Six Reasons Why We Believe These Are the Last Days – Reason One – Israel and the Jews
By Jack Kinsella
One of the most clear and undeniable signs of the last days is the restoration of Israel. It is an event unique in the annals of human history. The Jewish culture, unlike other cultures of antiquity, was never absorbed by its many conquerors. Even after being divided, scattered across the centuries and throughout the world, without land or flag, the Jewish nation survived.
Think this through for a second. Broken into small groups, many unaware of the other’s existence, the Jews survived, culture, religion, unique dietary laws, customs and traditions intact. Thousands of years. Hundreds of countries.
Despite the best efforts of the rest of the world to bring about their destruction through periodic massacres, forced conversions and pogrom after pogrom, the Jew survived. After having been scattered for two thousand years, today Israel is home to Jews from every country, speaking 86 languages.
In each adopted language, they heard the story of the Exodus. In each host country, sometimes at risk of death, they kept the Passover. When they all came home to the Promised Land, they found other Jews, telling the story of the Exodus, each in their own language. And it was the same story.
They were the same people.
Israel launched ‘Operation Solomon’ in 1991. It was the massive, one-day airlift of the remaining 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the midst of the Ethiopian Civil War.
“From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering. In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain.” (Zephaniah 3:10-11)
One can search the annals of history in vain for another people like the Jews. No other people of antiquity have survived into modern times under such circumstances. There are no Amalekites, Jebusites or Caananites. They may have descendants, but they are not a people.
Many Jews can trace their ancestry back to the time of Herod’s Temple.
The history of the Jews was written in advance, including their return to the land of Promise in the last generation.
“And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, [even] in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God [is] a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.” (Deuteronomy 4:27-28,30-31)
As Moses predicted, the Jews were scattered and persecuted, but, in the ‘latter days’ have been restored for the express purpose of accomplishing their national redemption. (Daniel 9:26).
Isaiah predicted;
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.” (Isaiah 11:11)
“For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith 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)
“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and [for] my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” (Joel 3:1-2)
“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:” (Amos 9:11)
It seems pretty clear that Israel’s history was carefully planned according to a particular purpose. Don’t miss out on the wonder of it all. Take a second and think it through. Don’t miss this.
Foretelling the future of an entire nation is more than a good guess. Every single person in every single generation has to cooperate exactly, from Abraham forward.
If Moses’ mother had not put him in a basket, there’d be no Exodus. So Moses’ great grandparents could have only married each other.
And what if Habbakkuk’s great-great-great-grandfather decided to be a bachelor? Every single individual choice throughout history — ancient and modern — had to be the exact right choice for the future to work out according to prophecy.
What if David ben-Gurion had been murdered during WWII or if Abba Eban had decided to remain in the British Army, or if Golda Meir had stayed in Chicago, modern Israel might not exist. Meticulous details. But God said modern Israel WOULD exist — in the last days.
“Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel…Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand…And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. ” (Ezekiel 37:12,19-20)
The existence of Israel is a miracle accomplished by God, specifically as He said it would be accomplished. And specifically when He intended — in the last days. When the time came, the world convulsed into World War Two, and regurgitated the nation it had been holding captive until the appointed time.
Three years after the Holocaust, Israel raised her flag on May 14, 1948. For the first time since 702 BC, there was a place in the world called Israel and a home for the Jews.
“And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” (Ezekiel 37:25,27-28)
There is no story like Israel’s. There is no nation like Israel. Of Israel, God said,
“I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: (Hosea 9:10).
Jesus said,
“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”