Bible Truth Examiner

SURVIVAL OF ISRAEL

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SURVIVAL OF ISRAEL

Scriptures are cited from the King James (Authorized) Version, unless stated otherwise.

Question: The nation of Israel has many enemies. Will she survive or be destroyed?

Answer: Amos 9: 14, 15 addresses this question. Let us consider each part of these verses in turn:

“And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel” – The nation of Israel lost God’s favor after she rejected the Lord Jesus in His First Advent. In 70 A.D., Israel was destroyed as a nation and the Jews became a scattered, homeless, desolate and persecuted people among all the nations of the earth; yet they retained their identity as a people throughout the centuries, united by strong ties of blood relationship, by common hopes inspired by a faith in God’s promises and by sympathy due to their common sufferings as exiles. But these words prophesy of God’s returning favor to Israel after spiritual Israel, the Church, has been selected (verses 11 and 12).

“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.” – The Israelites were privileged to live in the land of Palestine for centuries, even though they were uprooted and taken captive into other lands several times, until they were completely rooted out, as previously stated. During the centuries that the Jews were absent from their land, their cities laid waste and desolate, and the land became barren. The above prophecy indicates that when the Jews would be replanted in their land again, they would rebuild and inhabit their cities again, and the land would again flourish.

“And I will plant them upon their land” – God here reiterates His promise that He would regather the Jews back to their land again. The Apostle James refers to the same thing in Acts 15: 16:                                                                                                                                             “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up.”                                                                  The “tabernacle of David” refers to the Jews being reestablished in their land again, and the words “after this” indicates that this would take place after the Gospel Age Church has been selected from the Gentiles (verse 14).                                                                                     Various other prophecies point to the year 1878 as the time when God’s favor was due to return to Israel, and secular history records a movement begun in that very year aimed at planting the Jews again in the land that God had promised to Abraham (Genesis 13: 14-17) (Genesis 17: 8). Seventy years later, in 1948, Israel again became a nation among the nations of the world.

“And they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.” – Here we find God’s promise which answers our question, that Israel is in her land permanently, and will never again be destroyed, exiled or displaced. Jeremiah 24: 6 is another Scripture corroborating this:

“For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.”

Note: Please find a more thorough examination of this subject in our article, The Nation of Israel in God’s Plan.