The restoration of Israël

Many prophecies from the Bible are being fulfilled in our days. In fact, there has been no time in history in which so many prophecies have been fulfilled or are about to be fulfilled. The only exception was during the days our Lord Jesus was on earth. With a wonderful accuracy the LORD God confirms His Word.

In the Bible He tells us ahead what He will do and He does exactly what HE has said. The word of prophecy warns the entire world that the LORD God has the whole world in His hands and that history is His story! The LORD reigns! The fulfilment of Biblical prophecy is one of the most striking evidences of the fact that the Bible is the Word of God. We should pay close attention to these signs of His power and to His works for the Bible says:

So, if we want to be built up, we have to pay attention to what the LORD is doing in our days. Most of the fulfilment of prophecy concerns the restoration of His chosen people of Israël. The total destruction of the land of Israël from the year 135 AD untill about 1900 AD is predicted in the Word of God.. But we also notice the prophecies about the restoration of the land. The fact that the Jewish people have been scattered among almost all the nations of the world we can find back in the Bible. But the return of the Jewish people to the Promised Land is in the Bible as well. Even up till the smallest details! The coming spiritual restoration of Israël and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem...we will see it with our own eyes and we can find it back in the Bible. In fact we are now in a kind of transit period between the Time of Restoration of Israël and the Endtime. In the next three or four chapters we will deal in details with these prophecies about the Restoration of Israël.

Important for our countries

Before we present all these prophecies to you, we will emphasize the paramount importance of this subject for our countries. We all hope and pray for the blessings of the LORD. We need the blessing Hands of the LORD in our lives. We need His blessings over our countries. Jesus is Gods blessing Hand! He is the touching stone of Gods grace, of His forgiveness, of His healing and all other blessings. This is for us, individual human beings, who believe in Him. But there is a second, different touching stone set for the nations.

Israël is Gods touching stone for blessing or curse for the nations.

This spiritual truth is very important for our country. This is a historical law. Let us see what the Bible says:

This word of God to Abraham is transfered via Isaac and Jacob the the nation of Israël. Isaac finishes his blessing to his son Jacob with the words:

That this Biblical law is transfered to the nation of Israël we learn from the gentile prophet of Balaam. He was invited by the Amorite king Balak to curse Israël. But the LORD Almighty forced him to bless Israël and so to enforce the promise to Abraham:

This divine law has proven to be true and very effective during a period of 3.500 years already. It has been applied to Egypt during the exodus of Israël about 3.500 years ago. And to England in 1956. And at this moment to the USA. It affected the Amalakites 3.500 years ago and the Germans about 60 years ago. It will appear to be true in a very tragic and dramatic way to all nations in which antisemitism is increasing.

Biblical evidence

We will illustrate this Biblical law with just a few examples from the Bible:

• Farao of Egypt refused to let the people of Israël go. The empire Egypt collapsed under the ten plagues and under invaders, who conquered Egypt!
• There was a nomadic tribe, called the Kenites. Their priest was called Jethro, the father in law of Moses. They were a great blessing to Israël and the LORD blessed the Kenites untill far generations (Read Exodus 18, Judges 1:16, 1 Samuel 15:6 and 1 Chronicles 2:55)
• Remember Rahab the prostitute in Jericho. She was a very courageous woman, for she took quite a risk when she hid the two Israëli spies. But she saved her life and the lives of her family because she blessed Israël (Read the story in Joshua 2 and 6:17-27).
• Let us turn to Assyria and Babylon. Those two empires were use by the LORD to punish Israël. The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of the Ten Tribes in 722 BCE and ‘carried Israël away out of their own land to Assyria’ (2 Kings 17:23). In 586 BCE the king of Babylon, Nebukadnezzar, conquered Judah, the kingdom of the Two Tribes. He burned the Temple in Jerusalem, killed many Jews and ‘them that had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon’ (2 Chronicles 36:17-20). But look what the LORD said about these two empires that ‘cursed’ the two Israël nations:
  
  ‘Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israël: Behold I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria and I will bring Israël again to his habitation’ (Jeremiah 50:18,19).

All the world empires that stood up against Israël disappeared and Israël still exists!

Evidence from history

Out of the many examples in the history of Europe we mention only three or four:

• As long as the Jews in Spain were treated well, Spain and Portugal were powerful and wealthy nations. These countries even developed a kind of a world empire in the 14th and 15th centuries. But as soon as the R.C. Church seized power they started to discriminate and persecute the Jews. In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain and in 1496 from Portugal. Immediately their world empire and their prosperity started to dwindle and disappeared
• Many of the Jews from Spain and Portugal went to Poland. They were receieved pretty well and Poland experienced a ‘Golden Age’. Science and culture were at a high level and the country had a time of peace and prosterity.
• Many of them took refuge to Turkey. The sultan of Turkey ( received them and remarked that the leaders of Spain were not too wise. They dispel the Jews and now we will be blessed. Indeed, the Turkish Ottoman Empire lasted from 1517 until 1917.
• Just a little about the town where I lived for many years: Amsterdam. This city received the expelled Jewish refugees with extraordinary hospitality. They got freedom of religion and immediately many Jews run from countries where they were discriminated and persecuted and rushed off to Amsterdam. This city became rich and strong and was called ‘The Jerusalem of the West’. The LORD blessed Amsterdam and Holland because we blessed the Jewish people.
• The most striking example is England. In 1290 the Jews were expelled from England. But in 1656 the English president Oliver Cromwell allowed them in again. Cromwell was a Protestant from a group called the Puritans. They were the first Christians who had a vision for the Biblical promises for Israël. So, the great Brittish empire started by then. Eventually, early the 1900’s, they promoted the immigration of the Jews to Palestine. In 1917 they issued the famous Balfour Declaration in which they promised the Jews a national Home in Palestine. But gradually England changed its attitude and took sides for the Arabs. In fact they betrayed the Jews and the world power was taken away from the U.K. In 1956 the Brittish Prime Minister sent a cable to the President of the U.S. saying: ‘Over to you’. Now the USA is the leading world power. How long? As long as they protect Israël. At the moment the USA drops Israël and we fear that the LORD will drop the USA.

Battles of the Endtime

From the Bible it is absolutely clear that the battles of the Endtime are directed against Israël. It is also clear that the LORD God will intervene on behalf of his people. Pray that your country will not be involved in a war against Israël. Later we will deal with these endtime wars more in depth. Now we only mention:

1. The battle for Jerusalem as described in Zechariah 12 and 14. Even now there is a big struggle for Jerusalem between the three major religions!
2. The war of Gog against Israël you will find in Ezechiel 38 and 39.
3. The war of Arabian-Muslim countries against Israël, predicted in Psalm 83.
4. The destruction of Damascus in Jeremiah 49:23-27.
5. Armageddon in the book of Revelation 16:16 and 19:11-21. But first, in the next chapters we intend to give Biblical evidence of the fact that at this moment we live in the Time of Restoration of Israël.

But first, in the next chapters we intend to give Biblical evidence of the fact that at this moment we live in the Time of Restoration of Israël.