| News and Views | March 1945 |
A Nation in Prophecy
Again the military situation in Europe indicates the possibility that the war may soon officially end. One of the problems which then will come before the nations will be that of determining what is to be done about the Jews. We believe that it is timely for students of prophecy to study developments along this line. As a contribution to such study, we present the following digest of some of the main points set forth in the booklet, Chosen People:
GOD’S choice of the children of Abraham and His place for them in the outworking of His purposes on behalf of the entire human family constitute a Scriptural background to Christianity which cannot be denied without denying Christianity itself. It is also a fact that for nearly two thousand years the Jews have, despite their homelessness, their persecutions, and their scattering, continued to be a people—a people whose rightful place in an enlarging world is posing one of the most baffling problems facing the nations today.
In many respects the experiences of the Jewish people have always been paradoxical, and this has been particularly true during the last thirty years. As a result of the first World War, Palestine, the national homeland of the Jew, was wrested from the Turk, and under a mandate from the League of Nations they were permitted to return there and rehabilitate the country and call it theirs. Naturally there was great rejoicing in Israel over this favorable development, and hundreds of thousands of them who had the pioneer spirit returned to Palestine and together they achieved what many would have said was impossible.
Coincidently with these favorable and very encouraging aspects of Jewish experience came their unexpected and bitter persecution by the Nazi regime of Germany. For a time this served to increase the numbers returning to Palestine. But later, although the severity of the persecutions increased, it was no longer possible for many of them to find refuge in their homeland. At first this was due to the exigencies of the war, making immigration to Palestine difficult, but later the British Government, despite the Balfour Declaration, and despite the League of Nations Mandate, virtually closed the door to further immigration of Jews into the Holy Land.
Meanwhile millions of this ancient race were slaughtered, and living conditions for them in Central Europe were made intolerable. Yet no matter how longingly they look toward the Promised Land as a place of refuge from the bitter storms of persecution raging about them, the door is closed. This is certainly a strange sequence of events. What does it mean? Is it in the divine plan that Israel shall repossess the land given to their fathers by God? If so, why has He permitted selfish political interests on the one hand to persecute them unto death, and on the other hand to prevent their finding safety in the land which but a few years ago they were so certain was being returned to them?
Perhaps part of the difficulty heretofore experienced in understanding the paradoxical experiences of the Jews in the light of prophecy has been the placing of too much importance upon human agencies in the fulfillment of God’s promises on their behalf. While God does use human instrumentalities in carrying out certain features of His plan, yet He does not depend upon human aid. It is also true that He is abundantly able to accomplish His purpose regardless of the opposition of selfish human interests, whether they be individual or national.
Our approach to the subject, therefore, is from the standpoint that God will give Palestine to the Jew, and that He will do this irrespective of the Balfour Declaration, or the League of Nations Mandate. He has made His own declaration that Israel shall repossess the land of Palestine, and His Word will stand; it will not return unto Him void, but shall accomplish that which He purposed.—Isaiah 55:11
It was the Prophet Jeremiah who declared: “I will bring them again to this land [Palestine]: and I will build them and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And 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 unto Me with their whole heart.”—Jeremiah 24:6,7
The Prophet Ezekiel likewise predicted: “And I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.”—Ezek. 37:14
In similar vein did the Prophet Amos declare:
“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. … And I will bring again the captivity of My people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; and they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them saith the Lord thy God.”—Amos 9:11-15
Such prophecies as these cannot be logically interpreted in any symbolic sense. It is not a Canaan in heaven that is referred to, but a Canaan on earth. Israel is to be planted again “upon their own land,” the land of their fathers, which God had given them; the land which was divinely promised to Abraham and his seed as an “everlasting possession.”—Genesis 13:14-17; 17:8
There can be no question concerning the meaning of the foregoing promises of God. They are, in effect, His deed to Palestine given to Abraham and his seed. But as yet, Israel does not have unquestioned title to the land God declares shall be theirs, although we are living in the day when they are to possess it. There has not, however, been any delay on God’s part in the fulfillment of His promises. God has a plan, and in that plan are time features. He has a due time for every detail of His plan, including what He has promised to do for Israel. Psalm 102:13 declares concerning Israel, “The time to favor her, yea, the set time is come.”
