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The One New Man Study - The Theology Of Jew And Gentile - One In Messiah Entire Study Recently Updated January 2006
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Lesson Fourteen The One New Man And Israel's Return To The Land
TEXT: Isaiah 60:8 - Who are these
that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?
Ezekiel 5:5 - Thus saith the Lord God;
This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that
are round about her.
Deut. 32:8 - When the most High divided to the
nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds
of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. David called Israel the people, "close to his (God's) heart." (Psalms 148:14). God promised the land of Abraham and signed the covenant in blood:
Genesis 15:17-21 - And it came to pass, that,
when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning
lamp that passed between those pieces. [18] In the same day the Lord made a
covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the
river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: [19] The Kenites, and
the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, [20] And the Hittites, and the Perizzites,
and the Rephaims, [21] And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites,
and the Jebusites. In Genesis 15:18 we can even see God getting extremely precise with His declaration! He outlined the borders. To Joshua He would repeat Himself just so there would be no misunderstanding (Josh 1:4). Many may ask then "how can Israel extend all the way to the Euphrates?" If that is so (and we believe it will be so one day in the future) what upheavals must take place in Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt for this to come into reality? Samuel wrote in the Chronicles that this covenant with Abraham would last a thousand "generations." If we take the conservative thought and say a generation is 40 years that's 40,000 years! He told them to "be mindful" of his covenant, especially the one he made with Abraham and of His oath to Isaac and Jacob.
1 Chr. 16:15-17 -
Be ye mindful always of his
covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; [16]
Even of
the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; [17] And
hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting
covenant, Then in verse 18 God puts the cherry on top:
1 Chr. 16:18 - Saying,
Unto thee will I give
the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;
Ezekiel's prophetic vision of the dry bones in the 37th chapter of his book predicted a coming together, or "rising from the dead," if you will of the nation of Israel. This risen-from-the-dead nation was no longer to be two nations as it was prior to the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests:
Ezekiel 37:10-14 - So I prophesied as he
commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon
their feet, an exceeding great army. [11] Then he said unto me, Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are
dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. [12] Therefore
prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will
open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you
into the land of Israel. [13] And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have
opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, [14] And
shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own
land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith
the Lord.
The return of the dispersed people of Israel is to be "from the four quarters of the earth" (Isaiah 11:12), not just from the East - from Babylon - as was the return in 516 B.C. Isaiah makes it clear that this is to be a second return and that it will include immigrants from the north, south, east, and west. Isaiah even named some of the lands - Egypt, Africa (Cush) and Babylon - but other regions - "the islands of the seas."
Isaiah 11:12
Ships would come bringing "their sons from afar." (Isa. 60:9). Others would "fly along like clouds, like doves to their nests," (v. 8), a prophetic reference perhaps to air traffic that would fill the skies 2,600 years after Isaiah's time! It was to be a great exodus than the earlier one in Egypt:
Isaiah 60:9
Jeremiah 23:7-8 - Therefore, behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord lives, which
brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; [8] But, The Lord
lives, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of
the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they
shall dwell in their own land.
Isaiah 35:1-2 - The wilderness and the
solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom
as the rose. [2] It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and
singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel
and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.
The first "Aliyah" or "return to the land," occurred in the late 19th century. In 1882, according to Jewish census records, there were only about 24,000 Jewish residents of "Palestine" living in 17 agricultural colonies. One of the early pioneers was another Eliezer - Eliezer ben-Yehuda - who spent every waking hour pulling together what would become the resurrected Hebrew language. Another early settler was Polish-born David Green, who later took the name David ben-Gurion adn became Israel's first prime minister.
The man though given the credit for the rebirth of the nation was a young secular Jewish Viennese newspaperman named Theodor Herzl. In Paris, 1895, he was present at the public humiliation of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jew on the general staff of the French army, falsely accused of espionage. As Dreyfus was sentenced, the chants of the crowd changed from "kill the traitor!" to "Kill the Jews!" Herzl left the city with an urgency to establish a safe place for Jewish people. Two years later he convened the First World Zionist Conference in Basel, Switzerland. At that first meeting a national flag was selected for Israel - the blue and white of a prayer shawl - and a national anthem was chosen, "Hatikvah," meaning the Hope." An elected Jewish executive was chosen to guide the movement, and a Jewish National Bank and a Land Bank were created with which to begin buying land in the area of the new state.
