Dr. Herbert Hillel Goldberg
God is Truth! In the book of His Word, the Truth is communicated with us. The Jewish People are God’s personal possession (Deut. 7:6). Worldwide, the Jews are known as the People of the Book. Nowhere is the resistance and battle against God–the Truth–expressed more strongly than in the negative treatment of Jews internationally. This is a subject which fills volumes, but I will limit myself to two pages and focus on the present.
“You that have escaped the sword, go forth, do not stand still: remember the LORD from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your hearts” (Jer. 51:50)
One of the many prophetic utterances about the Jews’ returning home from around the globe and restoration of the land of Israel is: “Thus says the LORD: Again there will be heard in this place, which you say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant, and without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say, ‘Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for His mercy endures forever’” (Jer. 33:10-11).
Does the world not see what has come to pass? Don’t even Bible-believing Christians recognize it? For centuries, all Israel was a barren wasteland, its cities desolate. But what exists already today is almost indescribably different. The land has been revived, is green and blossoming, and bearing fruit, which is even being shipped throughout the world. In the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, youth rejoice and children play. In parks, couples celebrate weddings. The enemy wants to negate all this.
The prophets foretold the global dispersion of the Jews. The cause was sin, the neglect of widows and orphans and, due to marriages with heathen, being seduced into idol worship. Hence, God allowed punishments. But here is His judgment about the result: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. And I am very sore displeased with the complacent nations: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction” (Zech. 1:14-15). According to the original Hebrew text, God was only a little angry with Israel, but the nations overdid it with their persecution.
The Dispersion still had two positive outcomes: 1. The Jews were a light among the gentiles, and 2. They were able to survive (because they were dispersed in many lands).
“You that have escaped the sword, go forth, do not stand still: remember the LORD from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your hearts” (Jer. 51:50). The yearning of the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and to their ancestral, native soil was fulfilled. What a great proof of the Truth!
But the enemies of God, led by the father of lies (Jn. 8:44), still battle against the Truth. They want to destroy God’s chosen people (as Iran states clearly). And they want to put Jerusalem, at least partially for now, under the rule of a foreign god. And Judea they want to convert into a second Palestinian state, one in which there will be no Jew (this according to the apartheid of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas).
In the Book of Truth, however, we read: “Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion, and have made my dwelling in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called The City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts The Holy Mountain” (Zech. 8:3).
Jerusalem is the center of the earth: “This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her” (Ezek. 5:5). From here the Messiah will rule all the world: “And all the nations will stream unto it. And many peoples will go and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isa. 2:2-3). “Whichever of all the families of the land does not go up to Jerusalem to bow down before the King, the LORD of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain” (Zech. 14:17).
And the Jewish people will remain eternally: God even calls the sun, moon, stars, sea, the entire order of the universe and Heaven as guarantors that the seed of Israel will remain a people before HIM (see Jer. 31:35-37; other translations vv. 34-36). Who can strive against it and succeed?
It should not be difficult for any Bible believer to choose the winning side.