Seven Times
The long period of national affliction or calamity that has been visited upon Jewry had been foretold centuries before. In Leviticus 26:18, the Lord spoke to Israel through Moses, saying, “And if ye will not yet for all this [their punishments for going contrary to God’s statutes] hearken unto Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” This warning of “seven times more” of punishment was repeated, in all, four times in this same chapter.
But it is manifest that this supreme period of punishment of “seven times more” could not refer to seven “literal” years; for Israel had been afflicted for much longer periods than that prior to the pronouncement of this prophecy.
What, then, could these “seven times” refer to; and how long a period would they actually cover?
A clue is given us in the prophecy of Ezekiel. This prophet wrote while in captivity at Babylon. He was divinely instructed in a vision to lie on his left side for 390 days, and then to turn and lie on his right side for 40 days more. This the prophet did, lying helplessly as if bound; while the other captives doubtless wondered what it all meant.
But the Lord explained to the prophet, “I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.” (Ezek. 4:4-6) Thus Ezekiel symbolized the 390 years of exile of the ten-tribe kingdom to Assyria; and the remaining 40 years of captivity that Judah must yet endure before being released from Babylon.
In similar manner, the “seven times” mentioned in Leviticus 26:27,28, also were to be fulfilled on the basis of a “day for a year.” This seems to be a logical conclusion since these “seven times” manifestly were to exceed in severity all other punishments that had been visited upon this chosen people. If therefore these “seven times” could not refer to seven literal years, they must mean seven symbolic years; that is, “each day for a year.” A solar year, of course, contains a fraction over 365 days, but in computing “symbolic time” as it is set forth in the Scriptures, students of prophecy find that the writers simply divided the year into 12 months of 30 days each. In other words, a time, or year, in Scriptural symbology, refers to 360 solar years—each day representing a year. “Seven times,” then, would signify 7 times 360, or 2520 years.
Thus we see that the Gentile “lease” of authority over Zion was to continue 2520 years, and that thereafter she would be permitted to repossess her rightful heritage. The final treading down or domination of Jerusalem by Gentiles, from which there was no subsequent release began when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and subjugated the land and took his first Jewish captives. This was a few years before he actually dethroned Zedekiah, the last Jewish king, and destroyed Jerusalem, which was in 606 B.C.
Now if the “seven times,” or 2520 years, of Gentile domination, and of national chastisement upon Zion, began in 606 B.C., when would that period end? Strangely enough, 2520 years after 606 B.C. brings us to the important date 1914 A.D. when the World War began. Out of that conflict came the ousting of the Turks from Jerusalem by General Allenby, the famous Balfour Declaration, the opening of the ancient homeland to Jewish refugees and pioneers from all lands, and the infusion of the whole Zionist movement with new life and hope.
It is evident, then, that we are now at the termination of the “seven times” of national affliction upon Israel. It is logical to suppose, therefore, that the events which have taken place in Palestine since 1914 on behalf of the Jews are the beginnings of a new day for them. The long lease of power to the Gentiles is up, and dispossession of the old tenant is due. Moves to this end have already been made by the direction of God in whose hands is the destiny of all nations, both Jews and Gentiles. That there are now formidable obstacles standing in the way of a further possession of the land by its rightful owners should not weaken our faith in the fulfillment of God’s promises.
“Until He Come”
When Zedekiah, the last king of the Jews, was overthrown, it was prophesied that the kingdom would be overturned “until He come whose right it is.” (Ezek. 21:27) When dominion was thus taken from Zedekiah, at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction by the Babylonians, the Gentiles began their long domination of the Jewish homeland. It has continued on down to this day. It has been by divine permission and for a divine purpose. But such domination is not to continue forever; for God has a time, yea, a “set time,” to return His favor to Zion, and to plant her again in her own land, never again to be plucked up.
