What's Your Problem? - Feb 1982

by Joseph Hunting

Q. IS THE PRESENT STATE OF ISRAEL OF GOD OR OF MAN?

The answer to this important question is that it is a combination of both. To say that God has restored the dispersed of Israel to their ancient homeland without human agency would not be the case. Nor would it be right to ascribe the rebirth of Israel to man's effort alone.

There is a sense in which the present regathering of Israel to their land has matched that of their ancestors 3,500 years ago for grandeur and drama. But whereas under Moses they moved en masse from oppression in Egypt to the Promised Land via Sinai and the southern Negev over a period of forty years, in our time they have been a people dispersed among the nations as chaff scattered before a mighty wind and without a Moses or a Joshua to lead them back home from more than the one hundred countries of their dispersion.

THE REBIRTH OF ISRAEL FROM THE HUMAN VIEWPOINT

One thing both the modern founding fathers of Israel and their ancestors had in common was oppression and brutality that progressively became unbearable. Such was the case in Egypt until the Pesach Mizraim (Passover in Egypt) when God brought the Hebrews forth with mighty power. In our time pogroms and persecution became progressively worse until the Holocaust burst with all its fury upon European Jewry. Unlike the Exodus from Egypt there was no Moses to plead their cause or to lead them triumphantly to freedom.

In spite of Hitler, Himmler and Eichmann and the accumulated horrors of the Nazi regime, the survivors of the death camps ran the gauntlet of the British navy and hostile governments to return to their God-given homeland with a dedication and determination their ancestors never knew.

In his vision of the Valley of Dry Bones (chapter 37) Ezekiel describes the nation of Israel as dry bones scattered far and wide across an open valley. God commands him to prophesy upon the bones, and a series of miracles takes place. First the bones come together, then the flesh and sinews form upon them. As the Prophet further obeys God's commands the re-formed bodies stand upon their feet "an exceeding great army". Surely the I.D.F. (Israel Defence Forces) has fulfilled this part of the prophecy. But the prophecy continues with an amazing description that portrays Ephraim and Judah (as representing the twelve tribes of Israel) back in the land, culminating with these majestic words: "Thus saith the LORD God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel …" (37:21,22).

Thus we have seen God using men and nations to bring about His purposes for the return of His people to the land He promised to them. The remainder of Ezekiel's prophecy in chapter 37 is yet awaiting fulfilment.

• < Prev
• Next >