ISRAEL, AND THE END TIMES--HER PROPERITY FORETOLD

PROPHECIES OF ISRAEL’S PROSPERITY IN THE LAST DAYS

“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” (Isaiah 66:8).  Yet, that is exactly what happened.  On May 14, 1948 by UN decree the nation of Israel was born in a day.  No nation that has ever ceased to be a nation ever came back from the dead.  The prophet Ezekiel was shown a vision of a valley of dry bones (Ezk. 37). God commanded him to prophesy unto the bones and to the wind.  When he did the bones rose up, flesh began to cover them, and the wind began to blow, and the bones became a living breathing army.  Then, the Lord explained to the prophet:  “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.” God, obviously fulfilling His promises to the Jews, began the process of not only bringing the Jews back into their land, and granting them national status once more, He also began to prosper them, to secure them, and to restore them to national unity.  This lesson will examine those ancient prophecies that speak to these things, and how they came about.  So, let’s first look at what the prophets had to say about the future prosperity of Israel.

THE DESERT WILL BLOSSOM AS THE ROSE.  Isaiah prophesied at a time when his nation was falling deeper into sin, and rebelling more and more against the Lord.  However, he was given by the Spirit a hopeful glimpse into the future of his nation.  In Isaiah 35 he prophesied that in the last days the waste land that had been Palestine would someday be fruitful and vibrant again:  verse 1, “the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”  Though the Jews were cast out of the Holy Land over 1900 years ago interest in Israel remained constant.  Christians from the earliest times made pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the land where Jesus lived.  Written notes from some of those pilgrims described the land as a wasteland, arid and dry; possessing none of the aspects of a land “flowing with milk and honey.”  As early as the late 1800s and early 1900s when many Jewish repatriates began to return to the land they found it a harsh environment.  However, hard work, lots of ingenuity, and certainly the help of Providence brought about the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

The development of modern agriculture was closely tied to the Zionist movement and Jewish immigration to Palestine in the late nineteenth century. Jews who immigrated purchased land that was mostly semi-arid, although much had been rendered untillable by deforestation, soil erosion and neglect. They set about clearing rocky fields, constructing terraces, draining swampland, reforesting, counteracting soil erosion, and washing salty land. Since independence in 1948, the total area under cultivation has increased from 408,000 acres to 1,070,000 acres, while the number of agricultural communities has increased from 400 to 725. Agricultural production has expanded 16 times, three times more than population growth.  What this means is that not until the Jews returned to the land did it experience any real productive value.  Isaiah saw the desert blossoming as the rose, and that is exactly what has taken place!

Today, the land of Israel is one of the most productive nations in the world:  producing 95% of the nation’s food.  Israel is one of the world's leading fresh citrus producers and exporters.  Israel produces vast quantities of flowers for export. Flower exports in 2000 exceeded $50 million. In addition to flowers favored in the West such as lilies, roses and tulips, Israel exports desert varieties. It has become a major player in the global floral industry, especially as a supplier of traditional European flowers during the winter months.

Local cows produce the highest amounts of milk per animal in the world, with an average of 10,208 kilograms of dairy in 2009, according to data published in 2011 by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.  By contrast cows in the US produced 9,331 kg. per cow, in Japan 7,497 kg., the European Union 6.139 kg., and Australia 5,601 kg..  A total of 1,304 million liters of milk was produced by Israeli cows in 2010.  Interestingly, and another prophecy fulfillment was the influx of young people coming into Israel to work on her communal farms (kibbutzim).  According to Isaiah 61:4-5 ancient cities will be rebuilt (Ashkelon, Eilat, Beersheba, Jerusalem, etc.), and foreigners will do work on their farms:  “And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations,and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.⁵ And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.”  Several ancient cities now stand as glowing examples of modern architecture and commerce; teeming with life, culture, and enterprise.  Also, beginning in the 1960s European and American college students began to descend upon Israel to work on her kibbutzim for experience, and because it was the “cool” thing to do. From an advertisement for kibbutzim volunteer program by the Kibbutz Program Center in Israel:  “Volunteering on a kibbutz is a time-honored tradition that visitors from all over the world have experienced for more than six decades. Today, it is an ideal choice for anyone looking to spend some time away from home to become part of a type of community that only exists in Israel.” Without even realizing that they were fulfilling prophecy these young people helped to make Israel the agricultural success that she became.

