Israel’s Return

A TIMELY STUDY FOR BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES

DO YOU KNOW:

That Israel was God’s first chosen people (#De 7:6; #Ps 135:4; 147:19,20; #Am 3:2)?

That when in Eden God justly sentenced His disobedient children to death (#Ge 2:17; #Eze 18:4,20), He graciously intimated that ultimately the Seed of the woman would bruise the Serpent’s head (#Ge 3:15)?

That later God promised Abraham that his Seed would be multiplied greatly (#Ge 15:5; 17:4, 7, 16), and that in him and his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed (#Ge 12:3; 22:18)?

That after God had tested Abraham’s faith and loyalty, He confirmed the Covenant with an oath (#Ge 22:16-18), reaffirmed it to Isaac and Jacob (#Ge 26:24; 28:14), and established it with Israel for "an everlasting covenant" (#Ge 17:7; #Ps 105:6-10)?

That God promised Israel blessings if they would obey His Law, and threatened them with punishments if they would disobey it (#De 28), and that for centuries they received such blessings and punishments?

That additionally God threatened Israel four times (#Le 26:18,21,24,28) with a final punishment of "seven times" at the hands of the nations (Gentiles), among whom He would scatter them (#Le 26:33-45), if despite previous punishments they would continue to walk contrary to His law?

That the scriptures use the word "time" prophetically to indicate a literal year or a symbolic year (#Da 4:16,23,25,32; 7:25; 11:13; margin; #Da 12:7)?

That in prophetic Scriptures a day sometimes represents a year and a week seven years (#Nu 14:34; #Eze 4:4-6; #Da 9:24-27)?

That the threatened "seven times" of punishment upon Israel have been fulfilled, not as a seven literal times, or years ( for their earlier punishments had often lasted longer then seven literal years), but, in harmony with Scriptural usage elsewhere, as seven symbolic times, or years, i.e., seven periods of 360 years each, making 2520 (7 x 360 = 2520) years?

DO YOU KNOW:

That these 2520 years of Gentile dominion over and punishment of the Jews began in 607 B.C. (6061/4 years B.C.) when Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Zedekiah, Judah’s last king, and desolated the land, and ended in the fall of 1914 (1913-1/4 years A.D.), when by the World War God began to dispossess the Gentile powers in the great Time of Trouble (#Da 12:1; #Ps 46:6-10; 110:2,5,6; #Joe 2:1,2; #Zep 1:18; 3:8)?

That God fulfilled these" seven times" to the day:on the tenth day of the fifth lunar month in 607 B.C. the temple. king’s house, etc., in Jerusalem were fired by the Babylonians (#Jer 52:12,13), and exactly 2520 years later on the tenth day of the fifth lunar month the World War began, viz., on Aug. 1, 1914?

That by the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (#Da 2:31-45) God pictured the four universal empires of the Gentiles: the head of gold-Babylon; the breast and arms of silver-Medo-Persi; the belly and thighs of brass-Grecian Empire; the legs of iron-the Roman Empire (Eastern and Western), the feet and toes of iron mixed with clay representing the present mixture of civil governments (iron) and churchianity (clay) in Europe’s ten language nations?

That the stone smiting the image on its feet and breaking it into pieces represents God’s real Kingdom smiting the mixed governmental and ecclesiastical powers posing as God’s Kingdom (even as an iron and clay mixture resembles stone) in this great "time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation" (#Da 12:1), and dashing them into pieces (Psalm 2:9), prior to filling the earth (#Da 2:34,35,44)?

That the Jews were to be trodden down of the Gentiles only until the "seven times" (2520 years), the "times of the Gentiles," would be fulfilled, which fulfillment occurred in 1914, when the World War broke out between the Gentiles powers, and that since then God has remarkably prospered their return to His favor and to Palestine as their National Home?

