Editorial - Comment

by Joseph Hunting

Many who are alive today have been privileged to witness the amazing rebirth of Israel on the soil which God promised to Abraham 3,500 years ago. When one reflects on the preceding nineteen centuries during which Abraham's descendants were scattered "like chaff before a whirlwind" , plus Hitler's "final solution" that planned the total extinction of the Jewish race and accounted for 6,000,000 during the Holocaust, the rebirth of the nation of Israel on May 14th 1948 was a miracle of unparalleled proportions vividly foretold by Ezekiel in chapters 36 and 37.

As I read these chapters and reflected on the events of the past half century it was like a ball by ball description of what has been taking place. If there are any lingering doubts about the miracle of Ezekiel's prophecy being fulfilled, hear this: "But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people of Israel, for they are about to come. For indeed, I am for you, and you shall be tilled and sown.

"I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young; and I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings ...

"Thus says the Lord God, I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went … FOR I WILL TAKE YOU FROM AMONG THE NATIONS, GATHER YOU OUT OF ALL COUNTRIES, AND BRING YOU INTO YOUR OWN LAND" (Ezekiel 36:8-11; 22 and 24).

A further event which I regard as a miracle was the liberation of Jerusalem by the IDF after 2,500 years of Gentile domination. Again, this was graphically foretold by Yeshua and came to pass in 1967. "For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. AND JERUSALEM WILL BE TRAMPLED BY THE GENTILES UNTIL THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES ARE FULFILLED" (Luke 21:23-24).

History records how truly His words were fulfilled to the letter. In 70 AD there was great distress in the land, they did fall by the edge of the sword and the long dispersion began when they were led away captive into all nations. Then on June 7th 1967 the miracle of Jerusalem's liberation took place. Was this event the milestone in Jerusalem's long and chequered history that marks the beginning of the end of Gentile world domination? If so the return of Israel's Messiah as Lord of lords and King of kings is the light at the end of a long and dark tunnel.

Meanwhile one of the greatest miracles of our time is unfolding in Israel as this little country absorbs tens of thousands of Russian Jews that are arriving in a steady flow month after month. Over two and a half thousand years ago God spoke through Isaiah saying, "I will say to the north, Give up" , and now they are coming. Nothing like this has happened in Israel's short history. It has already eclipsed the gigantic wave of immigrants who poured back to their ancient new-born homeland between 1948 and 1952 when the population doubled in only four years. Whereas it took forty years for Israel to journey from Egypt to Israel 3,500 years ago, it now takes less than eight hours for these newcomers to reach the Promised Land.