Posted on 10/16/2020 3:50:29 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
Between 70 AD and 120 AD, The Jewish people were driven out of the Holy Land, and the Nation of Judea was extinguished. The Jews would remain in exile, for almost two thousand heartbreaking years. Why? What happened two thousand years ago that brought this heartbreaking circumstance about?
The Land of Israel was given to the seed of Abraham ,Isaac and Jacob, by none less than God himself, in an unconditional covenant.
Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”( Genesis 12:1-3)
That Land belongs to the children of Israel to this very day, but for the most part, the last two thousand years have been an exile to them, and the exile is still not ceased.
My question is, What happened two thousand years ago? Why has this exile befallen the people to whom God gave the Holy Land?
Moses foresaw that the children of Israel would be blessed by God and “wax fat”, (become self sufficient), and eventually fall into idolatry. He taught them a national song, with this prophecy in it, to impress it upon the hearts of all of the children of Israel forever. This is the song of Moses, and it is in the Torah,
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger ( Deuteronomy 32:15-17)
All of this is in the song, Moses our teacher taught the children of Israel, long before these events took place…
Moses predicted a temporary suspension of the Jewish people, by God himself, (never total), and a provocative blessing of a non people,
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.( verse 21)
He then predicted by the Spirit of God, the scattering among the nations of the Holy People,
I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: vs 26.
In the years following 70 AD, just such a mass “scattering ” happened, by the hand of God.The slave markets of the world were glutted, the city of Jerusalem was nearly razed to the ground, the Temple of God was destroyed, and Jews were spread all across the entire Gentile world.
As Jonah was once cast into the Sea, Israel was thrown to the Gentiles, and the national polity was removed. The scepter had departed from Judah.
Had Shiloh come? (see Genesis 49) Is that what happened? There are descendants of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob everywhere, from the Jungles of India, into China, All over the Muslim world, in Africa, throughout Europe and Eurasia. Moses’ prediction had come to pass. God has scattered his beloved people. As Moses once prayed, “Who knows the power of your wrath?”.
Why did it finally happen after many centuries of idolatry, defection, good Kings and Bad Kings of both Judah and Israel, and even after a seventy year deportation and captivity to Babylon? What happened two thousand years ago that the “axe fell ” to the root of the Tree?
What was the peculiar circumstance? It seemed that in Jewish History, the Babylonian Captivity really did cure the Jews of the crass idolatrous practices of their forefathers. The first century was not a time of Baal and Asherah worship, or household idols as in earlier centuries. So what was it about two thousand years ago, that caused the Exile?
Here again is the Torah;
When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you (Deuteronomy 4: 25-27)
The Romans could not have destroyed the Jewish nation, no matter how mighty their armies, unless God had allowed it. Over the centuries, it is true, that people claiming the name of Jesus, have caused much evil to befall the scattered Jews, but Christianity, or Christendom hasn’t caused the exile. Neither has Islam. All will answer to the Holy God of Israel for the treatment they extended towards the Jews, but God himself is the one who scattered them.
My question is why? I would love to know what Torahists believe about this question.
Why is it that God scattered the Jews, driving them out of the Land he gave them and putting them into exile these long millennia? What was the pivotal point of departure, two thousand years ago?
I think it a notable and astonishing miracle that the Jews were preserved, and in a sense, have been put on display as a very visible sign of the existence of God. Furthermore, no one should gloat or feel superior, for If God would do thus to His own people, whom He loves with Hesed, (Steadfast Love), what is going to happen to the rest of the World.
God has told us that there remains a bright people for the children of Israel, but it is predicated upon an acknowledgement of a national offense, and a true, heartfelt seeking of the Lord. From the Torah again,
But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. ( Deuteronomy 4:29-31)
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.( Leviticus 26:40-42)
The condition of national restoration is the confession of a national offense… Even the Prophet of the Tanakh, Hosea predicted the same,
I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. ( Hosea 5:15) What could it be? Two thousand years is a long time…
Not all - there were still Jewish settlements in Israel.
Jonathan Cahn’s book The Oracle nails it all down on a jubilean schedule, and includes that Trumps role and life was tied directly to prophesy. Pretty fascinating.
The jews failed to recognize who Jesus was.
True, but for all practical purposes it was an exile, the nation dissolved
"The condition of national restoration is the confession of a national offense…" Is this Pastor Bill's conclusion? If so, I disagree.