YOU WILL NO MORE BE PUT OUT OF YOUR LAND.  Israel has not only prospered materially, she has been greatly prospered in her national defense.  Over 2500 years ago the prophet Amos wrote:  “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. ¹⁵ 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” (Amos 9:14-15).  Don’t think that it is only the military prowess of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) that is to be credited for Israel’s amazing; if not miraculous, military victories against the overwhelming forces of her Arab neighbors. 

(Quoted from Chabad.org, MIRACLES OF THE SIX DAY WAR): Israel was celebrating its Independence Day when the Israeli government received word that Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser was moving heavy artillery into the Sinai Desert. Additionally, large numbers of Egyptian forces were crossing the Suez Canal into the Sinai Desert. The Egyptian government had put its army on alert for an upcoming war. Syria and Jordan, too, moved into a state of alert and announced that they would not sit by idly if Israel attacked Egypt. On the next day, the Egyptians instructed the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF), whose stated role was to serve as a buffer between Israel and Egypt, to leave the Sinai Desert. UNEF complied with this directive. A week later, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli vessels and any ships that transported military equipment to Israel. Israel considered this move an act of war… 

On June 5, 1967, the first day of the war, by 7:30 AM, two hundred Israeli Air Force (IAF) planes were in the air, heading towards Egyptian airbases. Though flying very low, so as not to be detected by the scores of Arab radar sites, a Jordanian radar facility detected an unusually large number of aircraft heading towards the sea. The officer on duty immediately sent a message, “Inab,” the codeword for war, to Jordan military headquarters in Amman. The message was encoded and passed on to Egypt’s defense minister in Cairo. Miraculously, however, the Egyptian coding frequencies had been changed the previous day, and the Jordanians had not been updated. That morning, with the element of surprise in their favor, the IAF obliterated six Egyptian airfields—two in Egypt proper and four in the Sinai Desert—destroying 204 Egyptian planes, half of their air force. Though Egypt had sufficient anti-aircraft ammunition to destroy all the attacking Israeli planes, miraculously, no order was given for these missiles to be launched. The Israelis accomplished their mission with practically no resistance…

IAF planes and pilots had now been involved in almost constant battle for twenty-four hours. The pilots were weary, and the aircraft low on ammunition and fuel. Inexplicably, the enemy did not take advantage of this weakness. Though in control of extensive forces in the Sinai Desert, and certainly capable of mounting a ferocious counterattack, Egyptian leaders were reduced to giving incoherent and disorganized instructions to their troops. Israeli troops pressed on in the Sinai front. After capturing the Egyptian eastern outpost Abu-Ageila the day earlier, they now approached the heavily defended Kusseima outpost. As the Israelis drew near, they heard massive explosions. When they arrived they saw that the Egyptians, for no apparent reason, had destroyed their equipment and abandoned the base! As the day continued, it became clear that the Egyptians were hastily abandoning many of their outposts, some with all their supplies left behind…

After suffering significant casualties in the offensive to overtake the Golan Heights, Commander Musa Klein’s platoon had only twenty-five men at his disposal. But they continued upwards. When they reached Tel Fakhr, Klein ordered his men to charge the position, unaware that it was one of the most heavily fortified Syrian positions. It had bunkers, trenches and a double row of wire, along with an arsenal of antitank guns, machine guns and 82mm mortars. The handful of IDF soldiers were worse off than sitting ducks . . .Syrian Captain Ahmad Ibrahim Khalili gave his men instructions not to fire until the Israelis reached the wire. In no time at all, however, it was too late. In the Syrians’ own words: “The Jews are already inside, and we’ve taken heavy casualties.” Commander Klein and his men were victorious, and continued up the Heights…

