This week a new report has come out from Peace Now (a group that wants anything but settlement growth) saying that when you compare January-June 2013 to the same period in 2012 there is a 70% rise in the starting of new building projects. It said according to Israel National News the following: 

“while work on 995 new homes was started in the first six months of 2012, this year 1,708 new homes had been begun, including 180 which the organization says are illegal.  The report also said that work on 1,794 homes had been completed with work on 2,840 continuing. This figure did not include some 230 caravans, classed as temporary housing.”

Further to that, another report published this week from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics measured the Jewish birth rate at 2.98 - the highest it has been since 2.53 recorded back in 1995.

The scriptures are very plain (we will look at some of them in a moment) that God would bring His people back to their ancient homeland.  The news can often be cliff hanging as we see events unfold in Israel and around the world but this news is a constant sign of Gods hand at work.  Much seems to be happening around the world that points to Christs return but Jewish population growth in Israel is vital to Christs coming because according to Scripture God is going to re-establish the kingdom of Israel.  It is clearly impossible to re-establish or restore a kingdom without having the people of that kingdom.  This restoration was spoken of by the holy prophets and has been spoken of many times on this program but it can never lose its power as it is one of the greatest signs in the world that God is at work.  God does remember his promises and now God is remembering his promises made with the great men of faith thousands of years ago.

We may see the world pushing on Israel to give up land and its nuclear deterrent, we may see Obama making nice with Israel’s recent arch enemy Iran, but we must remember the words of Daniel the prophet “that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men...”  Through all of this the building continues because once God starts to move none can stay His hand.

As we see God bringing His people back we wonder as the apostles did in Acts 1, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”  They were told that “it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”  When one keeps reading the book of Acts you will actually come to an answer to that question in chapter 3:20, 21:

“And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:  Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution (Restoration - Revised version) of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”  The revised version says the “restoration of all things.” 

Well let’s open the old book and see what the prophets did say about the “restoration of all things:"

Psalm 102: 12-18 – “But thou, O Lord, shall endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.

Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.

For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.

So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.

He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.

This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.”

From the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 11:11,12 – “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

From the prophet Jeremiah:

Jer 31:7-12 – “For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.

Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.

They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.

For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.”

 From the prophet Ezekiel:

Ez 36:23 – “And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

Ez 37:21-28 - "And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, 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; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.

Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore."

From the prophet Amos:

Amos 9:11-15 – “ In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.

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.

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.”

When you read those passages there is a definite clarity and clear message that the Jewish people had to regain their ancient homeland and build the waste places in preparation for them to enter into a covenant relationship with God once again. 

Well there is nothing that brings Jews back to Israel like trouble.  In the 1920’s prior to the dark days of Nazi Germany there was a time when Jews could have gone back trouble free.  The following is a quote from the book “Pillar of Fire” page 85:

“On July 1, 1920, the battleship Centaur anchored at the port of Jaffa.  The High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, disembarked, wearing a white uniform with a sword at his waist.  Thus commenced the era of the British Mandate in the history of Palestine.  This was the Zionist movement’s finest hour:  the great British Empire supported Jewish aspirations of reesablishing a homeland in the Land of Israel.  In order to ensure the success of this plan, Britan appointed Sir Herbert Samuel, a Jew and a Zionist, to govern the land.

The Arab national movement in Palestine was in its infancy and was incapable of interfering.  Had they so desired, the Jews could have returned to the Promised Land en masse and might have even established a Jewish State prior to the Holocuast.  This, as we know did not happen.  During that very same month, July 1920, the president of the Zionist Federation, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, uttered his famous appeal:  “Jewish People, where are you?”

In our own lives it is often trouble that brings you closest to God and to His word.  When everything is going well it is easy to put mundane things like cutting the grass ahead of God.  When trouble hits however the lawn is the least of your worries, all of a sudden what the neighbors think is just too bad!

So today when we look at the world, God’s is clearly at work.  Consider the following written in the Jerusalem Post in June of 2010: 

“The dip in the North American and Western European economies over the past year has led to a dramatic increase in immigration to Israel.”

That was 2010, this was written in an editorial this week in the Jerusalem Post entitled “European Exodus?”:

“Jews are being made to feel increasingly unwelcome in Europe. Israel’s policy-makers must begin preparing for an influx of European Jews who have come to the realization that the “renaissance” of European Jewry after the Holocaust is a false hope. That seems to be the operative conclusion of a major survey of European Jewry conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.”

When I read those words Hebrews 12:6 comes to mind – “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”  The times of the Gentiles that Luke speaks of are coming to a close and we are the doorstep of the re-establishment of the kingdom of Israel.  Our prayer is for the peace of Jerusalem that will come with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the son of David.

God is preparing the Jewish people for great things, may he prepare us so that we might fit into that society.

Amos in chapter 4 says “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel”; fitting words for His natural people and those that desire a part in the Hope of Israel.

This is end of this week’s program but we would love to hear what you think, please send us an email to contact@bibleinthenews.com or contact@biblemagazine.com

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Thanks for tuning into the Bible in the News.  This has been John Billington with you.