The God of Israel has recognized the rule of these Gentile powers, for a purpose; but not in the sense that He had recognized His own chosen people. He called Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian monarch, “My servant;” for he served the divine purpose of visiting punishment upon Judah, “because ye have not heard My words.” (Jer. 25:8,9) But neither Babylon nor any other Gentile power has ever been designated “the kingdom of the Lord,” as was said of those or the Davidic line. (II Chron. 13:8) Nor was any Gentile dynasty ever assured perpetuity of rule, as was promised to the offspring of David.—II Sam. 7:16,17
The Gentile powers were merely granted a “lease” over the Holy Land for a definite term, as a punishment for Israel’s and Judah’s idolatries and unfaithfulness. Then, at the time appointed, this Gentile lease of power was to terminate; and forthwith He would “assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” (Isa. 11:12) Then God’s original purposes for Israel to enjoy the blessings of the Promised Land will be realized. This final gathering, unlike previous ones, will be permanent.
Israel’s Double
Another prophecy of interest to God’s people is the obscure utterance of Zechariah who wrote these words a few years after the Babylonian captivity: “Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: thy King cometh Jerusalem: behold, unto thee; He is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass. … Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee.”—Zech. 9:9-12
Another equally strange prophecy which evidently refers to the same matter is the following passage from Isaiah: “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”—Isa. 40:2
Although the word mishneh was used in the Zechariah prophecy and kepkel is the word employed by Isaiah, yet the meaning undoubtedly is the same—each text referring to a period or to an experience, or both, which would be a duplication or repetition of something that had gone before. Zechariah foretells this “double” before it happens, while Isaiah prophesied of the time when the “double” would be ended and when Zion would again come into her own.
What then does this “double” refer to, and when does it begin and terminate? Inasmuch as Isaiah shows that divine favor was to be withheld from Jerusalem during this “double,” therefore this period of punishment must coincide, at least in part, with the full period of the “seven times” of disfavor heretofore mentioned.
Plainly, therefore, this “double” of disfavor has reference to some additional national punishment that was to come upon the Jews as a people at some time subsequent to the Babylonian captivity. But what could it signify? What chastisement ever carne upon Jewry greater than that suffered in 606 B.C. when her children were taken captive to Babylon, her kingdom overthrown, and her temple and capitol destroyed? Looking back through history, we now see that the Dispersion of A.D. 70-73 was far more terrible than the captivity of 606 B.C.
National calamities of this proportion, however, are not suddenly precipitated apart from causes which lead up thereto. Zechariah’s prophecy quoted above, in identifying the point in history when Israel’s double of chastisement would begin, explains that the one who would be instrumental in declaring it would be “lowly, and riding upon an ass.” This statement unquestionably refers to Jesus who, to the Christian world, was the greatest of all the Jewish prophets.
Unfortunately for Israel, yielding to the influence of their religious leaders at the time, the majority of them rejected Jesus. It was Jesus, however, who as a prophet to Israel, declared to them a few days before His death, “Your house is left unto you desolate.” This was in the year A.D. 33. During the next forty years the nation incurred the increasing animosity of the Romans, and finally Jerusalem was destroyed and the nation scattered. This Dispersion began in 70 A.D. but the last Jewish fortification did not surrender until the morning of the Passover, 73 A.D.
But why is this period of complete national annihilation of Jewry, from the time of the Dispersion until now, called a “‘double”? A double or duplication of what? Since this is seen to have been a period of total absence of national existence for Jewry, it evidently is called a “double” simply because it is a duplication in point of time, of the period during which Israel enjoyed a national existence. And how long did she exist as a nation? Her early beginning dates from the death of Jacob, at which time “the twelve tribes of Israel” came to be recognized as such, and dwelt together as “the house of Israel.”
According to Bible chronology, the death of Jacob occurred in 1813 B.C. On the basis of the prophecy in Zechariah, that part of Israel’s “double” during which God blessed His chosen people must be reckoned from the founding of the nation at the death of Jacob. As already noted, the turning point in the double, when desolation was pronounced by Jesus, was in A.D. 33. The length of the double’s first half, therefore, is 1845 years.
Counting 1845 years from A.D. 33 gives us the year 1878, the year of the Berlin Congress of Nations, when the conditions of the Jews in Palestine were greatly improved over what they were under Turkish misrule. True, this small beginning of God’s returning favor was not particularly impressive, and few of either Jews or Gentiles recognized in it the fulfillment of prophecy. On the other hand, how many realized even to a slight extent the significance of Jesus’ words marking the beginning of disfavor when He said, “Your house is left unto you desolate”? Obviously, both the beginning of disfavor and the return of favor were unnoticed by a faithless world.
