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Aliyah
The Regathering of Israel
General
Prophecies of Hope
With all the prophecies
relating to the doom and gloom of a disobedient Israel it’s easy to come away
with the feeling that all hope was lost for God’s chosen people
For centuries on end
Jerusalem was controlled by Gentile powers just as Jesus had predicted.
Even those who typically
scoff at the Bible have to think twice about the prophecies of Israel’s
scattering, because recorded history proves that they were fulfilled exactly as
stated.
Only the power of an eternal
God could control a dispersed people for so long and still maintain their
national and religious identity.
However, the Lord not only
fulfilled their scattering into all lands exactly as predicted, He also
prophesied of a future regathering of Israel, which would happen at the end of
the age.
Even as Israel was in the
clutches of the Lord’s wrath and experiencing persecution all over the world,
year after year the Jews kept their hopes alive for an eventual return to
Palestine as they gathered together on their holy days with the cry, “Next year in Jerusalem!”
Somehow they seemed to know
deep down that their plight would not last forever. They believed that
someday they would regain the land that was promised to them and become a
unified nation again.
This hope was not just
wishful thinking on the part of a persecuted people. They were certain
that the regathering of Israel would eventually happen, because their holy
scriptures predicted it.
In fact, the very same
prophets that predicted the scattering of Israel into all lands also went on to
prophesy of a time when they would be regathered.
In the book of Jeremiah these
words can be found:
“For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord,
that I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah, saith the
Lord; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers,
and they shall possess it.” Jeremiah 30:3
The words “bring again the captivity of” in the
King James translation actually mean “cause
the captivity to cease.”
Some of the modern versions
of the Bible translate “restore the
fortunes of,” but in any case the meaning is quite clear.
Sometime in the prophet
Jeremiah’s future the Lord would allow the Jews to return to Israel and possess
the same land which was originally given to Abraham.
It might be claimed that the
primary purpose of this prophecy was to simply encourage Jeremiah’s listeners,
since he prophesied of these things in the midst of the dark days of the
Babylonian captivity.
His words gave hope to those
who still believed in the Lord by helping to confirm the fact that God would
not forsake his people forever.
However, the ultimate
fulfillment of this prediction bespeaks a time in Jeremiah’s distant
future.
As we shall soon see, most of
the prophecies dealing with the regathering of Israel have their focus firmly
fixed on the end of the age and particularly at the time just before the return
of Christ.
Isaiah had much to say about
Israel’s future rebirth as a nation.
In chapter 43 of his book the
Lord says that no matter how far away his people may be scattered, he will still
be able to bring them back.
“Fear not; for I am with thee. I
will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west.
“I will say to the north, Give up; and to
the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the
ends of the earth, even every one that is called by my name…” Isaiah 43:5-6
Ezekiel also prophesied of
the day that Israel would return. He likened them to a wandering flock of
sheep that had strayed away from their shepherd.
This is what the true
Shepherd says he will do:
“Behold, I, even I, will both search my
sheep, and seek them out.
“As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in
the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my
sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered
in the cloudy and dark day.
“And I will bring them out from the
peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own
land…” Ezekiel
34:11-13
How can anything be stated
more clearly? Some people like to label the Bible as a vague, symbolic book
that is difficult to understand.
However, if a person is
willing to search through its pages for the prophetic writings concerning
Israel, the prophecies can become as understandable and easy to comprehend as
writings from any other book.
The prophecies are
indisputable in this area: Israel was scattered among the nations just as the
Bible predicted; for centuries they were persecuted exactly as Moses described;
and as we shall soon see, just as decidedly the Jews were predicted to be
regathered.
Moses was actually the first
prophet to predict Israel’s rebirth, and his words were written down even
before the Jews had entered the Promised Land for the first time.
Moses’ words add enough
detail for us to begin to understand how and when this event will take place.
“And it shall come to pass,
when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I
have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations,
to which the Lord thy God hath driven thee,
“And shalt return unto the Lord thy God,
and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou
and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul,
“That then the Lord thy God will turn thy
captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from
all the nations where the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.
“If any of thine be driven out unto the
outmost parts of heaven, from there will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from
there will he fetch thee.” Deuteronomy 30:1-4
This prophecy of Israel being
regathered was written down by Moses at the very end of his teachings on “the blessing and the curse”.
Remember from previous
sections about Israel that God’s people could in essence choose their future
(either blessing or cursing) simply by deciding whether they would follow the
Lord’s commandments.
At first this was put to them
as an option that could have resulted in any conceivable future.
In the passage quoted above,
however, Moses predicts that there will definitely come a time when his people
will find themselves scattered among the nations.
He also says that after being
scattered they will eventually realize exactly what had happened to them.
In the end, Israel would know
not only that Moses’ words had come true, but that they had indeed experienced
the curse as a direct result of their attitude toward God.
Moses further states that at
the same time this realization occurs, Israel will repent of their disobedience
and turn back to the Lord.
In fact, Moses says that when
these events occur, God will do an amazing thing.
He says that the Lord himself
“will return and gather” his people
from their captivity.
Return? Yes!
Even in the Old Testament the
reality of Christ’s first and second comings can be seen.
When Jesus came the first
time, Israel was still scattered and the land controlled by foreign powers as a
result of centuries of disobedience and judgment.
Isaiah even alluded to the
fact that this would be the case by quoting Christ as he spoke of his first
coming in a prophetic sense saying,
“Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall
I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord.” Isaiah 49:5
The Second Coming of Christ,
however, will be entirely different from that of his first coming.
Instead of leaving the
political and national life of the nations relatively untouched as when he
walked the earth previously, nothing will remain the same when he comes
again.
No one will be able to escape
the effects of the Lord’s Second Coming — particularly with respect to the
people of Israel.
According to Moses, Jesus
will gather together every last believer who remains among the children of
Abraham.
He will then make of them a
new reborn nation that will become the most prominent country the world has
ever seen.
From scriptures like these,
there can be no doubt that the rebirth of the nation of Israel will be
intimately coupled with the return of Christ.
End
Times Truth is about warning people
that the Coming of Christ is near and that we are living in the last days just
before His Return. During our lifetime, Bible predictions concerning the Second
Coming have been fulfilled exactly as they were described thousands of years
ago. Jesus said that we could know that his coming was near if we watched
world events and compared them to what was predicted. As the prophecies
come true before our eyes, we know that we are getting closer to the end.
While it is true that the world is heading toward a judgment day, individuals
can escape through knowledge of the truth combined with repentance and faith in
Christ (see Escape to Safety).
What is
Aliyah?
Literally,
the Hebrew word “aliyah”
means ascent or rise, but for generations it has been used to mean “to move to
Israel”.
The Land
of Israel has always been the center of the Jewish universe, but for centuries
the dream of moving to Israel was, just that, a dream.
Beginning
in the 1880’s, groups started to organize with the goal of building communities
and the land.
In 1948, the State of Israel opened her doors to the Jews of the world and passed the Law of Return, aliyah took on a formal / legal meaning, thereby, “to make Aliyah” means to move to Israel and become an Israeli citizen.
Leshana
Habaah
Next Year in Jerusalem!
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