God’s Hand for a Modern Israel

Modern Israeli history really begins with God’s covenant with Abraham as mentioned in Genesis 12:1-3. Then, of course, there’s the “Land Deed” which, unfortunately today, wouldn’t mean much in the world court at The Hague or the United Nations, “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your decendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your decendants after you. Also I give to you and your decendants after you the land in which you are a strnger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:7,8. We can go on forever with the history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel but let’s focus more on the “Modern, Modern Israel.”

So let’s just go back a little bit. In the year 70 AD, after four years of Revolt against Rome, the city of Jerusalem and the Second Temple is finally destroyed and sacked by the Roman army. Many of the nations people are expelled or inslaved, hundreds of thousands killed and that’s basically the end of Jewish rule in the Land of Israel until 1948. For the next 1,900 years the Jews are just tolerated, by foreigners, in their own homeland – but in their hearts, wherever they may be, the Jewish people always ended their Passover meal by reciting the phrase “Next Year in Jerusalem.” Nevertheless, Jewish life continued in the Land of Israel. There were times of hardships under cruel rulers, especially the Romans and Crusaders but basically the Jewish community kept a low profile and continued to worship at their holy sites – a surpressed and depressed nation.

By the late 1800’s, out of the turmoil of changing political scenes in Europe and Czarist Russia, a new Jewish movement was forming – “Zionism.” This pioneer movement was to establish a “Jewish Homeland” once again in the Land of Israel. Although the land was still under the rule of the Turkish Empire vast partials of land were given or purchased with the resources of Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron Edmond de Rothschild. In 1882 agricultural colonies were established, swamps were drained, trees were planted and the desert irrigated. “The Land of Milk and Honey” was the new phrase on the lips of the new zionists.Then, ‚  in 1904, with outbreak of even more anti-semitisim and Russian pograms, a new wave of Jewish refugees arrived bringing with them socialistic ideals. We now had the beginning of a Hebrew speaking culture once again in the land. The rebirth of a nation, as read in Isaiah 40:1-2, Ezekiel 36:24-28.

“Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Can a land be born in a day?
Can a nation be brought forth all at once?
As soon as Zion travailed,
she also brought forth her sons.”
Isaiah 66:8