By adding the 1845 years of this double to the 68 1/2 years, or the Fall of A.D. 69 when Titus besieged Jerusalem, we get the figure 1913 1/2 years which, in Jewish reckoning, would be the Fall of the year 1914. Thus we have a remarkable corroboration of what we have already seen from the foregoing evidence, namely, that the year 1914 is pointed out in prophecy as a momentous one as it affects both Jews and Gentiles. It is since 1914, the beginning of worldwide trouble destructive of old-world Gentile powers, that there have been so many remarkable achievements in the rehabilitation of Palestine and the immigration of Jews to this land of their fathers. Shall we not, then, consider this to be additional strong evidence that God’s “set time” to deliver Israel is here?—Psalm 102:13
“Speak Ye Comfortably”
Because of the severe persecution through which the Jews have passed since 1914, and are still passing, some may doubt that God’s due time to favor them has actually come. Probably Jewish persecution under the Nazi regime has been as bitter, if not more so, than any experienced by them during the entire period of their Dispersion. In view of this, are we justified in concluding that now their sun is rising and that the morning of a new day is really near for them?
In Isaiah’s prophecy of the Jewish “double” is a commission to Christians to comfort God’s people of Israel, with the explanation that this message of comfort is due because they have received of the Lord’s hand double for all their iniquity. At first thought we might suppose that when the double period of punishment was complete the Jews would no longer be a suffering people. But if this be a correct conclusion, why should they then need a message of comfort?
The very fact that God asks us, as Christians, to comfort His people Israel following the completion of their “double” of punishment indicates unmistakably that He knew they would be greatly in need of such a message at that time. This proves that all trouble for the Jews would not be over simply because the prophetic time measure of their Dispersion has run its full length. What then is the explanation of their present hardship?
A careful scrutiny of the prophecies pertaining to Israel’s restoration discloses a truth often overlooked even by those most interested in this subject, namely, with the return of their long captivity among the nations the Israelites would experience additional severe trouble. The prophecies indicate that this further trouble is not properly a part of their punishment under the “double” of chastisement, nor is it to be viewed as a part of their treading down under Gentile domination.
It is rather a trouble that is permitted to afflict them following the conclusion of the Gentile lease of power, and following their “double,” and is intended to root them out of their domiciles in Gentile countries, make them realize their need of God and implant in them the desire to return ‘to the land which He gave to their fathers. Also, this final trouble upon a much persecuted people will result, the Scriptures show, in opening their eyes to a recognition of their Messiah, when they will gladly acknowledge Him and obey the laws of His Kingdom. From the prophecy of Jeremiah we read:
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them.”—Jeremiah 16:14-16
Here the restoration of Israel in this end of the age is likened to their Exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. It is important to remember that while God’s due time had come for the deliverance of His people from the oppressive hand of Pharoah, and Moses had been sent to Egypt for that very purpose, yet their hardships were at first increased rather than diminished. They shared some of the plagues which came upon the Egyptians; and besides, the Egyptians, by Pharoah’s command, increased their burdens because Moses had asked that they be allowed to leave the country. There is a parallel to this now, when again God’s time to favor His people has arrived. They are sharing in the great time of trouble upon the world and special persecution is upon them besides.
And notice the method by which the Lord said He would cause them to return to their own land—“fishers” and “hunters” were to be used. The fishing method is that of using bait—inducements. The Zionist movement, organized in 1897, has undoubtedly been employed by the Lord as one of the outstanding fishermen to induce His people to return to their own land. This organization has continuously and energetically pointed out the advantages for rehabilitating Palestine and establishing it as a Jewish homeland. The Zionists of the world are continuing to do this, even though there is now strong governmental opposition to a further large-scale return to the Holy Land.