Perhaps the work of another man - Chaim Weizman, a Jewish scientist who had produced a acetone used in gunpowder needed by the British during World War I. When asked for the price of renumeration he said, "If Britain wins the battle for Palestine, I ask for a national home for my people in their ancient land." His request resulted in the Balfour Declaration, issued on November 2, 1917. Later in the same month, the British general Sir Edmund Allenby led the charge that gave Great Britain control over Jerusalem. As he was entering the city through the Jaffa Gate, he dismounted his horse and took off his hat, believing that none but the Messiah should enter Jerusalem mounted on a steed. General Allenby had ordered planes to fly overhead and leaflets to be dropped, calling the Turks to surrender. These leaflets, signed by Allenby, were taken by the Turkish Muslims to be a directive from ALLAH for them to leave the city. Not a shot was fired. Following World War I, in 1920, the League of Nations gave Britain control of Palestine but the Balfour Declaration had been forgotten. Fear of Arab reprisals turned British hearts against the Jewish immigrants. Refugees were not allowed to land in the Haifa harbor, and the quota of returning Jews was greatly reduced. Britain installed an Arab government over much of the land that had been biblically promised to Israel. Another war and a lifetime of horror would transpire before the world's conscience was sufficiently pricked to establish that homeland for the Jews promised by His MAJESTY. The British government had long washed its hands of the whole affair. The fate of the potential Jewish nation now rested in the hands of the United Nations
A New Nation
The United Nations began to consider the partitioning of "Palestine" to create a homeland for the Jews. A two-thirds majority of the nations was necessary in order for the State to be established. In the two months leading up to the decision, the Bible college at Wales, under Rees Howell's leadership, concentrated 11 days of prayer on the UN vote. "I firmly believe the time of the Gentiles is drawing to a close, and the Jews must be back in their own land when the Master comes," Rees had said.
On the evening of November 24, 1947, the college received word that the partitioning had not carried. The intercessors prayed more fervently and saw in faith "God's angels influencing those men in the UN Conference in New York to work on behalf of God's people." When news came the following day that the petition had passed, the college called it "one of the greatest days for the Holy Ghost in the history of these 2,000 years."
PRESIDENT HARRY Truman's support was ESSENTIAL if the vote was to pass, but he was slow in adding his weight. In fact, the president had been ignoring all requests for a meeting about the partitioning until leaders from the Jewish community contacted Truman's good friend and former business partner, Eddie Jacobson. Jacobson appealed to the president's sense of history and prevailed upon him to meet with Chaim Weizman, who though poor in health, had traveled to the United States and was waiting in a hotel room until the appointment could be secured. It was this visit with Weizman, the hero of Britain's win in World War I, that so influenced Truman's ultimate decision. Without that encounter, the resolution would not have passed. With the president's pressure on several key countries, the vote was taken. 33 nations in favor; 13 against and 10 abstentions. The date was November 29, 1947. Hezrl had spoken prophetically when, in 1897 he predicted that within 50 years the State of Israel would be birthed. A country was born in a day!
Isaiah 66:8 - Who hath heard such a thing? who
hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or
shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth
her children.
Every Israeli war has seen its own set of miracles. There was a time in the 1967 Sinai Campaign when two Israeli tanks topped a sand dune and found themselves facing a complete Egyptian tank unit. With no explanation, the Egyptians stopped, opened their turrets, jumped out and began to flee through the desert. After the Egyptians were captured, they explained their actions, telling stories of the "hundreds of Israeli tanks," they had encountered. During the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Syria marched across the unprotected Golan Heights. They could have been in the city of Haifa within 24 hours had they not suddenly stopped on the ridge of the Jordan River, nearly within firing range of the city of Tiberius, and remained there for three days. This gave the Israelis time to muster their forces and engage the Syrians in battle. Why did they stop? A nonreligious Israeli general described a "great gray-white hand pressing down onto the Syrians from out of the sky."
Israel's return is God's fulfillment to His prophets. And if God's promises to Israel have been so vividly kept - then why do we as the Gentile church seem to not care about our role with the Jewish people in the last days? Israel's return to the land is just another key to the fulfilling of the One New Man. Israel is a huge harvest field right now with a great open door for evangelism. We need to walk through it in Yeshua's name!
Jeremiah 33:19-26 - And the word
of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying, [20] Thus saith the Lord; If ye can
break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there
should not be day and night in their season; [21] Then may also my covenant be
broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his
throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. [22] As the host of
heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I
multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
[23] Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,
[24] Considerest thou not what this
people have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord hath chosen, he hath
even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no
more a nation before them. [25] Thus saith the Lord; If my covenant be not with
day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;
[26] Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I
will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.
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