world, as a way to ensure as many nations as possible enter God’s fullness.
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”
Romans 11:25-26
From Dry Bones to A Living Nation
When God took Ezekiel in the spirit and brought him to a valley, the prophet saw it filled with dry bones. The Lord then gave Ezekiel one of the most powerful prophecies in the Bible.
Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’
Ezekiel 37:11-14
Tomorrow we will celebrate the miraculous rebirth of the nation of Israel 75 years ago, and as believers we fully trust God will bring the rest of the prophecy to fulfillment: “…I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.”
The Bible is filled with God’s promises regarding the restoration of His nation, the establishment of the modern State of Israel and the return of the Jewish people to the land.
For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.
Ezekiel 36:24
To stand on God’s promises to the Jewish people is to also stand in faith for the destiny of your own nation.
In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
Isaiah 27:6
Thank you for standing faithfully and loyally with the people of Israel, for being a part of their journey and supporting their calling to be a light to the nations.