But the fishing method has not and will not accomplish all that God had in mind concerning the number of Jews who should go to Palestine, so a more forceful method is used—that of “hunters.” This is a relentless, driving method, and would correspond well with the bitter persecution that has come upon the Jews throughout Europe since the close of the “seven times” of Gentile supremacy. This driving method has steadily increased in severity until now there are millions of Jews longingly looking toward the Land of Promise; more, probably, than at any time in their whole history.
The fact that temporarily it is difficult for many of them to have their longings immediately translated into reality does not mean that God is not still preparing them for the great event. The deferment of this desired move will but increase the determination to make it, so that when the Lord again opens the door we may expect a migration of Jews to Palestine surpassing anything we can now anticipate.
Buying Fields for Money
It has been argued by some that the rehabilitation of Palestine and the settlement there of more than a half million Jews since 1914 does not in any sense relate to God’s promise to give the land back to them, for the reason that every foot of the Promised Land thus far acquired by Jews has been purchased, rather than given to them. However, this objection is not a Scriptural one, for the prophecies show that to begin with the Jews would purchase the land. Through the Prophet Jeremiah, the Lord promised:
“Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in Mine anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. … And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, it is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the Lord.”—Jer. 32:37,43,44
In view of the details so clearly stated in this prophecy it was to be expected that the recovery of the Jewish homeland by its rightful owners would occur while the governmental authority of the old world was still recognized and when commercial transactions were still in vogue. Obviously, then, the giving of the land to the Jews in this initial stage of God’s returning favor to them was to be merely in the sense of so overruling in world affairs as to make it possible for them to purchase sections of it.
May we not also reasonably conclude from this that for a time commercial and economic interests would play a major role in the rehabilitation of Palestine? Faith in the predictions of Israel’s ancient prophets has influenced some Jews in their enthusiasm for the Zionist cause, but the practical and the economic advantages of such an undertaking have been greatly stressed, and these advantages have constituted a strong attraction to the pioneers of the back-to-Palestine movement.
During the period of the present generation we have witnessed the gradual rise of Zionism—from a visionary theory in the mind of Theodor Herzl and his co-workers, to the practical establishment of a Jewish National Home through the co-operation of Jews the world over. About in the middle of this period of rise, came the wresting of Palestine from the Turk, the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate, since which time the actual rebuilding of the Homeland has begun.
The World War of 1914-18 had left Palestine economically in very desperate straits. The Turkish armies had plundered and devastated the towns and rural districts as well. But this was nothing new; for throughout long centuries of political and religious strife her agricultural resources had been ravished by contending Turks and Arabs, and her forests also ruthlessly destroyed.
Little or no effort had ever been made to maintain soil productivity or prevent soil erosion; and nothing had been done towards irrigation, outside the crude hand-made efforts of a few individual Arabs. Impoverished and depopulated by almost two millennia of misrule and inadequate cultivation, the Holy Land’s original natural endowments had become nearly non-existent.
The World War completed the wreck, so that 1918 found Palestine almost destitute of plant and animal life with 50 per cent of her land written off as barren. The census taken in 1920 revealed only 80,000 head of cattle, 4,000 mules, and a few camels in the whole country. It was a common sight to see a man or a woman, instead of an animal hitched to a plow. In 1922 the Director of Agriculture of Palestine reported the total of exploitable land surface to be not exceeding 7,000 square miles.
Then the “hunters” of Jeremiah 16:16 appeared, and drove numerous Jews from Russia, Poland, Roumania and Germany, back to their homeland. These Jewish refugees started reclaiming the arid land, so that by 1930 the Commissioner of Lands gave in his report for Palestine 612,000 acres of farm land; 375,000 hill acres; and in the Beersheba area 1,025,500 acres. There is in Palestine a total of 5,500,000 acres of land considered as cultivable.
Within a few short years the Jew has drained and brought to a high state of cultivation 211,800 acres of swamps in Samaria. These malaria-infested miles of “no man’s land,” whose pools were the breeding beds of death-dealing insects and disease, have become a garden, irrigated and planted in fruits. So successful has this effort been that in. 1938, 13,000,000 cases of fruit were exported, about two-thirds of which went to Great Britain.
