By Elisabeth Hinze
After travelling the land of Israel in 1867, Mark Twain described it as a bleak wasteland. “A desolate country, a silent mournful expanse. We never saw a human being on the whole route, hardly a tree or shrub anywhere.” Uninhabited, deserted, abandoned…
Given Mark Twain’s knack with words, I wonder what he’d have to say about the land of Israel today. Would he speak of the lush greenery, the springs bursting from the snowy caps of Mount Hermon on its way to the river Jordan? Would he stand in awe at the once silent mournful expanse, the desolate country, now abuzz with cities, communities and kibbutzim? Or would he be astonished by the soil that once hardly yielded a tree or shrub – the same soil that now produces fruits and vegetables in such a glorious abundance, turning Israel into one of the main exporters of fresh produce?
The land described in Mr Twain’s travel diary is so far removed from Israel today that you might wonder whether he got his GPS coordinates wrong. What became of the desolate country, the silent mournful expanse, the desolation?
The answer is simple really: God fulfilled one of the promises He made to the Jewish people thousands of years ago. “The desert will rejoice, and flowers will bloom in the wastelands. The burning sand will become a lake, and dry land will be filled with springs (Isaiah 53:1,7). God promised to turn the desolate wasteland into a fertile glory when one specific thing happened: when He returned the Jewish people to their home, Israel.
Derek Prince calls Israel the hands on God’s clock – looking at where the “hands” are gives you a pretty good indication of what God is up to. See, Mr Prince did a study on the promises God made to the Jewish people. Because the Bible lists a number of events that would happen with and around Israel throughout world history. A timeline of promises really, starting with enslavement in Egypt, winding through highs and lows, triumph and heartbreak to the grand finale of the Messiah returning to Jerusalem.
Derek Prince’s study identified 16 promises to the Jewish people, 16 things that God said would happen. Some are splendid, a glorious expectation. Others are, well, less so. Thirteen of the 16 promises have already been fulfilled. For the mathematically inclined amongst us, that’s 81%. Now I’m no statistician, but I’d say that the odds of the remaining three being fulfilled are pretty high.
The promise timeline starts way back with Abraham. Here God tells him that the nation he is about to father will be enslaved in Egypt. But God would intervene. He would deliver them with His mighty hand and have them carry away the wealth of the Egyptians as they make their dramatic exit. God tells of how Israel would become a nation and take possession of the Promised Land, of how Jerusalem would be the centre of worship in the land, a glory to the nations.
As the years go by, everything happens just as God promised. Egypt, deliverance, the Promised Land and beautiful Jerusalem. But then disaster strikes. Safely in the Promised Land, Israel forgets her First Love and falls into a destructive cycle of dabbling in idolatry. The result is catastrophe: the nation of Israel is ripped into two. The ten northern tribes retain the name Israel, while the two southern tribes become known as Judah. Israel is taken captive to Assyria, never to return home. And Judah is carried away as captives to Babylon, right after the Babylonians raze Solomon’s Temple to the ground.
It is here, in the midst of a foreign city amongst a foreign people, that the longing for Jerusalem spills over into Psalm 137, “By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down. There we wept, as we remembered Zion.” But even in exile, God is at work amongst His people. He raises up Esther and Daniel. He gives them a testimony and a hope. Then come Ezra and Nehemiah. And the Jewish people return home. To rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. God remains true to His word.
But years later, disaster strikes again. What follows seems like the end for the Jewish people. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Second Temple is destroyed and Jerusalem smashed to dust. The army of the great Roman Empire forces the Jews from their land to anywhere they can find a fleeting promise of safety. “I will scatter you among the nations and draw out your enemies’ sword after you; and your land shall be desolate and your cities a waste” (Leviticus 26:36). God scatters Israel to the four corners of the earth, just like He said He would. Two thousand years of terror follows. A safe haven remains an illusion, just like He said it would. Persistent persecution erupts sporadically in intensified periods of baseless hate, murder and oppression: the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the Holocaust…
The land of Israel regresses into the desolate country, the silent mournful expanse that Mark Twain tells of. Uninhabited, deserted, abandoned, just like He said it would be…
But there was another promise awaiting fulfilment. “For the time is coming when I will restore the fortunes of my people of Israel and Judah. I will bring them home to this land that I gave to their ancestors, and they will possess it again. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Jeremiah 30:3).
And once again, God remained true to His word.
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