We could begin the story of Israel on May 14, 1948 when Israel became a nation again, but that would be leaving out their historical past and limit our understanding of the significance of their future and how it relates to the past. Consequently, let’s attempt to tell the whole story by looking at their future first and see how it ties into the most ancient past. The bible describes a great future for a remnant of Jews that make it through the tribulation period and finally recognize that Jesus is their Messiah and will be saved before moving into the 1000 year Millennial Kingdom. Zechariah 12:10 states:

And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

Romans 11:25-26 states:

²⁵ For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own ^a]”>[a]opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And so all Israel will be ^b]”>[b]saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

Zechariah 8:23 states:

²³ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the ^a]”>[a]sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” 

The fact that in the future Millennial Kingdom men from all countries will want to walk alongside Jews to feel closer to God parallels the situation back in the Garden of Eden when Adam walked with God. One commentary also implies that perhaps all those nations will all be speaking one language, Hebrew, just like in the Garden of Eden and until the time of Babel.

The entire theme of the bible is a battle between God and Satan (Lucifer) the anti-God who tries thwart all of God’s plans. He only has limited success and ultimate failure. I believe that God has allowed that battle to rage for His ultimate glory. The history of that battle will show the dire consequences and the futility of rebelling against God and His truth, justice and wisdom.

Historically, Israel and the Jews were and are a big part of God’s plan to save humanity; the part that was willing to be saved. A large part of Christendom today believes that God is through with the Jews. That doctrine is called Replacement Theology and is false. They believe that the church has replaced Israel and the Jews. Now that we know the future of the Jews, let’s go back to the entire spiritual battle and see how Israel and the Jews fit into that battle.

The bible teaches that the angelic realm actually rebelled against God prior to Man’s disobedience and rebellion. The fall of the angelic realm is in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14.

The fall of the human race and the consequences are described in Genesis 3.

The first murder was Cain killing his brother Abel.

The whole human race became corrupted by both self-corruption and by fallen angelic beings that modified the human DNA. This story is told as well as God committing to destroy mankind and basically all he had created except for Noah and his family as well as animals to repopulate the earth. That story and the story of the worldwide flood is told in Genesis 6-8.

After the flood the population exploded rapidly and the human race became corrupted very quickly.

Genesis 11 tells the story of Nimrod, the Tower of Babel and how they were trying to form a one world government without God. God confused their languages so they were divided into family groups who were unable to understand those outside their family group. Consequently, they were effectively forced to spread out around the known world and form nation states. The story of the formation of nation states is in Genesis 10 & 11.

Chapter 11 describes that about 10 generations later the story of Abram or Abraham began. Chapter 12:1-3 describes God’s covenant with Abram and His promise to the Jews and the Nation of Israel and ultimately to Jesus. God wanted to identify a people that would represent Him and use them to bring Christ into the world. These people would separate themselves from the dominant Pagan world of that day.

Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you. ² I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This was an unconditional covenant. Perhaps you are familiar with the story of how Abram’s grandson, Jacob, became the father of the Jews and how God changed his name to Israel. The fact that the Jews were an integral part of God’s plan to redeem mankind and bring about Satan’s demise put a big target on their back throughout history right through to the present time. Some of these attacks are as follows:

