Posted on 02/26/2016 6:44:25 AM PST by pastorbillrandles
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.( Jeremiah 16:14-16)
We have been discussing the fact that it was World Wars 1 and 2, which led to the re-emergence and resurrection of the State of Israel.These two catastrophes are what Jesus referred to when he said that before the end,â€Nation will rise against nation and Kingdom against Kingdomâ€.
Jeremiah predicted Israel’s exile and scattering to the very ends of the earth, as a punishment for her stubborn idolatry. The prophet also, as did Moses, Isaiah, Hosea, Ezekiel, and the others, predicted a second Exodus, greater than the previous, in which the scattered children of Israel would be drawn back into the Land God gave Abraham,Isaac and Jacob forever.
God would send “fishers and hunters†to bring his people out of their mountains and holes which they have abode in, in their scattering among the Gentiles.
In the years leading up to the first World War, there was the convergence of two movements, regarding Israel.
First of all there was a movement, primarily among British Evangelicals, which asserted that the time had come for the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel, and for the regathering of world Jewry unto the promised land, which was then known as “Palestineâ€. These Bible scholars such as David Baron, Alfred Eidersheim, Adolph Saphir, and Bishop JC Ryle all concluded that soon the Jewish State would be reborn and an Exodus of Jews out of Europe and Russia would commence, streaming into Israel.
These men knew this simply because they believed in the veracity of scripture.
At around the same time, (the late 19th century) Theodore Herzl founded a movement called Zionism, which called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland. Herzl was a Hungarian Jew who had seen pograms and other forms of persecution in Europe and concluded that Antisemitism was an intractable part of the human condition, therefore the Jewish people needed a homeland to survive.
Herzl’s ideas were met with enthusiasm by the Jewish masses in Eastern Europe, although Jewish leaders were less ardent. Herzl appealed to wealthy Jews such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild, to join the national Zionist movement, but in vain. He then appealed to the people, and the result was the convening of the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, on August 29Â31, 1897. The Congress was the first interterritorial gathering of Jews on a national and secular basis. Here the delegates adopted the Basle Program, the program of the Zionist movement, and declared, “Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.†At the Congress the World Zionist Organization was established as the political arm of the Jewish people, and Herzl was elected its first president .(Theodore(Benyamin,Ze’ev) Herzl, Jewish Virtual Library)
These were the fishers, sent by God to lure the Jews out of their Ghettos, shtetls, communities, farms and homes in Europe and Russia . The Zionists would have had to purchase land and homes in “Palestineâ€, to drain swamps, and pioneer and homestead their building a new nation from the ground up.
There were a trickle of Jewish people who did so, and through hard work, and buying land at exorbitant prices, they planted trees, dug wells and drained swamps off of the barren land, hiring hundreds of thousands of Arabs in the process.
But most of European Jewry were too comfortable to come out of Europe and Russia in order to make Aliyah(Go home to Israel), which at that time was under Ottoman rule.The fishers could only lure so many Jews home, even after the First World War under the British mandate, only a trickle came home.
But then Europe came under the power of the hunters, for the Nazis relentlessly scoured birth certificates, official records, censuses, turning over every proverbial stone to find out who was Jewish that they might kill or expel the Jews from their midst.The reign of the Nazis truly brought on a Holocaust, a whole burnt offering, for the Nazi’s killed one third of all European Jewry, 6,000,000 Jews!
All of Europe and even America was complicit in the crime, for Hitler had offered to send all of the Jews of the Reich to any nation which would take them, and there was an international conference in 1938, which met to discuss the problem of the millions of Jews, stripped of their statehood, and refugees from Naziism, and what would the 38 free nations do about it.
The dispossessed and displaced Jews of Austria and Germany were hopeful that this international conference would lead to acceptance of more refugees and safe haven. “The United States had always been viewed in Europe as champion of freedom and under her powerful influence and following her example, certainly many countries would provide the chance to get out of the German trap. The rescue, a new life seemed in reach.â€[3] Hitler responded to the news of the conference by saying essentially that if the other nations would agree to take the Jews, he would help them leave: I can only hope and expect that the other world, which has such deep sympathy for these criminals [Jews], will at least be generous enough to convert this sympathy into practical aid. We, on our part, are ready to put all these criminals at the disposal of these countries, for all I care, even on luxury ships.[4] The conference proved a failure because both the United States and Britain refused to accept any (substantially) more refugees, and most of the countries at the conference followed suit. The conference was seen by some as “an exercise in Anglo-American collaborative hypocrisy.â€[4](The Evian Conference)
As a result of the failure of the Evian conference, millions of Jews were slaughtered in the Nazi “Final Solutionâ€to the so called Jewish problem.God has seen this and is angry at the nations of the world for their complicity in the holocaust.
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.(Joel 3:1-3)
By the time the Second World War had occurred, millions of Jewish survivors of the holocaust in Europe, and in Russia were now prepared to leave Europe, and make Aliyah to “Palestine†and eventually to Israel which was formed in 1948. World War 2 definitely led to the miracle of the reborn Israel.
Fantastic reading Pastor Bill.
The fishers of men are those who preach the Gospel and bring souls to Christ.
Moving from Europe to the Middle East is no different than moving from New York to Michigan.
Experts assume Israel = Judah, and only Judah.
Where's Joseph. Nobody mentions Joseph. The prophets did. The House of Israel AND the House of Judah... in the same sentences.
It's as if he's been forgotten, left out of the narrative completely - separated from his brothers. Presumed dead.
It is time for this to be fixed.
The Torah isn't just an historical record.
I agree
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