Israel's Return
A Timely Study for Both Jews and Gentiles
DO YOU KNOW:
That Israel was God's first chosen people (Deuteronomy 7:6;
Psalm 135:4; 147:19,20; Amos 3:2)?
That when in Eden God justly sentenced His disobedient
children to death (Genesis 2:17; Ezekiel 18:4,20), He graciously intimated that ultimately
the Seed of the woman would bruise the Serpent's head (Genesis 3:15)?
That later God promised Abraham that his Seed would be
multiplied greatly (Genesis 15: 5; 17: 4, 7,16), and that in him and his seed all the
families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12: 3; 22:18)?
That after God had tested Abraham's faith and loyalty, He
confirmed the Covenant with an oath (Genesis 22:16-18), reaffirmed it to Isaac and Jacob
(Genesis 26: 24; 28:14), and established it with Israel for "an everlasting
covenant" (Genesis 17:7; Psalm 105:6-10)?
That God promised Israel blessings if they would obey His
Law, and threatened them with punishments if they would disobey it (Deuteronomy 28), and
that for centuries they received such blessings and punishments?
That additionally God threatened Israel four times (Leviticus
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 (Leviticus 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 (Daniel 4:16,23,25,32; 7:25;
11:13; margin; 12:7)?
That in prophetic Scriptures a day sometimes represents a
year and a week seven years ( Numbers 14: 34; Ezekiel 4: 4-6; Daniel 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 are 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 (Daniel 12: 1; Psalm 46: 610; 110:2,5,6; Joel 2:1,2; Zephaniah
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 (Jeremiah 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 (Daniel 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" (Daniel 12:1), and dashing them into pieces (Psalm 2:9), prior to filling the
earth (Daniel 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 (Daniel 12:1), and sufferings
as a part of Phase 1 of "Jacob's trouble" (Jeremiah 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., Leviticus 26:31-29;
Deuteronomy 29:22-28; Isaiah 17:4-6; 43:5; 5,6; Jeremiah 4:20, 26-29; 12:4, 7-13;
16:13-18; 19:7-9; 29:14,17,18; 30:11; 32:36; 37; Amos 3:14; 5:3,5,7:8,9)?
That Israel's preservation as a separate people while
dispersed among all nations (Hosea 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., Leviticus 26:40-45; Psalm 22:23-31; 102:13-28; Isaiah 2:2,3; 14:1;
40:1,2; Jeremiah 23:5-8; 24:6; 30:7-11, 18-24; 31:8-12; 33:7,10,11; Ezekiel 16:53-55,
60-63; 36:1-15, 24-38; 37; Hosea 3:4,5; Joel 3:1,2,17-21; Amos 9:14,15; Zephaniah 3:10-20;
Zechariah 8)?
That the double of Isaiah 40:2; Zechariah 9:12 refers
to the Gospel Age as counterpart, or parallel, of the Jewish Age; also, that Jeremiah
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
(Isaiah 40:1,2)?
That the "fishers" of Jeremiah 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 (Ezekiel 37:21-28; Zechariah 12:10; Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah
31:5-34; Ezekiel 16:44-63; 36:21-38; Amos 9:11-15; Micah 4:1-4; Zechariah 8:20-23;
14:16-21)?
That you will be blessed if you love and favor Abraham's Seed
(Genesis 12:3; 27:29; Numbers 24:9; Zechariah 8:23), for the time to favor Israel, yea,
the set time, has come (Psalm 102:13), that God now bids us to speak a message of comfort
to the Jews (Isaiah 40:1,2), and that we will glad to have you join us in this blessed
work of preaching the Kingdom?