• God destined Isaac’s half-brother Ishmael to “be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; . . This prophesies that the Arabs will be against Israel.
• Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. This could have prevented Joseph from saving his family from the famine, but God used it for good.
• After being blessed in Egypt, a new king came to power that didn’t recognize that Joseph saved Egypt from starvation and he turned the Israelites into slaves.
• Even though the Israelites had to carry heavy burdens, they were strong and their population grew. The Pharaoh was concerned that they would overthrow the Egyptians due to their large numbers. Consequently, the King of Egypt asked the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male babies. Although they refused to do it, it was Satan’s plan to do away with the Jews.
• The same king then commanded his people to kill all male babies. Exodus 2 tells the story of how the baby Moses miraculously escapes death when Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses in a basket in the bulrushes and takes compassion upon him.
• Again, Satan tried to kill Israel’s deliver, but God won again.
• Moses’ life was in jeopardy again after he killed an Egyptian and had to flee to Midian for 40 years.
• Later, after God had Moses deliver the 10 plagues on Egypt, Pharaoh freed them to go, but later followed them to attack and kill them. Satan had them trapped at the Red Sea. God miraculously parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could proceed through on dry land to escape. Satan was thwarted once again.
• The Philistines and Goliath tried to enslave Israel, but God raised up David to kill the giant and save Israel. God saved Israel from Satan again.
• Queen Ester saved the Jews from destruction when she risked her life to tell king Xerxes of a devious plot by Haman to destroy the Jews. Again, God saved the Jews
• In 198 BC the Syrian section of the empire overthrew the Egyptian section. For the first time, Israel came under the rule of a leader who tried to stamp out Judaism completely. Judas Maccabeus eventually overcame the Syrians and achieved independence for Israel. God saved Israel again.
• When Jesus was born, the Wise Men followed the star to Jerusalem to find Jesus. King Herod asked them to let him know where they found him so he could also worship him. The angel told the wise men not to go back to Herod and told Joseph to escape to Egypt with the young child. When Herod saw that he was mocked, he ordered that all the children two years and younger be killed. God again foiled Satan’s plans to kill the savior.
• Satan thought he had succeeded when Jesus was crucified. God used that evil to accomplish His greatest triumph to save humanity.
• The church was birthed about 50 days later. Both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians suffered severe persecution. However, the main thrust to slaughter the Jews was in AD 70 where Titus destroyed the temple and killed and scattered the Jews.
• In modern times Hitler tried to exterminate the Jews. God saved a remnant.

That brings us up to our current times when the greatest miracle took place.  Israel became a nation again with the same name of Israel on May 14, 1948. At that time Satan didn’t waste any time attacking them again and again.

• The 1948 Israeli War of Independence started the very next day after Israel became a nation again. It was a miracle that they survived the attack of five countries. They lost about one percent of their population, but got better prepared for the next war.
• The 1956 Suez War was initiated by Israel when Egypt blocked the Suez Canal to Israeli ships and pronouncements by Nasser calling for Israel’s death. Again God was with Israel.
• In the 1967 Six Days war Israel was attacked by five enemies including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Again, it was miracle they survived let alone winning much additional land.
• Israel was attacked on Yom Kippur, the Holiest Day of the year, in 1973 by Egypt and Syria. Israel barely survived complete defeat. God saved them.
• The 1982 Lebanon war resulted when Lebanon launched many missiles from southern Lebanon forcing Israel to launch a military invasion of southern Lebanon. Evil had challenged Israel again.

That brings us up to the current time. Until President Trump’s support for Israel since 2016, Israel has had virtually no supporters among the nations. The UN is antagonistic towards them. They have given away land for the hope of peace to no avail. The land that they have given away has been used to rain rockets down upon them. The hatred is a supernatural hatred similar to what Christ encountered. The world has bought into the lies that accuse them of being illegitimate occupiers of the land. A quote from Israel and Technology website stated the following:

It was only after the Jews re-inhabited their historic homeland of Judea and Samaria, that the myth of a Palestinian nation was created and marketed worldwide. Jews come from Judea, not Palestinians. There is no language known as Palestinian, or any Palestinian culture distinct from that of all the Arabs in the area. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs indistinguishable from Arabs throughout the Middle East. The great majority of Arabs in greater Palestine and Israel share the same culture, language and religion.

Another quote from Charles Krauthammer discussed the uniqueness of the State of Israel:

Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store.

To close out this page it is appropriate to quote an article by my previous Sunday School teacher, Bob Barlow about Israel:

There is an informative DVD available today entitled, Israel Inside, from which many of the facts of this article were derived and quoted.  Israel and the Jewish people are in the news practically every day.  When most people think of Israel, they think of war or religion.  However, when one looks at Israel inside, a different picture appears – one of triumph of the human spirit.  By the testimony of Israel’s own citizens, they have a purpose: “To find ways of helping other people and nations.” That feeling of responsibility for the world directly contributes to Israel’s accomplishments in the economic, technological and humanitarian arenas.