Israel is a nation today - not because they confessed a national offense and not because they believe in Messiah Jesus. They have done neither. The fact is that modern day Israel is made up of mostly secular people many of whom are agnostic or atheist. The religious orthodox Jews, who may Christians ignorantly exalt, are modern day Pharasees. You know, those with the same mindset that killed Jesus.
The only reason Israel is a nation today and the only reason Jews are coming home is because God has choosen this time to regather them.
Israel is back in the land, indeed. One of the great miracles of our time. But Israel is not restored as they will be. This has nothing to do with my conclusion, scripture itself tells Israel they must confess their offense in order to be restored, as the quotation of Hosea I gave. It is true also, as I have been stating that Orthodox Jews are the Pharisees
Israel is back in the land, indeed. One of the great miracles of our time. But Israel is not restored as they will be. This has nothing to do with my conclusion, scripture itself tells Israel they must confess their offense in order to be restored, as the quotation of Hosea I gave. It is true also, as I have been stating that Orthodox Jews are the Pharisees
The “real” Jews have never left Jerusalem. Those who accepted their Messiah are the remnant - the true Jews. Those who rejected Messiah have been rejected. After about 15 years - gradually at first - non-Jews were grafted in (as Paul said), and they began to call themselves Christians. But they represent the remnant of the Jewish nations, and have never left.
The Jews are and always have been God’s favorite children. But being a favorite child is often no fun at all. Major responsibilities and obligations ensue. The OT is the history of God choosing them and their trying to avoid their responsibility. God wanted them to be a light to the nations, a servant to all. God finally had to become incarnate in order to show how it should be done. Be that as it may, they are still the apple of his eye and always will be. But I am not jealous or resentful because the Father of a family has more love for all of the other children than they can possibly handle.
“Israel is a nation today - not because they confessed a national offense and not because they believe in Messiah Jesus. They have done neither. The fact is that modern day Israel is made up of mostly secular people many of whom are agnostic or atheist. The religious orthodox Jews, who may Christians ignorantly exalt, are modern day Pharasees. You know, those with the same mindset that killed Jesus. “
The High Priest (Caiphis) was NOT a Pharasee , he was a Sadducee. The Sadducee’s were like today hard left that did not believe in almost anything the bible said . The bible records Pharasees becoming followers of Jesus but not one Sadducee is recorded .
The Sanhedrin agreeing with Caiphis condemned Jesus to death. The Sanhedrin was made up of both Pharasees and Sadducees. Both Pharasees and Sadducees believed keeping the law made them righteous. Both were legalistic. Both groups were condemned by Jesus. Nicodemus, a Pharasee, is the one exception we know who defended and helped buried Jesus. Church tradition/history tells us Nicodemus was a believer.
Matthew 3:7 – Pharisees and Sadducees came to John the Baptist. He called them both a brood of vipers.
Matthew 16:1 – Pharisees and Sadducees tested Jesus asking Him to show them a sign from heaven.
Matthew 16:5-12 – Jesus said, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Matthew 22:23, Mark 12:18, Luke 20:27 – Sadducees do not believe in Resurrection.
Matthew 22:34 – Jesus silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
Acts 23:6-8 – Paul pitted the Sadducees and the Pharisees against each other in the Sanhedrin
Matthew 23 – Pharisees as hypocrites.
The bottom line regarding today's orthodox religious Jews is that they have the same Christ rejecting spirit and mindset of the Pharasees (and Sadducees if you will) of the 1st century .
The nation was still Israel regardless of what Rome did. There still remained Jews in the land. Rome was defeated by the Ottoman Turks, the Crusaders then the Ottomans again finally by the Brits. Just because Rome renamed Israel it still was Israel; you can call a Buick a Ford but it’s still a Buick.
You miss the point. The nation was dismantled, scattered to the ends of the earth, and there was no “National” Israel until 1948. Why did Israel lose it’s sovereignty for almost 2000 years. Moses predicted all of this of course.
True -but - there always was an Israel; not all Jews left. Call it whatever you want Israel was always there.
There has not always been a “Nation” of Israel, two thousand years came and went without one, the Nation of Israel was reborn in 1948.
Jonathan Cahn is an author not a prophet. He dies an excellent job with historical patterns that actually happened.
I don’t have my history paper available to me right now but I will post it sometime on Sunday for your edification.
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