A land previously without an inhabitant and called “cursed” by many people is now laden with the perfume of orange and lemon trees. These cesspools of the coast have changed into an Eden of citrus bearing trees whose blossoms make a panorama of delight, and whose fruits have brought new hope to a long-exiled and seemingly forgotten people.
The Larger Palestine
Palestine, within its present confined limits, would not of course be capable of receiving anywhere near the entire Jewish population of the world. Nor is it expected that every Jew will return there. While God has promised to “assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth,” yet the prophet explains that those to be returned to Palestine will be but a “remnant of His people.”—Isaiah 11:11,12
At the same time we should also remember that Palestine as it stands today is not the entire Land of Promise as God originally outlined its boundaries. Genesis 15:18 reads: “The Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” By consulting a map one can readily see that the territory here outlined is much greater than the narrow strip of land now known as Palestine.
It is estimated that the land here outlined covers an area of 300,000 square miles, or 192,000,000 acres. This is twenty-seven times more land than is encompassed by the borders of what is now called Palestine. The Jews have never at any time in their history been in possession of more than a very small fraction of their inheritance as described in the original promise made to Abraham. These boundaries make the Promised Land larger than France, where live 40,000,000 people.
And only a part even of the present Palestine is now being used by the Jews, yet official neutral surveys indicate that this is capable of supporting many times the number now living on it. There need be no question, therefore, concerning the matter of living room as related to the fulfillment of God’s promises to restore Israel to their own land. It would be strange indeed if God, in making promises of this kind, should overlook a need so important.
Besides, God has promised that the “desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” (Isa. 35:1,2) During the preliminary rehabilitation of Palestine this is being accomplished to a notable extent by means of irrigation. In addition to this, however, the climatic conditions of the country are reported as improving. It is said that in 1927 the ancient Pools of Solomon, dry for centuries, began to overflow. At that time the High Commissioner of Palestine was asked to declare a day of public thanksgiving to God for this seeming miracle.
In the Bible times there were two copious rainy seasons each year in Palestine. They were designated as the “early and the latter rain.” But for the past many centuries the “early rains” have been scant; while the “latter rains” and the dews have disappeared completely. Now these have returned to gladden the land as well as the hearts of God’s people returning there, with the result that some parts of Palestine now yield two or three crops a year.
God’s plan for Palestine, and for the whole earth, is that it shall be made a paradise. The ancient Garden of Eden was His model of what He intends this whole planet to be in His own due time. It is reasonable to expect, therefore, that climatic conditions in Palestine will continue to improve, which, in turn, will greatly increase the productivity of the soil, thus making possible a vast increase in population. We emphasize this point because it is our conviction that both Jews and Christians will fail to discern the real significance of what has occurred in Palestine since 1914 if they view it merely as a brilliant achievement of human ingenuity and material wealth.
Yet the present economic incentive for what is being done and the remarkable progress made because so many Jews have been interested in Zionism, almost wholly from this standpoint, should not be overlooked. It is a phase—the initial phase—in a divine project which will eventuate in all Israel returning wholeheartedly to God and recognizing their Messiah and Redeemer. The prophecies indicate that this phase of the project will continue with even greater success, while the Jewish people will continue to be largely oblivious to what is really being accomplished on their behalf by their God. Note the following prophecy:
“In the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.”—Ezek. 38:8
In the chapter from which this passage is quoted is a forecast telling of a mighty horde of vandals coming down against Israel from the north at a time when the people would be dwelling safely in the land. It is explained that the people of Israel then in the land are those gathered from among the nations and that they had accumulated “cattle and goods,” that is, had become prosperous, so much so that they become a temptation to aggressors from the north.
Verse 8, quoted above, seems to indicate that this final assault against God’s people would be subsequent to their being delivered from the sword. May this not be God’s explanation of events as they have developed out of the global war? In the first place Palestine has been in almost constant danger of being engulfed in the struggle; but even more significant, the so-called fortunes of war have been responsible for the unfriendly attitude of those upon whom the Jews have most depended to guarantee their status in the Holy Land. But from all this they are to be delivered—“brought back from the sword”—and have a further golden opportunity of developing the land. During that favorable period doubtless additional large numbers of them will go there to live, thus increasing the wealth of the country.