Education is one of the top priorities in Israel, and every Jewish child learns to read.  Israelis are taught to think critically, outside the box.  They are not afraid to fail, but use failures as stepping stones, not stumbling blocks.  They are taught to take ideas and turn them into action.  Israel sees part of their purpose to exist as helping other people.  At a recent conference in Tel Aviv, this question was posed to all attendees: “What are you going to do to make the world a better place by the year 2020?”

Despite daily challenges ranging from limited resources to security needs, Israeli creativity and inventiveness help make the world a better place. Israel has made significant advancements in the fields of science, environment, medicine and technology, and has willingly and generously shared these developments with the rest of the world.

Family life is strong in Israel.  Israeli families worship together, but they do not force their religious beliefs on any other people of the world.  They respect the right of all peoples to worship as they please, and do nothing to hinder the practice of same.  The Jewish people think of themselves as a united family. They are confident, thinking, caring for each other, and are resilient against adversity.  They build very strong teams that are problem solvers, finding ways to turn adversity into advantage.  They invent things.  They tackle challenges that others say, “It can’t be done.”

The nations of the world are being kept in the dark concerning the benefit of this tiny nation in the Middle East.  A few of the inventions and contributions of this nation, which are continually being shared with the rest of the world, include the following:

InSightec: Israeli technology has developed a non-invasive surgery that allows treating human beings without cutting the body.  This technology allows the treatment of tumors within almost any part of the human body, as well as treating central nervous system diseases like Parkinson’s and essential tremor.

ReWalk:  An Israeli quadriplegic developed this wearable, robotic exoskeleton that provides powered hip and knee motion to enable individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (paraplegics) to stand upright and walk.  For the first time, paralyzed people can walk!

Save A Child’s Heart: Since its beginning in 1995, this Israeli organization has saved the lives of over 2500 infant children from 30 countries, more than half of which have been Palestinian children from Gaza and the West Bank.  Open heart surgery is performed, at no charge, on infants born with congenital heart conditions.

Netafim: This Israeli company has developed the drip irrigation system which has turned a desert wilderness into a productive farmland.  Today Israel is the leading exporter of fruit and vegetables in the world, and they are teaching this irrigation process to the third world, developing countries.

Desalinization: Israel is considered a pioneer in the area of water desalinization, converting salt sea water from the Mediterranean into fresh tap water.  In addition, Israel now supplies fresh water to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Technology R&D:  Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and Google, have built research and development centers in Israel. Intel Israel remains the cutting edge leader in microprocessor technology development.

Kinect: A line of motion sensing input devices developed in Israel and purchased by Microsoft for Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles and Windows PCs. This became the fastest-selling gaming device in history.

Time to Know: Redefining the way schools teach, Time To Know provides each student with a computer which uses adaptive lesson plans on each topic of the teacher’s choosing. This enables each student to work at his or her own pace within the same classroom. The computers inform the teacher if a student is struggling, enabling the teacher to provide one-on-one support to individual students without interrupting the continuity of the curriculum for everyone else.

There is a phrase in Israel that is kept before the Jewish people: “Make the world a better place.” (Tikkam Olam)

Israel chooses life. Israel simply wants to exist to make the world a better place. Israel is sharing their inventions and discoveries with other nations for the betterment of those citizens.  Israel does not want the destruction or annihilation of any people or nation on this earth. Israel does not want to conquer, take over, suppress, or force into submission any nation or people on this earth.

Why, then, do the nations of the world hate Israel?  Ask yourself that question.  Don’t pass it off as irrelevant.  Has Israel been a benefit to the other countries of the world?  Awarding of Nobel Prizes began in 1895 and have since included the areas of physics, chemistry, medicine, economics, literature and peace. Of all the individual awards given since the inception of the Nobel Prize organization, 194 of all the Nobel Prize recipients have been Jews, and they have been recipients in all six award areas. That is 23% of all the Nobel awards ever awarded. As of 2014, eleven Muslims had received Nobel awards, seven of which were for “peace.”

Yet, today, Israel is the only nation that has been targeted for removal from the map of the world. Only an illiterate, ignorant, uneducated person, or a people who are kept in the dark by being told lies about Israel, never allowing them to see their tremendous benefits to their very own nations, would join the voice of “Death to Israel.” Those who join that voice will show themselves to be fools, for the God of Israel has stated repeatedly that Israel will be His people forever and ever.  And, they are still here, just as God said.