Israel: a sign of the times
This Sunday at Harvest, I will be speaking about the events of the last days I will share with you reasons why I believe Jesus could come back at any moment.
As I pointed out in my last post, a key to understanding Bible prophecy is to see the role of the nation Israel.
God promised that she would be established in the land in the first place, scattered, and then regathered. And when the Jewish people returned to their homeland of Israel, that would be a “sign of the times,” telling us that Jesus is returning.
In his book Israel Under Fire, John Ankerberg points out that this was all predicted in Ezekiel 37:21-22:
- He “will take the sons of Israel from among the nations. whererever they have gone.”
- He “will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land.”
- He “will make them one nation in the land.”
So has this happened?
1. God promised that, in the last days, He would gather the Jewish people from all over the world, from the different nations where they had been scattered.
Check.
2. God promised the Jewish people that He would gather them to a specific place: the land of Israel.
Check.
3. God promised the Jewish people that not only would He gather them to Israel, but He would make them into a nation once they arrived in the land.
Check.
4. God promised the Jewish people He would give them back the city of Jerusalem.
Check.
A modern-day miracle
All this, of course, became a reality on May 14, 1948.
This was against all odds. After losing six million Jews to the Nazis in World War II, the Jewish people returned to their homeland.
Today, the modern state of Israel stands as a monument to fulfilled biblical prophecy. As Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, stated, “If you know the story of Israel and what happened here, and you do not believe in miracles, you are not realistic. Something is wrong with you.”‘
I’ll have much more on this tonight and next Sunday at Harvest in Riverside.
