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A Visit to Israel Confirms the Unstoppable Process Towards the Kingdom of God
The Great Miracles of Israel
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After spending a few weeks in Israel, the fact that the process unfolding here according to the ancient prophets is unstoppable, cannot be denied. This is David Billington with you for the Bible in the News.

(Audio Version to be Added Later)

This land brings your attention to the Bible, it amplifies the words of prophets, and it demonstrates the truth and fulfillment of their words. It is truly a land reunited with its ancient people and language. Everywhere one goes in the land of Israel there is a Jewish historical connection, whether the site of an ancient city, an archeological discovery, an ancient Hebrew inscription or manuscript, a Jewish mikveh, tombs of Biblical prophets and kings, including the tombs of the very fathers and mothers of this ancient people. Again and again the historical accuracy of the Biblical text is proven and the fact that this land is the land of the Jewish people — the land of the Bible. Whether walking through a park and seeing the children playing; or observing a passing group of soldiers, visiting a site that educates them on their history and roots; or watching a group of yeshiva students dancing and singing at the western wall, or; even just walking through a shopping center, one is presented with a people regathered from the four corners of the earth. Almost every group contains white Jews from Europe or America, darker skinned Jews returned from Arab lands and Jews from Ethiopia and no doubt many other places and countries. Most of their parents or grandparents fled from persecution and found refuge in this land. Now all speaking a language which was dead, the language of the ancient prophets which was almost only being used for religious study, but has been resurrected and is being used in everyday life. Not much more than 100 years ago, this land was desolate, a land mostly uninhabitable, a land of swamps and desert. Today it is alive.

Building Taking Place in the Biblical Heartland

Building once again taking place in the Biblical Heartland in Shiloh.

Once all three were dead. This fact is demonstrated in many ways, including forcibly at Yad V'Shem the Holocaust museum. Visitors to Yad V'Shem touch the Holocaust. The amount of evidence and personal testimony of the Holocaust is overwhelming, the suffering staggering and the brutality repressive and suffocating. Yet the facts must be recounted, remembered and never forgotten. It is our duty to visit and to know. It is one thing to visit this museum as a lover of the Jewish people, as someone who appreciates the role of the Jewish people in history and recalls that they are beloved for the fathers' sakes (Romans 11:28), yet many of those visiting Yad V'shem are the descendants or relatives of those who perished. In one place in the museum there is a glass floor under which there are a collection of shoes from one of the concentration camps. The shoes of those who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis. As I passed by a young soldier sat looking at them. Weeping. This was his people. A people scattered and peeled, meted out and trodden down. The people who wore those shoes did not speak Hebrew in their daily lives, they spoke Yiddish, German or another European language. Most likely they never set foot in the land of Israel. As a people they had almost entirely lived outside the land for almost 2000 years, maybe longer. Yet by a great miracle remained a distinct people in all the lands and countries they had been driven. When a visitor exits the museum, they walk onto a balcony looking over the Judean hills. This view presents an incredible fact. The forest one sees has been replanted. The communities in the hills are regathered from the four corners of the world. The language of the people has been resurrected and brought to life.

Here are three great miracles. A resurrected land. A resurrected people. A resurrected language. This has never happened before in all human history. Standing on their own, these are great miracles, but they are all a fulfillment of the words of the prophets.

Building taking place today in the Biblical Heartland, in Judea.

A few years ago, then President Obama in conjunction with other world leaders forced a "building freeze" in Israel, trying to stop the growth of the Jewish communities, in what is called the West Bank, which is the Biblical heartland in the center of Israel. This mountainous region was the heartland of the ancient Biblical kingdom and the center for the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is now a land of olive yards and vineyards — as are so many places in the country. For a number of years building was non-existent or very limited. This created a struggle in order to be able to build, which is a factor in the development of the character of the people. Yet the prophets wrote that these cities and vineyards would be restored. The prophet Amos for example:

"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."

The process of the regathering of the Jewish people is clearly underway. They are building waste cities, inhabiting them, planting vineyards and fruit trees. Many of the cities and villages are built next to the ancient ruins. Sometimes even over — the buildings on pillars with the ruins underneath!

Ezekiel prophesied:

"But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded: And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD." (Ezekiel 36:8-11)

Ezekiel's words are emphatic. The mountains of Israel will be tilled and sown, the waste cities will be built and God will multiply men upon them. It may be a struggle. Sometimes the work maybe be frustrated. But it is unstoppable. While the building may have been hindered, it has now started again. As we have driven around these communities we have noticed the building taking place. We visited a place in the Judean desert, that was desolate a few years ago, but now land has been cleared of stones, tilled and planted with hundreds of fruit trees and vineyards! All these miraculous events have happened, the process is continuing before our eyes and so we can be assured that the process will be completed and all the words of Ezekiel will be fulfilled:

"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." (Ezekiel 37:25-27)

How much time stands between us and the completion of these words we cannot know for certain. But every indication is that the time is short. Visit Bible in the News again next week God willing, or share with a friend at www.bibleinthenews.com





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