Israel --Part III

In part one I wrote about the Miracle of Israel’s foundation beginning with the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah who were at the advanced age of 100 and 90. Moving forward in the history of Israel and the Miracle that kept the nation alive we had Joseph who because of the jealousy of his brothers was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt there he gained the attention of the King and became the second most powerful person in the country. When the famine spread across the land where the children of Israel were living the same brothers who had sold Joseph into slavery traveled to Egypt and were welcomed by their brother thus saving a remnant of Israel. There are many more miracles, or what one could consider miracles which occurred during the history of Israel. After the destruction of Jerusalem during the Roman Empire period the nation was scattered across the world. In 1948 the Restoration of Israel began, a miracle within itself and with this I begin the final part of the Miracle of Israel.

THE MIRACLE OF HER RESTORATION

May 14-15, 1948 - Israel became a recognized nation.

In Amos 9: 14 find these words of promise and the picture of what has occurred. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

THE MIRACLE OF HER PRESERVATION - Psalm 89

God’s promise to David: 28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. 29 His seed also will I make [to endure] for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. 30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; 31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; {break: Heb. profane} 32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. 33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. {will...: Heb. I will not make void from him} {to fall: Heb. to lie} 34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. {that...: Heb. if I lie} 36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. 37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and [as] a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

-Israel may be DISPERSED, DESPISED, DISPOSSESSED - but they will never be DESTROYED!

Not only was the beginning a miracle, but the continuation and survival as well.

The Red Sea couldn’t drown them

The Nations and Dictators of this world have been unable to DECIMATE Israel and to destroy her people and failed.

Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Nero, the Turks, Hitler, the Russians, the Arabs and some from this country as well. It would seem as if the current administration has this goal in mind as well but as the others they will fail as well.

It is an amazing thing that when others leave their lands, they get absorbed in the land they go to and lose their distinctiveness, but not so with the Jewish people

Israel and the people of Israel are much like this. West Palm Beach Florida just 3 miles off the coast is the Gulf Stream. It Flows northward through the Atlantic Ocean like a river - Sail there and you will see in the waters a razor sharp line separating this from the ocean itself with the colors changing from blue/green suddenly to deep indigo. It is warmer water, like a river, flowing in the ocean and doesn’t get mingled. Israel and its people are similar to the Gulf Stream which flows through the ocean and somehow does not get mingled. For eighteen centuries in the midst of deep persecution the laws, the culture and its stature has survived. That within itself is a miracle.

There is but one way to destroy Isreal and her people and we find the answer in Jeremiah 31: 35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, [and] the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts [is] his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, [then] the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.

In other words you would have to be able to control the power of the universe.

You can no more destroy Israel than you can stop the sun from moving through the heavens.

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

ISRAEL’S RESTORATION – MILITARY MIRACLE

This was and is still consider a military miracle by many.

In 1948 you had a nation established with only 650,000 people surrounded by seven ARAB states with 40 million people that hated them swearing that they would drive Israel into the seal and drench the soil with Jewish blood. Up until that time if a Jew was caught with a gun he was prosecuted. The people of Israel had no implements of war to speak of so they took old autos, buses and welded boiler plates to the sides in order to make a semblance of a tank. They took hoe handles, broomsticks and painted them to look like guns and in the front lines they would alternate guns with broomstick and fire off firecracker to make it appear that they had more guns than they actually had.

When the Arabs invaded Israel they went through groves were bee hives were located. When the hives were turned over during the attacks they began to sting the invading Arabs. The Arabs dropped their modern weapons and fled. The Israelis were able to go back into the groves after the bees had settled down and returned to the hives and pick up much needed weaponry.

When the Syrians and Iraqi’s came across the Jezreel Valley to invade Israel they came down with dysentery and they became so weak that they could not fight. Israel captured the sick soldiers in the valley without so much as a fight. It is said that at one point over 20, 000 Arabs were captured by only 400 Israelis.

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- JUNE of 1967 the Six Day War began and outnumbered 80 to 1 Israel was victorious.

One could also say that Israel is a SOCIOLOGICAL MIRACLE as well.

There were 650 ,000 people who came from sixty one different countries to settle there in Israel. It is difficult to imagine that many people from that many nations coming together to make one nation in such a short period of time. One Sociologist estimated that it would take three different generations to make this happen – over 100 years but that same man came back and visited and said: “What I said would take 3 generations to do, you have done in half a generation!”

Moshi Diane, a leader and hero of Israel said: “We don’t have a melting pot, we just have a pressure cooker!”

There has been a blending together of this people into a oneness that is unparalleled in the world. That indeed is miraculous.

Israel is also a LINGUISTIC MIRACLE.

In Israel the children taught and are teaching to the parents the mother tongue of Hebrew. At one time Hebrew , even tough taught in schools was fast becoming a dead language but it has been revived.

Israel could also be called an AGRICULTURAL MIRACLE

How so? If one would look upon this” Rocky Land” you would say nothing would grow there. Almost 60% of that land is considered Desert. There is sparse rainfall and that rain falls only in the winter months. The people have established an irrigation system and pumped in water to where there was no water and the desert has begun like a rose. When Israel was forced to give back part of the land which was being actively farmed and yielded an unusual high quanity of crops, once the Palestinians settled there the land once again turned to desert. It seems the Palestinians didn’t have the drive nor the will to do what the Israelis had done over the years and that is work to make the desert bloom.

There are only six nations in the world that produce enough food for themselves and Israel is one of them. They can grow strawberries and cotton like you have never seen.

The Valley of Jezreel was at one time a malaria filled swamp and fires had to be built to keep flies and other insects away. Today it is the bread basket of Israel and of course on of the areas of contention with the Palestinians. It is a beautiful fertile valley where three to four crops per year are harvested. With out this land Israel would not be able to sustain its self and of course the enemies of Israel know this.

The major problem in the world today is not Iran and it’s drive for nuclear capabilities or North Korea firing off its missiles to garner attention, it is Israel and Jerusalem. As we have read and heard the Arabs will not settle for Jerusalem being the capital of Israel nor do they even wish to share the city with Israel. They only wish for Israel to be gone. For these people and much of the world Israel has become “Burdensome” (In the Hebrew language it describes the idea of a heavy weight. ) The UN and even the current administration in this country appear to be intent upon Israel becoming non-existent but that is not going to happen. It appears that the majority of the world is turning against Israel. In Zechariah 12:3 we find these words: “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it”.

At that point many ask what will occur and indeed another miracle will occur. In verse 9 of the same chapter of Zechariah we find these words: “And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem”

Israel is indeed in so many ways a miracle as I have attempted to show in this series. I hope that it has been informative and that you have enjoyed this bit of history both from the secular and from a Biblical stand point.