That the Jews’ sufferings since 1914 are not a part of their special 2520 years’ punishment, but are sufferings for sins as humans, which both Jews and Gentiles experience since 1914, in the great Time of Trouble (#Da 12:1), and sufferings as a part of Phase 1 of "Jacob’s trouble" (#Jer 30:5-11), which roots them up elsewhere to cause them to return to Palestine?

DO YOU KNOW:

That though Israel in 607 B.C. began to suffer the 2520 years’ punishment, they as a nation were not finally destroyed until over 600 years later, and that the desolation of their land and cities, and their dispersion throughout the Gospel Age, in many lands, is forecast in many Scriptures (e.g., #Le 26:31-29; #De 29:22-28; ##Isa 17:4-6; 43:5; 5,6; #Jer 4:20, 26-29; 12:4, 7-13; 16:13-18; 19:7-9; 29:14,17,18; 30:11; 32:36; 37; #Am 3:14; 5:3,5,7:8,9)?

That Israel’s preservation as a separate people while dispersed among all nations (#Ho 3:4,5) is one of the miracles of history?

That Israel’s return to their land and God’s favor is also prophesied (e.g., #Le 26:40-45; Psalm 22:23-31; 102:13-28; ##Isa 2:2,3; 14:1; 40:1,2; #Jer 23:5-8; 24:6; 30:7-11, 18-24; 31:8-12; 33:7,10,11; #Eze 16:53-55, 60-63; 36:1-15, 24-38; 37; #Ho 3:4,5; #Joe 3:1,2,17-21; #Am 9:14,15; #Zep 3:10-20; Zechariah 8)?

That the "double" of ##Isa 40:2; #Zec 9:12 refers to the Gospel Age as counterpart, or parallel, of the Jewish Age; also, that #Jer 16:18 states that Israel’s punishment would be a "double" (Hebrew, mishneh)-a period of disfavor during the Gospel Age equal to their period of favor during the Jewish Age-they to be without God’s special favor again (v.13) until its end?

That this double has been fulfilled, that Israel’s "appointed time is accomplished," that God’s Word indicates that now is the time to preach comfort to, and God’s forgiveness of, Israel, and that God exhorts us to do so (#Isa 40:1,2)?

That the "fishers" of #Jer 16:16 are those who hold forth to Israel the attractive bait of Zionism, while the "hunters" are Israel’s persecutors and tormentors, and that God has used both of these instrumentalities to help bring Israel back to Palestine as their homeland?

That shortly after the Berlin Congress of Nations met in 1878 and removed the barriers on the Israelites’ return to and stay in Palestine, they began increasingly to return, and that this was given an impetus by the Zionist movement, especially in the 1890’s along political lines, and in 1910 along religious lines?

DO YOU KNOW:

That one of the objects of the Allies in the World War was to establish in Palestine a national home for the Jews, and that the Balfour declaration of 1917 pledged Britain to this end, it being favored by America also?

That increasing numbers of Jews have returned to their land, especially since the State of Israel was set up in 1948, with the populations growing from less than 50,000 Jews in 1914 to over 3,000,000 now?

That God foretold that Israel would return nationally, before they recognize the Messiah, before His Kingdom on earth is set up, and the New Covenant is made with them (#Eze 37:21-28; #Zec 12:10; #Jer 31:23-34)?

That Israel’s return to their land and to God’s favor are preludes of Millennial blessings upon them, and through them upon all nations (#Jer 31:5-34; #Eze 16:44-63; 36:21-38; #Am 9:11-15; #Mic 4:1-4; #Zec 8:20-23; 14:16-21)?

That you will be blessed if you love and favor Abraham’s Seed (#Ge 12:3; 27:29; #Nu 24:9; #Zec 8:23), for the time to favor Israel, yea, the set time, has come (#Ps 102:13), that God now bids us to speak a message of comfort to the Jews (##Isa 40:1,2), and that we will glad to have you join us in this blessed work of preaching the Kingdom?

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