But still the majority of the Israelites will be in unbelief. We know this because the Lord explains that the eyes of their understanding will be opened as a result of what He will do to deliver them from the mighty army that will then attack them “to take a spoil.” God promises that then He will plead for Israel against this mighty enemy—“with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.”—Ezek. 38:22
Verses 1-6 of the following chapter of Ezekiel reveal that the Lord’s pleading against these enemies of Israel will result in their complete defeat. The result of this divine intervention on their behalf is stated in verse 7 which reads: “So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more: and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.” Verse 23 of chapter 38 reads, “And I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.”
There is no mistaking the meaning of this prophecy. It shows that even though large numbers of Israelites have been restored to Palestine in fulfillment of God’s promises, and are prosperously dwelling there in supposed safety, yet they are still largely in unbelief so far as God’s plan for them is concerned. Not until they are attacked by that mighty horde of aggressors from the north, and the Lord miraculously intervenes on their behalf and delivers them, destroying the enemy, will God’s holy name be known in the midst of the people. Not until then will the iron rule of Messiah’s Kingdom prevent them from further polluting that name.
Then, also, when the eyes of Israel are opened to recognize the majesty and authority of the Lord, the eyes of “many nations” will likewise have the scales of blindness and unbelief removed. Thus will be marked a dramatic turning point in the affairs of all nations. Prior to this, both Jews and Gentiles will continue to suppose that they can work out their destinies as they please, with the most powerful and the best diplomats always getting the lion’s share of earth’s bounties. But then they will know that there is a God in heaven who has said, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no further.”
But let no one suppose that in this final assault upon Israel the Lord’s deliverance will come soon enough to spare them from all suffering. Zechariah 14:2,3 mentions the same event and explains that “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.” Before He does this, however, as the preceding verse indicates, “the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity.”
Here is an outline of severe trouble and apparent defeat for Israel which will doubtless leave them in a state of utter desperation. They will be ready to acknowledge the hand of God in their affairs, when by power divine they are delivered from this otherwise hopeless catastrophe. Taking into consideration the traditional perverseness of the Israelites, described in the Scriptures as a stiff-necked disposition, we can readily understand why the Lord finds it necessary to resort to such drastic measures in order to humble His people and thus prepare them for the blessings that are due to reach them through Messiah’s Kingdom.—Deut. 9:6; Jer. 17:23
Saved from Jacob’s Trouble
Jeremiah 30:7 designates this final assault upon Israel as “Jacob’s trouble,” and explains that the Israelites shall be saved out of it. Yes, the time for Israel’s salvation will then be here—not merely a salvation from economic insecurity, not salvation merely from the hands of their oppressors, not merely the recovery of the Promised Land, but salvation from their blindness pertaining to God’s plan, and salvation from sin and death.
The testimony of all the prophecies combine to assure us that the deliverance of Israel in “Jacob’s trouble,” will mark the beginning of divine control in the affairs of all nations—the manifestation in power and great glory of Messiah’s Kingdom. From then on the divine program of miracles as Israel knew it in ancient times, but greatly augmented, will be resumed. Commercial interests and power politics will no longer dictate what shall be done nor limit what the Lord proposes to do. While Jew and Gentile alike will have the opportunity of co-operating in the divine program, their failure to do so will in no wise interfere with its success.
Hinting at one of the miracles that will then be instrumental in opening the eyes of Israel to the glory of God, the prophet says, “They shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.” (Jeremiah 30:9) From where will the Lord then raise up David? From the grave, most assuredly, for David was dead all that time! And not only David but all the prophets, as other Scriptures show, for these are then to be made “princes in all the earth.”—Psa. 45:16
Here is an important consideration. While the Scriptures show that without doubt the Israelites restored in Palestine will be among the very first to receive the blessings of Messiah’s Kingdom, they are not to be the official rulers in that Kingdom. The earthly phase of the Kingdom will be Jewish, not made up of modern Jews but of the resurrected worthy Jews who lived and died prior to their Dispersion. These will be mostly the ancient Jewish prophets, including Abraham, Moses, David, and others, who proved their love for God and his law of righteousness, because of which, the Lord can trust and will use to administer the earthly affairs of Messiah’s Kingdom.