"Israel: God's Time Clock"

For almost two thousand years, the chosen people wandered the earth with no country of their own.

For almost two thousand years, the nation of Israel didn't exist.

But on May14, 1948 a miracle happened. A nation was reborn in one day, exactly as prophesied. "Thus says the Lord God: "Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone and will gather them from everyside and bring them into their own land." (Ezekiel 37:21).

Just as Moses prophesied judgment would come to Israel in two stages, their restoration would also come in two stages:

• Stage one: the Jews would be regathered back to the Promised Land, Israel (fulfilled in 1948). Though they have their homeland back, they are still unbelievers.
• Stage two: the Jews are restored spiritually. This occurs upon the return of their Messiah. Only when they see Him with their own eyes, do they finally believe.

Some 500 years before Christ, the prophet Zechariah said the Lord would "pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn." (Zechariah 12:10).

In between their physical and spiritual rebirth,(the years we are living in right now), Israel faces a mix of blessing and trouble.

The land of Israel (a.k.a. Palestine) was a harsh, forbidding desert wasteland when the Jews returned in 1948. There was nothing there except desert ruins. But God promised, (through His Prophet Ezekiel) "...you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, and I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt." ( Ezekiel 37). And that is just what happened.

Today Israel is like an oasis in the desert, being one of the largest exporters of fruit to Europe. Even the formerly dead language of Hebrew has been restored as predicted by the prophet Zephaniah 2500 years ago.

Never before in all of history has such a thing happened. After two millennia of exile...they are back!

But not everyone rejoiced. On May 15, 1948, just one day after becoming an official state, Israel was attacked on all sides by a Muslim coalition that outnumbered them 10 to 1. God gave them the victory, but they've had to fight for their survival ever since.

A wiseman once said: "Know something about everything and everything about something."

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