The Israelis were originally reluctant to invade the Golan Heights. It would be an uphill battle against a well-entrenched and fortified position, protected by an army of 75,000 Syrian troops. The Syrian troops and munitions were entrenched in deep bunkers which were immune to air attack. One noted Israeli general estimated that such a battle would cost the Israelis 30,000 lives. Incredibly, though, after only seven hours of heavy fighting on June 9th, IDF commanders established strongholds in the northern and central sectors of the Golan. The next morning dawned with the Israeli forces apprehensively awaiting another day of fierce fighting. The Syrians, however, had other plans. In a sudden panic, before the Israelis even approached their positions, they pulled out of the Golan and fled in total chaos, leaving most of their weaponry behind. The moutaintops that were strategically utilized to murder Jews in the Holy Land were now in the hands of the Israelis. The final offensive was completed and, on that day, a ceasefire was signed. God said that His people would no longer be put out of their land.  His hand is can clearly be seen.

In the most recent hostilities in Israel more interventions by the Lord have been related.  According to the Jewish newspaper, the Inquisitr, a Hamas terrorist when asked why they didn’t aim their missiles more accurately, complained, “Their God changes the paths of our rockets in mid-air!” 

From World Net Daily:  “Israel Today translated a report from a Hebrew-language news site, which noted the Iron Dome battery failed three times to intercept an incoming rocket headed toward Tel Aviv last week. The commander recalled: “A missile was fired from Gaza. Iron Dome precisely calculated [its trajectory]. We know where these missiles are going to land down to a radius of 200 meters. This particular missile was going to hit either the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya (Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon) or [a central Tel Aviv railway station]. Hundreds could have died. We fired the first [interceptor]. It missed. Second [interceptor]. It missed. This is very rare. I was in shock. At this point we had just four seconds until the missile lands. We had already notified emergency services to converge on the target location and had warned of a mass-casualty incident.  Suddenly, Iron Dome (which calculates wind speeds, among other things) shows a major wind coming from the east, a strong wind that … sends the missile into the sea. We were all stunned. I stood up and shouted, ‘There is a God!’”

A DEAD LANGUAGE IS REVIVED.  “For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they all may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him with one accord” (Zephaniah 3:9).  Up until a century ago Hebrew was not a spoken language. Ashkenazi Jewish communities generally spoke Yiddish (a combination of Hebrew and German), while Sephardic Jews spoke Ladino (a combination of Hebrew and Spanish). Of course, Jewish communities also spoke the native language of whatever countries they were living in. Jews still used Hebrew (and Aramaic) during prayer services, but Hebrew was not used in everyday conversation. That all changed when a man named Eliezer Ben-Yehuda made it his personal mission to revive Hebrew as a spoken language. He believed it was important for the Jewish people to have their own language if they were to have their own land. In 1880 he said: “in order to have our own land and political life… we must have a Hebrew language in which we can conduct the business of life.”  From the Jerusalem Post, Oct. 15, 2010:  “The process of the Hebrew language revival began on October 13th 1881, as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his friends agreed to exclusively speak Hebrew in their conversations. As a result, the language, which had not been spoken as a mother tongue since the second century CE, once again became the national language of Israel…As part of his vision of reviving Hebrew, Ben-Yehuda raised his son, Ben-Zion Ben-Yehuda (the first name meaning "son of Zion") speaking entirely in Hebrew. He refused to let his son be exposed to other languages during childhood. It is said he once reprimanded his wife for singing a Russian lullaby to the child. As a result, his son Ben-Zion became the first native speaker of Modern Hebrew.  Ben-Yehuda was a major figure in the establishment of the Committee of the Hebrew Language (Va'ad HaLaschon), later the Academy of the Hebrew Language, an organization that still exists today. He wrote the first Modern Hebrew dictionary and became known as the "reviver" of the Hebrew language…Cecil Roth summed up Ben-Yehuda's contribution to the Hebrew language: "Before Ben-Yehuda, Jews could speak Hebrew; after him, they did." Ultimately, the process of Hebrew's return to regular usage was unique; there are no other examples of a sacred language becoming a national language with millions of first language speakers.”  This is just another example of prophecy being fulfilled in Israel. 

As we continue to watch Israel, prepare yourselves for the soon appearing of Jesus Christ for the Church.  Future prophecies concerning Israel may not actually happen until the Rapture. 

Next time we will examine prophecies concerning Israel’s future.