DATE: – SUNDAY 1ST NOVEMBER, 2020
TOPIC: – THE ISRAELITES AND THE END TIME PROPHECIES (Part 3)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Isaiah 35: 1 – 7, Joel 2:21 – 27
MEMORY VERSE: – “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm , and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you” (Joel 2:25).
INTRODUCTION: – on the eve of 2018, Israel’s population reached a new height of 8.8million people. The restoration of the Jewish people to their Biblical home land as prophesied by the Prophets of old is an event that should make us get ourselves prepared for the soon coming of Master Jesus.
The foretold re-establishment of the Jewish state has risen out of the ashes of the Holocaust, and the promised Spiritual revival is starting to take place.
LESSON OUTLINES
A) Current Fulfilled Prophecies Concerning The Jews
1) Reclamation – God promised that with the re-establishment of the nation the land would bloom again (Isaiah 35:1-7; Joel 2:21-27; Ezek.36:35). People today are exclaiming exactly what Ezekiel prophesied (Ezek.36:35), when they visit Israel, for it is a land flowing with milk and honey. When the Jews started returning to their homeland in the late 19th century, it was a total waste land. Nearly all the trees had been cut down and the soil was badly eroded. The land resembled a desert. Most of the valleys had become malaria-infected swamp lands. The Jewish pioneers began planting trees, reclaiming the soil, and draining the swamps. Over 300 million trees have been planted. The former malaria-infected swamps have been converted into cultivated land. Water from the Sea of Galilee has been channeled to the deserts, causing them to bloom again.
2) Language: – When the Jews were scattered worldwide in the first century, they ceased speaking the Hebrew language. The Jews who settled in Europe developed a language called Yiddish (a combination of Hebrew and German). The Jews in the Mediterranean basin mixed Hebrew with Spanish to produce a language called Ladino. The Prophet Zephaniah implied a time would come when the Hebrew language would be revived (Zeph.3:9). It has been. Today the Israelites speak Biblical Hebrew. It is the only example in the history of the resurrection of a dead language. The man God used to revive the language was Eliezer Ben Yehuda (1858 – 1922).
3) Jerusalem: – The Lord Jesus said one of surest signs of his imminent return would be the re-occupation of Jerusalem by the Jews (Lk.21:24).
The first half of this prophecy was fulfilled in 70AD, forty years after Jesus spoke the words. In that year the Romans under Emperor Titus conquered Jerusalem and dispersed the Jews among the nations. Jerusalem remained under Gentile occupation for 1,897 years until June 7, 1967, when Israel won the city back during the Six Day War. And today, the nations of the world are coming against Israel over the issue of who will control Jerusalem in the future.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as declared by US President, Donald Trump in 2018 coupled with the Jewish re-occupation of the city is proof positive that we are living in the season of the Lord’s return. Jesus said it would mark the end of the Gentile Age. Thus, every heavenly minded saint must get more prepared for the return of the Lord as the trumpet will soon sound.
QUESTIONS
- how was Jewish language (Hebrew) preserved?
- What is the significance of the Jewish re-occupation of the city of Jerusalem?